A SEAL's Devotion (SEALs of Chance Creek Book 7)

by Cora Seton

  “You know what’s coming as well as I do,” Johannes spat. “Everyone’s changing course. We have to change, too.”

  “Fuck that! I’m not changing until every last ounce of oil is out of the ground. You’re a sucker, and you don’t deserve to run anything, least of all Hansen Oil.”

  “Shut your mouth!” Johannes kept his pistol pointed at him and Terry, but Bollard got to his feet.

  “No. It’s time to end this once and for all. Your time at the head of Hansen Oil is over. Time for some new blood.” Bollard turned and hollered, “Come and get him, boys—he’s all yours!” Six more men stepped out of the woods—all of them armed.

  When Curtis had laid a hand on Anders’s shoulder and silently pointed to one tree and then another, it had taken Anders a moment to see what he meant, but when he did, he cursed himself for a fool. He’d nearly walked right into the trap Bollard had set. Bollard had to have known someone from Base Camp would follow them. He was making sure whoever did met the same fate Eve was about to. His men had taken up positions in the woods surrounding the clearing farther back among the trees than Anders would have set his guard.

  He and Curtis withdrew, Curtis moving far enough back that he could call the others and apprise them of the situation without being overheard. That left Anders to wait and watch, his heart thumping strong and steady in his chest the way it always did when trouble went down. He’d bet anything the two men he could see weren’t the only men waiting for Bollard’s orders. In time he spotted two more, and then another. And another. Based on their spacing, he estimated at least two more of them would be situated across the clearing where he couldn’t see them.

  Anders crept forward again, keeping low to the ground, moving so slowly he almost wasn’t moving at all, wanting a better sightline into the clearing. He found a place between two of Bollard’s men without tipping them off to his presence—

  Then nearly had a heart attack when his own father stepped into the light. For a moment, Anders thought he was working with Bollard, until Johannes put a pistol to Bollard’s temple. Anders tensed, paralyzed by shock and dread, sure all hell would break lose.

  Bollard’s men were professionals, though. He hadn’t given them a signal, and they hadn’t budged. Their attention was squarely on the situation in the clearing.

  Good.

  That gave him a little wiggle room.

  Eve’s stomach sank as the clearing crowded with men. The look on Johannes’s face said it all. There was no way either of them were getting out of this alive.

  “You kill me, and Anders will inherit the company,” Johannes said to Bollard as a man relieved him of his pistol, cuffed his hands behind his back and shoved him to the ground. “You know what he’ll do with it without me to smooth the way.”

  “You’re going to hand it over to him anyway.” Bollard rubbed his wrists after another man set him free. “I’ve worked with you for over thirty years, Hansen. I know you better than you know yourself. I realized a long time ago you don’t want to die without reconciling with your son. You’ll roll over and let him do whatever he wants with Hansen Oil. No, when we’re through here with you, we’ll take care of Anders.”

  “Why don’t you take care of me right now?”

  “Anders!” Eve’s voice cracked on his name. Her heart stopped as Bollard’s men turned as one and pointed their weapons at Anders as he stalked into the clearing.

  “Anders, get out of here!” Johannes shouted, but Eve could see it was far too late for him to turn and run. Why had he done such a foolhardy thing?

  “Killing me isn’t going to stop progress,” Anders said to Bollard. “I get it; you own a lot of shares in Hansen Oil. If Dad tries to change the course it’s on, those shares will take a beating.”

  “So you’ve got some sense in you, after all—”

  “And then they’ll rise again. I guarantee it. What do you think is going to happen when more and more people lose their homes and livelihoods to climate change—when insurance companies can’t or won’t pay their claims? Who do you think people will blame? Who are they going to go after?”

  “They won’t win. They can’t win—”

  “Yes, they can,” Johannes said to his CEO. “They can and they will.”

  Anders watched his father curiously. Eve wondered if this was the first time he’d heard his father speak this way. He gestured as if to invite some silent audience to come closer and hear the unusual conversation.

