Page 49 of Rough Stock

But now she was back home with him, where she belonged, he was going to fight for her to stay. ‘How about we start with why you were in Darwin and going to Bali? I’m guessing it was to hide.’

‘I’d ditched my original flight plan and rerouted through Bali—an extra stop before Europe. I was using it as a chance to disappear in the crowds of holidaymakers, just in case I was being followed.’

Buck me!His heart dropped so hard, realising how close he’d come to losing her. ‘Why?’

‘It was because of my job.’ Izzy looked down at her hands.

He gathered her hands into his and gave them a tender squeeze. ‘I’m right here, babe. Tell me. What happened to your job?’

‘It was supposed to be a simple job.’

‘A criminal case?’

‘No. Civil. I was doing a simple title search on some property. We were supposed to be working for the good guys. This poor farmer had lost his land to a developer, a farm that had been in their family for generations.’ She nodded at their property.

The place that Craig hoped would be in their family for generations, with a family he wanted to share with Izzy. It was the dream they’d both shared, once. ‘What happened?’

‘It was a favour for my boss, conducting some simple company name searches on this developer. It started with a dummy company, except the closer I looked the worse it got…’

‘How bad?’

‘I had to dive through archives, public company records, the tax office, and search through assorted government registry offices following the paper trail of ownership.’

‘Because your mind wouldn’t let you stop searching, it became an obsession.’ Knowing her, Izzy would have worked all hours, constantly thinking about the case. ‘And your boss knew it, too.’ Craig scowled, chugging back hard on his beer. It was that, or he’d start bitching about her boss being a total dick for taking advantage of Izzy like that. ‘What did you find?’

‘A whole trail of company names, that led to bankrupt companies that weren’t even allowed to trade legally. Although, technically, there was nothing to trade—they were just cashing in on the federal funding for these so-called clean energy projects.’

‘I don’t get it. What sort of energy?’

She chewed on her bottom lip.

‘Izzy.’ He brushed his thumb over her chin, gently tugging her mouth open to make her speak.

‘Solar farms.’

He sat higher in his seat. ‘That’s why you got scared in Finn’s office. Is it the same company they were talking about?’ He clicked his fingers to remember the conversation. ‘The developer that bought Dane Carter’s place.’

‘Everlight Energy Solutions.’

He wasn’t going to forget that name in a hurry. ‘What did Everlight do to make you run?’

She clutched her wineglass in two hands and started gulping her wine down with a vengeance.

‘Slow down. You’ll give yourself a headache.’ He took away her glass and swapped it for a water bottle that he had stashed in his cooler. ‘What did they do, Izzy?’

‘My assistant, Meghan, and I…’ Her eyes became glassy. She looked so scared.

But he had to know. ‘What happened?’

‘We were coming back from collecting these maps I’d ordered from the land titles office.’

‘Maps of what?’

‘All the properties that Everlight had registered in New South Wales and Victoria. I hadn’t even started on the other properties they had in other states, because I had to be sure, before going national.’

‘And…’

She cleared her throat, while shuffling in her seat with discomfort. ‘We were on the second floor, in this multi-story public car park. When this car screeched to a stop beside us as we were loading up the work car with files.’

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