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Julie was taken by surprise. She hadn’t thought about Judd much. Certainly not since she’d been working at Stormcloud. He wasn’t important in the scheme of things. He’d left her and moved on so quickly it made her head spin.
“Judd and I only had a few dates.” She screwed up her face in distaste at the memory. “Then he left me for some younger, blonde bimbo. I didn’t find out I was pregnant until two months after we broke up. He never even knew. At least there are some rules that help protect mothers who have to make this sort of decision. You don’t need the father’s permission to go through with an abortion.”
Aaron reached over and covered her hand with his in a surprising show of empathy. “I don’t blame you for any of this. You don’t need to defend your actions to me.”
She hadn’t meant to sound defensive, but obviously she had, because the way he was looking at her, with compassion in his eyes, told her he understood. His large hand engulfed hers, warmth permeating her skin. That was another thing she’d forgotten about Aaron Powell. He’d always been warm, as if he had an internal fire burning bright in his chest. Perhaps it was the touch of his skin on hers, the way his palm seemed to emit an electrical spark that travelled up her arm and all the way to her soul, but she suddenly blurted, “I didn’t really have a choice. The baby had Trisomy 18. Only five percent of babies live past their first year,” she added softly. “I knew I couldn’t look after a baby with special needs. Not on my own…”
How did she explain the abject fear that’d engulfed her on the day the test results had come back? The baby would’ve needed round-the-clock care. She’d never even heard of Trisomy 18, or Edwards Syndrome, as it was sometimes called, until the day of her test. Babies who were born with it suffered from a combination of birth defects, including heart abnormalities and learning difficulties, and often died in the womb before they could even be born. She couldn’t do it. Did that make her a bad person? In the eyes of her stalker, it did. Before she’d gone through with the abortion, Julie had thought it was the logical thing to do; the only thing to do. But now… She didn’t know anymore. One thing was for sure, she didn’t think she wanted to take the chance of having any more children. The risk was too high. The toll on her heart would be too high. If there was anything wrong with another of her babies, she knew she wouldn’t survive.
Her father broke through her downward-spiralling thoughts, when he said softly, “You wouldn’t have had to do it alone. You know that, don’t you, honey?” His blue eyes were pale, concern furrowed his brow.
“Thanks, Dad.” Of course, Steve and Daniella would’ve rallied around her if she had gone ahead with the birth, she knew that unequivocally. What she really meant, though, was she didn’t want to have to do it without a partner by her side.
“Is there any way that Judd could be the stalker?” Aaron interjected. “That he somehow found out you had the abortion and wants to make you pay?”
Julie laughed out loud. It was the first time she’d let go of a true belly laugh for at least two days, and it felt good. A release of tension and a rush of endorphins.
“Oh, God, no,” she exclaimed with delight. “Judd is the most self-centered person I think I’ve ever met. The absolute last thing he’d want in this world would be to be told he was a father. He’d never agree to look after a child, and certainly not a sick one. He has too many ambitions and dreams to follow first.” Julie was still chuckling. What’d she ever seen in that man? He was good-looking, with his brown skin and appealing brown eyes. But the very first time she’d slept with him, she’d known it wasn’t going to last. It was all about him, and how she could please him. She thought about him standing next to Aaron, and there was no comparison at all.
“Besides, he doesn’t have a religious bone in his body. He wouldn’t recognize God if He sent down a thunderbolt from the sky to smite him.” Julie collapsed into another peal of giggles. It felt good to laugh again. Aaron was staring at her as if she’d gone a tad crazy. Then something behind his eyes shifted, as if he’d been struck by a memory. They’d laughed a lot together in the six short months they spent in each other’s arms. Was that what he was remembering? His lips twitched as if he wanted to join in. But then his face glazed over, and his firm lips drew into a thin line.
“As long as you’re sure we can exclude him, then I’ll take your word for it. I’ll get Lance to start looking into this stalker. He’s our information specialist,” Aaron added.
Julie wondered what’d happened to that carefree young man she’d used to know. “Look how serious you’ve become,” she said with a cheeky smile.
