Read Her Brother's Keeper - eARC for Free Online Page B

said. “Put your rifle away and get cleaned up for dinner. It’s almost ready.” Famished, Annie locked her weapon in its storage cabinet and headed to the washroom to shower. She’d been out riding all day and was eager to wash off the grit and change into some clean clothes.
    When Annie walked into the kitchen, showered and changed, her father had just walked in the door and kissed her mom.
    “Dad!” she said, giving her father a big hug.
    “Hey darlin’,” he said. “How are you?”
    “I’m…” Annie noticed then the bruises on her father’s face and neck. “Dad, holy shit.”
    “Language, young lady!” her mom corrected.
    “Uh, sorry. What happened to you? Are you okay?”
    Her father gave her a lopsided grin, hand on her shoulder. “I’m fine, baby. Just a rough day is all.”
    Annie noticed her mother giving her dad a worried look. They obviously didn’t want to tell her what had actually happened. He’d probably had to shoot somebody or something. They always tried to hide stuff like that from her, as if she were a little kid who didn’t know what was going on. She decided to drop it, for now. She was daddy’s little girl, she thought, grinning. She’d get the truth out of him eventually.
    Annie didn’t talk much during dinner. She was too busy devouring her mother’s homemade meatloaf. The potatoes and vegetables came from their own garden, and the bread was fresh and warm. It was much better than the prepackaged meals she usually ate when her mom was absorbed in her work or off at one of her claims.
    Taking a sip of water, her father looked over at her mother. “How was business today, Ellie?”
    “I spent all day in my workshop analyzing core samples. I’m pulling good ore out of the West Range site, but the Rocky Slope site just isn’t producing. I’m probably going to cut my losses and shut it down. We’re losing money on it just keeping it open, and putting a lot of wear and tear on my equipment.”
    Annie never had the love for rocks that her mom did. Eleanor Winchester was a geologist and miner by trade. She had several claims filed with the colonial government, and most of the family’s income came from her mining business.
    Annie’s father had a worried look on his face. “So…are you thinking about opening up the Jerome Mountain site then? You’ve been sitting on it for almost two years.”
    “I know. It’s just so remote, and the terrain out there is really rugged. Getting the equipment out there would be a nightmare. I’d have to rent some all-terrain vehicles, and I’d probably have to camp there during the season. The rock is dense, too. The drilling equipment I have probably won’t last too long. I may have to use explosives.”
    “Wade could do the demo work for you. He was an explosives technician in the Defense Force.”
    “I’d need to pay him, and buy the explosives, and get some heavier equipment. I’d need a small crew, too. My bots couldn’t handle that kind of work unsupervised, and it costs a lot of money to get a technician that far out if one of them breaks down.”
    “Ellie, you know I support you if that’s what you want to do.”
    “It is, Marcus. It’s just…I don’t know. We don’t have the money to invest in the kind of equipment I need. It’d be a lot.”
    “I could see about picking up some extra assignments,” Annie’s father suggested.
    Her mom shook her head. “No. We’re both gone too much as it is. I don’t want to leave Annabelle alone all the time.”
    “I’m okay, Mom,” Annie protested. “I can take care of myself.”
    “I know you can, sweetie,” her father said. “That isn’t the question. It’s just not good for the family if we’re gone all the time.” He looked back over at her mother. “Could we borrow the money, maybe?”
    “I don’t think so. Especially now that Rocky Slope was a bust. The bank is going to question my judgment on possible mineral sites. Everything else we have is tied up in