  “No. You’re wrong. You’re always wrong—”

  Eve shrieked again as more men stepped out of the woods all around them, swarming around each of Bollard’s men. When she recognized Boone, Clay, Kai, Greg and all the other Base Camp men, she bit her lip and sent a silent thank-you to the heavens.

  “You’re the one who’s wrong,” Anders said. “What’s more; you’re surrounded. Let’s wrap this up without anyone getting hurt.”

  Eve thought Bollard would refuse, but sirens sliced the air close by.

  Bollard’s face was knotted with rage as he gestured to his men. In a matter of moments, the eight were disarmed, their hands tied and members of the local sheriff’s department had stormed into the clearing.

  Anders cut the ties binding Eve’s wrists and pulled her into a tight embrace. Eve clung to him, unable to speak as relief left her limp. She hadn’t realized how scared she was until the danger was gone.

  “It’s okay,” Anders murmured into her hair. “You’re safe now. I’ll never let anything happen to you again.”

  When he stiffened, Eve looked up, bracing herself for another turn of fortune, but it was only Johannes standing uncertainly a few feet away. Anders let go of Eve and gestured for her and Johannes to follow him away from the others. “No one knows who I am,” he said to Johannes.

  “Except me,” Eve pointed out. “I’ve known since Christmas.”

  Anders shook his head. “No one else knows. They may have some suspicions after tonight, but none of them were positioned close enough to hear what Bollard said, and I want the chance to tell them my way.”

  Johannes nodded. “That was close,” he said, his voice uneven. Eve noticed his hands trembling.

  “Too close.” The men surveyed each other. “You almost sounded like an environmentalist back there,” Anders added wryly.

  Johannes snorted. “Not quite.”

  Anders sighed. “Seems like you’ve had a bit of a change of heart, though.”

  “Maybe.” His father made a face. “Forced to have a change of heart, more like.”

  “It doesn’t matter. However it happened, I’m glad. My friends and I—and Eve—are fighting against something that’s coming at all of us so fast we don’t know if we’re going to win, and we could use your help.”

  An expression crossed Johannes’s face Eve couldn’t quite decipher. Something almost like… longing. Then it was gone again.

  “But let me guess; first you expect me to condemn my life’s work,” Johannes said. “To tell the world I was wrong to supply energy to my country the best way I know how. Right?”

  Anders moved closer to him, bringing Eve along with him, his arm still around her waist. “Is that what you’re afraid of?”

  “I’m not afraid of anything—” He trailed off when he took in Anders’s expression. “What?”

  Anders searched his father’s face for so long, Eve thought he wasn’t going to answer. When he finally did, his words were unexpected.

  “I’m… sorry.”

  Eve wasn’t sure which of the men was most surprised. Johannes, to hear Anders’s words, or Anders to say them.

  “I’m sorry if you thought I was asking you to do that, because you’re right—you did give our country what it needed,” Anders went on. “I’m not asking you to be ashamed of the past. I’m asking you to help make a shift toward the future. When cars came along, no one expected carriage-makers to be ashamed of their lives’ work. It went better for the ones who got into the auto industry, though. Right?” he added
. “Look, I’m not naive. I know Hansen Oil can keep running for years but not forever. Solar and wind and other renewable energy sources aren’t just coming—they’re here. Don’t you want to make the transition ahead of the pack rather than be the last carriage-maker in town?”

  “Your girl looks like she’d be more comfortable with a carriage-maker as a father-in-law,” Johannes quipped feebly, waving a hand at Eve’s old-fashioned outfit, but Eve could see Anders’s words had touched him.

  “Are you looking forward to being a father-in-law?” Anders asked. Eve thought he was surprised all over again.

  “A man wants his legacy in order,” Johannes said stiffly.

  “What forced your change of heart?”

  Johannes lifted his hands. “The writing is on the wall. Everyone’s getting into renewables. My friends, my enemies—everyone. I’m already practically the last carriage-maker in town. My competitors aren’t just building Model Ts, though—they’re working on self-driving cars. I’m just an oil man. I can’t keep up.”

