Unexpected Love (White Oak-Mafia #2) (25 page)

“I think my father’s behind this,” Tess whispered and then burst into tears.

Steel abandoned his food and pulled her into his arms. “I’m not going to tell you that you’re wrong because Sheriff Cobbs warned me something like this might happen.”

“When?”

“When what?”

“When did he warn you of that?”

“When I walked him out to his truck this morning and made sure he had planks to get down the hill.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Honestly, the moment you decided we should help you zip-line the forest, it went right out of my head. But it came back when I talked to Tom.” He sighed heavily and pulled her painfully tight to him. “Luke may have done this purposely to set us up.”

“No,” she pleaded.

“Who else knew about the zip-lines lacking brakes?”

“I don’t think Tom knew that until I told him.”

“Okay. This is an area I’m better at. Bosses who are politically appointed never get full disclosure. So in the future, if Tom calls, ask him to hold on and get me. Okay?”

“Gladly,” she grumbled. “I almost cursed him out. He was being so unreasonable, complaining about us wasting taxpayer’s money by transporting people by helicopter.”

“Well, to be fair, I believe he was talking about when the guys arrived with the equipment, and he was angry because he thought it wasn’t in the planned costs.”

“Yes, it was.”

“Which I pointed out to him.”

Tess smiled. “You’re talking to him from now on. I misunderstood and made things worse.”

“Maybe not. He would have been really pissed to learn from Luke’s mother or someone else that his godson was nearly killed and I had failed to mention it at all. So in this case, your admission is probably the best thing.”

She leaned her head on his arm.

Steel stroked her hair. “He says you hung up on him.”

“I did. I told him to call you tomorrow and hung up.”

“Well, just remember you need his help to get into the University of Minnesota program, so tomorrow, perhaps you can write him an email apologizing for ending the conversation so abruptly.”

“Okay.”

“Maybe when you’re sending him the revised plan that has us building a shed for the expensive equipment we possess.”

“I’ll do that now.”

“Have you eaten?”

“No…”

He grabbed his plate and walked her to the door. “We’ll eat together.”

When they arrived in the kitchen, the dishes were washed. Steel stared at the men watching TV in the living room. “Thanks to whoever did the dishes. What happened to Tess’s chicken?”

Sonny turned toward them. “I wrapped it in foil and put it in the fridge,” Sonny said.

Tess smiled at him. “Thank you.”

Steel grabbed her chicken, removed the foil, and popped it into the microwave.

Tess took the time to retrieve her computer and update her plan to include building a shed to protect valuable equipment needed to be kept at the mound site. She listed the costs, which were low since they only consisted of two bolts, 500 carpenter nails, 100 roofing nails, and four packs of roofing shingles.

“What are we doing tomorrow?” she asked.

Steel frowned, confused by the question. “I thought you were building a shed with Dan, and my guys and I would work on redoing yesterday’s work even better.”

“What about Luke?”

Frank’s head popped up, and he approached. “Mind if I join this conversation?”

Steel sighed heavily, but nodded.

“I was out of line before. I apologize,” Frank stated.

Steel seemed to ignore him as he cut into his steak. “Do you have something about Luke you wish to share?”

“Yeah. If it’s okay with you, he’s going to rent a pickup truck, purchase two computers to replace the two that died, and drive up here.”

Tess waited for Steel’s response. “Has he been cleared to drive?”

“Yes.”

Steel looked at Tess. “Can a pickup cross those ravines?”

“Not without planks. Tell Luke he needs to buy a couple of twelve-foot-long planks, no less than two inches thick and a foot wide, and make sure the wood doesn’t have knots or weak points.”

Frank seemed perplexed but called Luke and relayed the message, except he forgot to mention no knots.

Tess asked to speak to him. “If your wood has weak points, it’s going to break and send you crashing down. Go to Lumber 8 and ask for Ken. Tell him you are driving up here, and he’ll find you the solid planks.”

“Tess, I’m really sorry I’ve got you guys in so much trouble,” Luke said.

“How do you know that?” Was Steel right? Did he do it on purpose?

“I called Tom. He’s my godfather. When I told him what I had done and why I had done it and why brakes wouldn’t have saved me, he reamed me a new one and told me how much trouble he, Steel, and you were in because of what I did. Honestly, he’s never yelled at me before, so it was traumatizing to say the least. He threatened to pull me and send me back to Harper Ferry, but I begged and pleaded and finally he agreed to give me another chance.”

