by Karen Foley
“That’s exactly what I want.” He opened the door to the truck and indicated she should climb in. “C’mon, let’s go home. There’s something I want to show you.”
Home. He said it so casually, as if they had been together for years and not just days.
“Cole,” she said wearily. “Why won’t you let me just do my job?”
He searched her face. “This is important, and it has everything to do with your job. Just hear me out on this, okay? I’m being sincere when I say that I only want you to be safe.”
Lacey found her irritation evaporating. She trusted him. If he didn’t want her to go into the mines, then there had to be a good reason why. She climbed into the cab of the truck, but when Cole would have turned away, she caught his hand.
He looked over at her, his expression questioning.
“What—”
She pressed a fingertip against his mouth, and then put her other hand at the back of his head, drawing him down. She loved the rough velvet of his hair, and speared her fingers through it, reveling in the feel of his scalp. “Kiss me.”
Cole stared at her, and even with the sunlight full in his eyes, she saw his pupils dilate. “Lacey…”
She leaned forward and pressed her lips sweetly against his, tasting him ever so lightly with the tip of her tongue. At the same time, she placed his hand on her knee and slid it upward beneath the hem of her sundress. She felt him go still as his warm palm came into contact with the satin edge of her underwear. But when she lifted her hips, he didn’t pretend to misunderstand her, and swiftly drew her panties down her legs until she kicked them free.
“What are you doing?” he rasped softly against her mouth, but his hand was firm and warm against her heated flesh.
“Seducing you,” she whispered back. “Is it working?”
“Here?” His voice sounded slightly strangled.
In answer, she shifted to give him better access and nearly came off the seat as he stroked her once. She’d never done anything so bold before. This man made her do things that she’d never thought herself capable of.
“No,” she murmured against his mouth. “Let’s go home.”
10
COLE GRIPPED THE steering wheel of the truck and tried to control his growing concern. After they had returned from the fair, they’d spent several long, memorable hours in his bed. Then he’d shown Lacey the blueprints of the mine. He’d explained his suspicions to her without revealing that he was working undercover for the Department of Labor. When she’d asked how he had obtained such detailed plans of the mine, he’d fibbed and told her they were from five years earlier, when he had first worked for Buck as a new engineer.
He’d shown her where each of the accidents had supposedly occurred, and how they all taken place near the old, vacated mines. She’d been skeptical about his theory that Buck was working the closed sections, but had been willing to consider the possibility. In the end, they had agreed that she would meet with Buck and talk about the field test, but she would not utilize any tunnels that Cole considered to be dangerous.
Cole would spend the day at Black River Mine No. 2 with a team of engineers, inspecting the internal support structures of the tunnels. He hoped that as the lead engineer, he would have access to the blueprints for all the Black River mines, including Rogan’s Run No. 5, which had been closed for more than fifty years. He was convinced those closed portions, deemed unsafe by any standards, were being secretly but actively worked. He was certain Buck was paying the miners an exorbitant hourly wage in order for them to work those areas and keep their mouths shut.
Now he just needed proof.
But it would take time to gain the trust of the miners, especially since many of them still remembered the horrible rescue effort that had taken the life of his friend five years earlier. No doubt there were those who still associated his name with that disaster, and maybe even blamed him for it.
“Are you sure about this?” he asked now. “I could bring you to any number of mines over in West Virginia. You don’t need to meet with Buck Rogan.”
Lacey looked over at him and he could see that she wasn’t nearly as confident about this as she pretended to be. But she tipped her chin up and gave him a smile.
“It’ll be fine,” she assured him. “The only thing that has me a little nervous is the fact that I’m showing up unannounced. He’s not expecting me until tomorrow.”
“Just say that you have a conflict tomorrow. He’s not going to tell you to come back some other time. If nothing else, Buck Rogan is a gentleman. You’re only going to talk about the test parameters and look at the blueprints.” He cast her a stern glance. “Under no conditions are you to let him take you into the mines.”
Lacey smiled. “I’ve got it, Cole. Relax. I’m not going into any mines today. I didn’t even bring STAR with me, so there would be no point to it anyway, okay? Don’t worry about me.”
But he did. He knew she was stronger than she appeared, and yet he still worried about her. He didn’t want her to meet with Buck Rogan, but he also knew how important testing her GPS unit was to her. He wouldn’t stop her, as much as he might want to.
“Okay, fine. You have my cell phone number. I’ll be on the other side of the complex, so call me if you need me.”
They were emerging from the thick, impenetrable woods that enclosed the road for most of the twenty-minute drive, and turned onto a wide, gravel lane. Tall wire fences lined the perimeter, marked with No Trespassing signs and directions to the mine entrance.
The route wound upward until they entered a large parking lot ringed with work trailers and wooden structures. Cole drew the truck to a stop in front of a large, concrete building and switched off the engine. He turned to face Lacey. “This is Buck’s office.” He indicated a work trailer on the far side of the parking lot. “I’ll be over there. Call me when you’re through, and I’ll drive you home.”
