Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
Declan
I reached for the steaming coffee and took a long sip, trying to steady my nerves.
Bella reached for a sandwich, and sat back in the barstool with a groan. “I'm so hungry, I'll even eat one of these.”
“Vegemite will give you strength,” Cass said with a smirk.
Mitch set his beer down and fixed me with a look. “All right, you two, enough stalling. Start talking.”
I sipped the bitter coffee and leaned back, trying to figure out where to begin. “It's complicated.”
Bella swallowed her bite and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “It's my fault. All of it.”
“Bella—”
“No,” she interrupted, looking around the table with those fierce blue eyes. “They deserve the truth.”
“I came to Koolaroo to… to—”
I reached under the counter and squeezed her leg. “Bella was in an abusive relationship back in Sicily. She came here to escape her fiancé.”
“Ah, jeez. Sorry to hear that, Bella.” Cass clenched her jaw. One thing she hated was men who believed women were beneath them.
“Bella found out her fiancé was involved in the mafia.”
“Holy shit. Wasn't expecting that.” Kayden's eyes widened. “You had no idea?”
Bella shook her head. “None.”
“Two men showed up trying to take her back,” I added. “Rocco and Pike. Someone in Sicily hired them to silence her.”
“Was it their blood in this kitchen?” Cassidy asked, her voice sharp.
I nodded.
“Declan threw a knife across the kitchen,” Bella said before I could explain. “Hit Pike right in his shoulder.” She pointed at the spot on her shoulder.
“It wasn't that impressive,” I muttered.
“It was very impressive,” Bella countered, turning to the others. “Declan then threw a second knife, and it hit Rocco in the leg.”
I rolled my eyes. “I was aiming for his chest.”
“Ha!” Cassidy reached over and thumped my back hard enough to make me wince. “Look at you, you big hero.”
“I'm not the hero,” I said. “Bella picked up a tray of hot meat pies with her bare hands and smashed it into Rocco's face.”
“Ahh, the mystery of those meat pies all over the floor is solved,” Cassidy said, chuckling.
“Bloody hell,” Mitch said. “That would’ve hurt.”
Bella nodded. “Boiling-hot meat on his face… yes, that would’ve been agony.”
“No, I meant your hands,” Mitch said, nodding at her palms resting face down on the counter.
“Oh.” Bella turned her hands over.
“Jesus.” Kayden whistled. “Those burns look nasty.”
“It was worth it,” Bella said, smirking at me.
“So those bastards shot our cows?” Kayden's jaw clenched.
Bella nodded. “Yes, I'm so sorry about that. They—”
“It wasn't your fault,” I said, squeezing her knee again.
“Where are those assholes now?” Kayden demanded. “'Cause I'm gonna kill them myself.”
“No need,” I said, meeting his gaze. “We dropped a one-ton hopper onto their heads.”
A beat of silence filled the room. Then they burst out laughing.
“Of course, you did.” Cassidy gasped between laughs. “Trust you to turn mining equipment into a weapon.”
Mitch shook his head, grinning.
Even Bella cracked a smile.
Kayden slapped the table. “Declan, you absolute madman.”
The tension drained from Bella's shoulders. Relief flooded her expression, and my chest swelled with pride. My siblings were proud of me. I couldn't remember the last time that happened.
Damn, it felt good.
“We do have one problem, though,” Bella said.
I turned to her. “What?”
“Their car. We can't make that disappear.”
“I can't.” I looked at Kayden. “But I bet you can strip their car down to parts.”
“Hell, yeah. What type of car is it?”
“A Dodge Charger. You'll find it at the front of the mine. They rammed it into the barrier when they chased us inside on the quad bike.”
Kayden rubbed his hands together. “Leave it to me. That's gonna be fun.”
Under the table, I squeezed Bella's knee, trying to convey that everything would be okay, just like I'd promised.
“So that’s why you were asking if anyone had shown up?” Cassidy said. “Do you expect more bastards to come after you?” She looked at Bella.
Bella chewed on her lip. “I umm.”
“Why did your fiancé send those guys anyway? Doesn’t he have the balls to come here himself?” Kayden asked.
“I umm,” Bella stammered.
“He is gutless,” I answered for her, squeezing her knee with my hand. “Bella said those men did all his dirty work.”
“But wouldn’t someone come looking for them?” Mitch asked.
Bella shook her head. “Rocco and Pike were Vincenzo’s men. I doubt he told anyone about sending them after me. The mafia is too busy doing other criminal things to have men chase after runaway fiancées.”
“Well, if that Vincenzo bastard turns up here, he’ll have me to answer to,” Cassidy said.
Bella looked at me, and I could see the pleading in her eyes to tell the truth. I gave a slight shake of my head. They didn’t need to know about her killing him. That would stay as our secret.