  Eve would bet the man had never told the truth about himself so baldly in his life. Say something, she willed at Anders. His father had put himself in a vulnerable position. Anders needed to meet him halfway.

  “I could help with that,” Anders said slowly, “if we could agree on a plan. I’d want to take Hansen Energy to the start of the pack, though.” He emphasized Energy. Eve understood he meant he wasn’t going to run an oil company.

  Johannes nodded. “That’s where we used to be. Guess I wouldn’t mind being there again.”

  “Then I’d be honored to work with you.” Anders held out his hand. After a moment, Johannes took it and shook.

  He turned to Eve. “I suppose you still expect to publish those images for the whole world to see? Doing that will bring down the company before we have a chance to take it in a new direction.”

  Eve thought quickly. “I had a plan, you know. I made a movie and included the images of the tailing pond leaks in it. I planned to show it at the New Year’s bash in town and invite the press to be present.”

  “You did?” Anders asked.

  Eve held up her phone. “Shall I play it?” she asked Johannes.

  After a moment, he nodded. She tapped the screen a few times and held out the phone so both Anders and Johannes could see. The latest version of her little film was far from done, but it hung together well enough for them to get the general gist of it. The short movie contrasted beautiful footage Avery had taken months ago of Base Camp, its inhabitants, its homes and green energy sources with the satellite images and other footage Eve had gotten from her contacts of all the ways in which Hansen Oil’s operations had left the environment degraded. She’d thrown statistics in about climate change, too, highlighting the bigger problem continued use of oil and gas would bring about.

  When she was done, she didn’t wait for Johannes’s comment. The sour look on his face told her all she needed to know.

  “I made another film,” she said hurriedly. “I think you might like it better.”

  She’d made it on a whim, piecing it together at the same time she’d made the first one, hoping to find a way to both expose Hansen Oil and somehow maintain her relationship with Anders. She meant for it to demonstrate how Hansen Oil could salvage its reputation by doing the right thing. More than once she’d thought herself foolish for spending the time on it, believing she’d never get the opportunity to show it after she exposed what she knew. As she tapped on her screen again, she was grateful she’d followed through on her whim.

  This film was set in Texas, and she’d had to scramble to find all the footage she’d needed. She’d done the voiceover, meaning to get a professional narrator to redo it before it New Year’s.

  “Hansen Oil has a long history in Texas,” the film began, with a flyover footage from a drone of one of the company’s oil fields. “We’ve been a name you can trust for all your energy needs, but times are changing, and so are we.” The film went on to detail the forms of green energy that Eve had wanted Johannes to think about investing in, with images of solar arrays and wind farms surrounded by pristine natural settings. Her voiceover quoted more statistics about the benefits of making the switch. “We’re moving forward,” the voiceover ended, “so that Texas keeps its status as one of the greatest states around.”

  She’d lucked out with the final shot. Melissa had found footage of a father and son fishing in a Texas river and had secured permission to use it in the film.

  Both Anders and Johannes focused on that footage, and the surprise evident on their faces made Eve bite back a smile. Direct hit.

  She let the movie end and put her phone back in her pocket. “Considering I’ve never made a movie before, I’m pretty proud of these, but I think we’ll need a third one now.”

  “What third one?” Johannes demanded.

  “The one you make. The one where you introduce your son—and his mission to transform Hansen Oil to a green energy company—to the world.”

  Johannes and Anders considered this. “What do you say, Dad? You ready to get into the movie-making business?”

  Johannes sighed gustily. “Hell, I guess so. You realize how much money we’re going to leave on the table being the good guys, though?”

  “You realize how much money we’re going to make by being early adopters?” Anders countered.

  “Are you… going to leave Base Camp?” Eve asked him, suddenly stricken by the possibility.

  “No.” Anders turned to his father. “No, I’m not leaving Base Camp. We’ll have to find a way to make that work. In fact—” He hesitated. “I can’t do anything until the show ends.”

  “I don’t want you doing anything until we’ve cleaned up the tailing pond fiasco. That’s my mess, not yours. We’ll bring you in when it’s time to start fresh.” Johannes turned to Eve. “You going to marry my son?”

