Forces of Nature (3 page)

Douglas laughed and turned to walk away. “If you read the letter that was mailed to you about my company's plans, there was a number for my attorney that you can call. I suggest you do that,” he said. “And uncuff yourself,” he added, “otherwise, I'm calling the police.”

“And I'm calling the press, jerk! Do you realize what you're planning to destroy all in the name of corporate greed? People need this land and I will fight you tooth and nail to make sure it stays in my possession. So, get ready to lose.”

Douglas waved her off as if she were a gnat buzzing around his ear. “If you don't unshackle yourself by the time I get in my office, and then get out of this building, I will press charges when the police arrive.”

Douglas closed his eyes once he reached his desk. The first time he exhaled, he realized that he'd been holding his breath the entire time he was talking to that woman. Her beauty bewitched him, sending his heart rate into overdrive, until she opened her mouth. Her long legs, caramel skin, and ink black hair were burned onto his brain cells, and his loins ached for her. Douglas had never felt such a raw sexual yearning for a woman before. Standing up, he looked out into the lobby to make sure she'd left. To his surprise, she was still there, causing his desire to turn into anger. The last thing he needed was that woman sitting in his lobby distracting him. He picked up the phone to call the police, but he couldn't bring himself to complete the call.

Slamming the receiver down, Douglas stormed out of the office just to come face to face with the woman again. Forcing himself to look past her angelic features, he glowered at her. “Didn't I tell you to leave?”

“And you think I'm a woman who does what she's told? I'll leave when you back off my land. You're not going to force me to sell it to you because you think you know what this community needs. Do you even live here? I bet you spend your weekends running around looking for other things to take over. You don't give a damn about Reeseville and the people who live here. You just want to add another feather in your cap.”

Damn, she's fine when she's angry,
he thought as she pointed her finger in his face and shook her head from side to side, causing her silky hair to whip across her face. Douglas wanted to reach out and touch her skin, it looked so smooth. But she was saying all the wrong things with those sexy lips of hers.

And did she realize that construction of the business park she wanted to block would employ more than fifteen hundred people in Duval County, especially the western portion of the county? That raggedy farm operation was worth more torn down than whatever she had going on there. Besides, this project was something he had to complete, something to honor his father. Douglas Wellington Jr. wasn't an easy man to love and Douglas hadn't wanted to be like his father at all. But since his father's death, he'd wanted to do something to honor his legacy, at least his public image—a man from the wrong side of the tracks who'd done well. This business project had been important to him, at least according to the old file that Douglas had found. No matter how pretty she was, this woman wasn't going to stand in his way.

“And another thing,” she said, poking him in the chest. “People aren't for sale. You think because you have money that you can just get your way.”

Douglas shook his head, wanting to kiss her supple lips and press her body against his; but at the same time he wanted to have her thrown in jail for trespassing. It was bad enough that he had to justify his decisions to the board. Now this woman was standing in the lobby of his company berating him. She was probably a plant by the board to disrupt his day so that he would be off kilter for his meeting.

“Miss, I'm asking for the last time. Please leave.”

“The name is Crystal Hughes. And the Hughes Farm isn't going to be sold.” She reached into her purse and retrieved a small silver key to unlock her handcuffs. “Back off or you will be in for the fight of your sorry life.”

Laughing, Douglas reached out and touched Crystal's arm. “Everyone has a price. Why don't I just add a few more zeros to the company's first offer and you can take your righteous indignation someplace else?”

Crystal grabbed her bottle of water and tossed its contents in Douglas's face. “Buy that, you jackass! This isn't over.”

Douglas watched as Crystal stomped out the door, at the same time that Clive Oldsman, chairman of the Welco board of directors, walked in. She nearly pushed the old man out of the way as she stormed out.

Wiping the cool water from his face, Douglas tossed his hands up as Clive questioned him with a cold stare.

“What was that all about?” the old man asked.

“You know how people are in this town,” Douglas replied. Amy rushed over to him with a white hand towel. Nodding thanks to his assistant and wiping his face, Douglas turned to Clive, who scowled at him. “Why are you here, Clive?” Douglas asked.