“Let me treat those hands.” Cassidy grabbed the first aid kit from under the sink and walked around to Bella’s side.
Cassidy had years of first aid practice, patching up wounded jackaroos and dealing with everything from barbed wire gashes to Kayden's broken nose after one of his many fist fights. She'd seen worse wounds. A hell of a lot worse.
While Cassidy gently wrapped bandages around Bella's hands, Bella and I told the story of escaping into the mine and finding the bodies from the collapse decades ago, bouncing the details between us and finishing each other's sentences like we'd rehearsed it a dozen times.
“There,” Cassidy said, stepping back and shutting the first aid kit. “Keep these dry and don't use your hands. Treat Declan as your slave for a few days. He'll love it.”
Bella giggled, and I wasn't against the idea.
When Cassidy put the first aid kit away, I finally asked the question that had been nagging at me since we'd surfaced from the mine. “What about Frank? Has he been found?”
The mood shifted in a heartbeat.
“No,” Mitch said, his expression darkening.
“We've been a bit busy,” Cass added. “We thought you were dead, remember?”
“I know. Sorry about that. But did you find anything when you went back to that cave where the skeleton was?”
Kayden pushed back from the counter. “I'll grab the photos and stuff.”
Mitch leaned forward, grabbing a chunk of cheese. “While you two were having your little adventure, we found out a few things. Not sure how they relate to Frank, though.”
Kayden returned carrying a battered suitcase and dropped a shoebox and a folder on the counter. He flipped open the folder and pulled out a stack of photos. “Here's the skeleton we found in the cave.”
“Oh God.” Bella flinched and shifted back.
I adjusted the top photo to better study the body, then I looked at Mitch. “Does Charlie still think the guy has been dead for a few decades?”
“Yeah,” Mitch said. “They'll need to do proper testing, but she reckons he’s been there at least thirty years.”
“Where is Charlie, by the way?” I asked.
Mitch moaned. “She’s at my place, making a few phone calls to her employer and then the Brisbane police.”
“The police?” I frowned.
“Yeah, we found her boss’s body.”
“Well, not his whole body,” Kayden added.
“That’s true. All we found of Doug was one boot and tattered clothes. Enough to confirm it was him, and not Frank,” Mitch said. “Charlie’s planning to go back to Brisbane to set the record straight.”
“But she’s coming back, right?” I asked, brows rising.
“Of course. She’s packing up her things and moving in permanently. She’s got a pile of dinosaur bones to dig up.”
I nodded. “That’s good to hear, brother. I like her.”
“You and me both.” Mitch smiled. He’d been doing a lot of that since Charlie entered his life.
“So, what else did you find?” I asked. Nodding at the box on the table.
“The skeleton was wearing a watch,” Mitch said.
He opened the shoebox lid, removed a watch, and handed it to me. It was corroded, and the leather band was cracked and broken.
“Check out the engraving on the back,” Cassidy said.
I flipped the watch over.
For your first solo flight – M
“Solo flight? He was a pilot?” I asked.
“Yep. We think so. And that's how I remembered the plane wreck I'd seen up on Opal Ridge years ago,” Mitch said. “Cassidy and I flew out there in the chopper and found that suitcase in the wreckage.”
Kayden unclipped the battered case. Inside were clothes and shoes. He held up a black stiletto. “Bunch of fancy shit.” He tossed it back and plucked out a shimmery floral blouse. “No idea who it belonged to.”
“Whoever she was,” Bella said softly, “she was wealthy.”
“Why do you say that?” Cass asked.
“Those shoes. They're—” Bella paused. “They'd cost a fortune. And that blouse is real silk. My guess is that's a designer label.”
“Well, look at you, Miss Fancy Pants,” Cassidy said, pulling a face.
Bella seemed to shrink into herself. “Not me. I know because of the clientele who visited one of the restaurants I worked at back in Sicily.”
“All looks damn uncomfortable.” Cassidy scowled. “Give me denim and boots any day.”
Bella chuckled. “I don't know how women wear shoes like that.”
Kayden flipped the suitcase lid closed, and my gaze snagged on the insignia embossed on the leather exterior, an elegant, stylized H that was very distinctive.
“Hey, check that out.” I pushed back from my chair and pointed at the emblem. “I've seen that before.”
“Yeah, it's the same as the one on that golden shield,” Mitch said.
“You know, the one on the gold chain with the gems we found with the skeleton in the cave.” He tugged the photos toward him and flicked through until he found what he wanted.
He slid a photo across the counter to me, showing the golden shield bearing the same H insignia.
“We think those jewels belonged to the same woman who owned that suitcase from the plane wreck,” Mitch said.
“We figure the dead guy was the pilot,” Cassidy added.
“Yeah, but it doesn't make sense,” Kayden said. “That dude's head wound suggests he died in the crash, but how did his body get from the plane to the cave?”