Unexpected Love (White Oak-Mafia #2)

by Liza O'Connor

  “So the upstairs is not used?”

  “When Grams first came to Iowa, it was her real home. My mother would visit her when I was little. I know my mother believed she lived in the tiny cabin because I remember her telling Father he should give Grams enough money to make a better home. Father said he’d offered to buy the land from her for a hundred thousand, but she’d just called him a thief.”

  “She sold it to the lottery winner for a hundred-fifty million, right?”

  “Actually, Grams had to up it to a hundred-eighty million to cover a debt Uncle Jeffrey had devised to force the sale of the land. But even then it was a steal. It’s worth about two to four billion in lumber.”

  Dan choked. “Seriously?”

  “White oak doesn’t rot and can be cut into beautiful wide beams. It’s a premium wood that lasts forever. My father intended to cut down two hundred thousand acres of trees just so he could return to Chicago in style. Only Grams outsmarted him. He thought he just needed to wait for her to die, but she was always twelve steps ahead.”

  Tess opened the first door in the side hall. “This is Steel’s room.”

  His eyebrows rose as he eyed the large room. She continued down hall and opened a door. “This is my room.”

  He glanced inside. “Any reason why your room is smaller?”

  “Well, Steel’s room was one of the two guest rooms.” She opened another door. “This is…was Grams’ room.” She closed it quickly and led him to the final door in the hall. “This will be the first room I have made into dorms.”

  “How many beds are you putting in here?”

  “Eight. I think they’ll fit.”

  He smiled. “Yes, and without anyone having to climb over someone else to reach a top bunk.”

  Tess then showed him the storage rooms.

  “Impressive,” he said. He stopped when they returned to the kitchen. “How are you going to handle feeding all these guys?”

  “I hadn’t really given that a thought.”

  “Word of advice. Don’t make it your job.”

  Steel approached. “We’ll try rotating the responsibilities. I’ve found most guys can cook at least one decent meal.”

  Dan chuckled. “Well, you’ve pegged me. I can do a mean grilled steak, but everything else is mostly assembly.”

  “What if someone can’t cook at all?” Tess asked.

  Dan shrugged. “We could make them grocery shop.”

  Tess shook her head. “We have a boy who shops and delivers, and he’s great at picking good fruits, vegetables, and nice cuts of fish. I’m not inclined to give him up to someone who knows nothing about edible foods.”

  “Good point.” Dan said. “Then deadbeats can clean up after dinner.”

  “That’ll teach them.” Tess grinned at Dan for such a clever solution. She then placed Grams on the stone mantel over the fireplace and retrieved her laptop. A few moments later, she had the plan pulled up.

  “Crap!” She grabbed her phone and called Sara. “You didn’t show this to Tom did you?”

  “No, but he’s getting pushy.”

  “Well, you saved him from a heart attack. It’s doubled everything. I’ll fix this and send you a new version as fast as possible.”

  Steel came over. “Anything I can do?”

  She grimaced. “Would you mind doing a round of the woods? Make sure everything is okay?”

  “In other words, leave you alone.”

  “No, the woods have been unattended for almost twenty hours. I’m worried about them.”

  He caressed her hair. “I’ll check on the woods and my sites.” He then glanced at Dan. “You coming?”

  “Absolutely,” he stated and then frowned at Tess. “You’ll be okay alone here, right?”

  She thought it an odd and rather demeaning question. “Yep. I’m pretty self-sufficient.”

  Dan’s hand settled on her shoulder. “I didn’t mean it that way. You are without a doubt the most self-sufficient woman I’ve ever met.”

  As Steel and Dan left, she recalled Steel giving her a similar compliment, but he had stopped before saying ‘woman’, deciding she was one of the most rational persons he’d ever met, no gender included. She liked that a great deal better.

  Chapter 17

  Once they were a mile from the cabin, Steel spoke his mind. “Look. I understand why you like Tess, but let me be very clear. I’ve got first dibs on the lady.”