She gave him a grateful look before she slid out of the cab and closed the door to the truck. As she climbed the steps to the office, the door opened and Buck’s massive bulk filled the door frame. He exchanged a few words with Lacey but they were too far away for Cole to hear them. Buck stepped back and Lacey brushed past him into the house. Buck raised a hand in greeting to Cole, and he gave a brief nod in return. Buck stood in the doorway for a scant second longer, before he stepped back and closed the door.
Cole checked his cell phone to ensure he would hear any incoming calls, before he thrust the truck into gear and punched the gas pedal down with his foot, gaining no satisfaction from the sound of the tires as they squealed in protest.
* * *
LACEY WAITED AS BUCK closed the door and then turned to face her. As always, he wore a well-cut sports jacket over a crisp, white dress shirt. He looked every inch a successful executive.
“I wasn’t expecting you until tomorrow. But no matter. Come into my office,” he invited, and indicated she should precede him down a short corridor. They passed an older woman sitting at a desk, who Lacey guessed was his secretary. “Patty, could you bring us some coffee, please?”
“Of course, Mr. Rogan.”
Buck opened the door to his office, and Lacey saw it was richly appointed with mahogany furniture, including a desk and a large conference table, and a wall of deep filing cabinets. The desk itself was covered with papers and blueprints, and one wall of shelves contained what looked like more rolls of drawings. He had samples of coal and other minerals displayed in glass boxes on one shelf, and framed photos of miners covered two walls. A window at the rear of the office overlooked the entrance to the mine itself, and Lacey could see a group of workers preparing to go down into the tunnels.
“Have a seat,” he invited, indicating the conference table. “So what, exactly, are you looking for?”
Lacey opened her presentation case and withdrew the specifications for STAR and spread them out on the surface of the table. “Here are the specs for the unit I’d like to test. If you look here, yo
u’ll see the optimum conditions that we need to achieve in order to perform a successful test.”
Buck studied the sheets for several moments. “You need to be at least five hundred feet below the surface, and at least one quarter mile into the tunnels.”
Lacey nodded. “Yes, that’s right.”
Moving away from the table, Buck opened a drawer in one of the file cabinets and withdrew several blueprints. When he spread them out on the table, Lacey saw they were similar to the ones that Cole had shown her.
“These blueprints show the Black River Mines No. 2,” he said indicating one set of tunnels. “I think they would suit your needs perfectly.”
Before Lacey could respond, there was a light knock on the door, and Patty came in with a small tray of coffee and muffins. She set them down on the conference table near Lacey.
“Here you are,” she said brightly. “Let me know if you need anything else.”
Buck thanked her, and as Lacey prepared her cup of coffee, she listened to Buck explain the various attributes of the mine, and had to agree that the conditions sounded perfect in which to test STAR. She wished now that she hadn’t been so quick to promise Cole that she wouldn’t go into the mines.
“Does this mine have a good safety record?” she asked.
Buck sharpened his gaze on her. “Why would you ask that?”
Lacey decided that honesty was the best policy. “My father died in a mining accident when I was a little girl. I helped to design STAR for NASA, but there is a huge commercial potential for the unit, as well. These could be utilized in the mining community to accurately pinpoint the location of miners in the event of an accident.” She gave him a wry smile. “I wouldn’t want to jeopardize the project by getting killed during the testing phase.”
Buck’s face was somber. “I’m sorry for your loss. I won’t lie and tell you that we haven’t had our share of accidents over the years, but I can promise you that the No. 2 mines are absolutely safe.”
Lacey also knew they were located miles away from Rogan’s Run Mine No. 5, where Cole thought Buck might be mining illegally. There would be no chance of her seeing anything down there that she shouldn’t see. At that moment, there was another knock on the door, and then it was thrust open to reveal a man wearing an agitated expression.
“I’m sorry for interrupting,” he said, speaking directly to Buck. “But I need to speak to you.” His gaze flicked to Lacey and then back to Buck. “It’s, um, urgent.”
As Lacey watched, Buck’s gaze flew to something on his desk. Lacey looked, too, but saw only rolls of blueprints. For a moment, Buck hesitated, as if he would snatch them up. In the next instant, he nodded at the man.
“Excuse us for just a moment,” he said to Lacey.
Lacey murmured her assent, but she didn’t miss the deep concern and something else in Buck’s eyes, before he left the office, leaving the door open a few inches. But Lacey recognized that expression.
Fear.
She listened as the two men moved away from the door, and then quickly walked over to his desk, her eyes scanning the blueprints that lay scattered across the top. Technical drawings were very familiar to her, and blueprints were not much different. Keeping an eye on the door, she thumbed swiftly through the documents, wondering which one Buck had wanted. Then she found it.
A blueprint of Rogan’s Run Mine No. 5, and the date at the bottom was current, from less than a year earlier. He obviously hadn’t been prepared for her visit. If he’d known she was going to show up unexpectedly this morning, he never would have left these documents out in the open. Lacey quickly scanned the blueprint and saw that access to the closed tunnels could be gained through the Black River Mine No. 6. Quickly, her heart thudding, she folded the blueprint in half, and then in half again. Walking back to the conference table, she had just shoved the document deep into a zippered pocket on her presentation case when the door opened and Buck came in. He schooled his features into a polite smile, but Lacey could see the anxiety etched onto his features.
