Drilled

by Cole, Cassie

  I put the pan of enchiladas into the oven to bake the cheese on top, then grabbed two more beers for us. “So you showed up here in Bismarck and then… Did nothing?”

  “Jason wanted to take the meeting at the HQ, and then punch Bryson in the face,” Tex said with a wry grin. “We talked him out of that. Cas realized nobody at the drill site knew our names or who we worked for, so we stayed the night and then skipped town the next morning without telling them anything. We anonymously reported all the data to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, though that didn’t do much good.”

  “I see.”

  “Yep. That’s the gist of it.” He studied his beer bottle. “Back room storage closet, huh?”

  I couldn’t help but blush. It was a blush-worthy confession. “I’d had a shitty day too. I lost my job.”

  “Hey. No judgement here.”

  “I never saw Cas again until you four walked into Blackrock. It was my first day, and I was terrified of him telling my new boss that he’d hooked up with me. But I couldn’t think of an easy way to tell him without cluing the rest of you in on it…”

  “Hence the note.”

  “Here’s the thing,” I said. “Mr. Bryson asked me what the note said. I wouldn’t tell him, so he looked at the security footage.”

  “Ahh, shoot. So he figured out you two slept together?”

  “No… Because that’s not what the note said.”

  “Well? What did the note say?” Tex asked. He didn’t seem to understand why this was bad.

  “Don’t tell Mr. Bryson anything,” I said. “In big, capital letters.”

  “Oh.” Realization spread across his face. “Oh no. Lexa, that makes it seem like—”

  “I know,” I whined. “It’s really bad. I’m the one who made him suspicious of you guys. If it wasn’t for me you wouldn’t have him watching your every move.”

  “Maybe so. But they always watch auditors awfully close, even when they’re not suspicious. So this doesn’t change too much. We’re here, and you’re working at Blackrock too, and we’ll all have to do our best to look normal while we work. Especially while Cas and Kai are out at the site inspections.”

  “Speaking of that,” I said. “What does all this have to do with you taking care of me while Cas is gone?”

  “What?”

  I pulled out my phone. “Cas told me to ask you…” I trailed off. The two things didn’t seem related in any way, though a few seconds ago they had.

  But it was Tex who blushed. “Aww, hell. I think I know what he means. Have you two hooked up any more since we moved in?”

  “Only last night,” I quickly said. “We were both well-behaved until then. He was going to take me out on a date tonight. I was upset that he left in a hurry, and jokingly asked him… Umm. I asked how I was supposed to wait for him to get back, if you know what I mean. That’s when he told me to talk to you. That you’d take care of me.”

  He look at the ground and rubbed his buzz-cut head. The motion showed off the tattoos rippling along his arm muscles. “Yeah. I definitely know what he meant by that.”

  “Well?”

  “You sure you want to know?”

  “I’m a big girl,” I said. “Plus, I have a vested interest since it involves me.”

  Tex took another sip of his beer, which turned into a gulp, and then he was chugging the whole darn thing. He put the bottle down and said, “We used to have a girlfriend.”

  “You act like having an ex is weird.”

  “No,” he said slowly. “Lexa. We all had the same girlfriend.”

  It was a simple statement. Easy to understand. But it took a minute for it to sink in.

  “Seriously?”

  “We’re drill site inspectors,” he explained. “We’re always traveling, usually on different assignments in different parts of the state. That’s not exactly conducive to keeping a steady relationship. Well, we met a woman at one of our drill sites, a crane operator named Candice. She was tall, with long legs…”

  “Hey now, I don’t need all the details,” I said.

  “Sorry. Cas started dating her first, and then the three of us got drunk one night and…” He struggled to spit it out. “We had a threesome.”

  I felt a tingle go up my spine. “Don’t be embarrassed. I just told you I had a random bar hookup.”

  “I thought it was a one time thing, but it happened again a few nights later. We were all hanging out in our apartment and… We could tell what we were all thinking. So it happened again. Before long Candice moved in, and then she and I spent some time together without Cas. Eventually Jason joined in, and then Kai, though he held out for a while before giving in. The whole arrangement worked out well since we were rarely at home at the same time. And when we were…” He shrugged. “It just sort of worked.”

