Weak For You

by Shanade White

  “I think we are,” Sam said with a huge grin. “I’ll miss Coldwater Canyon, but it’s going to be an adventure and if we can do some good in the process then even better.”

  Seth had been pacing restlessly around his rooms at the vet clinic, thinking that it was taking his cousin and his wife a long time to make up their minds, but then he reminded himself that this would be a big move for them. Still, he wished that they’d hurry, he was anxious to get home and get the next part of his plan started. Something told him that the day of reckoning was close at hand. Neil Parker had been gone for two months and there was no way someone at the EPA hadn’t caught on to what he’d been doing for all those years.

  Not to mention the quickly approaching expiration date of the lease and his impending meeting with the governing council of the Yup’ik tribe, scheduled for later that month; he needed to be ready soon. It had been Tina’s suggestion that he go to the EPA himself, expose everything to them before they found out themselves, but the plan he’d come up with would only work if he could get the lease signed.

  The solution had come to him one night as he paced the big house that he hated so much, just being there reminding him of how difficult his childhood had been. And he was restless because he missed his little cabin and knew that it would be a while before he would be able to escape the mess he’d just inherited. The problem had been swimming around in his head, so complicated he wasn’t sure what he was going to do. Refitting the mines and the lumber operation to function to standards would involve a big investment, which he knew the company didn’t have, not with the looming cleanup costs.

  What he really needed was a new source of income he realized, trying to take one part of the problem at a time. If he had money coming in, he’d be able to use it to fund the cleanup without touching any of the assets of the company. That’s when he remembered his long ago dream of diversifying the mining company to include renewable energy. He went straight to his computer and began doing research, amazed that the answer had been right in front of his face all along.

  After some intense planning and a little help from Tina, who had become his biggest asset, he worked out that with both solar panels and wind turbines he could make enough money to clean up the mines and replant the forest where it had been clear cut. Now he had a formal plan, including blue prints, surveys, and economic predictions all ready to go, but he still needed to get the lease to make it happen.

  Then he was back to Sam and Julie; the Yup’ik wanted ecologists, hydrologists, and geologists to be involved. They didn’t trust the government to get the job done, they wanted private scientists who had no ties to the government running the cleanup and wouldn’t budge on that request. It had taken months to assemble a team that was willing to work together, now all he needed was Sam and Julie.

  They had been the obvious choice, and one that would please the tribe as well. But he wasn’t sure that he’d done enough to convince them that this was a unique opportunity to not only study a healing ecosystem but be a large part of the healing. The truth was that he could have hired any number of very qualified ecologists, but he wanted Sam and Julie and the fire they seemed to bring to the projects they were involved in, that they were family only added to their allure.

  Knowing that staying up all night wouldn’t do anything to help the situation, Seth climbed into bed and hoped that in the morning he’d have Sam and Julie’s answer and he could move on with the rest of his trip to California. Between meeting with engineers and suppliers for the solar panels and wind turbines, and visiting the university to see what other help he might be able to get, he’d be here for at least another two weeks.

  Under any other circumstances what he was trying to do might have been fun, but with so much on the line, he just couldn’t enjoy himself. Hopefully though, everything would go according to his plan, the lease would get signed, the EPA would cooperate, and then he would be able to enjoy himself.

  It was exciting to think that in a few years the land he loved so much would have been repaired, the ugly marks his family had left on it would disappear, the animals would come back and the people would be able to live off the land like they’d been doing for generations. Those positive thoughts finally allowed him to shut his eyes and go to sleep, the moon shining in the window comforting him as he drifted off.

  Chapter 3

  Lauren slammed the phone down into its cradle thinking that the only good thing about the old equipment in her office was that it was tough. She’d spent the last two weeks trying to get a hold of Seth Montgomery only to be sent to his voice mail over and over, making her begin to believe that he was avoiding her and slamming the phone down felt good. If the man wasn’t going to cooperate with her, then she’d have to do some hard thinking about how she was going to avoid a scandal and get the job done she was sent here to do.

