Promise of Hunters Ridge

by Sarah Barrie

  She called in to see Ally first, and to pick up Jasper. Ally tried to convince her to stay, but she wasn’t bringing that bastard to her sister’s doorstep. Besides, she needed her space, her equipment. She’d do this on her own terms.

  Indy called to see how she was going, and when Mia told her she wasn’t leaving the cottage, the police cars turned up, parking in her driveway day and night. Jasper occasionally went out to sniff at one and lift a leg. She agreed with the sentiment. They weren’t going to stop Rob. Only she could do that.

  So she worked around them, concentrated enough on her work to get it done, worked out religiously, practised her shooting and spent an hour or so a day with Ally—mostly on their internet, working, and pretending she was back to normal.

  Ben had been trying to get back to Hunters Ridge for most of the week, but juggling the fallout from Russ’s suicide and dealing with Boland had made an earlier trip impossible. That, thankfully, was at an end. Now he wasn’t leaving Hunters Ridge again until he’d found and captured Rob Littleton.

  The fuel gauge was low, so he pulled into the service station to fill up. As he got out of the car, the cool breeze hit him and he breathed in the country air. It cleared his head.

  Clint’s cool greeting reached him a moment later. ‘Heard you had Mia charged with murder.’

  He nodded at the older man with the baseball cap, round belly and the scowling, unfriendly face. ‘Hello, Clint.’

  Clint shook his head. ‘Never can tell about a person. Thought you were on their side. After all that’s gone on.’

  Ben was tempted to tell him to shove it. ‘I’ve always been on their side.’

  ‘Yeah? Like you were on Ally’s when you nearly killed her with those questions? What are you doing here? Checking up on Mia in case she’s killed anyone else?’

  He dragged in a breath and released it in annoyance and began filling the car with petrol himself—even though he knew Clint usually did it. He’d make sure he stopped it exactly on fifty so he could hand over the note he had tucked in his wallet and get out of there. ‘I’m here to catch Rob.’

  ‘Yeah, I heard you were going to come talk to me about that. Thought you must have figured it all out on your own when you didn’t. Seeing as you’re so good at that sort of thing. Except when you make a mistake, of course.’

  ‘Dad, back off.’ Lee appeared with a container of oil. ‘How are you, Ben?’

  ‘Lee.’

  ‘I heard about Manning. Tough one.’

  ‘Bastard.’

  ‘Not good for his sick wife.’

  ‘She’s been in remission for months. Doing really well. He was using her as an excuse to be away from the station carrying on with all this other bullshit. Of course she’s devastated, though. It wasn’t an easy conversation.’

  ‘You did that yourself?’

  Ben nodded. ‘He was a friend. So is Janine. I still have trouble believing he could do that.’

  ‘Yet you believed Mia could?’ Clint said.

  ‘I never believed it,’ Ben snapped. ‘If I hadn’t charged her, I would have been kicked off the case. Guess who would have taken over? Manning.’

  ‘Oh shit. What a mess,’ Lee said. ‘She doesn’t know that?’

  ‘I don’t know. I’m going to try to talk to her.’

  ‘Mate, good luck. She’s barely talking to anyone. And she’s—are you armed?’

  Lee’s words only made him more concerned about talking to Mia as soon as possible. He’d missed her every moment since he’d left her in an exhausted sleep, tears streaked over a beautiful face too full of pain for him to bear looking at. That he’d put that look on her face had been torturing him. It didn’t matter that he’d had no choice. The hurt, the betrayal she’d felt, would still be feeling, would be the same.

  He went straight to the cottage, but she wasn’t there, which meant he’d have to head up the hill. No doubt to another warm welcome.

  He wasn’t wrong. Face thunderous, hands on hips and legs spaced apart, Ally’s small frame filled the doorway. ‘Yes?’

  ‘Nice to see you too, Ally.’

  ‘I never said anything about nice.’

  ‘Thanks. I need to talk to Mia.’ When Ally didn’t move, he added, ‘Please. It’s important.’

  Still she hesitated. Her face hardened. ‘You’re not going to go in there pushing any buttons. Not one. Not to make her talk, not to piss her off, not to score points. Not to prevent your own greatly deserved destruction. Not. One. Got it?’