  Dan raised his eyebrow in challenge. “Then let me be equally clear. You’ve left me no choice in this matter. If you will not stop hugging and touching her, then I’ve no option but to flirt with her so anyone observing will think, while she likes the attention, she’s not settling on anyone in particular.”

  Steel stopped and glared at him. “Find another way.”

  Dan stepped up until they were nose to nose and spoke softly. “I’ll stop the second you leave her the hell alone. Otherwise, I need to confuse the situation. And when Brady shows up, I’ll give him orders to flirt with her as well.”

  “Maybe I should just send you to Dubuque.”

  “Do that, and you’ll be dead long before these sites are excavated. Do you really want that privilege to go to someone else? And what about Tess? She just lost her grandmother. How many more blows can she take?”

  Dan’s second challenge silenced him. He did need to think about Tess. If he was killed, not only would she be devastated, but his replacement probably would do everything in his power to prevent her from ever taking over as forest manager.

  “All right. But please let Tess know why you are flirting with her.”

  “I can do that.”

  Steel turned around and headed down the trail full speed, hoping to lose Dan, but doubting he’d be able to.

  When they reached the trail to the mounds, Dan stopped him. “Is this where the perimeter fence will go?”

  Steel was impressed he’d figured that out. “Yes.”

  “Do you know where any of the thick patches of woods that Tess was worried about might be?”

  Steel was about to say he didn’t, but remembered he’d gone through a dense section to come up the back way to the village. “I know one area. Let me show you.”

  “Just point me in the right direction.”

  “Aren’t you supposed to tag after me?” Steel challenged.

  “Honestly, in woods like this? I’m more likely to stop a shooter if we are traveling apart. He’ll be focused on you and hopefully not paying attention to his own tracks.”

  “Well, if a sniper is after me, they are probably sitting in a boat on the Mississippi waiting for me to take the ridge trail up to the top. And if they are in these woods, they’ll be waiting on the same trail. Going up the backside of the mountain to get to the sites is my safest route.”

  Dan smiled. “Now that’s the way I want you to think. Let’s go.”

  When they got to the old patch of trees, Dan cursed, and Steel understood why.

  “Tess has grossly underestimated the amount of trees that will need to be removed,” Dan warned.

  Steel had no desire to be the grim reaper on this. “You’ll need to let her know.”

  Dan ran his hand across his head. He pulled out his GPS and moved into the trouble area. “These aren’t trees. They’re freaking monoliths. He pointed to the limbs of one. An electric fence won’t do any good if a person can walk over the top on a two-foot wide limb.”

  “You’re right,” Steel stated. God, this was going to break Tess’s heart.

  “I need a thirty-foot safety zone.”

  Steel thought that request a bit extreme. “You sure about that?”

  “There can’t be any branches crossing the fence,” Dan stated.

  “I agree.”

  He stared up into the branches of a hundred-and-fifty-foot giant. “I don’t see how a helicopter can lift anything near this size.”

  “I would agree with you, but I watched Tess trim a tree down for removal. She can do it.”

&n
bsp; “Unless you’re planning to take six years building this fence, you’ll need more than Tess cutting down trees.”

  ***

  Steel continued up alone to his sites. All looked fine. He would have been happy except for Dan’s claim that Tess had grossly underestimated the trees needing to be cut. What if she was over her head in what she believed she could do?

  He located Dan, cursing a giant tree. “We need to get back to the cabin and change the plan to adjust for this extra work.”

  When they arrived, Tess was preparing dinner. She abandoned the grill the moment they entered. “Was everything okay?”

  “The woods and mounds are fine. You didn’t send off the plan yet did you?”

  “No. Why? What’s wrong?” She moved closer, searching his face for the answer.

  Steel rubbed her arm. “Dan needs you to make some adjustments. I’ll take over dinner while he fills you in.”

  Chapter 18

  Tess knew something terrible had happened. Steel couldn’t even look her in the eyes. She walked over to Dan. “What’s wrong?”

  “We are going to have to clear out a thirty-foot area at the fence perimeter.”

