Page 53 of Rescued By the Mountain Man

And given how much I’d already sunk into the planning, I would take a personal hit if it didn’t get built. Hell, the whole town was taking a hit every day it wasn’t up. Another four minutes and forty seconds passed, and no Zara—and now, I was getting frantic.

“If you will excuse me, I need to find Zara—” As I pushed from the table, she came around the corner, her face as pale as chalk as she joined us. Unsettled, I sat back in my chair, just as the waiter came and sat our drinks on the table. “Are you all right?”

She gave us a watery smile. “Upset stomach. I’m sorry about breaking up the meeting.”

“No worries,” Drayton said, his eyes sharp as he looked at Zara. It irked me. “Are you feeling better?”

“Yes,” she replied, eyes dropping to the tall glass of lemonade. “Is this for me?”

I reached for my drink. “Yeah. I thought it would help your stomach the best.”

She sipped while Drayton and I talked over the plan for the plant. “I have to be straight with you. I think your father dragged his feet on this because I know he has stakes in the plant in Helena.”

Drayton sat his glass down. “Are you accusing my father of something, Mr. Donovan?”

“Simply capitalism,” I replied. “Nothing more.”

“The Drayton Conglomerate Empire has holdings in many industries,” Drayton replied stiffly. “But we do not infringe on the desires of other businesses.”

The air had shifted to tense, and Zara slowly sat the cup down, her gaze shifting between mine and Drayton's.

As the air seemed to grate on our skin, she said, “I suppose what Mr. Donovan was…is saying is that he does not think it would be fair to the townspeople to be adding to a global company while taking money from our community. That would be best for all of us to separate interests and have our own plant.”

“I’ll gloss over the almost insult towards my family, and I will look into it,” Drayton said. “Are you feeling better, Miss Harrington? Before you ran off, you looked as if you’d seen a ghost.”

“No, nothing like that,” she said, “I just had a bug.”

“Are you sure?” He twisted. “Are you sure it was not something on the TV?”

Her eyes tightened while her smile stayed in place. “No. There was nothing strange on TV.”

“I see,” Drayton nodded, closed his file, plucked his wallet out, and slid two hundred dollars over. “I must go, but please, order whatever you would like…on me. I hope you feel better, Miss Harrington. I have heard Ginger tonic does wonders for an upset stomach.”

With a tense smile, he stood, took one last drink, and left the bar. Zara and I shared a long look, and I sagged into the corner of the booth, rubbing my face. Nothing could rub the frustration away.

“He is just like his old man. Pompous, holier-than-thou, and all for the money. In all my righteous anger, I think I might have just shot myself in the foot,” I grumbled. “He is not taking that insult lightly. We might never get that plant.”

She touched my arm, and my skin instantly warmed. “He has that much sway over the town council?”

“The Draytons have their sticky fingers in every town from New York to California,” I took the money off the table, cringing at knowing I was touching dirty money. “Do you want to eat here or go home?”

She called for a waiter. “Can I get this in a to-go cup?”

When we left the bar, the humidity had dipped, and the air was misty with dew, but the sky was bright and clear. A wedge of moon glimmered in the dark sky, surrounded by rings of sparkling stars. As we drove off into the countryside, the leaves rustled as a chorus of birds began their nightly serenade from the trees.

Zara had her phone out and was texting something, then sighed and sat the phone down. She held her head straight. “Warrick, about earlier, when I freaked out? I-I-”

“You don’t have to explain,” I said, gripping the steering wheel. “Things were going too fast. It made sense you felt…off.”

“I didn’t come up here to find a…relationship,” she said, hollowly. “I am not the best person to have a relationship with, Warrick. I’m—I’m bad news.”

I shot a look at her. “I think that should be my line. I’m your boss, I’m older than you, and I’ve got baggage. Honestly, I shouldn’t have allowed this to happen.”

She laughed, hollowly. “I came on to you, remember.”

“Doesn’t matter,” I grunted. “I have control of my dick.”

Zara snorted. “Men think with two heads. One in their head and one in their cock. The one below the belt usually wins.”

---