  ‘Ally—’

  ‘Swear it, or you’re not getting through this door.’

  ‘Would it make any difference?’

  ‘I hope so.’ Her tone softened marginally. ‘Because you’re supposed to be a friend, a good one. And I don’t understand why you did what you did, so I’m hoping—assuming—there’s a good explanation. Until I hear it, I’m going to stay pissed. Because above all else, you hurt my sister. It takes a lot to knock her down, and you managed it. So I’ll let you in, but if you upset her again, I mean it—I will kill you and dispose of your body and never feel a moment’s guilt over it.’

  He could have smiled, because with all she’d been through she’d gotten so strong, but he didn’t feel much like smiling. So he nodded. ‘Got it.’

  She preceded him in. ‘Wait here.’ She headed down the hall.

  He’d forgotten how quiet it was out here. And then it wasn’t. What was that noise? He identified it as coming from a baby monitor on the table. A kind of grumbly rumble with the occasional almost cry.

  Ally came back. ‘She’s coming.’

  The sound of brisk footsteps coming down the hall pulled his attention back to the task at hand. For someone who’d been knocked down, Mia didn’t look it. Simply dressed in jeans and a cream-coloured top, her hair loose and falling over her shoulders, she was nothing short of her usual stunning. She dropped onto the lounge opposite and when he didn’t immediately speak, lifted an eyebrow.

  Still, he took another moment to study her, and saw hints of the shadows she’d tried to conceal around those see-right-through-you eyes. There was tension, if you looked hard enough, around the edges of the mouth. Not untouched by the events that brought her back here. And he needed to keep his head on what was important. ‘How are you going?’

  ‘I’m fine, Ben. Why are you here?’

  ‘Are you staying up here with Cam and Ally? I thought you were down at the cottage.’

  ‘I’m using their internet for work. I don’t have it on. Anything else?’

  ‘You can’t continue to stay at the cottage by yourself.’

  The hand that had been supporting her head dropped, hitting her leg while her eyes hit the roof. ‘Because?’ she snapped.

  ‘Because even with a car at your place, I can’t properly protect you out there.’

  ‘Protect me?’

  The woman could cut through ice with a glance. Ben felt the impact like a physical blow.

  ‘The level of hypocrisy is astounding. You put me through hell, you manipulative son of a bitch. You charged me with murder. Then you come down here and expect me to believe—’ She cut herself off, took a breath. ‘You know what?’ she said much more calmly. ‘I can’t be bothered.’

  That hurt. She’d never been short of an impressive tirade. She got to her feet, clearly intent on leaving. He blocked her path.

  ‘And I can’t protect you when you’re fighting me every step of the way, no matter where you are. Hate me all you want, but you need to listen.’

  ‘No, I don’t, I’m not your responsibility.’

  He tried to reach for her but when she jerked back out of his reach, his hand dropped to his side. ‘Mia, you’re much more than that.’

  ‘Wrong again. That was just a one-night stand that almost got complicated.’

  ‘No, it wasn’t. And despite what you’d have people believe, you don’t do one-night stands.’

  She stepped around him, paused and looked over her shoulder. ‘I did this
time.’ She headed for the hallway without a backwards glance.

  ‘Would you just let me explain?’

  ‘I can’t be that bored and still be conscious. You know the way out.’

  Yeah, he knew the way out. He was on the veranda heading for his car when Cam pulled up.

  He gave Ben a contemplative look. ‘Didn’t expect to find you here.’

  ‘Don’t stress. I’m leaving.’

  ‘How about you hang around and explain to me what the hell’s been going on. You broke my sister-in-law. Get your arse back inside so you can tell me why.’

  Ben looked at the house, considered that, decided it was pointless. She’d made herself clear. So he shook his head.

  ‘I’ll get on with the rest of it and be in touch.’

  He went back to the station, finding Indy in the office they’d be sharing for the time being, poring over something on the computer. ‘Hey, what are you up to?’

  She turned and smiled. ‘Eliminating possibilities. Good to have you back. How’d you go with Boland?’