  “Hey, what’s going on in here?” Heather said, poking her head in the door.

  Lauren looked up at her assistant, glad that she was here. After months spent digging through all the old records together to get an idea just how deep the corruption went, they’d become good friends. In fact, Lauren knew that without Heather, she would have been lost and once again silently thanked the director for sending her here.

  “I still can’t get Seth Montgomery on the phone. What’s the deal with this guy anyway? I mean doesn’t he know what he’s inherited?” Lauren had asked these same questions before, but never out loud.

  Heather sat down in the chair on the other side of the desk and asked, “Do you want to know what I’ve heard?”

  Lauren sighed. Heather knew how much she hated gossip, how much she liked hard facts, but in this case, she wasn’t making any headway with facts. She needed a way to get Seth Montgomery’s attention, get him to call her back, if not she was going to have to do something drastic like go looking for him herself.

  “Okay, but try to stick to just the facts you know are true,” she finally said.

  “Well, I can’t verify everything I’m going to tell you, some of it’s just gossip from around town,” Heather said, reminding Lauren that unlike Heather, she’d barely met anyone since she’d come to town. “But from what I hear, he lives in some cabin miles away from anyone. He and his father had a falling out when he turned eighteen and he moved out, his mother died when he was just a kid and his father married five times after that, I guess it affected the relationship.”

  “What about his brothers, doesn’t he have two of them?” Lauren had seen their names in the papers, but couldn’t remember.

  “He has two, both are in Anchorage and apparently not very interested in helping Seth. I don’t know the story behind that,” Heather explained.

  “Is he married? Any kids?” Now that she’d started she couldn’t stop herself. She’d seen pictures of Seth Montgomery when he’d been younger, but nothing recent. He’d been a good-looking kid, but now she imagined him with a beard and long hair, the typical mountain man.

  “No, from what I understand he’s a confirmed bachelor, never dates anyone.”

  Lauren thought about that for a minute and decided that it made sense. “Well, I guess that makes sense, who would he date out in the wilderness,” she said, then shuddered to think of living out in the middle of nowhere. “I mean what woman is going to want to live so far from civilization?”

  “Apparently, there are quite a few here in town. Seth Montgomery is kind of the ultimate catch around here. Billions of dollars, a nice cabin, and evidently he’s quite good looking,” Heather said, a dreamy quality in her voice.

  “Don’t tell me you’re one of those women,” Lauren said, laughing.

  “Well, you can’t blame me. He’s a bit of a mystery and I love mysteries,” Heather said, laughing as well. “But seriously, I don’t know what else I can tell you that might help.”

  “I don’t know either. I guess I’ll give him another few days to respond to all my messages and if he doesn’t I’ll have to go looking for him,” Lauren said
, hoping it didn’t come down to that. As much as she hated her office, she wasn’t sure about traipsing around the forest on her own trying to find his cabin.

  “You better get some different clothes then,” Heather said, pointing to Lauren’s heels, which she’d refused to give up, no matter that hiking boots were more appropriate to where she was.

  “I suppose you’re right, but I really hate to,” she said, thinking of the ugly boots she’d seen people wearing.

  “You live in Alaska now, it’s time to embrace that,” Heather said, wisely.

  “I know, but it’s not going to be easy,” Lauren said, thinking of all the designer clothes in her closet that would just hang there until they went out of style. “But I think you’re right. I think I’ll take the rest of the day off and explore town, I could use a break.”

  “What me to tag along?” Heather asked.

  “That would be fun. We’ve been working hard, we deserve a little time off,” Lauren said, thinking it might not be so bad if Heather was with her. “You can introduce me to some people in town, I haven’t done a very good job of getting out.”

  “I know the perfect place for lunch,” Heather said, grabbing her purse. “It’ll be my treat, then we’ll go spend a bunch of your money.”

