The Men In Uniform Collection. Barbara McMahon

to no good in the park. Justin. But why hadn’t he spoken up? They had a system for reporting wildlife injuries in WildSprings. It wasn’t as if it was a criminal offence.

      Romy shook her head. She’d be seeing terrorists in the shadows next. Just as well she hadn’t sent off her email full of conspiracy theories to Customs. That could have been embarrassing.

      She deleted the email she’d spent half an hour composing and then opened Carly’s email and started to read.

      Her stomach dropped clean away.

      ‘Romy? What’s going on? Your message sounded urgent.’

      She trembled from more than the cool night air. Adrenaline. Anxiety. How on earth was she going to start this conversation? Knowing what it would do to him.

       Thanks for coming, Clint. Oh, by the way, your brother is officially a criminal. Coffee?

      He frowned and took her hands. ‘You’re shaking. Here, sit down.’

      She pulled them free of his warmth. Letting it soak in was not going to make this any easier. Look how he reacted last time, not prepared for one second to hear a word against his brother. She crossed her arms across her body and stepped past him, towards the door. ‘Can we talk outside, Clint? Leighton’s asleep.’

      He frowned. ‘Sure. Are we planning on getting noisy?’

      That was almost a certainty.

      ‘If this is about the other day—’

      ‘It’s not,’ she whispered, low and shaky. ‘At least, not directly. Please, come outside.’

      On his parents’ little back porch she paced up and down, ordering her thoughts. He watched her closely but didn’t speak. Scenarios played out in high-speed in her mind. Different ways this could go. All of them ended in Clint getting hurt.

      She finally blurted the easiest part of the story, just for somewhere to start. ‘Justin killed that kangaroo.’

      His whole body tensed. His lips thinned. ‘Romy…’

      ‘Hear me out.’ Both her hands shot up and she stepped towards him. ‘I found the vehicle that night at the fundraiser when I twisted my ankle. It was Justin’s. I just got confirmation from Licensing an hour ago.’

      Clint’s jaw clamped as he turned away in the half shadows of the porch light. ‘You’re still on his case?’

      ‘I never was on his case, Clint.’ Her heart thundered. She straightened her back as though it would make the slightest difference against six-four of angry man. This was all so horribly familiar. But she had to keep going. ‘But I am now.’

      ‘Romy, he regrets it. He told me—’

      ‘Will you listen! This has nothing to do with being felt up by your brother. I didn’t even know it was your brother I was looking for when I had the plate number analysed. I was just doing my job.’

      Clint looked sideways at her, his eyes narrowed.

      The man that had the power to make her feel so good could also make her feel bad with one bitter look. She took a steadying breath. It didn’t help. ‘He hit the kangaroo and then didn’t report it.’

      A curse tumbled off his lips. ‘So sue him, Romy. If he hit the roo, then I’ll be giving him a long lecture about responsibility. It’s unfortunate but hardly a federal offence.’

      If. Even now he had so little faith in her. She steeled herself to continue. To hurt him the way she knew she had to. ‘Clint, there’s more…’

      ‘Oh, I’ll bet there is. You’re nothing if not zealous in your pursuit of justice.’

      The acid tone served its purpose. She felt the burning judgement as it spattered her. Her throat tightened and she clamped her lips, losing courage.

      ‘No, don’t stop now, Romy. Spit it all out. What else has my evil, damaged little brother done to offend?’

      The sarcasm sliced her like tumbling scalpels. She wanted to hurl it at him now—the truth about Justin—but she knew she’d only get moments once she started. And hurting Clint was hurting her, doubly. Her chest collapsed in. This could only go one way. She was ripping out both their hearts.

      ‘I’m…I’m worried about the cockatoos. The breach in the fence…’ Tremors gave her a weak kind of vibrato. ‘I think Justin’s connected. The customs memo—’

      ‘Stop!’

      He rounded on her then, his eyes a roaring furnace. The blazing fury in his expression burned her. He advanced and she stumbled over her own feet back into the corner, dipping her head instinctively. It was an ingrained survival technique, but she disgusted herself with her cowardice.

      Clint froze. For long, cold, silent seconds. Then he stumbled away from her, her name a curse on his lips.

      She fought the sting of tears. Not again. Not this time. She lifted her chin and met his wide, horrified gaze with critically dry eyes. Her blood thundered in her ears, her pulse throbbing in her temple, her throat, her mouth. The devastation on his face was nearly her undoing. But he had to know…And he was listening at last.

      Her chest throbbed. ‘He was expelled from the US on drug charges, Clint. Serious ones. He has a criminal record.’

      She watched the emotions play over his features, features she’d come to care for so deeply. The horror, the sorrow, the acceptance. Then he dropped his eyes.

      ‘I know.’

      She almost missed his soft confession as an owl screeched in the darkness nearby. She sucked in a lungful of icy, aching air. Stared at him for endless moments until finally able to speak, raw and strained. ‘Then why have I torn my heart out to work out how to tell you?’

      He sank down on the swing chair. ‘He had to come home. It was part of his conditions. That he live with me. Here.’

      Romy sagged. Far from trouble. Under the watchful eye of his highly awarded, ex-military brother.

      Clint went on. ‘He wanted a chance to prove himself. To make a fresh start.’

      She dropped her head. ‘I can understand that.’

      ‘I think we all can.’

      More silence. ‘You think I’m taking that chance away from him.’

      ‘Aren’t you?’

      Romy’s heart lurched painfully. You’d think she’d have developed some immunity to condemnation after her childhood. ‘I’m not doing this to catch Justin out. I’m doing it to protect you.’

      He lifted unreadable eyes to hers. ‘Why?’

      ‘Because he’s going to betray you.’ She stared at him steadily. ‘And because you love him.’

       And because I love you.

      Romy’s whole body reeled as the words clattered unspoken through her brain. She grabbed at the balustrade and clung to it, trying desperately to look as though she was doing nothing more than collecting her thoughts when in reality she was struggling to breathe. She forced her lungs to inflate. Once. Twice.

       Oh, God, no…

      ‘Would you do something for me, Romy?’ His flat, lifeless voice brought her head back around. ‘If I asked you to…would you drop your investigation? Would you trust me to deal with this my own way?’

      Her blood thundered past her ears in torrents and her stomach squeezed into a ball. Everything she’d ever believed in hung suspended in front of her, right next to everything she’d ever wanted. And she couldn’t have both. One would make her a traitor to the principles she held most dear. The other would effectively betray Clint.

      She looked at the agony in his eyes and