Drilled

by Cole, Cassie

  A lot of people, myself included, thought this flaw was by design. It forced auditors to work quickly to get the job done under the billable hour mark.

  But of course, drilling companies didn’t want auditors finding anything. They wanted to receive a signed certification saying they were in full compliance, a certification they could later use as a shield against government fines or individual lawsuits. A worker was crushed by a stack of pipes? It must have been his fault, since we were just certified by the safety auditors last month.

  To keep auditors from finding anything, companies buried them in paper. Equipment orders, employment records, safety check procedures, online training courses. They printed out everything they could even remotely claim was related to their safety procedures and handed them over, hoping to force the time-crunched auditors to skim or even skip certain parts entirely.

  But we weren’t here to make a profit.

  I let out a deep sigh. “Nothing to do but get started.”

  We spent the rest of the afternoon merely sorting the paper into different categories. It was mind-numbing work examining every single page, figuring out what category of document it was, and then adding it to a different pile on the table. By the time we were leaving we’d barely made a dent.

  We’re going to nail these fuckers, I thought, still as determined as ever.

  Lexa was packing up her things in the lobby. “Productive first day?” she asked.

  I almost said something sarcastic, but stopped myself. She worked for them. I had to be careful. “It was fine.”

  “Lots to do,” Tex said. “Gunna have a busy couple weeks ahead of us.”

  It was a brisk evening, but a hint of spring could be smelled in the air. I watched Lexa’s beautiful figure walk ahead of us, hips swaying with each step. I wondered if we could glean any info from her while staying at her place. Everyone got loose-lipped after a few drinks.

  More than that, I wondered what kind of girl she was. Although all four of us had gone on individual dates in the last year, there was an unspoken agreement that we all were looking for another Candice. Someone we could share. Hell, Cas mentioned it to a girl he’d been dating for three weeks. We were all out bowling, a few pitchers of beer deep, and he’d just said it out loud. Asked her if she’d be interested in having more than one boyfriend.

  I don’t think I’d ever seen someone leave a bowling alley so fast in my life.

  Maybe that’s why Cas had been opposed to moving into this condo: he was afraid of scaring Lexa off. Shit, I couldn’t blame him. Our situation was unique.

  He definitely liked Lexa, though. I knew him well enough to see it in his eyes, and hear it in his voice when he talked about her.

  The smell of spices and cooked meat was thick in the air the moment we walked into the condo. I inhaled the wonderful scent and said, “Kai must be making your chili.”

  “Smells like it,” Tex said. “I’d better check to make sure he’s doin’ it right. Last time he put a pinch too much paprika…”

  The smell got stronger as we went upstairs. We found Kai hunched over the cooking pot, blowing on a spoon and then tasting. He shook his head with annoyance and reached for a jar of spices. Cas was sitting at the dining room table, his laptop open and his fingers typing away.

  “You know you can make yourselves at home, right?” Lexa said. “You can stretch out on the couch with the laptop, or in the recliner.”

  Cas finished his sentence, hit enter, and then closed the laptop. I felt Tex wince next to me: he probably thought it looked suspicious for Cas to quickly close his laptop the moment Lexa came home. I found myself agreeing with him right then.

  “I like working at a table,” Cas said. “Helps me focus. Plus, we wanted to ease you into having guests. I don’t know what your routine is, if you have a favorite chair you like to crash in when you get home…”

  Lexa went into the kitchen, scooted around Kai, and pulled a wine glass from the cabinet. “My routine is having a glass of merlot after a long day. And these two—” she nodded at me and Tex, “—look like they had a long one.”

  Kai glanced over, uncharacteristically alarmed. Cas kept his face blank as he said, “Oh?”

  “You know how it is,” I said. “Enough paperwork to make your eyes glaze over. I’ll take a glass for sure.”

  “Anyone else?”

  She ended up handing out glasses for each of us. We shot the shit while Kai finished dinner.