  Seth got in the truck, shut the door, and started it up then sat and looked at the little house in front of him, thinking about how different it was than the home he’d grown up in. Sam and Julie had seemed pleased with the little house, even baby Annabelle had seemed happy with her little room, but he’d still take his cabin over it any day. Thinking of his cabin reminded him that he had more to accomplish before he left Naknek, so he put the truck in drive, dismissing thoughts of how cozy Sam, Julie, and Annabelle had looked when he left.

  He’d never wanted a family, had been sure he didn’t want children, but occasionally there was a longing in him that he couldn’t quite identify. It didn’t happen very often, but when it did, it always took him by surprise. Growing up the way he had, he’d long ago promised himself that he wasn’t going to get married and certainly wasn’t going to have any children. Marriages never worked, and that left the kids stranded in the middle of a bunch of adult problems they couldn’t cope with. He should know, that had been his life.

  After his childhood, he knew with certainty that he wasn’t cut out to be a father, it wasn’t his fault, he just hadn’t had a very good role model. Not to mention the fact that until he’d moved out, he’d practically raised his brothers, and that was enough for him. But that didn’t mean that he didn’t get lonely occasionally, usually he could bury the feeling by working on his cabin, the physical exertion dispelling his longing. That wasn’t possible now, and wouldn’t be for a while so he’d have to find another way to work out his frustration.

  He was driving down Main Street turning the options over in his mind, when a woman walking down the street caught his attention. An instant burst of attraction rushed through him when he saw her, shocking him so much that he slammed on the brakes. It wasn’t the fact that he felt attraction to a woman, he was a man after all, it was the instant recognition that went with that attraction that shocked him, because he knew without a doubt that he didn’t know the woman or the woman she was with for that matter.

  They were both loaded down with packages, but that didn’t stop him from noticing her full curvy figure or her wavy black hair that shone in the sunlight. Maybe it was the hair that had caught his attention; he loved women who wore their hair in that short bob style that swung every time they moved their heads. But it wasn’t just her hair, there was something else striking about her, but he couldn’t put his finger on what it was.

  A car behind him honked its horn and he realized that he’d been stopped in the middle of the road. As he pulled away, she looked up and their eyes met, sending another wave of attraction rushing through him. It had only a brief second, but her brown eyes had gotten larger when they’d met his blue ones, then she’d quickly looked away. Pushing the strange encounter from his mind, he concentrated on his next task, buying a new cell phone to replace his old one, which just wasn’t up to what he needed it to do.

  When Lauren got to the office the next day and walked through the door, Heather practically jumped across the desk to meet her. “Seth Montgomery called yesterday when we were out shopping. He wanted you to meet with him at his office today.” Heather was practically jumping up and down.

  “Well, it’s about time,” Lauren said, heading for her office. “Did you call him back yet?”

  Heather followed her. “No, I wanted to see what you wanted to do.”

  Lauren thought about it for a minute, looked around her office and realized that the last thing she wanted to do was meet with Seth Montgomery in the shabby little office. “Call him back and tell him that I’ll meet him at the restaurant downtown, but that it can’t possibly be until the end of the next week.”

  Heather stared at Lauren shocked. “But don’t we want this meeting with him and soon?” she asked, confused.

  “Yes, but he needs us more than we need him. Make him beg a little, then find some room in my schedule tomorrow at lunch time,” Lauren said, winking at Heather.

  Heather shook her head,. “I feel sorry for Seth Montgomery,” she said, then walked out of the room.

  By the time she walked into the restaurant, she was ready to do war with Seth Montgomery. She knew that it was important to establish that she wasn’t going to let him slide on anything, that he was lucky not to be in jail. She didn’t plan to share with him the fact that her boss wanted to keep the scandal as quiet as possible, and she had no intention of giving him anything he could use against her.

