by Cora Seton
“We could slip away,” Eve murmured. “Work on that baby thing again.”
Anders wasn’t sure he’d heard her right. “Where?”
“There has to be someplace.”
He leaned back. “You mean—?
Eve nodded, eyes shining. “Clem’s not around.”
Anders scanned the room. She was right. He had no idea where the director had gotten to, but he remembered what Renata had said. She was running interference for them tonight. He took Eve’s hand. “Let’s go.”
It took them fifteen minutes to locate a small room with a door that could be locked. It took a moment for Anders to spin Eve around, flip up her gown and flick her panties down.
“This okay?” he asked as she braced her hands on the shelf of the metal rack that covered one wall.
“It’s perfect. Hurry.”
Normally, Anders would take his time and enjoy the experience. He could spend hours with Eve, but she was right; they didn’t have a lot of time. Who knew when someone might need a mop or bucket, and come with a key?
He unbuttoned his fly, tugged his pants down and snugged himself up behind Eve. Just the brush of her skin against his hardness was enough to make him ache. He’d been afraid she wouldn’t be ready, but he was wrong. She was warm and wet, and when he positioned himself behind her and nudged forward, he slid right in on one long stroke.
They both let go of a breath. Anders chuckled, but it took everything he had to hold back. Instead, he eased out and pushed back in again, eliciting another sigh from Eve. He wished he could get her out of these clothes, but in a way they added to the experience.
Her bottom was nicely framed by the dark-blue gown. His view of their joining only heightened the need clawing at him from the inside. He did his best to keep his pace slow and smooth, but he found himself speeding up in spite of himself.
“That’s good,” Eve breathed. “Keep going.” Anders sped up more. With each thrust, Eve pressed back against him, encouraging him.
Making him lose control.
Anders kept one hand on her hip, grabbed the metal pole holding up the shelves with the other high over Eve’s head. He bucked against her until she melted around him, her soft cries tugging him straight over the edge of his own release. Nothing could have stopped him then, and when at last he was done, panting and shuddering, Eve leaned against him, as spent as he was.
She tipped her head back and twisted to kiss his neck. “You’re amazing.”
“No, you’re the one who’s amazing. I could do this all night.”
“I’m all for that.” She threw a glance at the locked door. “But we’d better get back. Another time.”
“I’ll hold you to it.”
Eve doubted she’d ever forget the last fifteen minutes. She wished she could run away with Anders and spend the next week reenacting this bout of lovemaking, but they still had work to do.
“Someday it will be just us, alone, every night,” Anders promised her with a lingering kiss under her ear.
“I know.”
They set themselves to rights, but before they left, Anders backed Eve against the door. “I just need another minute.”
Eve wrapped her arms around his neck and enjoyed the sensation of Anders’s kisses. Five minutes later, they finally shut the door behind them and followed the sound of music back to the auditorium.
“I’ve been looking all over for you two,” Curtis hissed when he met them just inside the door. His gaze flicked to Eve’s flushed face and Anders’s disheveled clothes. “Guess you figured out how to relax.”
Anders elbowed him. “Focus. Why were you looking for us?”
“There’s a limo in the parking lot. I figure you know the occupant. Renata has done her part; Clem’s long gone on another wild goose chase.”
Anders left Eve with him and went to find his father.
“I don’t know about this,” Johannes said as he unfolded himself from the back seat of the limousine. “Seems silly to announce Hansen Oil’s succession plan at a country shindig.”
“You’re announcing Hansen Energy’s new direction on a television show that’s all about taking a new direction. A show with a huge national audience,” Anders corrected him. “Come on, Dad. Let’s go bring Hansen Energy into the twenty-first century.”
Johannes grumbled but allowed himself to be led inside the modest community center. He gave a sniff when they entered into the outer hall, but the crowd inside the auditorium cheered him up a little.
