“It is,” Lee retorted. Or it least it would have been if his father had got his way. “It’s just not all of who I am, who I’ve had to become.”
She waved her hand as if shooing away a pesky conversation she didn’t want to have. “What about when Tess arrived? Did you know who she was?”
“Yes. Tan sent me her photo, and I was told to keep an eye out for her. I knew she could send Tan to gaol, so I kept her whereabouts a secret, figuring they wouldn’t think to look at the Ridge for her.” He snorted. “Then Salvatore turned up and blew my cover. The man was an imbecile.” It still grated on Lee, but he’d had to deal with it.
“And you shot Tan?”
“I had to. Ed had delusions of being a hero, and I was worried Tan would shoot Tess before Brandon got into position.” He’d been trained to kill, but Ed would have agonised over taking a life.
“You mentioned it made Lucas trust you?”
“Yes. Tan was getting sloppy, hiring men like Salvatore, who couldn’t be trusted. He also failed to buy the Ridge and was bringing attention to Stonefish, so it worked well. I protected Tess, and Tan was out of the picture.”
“Where did you go?”
“Here.” Lee gestured to his camp. “I had to stay to help Clark and search for the treasure.” He shook his head. “Clark was getting ahead of himself, doing too much at once with the animal smuggling, drugs and gun smuggling.”
She tapped her knee and glared at him. “Did you bring Dot’s brother, Mark into it?”
Nhiari held her breath, waiting for Lee to answer her question. She had so many emotions swirling around and she didn’t have time to sort through them yet, but somehow involving Dot’s brother in his schemes seemed like a line in the sand.
Lee winced. “No, that was Clark. He thought it was hilarious to hire the brother of the sergeant-in-charge in Retribution Bay. I thought it was too risky.”
She exhaled, though she wouldn’t question why she felt so much relief. She shifted and bumped her ankle. The pain made her wince.
Lee stood. “Let me get another icepack and some painkillers.”
She pressed her lips together, ignoring the rush of pleasure from him taking care of her.
He handed her the tablets and a bottle of water, then wrapped an instant icepack with a tea towel before gently pressing it against her swollen and bruised ankle.
She hissed, but the coolness did feel good. It took her a moment to realise he was still cradling her foot in his hands.
Her face heated. “Thanks. It’s fine now.” She bent forward to better balance the icepack so he didn’t need to hold her foot and he shifted back giving her the space she desperately needed. She cleared her throat, not remembering what they’d been talking about.
“What kind of businessman is Lucas?”
“I never saw much of Lucas as a businessman. Growing up he was the uncle who only paid attention to me when he was telling me off or making fun of me. He liked his fancy things, and appearances were important to him, so I always had to watch what I wore and what I said in front of him.”
It couldn’t have been a great way to grow up. “And since you’ve been here?”
“Focused,” Lee answered. “He wants to know all the details, but be involved in none of it.”
That seemed strange. Surely he would give instructions to ensure things didn’t go wrong. Instead of asking, she changed tack. “So then Matt and Georgie came across the smuggling.”
Lee nodded.
“What about Declan? Who involved him?”
He stared at her. “I did. We needed people on the ground to help. It wasn’t difficult. Declan was tired of his job and wanted out.”
“How did you know?”
“I went into Parks and Wildlife to get permission to go to areas off the main trails so I could take photographs. That way if people saw me poking around, they would know who I was, and that I had permission. I invited Declan out to dinner to thank him, and he was envious of my freedom. He was an easy mark. All he had to do initially was look the other way.”
Initially. Right. “And afterwards?”
“His first paycheck was an excellent motivator. After that he started recruiting for us, getting friends to run interference if the police were getting too close.”
