“No way, it’s nearly eleven o’clock.” I shook my head hard. “That’s four hours of flying time out in the dark, over country we barely know. We’ll never find it. And I don’t know about you, but I need some shut-eye.”
Her lips pressed into a thin line, and I watched her hate that I was right.
“We’ll leave at first light,” I said. “Five a.m. We’ll be there by nine.”
“I’m coming,” Mitch said.
“So am I.” Cassidy’s tone left no room for argument.
“No. This is a police operation.” Sapphire’s voice went into cop mode. “I can’t take civilians into?—”
“You need me to find the cave.” Cassidy cocked one eyebrow. “You won’t find that cave without me. Trust me, it’s well concealed. I only found it by fluke.” She glanced at Mitch. “And I’m not going without Mitch.”
Sapphire tilted her head back, eyes on the ceiling for a long moment as she heaved a huge sigh.
“The chopper seats four,” I reminded her.
She rolled her gaze to me. “I’m aware of that, Kayden.”
“So that’s me, you, Mitch, and Cass.”
“I’m aware of the math as well, thank you.”
Mitch’s mouth twitched.
“Fine.” Sapphire snapped her notebook shut. “Five a.m. But this is my operation, and you do exactly as I say. I don’t want any cowboy shit.”
I slapped the table. “Yeehaw.”
Sapphire’s glare could’ve stripped paint, and I had to bite down hard not to grin at her.
“You’re an idiot,” Cassidy said, smiling at me. “See you at five o’clock. We meeting at the chopper?”
I looked at Sapphire, and she nodded. “At the chopper.”
Chairs scraped back around the table, and my siblings peeled off in pairs, heading to their own places scattered around the ranch.
I stayed put until the room cleared. I needed to talk to Sapphire. I needed to find the words to explain what I’d done today: the lying, the holding back, making her job harder when she’d already been fighting an uphill battle. I saw what it cost her.
But when she’d dropped that line about once loving me, it had hit like a gut punch.
We had loved each other. Hell, we’d been perfect together until we started talking about the future. That’s when it had gone to shit. She wanted the city, a career with the Queensland Police, and a life that didn’t involve dust, cattle, and endless red dirt.
I’d wanted to join the army, and if that hadn’t panned out, I was always coming back to Koolaroo. But she had never wanted to live on a property like this, in the middle of nowhere.
We couldn’t find a way through it, and I’d said some bloody cruel, stupid things I couldn’t take back. Things that had made her walk away and never turn back.
She’d chosen the badge. I’d chosen the land.
We’d both been wrong. Or maybe we’d both been right but just too young to know the difference.
But that had been ten years ago, and after watching her stand up to Bob today, aiming her gun at his head, I knew exactly who Sapphire Delaney was now. She was a cop, and a damn good one.
She didn’t need me to make things harder.
She needed to know she had my support. All of it. No more bullshit. No more holding back.
I just had to figure out how to tell her that without screwing it up again.