  Spotting a man in the corner who looked a bit like the pictures she’d seen of Seth Montgomery as a child, she headed to the back of the restaurant and the booth where he was sitting. He was shuffling through a stack of papers, a laptop open on the table in front of him, when she stepped up to the booth. She waited, thinking he’d notice her there, but the as the seconds stretched to minutes, she began to wonder if this was the right man.

  “Excuse me. Are you Seth Montgomery?” she asked, beginning to get annoyed the longer he ignored her.

  When he finally looked up, Lauren was shocked to find the same blue eyes she’d seen the other day looking up at her and her heart did a little flip flop. “Yes, I’m Seth Montgomery,” he answered, thinking that he’d met her somewhere before.

  “I’m L.J. Anderson. We’re supposed to be meeting for lunch today,” Lauren said, her annoyance hitting a new level.

  Seth’s eyes got big, and before he could stop himself, he said, “But you’re a woman.”

  It took only a second for his words to hit home. “Last time I checked, yes. Is that going to be a problem?” Lauren’s voice was crisp, making it clear that he’d insulted her.

  Seth wished the words had not come out of his mouth and back pedaled. “I mean… No, it’s not…. I didn’t think.” He jumped to his feet and pointed to the other side of the booth. “Please, sit down.”

  Lauren sighed. She’d spent her entire career fighting to prove that she was just as capable as any man. “I’ll let that slide then,” Lauren said, thankful that at least he hadn’t had an issue with the fact that she was African American. It was much easier to overcome the woman thing rather than the other.

  As soon as she was seated, the waitress brought them both menus and Seth put his computer away, leaving the papers on the desk. “Maybe we can start over,” he said, when the waitress had taken their drink orders and left.

  Lauren didn’t say anything for a second trying to read the man sitting across from her. He didn’t look anything like she’d expected he would, in fact he was clean cut with the most piercing blue eyes she’d ever seen. As she studied him, a strange sense of recognition passed through her, as if she’d met him before. This was quickly followed by a wave of attraction that stunned her. Speechless, she studied him, trying to understand what was happening.r />
  Seth too was feeling an unexplainable attraction to Lauren, a tightening in his groin that surprised him, but then he remembered watching her walk down the street. Pushing his attraction aside, he took advantage of Lauren’s distraction and jumped right in with what he wanted to say.

  “I wanted to meet with you today to talk about a little problem I discovered when I took over the company,” he began, hoping she’d let him get through the speech he’d been working on for days.

  But Lauren had finally come back to her senses and she was suddenly on the defensive. “I’d call it more than a little problem. I think we both know that this situation goes far deeper than that,” she said, then took a deep breath to continue, to tell him exactly what she thought of his company and what they’d done, but Seth held up his hand and stopped her.

  “Believe me, I know just how big of a problem I have on my hands, but I’d like to point out that my father didn’t do this on his own,” Seth said, then gave that a minute to make the impact he hoped it would.

  Lauren would have cussed out loud if she could have; the one thing Seth had on his side was that the EPA was at fault as well and he obviously wasn’t afraid to use that against her. She settled back in the booth prepared for a fight. Clearly, Seth Montgomery had come to this meeting prepared. Now all she had to do was figure out how he planned to use that information to his advantage and shut him down.

  “While that may be true, the man responsible had disappeared, although I’m sure we’ll catch up with him eventually. It’s not that easy to disappear these days,” Lauren assured him, a challenge in her voice. “He’ll be brought to justice just like everyone else involved in this will be.”

  “I certainly hope so,” Seth said, surprising Lauren. “I’d like to make this perfectly clear, Ms. Anderson, I never had anything to do with what my father and Mr. Parker did.”

  Lauren almost believed him, but she’d heard that same speech from several vice-presidents, a few engineers, and even a CEO. She’d thought long and hard about just how innocent Seth Montgomery might be and decided that although his name might not be on any of the paperwork, that didn’t mean that he wasn’t involved.