“Maybe we should go into your office and talk. We need to have this conversation in private.”

Thinking that the last thing he wanted to do was be in a confined space with Clive, Douglas reluctantly led the man into his office.
What else can go wrong today?
he wondered.

Clive perched himself on the edge of Douglas's desk. “The Welco Business Park project is moving a little too slowly, don't you think? The plans are right there. You should make it happen.”

“What do you want me to do, Clive? Beat the residents out there until they sign over their land?”

Pulling a Cuban cigar from his jacket pocket, Clive chomped down on the brown stogie. Douglas sized up the older man, knowing the rest of the board sent Clive to spy on him. They didn't like him and thought he was too aggressive in some of the business decisions that he made. But one thing they didn't complain about was the amount of money they made.

“Don't light that in here,” Douglas said forcefully. “This project will get done on time. I know what my job is and I would appreciate it if you all would let me do it.”

Moving the cigar from one side of his mouth to the other, Clive leaned in and looked Douglas in the eye. “You're not doing your job, and quite frankly, we're tired of your incompetence. These nickel and dime projects aren't going to increase our revenues. We need this business park, so make it happen.” Clive stood up and headed for the door, and then he abruptly turned around. “The only reason you're here is because the board has enormous respect for your father. Wellington men built this company, but before we allow old loyalties to destroy it, we will remove you as CEO and get someone more capable to take charge.”

Leaping to his feet, Douglas rushed toward Clive. “You will not take this company from me. You're still making money, Clive. You're still a millionaire off these nickel and dime projects. So you can tell the board and anyone else that this project will proceed and I'm not going anywhere.”

Clive slammed out of the office, leaving Douglas alone to wonder why he stuck around to take this abuse. Slumping in his chair, Douglas thought back to the days when his father ran the company and he did everything he could to run away from it.

He'd never had any intention of becoming CEO of Welco Industries, the company that robbed his father of his family, his health, and his life. Douglas wanted to strike out and do something different. His plan was to get into the music industry like Jermaine Dupri. Then Waylon called him and told him about his father's cancer. It was his senior year of college and he'd already gotten an internship with the record company, So So Def. He'd been on his way to meet with a singing group that he'd planned to introduce to Jermaine. Then the phone rang and his life changed forever.

“Your father needs you,” Waylon had said.

“Not this again, Waylon. I don't want to join the family business.”

“Stop being selfish. Do you know your father has colon cancer?”

That revelation had stopped Douglas dead in his tracks. Douglas Wellington Jr. was the closest thing to Superman that he'd ever known. His father couldn't have cancer. Pushing his dreams aside, Douglas returned to Reeseville to learn everything he could about Welco. When his father died, he took over and became the youngest CEO in company history. He would've considered that a great accomplishment had he wanted the job. But he felt as if he was wearing leather loafers that didn't belong to him.

Still, he tried to do what he thought his father would've done. He bought things, tore things down, put the name Welco everywhere.

I would have done better just painting a target on my back,
he thought as he leaned back in his chair.

 

 

By the time Crystal arrived home, her blood boiled with anger. Douglas Wellington III was the most arrogant man who had ever crossed her path. How was she going to tell Mrs. Fey that they might have to move the Starlight House? Especially when no one else in the county wanted the home for girls anywhere near their property. Sitting in the driveway, she banged her hands against the steering wheel. How was she going to fix this?

Do these companies do any research before they make these grabs for land?
she thought as tears welled up in her eyes. Hughes Farm was much more than a piece of land. The farm had been in Crystal's family since the turn of the last century. Casio Hughes had been a sharecropper on the farm when it belonged to Simon Winchell. During the influenza outbreak of 1918, Simon's wife and two sons died, leaving him alone with more land to work than he could handle. The Hughes family fared much better. Casio's wife and four sons were spared and they took care of Simon, tending the land, burying his family, and comforting him. When Simon was stricken with the flu, he made a last-minute change to his will, leaving his land to Casio Hughes and his family.

