Valerie had a great time. Kyle was fabulous company. He told jokes, kept the conversation light and away from any topics that might make her tell more lies than she already had. She found herself liking these strange men. And now she began to wonder just what Petersen-Snow wanted with Sun Valley. The brief had been brief to say the least. They wanted photos, they wanted reports on local industry and farming. They wanted to know about the people, what they did for a living and how many were employed. If she didn’t know better she would say that they wanted to take over the whole town. But that was ridiculous. The company never did that. They usually bought up a struggling business or two that were in line with their current global vision, or if they needed a PR boost, they would adopt a school or a wildlife preserve, and send out the media en mass to cover the event.
But this felt different. Valerie hoped it would all be for the best.
And so their evening ended. She had a lot of prep work to get done back in her room and since she hadn’t checked in yet, it was a good idea if she left Honey’s.
The ride back was fun. Kyle spoke at length about his grandpa. How he had raised him in the forest and the mountains. How his grandpa was such a great guy. Valerie could see it and she smiled.
Back in her rental she followed Kyle all the way into town. He drove her right up to Grandma’s Inn and then even carried her bag, which had wheels, into the tiny reception for her.
“So I guess this is goodnight?” he said. He was a little jittery and eventually took her hand in his. “I have thoroughly enjoyed this evening. Perhaps we should do it again while you’re in town?”
Valerie grinned. He was so much fun, so light and she thought she might be interested in getting to know him a little, no, a lot better. Well she had that vacation time, and staying here for a bit and then going home would also work for her. She nodded.
“I would love to,” she said.
Then Kyle let go of her hand and walked out the door. He turned on the threshold and looked back at her, smiled, waved and was gone.
She sighed.
“Yup,” the lady behind the reception counter said. She was a little thing with grey hair and milky blue eyes. “That Kyle is one handsome man. I knew his daddy Reuben, what a catch that one was too.”
“You don’t say,” Valerie said taking the offered key.
“Oh, still makes my toes curl just to think of him.”
Valerie thanked her hostess and made her way to her room.
Grandma’s Inn was quaint. It put Valerie in mind of a Beatrix Potter house with doilies and frills on the tables, and embroidery on the cushions. The room she was staying in was small, neat and homey with knickknacks and a tiny heart shaped chocolate on her pillow. In the en suite bathroom, small lavender scented soaps, and shower gel in the smallest bottles imaginable, greeted her. She had a whole collection of hotel stuff that she travelled with. Never being in one place long enough to buy actual groceries beyond the essentials, it was great to have handy little bottles of mouth wash, shampoo and conditioner, and one use tubes of toothpaste.
Valerie flopped on the bed and stared at the ceiling for a while. Then she pulled her laptop out of its bag and began to go over her notes. Tomorrow would be a busy day.
She fell asleep with her computer next to her on the bed and dreamt of Kyle and a bear.
The morning sunlight glinted through the leaves on the tree outside her window. As Valerie opened her eyes she stared at it and thought of home. As a child she had played in the trees that grew all around her plantation home. These thoughts of homesickness weren’t helping her she realized. She needed to get up and get ready. After all she had a meeting with some council members. What they were the council of she wasn’t entirely sure, but if Petersen -Snow wanted to do anything in Sun Valley, these people had made it abundantly clear that she had to go through them.
The meeting was in a conference room in the city hall. It was a squat building with the obligatory columns out front and three floors, but it was a block of concrete that some inept architect had tried to fancy up. Valerie hated buildings like that, but she made her way inside anyway, toting her laptop bag on her shoulder. She was dressed in light grey slacks and a peach blouse with a thin jacket to keep out the chill. The wind was blowing today and it was a little fresh for her taste.
Looking professional was important, but for the life of her, Valerie had not been able to tame her wild, dark curls this morning and now they blew about her face until she was safely inside where the wind couldn’t get her.
The conference room was on the first floor right at the back of the building and she got lost along the way, and had to ask directions twice. So she stepped through the door a little after ten to find a whole host of people sitting around the oval table.
On one side, sat men with grey hair, beards and matching grey suits. On the other sat grey and white haired men, in jeans and flannel shirts. There were eight of them in total, four suits and four flannels.
“Morning,” Valerie said a little nervously. “I’m…”
“You are late young lady, is what you are,” a suit said standing up, “Introductions; you must be Miss Valerie Rousseau, your office has been in constant contact with mine. These good gentlemen are Mr. Archibald Wilson, Mr. Peter Law, Mr. Jerome Wilde and I am Jeff Headley.” Each man stood and nodded to her in turn. They were so alike it was scary. Same look in the eyes no matter if they were brown, green or blue, same beards almost as well. Valerie felt a Stepford moment coming on.
