Unexpected Love (White Oak-Mafia #2) (20 page)

Tess had everyone out of the house by six. There was little that Steel could do without equipment and workers, so he and Dan found a safe rock to watch Tess climb one of the massive trees that would need limbs removed.

Steel could climb and repel down cliffs, but Tess’s ability to climb a tree without spikes impressed him.

“Why isn’t she wearing spikes?” Dan asked as he watched her through binoculars.

Steel grinned, certain he knew why. “She probably doesn’t want to harm the tree.”

Dan shook his head. “At first, I couldn’t see what you two had in common. According to the profile I received on you, she’s nothing like the other women you’ve dated. But now I get it. The two of you lack all safety sense.”

“If she planned to take the tree down, I’m sure she would have gone with spikes. But she’s just taking out some major branches on the north side.”

Steel admired the speed she could walk up her tree using nothing but her harness line and her lanyard. She had initially shot her toss bag over the limb above the one she planned to cut, which enabled her to stand on the two-foot-wide branch and safely pull out her chainsaw. Once she attached her second lanyard to the branch above, she released the lanyard she’d used to move up the tree trunk. Slowly, she moved across the branch to the point it needed cut. A few seconds later the severed section of the branch crashed to the ground.

“Why didn’t she cut it at the trunk. Why leave a stump?” Dan asked.

“No idea. But I’m sure she had a reason.” Steel replied. “On second thought, maybe I do know.” Steel recalled the discussion over the tree that had fallen a few days ago. “She probably wants to keep the tree balanced.”

At noon, a helicopter hovered at the marsh platform.

Steel stood. “That must be my workers.”

Dan gripped his arm. “You are not retrieving those men.”

“Well someone’s got to. Would you like to retrieve them?”

“And leave you unprotected?”

“Bloody hell! Tess is working her ass off. I’m not asking her to do this.” To his surprise, she stopped cutting at the sound of the helicopter and descended the tree like a rock climber would. Once she detached herself from the ropes, she ran to meet him. “I’m guessing you need me to bring your workers in.”

“I wouldn’t ask, but—”

“Not a problem, I need to stretch my legs anyway.”

A short while later, she returned alone.

“Something wrong?” Steel asked.

“No, they’re just slow. They’ll be here eventually.” She then climbed up the tree.

Steel stared down the trail. Ten minutes later, four fully geared men ambled up the trail, stopping and admiring the trees along the way.

He couldn’t blame them for gawking. These were beautiful woods.

When they finally arrived, one of the men spoke as he extended his hand. “Dr. Castile, I’m Frank Tanner. This is Jack Olsen, Sonny Dobbs, and Luke Cannon. We’re here to help in any way we can.” The other men shook Steel’s hand as well, then nodded at Dan, who was eyeing them over.

Steel gestured to Dan. “This is my head of security. Any chance any of you are expert lumberjacks?”

Frank grimaced. “No, we’re all archeologists.”

“Just checking.”

A huge limb smacked upon the ground, causing a shudder beneath their feet. All the men looked up. “Isn’t that the woman who led us here?” Frank asked.

“Tess Campbell. She’s in charge of the forest.”

Luke’s head snapped to Steel. “I thought you were.”

“Officially, yes. But she’s more competent, so I’m delegating the forest to her while my focus will be something you four will be very interested in.”

Steel first led them up a steep section to what he thought might be a smoke rack. Given the furrowed brows, he suspected the men didn’t see anything to get excited about.

Frank finally spoke. “The rocks look to have been stacked, but kids could have done that.”

“Fair enough. Until we remove the leaves and start shifting through the area, nothing is for certain.” He then led them to the village. At first they refused to see anything, insisting kids could have placed the rocks in a circle. Finally, the cave caught their interest.

Sonny stuck his head in and pulled out. “Could be a bear cave. I know we don’t technically have them, but they sometimes wander down from Minnesota.”

Honestly, Steel was ready to send them back now, but he knew that wasn’t fair. Even he had suggested the mounds might have been created in the 1800s. He just missed Tess’s instant belief and enthusiasm when he explained to her what he saw.

“Where is the equipment you guys were supposed to bring?”

“Down in the marsh. It’s a bitch to carry, so let’s hold off until we see the mounds,” Frank said.

Steel’s temper flared, but he outwardly remained calm. “Frank, I’ve no idea how your current boss runs things, but let me be really clear on how I do. My sites are not democracies. When I ask something to be done, I expect it to be done without delay and without comment unless you have a good reason why you can’t.”

Frank grimaced, and the other guys became focused on their feet.

“Now, I’m guessing the four of you are underwhelmed thus far as to the value of the sites you’ve seen. That’s fine. You’re wrong, but time will prove that out. However, there’s only one person in charge of these sites, and that’s me. Are we clear on that?”

Frank met his eyes. “Yes, sir. We’ll go get the equipment now. But, I’d just like to point out you never ordered us to bring it up. You only asked where it was.”

Steel smiled at the man’s moxie. He looked to Dan. “Is that true?”

Dan’s black sunglasses and stern, tense jaw made him look like some terminator robot from the future. “Technically, yes. But if he were on my staff, he’d be fired now.”

Instead of getting angry at Dan, Frank refocused on Steel. “I’ve clearly got off on the wrong foot, but don’t hold it against these guys. They’re as good as they come and follow orders very well.”

And just like that, Steel liked the fellow again.

“I haven’t given up on you either, Frank. I just wanted to set some ground rules before you got yourself demoted to grunt work for Tess.”

Steel sent the men up by the narrow cliff path while he made his way up through the trees. He needed to determine if any of these guys had any true skill in archeology. Even Tess and Helen had realized the cliff cut marks were made by ancient humans. If these guys failed to see that, he’d have them help Tess until their two months were over.