  “Oh,” I said, feeling my chest heat. I imagined the four of them together with one woman, at the same time. I’d fantasized about threesomes before, and even the occasional larger party. Everyone did at one point or another. But I’d never thought of it as something that could ever happen in real life. It was too unrealistic.

  Four guys sharing one woman? That type of thing didn’t just happen.

  But Tex was saying otherwise.

  “So…” I said. “Cas is telling me to sleep with you.”

  His smile was part embarrassment, part shyness. “Yes ma’am.”

  I couldn’t help but imagine it—the thoughts leaped into my head. Kissing Cas, and having Tex come up behind me and touch my back. His smooth cheeks kissing my neck, hands running down my sides while I was pressed between them in a delicious muscle sandwich…

  In any other context it would have felt wrong. But with Cas okay with it, and even being the one to suggest it…

  I turned around to check on the food, because I was certain Tex would be able to see the temptation on my face. The cheese was bubbling on top of the enchiladas, so I put on my oven mitts and removed the pan from the oven.

  “None of us ever said it outright,” Tex said, “but I think we’ve been looking for another Candice. Someone to share—emotionally, not just physically. A relationship we could keep in spite of our hectic jobs, even if it meant splitting up the time among the others.”

  “Huh,” I said as I plated the food, then handed him one. I grabbed us two more beers then sat at the head of the dining table, while Tex chose a seat catercorner to me.

  “This smells fantastic,” he said.

  “It’s one of the few things I can cook reliably!”

  Tex picked up his fork and waved it like a wand. “Hey, this is a lot to talk about. Honestly, I can’t believe Cas mentioned it at all. Don’t worry, we’re not going to try to share you like a bicycle. It was a ridiculous thing to even suggest.”

  “Ridiculous,” I agreed as I dug into the steaming hot food.

  But was it?

  23

  Tex

  Aww, hell.

  We’d been hoping for this. It was an unspoken agreement among me and the other guys: what we’d had with Candice was special, and if we could find another situation like that we would try it again. But I never thought it would happen. It was just too rare. I preferred to not even consider it as a possibility rather than allow myself to get my hopes up.

  Yet here it was. Out in the open with Lexa.

  And of course, she was skeptical.

  Most women wanted to settle down with one guy. Find the one, that magical idea grounded in fate, and then get married and have kids. Buy a house with a yard. Get a dog.

  I wanted most of that too. But with my kind of profession, traveling all the time…

  I smiled as Lexa and I chatted during dinner. Although she’d agreed that the idea of four guys sharing one woman was ridiculous, she remained friendly and engaging. It didn’t scare her off, at least.

  Which was good, because I enjoyed our situation here in her condo. A base of operations better than a moldy motel, and close to the office. Plus
the company was good. Too good, I thought as Lexa smiled back at me from above her beer glass.

  As soon as I finished my plate I excused myself to the bathroom and tried calling Cas. It went straight to voicemail. I texted him, “Dude, wtf?” but there was no response and no delivery notification. He must have his phone off for the site visit. Even though it was late, some of the best safety audits were done at night. Workers made shortcuts and got lazy in the wee hours of the morning, when they were tired and when fewer supervisors were around.

  I could understand why Cas had been afraid to tell us that he’d slept with Lexa. It did jeopardize our mission with Blackrock, even though the first encounter happened a month ago. Jason was going to be furious when he found out.

  And although I wanted to be upset about Cas sleeping with her last night—when it really put our mission at risk—I couldn’t blame him. Lexa was gorgeous and fun. And smart. I was four beers deep, and I was grinning at her during dinner like a fool.

  She grinned back at me when I returned from the bathroom. “Want to play that game of chess?”

  “Ahh, I dunno…”

  “I owe you a rain check from when you first asked me. Come on. I won’t get mad if you spank me.”