“Can you retell that story to Steel?” Tess asked and then handed the phone to her boss.

He listened while he ate, and honestly, she had no idea what he was thinking. His stern expression gave away nothing.

“All right, make it up here alive with two working computers, then arrive at the mounds without damaging the trails, and you get another chance.”

He hung up the phone and handed it back to Frank. “I know you’re standing behind this kid, but one more screw up, and he’s gone. He’s either a saboteur or just unlucky, but either way, I’m not having it. You have a problem with that?”

“No, sir,” Frank stated.

“Good, then let’s call it an early night and get some sleep. Breakfast is served at six. We’re out the door at dawn. The only reason no one got in trouble about your late start today is because I forgot to tell you the night before. But you know now. Did anyone mistakenly take this job as a nine to fiver?”

No one spoke.

“Good. Then let’s make tomorrow a better day.”

He stood, rubbed Tess’s back, and left the room.

Dan followed Steel out. Tess returned to her food until Frank’s hands gripped her shoulders. “Sorry, but I need to speak to my guys. Think you could eat that in your room?”

She almost reminded him she was his boss and this was her house, but after Steel’s comments, they probably did need to reassess their stay here. She grabbed some foil, covered her dish, and put it back in the fridge.

“I didn’t mean to make you stop eating.”

“It’s okay. To be honest, I wasn’t that hungry with all the stuff going on right now. This was a bad day,” she stated to all three of them. “That happens in life. You either quit and give up, or you work through it. My grams taught me to work through it, so all I can tell you is to focus on little wins. Tomorrow, we have to get the EPR to the mounds without damaging it or the trails.”

Frank groaned, evidently not realizing that.

“Here’s the good news. The ground will be firmer, and I can build a shed in one day, so you won’t have to bring it back down. And if you can think of a way to bring the GPR to a halt without hitting the tree, then we can probably move it pretty quickly using the zip-line.”

Tess left them mulling over the problem. She already had a solution, but these guys were too smart not to start thinking for themselves. Steel would like them better once they showed him they had initiative and common sense.

Tess woke at 5:30 a.m. and started breakfast. Dan was the first one to enter, rubbing his arms.

He grimaced as he sat on a stool. “I’ll tell you this. I don’t need a gym on this job.”

Tess chuckled. “I was actually chubby when I came to live with Grams. She assured me I’d lose every ounce of fat, and she was right.”

Tears filled her eyes as she realized Grams was gone forever. Then a sense of peace and warmth came over her.
Grams
.

“You okay?”

She breathed in and smiled. “I am.”

Next to arrive was Frank. He frowned at Dan, evidently planning to be the first to show. He sat on the stool farthest away from his nemesis.

Tess split the scrambled eggs she had in her skillet in two, giving half to Dan and half to Frank. She then started more scrambled eggs. When the toast popped, Dan got up. “I’ll get that.” As he walked behind her, his hand rested on her lower back. He grabbed a plate and tossed the toast on it, popped in fresh bread, and restarted the toaster.

“Thank you,” Tess stated, surprised he’d think of the guys to follow.

He kissed the top of her head. “My pleasure,” he purred and then sat down, taking four of the toast.

“Are you sharing?” Frank asked.

Dan pushed the plate to the middle of the counter, forcing Frank to lean in to reach his bread.

Sonny and Jack came in. “Morning, Tess,” Jack stated and walked behind her. “Anything I can help with?”

“Nope,” she chuckled. “Just sit down, and I’ll have eggs for you in a second.”

“Got any butter?” Frank asked.

Jack slid past her and opened the fridge. He held up a canister. “Tess, is this butter?”

“No,” Frank grumbled.

“It’s good-for-you butter. Lowers your cholesterol,” Tess replied.

Jack placed it on the counter and looked in the fridge again. “Don’t see any real butter, Frank.”

“That’s all there is?” Frank asked with a hint of aggravation.

“This tastes like butter,” Sonny said.

Tess ignored the butter complaint and divvied the eggs onto two plates, then gave one to Sonny and placed Jack’s between Sonny and Dan. She slapped Jack’s butt that was sticking out as he studied the contents of the fridge. “Out of my kitchen.”

He chuckled, closed the door, and hurried to his seat. She retrieved the toast when it popped and added them to the bread plate. Seconds later, the bread was gone.

She filled the toaster again and began the last skillet of eggs.

When Steel entered, Dan stood and gave him his seat.

“Thanks,” Steel said. Before he sat down, he moved behind Tess, his hand resting on her lower back. “Is that mine?”