Then Jeff indicated the other side of the table, “And here we have Mr. Jordan Ewes, Mr. Clancy Jones, Mr. Paul Barkley and finally Mr. Marcus Pierce.”
As he said the last two names Valerie felt her stomach sink into her over-priced shoes. Well there was no denying or hiding from it, the last two men were the same old men she’d had dinner with the night before.
Oh, boy!
“So, to business,” Jeff Headley said, “Sit down young lady.” She sat in the first chair she could reach. Mr. Headley had the tone of one who would broach no argument.
“Miss Rousseau’s company, what was the name again dear?” he asked leaning towards her. Although there was a lot of wood between them she could feel his condescension rippling across the space towards her.
“Petersen-Snow,” Valerie offered, “I have…”
“Yes, I’m sure you do,” Mr. Headley drawled, “But all in good time.”
Valerie developed an instant, bone deep dislike of this pompous ass. But he was one of the people she’d been sent to schmooze. She couldn’t do that with her boot up is prerogative. So she sat back and let him prattle.
“As I was saying, Miss Rousseau’s company has taken a liking to Sun Valley. They want to buy the place and since the amount to purchase the land, outstanding since 1876, has not been paid in full…”
“We will need to see your ledgers, Jeff,” Marcus said softly. His eyes moved from Jeff Headley to Valerie and his look was pure venom.
Valerie wished the ground would swallow her whole. Of course her company wanted to buy the place, she had known that, but it had only been a blip on a map when she’d started this whole process for them. And now it was an actual place with real people who had history and lives and futures. They were proud of their land, their heritage which seemed so connected to the land. Valerie knew about that. Being from New Orleans with the story of witches and supernatural beings tying their magic to the land, she had grown up knowing her own anchor was the soil she was born on. That was why she longed for it so. Her family went back generation on generation on that land, and she didn’t want to take Kyle’s equivalent away from him.
But this was her job.
She came to when raised voices tore into her shame and sadness.
“We have been working for you people, at a reduced wage for over a hundred years Jeff! I think we’ve earned our land!” Paul was yelling. He was on his feet, his face red, his big hands fisted and resting knuckles first on the table, like he intended
to punch it to pieces and was just lining up the shot.
“Now Paul, the ledgers are precise,” Jeff said raising his hands. Valerie saw the abject fear hiding behind his blustering façade. “You are welcome to go through them along with your attorney.”
The room exploded in rage, both sides of the table yelling and calling each other names. And then Paul’s voice rose above everyone else’s and he was yelling at her. He shook an accusatory finger at her, spittal flying as he ranted, “And you! You hussy! You tricked his grandson into showing you the whole place! And now you want to take it from us!”
Valerie was close to tears. The tension in the room was insane and she just wanted to run. She tried to defend herself, to tell them that she didn’t want any of that, that she was just a pawn. Valerie Rousseau made no decisions in the company. She was a glorified pencil pusher with frequent flyer miles. She didn’t want any of this.
God, that vacation time was looking real good around now. In fact, unemployment was looking good too, and that was crazy.
In a rush of emotion Valerie picked up her bag and stormed out of the room. She could be fired for this but who cared, really?
She blundered down the hallway, needing to find her way out when suddenly she bumped into someone, and something hot spilled all over her arm.
Valerie looked up into Kyle’s golden eyes.
“Hey, stranger,” he said smiling instantly when he recognized her. “Sorry about the coffee.”
Valerie shook her head and looked away, “It’s fine, Kyle. Oh God, what are you doing here?”
“Here with Marcus, he’s got some big meeting,” Kyle said vaguely.
Just then the door opened behind her and Marcus and Paul spilled out followed by the others.
“Get away from her!” Marcus roared at Kyle. “She’s poison!”
“She’s gonna take Sun Valley from us,” Paul ranted and Valerie knew she was done for.
She grabbed her laptop bag in her arms and fled down the hallway leaving a confused Kyle behind her.
It was later and tears had happened. Quite a lot of them really and then a panicked phone call back home. Her father was out but her mother was sympathetic until Granny Fifi got the phone, and then Valerie had spent the next twenty minutes crying, while her gran told her what a horrible person her employer was turning her into.