  “Y-yes,” Eve said and swallowed hard.

  “Good.” As the sheriff approached them, Johannes went to meet him.

  Anders pulled Eve into another embrace, held her for a long moment. “I thought I’d lost you,” he said huskily. “I thought I’d be too late. Are you sure you’re all right?”

  She nodded. She was.

  “I love you. I want to spend my life with you.” He pulled back and chuckled. “Guess my dad already sorted that out. Look at us, engaged and all.”

  Eve humphed. “I thought you said you’d be the one to propose.”

  “How are you going to get Clem off the ranch?” Anders asked Renata in the bunkhouse kitchen the next morning. They’d headed off Clem’s and Renata’s initial curiosity about Eve’s disappearance by saying it had all been a misunderstanding. That Eve had gotten sick again, and Greg and Harris had driven her home, and then everyone else had gone off half-cocked when they couldn’t find her. Clem and Renata had been so busy sniping at each other, they’d missed the action, although more than a few crew members looked like they might know more than they were letting on.

  Clem hadn’t been too pleased, and Renata had looked downright suspicious, but Anders had managed to get her alone long enough to set the record straight and tell her his plan for this morning.

  He needed to come clean to everyone at Base Camp about his identity and what would happen next. He didn’t want Clem in charge of the narrative of that encounter, however. This was the scoop he could give Renata. She’d agreed to get Clem off Base Camp if he provided her with footage of his confession.

  “Just leave it to me,” Renata said. “Watch and learn.” She strode into the main room, and Anders followed, curious to see what she’d do. “Byron, Ed, Craig, come with me,” she said loudly. “Dress warm, get some coffee for the road. This will take a while.”

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Clem, who’d been flopped in a folding chair, listlessly marking up a sheaf of notes while waiting for breakfast to end and something exciting to happen, got to his feet.

  “Nothing to do with you. Move it, Byron.�
� Renata urged him on. “Just background material,” she said to Clem. “Totally dull. Ed, come on. Let’s go.”

  “What’s the hurry then?” Clem demanded.

  “The sun’s up, breakfast is over, it’s time to get to work. I’ve got an assignment. I’m going to get it done.”

  “Assignment.” Clem crossed the room to where Renata was pulling on her outer gear. “Assignment from who?”

  “Who do you think? My boss.”

  “Fulsom? He gave you an assignment? He didn’t tell me.”

  “Why would he tell you? Car’s leaving in one minute,” she called to the crew members. “We’ve got a deadline. Let’s get going!”

  “I’m coming, too.”

  “Like hell you are.” Renata strode out the door. Byron hurried after her, only half in his winter duds. Ed and Craig followed more slowly.

  “What’s this about?” Clem asked them.

  Craig shrugged. “Who knows, but when Renata says move, I move. That’s the job.”

  “See you later,” Ed said.

  Anders wanted to shove Clem out the door along with them when they left, but he forced himself to stay seated, thumbing through a newsfeed on his phone as if he had nothing better to do.

  “Hell,” Clem said a minute later after crossing to one of the windows and watching Renata’s SUV begin to pull down the lane. “William, Dan,” he called to a couple of the cameramen, “grab your gear. Come on. Hurry!” He returned to the door, pulled on a jacket and kept going. William and Dan followed as fast as they could.

  When the door slammed behind them, Boone stood up. “Okay, folks. Meeting time. Is everyone accounted for?” The few remaining cameramen hurried to capture the action, exchanging startled looks. Boone waited for Kai and Addison to join them from the kitchen and take their seats. “So what’s this all about?” he asked Anders. “We’ve all got bits and pieces of the story last night, but I’ve got to say, it doesn’t add up.”

  Anders stood at the front of the room, like Fulsom always did when he came to harangue them, and suddenly he felt as exposed as if he’d stepped out onto a Broadway stage naked. He was dead tired. He hadn’t got a wink of sleep last night, knowing this was coming. According to Eve, Avery knew everything, but she was the only one. It was time to come clean to everyone else.