He didn’t smile back, and she bit back the rest of her comment, the smile fading from her lips.
“We’ve had a few problems at Stormcloud over the past year and a half, and we’d rather not have any more trouble,” Steve said, snagging Aaron’s attention. “It’s way past time we did something about our security systems, anyway.”
Steve went on to detail how Dale and Daisy had been involved in bringing down one of the station’s ex-staff members in a murder plot nearly eighteen months ago—which was the reason Julie had come to work at the station, to help out—and she watched Aaron’s eyes grow concerned as Steve laid down the details. Then Daniella chimed in and told him about Skylar and Nash’s narrow escape from a misogynistic lunatic, who’d put out a contract on them both, with a sniper shooting their helicopter out of the sky a mere six months ago.
Aaron’s eyes widened with each new detail Daniella revealed. Hearing it all laid down like that, hearing it as a stranger, Julie could see how fantastical it might sound to an outsider. Having lived through it all, she had come to accept their family dramas as a fact of life. And now it seemed she was only adding to those dramas.
But Aaron never said a word regarding their seeming predisposition for attracting trouble. Or was it merely plain bad luck? Instead, he said, “I’d say it’s definitely time you installed a security system.” His gaze found Julie’s. “Especially with this new threat. And it’d make sense for you to keep an eye on your guests as well, make sure they don’t go wandering off and get lost in the bush.”
“We’ve never had a guest go missing yet,” Daniella huffed. “We’re very careful about that sort of thing.”
“Of course you are,” Aaron replied, and Julie applauded his diplomacy.
“And we’ve got the muster coming up in a few days,” Steve added. “Which means we’ll have more people coming and going. I’ve got ringers arriving from all over the state. Some of them will gather here first, before we head out to the stock camp.”
“A muster?” Aaron’s lips narrowed slightly.
“Yes, why?” Steve scratched his three-day growth thoughtfully. “Will that be a problem? It’s already organized. I’m not sure I could stop it now…”
“It should be fine,” Aaron conceded. She could see the tiny frown lines on his face, the scar through his eyebrow drawing down slightly, and she could practically hear his brain ticking over. It meant more logistics to be worked out, more people to be checked. “I’ll need all the details, of course, but we can go over that later.”
One thing her father had failed to mention was that Julie was supposed to go on the muster as the camp cook. She opened her mouth to disclose the information, then snapped it shut again, as Aaron began to question Steve about what security, if any, they already had in place.
Julie tuned out as Steve and Aaron talked, Aaron detailing what sort of system they’d need, how many cameras, where they should be positioned, etcetera, etcetera. Perhaps it was time the station got up-to-date security, she just wished it wasn’t on her behalf. But there was no going back now. People knew about her problems. Steve and Daniella were involved. Nash had taken a statement, which meant the whole Queensland police force probably knew by now. It was going to be practically impossible to stop the rest of her family from finding out, too. She probably owed it to Skylar to tell her face-to-face. Her stepsister would never forgive her if she found out through the grapevine. Which was fair enough. And if she told Skylar, then she needed to tell Dale and Daisy, as well.
Julie wanted to cover her face with her hands and pretend this all wasn’t happening.
Why did it have to be Aaron Powell who was the riding in on his white charger to save the day? Right about now, she’d even agree to take on a bodyguard, if only it wasn’t Aaron.
She hated him for what he’d done to her. Taken her innocent, vulnerable heart and stomped all over it. Well, okay, hate was a strong word. She’d certainly despised him for a long, long time. Only a hardhearted pig would leave without any explanation. She’d waited for days for him to turn up at the farm, not believing her stepfather when he said that Aaron had phoned and turned in his notice; said that he wouldn’t be coming back. But as the days slowly turned into weeks and then months, with no sign of Aaron—he never once tried to contact her—a stone wall had gone up around her heart. Because she was determined that she’d never be hurt like that again.
Glaring at the back of Aaron’s head, she made a resolution. She would not let him into her life again. And definitely not into her heart.
