Luke: A West Bend Saints Romance (17 page)

“True,” Oscar says.  “But what Emir does is quite illegal.”

“Seems like there’s not much of a distinction,” I say.  Then I see it.  Autumn’s orchard, outlined in red marker.  “What’s this?”

Oscar leans over, his glasses perched on the tip of his nose.  “One of the properties the company is quite interested in,” he says.  “It's one that we can consider using to our advantage.”

“Using to your advantage how?” I ask.  Thoughts are rushing through my head, one right after the other.  Autumn mentioned that there were men on the outskirts of the property.  She mentioned the offer to buy her land.  I clench my fists at my side, feeling the nearly-irresistible urge to walk out of here and go straight to her place.

“We select target properties, and our rival energy company shows interest in them,” Tempest says.  “Our surveyors find europium on the properties –“

“That we ensure is there, of course,” Oscar says.

“How?”

“That will be my doing,” Iver says.

“What, are you guys going to break into some top-secret lab and steal –“ I start.  “Of course you are.”

“Our company drives up the cost of the land, and we get the mining company to put in bids to buy up useless land,” Oscar says.

“A big company like that, it’s a drop in the bucket,” I protest.  “How is that useful?”

“The mining company is going to have a problem with the company who does its extraction and testing,” Oscar says.

“And unfortunate data leak,” Emir says, shrugging.  “Can’t trust anyone these days.”

“And you’re the new company doing the testing,” I say.

Oscar nods.  “We’ll fail to find anything of value on the properties the company has already purchased,” he says.  “The mining company will want to unload the properties onto their rivals – also us – and there you have it.”

“That doesn’t take care of the sheriff and the mayor,” I say.

Oscar holds up his index finger.  “All in good time,” he says.  “You haven’t allowed me to finish.”

“This property,” I interrupt, pointing to Autumn’s place on the map, “Is not involved.  She’s not involved in any way with this.  Do you understand?”

I try to ignore the glare I can feel coming from Silas' direction.  I want Autumn and Olivia kept far away from any of this shit, out of danger.

Oscar nods.  “No involvement,” he says.

No involvement,
I think.

That’s when it hits me.  Autumn can’t know about any of this.  If she did, she’d be an accomplice to the hundred laws I’m sure we’re about to break.  Autumn, and especially Olivia, have to be protected from this.  If they’re involved, they’re even more vulnerable.  If the mining company wants her land, they're going to keep trying to get it and she's going to keep saying no, which puts her in danger.  And that means the mining company has to be stopped.

But I have to keep Autumn and Olivia out of this.

I have to stay away from them.

If Autumn doesn’t hate me, she’ll come after me.

So I realize what I have to do.  It’s for the best.  If I care at all about Autumn, I have to let her go.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Autumn

I swallow hard to try to manage the lump in my throat.  “It’s no big deal, you know,” I say, my voice wavering, betraying how I really feel.

Which is like total and complete shit.

“It
is
a big deal,” June says, her voice rising briefly before she clears her throat.  Even over the phone, she sounds pissed off.  “Even if he was just a fling, it’s still the biggest dick move ever.  And he’s working for you.”

I laugh, the sound bitter.  “Yeah, well, not anymore,” I say.

It’s been two weeks since that cryptic as hell message from Luke.  Two weeks.  Over two weeks, actually.  It’s been fifteen days, to be precise.  Fifteen days since Luke texted me, saying something had come up and that he couldn’t come over.  Fourteen days since he texted me again, saying he’d be sending someone else, another foreman to replace him.  The foreman was overqualified, competent, completely on top of things.  I should be pleased about that fact.

I should be pleased to be rid of Luke, with his annoying lack of boundaries, with his showing up to my house all the time and inviting himself in.

Inviting himself into my life.

I’ve never been dumped by text and frankly, I should have expected as much.  Luke has
short term
written all over him.  He’s young, immature, impulsive…and hot as hell.  I’m sure he’s shacking up with another girl right now, someone his age.

Not a single mom, who’s sitting in her bathtub eating ice cream out of a pint container at ten p.m. because she got dumped via text message.

I’m a sad case.

But it’s not like we were dating.  And he was just a fling.