  “We decided that Jason and Tex will take the air mattresses downstairs,” Cas said. “Kai’s got the futon upstairs.”

  “What’d you do to win that prize?” Lexa asked Kai.

  “More like what he did to scare the rest of us off,” I said. “Our Hamburg friend snores like a chainsaw.”

  “Sounds like someone tossed a toolbox in a cement mixer,” Tex agreed, which almost made Lexa spit out her wine. “I’ll gladly sleep on an air mattress if it means locking him in a room by himself.”

  “Oh, hey,” Lexa gestured with her glass. “We can move that treadmill up to my room, if you’re cramped.”

  “Hell no!” I said. “I’m gunna take advantage of that thing. Get back into a morning routine.”

  Lexa cocked her head and looked at me. “You might have to fight me for it in the mornings. I can stand in the doorway and yell mean things to make you finish faster.”

  “It would need to be real fucken mean,” I said with a sneer. “I’ve got thick skin.”

  Tex’s chili recipe was one of our favorites, even when Kai made it. The four of us dug in while Kai sat calmly, watching for our reactions.

  “It’s amazing!” Lexa said. “Is this all beef?”

  “The secret’s pork,” Tex said with pride. “One pound ground pork, two pounds beef. Gives it a wider flavor. And I agree, Kai. This is your best batch yet. A half pinch more coriander next time and you’ll have nailed it.”

  The German grinned like it was the best compliment he’d ever received. If my mouth wasn’t so full of delicious food I would have made a joke about how it only took him 100 attempts to get it perfect.

  We shared the mutual silence of a group too hungry to talk. Only when I was doling out seconds to myself did I eye Lexa, who was finishing her second glass of wine and pouring a third from the bottle on the table.

  “So, Lexa,” I said casually. “What responsibilities do they give you at Blackrock?”

  Tex shot me a warning glance from across the table. I ignored it.

  “Well, I don’t exactly run the place,” she said. “I’m just a lowly secretary. It’s about as boring as you’d imagine.”

  Even secretaries are complicit if they know what’s going on.

  What I said out loud was, “So you schedule meetings and stuff? Take routine phone calls?” I stirred my chili. “I bet you meet a lot of people. Hell, you probably get to know everyone who comes to see Mr. Bryson. That must be interesting.”

  This time it was Cas who glared at me.

  Lexa gave a wry chuckle. “I only started there this week. And if you want to get really technical, I don’t work there at all. I’m just a temp. I worked at the Bismarck Herald as an editor for seven years before that.”

  “Goddamn,” I said. Losing the Bismarck Herald had been a big blow to the state. They always did their best to keep the oil companies honest. “That sucks.”

  “Yeah, it sucked,” she said. “Happened almost a month ago. I took it pretty hard.”

  She glanced at Cas. Just for a second, but enough for me to see it. What was up with that?

  Guilt flooded in. I’d been thinking of this girl as a possible accessory for Blackrock’s crimes, or a potential witness against them. I hadn’t thought of her as a person until just now. She was only trying to get by. A woman looking for work wherever she could find it.

  Something I certainly sympathized with.

  “Eventually I got the temp job, but it’s only to pay the bills. I’m looking for something more permanent.” She gave a wr
y snort. “Not much room for advancement for a secretary.”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” I said. “I bet you handle a lot of documents and mail and stuff. Why not show some initiative. You said you were an editor?” I leaned forward on the table. “This may come as a shock, but most oil workers don’t have the best writing skills.”

  “There’s an understatement,” Cas said.

  I could see the idea take hold in Lexa’s mind. She stared at the wall, gears grinding away behind her eyes. I wasn’t sure if I’d suggested it to get her closer to information that mattered, or because it was genuinely a good way for her to get ahead at her job.

  “I might do that,” she said, twisting her wine step between her fingers. “At least that would make the day go by faster.”

  Whatever my motivation for the suggestion, I was suddenly excited by the prospect of our roommate having more access to Blackrock Energy’s sensitive files. Nobody else around the table seemed to notice the implication of what I’d done.

