Page 24

Stone picked up Romy’s drone case and headed outside. ‘This way, shortcake.’

Romy followed, rushing out of the gate while strapping on her backpack, keen to see where the day would lead. If it was anything like yesterday, she was so there.

‘Get on.’ Stone unplugged an electric scooter, putting the case on the floor and climbed on board.

‘I’m not getting on that.’

‘You can run behind me. Your choice. But I should warn you, it’s quite the hike to the helipad from here, when this way is so much funner.’ Stone pointed to the curved undercover walkway that stretched for a few hundred metres. ‘It’ll help you get in touch with your inner child.’

‘If you insist.’ Hesitantly, she stepped on the back of the scooter.

‘Hands here. Don’t be shy.’ He placed her hands on his hips, giving her a close-up of his jeans and how they hugged his legs and butt. Now she’d seen underneath that denim, it had her heart racing. Or was that her nerves reacting to this daring ride?

‘Hold on.’

The electric scooter took off faster than expected, forcing Romy to grip his sides harder. The wind flipped her hair around as they zoomed over the wide wooden walkway, with the roof shading them. ‘How fast are we going?’

‘No idea. I’ve never tested the speed, but it’s fun, right?’

It was both thrilling and nerve-racking, speeding along on a scooter as the boardwalk stretched out like a freeway bridge as the land dramatically dropped away to show off the barren, expansive flood plain.

She’d never realised how high Stone had built the house and helipad until now. Perched on the hill, the house stood like a fortress, its elevated position commanded a sweeping view of the flood plains that acted like a natural moat for a European castle.

‘Does it flood here?’

Stone nodded. ‘In the height of the wet season, it’s like having an inland sea at the back door. It’s the best time to be here.’

‘How do you fuel up your helicopter when it’s flooded? Or now?’ When she didn’t see any roads, except the covered boardwalk they were whizzing over.

‘A truck comes through with a load of avgas to fill my storage tanks, long before the wet season arrives. It’s like having my own petrol station.’

That had to cost a fortune. She’d seen the fuel prices climbing higher the further Julian drove them inland from Darwin, every servo stop was a reminder that nothing came cheap out here.

And yet Stone stocked AVGAS like he owned a private petrol station, like that was perfectly normal for crocodile-wrangling helicopter pilots in Elsie Creek to do.

Stone guided them around a sweeping bend, where the boardwalk opened to a panoramic view. ‘That’s one of my billabongs.’

The billabong glistened like a massive mirror under the sun. Scattered groups of wild lotus flowers, tall reeds and assorted wading water birds sent ripples across the surface, where surrounding grasses were tall enough for wallabies to hide themselves while watching them zoom past.

‘Do you ever drive out there?’

‘I do. It’s a good spot to do some birdwatching, if that’s your thing.

I’m halfway through building a bird viewing platform out there, too.

I get paid to take the occasional birdwatchers to some remote billabongs.

I just drop them off and they don’t speak.

Ever. To not spook the birds away. They’re the best kind of tourist.’

‘Why do you have a tourist licence, if you don’t like talking to tourists.’

He peered at her over his shoulder. ‘I talk to you, don’t I?’

The cheeky sod.

‘And it helps pay for the chicken feed to keep the boys happy.’

‘You mean the crocodiles.’

‘Shortcake, if you haven’t noticed, this is a boys’ club filled with all the good kind of boys’ toys.’

She felt his chuckle from the way his shirt shifted as she held his hips, downwind to enjoy his musky and scrumptiously spicy deodorant.

Stone slowed down as they headed into a huge hangar covered in solar panels. Inside the shaded area it was a lot bigger than she’d imagined.

‘Everything is so deceptive in this place.’ She shook her head in awe.

‘What do you mean?’ He parked the scooter on the side and plugged it to charge alongside a matching scooter. Nearby stood a few sorts of motorbikes, and an ATV. Talk about boys’ toys. All that was missing was some sort of speedboat.

Stone pushed open the large hangar doors, allowing the sunlight to stream inside to reveal his helicopter sitting on the outdoor helipad, but it also revealed a plane parked on the far side of the hangar.

‘Is that a seaplane?’ Where was the airstrip?

‘It’s more of a swamp rat.’

‘Because you do rivers, and you said this place becomes an inland sea.’ Did this stretch of parched dirt truly become an inland sea, deep enough for a seaplane to take off?

‘Look at you, shortcake, working out all the answers by yourself.’ Stone loaded her drone case securely into the helicopter.

‘Where are we going today?’

‘We’ll visit the playpen for one of the boss’s morning meetings. If that’s okay?’