Generation after generation of Hughes grew up in west Duval County. Up until 1985, the farm was fully functioning, producing tobacco, cotton, corn, and soybeans. But a declining agricultural economy forced the Hughes family to find another way to make a living. When Crystal's grandfather, Ryan, invested in the family's land, building single family homes and renting them to Section Eight recipients, the family and the land flourished. Following Ryan Hughes's death in 1990, Crystal's parents, Joel and Erin, took over and started the community farm after homelessness became a problem in Reeseville. Joel and Erin retired the year Crystal graduated from North Carolina A & T State University and turned the reins of Hughes Farm over to her. With a degree in agricultural science, Crystal had always planned on returning to Reeseville to make some differences on the farm. So far, though, she hadn't done anything with her degree. Crystal continued renting to low income families, growing vegetables in the community garden, and helping others the way someone helped her ancestors.

Emerging from the car, Crystal wiped her eyes and walked over to the Starlight House. Looking at the two-story wood-framed house decorated with gold stars, she knew that no one would take those girls in if Welco Industries had their way and bulldozed the house and everything else on the property. Knocking on the door, she took a step back, trying to figure out how to stop Welco's plans. One of the staff members answered the door. “Hi, Crystal.”

“Lorraine, is Mrs. Fey here?” Crystal asked.

“She went in to town. Is something wrong? You look a little flustered.” Lorraine beckoned for Crystal to come in.

Shaking her head and touching Lorraine's shoulder, Crystal couldn't find the words to say what was really wrong. “Just have her stop by my house when she returns, please.”

Nodding, Lorraine agreed to do so.

On the walk back to her house, Crystal decided that the only way to fight fire was with fire. Glancing over her shoulder and looking at the girls working in the garden, she realized the media would love this story; it had the trappings of being a lead story. Displacing a group of girls for corporate greed would make the front page of every paper within fifteen miles of Reeseville. TV would pick up on the story too. Crystal could see the faces of the Starlight girls on the six o'clock news. “Douglas Wellington, you've messed with the wrong person this time,” she muttered. Crystal ran into the house and began making calls to the media.

 

 

After the day Douglas had, he needed the drink that he held in his hand. The cold martini burned when it hit his throat. This was good. A hand touched his shoulder and Douglas turned his head slightly. “Deloris Tucker, what do you want?” His blood pressure had shot up at least a hundred points. The last thing he needed was to deal with this reporter. Douglas was sure that Deloris wanted to get a job with a big time newspaper, so she went out of her way to cover every story involving Welco as if it was some big scandal. He couldn't wait until she got her dream job so that she would stop being his ultimate nightmare.

“Not happy to see me?” she asked, smiling coldly. “I got a call from a Crystal Hughes at the office today. You're displacing kids now?” Pulling a digital recorder from her purse, she shoved it under Douglas's nose. “So, Mr. Wellington, is it true that Welco is making a play for Hughes Farm in order to build an office park?”

Glaring at the reporter, Douglas set his glass on the bar. “No comment.”

Deloris threw up her hands. “If that's how you want it. But according to Ms. Hughes, this land is historic and the location of a group home that no one else wants to accommodate. If your plans go through, then those girls have no home. Do you really want to come off looking colder and more heartless than normal?”

“And if this business park doesn't go up, fifteen hundred people don't have jobs. Twenty delinquents having a home or thousands of families putting food on their table; which is best for Reeseville?” Douglas rose to his feet, pulled his wallet from his pocket, and dropped the cash for the martini on the bar. “Good evening, Ms. Tucker.”

Douglas stormed out of the bar, hopped into his silver Jaguar, and sped out of the parking lot. Lowering the convertible top, he headed for the highway. The wind against his face made him feel free. He needed freedom, needed to get away from all of the prying eyes that watched his every move. Douglas questioned why he took over Welco Industries after his father's death. Maybe the board was right and he was too young to handle the responsibilities of running the company. He couldn't be the P. Diddy of industry, but he tried to be pioneering with running Welco. Most of the time, the board balked at his more innovative projects. When he wanted to look toward investing in wind energy and natural gas energy, the board wasn't interested. Solar energy farms? Not at all.