by Becky McGraw
Chase put his arm around her shoulders, and said, “Let’s walk back to the truck and talk, darlin’…I need to get something out of there,” then he led her back around the barn to the truck. She stood back, as he opened the door briefly, then came back out with a thick sheaf of papers.
“We think your property would be suitable for a wildcat well to determine the quality of the reservoir under your property. The other wells around here, and there are quite a few, have been big producers, we think yours might eventually be one too, but there aren’t any guarantees. The odds are really good though, that’s why we want to do the wildcat. To do that we need to sign a mineral lease with you…we’ll probably write it for five years. Think that would be something you’d be interested in?” he asked her seriously.
“Hell, yeah…what does it involve?” she said breathlessly, trying to process what he’d just told her.
“Well, unfortunately, we’d have to tear down the barn and bunkhouse…at our expense of course…and clear the scrub and trees from the area.”
“Oh…I live in the bunkhouse,” she told him and gnawed her lip.
“With the signing bonus, I’m thinking of offering you, you won’t have to worry about a place to live…you’ll have more than enough to find some place nice,” he told her.
Her heart rate picked up and her breathing shallowed, as she repeated, “Signing bonus?”
“Yeah, incentive for you to grant us the lease…we’re really excited about the prospects here, honey…and I make the decision, so I’m going to make sure you’re well taken care of…make sure nobody takes advantage of you.”
She didn’t know him from Adam, but for some reason, she trusted him. “What kind of bonus are we talking about, and what are the lease terms?”
“Twenty an acre, and we can drill anywhere we want on your property for exploration of oil or gas. We’re only leasing the sub-surface rights, so what you do on the surface is your business, as long as it doesn’t interfere with our drilling. If we produce, you’ll get a twenty percent royalty on the production. Both of those numbers are a good bit above the going rate for other wells in the area.”
She gasped and anger poured through her, he wasn’t taking advantage of her, huh? She folded her arms under her breasts, above her baby bump and said, “Twenty dollars an acre? Don’t you think that’s a little cheap?”
He looked over at the engineer who was standing quietly by the truck with humor in his eyes, and they both chuckled, then laughed, and before she knew it, they were both bent over howling.
Her anger ramped up, because they were laughing at her, so she demanded shortly, “What the hell is so funny?”
“You are, darlin’…” he said and sucked in a deep breath then stood up, and finished, slightly short of breath from laughing, “Twenty thousand an acre, sugar…that’s what we’re offering you.”
The blood drained from Katie’s head and she swayed on her feet, as a buzzing started in her ears. Her knees felt like they wouldn’t support her anymore, and she heard Chase shout, “Fuck,” as if in a tunnel, and she felt herself falling.
Katie heard someone talking to her softly, and felt fingers brushing over her face, then she opened her eyes and met the familiar blue eyes of Chase Rhodes, and smiled.
He huffed out a breath, then looked up at the ceiling, and whispered, “Thank, God,” then squeezed her tight. That’s when she realized she was draped over his lap, and he had her in his arms. “My damned cell phone doesn’t get reception out here, or I would have called an ambulance…and what the hell are you doing out here without a land line?” he asked her gruffly.
She swallowed and said, “They’re supposed to install it today,” she told him and tried to sit up, but he held her tight, “You just relax for a second…you scared the shit out of us,” he said and looked up at the engineer who was standing over them with a worried expression on his face.
A knock sounded at the bunkhouse door, and she tried again to get up, but Chase held her, “Get that will you Sonny?” he said then looked back down at her.
The man nodded then walked to the door and opened it, then stood back. Katie looked over to the door and saw Tommy standing there, backlit by the bright sun outside, looking like a furious avenging angel. When his eyes met hers, his were filled with so much anger and hurt, she flinched. Every muscle in his chest and shoulders was tensed, and his hands were fisted at his sides.
She pushed up off of Chase’s lap and ran over to him, “Tommy!” she yelled and felt tears burning her eyes. Katie put her hands on his chest, then slid them up to his neck, and tried to lean up to kiss him, but he just stood there stock still, and looked down at her, his eyes burning through her soul. Tommy didn’t wrap his arms around her, or embrace her at all. After a minute, he reached up and pulled her arms from around his neck, then took a step back.
“I was coming to check on you, because I was worried…looks like you’re in good hands though, so I’ll be heading out,” he said in a gravelly, almost feral voice she didn’t even recognize. “Now, I know why you haven’t called me,” he said in a low choked whisper, then spun around and headed outside.
“No!” Katie yelled and followed after him. She grabbed his arm, and dug in her heels, “Listen to me, Tommy…it’s not what you think!”
“It never is, Katie,” he said flatly, and stopped, but he didn’t turn around.
“Chase made me an offer, and I passed out…he brought me in the house, and held me, until I came around…please don’t leave, I love you.”