  “What about you guys?” Lexa asked. “What exactly does a security audit entail?”

  “Safety audit,” Kai corrected. “And it entails us being the bad guys.”

  “Bad guys?”

  “Yeah…” Cas said. He shrugged. “We’re not well-liked. Especially by the executives.”

  “Wait wait wait,” Lexa said. “I don’t understand. Didn’t Blackrock hire you?”

  “Sure, but that’s how this business works.” Cas leaned his elbows on the table. “Companies hire us to audit their general safety procedures. We come in and go through everything with a fine-toothed comb. Kai and I will visit some job sites chosen at random, while Tex and Jason go through all the paperwork to make sure they’re spending the money on safety procedures rather than just fudging it.”

  “All they want from us is a rubber stamp saying they’re following all the mandated safety regulations,” I said. “That protects them from government fines if any accident does happen.”

  “And gives ‘em ammo in case they get sued,” Tex added.

  “So, back to the original point,” Cas said, “they don’t want us to find anything. They want us to come in, take a lazy glance at their work, tell them everything’s peachy, and then leave.”

  “And we are the bad guys because if we find something?” Kai shook his head. “Whoever is responsible gets fired.”

  “We get death threats,” Tex said ominously.

  I rolled my eyes. “Oh come on. That was one time.”

  “One time too many.”

  Lexa nodded along with us. “Well, I haven’t been there long, but Mr. Bryson seems like a genuinely kind person. I’m sure your audit of Blackrock will go smoothly.”

  It’ll go smoothly if we can get proof of their cover-ups.

  “I’m sure it will,” I said, standing up so I could collect the dishes.

  12

  Lexa

  At first, it was weird having a bunch of guys in the house. I was used to silence or the soft sound of my television. Hearing the melodious, deep voices from the four ripped dudes was a jarring difference.

  But—and this might have been the wine talking—I kind of liked it. I was never lonely by myself, but it was comforting having people around. Like I’d been missing something without realizing it.

  I’d only lived with one boyfriend in my life. David Spetzer, my last college boyfriend. We’d been dating for three months when we decided to split an apartment for the senior year. It sort of happened by accident: we were both looking for places to rent for our final year, and found the perfect loft apartment just off campus. But it was way out of our budgets.

  But our combined budgets could afford it.

  It was fun for a little while. Like playing house. I’d cook dinner, he’d wash the dishes. On weekends I shopped for groceries while he cleaned the bathroom. We fell into individual roles without even needing to talk about it. We just sort of melded together.

  And we screwed like the world was ending.

  I’ve never had a libido as high as I did during those first few months living with David. There was just something sexy about having a man living with you in the same house. Making it his, and yours, and ours.

  Of course, it didn’t last. Things were easy when we didn’t have responsibilities between semesters, but when fall classes started. Both of us were overwhelmed with class work, and the chores started slipping. Those roles we fell into without talking about it? We fell out of them just as easily. And then I was holding a grudge because he wasn’t keeping the bathroom as clean as I wanted, and he got pissed off (without saying anything) because I wasn’t cooking as much. Before long, we hated each other. I don’t know how we got through those last couple of months leading into graduation, but by the time we got our diplomas our break-up was a mutually-assumed conclusion.

  Having these four men in the house—four insanely hot men—reminded me of those first few perfect months with David. The excitement of sitting down to a meal and a few glasses of wine. Relaxing after dinner while Cas and Jason washed the dishes by hand—even though I had a dishwasher. It was all so intoxicatingly familiar.

  Except these were just guys renting my spare rooms. I wasn’t going to bed with any of them. They technically weren’t even my friends.

  Would any of that change?

  “Tonight was wonderful,” I said, “but don’t feel like you have to invite me to dinner every night. We can do our own separate things.”

  “Nonsense!” Kai said across the couch from me. “We work together. Why should we not dine together?”

  “We’re in the same building. That’s not quite working together.”