  Spank me. She meant it in a non-sexual context, but damned if I couldn’t imagine doing that: bending her over and smacking that round butt. Spanking wasn’t even my kind of fetish, but I could make an exception for her.

  “I’ll play.”

  We sat at opposite ends of the chess set. I was white, she was black. I began the way I always did: by moving my king’s pawn forward two squares. She responded by moving her bishop’s pawn up two.

  “Ahh, the Sicilian defense,” I said as I reconsidered my next move.

  She gave me a charming smile. “Darn right. It’s the only way to play against such a boring white opening.”

  “Do you always trash talk your opponents?”

  She turned her attention to the board. “Just the good-looking ones.”

  Aww, hell. This was getting cutesy. Some harmless flirting to poke fun at the crazy situation Cas and I had brought up.

  Or maybe she was seriously considering it.

  A trickle of hope flowed through my mind like the beginning of a stream of water. I tried to block it off. There was no way she was actually entertaining the idea. Getting my hopes up would just leave me frustrated and unhappy. I needed to focus on our mission.

  “So is there a story to the tattoos?” she asked. “Or do you just like animals?”

  I held out my arm. “It’s not that. I mean, I like animals as much as the next guy, but that’s not what they mean. Each one is a memory.”

  She twisted her face. “Like, the grizzly bear is a memory of when you almost got attacked in the woods?”

  I paused to make my next move: advancing my knight from the starting row. “Memories of people who are dead.”

  Her smile disappeared like someone smashed it with a sledgehammer.

  “It started with the cat.” I rolled up my sleeve to show her the portrait of a cat on the inside of my arm, just above the elbow. “Her name was Kerry, another engineer in the army. We were in the same engineering unit in Afghanistan, and became good friends. No, nothing romantic—I wasn’t her type, if you know what I mean. We sat together at mess, shot the shit in between shifts. Until she got out of her forklift to fix the straps on a bundle of pipe, and the strap snapped and she was crushed.”

  “Oh my God! Tex…”

  “It’s alright,” I quickly said. “This was years ago. Honestly, if she were alive she would’ve laughed about it. Get sent to Afghanistan, one of the most dangerous places in the world for an American, and then get crushed by pipes? Hell of a way to go.”

  I laughed to let her know it was alright, then waited for her to share my smile before I went on.

  “While she was alive, she reminded me of a cat. Always sitting off to the site, watching quietly with those sharp eyes. Only thing missing was a tail. I wanted something to remember her, and one drunken night another buddy mentioned how his grandpa in World War Two got tattoos of each of the men he lost in his company. A cat’s face seemed right.”

  Lexa’s face drooped. “So you lost that many people over there?”

  “Naw,” I said. “She was the only one. But when I was discharged and became a safety auditor back home, we lost a guy on my first day. Tire on an earth mover blew while he was walking by. Killed him instantly.” I tapped the tattoo of the owl. “And I wanted a way to remember guys like that. A way to remind me of why my job as an auditor was so important.”

  “You got a tattoo of a guy you had only known for a day?”

  “Only a few hours, honestly.”

  “Why’d you choose an owl, then?”

  “I asked around. Talked to his coworkers, asked what he was like. They said he loved to read. Always had a book in his hand during his breaks, and pissed the other guys off by staying up late reading with the light on. Hence the owl.”

  I twisted my arm to show Lexa other tattoos.

  “The grizzly bear was a loader out of Houston, who had a thick beard and a fiery temper. Killed when a loose pipe valve burst. The elephant was a Kenyan immigrant working in Saskatchewan; he was wearing a wooden elephant necklace when I found his body, hit by a sleep-deprived truck driver who backed up without looking. The parrot was a site supervisor who liked to repeat back whatever anyone said to him. A kind old man with more smiles than hair. Someone turned their forklift too sharply and knocked an electrical box loose, sending live wires flopping against his metal supervisor’s shack.” I shrugged like that was all there was to say.

  “That’s such a sweet way to remember,” Lexa said. “Most people wouldn’t care about their job beyond making sure they don’t screw up. It’s touching that you want to remember why you do what do you.”