  “What? No!” She turned to Steel fixated on the damn grill. “Steel, you can’t allow this senseless destruction of trees. Do you have any idea how long it would take to helicopter out all those trees? Even if I could find other pilots capable of doing the job, it would take years.”

  He turned off the grill and faced her. “The fence cannot have limbs hanging over it.”

  “I agree. I’ve always intended to trim the limbs. But cutting all the trees away will make hikers think it’s a trail. And then when some little kid touches the electric fence, the state will be sued. We need that area impenetrable, not cleared. I intended to use the cut limbs to make the area unwalkable.”

  Steel smiled. “And that’s why we needed you involved in this discussion.” He then looked at Dan. “Tess is right.”

  Dan sighed and threw up his hands. “It’s a good thing I’m not really here for the security design job because I’d be quitting right now.

  Tess huffed. “No. You’d be fired. A real security head would never create such a dangerous situation for a little child hiking with his parents.”

  “Okay, that’s a good point. I’m just trying to secure the area so the people and land you treasure are safe.”

  Tess closed her eyes. Dan was right. His heart was in the right place. “Okay, let’s all take a step back and calm. No child is getting fried, and no bad people are going to penetrate our fence. Nor are they going over it. We just have to be smart about this. Tomorrow, let’s go out to the woods near your garden site. That’s going to be the hardest area. I’ll cut a few limbs and show you how it can be used to keep away normal hikers.”

  “A few?” Dan challenged.

  Tess sighed and stared up at the ceiling. Grams, give me patience, please. She breathed in and then out slowly and turned to Dan. “You don’t want me cluttering the ground with shrapnel until we get the fencing delivered.”

  “Wouldn’t it be easier to deliver it to exactly where we want if the limbs are already cut away?” Steel asked.

  She groaned. Where was her brain? She needed to remove the branches first so there would be space for Sam to drop in fencing. Her planning professor wouldn’t be proud of her now. She’d failed to recognize a critical step in the process. “Sorry…yes it would.”

  She pulled up the planning program and corrected the timeline.

  “The limb cutting comes before, not after the fencing. Then I’ll need to trim the large branches we cut and have them hauled out for lumber. Next, we’ll need to clean out a ten-foot area of all bramble so the fencers will have room to work. To do that I’ll start building the bramble barrier. I just need to leave openings right now so the workers can get in and out. I’ll fill those in later once the fence is up.”

  Steel smiled at her with admiration.

  Why? She’d been wrong.

  Dan’s glare at Steel made her think he was wondering the same thing.

  Steel moved the fish to the plates and set the vegetable dishes on the counter. “Let’s eat.”

  When Tess sat down, he came over and whispered. “No one’s right all the time, but it’s rare to find someone who sees their error and changes their plan without hesitation.” He then kissed her temple.

  That caused Dan to clear his throat.

  Purposely misunderstanding him, Tess offered him a basket of whole wheat rolls. “Did you swallow a bone? Eat some bread.”

  He ignored the bread and chucked her chin. “Funny girl.”

  Steel sat down on the other side of her. “So what’s our plan for tomorrow?”

  “First, we need to send the plan off to Tom and get it approved. Until we get approval, we can mark the perimeter where the cams will go, where the poles will be located, and trim some branches so you can see how they can help the security. Then once we get clearance, we’ll order the fencing and hire workers. Hopefully, we can get a barge into the marshland and Sam can pick up the fence and drop it where we need.”

  Dan grimaced. “Drop it?”

  “Bad choice of words. He’ll set it down softly.”

  Dan leaned over and kissed her temple. “Thank you.”

  She stared at him like he was nuts, then focused on her fish. “This is good. Thanks for saving it,” she said and smiled at Steel, who was glaring at Dan.

  He lost his glare and returned her smile. “You are most welcome. I knew what Dan wanted to do was going to upset you. I just didn’t know how wrong he was.”

  “You two stop,” she demanded before Dan could reply. “We need to get along.” She turned to Dan. “Now, I know you don’t like me, so I’m assuming you are trying to break Steel’s habit of touching me.”

