Coming in here was supposed to be a break from all the shit, but there was no peace to be had with Beau around. I rose to my feet, and both men watched me move, but only this prick was grinning.
“Because if she is, I’m sure we could find something for her to do at the horse stud.” The more I frowned, the more he grinned. “I’ve been telling Dad I need an assistant. She could help me with some… personal jobs around the office.”
I shouldn’t have reacted. Dickheads like Beau? They lived for that shit, but in for a penny, in for a pound, as Mum always said. I stepped closer, forcing him to stare up at me.
“You keep the fuck away from Mackenzie.”
“Boys, you need to take whatever this is outside,” Vance warned. “I’m not having you tear the place up again.”
“Cancel the lunch order,” I told the publican, grabbing my beer and draining it, then slapping some money down on the bar. “I’ve lost my appetite.”
As I made for the door, I was pretty sure Vance let out a sigh of relief, only for Beau to take one last shot.
“I’ll come by sometime tomorrow, shall I? Introduce myself to the lady in question? Might stop and have a little chat with your sister, too.”
I was fighting so damn hard to keep my shit together and then the prick had to say something like this. Whirling around, before Vance could say a thing, my hand was gripping the front of Beau’s shirt, using that to haul him up on his tiptoes.
“Don’t go anywhere near Charlie,” I growled. “Nor Mackenzie, or my farm, or I’ll have you charged with trespassing.” Giving him a little shake, I had the satisfaction of hearing his teeth clack, but his grin didn’t dim for a second. “Are we clear?”
“Crystal.”
When I let the prick go, Beau stepped backwards, making a show of smoothing the wrinkles from his plaid shirt.
Having a beer at lunch was a mistake after all. Rather than give me a moment’s respite, I was angrier than when I walked in. Storming over to the car, I turned the engine over, but before I could throw it in reverse, I stared blankly at the rear-vision mirror. I hadn’t found anywhere safe for Mackenzie to go, which meant that for the time being, she was staying exactly where she was.
Just down the hall from me.
Sucking in a breath, then letting it out with a huff, I pulled the car out and started driving back to the farm.
Chapter 5
Mackenzie
“I’m so, so sorry,” I told Charlie
“Don’t be.” She tried to smile and failed. “Nugget is an idiot, just like every other male on this farm.”
“Now, Charlie—” Billy started to say.
“Can you show me where he went?” she asked me. “Let’s not go inside Wally’s paddock again, but if I know where Nugget was hit, maybe I can track down where he got to.”
“Of course.”
Which resulted in us back at the scene of the crime. Wally had a lot to say about our reappearance, but his grunts barely registered as I focussed on the blood on the road. Following it forward, the dog, Sparky, snuffled at the ground, then leapt ahead before slipping between the fence wire. Wally made a half-hearted lunge at him, but the dog pressed on, appearing on the other side of the fence, then trotting over to a stand of trees.
“I know where he’s gone.” Charlie moved with the same intensity as Sparky, stalking over to the trees, then coming to a stop in front of a burrow where a big furry ass was hanging out. “There you are, you little rascal.”
I sucked in a breath as she pulled the wombat out. There was some blood matted just above one eye, but little other apparent damage. Nugget wriggled in her grip, trying to get free, but she just held him out from her body as she marched over to a huge fenced off enclosure.
That’s where I walked through the gates of heaven.
Charlie and her brothers opened the metal door like it was no big thing, but I followed behind, mouth hanging open.
“Is that…?” I peered up at the top of a decent size tree, making out grey fur between the leaves. “Is that a koala?”
“Oh yeah.” Bronson said that like it was completely normal. “Charls has got a few in here.” He grabbed a bag down from a hook. “There’s kangaroo joeys…”
The man didn’t get a chance to say much more, as the thuds of furry feet quickly announced the other animal’s presence. Like fairies emerging from the forest, little baby kangaroos appeared.