That’s what I tell myself, but it doesn’t make me feel any better.  Neither does the rest of the pint of Rocky Road; now I just feel sick.

So what?
  I ask myself as I pull on my most comfortable pair of pajamas and climb into bed. 
So what if you’re climbing into bed alone?  It’s better that way. 
My old routine is comfortable, familiar.  It involves sweats and soft pajamas.  It doesn't involve someone disrupting Olivia’s routine, disrupting my workday with his stupid muscles and lame grin and disrupting my evening routine with his stupid cock.  And his cooking.  I was going to gain twenty pounds from all that cooking anyway.

So, it’s better this way,
I think as I pull the comforter up around my chest. 
Totally.

Tons better.

So much better I could cry.

***

“You’re going to spoil her,” I say, shaking my head.  “You know she expects ice cream every time we come here now.”

Connie C. laughs.  “Good,” she says.  “You can understand how this is a smart business move for me, then.  I grow my customers from the very beginning.”

“You’re a tricky old woman,” I say, sliding my basket up on the counter.

“My husband tells me the same thing," she says, with a laugh.  "Oh, and you were great at the town hall meeting the other night, you know.  Very well-spoken, my dear."

I wasn't going to get involved in small-town politics, but then I'd gotten another visit from a couple of guys from the mining company, wanting to make an offer on my land, do some more testing, and that was that.  I decided that thinking about something bigger than myself would be the best thing right now.

Connie helps me to the car with my bags, and I’m putting them in when I see Luke, talking to a girl right on the sidewalk not more than twenty feet in front of me.  He looks up, and I stare at him, and both of the assholes look at me like I have three heads.

I’m fuming, my hands practically shaking as I open the car door, sliding behind the steering wheel as Luke heads for me, jogging down the sidewalk.  I’m putting the car in reverse, planning to get the hell out of there, when he reaches me.  He knocks on the car window, and I don’t roll it down.  “I’m leaving,” I say.

“Autumn,” he says, knocking on the window.  “Don’t be like this.”

I can’t help it now.  I roll the window down and look at him.  “Don’t be like what, Luke?” I ask, my voice trembling.  “You send me a couple of text messages and a new foreman over to my house?  That’s how you quit?”  I say
quit
, like it’s only his job I’m talking about, except I’m clearly not. 
Quit us
is what I mean.

Except there is no
us.
  There never was.

That was all in my head.

I’m not sure if I’m more disgusted with him for how immature he is, or with myself for how stupid I obviously still am.

“Autumn,” he says, his jaw clenched.  “I – that wasn’t what it looked like.  There’s not – damn it.”

“You don’t owe me any explanation, Luke,” I say.  “There’s really nothing you can say.  Besides, it’s no big deal.  A blip on my radar.”

“Autumn, it was a big deal to –“

“Save it,” I say, holding up my hand.  “Out of sight, out of mind, right?  At least from my perspective.  Now, I need to get my child home for a nap, so if you’d kindly move out of the way so I don’t have to back over your feet with my car, I’d greatly appreciate it.”

Look straight ahead,
I tell myself.  And that’s what I do.  I look straight ahead, ignoring him, hiding behind my sunglasses as I back out of my parking space and drive away.  It’s only afterward, when I look at him in my rear view mirror, that my eyes well up with tears.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Luke

“Is that the girl?” Tempest asks.

“I don’t want to fucking talk about it.”  I’m filled with anger and self-loathing.  I hate that I’ve made Autumn hate me.  And I hate that she was so damn casual about the whole thing, like what happened between us was no big deal at all.  I hate that she looked at me, that she thought I was standing here with Tempest because I was
with
Tempest.

“You should go to her,” Tempest says.

“It’s none of your damn business,” I say.  “Now, are we putting on a show here or not?”

Tempest shakes her head and hands me a business card, fake, with the name of the rival energy company on it.  “In case you’re interested,” she says.

“I’m not interested,” I say loudly.  “My family’s property isn’t for sale, not to you or anyone.”

I can see one of the ladies from the hair salon not ten feet away, standing in the door salon, staring at us. 
Good.

“We’re done here,” I say loudly.

“If you change your mind,” Tempest calls after me, as I walk away.