  Dan smiled. “How can I not like you? You’re smart and beautiful. But in this case, you are partially correct. Either he stops and then I will, or I’ll diminish his affection by making it something you accept from anyone.”

  She stared at him. “That’s actually clever.” She then turned back to Steel and gripped his hand. “I really like it when you touch me. So if you can stop glaring at Dan, then I’ll endure his affection, and we can still have our moments.”

  Steel burst out in laughter and wrapped his arm around her. “You are one of a kind.” He then kissed the top of her head and released her. “Can we review the plan while we eat?”

  She slid off her stool and hurried to the printer. A moment later, she returned with three copies.

  Just as she picked up her fork to eat, Dan spoke. “You need expert fence builders for this job.”

  Smiling, she continued eating.

  “From Tess’s smug smile, I think we must have that…ah, here it is. Engage Danton’s Security for installation of fence.

  Dan stared at Tess. “Where did you hear about them?”

  “I didn’t. Tom’s secretary, Sara, says they are used for all important government jobs.”

  “Do you have an issue with them?” Steel asked.

  “Not at all. They’ve a very good reputation. Only they prefer high profile installations.”

  “It’s Tom’s job to convince them,” Tess said. “But Sara assured me he could do it.”

  Dan frowned at her response. “Do you have an alternative if they turn us down?”

  “Two, but Sara’s certain they’ll do it.”

  Dan rolled his eyes and shook his head as if surrounded by idiots. “Who are your backups?”

  “They’re in the detail,” Tess muttered as she focused on her food. Dan was annoyingly negative. She much preferred Steel’s can-do attitude. Unfortunately, they were probably stuck with Dan for a long while since she didn’t see her father dying of old age for at least another decade.

  She lost her appetite at the thought of her brothers taking over.

  “You okay?” Steel asked as his hand gently rubbed her back.

  “Just tired. I thi
nk I’ll take a bath and go to bed early.” She stood and realized Dan was scowling at them. “You can sleep in the room at the end of the hall. If you need anything, use your detective skills to find it.”

  She then rubbed Steel’s arm. “Night. Don’t stay up too late. I want to be working by seven.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said through his happy chuckle.

  She then patted frowning Dan on his back. “Night. Glad you’re here, Dan.”

  She hoped that would save Steel from another lecture. God knows, Dan seemed full of them.

  ***

  Steel finished his meal, barely attending to Dan’s lecture. God, the man reminded him of his butler Jerad growing up. Master Alastair, you must keep your shirt tucked and your tie straightened. Otherwise, you’ll be mistaken for common riffraff.

  In Steel’s view, the “riffraff” had a great deal more fun than he. He pushed himself up. “I’m heading to sleep as well. Just turn off the lights after you wash the dishes.”

  “Hold on…you cannot sleep with Tess.”

  “I’m pretty certain I’ve told you about a billion times that our relationship is professional and platonic.”

  “All the while kissing, back rubbing, hand holding…”

  Steel threw up his hands. “Believe what you want.”

  “I believe what I see, Dr. Castile. As will Don Benito.”

  Steel headed to his room. Honest to God, he was sick of hearing about Don Benito. He’d worked in the Middle East, for God’s sake. Every day, he came into contact with people who wanted to kill him for nothing other than his nationality. What made Benito so special?

  When he entered his room, he called Tom. “Did you get a copy of our plan?” He’d never reminded Tess to send it off.

  “I did, and I’m very impressed with the amount of detail already in it.”

  “Any chance we can start spending?”

  “Not until the governor approves it.”

  “Shit!” Steel hated bureaucracy.

  “I’ve a ten o’clock appointment with him tomorrow. And I’ve already flown this by my friend at Danton’s Security. They’re a bit stretched right now. However, worst case scenario, they’ll ensure your security head gets all the advice he needs to build the fence right, but you’ll have to hire the laborers. My friend was very impressed with the detail in the plan. He thinks your head of security can manage this with an advisor available when needed.”