Chapter 2 #3
I studied her. We’d both done our schooling through the School of the Air.
The online platform dragged education out to kids in the Outback, whether they wanted it or not.
I’d hated every minute. Nothing I’d learned in front of that screen had helped me do jack shit on Koolaroo.
Sapphire, on the other hand, had topped every damn test and more.
“Senior Sergeant Ackerman has asked that someone from this family escort me around the property, including the outstations.”
The outstations. Of course. Because that corrupt bastard knew exactly what was out there. “You want a ride out to the outstations?”
“Yes, but in the helicopter. And I’m not asking, Kayden, I’m informing you. I’ll be staying at the property for the duration of the investigation.” She didn’t even blink. “Rose has already allocated a guest room to me, and I’ll need access to every building on Koolaroo.”
She’s staying. Here. Shit.
I pushed off the doorframe and took two steps into the kitchen, close enough that she had to look up at me. She didn’t step back. Didn’t flinch. She just stood there with that steady gaze, that damn notebook, and the uniform that represented everything Frank had ever taught me to distrust.
“You’re not welcome here,” I said.
“I don’t need to be welcome. I’m here to find out what happened to Frank.” Her voice didn’t waver. “I need to do my job.”
Her job. Police. Cop. My damn mind careened to our massive fight all those years ago. “Your job. Right.” I dropped my gaze to the badge on her chest, then brought it back up to her face. “Why didn’t Bob come out here himself to do this job?”
A flash of annoyance blazed in her eyes before she buried it.
Good. I wanted her off balance. I wanted her pissed off.
I wanted her to be anything other than calm and professional, in my kitchen as though she belonged there.
I hated that I struggled to breathe properly because Sapphire Delaney was standing three feet away from me. I’d thought I’d never see her again.
She shifted back a fraction. “I understand this is difficult—”
“You don’t understand a damn thing about this family.”
“Then help me understand. That’s why I’m here.”
We held each other’s gaze. The kitchen clock ticked. Outside, a kookaburra started up, and another answered, and for a few seconds the only sound in the room was that manic laughter drifting through the open windows, like the birds were getting a kick out of this bullshit.
I grabbed the coffee Rose had poured for me and drank half of it in one pull. It just about scalded my throat, but I welcomed the sting.
I thumped the mug down, and coffee slopped over the rim. “Talk to Cassidy when she gets back,” I said. “She can fly you out there.”
“The Sarge specifically requested that you take me.”
Son of a bitch! Of course, Bob bloody Ackerman had sent her here, and of course, he’d asked for me specifically. “I’m busy.”
“That’s fine. I’ll wait until you’re free. In the meantime, I’ll check the buildings I can walk to.”
I rolled my eyes. “You think Frank’s hiding in the barn?”
“I don’t know what to think. I only found out Frank was missing yesterday, and yet he’s been gone for weeks. Seems strange to me that nobody reported it sooner.”
“It’s not strange, Sapphire,” I snapped. “Frank doesn’t give us his schedule. He takes off sometimes. It’s what he does.”
“Without his horse.” She cocked an eyebrow in the way that used to drive me absolutely nuts.
Damn it. “We already checked the buildings and the outstations. We’re not stupid.”
“I’m not saying you are.”
I threw my hands up. “Fine.”
“So, you’ll take me in the chopper. Is that a yes?”
“That’s a we’ll see.” I walked past her, close enough that I caught her scent … soap, or shampoo, or something that had no business on Koolaroo Ranch … and kept moving straight through into the back hallway.
“I want to talk to all your brothers first and Cassidy,” she called after me. “Then you can fly me out to the eastern outstation.”
I stiffened.
The eastern outstation? That was the one where we’d found the cash.
The hairs on the back of my neck lifted.
Does she know about the money and where it came from, or who owned it?
Was she involved with Frank and Bob and whatever mess they were in?
Christ! The Sapphire I’d known wouldn’t jaywalk, let alone get tangled up in whatever Frank and Bob were neck-deep in.
But people change. God knows I have.
I pushed open the back-screen door and marched across the yard, where the air was hot, the space wide open, and it didn’t smell like anyone I’d spent over ten years trying to forget.
She was here to ask questions, and if there was one thing I remembered about Sapphire Delaney, it was that she was relentless. Once she locked onto something, she didn’t give up until she fired every shot.
With the number of secrets the Branson family was sitting on, that was a problem.
I stood in the yard with the sun hammering down and the heat pressing in from every direction.
This was going to be hell.
She was hell.
Sapphire Delaney. The woman I’d been trying to forget for too damn long.