  “It’s just my own little thing,” I said. “Not a big deal.”

  “I think it is a big deal.” Lexa traded pawns with me, then hesitated. “What about the big accident? The one from a month ago?”

  I felt my throat clench at the memory. That one still stung. I moved another piece—my queen—before pulling up my sleeve to reveal the black Labrador Retriever.

  “Kyle. 17 year old who graduated high school early so he could get a job to support his mom. She was going through chemo and was too nauseous to work. Saw him three or four times across different drill sites—kid was taking every shift he could, even when it meant working three or four shifts in a row. Was in good spirits about it, too. Just wanted to help his mom get by. Most people, that kind of thing crushes them, ya know? Having to put your own life on pause to help a loved-one survive. But Kyle was so… eager. Like he was lucky to have the opportunity at all.”

  “How did that accident happen?” she asked softly.

  I smiled. “I was hopin’ you wouldn’t ask that.”

  “If you don’t want to answer…”

  “No, it’s alright.” I took a deep, shuddering breath. “How much do you know about drilling?”

  “Not much,” she admitted.

  “Well, it’s a simple concept. There’s oil or natural gas deep underground. But it’s not sitting in a big lake surrounded by rock; it’s mixed in with shale, sand, rock, and other stuff. The amount of oil compared to the other stuff is called the permeability, and the permeability of the Bakken formation is real low. Lots of other stuff mixed in with the oil. To get to it, sites drill down to the reservoir layer and then pump high-pressure fracturing fluid in to break apart the rock.”

  “Didn’t think I’d get a drilling lesson tonight!”

  “This is all hugely oversimplified, so don’t go trying to impress anyone with what you know. But those are the basics. The problem with breaking apart the rocks is it can release a whole bunch of other stuff. Methane leakage is one of the most publicized problems, but another is sour gas. Hydrogen sulfide. Nasty stuff: poisonous, flammable, corrosive. The good news is Bakken oil is no
rmally sweet oil, meaning it has no hydrogen sulfide. But we still have to test for it, cause pockets do exist, and it’s bad news if it leaks up through the fissures.”

  “I know where this is going…” Lexa said.

  “I bet you do. All sites are required to test for hydrogen sulfide regularly, to ensure no pockets were fractured. It’s one of the most common shortcuts we see, since the gas is so rare. The explosion at this site was due to a hydrogen sulfide leak. Which they would have discovered if they’d been running their regular checks. We were visiting a nearby site when the explosion happened, and we were called over to assist. Thing is? They said it was a different kind of explosion. One caused by individual negligence.”

  “They lied?”

  “Yep. Covering their ass. We recorded our findings and reported them to the right people. Nothing came of it. Too many other people who were on-site disputed our findings.”

  “They believed the workers,” Lexa asked, “rather than safety auditors?”

  “You have to understand, we were called in after-the-fact. So a lot of what we put in our report was speculation. But we’d seen too much of that; we knew exactly what happened the moment we arrived. I swear, Lexa.”

  “I believe you.”

  “Six dead, all from the initial blast. They didn’t suffer, thank God.” I took one final look at the tattoo and rolled down my sleeve. “But that doesn’t make it any easier.”

  A silence fell over the table as we made several more moves in quick succession. Eventually Lexa cleared her throat.

  “And you think Milton Bryson is responsible?”

  “We all do.”

  “But the workers at the sites are all contractors,” she said carefully. “Isn’t it possible they made these shortcuts themselves? And if so, how is that Blackrock Energy’s fault?”

  I chuckled. “Don’t say something like that to Jason, or he’ll lose his shit. But you’re right, it’s certainly possible. Blackrock has avoided responsibility by insulating themselves with layers of third-party companies and contractors. That’s what we’re trying to find out. How much responsibility they bear. We’ve heard rumors of Blackrock having more of a hands-on approach with certain drill sites. That they send supervisors to sites that are under-performing, and properly... motivate them, if you will. If we can find evidence that they were telling their contractors to speed up work at any cost, even if it meant taking safety shortcuts, then we’ll have the proof we need to nail them.”