Maddy's Oasis (6 page)

“Did you call the police?” she asked
again.

“Yeah. The nearest trooper is an hour
away.”

Another growl.

“What is that?” she asked, squinting into the
dark.

“That,” Jake said as he flipped on the
flashlight, “is one of the boys. Not someone you want to run into
in the middle of the night.”

Jake’s boy was a massive black Rottweiler
seated facing the door.

“Why is he growling?”

“You’re in his seat.”

“He can have it,” she said and, started to
rise.

“Never sat by a boy on the bus,
city-girl?”

“It has nothing to do with you,” she assured
him.

“Good. Then relax until the gallons of coffee
you drank settle,” he said with a familiar, irritated edge.

She sighed, her eyes seeking men hiding in
the dark corners of the office.

“I think they were looking for Alex,” she
said in a more subdued tone. "Something to do with money."

She didn't doubt creditors
would send collectors to the site; she was prepared for them. What
she didn't expect was that they would come armed in the middle of
the night, like common thugs. At the thought of the men coming
after
her
, she
pulled her feet onto the sofa’s edge and pushed herself deeper into
the squishy couch back and into Jake’s side. He swung one arm
around her shoulders, as if sensing her disturbed
thoughts.

Neither spoke. Jake’s breathing was deep and
steady, his body comfortable against hers. Maybe she truly had
drunk too much coffee that day, or maybe she needed some decent
rest. Her head still spun, and her nerves were shot.

She looked down at the BlackBerry clenched in
one hand and once again tried to call Eric, ready to yell at him
for abandoning her.

“He’s out.” Jake’s low voice was close to her
ear.

“He’s never too out to take my call,” she
replied. “Unless … did you take him drinking tonight?”

“Yeah.”

“Why didn't he tell me?” she asked with a
frown.

“Why would he? He can do what he wants in his
off time,” Jake said. “You ever go out drinking?”

“Once last year.”

“You go out for any other reason?”

“If it’s work related, yes,” she replied.

Jake snorted. “If it’s not?”

“I don’t have the time,” she answered.

“No drinking. No movies, bookstores, dates,
girls' night out?”

“I have to work.”

“Your life sucks,” Jake observed.

“It doesn’t suck! I have
certain obligations that are not of your concern," she retorted.
"And I don’t have time to be
un
happy. I like my job and do it
well.”

Her words sounded flat, even to her.

“You work long hours, too,” she said. “You
can’t really judge my life when yours isn’t much different.”

“I’m not judging. I'm
telling you-- your life sucks. Ask anyone. Even Eric says so,” he
countered. “You have no life aside from work. How could it not
suck? I like my job; it’s my passion, but even so, I don’t work
more than twelve hours a day. I start early enough for there to be
sunlight at the end of the day and happy hour on Friday and
Saturday. I take one day of work off a week when I’m on a difficult
project, two days off when on a normal project. When I’m on no
project, which I make a point of doing three months a year,
I
live.
”

“To each his own,” she said curtly.

“Whatever.”

Irritated once again at the man, she looked
at the time.

“I have to be at work in an hour,” she
muttered. “So much for getting extra sleep staying here.”

“Take a nap,” he suggested.

“You said you called the police about an hour
ago, which means they’ll be here soon.”

“That’s Texas time, city-girl. One hour back
east is about two hours here in Texas.”

Frustrated, she sighed and allowed her head
to drop back against his arm and closed her eyes. Warm, safe, and
fatigued, she felt a familiar sense of floating wash over her.

“I’m not going to sleep,” she told him. “I
want to be awake in case they come back for me.”

“The vandals?”

“Yeah.”

“Why would they?” he asked.

“Because they said they would.”

Jake frowned at her words, about to pursue
until he felt the full weight of her against him. She drifted into
a deep sleep fast. Duke inched closer to sniff her once she was
out, and he patted the massive Rott affectionately.

"Good boy," he murmured. "Think you can take
care of this one while I take a look around?"