  “If you’re in the house while we make dinner, Kai’s gunna be offended if you don’t join us,” Tex said. “Best not to fight him.”

  “Hey, I wasn’t complaining. A girl’s got to eat.”

  Tex bent over my chess set. “Is this silver?”

  “White gold for one set of pieces,” I bragged, “and yellow gold for the other.”

  Tex whistled between his teeth. “Where’d you get it?”

  I rose from the couch and joined him. “Whenever we visited my grandparents’ house, Paw Paw taught me to play. He said that even if I could get through life with my beauty, women had to be smart, too.” I wouldn’t have said such a conceded thing normally, but four glasses of wine made me less embarrassed. “He got it while he was in the Second World War. A French woman gifted it to him after the Allies liberated their village. I inherited it when Paw Paw died.”

  “That’s a heck of a story,” Tex said. “I had a set like this. Not nearly as fancy. It was painted metal. Probably worth less than the box this one came in. But it had the same sentimental value, on account of my dad taught me to play on it too.”

  “Do you still have it?”

  He smiled sadly. “I was supposed to inherit it too. But my sister and her family flew home for the funeral a day before I did, and they took it. I didn’t even realize it was gone until they left.”

  “What the…” I said. “That’s bullcrap! You should have gotten it back, even if it meant flying to wherever your sister lived!”

  “Yeah…” he said, rubbing his hand over his nearly-shaved head. It showed off the animal tattoos covering his arm. “Thing is, the chess set wasn’t what I missed. Ya know?”

  My heart ached for him. “Yeah. I don’t really care about the value of my chess set, either.” I shrugged. “But I feel closer to Paw Paw when I play.”

  “Play you one right now,” he said. “I’m rusty, but I think I can still put up a fight.”

  I wanted to keep hanging out with the guys but it was already past my bedtime. I could feel my eyelids growing heavier with every second. “I’ve got to get up early for work. Rain check?”

  “Anytime,” he said.

  I waved to the room. “I’m heading to bed. There’s towels in the bathrooms upstairs and downstairs, but if you need anything else just ask.” I tried to think of something mo
re significant to say, a thank you or a welcome to Chateau Lexa, but everything sounded stupid in my head so I mumbled, “G’night,” and headed for the stairs.

  They responded in kind, except for Cas who said, “Sweet dreams, Lexa,” just like he had the night before.

  I brushed my teeth and took my contact lenses out before crawling under my down comforter. It was weird having the door to my bedroom closed, but otherwise everything felt right. I could hear the soft murders of their voices downstairs. Not enough to make out the words, but enough to rock me to sleep with the soothing baritone.

  Sweet dreams, Lexa.

  13

  Cas

  I waited until I heard Lexa’s bedroom door close upstairs before I turned to Jason. “What the hell are you doing?”

  He looked up from his phone. “Uhh, browsing Reddit.”

  “I meant at dinner,” I hissed. “Pumping Lexa for info.”

  He had the nerve to shrug. “I was just making polite conversation, bro.”

  “Like heck you were,” Tex said. He was sitting at the chess set, examining the pieces. “You were feelin’ her out. Seein’ if she knew anything worth knowin.’”

  “Yeah, sure,” Jason rolled his eyes. “I was trying to understand what she did at Blackrock.”

  “She’s a secretary,” I said, biting off each word. “It’s not complicated.”

  “Even secretaries can be complicit,” he hissed. “Remember the admin assistant at… Uhh, you know the one. The place in Dickinson.”

  “Dean’s Oil & Gas?” Tex offered.

  Jason snapped his fingers. “That’s the one. Their secretary took notes in every meeting with their board. Knew about everything they did, then lied about it under oath.”

  “Lexa isn’t that involved,” I said. “You heard it yourself: she’s only been there a few days.”

  “We know that,” Jason said slowly, “because I asked the question.”

  “I agree with Jason,” Kai said. “Questions are only questions. No harm. Ja?”