‘All good. I can amuse myself in the hallway. All I need is a nearby power point to work on my laptop.’

‘Why? When you’ll be doing the presentation.’

‘Nooo…’ She shook her head, as Stone went through his checks on the helicopter. ‘I don’t do that. Directors and producers do the pitches.’

‘No pitch. Just skill.’ He said it so casually, while checking on the fuel. ‘We’ll need you to pause, or print, and zoom in on your footage, when Finn and Amara ask questions. And they will ask questions.’

‘As long as I don’t have to do a speech, I can do that.’ Could she? ‘Or you can. You’re good at talking.’

Stone adjusted his hat, his hazel eyes heavily analysing her. ‘If you don’t do pitches, how do you sell your stuff?’

Is this where she confessed her dislike, and pathetic fear, of making a fool out of herself for pitching her documentary to the distributors?

‘Mostly, I just put my B-roll on these websites that act like an online storefront. They connect me to the customers without the need for a middleman, or agents.’

‘And these images go to…?’ His cap shaded his eyes, but they were still locked on to her. It felt like he was asking more than just a simple question, and she’d learned Stone was a lot more complex than he let on. So, what was the ulterior motive to Stone’s question?

She shrugged, taking the easy way out.

‘Do any of your images make it to social media?’

‘Sure. All the time. News groups, influencers, and even corporate conferences use them.’

‘The what?’

‘You know the big company conferences, where they do presentations to their stockholders, letting the B-roll play in the background while they talk of destroying the planet in big words.’

Stone didn’t say a word, but he stood very, very still.

‘What did I say?’

‘Nothing.’ He turned his back on her to work on his helicopter.

‘I can pay you to do some more scenic flights later.’ She was still trying to keep this a purely platonic working relationship and not take advantage of the guy, who did have the golden ticket to take her to places she’d never find on her own.

‘We’ll see. First, there’s a bunch of babies we need to find.’

‘Of course.’ She felt foolish for forgetting about the stolen cold stock, while struggling to keep her attraction to Stone under control.

And the struggle was real.

Especially when his jeans gave her a magnificent view of his arse and strong thighs, when he unhitched some heavy-duty straps from under the helicopter’s skid.

His biceps tightened beautifully as he gathered the tie-down straps together and stored them near some seriously large cement blocks. How bad were the winds out here?

‘You could leave me here, and I’d be happy to poke around your land, like the billabong.’ And that way she’d escape doing the talk in front of his peers.

‘Get in, shortcake. Like I said, your skills are needed—especially after what your footage found. We don’t want the Duchess giving us one of her annoying eye rolls while tapping on her watch, if we’re late.’

‘Why do you call Amara the Duchess?’

He paused to give her that studious look again. ‘Only our team can call her that. Amara has a big job and she’s extremely good at what she does, and not just as our paperwork queen.’

Talk about high praise, when it didn’t make sense. ‘But you and Craig tease Amara all the time.’

‘Only because she’s like our little sister.’ His tone and his stance displayed his protection of Amara, it was subtle but enough for Romy to pick up on that vibe—it was really kind of sweet.

‘Trust me, Amara gives it back just as much—you just haven’t heard it yet.’ Stone rubbed his jaw, as if contemplating her questions. ‘Why? Were you offended when we were bantering with each other, especially when you got your hives?’

She secured the gimbal across her chest, then buckled the seatbelt over it. A snug fit, sure, but she’d worked in worse. ‘I don’t mind the banter. It’s just rare because no one looks at the girl behind the camera.’ No one hired her for her looks or what she wore, just her skills.

But Stone looked at her longer and deeper than anyone had done before. It was unnerving.

‘Strapped in?’ He handed her a set of earmuffs.

‘Yeah.’ The moment she slipped on the earmuffs, the sounds of the outback world vanished, replaced by a cocoon of silence like swimming underwater.

‘Camera ready?’ Stone’s voice was loud and clear through the headphones, as he flicked a whole lot of switches inside the cockpit.

Just switching on her camera always started her smile, along with that skip of her heart rate.

She loved her job so much, she didn’t need to be the face on-screen, when the world was ready to show off all its splendour, and she was happy to observe.

And with luck, she may be able to convince the Rowntrees to give her permission to film their farm.

‘I need one of those director clipboards.’

‘For what?’

‘To say ready, camera, action .’ Stone’s smile was lovely and broad, as he slid on the aviators that made him look effortlessly cool, sexy, handsome, and so H-O-T, as the blades of the helicopter became invisible, and then they were up and flying. It was the best way to go to work.