Duke didn't respond, but Jake knew he could
count on him to keep an eye on things in the trailer. Jake waited a
few more minutes until certain the woman was in a heavy enough
sleep. He eased away from her and straightened her out on the
couch. He left Duke in the trailer and descended into the early
morning desert air.

He strode toward his truck and withdrew a
shotgun before whistling loudly for the remainder of his dogs. The
three dogs bolted to him, and he tossed out snacks to them with a
smile. They trailed him as he walked toward the structure in the
first light of morning.

He took in the hideous contraption of a
building, which they'd made a great deal of progress on already
regardless of what city-girl thought. He knew the financing was an
issue, and part of the funds for working his men overtime was
coming out of his and Javier's wallet.

Javier liked the city-girl for some reason.
Jake knew his uncle well enough to know he'd do anything for
someone he liked, no matter how irrational that seemed. He scoured
the building for new signs of damage and checked the inventories of
everything from tools to equipment to materials.

The vandals had taken nothing and destroyed
nothing.

He almost wished they had. If they weren't
there for the high ticket items, they were there for Alex and
city-girl, which wasn't a good sign. He returned the gun to his
truck and leaned against it with crossed arms, watching the sunrise
as he thought.

He had half a mind to call his uncle and have
his uncle call Carlos Cortez, Javier's cousin and the man in charge
of the drug gang that probably was looking for extortion money--
rather, protection money, according to Carlos-- for not interfering
with the building of the hotel.

He debated and then decided against it.
Javier didn’t like or talk to Carlos, and Jake didn't know enough
about what Alex had or hadn’t done to interfere. There were rumors
all over town about Alex's gambling and whoring. He might've owed
anyone money.

He wasn't sure what to do about Madeleine,
though. She couldn't know how dangerous a drug trafficking gang was
despite the local newspaper she brought in daily. Some of what
happened between the drug gangs made it into the paper, but most
were unwritten rules known by the locals. He doubted she knew
anything about Alex's issues, either.

No, he'd keep an eye out for now and leave
Duke as protection. No one in their right mind would mess with
Duke, and maybe he could coax her to leave the site and sleep
elsewhere.

Toni and a few others appeared as the sun
reached the horizon. His mother's brother, Toni was lean and
slender compared to Javier's large frame. Toni took in the Rotts
and Jake and then frowned.

"Issues?" he asked.

"Yeah. Someone broke into the office and
scared city-girl."

"Wow, did you talk to Javier?"

"Not yet. Alex owed half the town money.
Didn't want to jump the gun," Jake replied. "At least nothing's
damaged. No extra work for us today."

Toni snorted and followed his gaze to the
structure.

"Ugly bastard, isn't it?"

Jake snagged his hard hat from the truck and
didn’t answer.

"Brought you breakfast and your horoscope,
compliments of Sonya," Toni said, handing him a thick breakfast
burrito wrapped in tinfoil.

Jake took it, reading the small square
horoscope Toni's wife, Sonya, cut out of the newspaper for him
every day.

"You will find happiness where you don't
expect to," he read aloud.

"Not here you won't," Toni said.

"Tell me about it," Jake said, and chuckled.
"Tell her thanks. Better than the doom-and-gloom horoscope from
yesterday."

Toni smiled, and they walked to their
planning area, marked by three card tables standing side by side
covered with plastic containers of paper and office supplies. They
sat in silence to eat their breakfast before cracking one container
to look at their notes from the day before.

"I wanna take another look at the damaged
portion," Toni said.

"I need to throw off some angry energy before
I deal with that woman again," Jake said. "I'll start with the
stones."

"Have fun."

Jake rose and joined the men already working
on restacking one of the massive piles of tiles while another broke
down broken stones into gravel. The stones had been cut into
similar sizes for use in the courtyard as decoration. The vandals
went out of their way to destroy them, and they couldn't be used in
their current shape. He'd decided to salvage them for gravel rather
than remove them.

Jake got to work, oblivious of how much time
passed until Eric called his name.

“Jake, where’s Maddy?”