Steel and Dan reached the mounds before the men. Fifteen minutes passed. He was beginning to worry they’d fallen off the narrow trail. Finally, they arrived, excited with their find. They wanted to take him back to the cliff, but he just laughed. “I’ve seen them.” He motioned at the underbrush before them. “Tell me what you see here.”

Luke was the first to see the hints of mounds beneath the shrubs. When Steel finally led them to the two animal mounds, Frank shook his head. “The detail is amazing, but they have to be fakes. They’re too small. You should have them carbon dated before you proceed.”

“I took a three-foot core sample. The lower two-thirds of this mound range from 14,000 to 8,000 BC and includes a fragment of human bone from the era.”

“Holy shit!” Frank stated and knelt beside the site. “This has to be the mother of all finds!”

“Actually, I think the village will be more important than these mounds,” Sonny stated. “No one has ever found a village.”

Steel liked him at once.

“Maybe we can find grain husks in the garden,” Jack added.

Frank smiled. “We’ll go get the equipment. Only, we don’t dare take it up that ridge trail. We could damage the wall. You aren’t planning to let hikers up that, are you?”

“No,” Steel assured him.

“Good….uh, can I ask how you’re going to stop them?”

Steel nodded to Dan, who after studying each man, said, “We are building an electrified parameter fence as soon as we can get electricity up here.”

“Before it opens as a state park?” Frank asked.

“Before we even cut roads into this place,” Dan replied.

Frank grimaced. “Sorry, I have to ask. How will you get the fence built unless there are roads to bring the stuff in?”

By the furrowed brows, Steel realized the guys feared they might be expected to carry it in by foot. “Don’t worry. That won’t be your job.”

Relief flooded each face except for Frank’s.

“I’m still worried. If you bring a bunch of laborers to tote and carry heavy objects, first, some of them are going to take home souvenirs and second, most will get seriously hurt or quit within a week.”

Steel actually appreciated his effort to save them from problems. “These types of questions, I don’t have an issue with, so none of you need to be afraid to ask if you don’t understand how something is going to be done. For security reasons, I’m not going to explain how we’ll do it just now. Once we get to know each other better, then I’ll be more forthcoming.”

Frank smiled. “That’s more than fair. What you have here is incredible. You have every right to be protective.”

Steel relaxed as the other three nodded enthusiastically. He liked these guys. “Let’s get the equipment running and see what’s in these mounds.”

***

The major piece of equipment brought up was a Ground Penetrating Radar unit on a cart, and the sweat-drenched Luke and Sonny left no doubt the journey up the hill had been almost more than they could muster.

“Before we can do the mounds, we’ll have to build a structure so we can roll the GPR over the mounds without damaging them. Today, we’ll GPR all the flat ground up here.” He looked at Frank. “You were supposed to bring magneto and electric resistant meters.”

He held up two bags. “Got ’em here.”

“Great. Which of you know how to use them?”

Frank pointed to Jack. “Jack’s the best on the GPR. I’d recommend that Luke and I handle the Magnetometer and let Sonny handle the ERM.”

Steel nodded. “I’ll work with you, Sonny.”

The dark-haired young man smiled at the news.

Steel pointed to the mound nearest Sonny. “You start on the bird mound. Place your probes into the ground six inches from the base and take a reading every two inches. I hope you brought three computers.”

Frank nodded and slid off his backpack. Then he handed out laptops to Luke, Jack, and Steel.

Steel focused on Jack. “Let’s get started. Jack, don’t worry about overlapping. That’s far better than the opposite.”

Jack nodded as he typed into his computer.

Steel then focused on Sonny. “I’ll be doing the same careful probes on the bear. Two inches exactly. Do you have a ruler?”

Sonny happily nodded.

“Frank, you or Luke need a ruler?”

“No, we came prepared,” Frank replied.

Steel was pleased with their teamwork. “All right. Everyone take it slow and do it right.”

***

At four, Tess arrived and found everyone working at a tedious pace. She glanced at Steel to see if their slowness was driving him crazy. He looked tense, but it was the focused concentration of a man doing what he loved. She knelt beside him. “It’s going to storm tonight, so you’ll probably want to bring this equipment back to the cabin until we can build a shed up here.”

She looked around and then pointed to a section between two large trees on the far side. “Maybe there.”

Steel glanced at his watch. “Okay, guys, that’s all for tonight. Mark exactly where you left off.” He then turned to Tess. “Can this be a non-evasive shed? No foundation into the soil.”

She had already figured out that particular need. “If we put it there, then I can secure it to the trees.” The idea of drilling bolts into those trees made her grimace, but if the shed wasn’t firmly secured, a storm could send it flying, doing irreparable harm to the mounds.

Steel gripped her arm. “Thank you. Dragging this equipment up and down two major hills will take a great deal of our time and energy.”

“And will be rough on the equipment.” Tess scuffed the ground. “Sorry I didn’t think about it right off or I would have spent the day building the shed instead of cutting branches.”

Truth was, she’d had a miserable day, cutting healthy limbs from her trees. She did it because they had to. Right now she wanted a long soak in the tub, for she ached physically and emotionally.

Steel frowned at the men still working. “Guys, let’s wrap it up.”

“But we’ve still got two hours,” Frank complained.

“Yes, but Tess says there’s going to be a storm, so we need to carry this equipment to the cabin tonight. Tomorrow, Tess will start building us a shed. Any of you have any building skill?”

All four grimaced and shook their heads.

Tess was about to insist they didn’t need skill, she just needed someone who could follow simple instructions, but decided as slow as they worked, she’d be faster building it by herself.

Dan sighed heavily. “I’ll help her. I spent two summers building houses.”