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CHAPTER NINE
AARON GLANCED UP from his computer screen. Where was Julie? If she wasn’t here in the next five minutes, he was going to look for her. It was mid-morning, but the family lounge area was dim, as the curtains remained drawn. Daniella had impatiently flicked on a couple of table lamps when she’d come in earlier and found Aaron working in the near-dark. Aaron had turned this room into a version of his own operations center. He’d asked Daniella to set a printer with scanner and modem features up on a table in the corner, next to his laptop and other paraphernalia. He’d also slept in here, on a mattress on the floor. It was directly across the hall from Julie’s room, close enough for him to be there in a split second, if she needed him.
Last night had been uneventful. Julie said she’d slept soundly, although judging by the dark smudges beneath her blue eyes, that might be a lie. Aaron was naturally a light sleeper, and he was also used to running on a few hours’ sleep while working a job. It’d taken him a while to reacquaint himself with country night noises. Living in the city, he’d become used to the hum of traffic and the wail of a police siren at night. It was never truly silent in the city. But then, it wasn’t silent here, either. Even through the closed windows, he could hear the silken hoot of an owl in the trees down by the billabong. The soft thumping as a herd of kangaroos jumped past the window. A symphony of croaking from the frogs who inhabited the high rushes around the water’s edge. Then the high-pitched screech of a hunting fox, that sounded eerily like a human baby crying, had woken him around three am and he’d found himself reaching for his gun before he figured out what the sound was. He hadn’t really been able to get back to sleep after that.
For a second, he’d imagined what it’d be like to be lying out in his swag bed beneath the branches down by the billabong, staring up at the stars. It was one part of living on a farm he’d always enjoyed. Tony’s sheep property hadn’t been nearly as big as this cattle station, so there wasn’t often a need to spend a night away from the main house during a muster. But he’d taken part in many a campout when he was younger, usually at his best friend Jason’s place. Or after attending a local Bachelor and Spinsters ball, or a country music festival, he’d unroll his sleeping bag beside his ute and sleep nestled between the blankets, enjoying the open space all around. Then there were the times he and Julie had camped down by the riverbank, just to spend the night alone. Cooking sausages over the campfire and eating them between bread, smothered with tomato sauce. Those had been great nights. Memorable nights. With Julie snuggled into his single swag, it was a tight fit, but worth it, just so he could feel every inch of her pressed against him.
Aaron shook his head and refocussed his thoughts on the computer in front of him. It’d do him no good to start wandering down memory lane. Long ago, he’d dreamed of one day owning his own piece of land. Unlike Julie, he had no family ties to the land, and he couldn’t just inherit it from his parents. But nevertheless, he’d felt a connection. A calling. And he’d loved the time he’d spent working for Tony. But that’d turned out to be a pipe dream, after he found out who he truly was. There was no secret ancestral farmer’s blood running through his veins. No, all he was, was a gun for hire, pure and simple.
A noise alerted him, right before Julie entered the room, closely followed by her stepbrother, Dale, pushing aside all thoughts of his past.
“Here she is. Safe and sound. She’s your problem now.” Dale smirked at Julie. She tried to paint on a fake frown, but it didn’t last long, and soon she was smiling up at her stepbrother.
“Thanks, squirt,” she answered playfully.
“Hey,” he said, rounding on her. “No fair, I haven’t been smaller than you for years.” Then a mischievous look stole over his face. “Perhaps you’d do well to remember what nickname we had for you back when you were eight.”
The smile slipped from Julie’s face. “You wouldn’t dare.” She put her hands on hips.
“I won’t tell, if you don’t use that one again.”
“Deal.” They shook hands, and the smile returned to Julie’s face.
But Aaron wasn’t going to forget that one. He had to know what her nickname had been. He filed that nugget of information away for a later conversation.
It was heartening to see Dale and Julie throwing happy banter back and forth between them again. Aaron had sat in the shadows at the back of the family room last night after the staff meeting when Julie had finally told her step-siblings the complete truth about her stalker; how he’d found her through her visit to the abortion clinic. The shocked silence and confused looks on Dale and Skylar’s faces had been hard to watch, and Aaron had wanted to leap up and place a protective arm around Julie’s shoulders. But this was their family business, and he had no place interfering. Steve and Daniella had been there as moral support for Julie, but in the end they weren’t needed, as Skylar was the first to break through her shock, embracing her stepsister as both women began to cry. Dale awkwardly joined in the group hug and by the time everyone had left the room, there’d been a sense of relief and peace hanging over Julie.
After Aaron had done a tour of the house early this morning and given Julie the all-clear to leave her room and attend breakfast—even though she’d sighed and moaned about how nit-picky he was being—she’d wanted to stay on in the kitchen with Skylar and help her clean up after the breakfast rush. That’d been an eye-opener for Aaron. Julie had told him that the guests here expected the best, and Skylar had built her reputation on producing amazing meals, but Aaron still wasn’t prepared. There was smoked trout omelette with spinach and feta, oven-baked tomatoes stuffed with some kind of herby delight—which Julie testified as being homegrown—freshly baked, sourdough bread cut into thick slices with butter and locally made marmalade, and the best honey-cured bacon Aaron had ever tasted. His guts were still aching, he was so full.
