Page 101 of Five Mountain Daddies

“No,” Neal says, laughing. “Never. You haveone?”

“I do,” I say. “Well, I did. We’re working on arevision.”

“Please, bring it to the board. At this point, I bet they’d take anything. We can’t have this strike last verylong.”

I nod. “Iunderstand.”

He smiles softly. “Your father was a good man, Amelia, and I think I see some of him in you.” He stands up. “Bring us that contract.” Without another word, he leaves myoffice.

I lean back in my chair. The miners walked out on the job this morning, and the board sent Neal down here to dress me down, clearly. But that’s not the worst part ofthis.

How could I be so stupid? I took Ingram at his word and assumed that he really did bring the board that contract, but clearly I was stupid. I don’t know why I thought he was telling the truth, but this makes sense. Of course they never saw that contract. Ingram doesn’t have some magic control over them, he just lied from thestart.

But now it’s too late. Samuel walked out on the job, and now the miners are striking. I’m on thin ice with the board, and Ingram’s getting into position to knock me down and take over the CEOjob.

I can’t let that happen. He’d be the worst thing possible for this company and for the whole damn town. I have to get Samuel to stop the strike and to agree to our originalcontract.

I turn to my computer, trying to get some work done. A couple of hours pass, when suddenly a loud bang pulls me from myscreen.

I look up, frozen. I hear the bang again, and I know exactly what that sound is. I get up and walk quickly out of my office. Everyone else is looking around,worried.

“Okay everyone,” I call out. “It’s okay! Everyone please just stay here while weinvestigate.”

“Those were gunshots,” Janet sayssoftly.

“Stay here,” I say toher.

I run back into my office and call security, but they don’t answer. I head back out and down the elevator, toward the front of the building. The security guys have an office there, and I figure I can report the gunshot to them directly, skip the fucking phonesystem.

Instead, as soon as I get into the lobby, there are a ton of people crouched down. Outside, there are some figures moving, and I realize with a start that they’refighting.

And one of those figures isSamuel.

I run to the door, not thinking. Someone shouts for me to stop, but I just ignore him. I throw open the door and watch as Samuel smashes the butt of a gun into the face of a guy in a suit, dropping him to the ground. Samuel roars and throws the gun away before smashing his fist into another guy’s face. He knees the guy in the gut and throws him into abush.

The third guy stumbles back and tries to run, but Samuel grabs him and throws him to the ground. He kicks the guy in the guttwice.

“Samuel!” I scream, and he looks up,shocked.

“Amelia,” he says, and then he grins. His mouth is bloody and his eye is puffed already. “They wouldn’t let me come seeyou.”

I don’t hesitate. I run over to him and throw my arms around his neck. “Are youokay?”

“I’m okay,” hesays.

“There weregunshots.”

He laughs. “The fucker missed.” He spits red onto the ground. “Come on, we shouldgo.”

I let him lead me away from the building. I go with him, not thinking about how it might look. I’m not worried about that at all. I’m only worried aboutSamuel.

We get into his truck and he starts driving. “What happened?” I ask him. “What the hell was that backthere?”

He tells me the whole story, starting with the walkout this morning, and Boone getting attacked, and finally ending with the three goons attackinghim.

“I think they were Ingram’s boys,” he says. “I recognized the one from that meeting wehad.”

“One of hislawyers?”

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