Though it’s not like I have anything better to do,Rhys thought gloomily.Except sit here and watch Michael type.
“If someone at the Agency told you to go, and you said you would, I’d suggest you go,” Shaz said. “If something weird reallyisgoing on here, then you don’t want to do anything that might seem like you’re onto it.”
She had a point, Rhys had to admit. If he hung around now, itmightseem a bit suspicious, if there really was something weird going on, and someone reallydidhave their eye on him. He felt a chill slither down his spine.
“You got somewhere to go, love?” Shaz asked him, crossing her arms over her chest.
“I was only thinking of going up to Evie’s, and seeing if there was any way I could make myself useful on the station,” Rhys said. He looked over the top of Michael’s head at Maisie. “Evie’s my sister. She has a cattle station a bit north of here. You’ll get to meet her –”
He abruptly cut himself off.
I can’t exactly say that!he reminded himself. Of course he hoped Maisie would meet Evie and her wife, Penny, at some point, as well as Hector and all his other teammates. But right now, Maisie still didn’t know they were mates. He couldn’t exactly just tell her he had plans to start introducing her around his family.
“Oh, my family are out in the sticks as well,” Maisie said. “But I left when I went to Sydney to study nursing, and I guess I just stayed in the city. I do miss it sometimes.”
Ask her to come with you to the cattle station,his griffin screeched loudly enough that Rhys almost winced.Invite her to your family’s domain! Make her part of our clan!
I will, I will,Rhys told it, but before he could open his mouth, he noticed Maisie looking at him out of the corner of her eye, as if she was trying to work up the will to say something.
“Um,” she said a moment later. “I know it seems like… you already have plans and everything. But, uh, well, it’s just that… I have a holiday booked. To Burr Island. And I have two plane tickets booked, even though I only need one of them now since… well, I have two tickets, and I only need one for me. So the other one is free. For… someone else.” She swallowed. “Which could be you, if you wanted it.”
Rhys blinked.
Did I hear that right?
Had Maisie just… invited him to come on holidays with her?
“Burr Island, niiiiice,” Michael said. “Tropical. Sun, sand, surf. All you need.”
“Well. I’m staying in the cheapest accommodation I could find,” Maisie said, making a face. “But itisonly a… well, a fifteen-minute walk from the beach. But I heard the minigolf course is pretty good.”
“All the way to Burr Island and it’s fifteen mins to the beach? Lame,” Michael said. “Let me fix that up for you.”
Rhys managed to wander out of his euphoric daze at the idea that his mate had, unprompted, justinvitedhim to come on a holiday with her for long enough to get suspicious. “What do you mean,fix that up?”
“Relax, relax,” Michael said, typing. “I’m just getting you a little upgrade. And I’ll change your plane seats to first class while I’m there. We all need a little luxury in our lives.”
“Michael –” Rhys started, alarm coursing through him. Wasn’t he in enough trouble without getting busted with illegal hotel upgrades and first-class flights?!
“Too late, it’s done,” Michael said, as he smacked theReturnkey and turned to Rhys with a smug look. “No point in getting upset now.”
Rhyswastempted to tell Michael to go back into the hotel and airline servers and put everything back how he found it – at least until his griffin crashed into his consciousness once more.
You will do no such thing! You will allow our mate to live in the lap of luxury! You will pamper her! You will give her the finer things in life! You will –
All right, all right, I get it!Rhys tried to stuff the griffin back into the corner of his mind it sometimes went to when it wanted to sulk, but his acquiescence seemed to have pacified it anyway, and it left him in peace without so much as an outraged squawk.
He swallowed heavily, glancing across at Maisie. It was entirely possible, he supposed, that she’d made the offer impulsively, and now that it was out there she was getting cold feet.
And… he had to admit, shedidlook a little green around the gills.
“First class?!” she blurted out after a moment. “Andwhathotel did you change our booking to? I don’t have clothes evenremotelyfancy enough to pass as someone who belongs in a five-star hotel! I’m wearingscrubs, for crying out loud! Scrubs with little kangaroos all over them!”
“Oh relax, love,” Shaz said. “We go off to the fancy-arse places all the time, and do you think I can ever get Michael wearing anything other than trackies and a flanno? If you’re there, they assume you belong there.”
Maisie didnotlook especially assured by this, not even when Michael said a moment later, “Look, if you’re worried about it,take one of my credit cards – uh, one of thelegalones, not that you heard that, Rhys, and anyway, I’m not ripping anyone off but the bank, and it’s not the credit card itself that’s the issue, I just go in and fiddle with the credit limit every now and then so don’t blow your stack – and get yourself something nice while you’re up there, okay?”
Michael shoved a few – empty, hopefully – McCain’s pizza boxes aside to reveal several shiny, new-looking credit cards. He flicked through them until he found the one he was apparently looking for, and then handed it to Maisie. “Go nuts,” he said. “I’ll just go in and clear the debt later.” He glanced up at Rhys. “You’re still not listening, right?”