“Ours,” she corrected.

“Good. Anything I can do?”

“Nope.”

“You smell good,” he whispered in her ear.

She chuckled. “Eggs are ready. Sit down.”

She gave him three-quarters of the skillet and most of the bread, then stood while eating her own food.

Sonny popped up so fast, he almost fell backward. “Sit here, Tess.”

“I’m good. You guys figured out a way to zip-line that GPR?”

Steel choked on his food and stared at her as if she’d lost her mind.

Jack smiled. “Maybe… Can we use the same trolley system we did yesterday?”

Steel eyed Jack. “And how do you plan to tie that monster to the zip-line.”

Jack grimaced. “Something Tess said last night made me think she had a solution for that.”

Tess nodded happily.

“Okay, but if Tess weren’t here, how would you do it?” he challenged.

“Well, the cart has metal eyes on its base, so I guess we could attach four straps from the trolley to the cart.”

“Well done,” Steel replied, then looked at Tess. “Was that what you were planning?”

“No. I didn’t know the cart had eyes. We should use Jack’s idea on how to attach the GPR to the trolley.”

“And his idea for getting the cart down?”

“I have a better device there. Grams and I made it for situations like this. It’s called a drag. We let it lead or follow the trolley. It will keep heavy items from going downhill too fast. For example, on the way to the mound, we’ll put it behind the GPR so, if God forbid, you lose the rope, you’ll have time to recover.”

“Why didn’t we use that yesterday?” Frank asked.

“Because it’s a slow pain-in-the-ass. I wasn’t wasting our time for some lumber. However, this is a forty-thousand-dollar piece of equipment.”

Steel smiled at her. “Makes sense. Let’s get moving.”

Once they brought the GPR out and Tess saw the eyes, she changed her mind. “I’m not sure these will hold. Would you mind if we use the platform I have?”

“Let’s see it,” Steel said.

“Come outside, and I’ll give you a dog and pony show.”

With Jack and Sonny’s help, Tess brought out a giant block of plastic. She unfolded the sides. Upon sliding an aluminum pole into the interlocking holes, she had a plastic four-foot-tall box with a six-by-six floor. They rolled the GPR into the box, and Tess fitted stiff foam cushions between the machine and the walls of the box. She then secured the back and attached the cables to the heavy-duty eyes stamped into the metal strips along the floor of the box.

“This is the safety. We’ve carried five ton of stone in this bucket, and the plastic rim held, but if it failed, this safety will catch in less than a second.

She then strung the cable from the rim of the box through a half circle of aluminum pipe on the two sides. “The curved pipe enables the cart to adjust to declines and inclines while remaining horizontal. This will help protect your machine’s internal components from excessive tilting. We did this because we feared five tons of stones would break the downward panel if the load didn’t remain horizontal.”

“That’s brilliant,” Dan said. “Did you patent this?”

“No.”

“You should.”

Steel pulled her into a hug. “Dan’s right on both accounts.”

The moment Steel released her, Jack, Frank, and Sonny hugged her, too.

“Okay, we can’t be overly-cautious here. I need all but one of you to zip-line down. The one who stays to help will be walking down with me.”

“I’ll do it,” both Steel and Frank spoke at once.

Dan cleared his throat and gave Steel a slight shake of his head.

“Frank, the honor is yours,” Steel said and turned to Tess. “You be careful.”

“With your equipment?” she teased.

He tilted his head in challenge.

“I’ll be fine. This should be much easier than hauling five tons of stone.”

He brushed his fingers against her cheek, then got in the line to zip down.

Jack went first. When he came to a halt, Tess sighed in relief. Once he gave the signal and the trolley was retrieved, Sonny went down. Oddly, he came closer to the tree, but Jack snared his hand and stopped him. Dan insisted Steel go next. Then he zipped down like an old pro and stopped with ease.

Frank’s brow furrowed heavily as he studied the white, heavy, plastic box.

“It’ll keep your baby safe,” she promised, then retrieved two loaded backpacks. “Want to help me secure this backpack to the top of the crate?”

“What’s in it?” Frank asked.

“Shingles for the shed roof.”

Frank grunted as he picked up the backpack and placed it on the top. “This is over a hundred pounds. How’d you carry it out here?”

She laughed. “You’d be surprised at what I can do if I’m determined enough.” She secured the second backpack next to the shingles. After pulling up the trolley, Tess attached it to the box and placed the drag behind it. Then they pushed the box off the edge and followed it as it crept slowly down the hill.