***

“It’s in the bag,” Silas says.  “Emir is tracking email correspondence.   The mining company is flipping the fuck out.  They're running in circles like chickens with their heads chopped off, not sure whether to unload the properties they have or buy up the properties they don’t.  They called in a second lab company to test the land they’ve already purchased – and stat.”

“Part of the con group,” I say, only half-listening to my brothers update me on what’s happening with the con.  My mind is on the interaction I had with Autumn, earlier this afternoon.  I thought that whole
out of sight, out of mind
thing might work for me.  Hell, it has a million times before.  Other women have come and gone, in and out of my life with no problem.  Of course, none of them were Autumn.

“Are you paying attention?” Elias asks.  “Of course the lab company is fake, part of the con group.  They've done the tests already, and the results will be expedited, of course, and will demonstrate that they were misled into thinking there was europium on the properties.”

“That sounds good,” I say absently.  “How do they know the mining company is falling for it?”

“Emir, of course," Silas says.  “I don’t know exactly.  He hacks into the company emails or something.”

“Do you really trust them?”  I ask.

“You don’t have to be involved,” Silas says.  “Back out of it, man.  The chick with the orchard isn't at risk.  You can stay out of it."

“What do you know about her?”

“I know you’ve been moping around the past few weeks,” Silas says.  “You should just go deal with that whole…situation.”

“That
whole situation
isn’t any of your business,” I say.  “So butt out of it.  I don’t want her involved in it.  She’s got a kid, and she's too good for a Saint anyhow.”

Silas laughs.  “You’re such a stupid stubborn asshole sometimes,” he says.  “
Too good
.  Elias here pulled a damn movie star, and that’s with being a Saint.  And having one leg.”

Elias laughs.  “Fuck yeah,” he says.  “But it’s probably ‘cause my dick’s bigger than yours is.”

“Screw you guys.”

“Maybe you should go screw your girl,” Silas says.  “Maybe that will change your shitty attitude.”

“Get out.  Both of you.”

“Are you shitting me?” Elias says.  “Lighten up, man.”

“I’m light, man,” I say.  “As a damn feather.  I just can’t stand to hear your voices anymore.  Hurts my ears.”

“Dude, don’t be stupid,” Silas protests.

But it’s my goddamned house and I’ll kick them the hell out of it if I want to.

And I’ll have a shitty fucking attitude if I want to have one.

When my brothers leave, I make a phone call.  Not to Autumn.  Hell, I’m the last person on earth she’d want to see after she saw me and Tempest together.  I call my guy, the foreman I sent over to work for her – a guy I knew from working with on a contract back a few years ago, who lives a few hours away and was willing to do me a favor.

“How’s she doing, Mike?” I ask.

“Fine, fine,” he says.  “No activity at the orchard.”

“All right.  Just checking in.”

“Although…”

“Although what?”

“She’s going out someplace tonight,” he says.  “I heard her talking about it with the nanny before I took off, making plans for a date or something.”

“A date?” I ask, my voice rising.  “With who?”

“How the hell should I know, Luke?” Mike asks.  “It’s none of my business.”

“I asked you to keep an eye on her,” I say.  Blood pounds in my ears, and I’m mentally running through a checklist of who she could be going out with and where she could be.  This town isn’t that big.

“Yeah, man,” he says.  “You said to keep an eye out for assholes from the mining company, not guys who want to go out with her.  I didn’t come out here to stalk your girlfriend for you.”

“She’s not my damn…” I pause, thinking about how badly I’d like to punch anyone who might lay a finger on her.  “I’m not stalking her.”

“Is there actually something going on, man?  Where she’s in actual danger?  Because if you’ve gone off the deep end with some chick, following her and bullshit, now you’re just in psycho territory and I’m not going to be a part of that kind of crazy.”

“She’s in actual danger,” I say, my voice firm.  “
Potentially
.”

Mike laughs under his breath, the sound low.  “Shit, man. 
Potentially
,” he says.  “That sounds a lot like
no
.”

“Just keep an eye on the fucking house,” I say absently.  “Keep an eye on Autumn and Olivia.”

“Seriously, dude,” he says.  “You might need to talk to someone, get some help, you know?”

I hang up on him.

What I need is to do is go find Autumn.