True to her word, Melissa had rigged an audiovisual system and had somehow squared it with the dance’s organizers to let them make their presentation. She’d mentioned telling the committee they’d play up Chance Creek’s charms on upcoming episodes to encourage tourism. She and Avery met them inside the doors with Eve and led them all up onstage at the front of the large room.
The music died down, and a spotlight illuminated a lectern and laptop on the stage and a large screen behind and to one side of them.
“Where’s your film?” Avery asked Johannes.
He passed her a memory stick, and Avery went to fiddle with the laptop.
Renata met her there, leaned toward the microphone, cleared her throat and waited until the dull roar of conversation in the room died down. Eve spotted several members of the crew filming but didn’t see Clem. She wondered how Renata had gotten rid of him.
“Hello,” Renata said to the crowd. “I’m Renata Ludlow, and I’m the director—one of the directors—of Base Camp, the television show that’s being filmed outside town at Westfield Ranch. First, I’d like to thank you all for your continuing hospitality to us. I know it can be strange to have a television production being filmed in your backyard.” She paused until the applause died down. “Second, I’d like to thank you for allowing us to interrupt your evening for a special announcement that has to do with one of our cast members. Anders, would you like to introduce our special guest?”
Anders took the podium, still holding Eve’s hand. “Hi, folks. I’m Anders Olsen, and this is Eve Wright. If you watched our last episode, you’ll know who she is. What you don’t know is that in the last few days Eve helped me repair a relationship with someone close to me. If you watch our next episode, you’ll see a few surprise twists. One of them is that this man is my father.” He gestured for Johannes to join him. “And he and I are going to take our family business and transform it in the coming years. Curious?”
A number of audience members nodded. “You bet,” one shouted. A murmur of laughter spread through the room.
“Go, Base Camp!” someone else yelled.
“I’ve got a short film for you that will explain everything,” Anders said. Avery tapped the keyboard and got the film going. They all stepped aside so the audience could see better.
When Hansen Oil’s ubiquitous logo came up, Eve saw many people exchanging glances and shrugging their shoulders. They watched avidly as a narrator began to speak as images shifted on the film.
“Hansen Oil has powered America for generations.”
Images of automobiles on highways, trucks on construction sites, farm machinery and factories crossed the screen. There was a clip of a much younger Johannes receiving a medal from a long-dead president.
“But now a new generation is forging America’s future,” the narrator boomed. “And Hansen Oil is becoming Hansen Energy.” A portrait of Anders joined one of Johannes on screen. Among the audience members, people pointed at Anders and his father on stage.
Onscreen came images of wind farms, huge solar arrays, geothermal rigs and more. Surprised murmurs came from the crowd.
“Hansen Energy—a New Name for a New Mission.”
As the film ended and the lights came up, Johannes Hansen took the stage. “My name is Johannes Hansen, and if you haven’t guessed already, Anders here is my son. For a long time we saw the future differently. We’re not the only ones at odds about it in this country, are we?”
Laughter and nodding heads greeted t
his question.
“I’ve seen the writing on the wall thanks to my son, though. Like it or not, change is coming. We can hide from it, or we can embrace it. I’ve been researching your town in the last few weeks because I wanted to see why my son was so adamant about staying here. Now I know. You folks are a lot like the people I know at home. Workers. Tradesmen. Ranchers. Farmers. The people who get things done in this country. And you aren’t sitting around waiting for the world to pass you by. I’ve read about initiatives to change the way you’re ranching, the way you’re farming, the way you’re building housing, the way you’re doing most things. What strikes me most about Chance Creek, though, is the way you’re doing it together. That’s what this country needs. My son and I—”
“Hold on. Hold on!”
Eve craned her neck to see who was causing the ruckus at the back of the room. She cringed when she spotted Clem pushing through the crowd, holding something in his hand.
He barrelled his way up to the stage, climbed the steps, strode across it, shouldered Avery away from where she was reaching to protect the laptop, pulled out Johannes’s memory stick and jammed a new one in.
