“He knows this show has to end strong,” she’d put it. “I think he wants to throw us another curve ball or two before it’s over.”
Exposing Elizabeth as a fake and booting her off the ranch would rank right up there, Walker knew. Even twenty-four hours without protection could be time enough for someone to find her and make sure she never got the chance to testify.
“Some promises have to be kept no matter what,” he said.
“I don’t buy that, and I don’t think you do, either.”
“I do. Sometimes.” Walker held his gaze. “I know what I’m doing, Angus,” he added, hoping the man would drop it.
“I sure as hell hope so.” Angus stalked off.
Walker hoped he could regain his friends’ respect when this was all over. Elizabeth and Avery were doing their part by barely speaking to each other, except for the times when Elizabeth ordered Avery to attend to a certain part of her wedding preparations.
More than once he’d heard the other women speculating on why Avery was letting her get away with it, but Avery went along with the charade, grudgingly carrying out orders he knew she was secretly loving.
“We need to stage an intervention,” he heard Savannah say once. “All this helpfulness toward the person who’s stealing her happiness. It’s sick!”
Whenever they could, he and Avery stole moments together in the barn, the stables—wherever they were away from other eyes. It was difficult when they were supposed to stay with their work groups, but they still managed it. A quick kiss here, an embrace there—
All of it adding to his continuing frustration.
One more day.
He got to his morning chores with a vengeance, scowling whenever one of the others was near, relaxing when they weren’t. It was hard to hide his optimistic mood, and he had to counsel himself to frown a little on his way to the bunkhouse at midday after the bell rang for the meal.
When he met up with Elizabeth, who’d been standing a little apart, speaking on her phone as usual, his frown turned to genuine concern. Her arms were crossed over her chest, her lips pinched together in an angry line. Her hair, usually tied back so neatly in a braid when she worked, was coming down as if she’d raked her fingers through it more than once.
“What’s wrong?”
“They moved it again.” Her words were barely audible. “The Senate. They pushed back the hearing. Now it’s the same day as the vote—the last day before one of their state work sessions. In other words, they’re going to cram it all into one day with no extensions, because all the senators will have plans to travel home that night. What are they up to, Walker? They’re going to sabotage this somehow! They’re not even going to give me a chance to be heard!”
He’d never heard her so distraught before, and it unnerved him. “The day of the vote? What day is that?”
She shook her head and covered her face with her hands. “That’s the worst of it. May thirtieth.” Her voice was muffled, but he heard her loud and clear.
The air whistled out of his lungs. “May thirtieth?” His wedding day?
She dropped her hands. “We can still do this,” she urged him. “I know it’s awful, but we can still pull it off. I’ll leave early that morning, and you can still have your wedding day.”
“And keep the truth secret until then? That’ll kill Avery.”
“We have to! Walker, where else can I go?”
“Why does it have to be you?” he demanded, losing his cool. “Other people must be able to present the same information you can.”
“I’m… better suited to presenting the information. I’ve seen what’s happening, not just on our continent but in Siberia, too.”
He stared at her a long moment before shaking his head slowly. That didn’t add up. “There’s something else, isn’t there? Something you haven’t told me.”
She closed her eyes.
“Elizabeth.”
“There’s more,” she confirmed. “It’s an open secret that if this bill passes, Lawrence Energy will win the contract to extract the oil there. I’ve got footage from Lawrence’s other operations. Whistleblower stuff. No one knows. No one can know.”
“Someone knows if they’re trying to kill you.”
She swallowed. Nodded. “They already killed the whistleblower. That’s why I haven’t been home before this—I was in the thick of it. Securing the information, the proof they’ve never operated within the rules and won’t this time, either.”
“Jesus, Elizabeth. That’s the mess you brought to my door?”
“That’s the mess they’re taking to the world! Don’t you get it? They don’t care what they’re doing. They don’t care what will happen in thirty years. They’re willing to kill people to keep on polluting and sending more and more carbon into the air, as long as they get their money.”
Walker ran both hands through his hair. “Avery deserves a real wedding!”
“She’ll get a real wedding,” Elizabeth promised. “It will all be set to go. I’ll disappear the morning of the thirtieth. Once I’m on that plane, I’m not your concern anymore. You and Avery will have your day.”
A commotion near the bunkhouse caught his attention. “Now what?”
Elizabeth hurried after him as he went to investigate and found Montague and several of his men clustered around Boone.
“No way. Absolutely not. What are you thinking?” Boone looked up as Walker approached. “They say Fulsom told them they can disassemble the wind turbines.”
Walker turned on Montague. Got right in his face. “Get. The. Hell. Out. Of. Here.” He pronounced each word in turn, slowly and distinctly.
Montague took a step back, his smug smirk slipping away fast. “I’ll have Fulsom call you,” he said. “He’ll sort this out. We need to get cracking—the building season’s slipping away.” He turned and strode off, his men trailing him. “Be back tomorrow,” he called over his shoulder.
Walker
