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From the helicopter’s passenger seat, Romy guided her drone while Stone read over her shoulder, both scouting for any sign of the bad guys or their possible hideout.

‘You’re coming up on it now.’ Stone pointed to their view of trees that shifted into a condensed sea of olive green.

The only break in the vast terrain was the river, winding like a sparkling ribbon, and striking stripes of red dirt tracks as the only sign of human life out here. ‘That’s Dixby Downs.’

‘That name gives me the creeps.’ She shuddered.

‘Why? Because of the ghost story of the missing overseer?’

She shrugged. ‘Do people go missing out here often?’

‘The outback is a dangerous place.’ His feet shifted on the pedals as he moved the cyclic stick and throttle so effortlessly the helicopter danced in the air. The helicopter was so much more complex than her drone, yet Stone made it seem so simple.

‘Are we okay?’

Stone groaned into his headset, tilting his head back towards the roof, as if rolling his eyes behind his sunglasses. ‘Let’s not do that, okay?’

‘Do what?’

‘The where are we going with this speech? All I can tell you is we’re going in that direction.’ Again, Stone pointed out the large windscreen where the outback stretched beyond the curve of the horizon.

‘You know what I mean.’

‘You said you didn’t expect anything.’

‘Do you?’

Stone stared at her for a long moment, then tilted his head. ‘Go back. I saw something white on the screen.’

She gripped the handles of her drone’s operating console and steered it around. ‘It’s the shed Craig mentioned.’

‘Go over it, but higher.’

‘Can you fly and spy at the same time?’

‘I’m a man of many talents, baby. I made you laugh, groan, and scream how many times last night?’ He plonked his hand on her thigh and squeezed.

Oh my goodness! She clutched her thighs together, as the tremor of body heat rippled across her skin.

‘Concentrate, shortcake.’ He pointed back to the screen.

‘You’re such a tease.’

Only made worse by his confident grin that was downright devilish.

‘You’re right…’ Inhaling so deeply her nostrils pinched, to focus on the task, she zoomed in on the image her drone was flying over. Her tummy suddenly giddy at the thought that they may have just found the bad guys and could save those crocodiles. ‘There are two vans parked inside that open shed.’

‘Two. Wasn’t expecting that…’ Stone’s eyebrows rose, as he peered at the screen, then back over his shoulder to the world below them.

‘Can you go high. Don’t want them to hear you, but I’m also seeing a dust plume, like another car is coming.

I can’t get too close in case they spot me.

And if it’s Lenora, she’ll recognise this chopper.

’ Stone pointed to the right of the land that stretched in all directions, without a single high-rise building, no compact cluster of houses to indicate suburbia, not even a mobile phone tower.

Romy piloted her drone with practised ease, her thumbs gliding over the control sticks as she adjusted altitude and angle, always keeping the chopper’s location in her mind.

The drone held position in auto-hover, high above the action—like a camera on a tripod, steady and waiting.

From that height, it was just another speck in the sky, too far to draw attention, but close enough for her long-range lens to capture every detail.

When she eased on the controls, it followed smoothly, shadowing the helicopter like a well-trained cameraman on a stakeout.

Admittedly, she loved this. ‘It’s another car, a four-wheel drive. It’s heading for the shed.’

‘Thought so.’ Stone flicked some switches and spoke over the microphone. ‘You there Bossman, this is Stone.’

‘Go ahead, Stone.’

‘We’ve located the outstation’s shed, just where Craig said it would be, and found two vans.’

‘Two?’

Stone leaned over to her drone’s console, as Romy zoomed into the shed. ‘One van is white,’ relayed Stone, ‘the other one is deeper inside, I can’t make out a clear colour.’

‘Anything else?’

‘There is another vehicle approaching from the south side, a track that runs through Griffin’s property. And…’ He steered the chopper around, swooping lower.

The sudden drop forced Romy’s stomach to fold like she was on a rollercoaster rush—enough for her to let go of the controls. Thankfully, the drone was high enough to just hover and wait for its next command.

‘I can see a good surveillance spot to the north-east of that shed,’ said Stone. ‘It looks like an old holding yard.’

‘Craig knows the place,’ said Finn’s gruff voice over the headphones. ‘Craig said it’ll be close enough to watch them, but too far for us to hear anything.’

Stone aimed a sinfully delicious smile at Romy. ‘It just so happens that Romy has some equipment that might help with that.’ He lifted her hand and kissed the back of it.

It was the most romantic gesture any man had ever done to her.

‘Ready to play spy with your toys, shortcake?’

Romy wasn’t sure what she wanted, not with Stone toying with her emotions, while flying in the air. Either way, the rush was addictive.

But she wasn’t a cop, supposedly closing in on the criminals. ‘Don’t you guys need warrants to visit places, or park up your helicopter like this?’

‘Nah, under the Livestock Act, we can enter non-residential properties without a warrant—as long as we have reasonable grounds. Suburban houses may be a different story. But out here, on rural land, we have the authority when it comes to livestock. The Duchess can you show the clauses. She even gave us printouts in case we need to show them to landowners.’

‘So, you’re the real deal?’

‘I don’t know about that. This whole four-man Stock Squad is on trial—you could say we’re the test dummies.’

‘Why test a federally funded program out here?’

‘Shortcake, I did tell you before that this is the heart of cattle country.’

‘Doesn’t the Northern Territory Police have their own stock squad?’

‘Nope. They’ve reduced it to an email address on a website.’

‘Why?’

‘Funding, I guess. And not many cops have stockman’s skills these days—but the stock still gets flogged. So Finn made it happen. He’s the man with the plan, and he’s the real deal.’ Stone pointed at Finn’s vehicle flying across the terrain.

Stone spun the helicopter around, as if to find the perfect position to land.

‘We’re going in, aren’t we?’

‘Don’t worry, I’ll keep you back from the action. I don’t want to risk you getting hurt.’

‘I won’t break, Stone. I’m not some fragile princess.’ She squeezed his forearm as he manned the controls. ‘I know how to play it safe. My biggest worry is, do you?’