  ‘He’s being transferred to Wellington Correctional Centre on Thursday. That way I’m only travelling an hour and a half every time I want to interview him instead of four and a half.’

  ‘He’s still cooperating?’

  ‘Seemingly.’ Ben set up his laptop, turned it on. ‘He was very vocal about Russ pressuring him into killing Turlington and Stansky. You know, I understand how Russ got caught up—especially with all the problems with his wife. But the rest of it, I just can’t get my head around that.’

  ‘Don’t even try,’ Indy suggested. ‘But you’ve sorted everything out with Mia?’

  ‘Not exactly.’

  She turned, a look of disbelief on her face. ‘You didn’t tell her why you charged her with murder?’

  ‘She either believes in me or she doesn’t. She chooses not to.’

  After a stunned pause, she shook her head. ‘Are you kidding?’

  ‘I tried to talk to her. Twice. She won’t listen and I have to get this done.’

  ‘Oh. Well. I had it figured wrong. Sorry.’

  His fingers hit the keyboard with a thump. ‘What does that mean?’

  ‘I thought she meant more to you.’

  ‘And if I’m focusing on how I feel about all that, I can’t focus on what I’m doing with all this. I’d rather she hated me and stayed alive than loved me and ended up dead.’

  ‘Oh, so you’re just making things easier for her? She could have killed you. That would have made things easier for her.’

  ‘Indy.’

  ‘Are you in love with her or not?’

  He stopped pretending to be busy with the computer and closed his eyes. ‘“In love” sounds like something you can get out of again. There’s no getting out of this. If she dies while I worry about how I feel, what I want, I’ll die too. That’s it. I can’t explain it better than that.’

  She put a hand on his shoulder. ‘You don’t have to.’

  ‘All I can do is find Rob. I’m worried about her, about how she’s coping, but I can’t help her on a personal level. Not with things the way they are between us. I only made it worse by trying to see her today.’

  ‘Why don’t you let me talk to Mia? I think I’ve got a pretty good idea of where her head is.’

  ‘You probably would—more than most. But I don’t need you getting involved.’

  ‘She saved my life. If all this is screwing her up, the least I can do is talk to her.’

  CHAPTER

  27

  Mia did another lap of the paddock, two more than she usually ran. She saw a car pull up, noting with relief that it was just Cam. In the two days since Ben had shown up at Ally’s, she’d half-expected him to come down here. Seeing him again hadn’t been easy and in the end she’d had to run, because if she’d stayed in that lounge room much longer she’d known he would have talked her around. And she’d let him do that before. Look how that had turned out.

  But what could Cam possibly want? Was this because she hadn’t been up there for a couple of days? So what? She was getting fed up of everyone thinking they had to check on her, help her, invite her out, cheer her up. She was fine. Great. No problem. And she was going to finish her workout before running over to see what he was here for.

  When she did eventually walk onto the veranda he was waiting patiently, and had helped himself to a drink. ‘That’s a lot of running.’

  ‘What’s up?’

  ‘You missed pizza night last night.’

  ‘I told Ally I didn’t feel like it.’

  ‘I know. I just thought I’d come down and say hi.’

  ‘Hi.’

  He chuckled. ‘Are you enjoying your security?’

  ‘The cops in the driveway? Yeah, they’re special humans. I told them to get lost. Go look after Chloe. They ignored me. Maybe they’ll listen to you.’

  ‘We have our own.’

  ‘It’s pointless. He’ll just wait. That’s what he does. Or he’ll kill them the second they split up.’

  ‘Maybe that’s why they won’t get out of the car. They’ve heard stories.’

  ‘Can’t blame them for that.’

  ‘You want to come up for a while? Spend some time with Chloe?’

  ‘Not right now.’ At his stern look she snapped, ‘What?’

  ‘Ally told me once that when you’re upset enough to walk out, it’s not good. Even though you’ve been back and forth, you’ve had this big keep-out sign on your back. It’s like you’ve walked out and I guess we’re just wondering when you’re coming back.’