“An offer, huh?” he said sarcastically, then added angrily, “Must’ve been better than mine,” before he pulled his arm from her grasp and started walking again.
She ran after him again, and tripped then wound up face first in the dirt. Chase yelled her name, then ran out of the doorway where he and Sonny had been standing, and he picked her up in his arms then yelled at Tommy, who’d just reached his truck, “You don’t deserve her asshole!” then Chase screeched incredulously, “How the hell can you treat her like this?!?” before adding furiously, “She’s fucking pregnant with your babies!”
Katie looked at Tommy and their eyes met over the top of the truck, then he shook his head, and got into the truck, then peeled out of her yard. When she saw his tail lights, the adrenaline, anxiety, and stress she’d been under for the last few weeks finally hit her and she broke down with a hoarse sob. Tears flowed down her cheeks like a waterfall, and her breathing came in short gasps. Sonny, the engineer, made some excuse about going to check the well, and took off jogging toward the barn.
Chase hugged her to him, and kissed her forehead, then took her back inside the bunkhouse, where he sat down on the couch and rocked her, until the emotional storm inside of her settled. He leaned back from her a little and plucked another tissue from the box on the end table and dabbed her face with hit, then handed it to her. She blew her nose noisily, then sighed. “He always comes around at the most inopportune times and misinterprets things,” she said in a nasally voice.
“He’s an asshole,” Chase said gruffly, then kissed her temple.
She shook her head and wiped her nose again, “He’s really not…he just has a lot going on right now, and I didn’t have a phone, so I couldn’t call him.”
“You love him?” Chase asked incredulously.
“Yeah, I do…and I’ve got to fix this,” she said, then looked into his eyes again. “Let’s talk about the lease, and get the paperwork done,” she told him, then pushed up off his lap.
“We can do that another day, you’re too upset,” Chase said standing too.
“No, I’m not…I want to do it now…need to do it,” she told him then walked toward the big picnic-style table in the kitchen, then sat down.
Chase stood there for a second studying her with his hands on his hips, then he huffed out a breath, and told her, “I dropped the papers in the yard, I’ll go get them. Be right back,” then he stalked to the front door and walked out.
God, she thought, she really could have gone for Chase Rhodes, big time, if Tommy Tucker didn’t own her heart. He was kind and considerate, and almost too good looking…but he wasn’t her rough, big-hearted, handsome cowboy. Katie was going to get this deal done, then she was going to Amarillo to fix things with Tommy…fix them so they could be together. Being away from him for these three weeks made her realize she couldn’t live without him. She’d marry him, or do whatever he wanted her to do, but she had to be with him, and they’d work out the rest.
Chase came back inside a minute later with his arms full of maps, and his hands clutching the paperwork he’d had earlier, and Sonny stepped in behind him and gave her a hesitant smile. He looked freaked out over the scene and her outburst earlier, so she said, “I’m sorry for all the drama, Sonny.”
His smile brightened a little, and he said, “No problem, Miss Upton,” then sat down at the table beside Chase, and added, “I’m just glad you’re feeling better now…you need to be in a good frame of mind to sign what’s probably to be a multi-million dollar deal for you.”
“Multi-million?” she repeated and her breathing got shallow again and he frowned.
Chase stood up then walked around to her and put his hand on her back and rubbed, then said, “Breathe, sugar…easy.”
She took several deep breaths and blew them out slowly, and relaxed her shoulders, then said, “Explain, please, Sonny.”
“If the well produces like the predictions, you’ll get royalties off the production…twenty percent of whatever we get from it. That could be a lot of money—millions.”
“How fast does that happen?” she asked and put a hand to her chest to slow her heart.
“Depends on how deep we have to dig, but we’ll probably find out the viability of the wildcat in no more than a couple of weeks…if we don’t have snags with the environmental assessment, or the drilling permit.”
“If it’s viable then what?” she asked.
“Probably another few weeks to get the completion well in, and then it’s all about production. You’ll get paid monthly royalties, based on what we produce,” he told her.
“Wow…this is all unbelievable,” she told him and shook her head.
“You’re gonna be rich, sugar…I have a feeling, and it’s rarely wrong,” Chase told her and squeezed her shoulder, then leaned over the table for the paperwork, before he sat beside her and went over it all with her.
Katie was in stunned shock, as she stood on the porch waving at them as they pulled off down the driveway. She looked down at the check in her hand, and felt lightheaded again. Two hundred thousand dollars, and that was just a bonus for signing the five-year lease. She couldn’t wait to tell Tommy and her sister. Katie went back inside and shut the door, then grabbed her keys and backpack. Walking to the bedroom, she shoved some clothes in there, and her toiletries, then went back outside. She was going to Amarillo tonight, and Tommy Tucker was going to listen to her.