“Don’t believe a thing this man says.” He pointed to Johannes. “Or that one, either.” He jabbed a finger at Anders. “Hansen Energy isn’t real. It’s just a cover-up for all the damage Hansen Oil has done.” He hit a few keys, and another movie started up.
Eve clapped a hand to her mouth as a familiar voice—her voice—narrated it. It was the first movie she’d made. The one detailing the intrusion of chemicals from the tailing ponds at Terrence field into North Run’s water supply.
“See?” Clem howled as the images she’d stolen from AltaVista flashed onscreen. “Hansen Oil does nothing but destroy—hey!”
Clem reared back and covered his ears as fast-paced pop music suddenly blasted out of the speakers around the auditorium, and the familiar intro music to Track the Stars blared.
Eve met Anders’s shocked gaze, then Avery’s mystified one. Melissa, however, was biting back a big grin. When a woman Eve dimly remembered joined her on the stage, Eve began to put two and two together.
That was Jana, Melissa’s old roommate, a cute blonde with a pixie haircut. The one who was looking for footage of Clem—
“Hey, stop that! What the hell?” Clem shouted. Onscreen, jerky, handheld camera footage showed him grab a woman, push her against a wall and rub his body against hers.
A collective gasp came from the audience as Clem lunged for the laptop, and Anders blocked his way. On the big screen over them, Clem continued to paw at the unfortunate woman, who was clearly trying to push him away.
Jana stepped to the lectern as Clem and Anders continued to wrestle behind her. “Hi, as long as we’re doing introductions, I’ll join in. I’m Jana Smith. That’s my friend holding the camera.” She pointed at the screen behind her. “And that’s Clem Bailey assaulting a crew member from his show Track the Stars. You didn’t hear about this incident because Clem settled out of court for an undisclosed amount, but it’s why he isn’t hosting Track the Stars anymore. I’d advise you to take anything he says with a grain of salt.”
Applause greeted her announcement. Jana curtsied and left, taking the memory stick with her.
Melissa picked her way around the brawling men to reach Eve’s side. “Took a hell of a lot of work to follow Clem and distract him while we stole his memory stick, overwrote his movie and got it back to him. Renata helped a lot. She was the one who tipped us off that he had your movie.”
“Renata is a marvel.” Eve hoped she got the whole story behind that escapade someday. “I wonder how she knew he stole our film?”
“She caught him. He’s got extra crew members working for him—people you don’t even know about. She’s got extra crew members tracking his extra ones. Renata says your security is shit, by the way.”
Anders wouldn’t be happy to hear that. “The ranch is too big, and there’s not enough men, I guess.”
“Renata says their problem is they keep looking for outsiders instead of at the people who are already there.”
They both watched as the sheriff arrived, handcuffed Clem for drunk and disorderly conduct, despite his insistence that he wasn’t drunk, and took him away.
When they were gone, Johannes took the podium again. “Thank you to the brave men and women serving Chance Creek,” he said and led a round of applause for Cab Johnson. Cab saluted him as he helped Clem out the back door.
“Clem Bailey wasn’t wrong about Hansen Oil, however,” Johannes went on. The crowd silenced again, and Eve stiffened. What was he doing?
Anders watched his father. Eve wanted to go to him, but she didn’t want to distract from the moment.
“In order to fix problems, we have to admit we have them,” Johannes went on. “Hansen Oil has a problem, and we mean to fix it. More to the point, we intend to move to technologies we hope will cause fewer problems in the future. Now, we’ve taken up enough of your time tonight. Let’s get back to dancing. But remember, you heard it here first. Hansen Oil is now Hansen Energy, and we aim to be the leader in renewables for a long time to come.”
Chapter Fifteen
‡
Both directors were present in the room as Anders and the other men finished dressing for his wedding several weeks later. Clem had been locked up overnight, but he’d made a beeline back to Base Camp the minute he was out. Boone had called Fulsom to complain, but the billionaire told him to be patient. “He’s coming in a couple of days to sort things out,” Boone had told Anders earlier.