“You come home this instant!” Granny Fifi roared on the other end of the line. “You come here now child, so we can deal with the mess you’re becoming. You can’t take people’s homes! We raised you better than that!”
Valerie had buried her head in the overwhelming cushions on her bed at Grandma’s Inn until she felt she would suffocate. This wasn’t her fault. It was just her job and she’d done it a million times. But all those times she hadn’t gone to dinner with the locals now had she? She hadn’t listened to their stories and heard their love for their home in their voices. None of that.
She had to get her head clear and schedule another meeting. So she would go for a drive.
The rental sped out along the road to Sun Valley. It was just about the only road that she knew and frankly Valerie just wanted to have some open sky around her. Before long she was back at what was almost a cul du sac, but led to Sun Valley. She turned right and went down the track.
After a while she stopped the car and sat behind her wheel for a time. She opened the window needing air and breathed heavily. Okay, she was going to save the situation. Perhaps if she spoke to Mr. Petersen and Mr. Snow, and found out what they wanted to do with the area, then she could lay the locals’ fears to rest. She was pretty sure her company wasn’t going to strip mine the place. But then she was only pretty sure.
Just then voices travelled to her on the breeze. They sounded close by and like there were a lot of them.
Curiosity had always been one of her worst flaws, Valerie knew this, but she got out the car and followed the sound anyway. She headed into the woods, the fallen leaves creating a carpet under foot.
The area was quite clear of underbrush the further in she went and apart from fallen branches she didn’t have much she had to watch out for. The voices grew louder and louder, and suddenly Valerie could see them. It was a whole lot of people, men and women sitting on the ground in a multilayered circle.
She could see Kyle and Marcus, even Paul all sitting there.
Valerie knew she was intruding. She knew it was wrong but she also wanted to know what was happening, so she hid behind a tree.
“…selling the land from under us,” Paul was saying. His voice was angry. Well he had every right to be.
“Do you know what they want to do with the land?” a woman asked. She had long black braids that hung down her chest and pooled in her lap. Her face was mature but not old.
“We didn’t get that far,” Marcus said, “The company rep ran out.”
“And you’re sure it was Valerie?” Kyle asked.
Marcus nodded. “No doubt, my boy. She’s bad news that one.”
“I knew it, I knew it!” Paul was ranting, “From the moment I set eyes on that Jezabel!”
“Paul!” the woman scolded him. “Don’t be an ass, this is her company not her choice. She’s been employed. Does she even know what they plan to do here?”
Valerie didn’t know what she was doing until she stepped out from behind the tree and walked the last little way towards the people.
“I don’t know what they’re planning,” she said.
“You!”
“What are you doing here?”
“Spy!”
The clearing erupted in noise and suddenly Kyle was standing next to her his hand up for silence.
“Valerie, how did you find us?”
“I drove out here to explain,” she said knowing now that it was the truth. “Please, may I speak to you all?”
“Don’t let her! She’ll only lie,” Paul yelled but Marcus stepped up to her and turned her to face him. His eyes were golden like Kyle’s and he looked deeply into her blue ones.
“You tell the truth here,” he said simply as though there was no possibility of argument, “This is a place where we only speak what’s true, no lies, no stories.”
“I’ll tell you what I know with no exaggeration, no embellishment and no sugar coating,” Valerie said, “I can’t promise the truth because I suspect that I haven’t been told it.”
“This is a waste of time!” Paul ranted but when Marcus looked at him the old man sat back down on the leaf strewn ground.
“Hi,” Valerie said. She was standing in the center of the circle now and every single pair of eyes was on her. “I’m Valerie Rousseau, I was sent here to assess Sun Valley for a company. They have employed me for two years so far, to travel all over the country and assess the land or business that they want to buy up. Mostly they buy failing businesses, mines, sometimes when they need a PR boost they’ll sponsor a college or a school, or buy up a piece of land that is a threatened species’ habitat. They have fingers in a lot of pies and the company image is really important to them.”
“They sent me out here to report on Sun Valley, but I have no idea what they plan to do with it,” Valerie said. “They almost never tell me. My job is really just to check the place out and make sure it is what the seller is claiming it to be, then I hand it over to the buyer who comes and does the final negotiation.”
She felt wretched. Her information wasn’t going to help these people to save their home, not at all.
“I just wanted you to know that I… it’s not me,” she said desperately looking at the faces around her. So many faces. “I’m sorry.”
Joel (BBW Bear Shifter Wedding Romance) (Grizzly Groomsmen Book 5) Page 94