“You’ll have to forgive me, but I need to excuse myself. Perhaps we can continue our conversation at another time?”
Lacey gathered up her specifications and replaced them in her presentation case. “Please, there’s nothing to forgive. You weren’t even expecting me this morning, so I appreciate the time you were able to spend with me. I’ll let you get back to work.”
“Thank you. I’ll see you out. Can one of my men give you a ride somewhere?”
Lacey followed him back through the office to the front door. “No, thanks. I’m all set.”
After he closed the door, she stood for a moment, acutely aware of the pilfered document in her case. What if he returned to his office and realized it was missing? He would know she had stolen it. She made her way quickly across the compound toward Cole’s trailer, expecting to hear Buck Rogan coming after her at any second.
Cole opened the door immediately when she knocked. He took one look at her face and dragged her inside the trailer, closing the door quickly behind her.
“What is it?” he asked. “Are you okay?”
“You were right,” she said without preamble. “I think he’s working inside the closed section of the mines.” She unzipped her presentation case and pulled out the folded document. “Here. I found this on his desk. There were other blueprints, too, but I didn’t get a good look at all of them.”
Cole took the paper from her and unfolded it, before swiftly scanning it. He gave Lacey one astonished look and then quickly refolded it and shoved it into the back of his jeans, pulling his jacket on to conceal it. He glanced through the window toward Buck’s office.
“C’mon,” he said, taking her elbow. “Buck is leaving. Let’s get out of here before he figures out what you’ve done.”
“I’m sorry,” she said as she followed him to the truck. “I don’t know what made me take it. I should have just left it there, but I thought you would want to see that your suspicions are correct. “
“No, you did the right thing,” he assured her, handing her into the cab. “Did Buck say where they were going?”
Lacey shook her head. “No. A man came into the office to talk with him, and I got the sense it was urgent. Buck seemed pretty anxious to get rid of me.”
“That was his foreman. There must have been an accident in one of the tunnels.” Cole thrust the truck into gear and accelerated out of the compound. Behind them, a group of workers were jogging toward the entrance to the mine. “Yeah, something is definitely up. Listen, I’m going to drop you off at the house, okay?”
“Where are you going?”
“I have something I need to do. There’s food in the refrigerator. I may not be back until late, but don’t wait up for me.”
There was something in his expression—something calculated—that kept Lacey from asking any questions. Reaching over, she covered his hand with her own.
“Be careful.”
11
AS COLE HAD PREDICTED, it was late by the time he returned to the cabin, but not so late that Lacey would be in bed. He noted with satisfaction that the porch lights were on, as well as the living room lights. He parked the truck and bent to greet Copper, who bounded down the steps, tail wagging.
Cole had met with two Department of Labor agents in Roanoke, a drive that had taken him nearly three hours each way. But before that, he’d headed over to the entrance of Rogan’s Run Mine No. 5, but there had been no telltale activity outside the long abandoned entrance. On a hunch, he’d also driven past the entrance to the Black River Mine No. 6, where the pilfered blueprint indicated there was access to the closed mine. As he’d suspected, there was a flurry of activity at the entrance to the mine, but there hadn’t been any rescue crews or ambulances.
He’d returned to his work trailer and had made some discreet inquiries, but his questions had been met with blank stares. Nobody had heard of any accidents occurring that morning. So he’d left word that he needed to take the rest of t
he day off, and had headed to Roanoke with Lacey’s blueprint in his pocket. But the diagram alone wasn’t proof that Buck was using the mines, and after a lengthy discussion with the agents, Cole had returned home with instructions to continue with his undercover surveillance.
He found Lacey curled up on the sofa in the living room, reading a book, wrapped in his terry bathrobe. She looked relieved when he crossed the room and dropped a light kiss against her mouth.
“You look tired,” she commented as he crossed to a small wet bar and poured two glasses of bourbon. “Where have you been?”
He handed her a glass and lowered himself onto the cushions beside her. “I had to drive out to Roanoke today.”
She stared at him. “Roanoke? But that’s hours from here. What was so urgent that you needed to go all the way out there?”
“Business,” he said, and tipped back his bourbon and drained the glass.
“Want to talk about it?”
Cole shrugged. “I gave the blueprints to the Bureau of Mine Safety, thinking they would be sufficient evidence for them to send a team of safety inspectors into the abandoned mines, but I was wrong. They won’t go in without more substantial proof. Having updated blueprints of an abandoned mine isn’t an indication that those mines are being worked. In fact, the Bureau was impressed that Buck had the good sense to have the mines properly documented.”
“Aren’t you afraid that Buck will find out? I don’t want you to lose your job over this.” She pulled a face. “What if he realizes that I took the blueprint? He won’t let me into the mines. Now I’ll have to come up with another plan to test STAR.”
“Hey,” he murmured, and pulled her into his arms. “Everything will work out. I told you I would take you to another mine, and I meant it. Whenever you’re finished with the search-and-rescue team, we’ll drive over to West Virginia and I’ll take you into one of the coal mines there.”