Frank smiled at her. “You should be an engineer. This is incredible.”

She chuckled. “I thought you were going to complain it was too slow.”

“It’s damn slow, but I’m okay with that. However, the fact the box stays horizontal is fantastic. Why didn’t you suggest this when we brought the equipment to the cabin two nights ago?”

“Because it was late and the zip-lines weren’t strung.”

“Makes sense. Any chance you’d like to come to work for me at Harper Ferry?”

“Then you don’t want to work here?”

“I think that’s been decided for me.”

“By whom?”

“Who do you think?”

“Not Steel.”

“Maybe he just hasn’t told you.”

“If he wanted to get rid of you, he would have told me, and he hasn’t.”

“Then I guess it’s me who’s decided.”

“That’s not fair, Frank. Yesterday was a disaster. Everybody was in a bad mood. Tom yelled at me for getting Luke to a hospital in a timely matter.”

When Frank didn’t reply, she persisted. “Frank, you know Tom better than I do, but I’m pretty sure that was not his usual self.”

“Not at all.”

“It’s my opinion that you’d be making the worst mistake of your life if you give up now.”

“Says the one person Steel doesn’t yell at.”

“Ha! I had barely met him when he yelled at me.”

“Seriously?”

“Yep. But when I understood the situation that set him off and saw things from his view, I forgave him entirely. Hopefully, I’ll be able to do the same with Tom.”

He smiled at her last statement, but she still sensed he planned to leave. “Frank, is it possible that part of the resentment you have from yesterday is how you handled Luke? And maybe you’re just transferring that guilt and anger in other directions?”

“You a shrink, too?”

“Maybe. Grams was really good at getting me to face my own anger. And believe me, when I arrived here, I was one angry teen. And my fury lashed out at whoever was before me. I was mouthy, resentful, and frustrated.”

“I don’t see any of that now,” Frank assured her.

“Thank you. But to get to where I am, I had to stop blaming my father for all my troubles. I had to take control of my own actions and face the fact that I screw up sometimes, and when I do, I have to make it right.”

“So we’re back to Luke and me now. Did you tell Steel my reaction to Luke’s screw-up yesterday?”

“No, nor do I plan to. You’ve clearly been the boss of Luke and the others for a long time. And while you are not technically their boss here, I understand why you might feel responsible for their actions.”

He stopped and stared at her. “Are you telling me that if I stay, I’ll just be one of the staff?”

“No, I’m definitely not telling you that. If you can show Steel you two work well together, then he’ll probably hire you as his number two guy on the archeological side.” She secured his arm to get him moving. “We need to stay with the crate.”

He smiled. “It seems to be doing fine.”

Seeing a potential problem, she ran downhill past the slow moving crate and started pulling at a log in its path.

Within seconds, all four guys waiting at the base were at the log and helped her to pull it to one side. The cart crept down the hill and came to a soft stop fifteen feet past where the log had laid.

Steel pulled her into his arms. “Sorry for not seeing the roadblock.”

She shook her head. “No, that was my fault. I should have told you to look for rocks and logs that might tangle underneath the cart.”

She pulled from his arms, then high-fived all four of them. “But you guys were great, coming to my aid within seconds. Super teamwork.”

She turned and high-fived Frank, too.

“Why does he get a high-five?” Dan challenged.

“Because he taught his team to act with immediacy. No ‘What’s she doing?’ ‘Why’s she doing that?’ They just came running.”

Frank smiled at her.

“She’s right,” Steel added. “Now, how do we get this cart over to the mound zip-line?”

Tess recommended they remove it from the cart, roll it over, and bring the empty plastic box. However, when the guys learned the box added only a hundred pounds to the total weight, they decided they could carry the two together.

“Well, let me get the backpacks off,” Tess said and removed the carabiners that had secured them on the way down.

Dan gave her a hand and frowned at the weight of the one he’d grabbed. “What’s in here?”

“The shingles for the shed,” she replied. “You can leave them here, and I’ll pick them up later.”

“I got this,” Dan said and pulled the backpack on.

Tess secured her backpack filled with tools to build the shed, then unlatched the trolley and drag to use on the other zip-line. Jogging past the four carrying the GPR in its crate, she attached the drag to the mound zip-line and helped them secure the plastic box for its uphill climb.

She studied them. No one was rubbing their arms or the small of the back so their plan had been a better one. “All right! All your muscles just saved us a half-hour. Now you can all carefully walk up the path and get ready to pull for all you’re worth.”