As usual, Alice Reed was on hand to make any last-minute alterations. They’d used these Revolutionary War uniforms so many times now, it was all old hat.
“New company, new job, new name,” Curtis said as he adjusted his coat in the mirror. “It’s like you’re a whole new man.”
“Same company, new direction,” Anders corrected. “And the name isn’t really new; I’m just reclaiming my old one.”
“And all the money that goes with it.” Curtis chuckled. “Anders Hansen of Hansen Energy. It’s a shame you can’t pump some of those funds into Base Camp. It certainly would take some of the pressure off.”
“I won’t have access to any part of Hansen Oil for months, maybe years, while my father cleans up the environmental mess he made in Texas. I won’t sign on until everything is on the up and up. I don’t want to be party to anything criminal. Besides, that would be cheating. I guess all I can say is that if we blow this, and get kicked off the property, a few years down the line I’d be able to help buy us a new one. But that’s a ways off.”
Curtis nodded slowly, then met Anders’s gaze in the mirror. “Wouldn’t be the same anyway, would it?”
Anders thought of the fields where the bison grazed and the Montana sky that seemed to go on forever. The bunkhouse where they had community meals and the tiny house in which he and Eve would start their life together. Chance Creek had gotten under his skin. It was as much a part of him as these people who had become his family.
“You’re right,” he agreed, “it wouldn’t be the same.”
“Where’s Boone and his straws?” Alice asked while tightening a button on his jacket. She knotted the thread, snipped it with a pair of shears and surveyed her handiwork.
Right on cue, Boone burst into the room waving his fist.
Only three straws poked out of it.
“You know who you are,” he called. “Step up and take your chances.”
Angus, Greg and Walker did so. Slowly, Anders noticed. Angus hadn’t wanted to deal with the matter of marriage since his former intended had walked out on him some months ago. Walker still hadn’t cleared up the matter with his family that held him back from being with Avery.
And Greg—
Greg was just being squirrely these days.
Walker drew first, lifted the long straw for all to see and went back to getting ready.
Angus groaned. “Better get this over with.”
Anders didn’t know if he was referring to drawing his straw—or getting married. He shut his eyes, drew a straw—
And let out a whoop.
“Yeah—forty more days!”
Greg’s shoulders slumped. He drew the last straw for form’s sake and stared at it glumly.
“Guess it’s my turn,” he said.
“Cheer up. It’s worked out for everyone else,” Boone pointed out.
“Pretty sure it’s not going to work out for me,” Greg said. “Go ahead and find that backup bride.”
“Will do.”
“Well, you aren’t going back to school, and you’re not living in our backyard, but I guess we can forgive you for changing plans—again,” Eve’s mother joked when she and Eve’s father bustled into the room where she was getting ready. “At least we made it here in time to see you walk down the aisle!”
“Guess I’m not so bad at relationships, after all,” Eve said.
“I guess not. Although I didn’t expect you to run off and find a husband on a TV show. Still, I have to admit you found a handsome one, and Anders seems like a man with a good head on his shoulders.”
“He is,” Eve assured her. “You don’t mind that I’m not going to live in Richmond?”
“I never said that,” her mother said wistfully, “but sometimes you have to go where life takes you. I’m so proud of everything you’ve done. I didn’t like it when you were racing around the world, putting yourself in so much danger, but you did a good thing standing up to Hansen Oil.”
Eve thought she must be glowing. It took a lot to earn her mother’s approval.
“We’re both proud of you, honey,” her father said.
Alice Reed popped her head into the room. “It’s time.”
Eve’s parents hugged her, and her mother hurried to take her seat. Avery and Melissa, who’d agreed to be her bridesmaids along with Renata, entered the room with the bouquets they’d gone to fetch. They’d been a huge help organizing the wedding on such short notice.
“All the vendors in town know we’re going to have a wedding every forty days,” Riley had explained. “They keep things ready for us at this point. We have a standing deal with Mia Matheson, the wedding planner.”