On her way out of town, Katie had found Karlie at the Double B and shared the good news with her. Her sister had been shocked when Katie showed her the lease and the check, she’d almost passed out just like Katie had. Who wouldn’t, Katie thought, then laughed in the dark cab of the truck. With a promise to call when she got there, Katie hit the road, headed for Amarillo. Her sister hadn’t wanted her to drive all that way at night alone, but Katie assured her she’d be fine.
It was nearly two in the morning, but Katie was still wide awake, and was about a hundred miles from Amarillo now. The surplus of adrenaline that had swamped her today was still flowing through her veins, as was the caffeine from the large cup of coffee, she’d bought when she’d stopped for gas earlier. Anticipation filled her at the thought she’d see Tommy and Dixie in less than an hour, because she had to turn onto surface roads here soon.
About thirty minutes ago, it had started sprinkling rain, and she’d turned her wipers on low, and slowed down a little, because she’d fishtailed a couple of times on the slick pavement. She knew light rain brought the oil on the roadway to the surface, making it extra slick, so she was being careful. Taking one hand off the wheel, she picked up the styrofoam cup and took a big sip of her now lukewarm coffee, then glanced down to put it back in the drink holder.
When she looked back at the road, she gasped at the tail lights right in front of her, then pumped her brakes a couple times, but she didn’t stop. The truck felt like it was floating on the roadway, as it hydroplaned on the slick road. Her heart sped up and as if in slow motion, she watched as her truck slid toward the side of an eighteen wheeler that had jackknifed and was blocking the road. There were several other cars that had crashed into him too, and those vehicles were smoking and mangled. Thinking quickly, she spun the wheel to the left, so the passenger side of the truck would take the impact she knew was coming, then she tensed up and started praying.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Tommy was leaning on the breakfast bar, stirring cereal around in a plastic bowl, pretending he was hungry, and pretending to eat, because he didn’t want to worry Dixie. She’d told him last night she was worried about him, and she’d made him the cereal when she’d made her own this morning. He’d turned on the big screen TV in the living room and was absently watching the news, while he waited for Dixie to finish her breakfast.
The slick news anchor was pumping up a story about a mass pileup they’d had last night on the interstate, rain, a jackknifed eighteen wheeler, multiple casualties, two fatalities, a pregnant woman airlifted from the scene, then they flashed a picture of the accident on the screen, before cutting to recorded footage of the accident, where they focused in on a heap of twisted metal that used to be a red truck, with a ‘Cowgirls Do It With Their Boots On’ sticker on the shattered back window. The bite of cornflakes in his mouth turned to dust, and he couldn’t swallow it, so he went to the sink and spit it out, then wiped his mouth with the back of his arm, then stood there trying to corral the panic inside of him.
The phone on the wall by the breakfast table rang and Dixie got up and answered it, then frowned and held it out to him, “It’s Miss Karlie…” she announced, and he fought back the urge to vomit, as he walked over and took it from her.
“Karlie, tell me that Katie is still in Bowie,” he said in a strangled voice.
“No, she was headed to the Rockin’ D last night…she was supposed to call me when she got there, and I haven’t heard from her,” she said in a worried tone. “Is she there? Can I talk to her?”
“Oh, god, not again,” he groaned and shut his eyes and was bombarded with flashes of the accident that had killed Maggie.
“What the fuck is wrong, Tommy! Where’s my sister?” Karlie wailed into the phone.
“There was an accident last night, I just saw it on TV, and I saw her truck,” he said on a sob, then told her in a hoarse whisper, “I’m going to find out where she is, and I’ll call you,” before he dropped the phone and took off running upstairs to get dressed.
He threw on the clothes he’d taken off last night, because he didn’t want to waste time finding more, and shoved his feet into his boots, then ran back downstairs, where he found Dixie on the phone with Karlie, evidently. He took it from her hand and hung it up, then picked her up and headed for the front door.
“Darlin’, I need you to take your golf cart and go back to the barn and find Jud…tell him I had to leave, there’s an emergency, and tell him I said for him to watch you, and I’ll call him later,” he told Dixie then kissed her cheek, before he pushed her toward her pink cart. “Stay with him and be good,” he said in a broken voice, then took off running for his truck.
He dug in his pocket while he ran, and quickly dialed a friend with the Amarillo Police Department. As soon as his friend answered, he said, “Doug, I need your help, where did they take the pregnant woman from the wreck on the interstate last night?”
His friend checked and told him where she’d been airlifted to, but couldn’t give her name, because her next-of-
kin hadn’t been notified yet. There were no speed limit laws as far as Tommy was concerned, while he drove hell bent for leather toward the hospital. He didn’t even stop at red lights, once he hit the city limits, he just drove, and prayed. She had to be alright, his babies had to be okay…this couldn’t be happening to him again.