Men In Uniform: Taken By The Soldier: The Soldier's Untamed Heart / Closer... / Groom Under Fire

‘He’s young, to be managing a place like this.’

‘This coming from you?’ It wasn’t unfriendly. In fact, there was something decidedly warming about being gently teased. It created a charged kind of friction. It felt good.

‘I have good instincts about people. He doesn’t seem entirely…comfortable…in his role. Like a suit that doesn’t fit.’

Clint stared at her. ‘Interesting. What else?’

Romy shrugged. ‘He doesn’t like me.’

It was only a mouthful of food that prevented him bursting into laughter. After a moment he mumbled, ‘Half the staff don’t like you, according to you.’

‘He genuinely doesn’t. Since day one. It practically oozes from his pores.’

Clint shrugged. ‘It’s because I hired you. His nose is out of joint.’

‘You’re the boss. You can hire whoever you want, can’t you?’

Dark eyes studied her. ‘It’s complicated.’

Romy sighed. ‘If I’m going to be able to do my job well I need to know where the skeletons are. You know that.’

He placed his fork down with meticulous care. Took an age, he dabbed his napkin to his lips. ‘Justin is my brother.’

It was Romy’s turn to splutter. Heat roared up her cheeks. ‘What? Since when?’

‘Pretty much since birth.’

‘Ha-ha. Were you planning on telling me or were you just going to let me keep talking about him.’

‘I’m telling you now.’

There was no way a man with his training could possibly miss her simmering expression. Which mean she was being managed again. Romy took a deep breath. ‘Why have you not mentioned this before?’

‘It’s not pertinent.’

‘It most certainly is. Familial relationships in workplaces increase the likelihood of crime statistically, did you know that? Second only to romantic ones.’

He looked unimpressed. ‘Thanks for the intel. But this is a family business. He’s the last person I’d be concerned about ripping me off.’

‘How long has he worked for you?’

‘Is this a social question or a professional one?’ His careless tone screamed a warning. He kept his eyes artificially lowered.

Romy took a breath. Backed down. ‘Social.’ Gut instinct or not. ‘I’m interested.’

His grunt wasn’t convinced. ‘Mum took Justin to the US when she left. He lived there until he was nineteen. Then he…wanted to come home.’

Romy frowned. ‘He left your mum?’

‘We grow up, Romy. We all move away from our mothers eventually. Even Leighton will.’

He was changing the subject. Romy’s sensed it instantly.

‘Back to Justin…So he came home to WildSprings and you made him business manager?’

‘He’d been an assistant concierge in a big hotel in Chicago. He had the right skills and I wasn’t interested in running the place then. I’d just got back. I asked him to stay on.’

The word then struck her hard. She filed it away. ‘What hotel?’

‘I don’t know. I don’t care. Something French. Something big.’

‘You must trust him a lot. To give him the job on face value.’

Dark eyes burned into hers. ‘You don’t?’

No-one messes with my family. The warning echoed in her mind. She shrugged and made her expression nonchalant. ‘I’m just making conversation.’

‘He really bothers you, doesn’t he?’ He pushed his half-empty plate away. ‘He’s my brother, Romy. Of course I trust him. And I owe him—’

If he hadn’t cut himself off so sharply, Romy might have let it go. ‘Owe him how?’

His face closed down right in front of her. Starting with his eyes and ending with the tightening of his mouth. ‘I can’t see how that has any bearing on park security.’

Romy’s heart banged painfully on her chest wall. She sat back. Dark eyes glared at her and he tipped his head. Subject closed.

For the next ten minutes they ate in silence, a thousand uncomfortable miles apart. So much for a civilised meal between colleagues. Romy’s mind worked overtime. Brothers. Oh, joy, that wasn’t going to be any fun to get in the middle of. She had no personal experience with siblings but she’d seen them at school, swinging between fiercely fighting and fiercely defending one another. Obviously a complicated relationship, growing up with someone.

How long would it take for the family issue to raise its head? The vibes she was getting off Justin Long guaranteed it would be coming up sooner or later. And she’d be square in the middle of it.

Romy caught Clint’s gaze on her a number of times but she dropped hers quickly to mask her thoughts. He was as efficient an eater as he was in everything else and he wiped his plate clean long before Romy did. She realised the error almost immediately. He’d finished and had nothing to do but stare. She was still eating and could hardly hint at going home while food sat on her plate.

Steady eyes considered her. ‘Who was he?’

She lifted her eyes, swallowing carefully. ‘Who?’

‘The man in your life who taught you to—’ he changed tack ‘—who taught you so much about the Defence Force.’

Romy stiffened. ‘Why does there have to be a man? Perhaps I’m really interested in Australia’s military history.’

‘Are you?’

She sighed. She couldn’t lie to those eyes. ‘No.’

‘How long were you together?’

It would be so easy to let him go on thinking it was some other man who had been in the military. It would probably be smart. But those eyes, again…

‘It was my father.’