Page 61 of My Orc Billionaire
“What is this?” I whispered, my palms flat on his desk as I tried to make sense of the chaos. “Whereis this?”
Abydos’s sigh ruffled my short hair. “These are the protestors at my mine in Colorado. They’ve been there for a few weeks, but Garrak says they’ve tripled overnight. They must have planned something big—most of my guys have been sleeping in the barracks rather than risking trying to get in and out through that crowd.”
What? “They’re scared of these humans?” Dammit, I thought we’d madeprogresson Abydosaccepting most humans wouldn’t hurt him, and thentheseassholes show up?
A pause, then he shifted under me. “They’re afraid of hurting them, I think. These humans are passionate, and my guys don’t want to give them a target.”
“Passionate about the wrong thing!” I slapped my palms on the desk as a young female protestor got in close to the camera, shouting something I couldn’t hear. “They clearly don’t know you—don’t knowanyorcs. You respect the land, you don’t…don’trapeit!”
It took me a hot second to realize Abydos hadn’t responded. I twisted to catch his eye, hoping to show him how incredibly ridiculous this whole thing was.
Except, he wasn’t looking at me. Or the cameras. He was staring down at his hand, where it curled around the armrest of his chair.
“Abydos?”
“They’re right,” he whispered.
Stunned, I couldn’t answer, and his fingers flexed around the leather.
“They’re right,” he repeated, his voice a little firmer. “It’s why I haven’t had Garrak scare them off. They’reright.” He lifted his gaze to mine. “Pit miningisdestroying the land. We’re careful with environmental concerns, so we’re not worried about poisoning the water or things like that…” His eyes shifted to the video of the protestors as he lifted his fingertips to rest against his ruined cheek. “But Vengeance Mine is a scar on the earth, and I caused it.”
Oh shit.
I lunged for his hand, twisting his fingers in mine, pressing both of our hands against his scars.
“Abydos, you couldnever…”
“I could. And I did.” His gaze was locked on those shouting, angry people. “When I started the mine, I was only thinking of revenge, of proving myselfmorethan the beast humans thought me to be. But I’ve done something horrible, and I’m not sure how to fix it.”
Okay.Okay. Okay, thiscouldbe fixed. He wanted to fix it. It was my job to help him, so I was going to help him figure this out too.
I took a deep breath and twisted in his lap, pulling both of his hands against my stomach and forcing him to look at me. Then I smiled softly. “So how do we fix it?”
His lips formed the word “We?”but he didn’t say it. I saw his gaze searching mine, as if looking for the truth, then he exhaled and glanced down at our twined fingers. “I’m thinking about selling the mine.”
“Oookay… And what would that look like?”
A flash of green beneath his lashes. “What do you mean?”
“So let’s say you sell the mine to another company that wants to produce lithium. You’ll still own the refining plant to process it, so you’d still be working with them. The males you have working out there would keep their jobs…”
“But the mine would still exist,” he intoned dully. “It wouldn’t bemehurting the land, but she would still be hurt.”
Ah.
So this wasn’t just a guilt thing, this was a conscience thing. “Okay, so what’s the alternative?”
Abydos took a deep breath and lifted his chin. “I close it down. I ensure the land is protected. I ensure nature can start to heal the scar.”
How could I not love this male and his quiet honor? I smiled. “Like, turning it into a quarry? That’s what happens to old mines, right?”
But he was already shaking his head. “I’ll want to do more than that. I want to use the land so people can experience the nature I grew up loving before I destroyed it.”
That’s right: Our land mirrored his, and he remembered whatallof this looked like before development. I squeezed his hands proudly.
“Would you be able to do all of that?” I murmured. “You would be losing a significant portion of your income.”
“Not too significant, though,” Abydos said thoughtfully as he stared at the screen. Did he even remember I was there? I could see him calculating. “I’ll fly out to Colorado tomorrow to talk with Garrak and the lawyers. The shareholders will have to agree, but I think I could buy them out myself.”