He tossed the block in his hand and
straightened, twisting to see a pale-faced Eric. Eric wore large
sunglasses and a hat and flinched as one of the laborers nearby
smashed a rock with a sledgehammer. He was dressed well despite the
apparent hangover.

“G’mornin’, Eric,” he said. “How you doing
today?”

“Great, great. Where’s Maddy?” Eric asked
with a grimace as another rock exploded.

“She’s sleepin’ in the office,” Jake
responded. He glanced at his watch, satisfied to see it was past
eleven. The exhausted woman had drifted to sleep mid-sentence on
the couch at around four-thirty. Part of him had wanted to check on
her a couple times, but he'd resisted. Just because her body had
felt so nice against his, he wasn't about to volunteer for more
abuse from the sharp-tongued city-girl by checking up on her.

“Great,” Eric murmured with less
enthusiasm.

“Tonight’s tequila night. You up?” Jake
asked.

“I’ll stay back and help Maddy,” Eric replied
quickly. “We’re a bit behind. I appreciate the offer.”

“Any time,” Jake said, and returned to his
pile of stones.

Toni winked at him from across the small
square area they had designated the stone corral. Eric’s phone
rang, and he wandered toward the office. Jake continued with his
stones, reviewing the night. He hadn't thought about the
conversation they'd had at the bar since arriving early this
morning. Toni had dragged a lot of info out of Eric, revealing Mr.
Howard’s legal woes and a little bit about how long Madeleine had
worked for Mr. Howard. Eric knew surprisingly little about his
colleague despite their two years working side by side. Jake
chalked it up to the typical eastern narcissism but couldn't help
being disappointed not to learn more about her.

She annoyed the hell out of him and anyone
else around her; she was too persistent, demanding, and full of
complete ignorance that bred overambitious expectations of what he
could accomplish. She was a micromanager, an ignorant one at
that.

After yesterday, he'd been ready to write her
off entirely, until Eric let something drop while drunk. Something
about a sick family member who needed surgery. Jake wanted to
dismiss it as no excuse for her actions, but he recalled just how
much harder he'd worked when his sister Kitty was injured in a car
accident several years ago. Javier had the money, but Jake drove
himself near crazy working sixteen-hour days and spending the
nights in the hospital.

Then there was Javier, who not only liked the
fearless woman, but who still laughed long and hard describing the
look on Smithson’s face when she fired him.

The girl had a spine and discipline, which he
could admire. The edge of urgency that punctuated her every
movement and sentence would take a bottle of tequila to counter.
With a few stiff drinks in her and the permanent removal of the
BlackBerry, she might just be tolerable.

He watched as Eric reached the office,
steadied himself against the stairs, then knocked.

CHAPTER THREE

"Maddy!" Eric's voice and the sound of
growling awoke her. Her eyes opened, and she jerked, surprised to
see the muzzle of the massive black dog near her face. She pushed
herself up.

“Okay, nice dog,” she murmured.

The dog ceased growling and whined. It sat
before her, taking up much of the space between the small area
between the two couches. She felt rested for the first time in two
weeks despite the crick in her neck. She swung her legs off the
couch, her eyes straying to her watch.

Eleven-thirty. She bolted to her feet and
darted to the desk, where her BlackBerry sat. The dog growled again
at her, and she eyed it, circling the desk.

“Maddy?” Eric called through the door.

“I’m up!”

“Whose dog is that?” he asked, cracking the
door.

The dog rose and paced forward. His snarls
were far from friendly. Eric ducked out. She dialed Jake’s phone,
which he answered after four rings, as she expected.

“Yeah!” he shouted, sounding out of
breath.

“Jake, can you retrieve your dog?” she asked.
“He won’t stop growling and won’t let Eric in the trailer.”

“Duke gets sick in the sun. He does better in
the AC,” Jake replied, sounding irritated already. “If Eric wants
in, give Duke the friend command.”

“What is the friend command?”

“Tell him to stay and
say,
friend.
”

“Why is he growling at me?” she demanded.