Julie wanted to stay in the kitchen, but there were urgent things Aaron needed to get done—calls he needed to make, Web searches to be completed, clues to the stalker’s identity that needed to be followed up—and the locksmith was supposed to be coming at eleven to add extra locks to all the doors and windows. He’d been about to drag Julie back to the lounge with him, when Dale had said he’d watch her and bring her back when she’d finished. The guests were all eating in their cabins this morning—at Daniella’s suggestion, because Aaron still hadn’t had time to go over the guest list properly and he hadn’t discounted that the stalker could be one of patrons—so it was only family and staff in the lodge this morning. Which made Aaron slightly more at ease. So, he’d agreed. Not many people would get past Dale. If the other man hadn’t been so in love with his fiancée and so obviously tied to the station, Aaron might’ve even asked him if he’d ever thought about joining a security detail.
But he was also yet to go over the details of all the staff, and, unlike Julie, he wasn’t sure he trusted them all implicitly. Both Daniella and Julie had vouched for their staff, all of whom had worked at the station for at least two years. All of them except Sasha, that was. According to Daniella, Sasha had started working for them around six months ago. It’d taken them a while to replace their last receptionist, the murderer, Sally Tsun. This time, they’d been exceptionally choosy with their hire, and had gone through Sasha’s résumé with a fine-toothed comb, phoning all her references and asking the hard questions. Daniella assured Aaron they’d left no stone unturned when it came to Sasha, they were determined not to make the same mistake with a staff member ever again. But she was the newbie here, and she’d started after Julie’s stalker had first made contact. And while he didn’t think that she was the actual stalker, it made her a suspect as a possible associate, at least in his eyes. This stalker was intelligent and ingenious, and Aaron wouldn’t put it past him to plant a mole in their midst. Another valuable thing he’d learned on the job was that no one was beyond reproach. He’d seen cases where the most trusted personnel had turned on their employers, for love, or money, or, even in one case, a well-hidden but deep-seated spite. Human beings were complicated and often selfish. You could never be one-hundred percent sure what was going on in someone else’s mind.
There were other people who also needed to be considered on the list of suspects they were compiling. The chopper pilot who’d flown him to the station yesterday had used the excuse that he’d needed to stretch his legs and had wandered up to the lodge with Aaron and then let himself in a rear door, as if he were more than familiar with the place. A couple of delivery drivers had arrived during the day, and they also had an unescorted run of the place. And then there was the cleaning staff: Aaron had found out the station had two supplementary cleaners who drove in from the small town of Dimbulah whenever they had a rush on and needed extra help. This resort would be pretty much impossible to lock down completely. The list of potential suspects and leaks was growing by the hour.
“Thanks,” Aaron said, standing up and stretching his arms above his head, then readjusted his gun holster as it slid up. He wasn’t going to be caught out again like he’d been yesterday. He was going to make sure he was always carrying, to be on the safe side.
Dale glanced between Aaron and his stepsister, something unreadable in his eyes. Then he patted Julie on the shoulder and said, “Hang in there, sis. This will all be over soon.”
Julie grimaced and rolled her eyes, then took a seat on the leather couch as Dale left the room. This morning, Julie had surprised him by emerging from her room wearing a pair of capris, flip-flops and a light blue sleeveless shirt that set off her eyes. What’d happened to the jeans and T-shirt? Not that he minded, if anything, this outfit made her look sexier than ever. The cream capris hugged her slender legs, and skimmed up over slim hips, showing off her tiny waist.
At his questioning glance, she said, “What? I’m assuming I won’t be allowed outside today. Or probably ever again,” she’d added in a low grumble. “And if I’m going to be locked in this cage, I may as well dress for cool and comfort for the duration.”
“Fine by me,” Aaron had replied. And he didn’t disagree with her. The heat up here was something else, especially if you weren’t used to it. Today, he’d decided to dispense with the sport jacket, and was wearing his black jeans and clean black T-shirt, the gun holster over the top, on show for everyone to see. People might be intimidated by it, but he didn’t give a shit. He was here to do a job, and if that job required him to use force, then he wasn’t afraid to do it.
Aaron glanced at his watch, then rubbed the back of his neck. The locksmith would be here in half an hour. And he needed to call in another sit-rep to Jake, too.
Which reminded him.
“I have something for you,” Aaron said, reaching into his backpack beneath the desk and pulling out a burner phone. “I want you to use this from now on. It’s an unlisted number, and only me, my buddy Lance at Shield, your father, and Daniella have it.”
“Okay.” Julie stood and walked over to take the phone. She turned it over in her hand. “What about my old cell?”
“We’ll keep that, but we won’t use it. We need to know if he calls again.” Aaron put Julie’s old phone on the side table next to the sofa and she looked at it as if it were a dangerous snake ready to strike.
“Do you always carry a spare phone with you?” she asked.
“Yep,” he nodded distractedly. “Two, actually.”