  She closed her eyes and shook her head. He was so sweet. Sweet and smart and sensitive. And he’d never give up on any of them. So she opened her eyes, kissed his cheek. ‘Thank you for marrying my sister.’

  ‘You’re very welcome. But we’re talking about you.’

  She leant on the railing and looked out over the bushland. ‘I just need a bit more time to get back to normal.’

  He put his arms around her and held her. The gesture was enough to have a tear rolling down her cheek. She swiped at it, held on.

  After a long stretch of silence, she asked, ‘What have I ever done to make anyone who knows me think I could do those things? How could anyone think that? How could Ben believe that?’

  ‘Not many people have survived what you’ve survived. No one should have to. Things like that can and do break people. There are going to be some out there who can’t believe you could get through it all and come out whole. But no matter what’s been thrown at you, you’ve never done anything to deserve that speculation.

  ‘I don’t know why Ben charged you, but there has to be a damn sight better explanation than him thinking you’ve turned into a cold-blooded, calculating murderer. He was mad when he walked out after charging you. Furious. And he was on a mission. That mission, as it turns out, was to clear you. So I can’t tell you why he did it, but don’t forget how good he is at what he does. This all makes sense. Somehow.’

  ‘I didn’t let him explain. He tried, but I didn’t want to hear it.’

  ‘I wouldn’t beat yourself up too much about that. But maybe you should think about talking to him sometime soon.’

  ‘Not yet.’ She attempted a smile. ‘I’m going to go shower.’

  ‘Mia …’

  ‘It’s all good, Cam, thanks. Tell Ally I’ll come up in a bit.’

  In the shower she thought about what Cam had said. Since coming back all she’d really wanted to do was work out and be by herself, focus on Rob, on waiting for him, on being ready for him. And she really needed to get over Ben. But she couldn’t do that—the hurt just wouldn’t shift. Perhaps he had been trying to prove she wasn’t responsible for Davis and Dex, for all the rest of it. But he’d read her those charges and walked away. Why would he do that? How could he do that?

  She finished her shower and decided she’d better head up to see her sister.

  Ally was at the door before she could reach the ver
anda. ‘Mia.’

  ‘Hey, sorry about last night. Didn’t feel like being sociable.’

  ‘That’s okay.’

  ‘Is it? Because Cam didn’t think so.’ Had she come up here to snap at her sister? She sighed. ‘Okay, let’s try that again. Hi Al, I’m feeling bitchy. Don’t take it personally.’

  ‘And there’s my sister back,’ Ally said with relief. ‘Come play with Chloe. She’ll help with the mood.’

  ‘Sounds perfect. I’ll just put Jasper in the backyard.’

  Cam came in when she was on the floor with Chloe. He smiled at her, nodded in approval, then went in search of a beer. ‘He came down to talk to me,’ Mia told Ally.

  ‘He did look pretty pleased with himself. Ebony once told me she used to want to beat him over the head with a mind-your-own-business stick. Except usually he was right.’

  ‘That should annoy me about him, but I’m just so happy he’s my brother-in-law.’

  ‘I’m pretty happy about that too. Have you spoken to Ben since he came up here?’

  ‘Once was enough.’

  ‘And that didn’t go very well.’

  ‘It went great, comparatively,’ Mia replied brightly. ‘The time before that I physically attacked him.’

  ‘You what?’

  ‘It’s all right, he survived. Then he cleaned up all the blood—Dex’s, not his—and left.’

  ‘About all that. Do you think—’

  ‘Ally, I don’t want to talk about Ben.’

  ‘Okay. Right. It’s just …’

  ‘What?’

  ‘You keep running away from him. That’s not how you tackle problems.’

  ‘It’s the only way I can tackle this one.’

  ‘Okay. I’ll drop it. Oh—I’m going to have lunch at the inn with Indy tomorrow. She asked if you’d come.’

  What if Ben showed up? ‘I think I’ll give it a miss.’

  Ally frowned. ‘You’re mad at Indy, too?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Then?’

  She felt her temper jump straight back to the surface. ‘Why does it matter? Indy’s here all the time. Can’t we just do it another day?’

  Ally sighed and nodded. ‘Sure. Fine.’