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  “Scary as hell,” I say softly, and the guys laugh, but not loudly.

  “Fire her up, Vernon,” Samuel says, and moves me back away from the guys and their machines.

  I watch as they work, practiced and silent. They communicate with gestures and touches, but mainly they just do their jobs. The tractor cuts forward into the coal and the wall, and the guys help make sure the good parts move down a conveyor belt and into a collection bin. The bin’s mostly full already, so they don’t cut too long. As the machine cuts, Boone works supports up along the ceiling, this mesh-looking steel wire square.

  When the bin’s full, they stop the tractor.

  “That’s it,” Samuel says. “Now we go back, dump it off, and head back in.”

  “That’s it?” I ask, laughing, astonished. “That looks… dangerous.”

  “It is,” Boone calls softly. “But I make sure we don’t die.”

  “There’s more to it,” Samuel admits. “But we should go back.”

  I nod, not wanting to press him. We walk back again in silence, and when we’re back in the chamber, the guys get to work emptying the machine. I walk with Samuel back over to the trolley and he leans up against it, watching me.

  I stare at the three guys as they work. This mine is so deep and dark and those shafts are so small. It’s terrifying, confusing and so impossible-seeming. I don’t know how any men can stand to be down here for long shifts, but they do it, day in and day out.

  “Other crews are out there,” Samuel says softly. “That’s just one of them. There are shafts all over this mountain. Guys with families, lives, dreams.”

  I look at him. “I know,” I say.

  “Do you?” He cocks his head. “You saw what it’s like. Could you do that all day long, go home, sleep a few hours, and do it again the next day?”

  I bite my lip, looking away. “No,” I admit.

  “No,” he repeats. “We do the hard work. So what do we deserve?”

  I don’t answer him and he doesn’t press me. We get back into the trolley, and we ride it back out of the mine.

  When we hit fresh air, I feel so thankful to be out of there that it surprises me. I didn’t know I was feeling so closed in, but now that we’re out in the sunshine, I feel so grateful. As soon as the trolley stops, I hop off, take off my hardhat, and take a deep breath.

  Samuel joins me. I glance at him and for a second, I wish I could shove him and yell at him. He’s such a brute and a jerk and an asshole… but he’s right. I hate to admit it, but he’s totally right.

  “Thanks for the tour,” I say to him.

  “You should get the rest of the office down there,” he says softly. “Especially that Ingram.”

  I laugh softly. “Good luck with that.”

  “Yeah, well.” He looks at me and suddenly reaches out. He touches my cheek, and I feel a chill run down my spine. “Coal dust,” he says showing me his thumb, smeared in black.

  I smile at him and he smirks back. I think he’s going to kiss me, and I think I’m going to let him. Instead, he turns and walks away, back toward the shed where they keep their gear.

  I watch him for a second before calling out. “Samuel.”

  He turns around. “Yeah?”

  “What was that machine called? The digger thing?”

  He grins. “It’s called a ‘continuous miner,’ but I just call it Frank.” He grins and heads off again.

  I sigh to myself, shaking my head, unable to stop smiling. I slowly head back toward the offices, mind buzzing with Samuel, the mine, the darkness, the rock.

  6

  Samuel

  I didn’t expect her to actually come down into the mine, but damn if I don’t respect her for it.

  “As far as I know, she’s the first corporate person down there,” I say to the room. The guys look up at me as I stand in front of the tables, shoved together and covered in beer bottles. The miner’s union stares back at me, missing a few guys, but mostly there.

  “So what?” one of the guys calls out, an idiot named Arnold.

  “So, that means she might actually give a fuck,” I say to him.

  A few guys chuckle. “Doubtful,” Arnold grumbles.

  “You know how it is down there, Samuel,” Vance grumbles, a portly guy with dark blue eyes. “Almost had a fucking collapse just a few days ago.”

  “He’s right,” Boone says. “Not exactly been safe down there since crazy Tommy died.”

  There’s a grumble around the room, and I can’t disagree with them. Ever since Tommy died, our quotas have been doubled, and the safety checks that used to be standard have mysteriously disappeared. Corporate doesn’t send anyone down to oversee what we do, as long as we fill their orders on time, they don’t give a fuck about us.

  “I don’t know why it’s happening,” I say to them. “But we can all agree that things are changing.”

  “Fuck yeah, they are,” Arnold grumbles.

  Vernon stands up. “I don’t want to die in that fucking mine,” he says, looking around. “Ain’t no man here that wants it. So what are you gonna do, Samuel?”

  I nod at him as he slowly sits down. “I hear your complaints,” I say. “I fucking share them. You all know I’m down there with you, working those fucking shafts. But I don’t have any power right now, not until we start to negotiate.”

  “We can give you power,” Roy says suddenly. I look over at him, surprised.

  “What do you mean?” Arnold calls out. There are grumbles all over the room.

  “We can strike,” he says simply.

  I shake my head quickly. “We don’t strike. If we go that route, they’ll never fucking deal with us, and they’ll replace us all with scabs.”

  “We’ll kill the fucking scabs!” someone yells out, and a few guys cheer.

  I sigh, shaking my head. This is why nobody wanted this job right now. These guys are all angry and emotional, and I can’t blame them. The mines are getting more and more dangerous every day we’re pushed to dig faster than we should. Some of these guys might die doing this job, and although it doesn’t happen as much as it used to in the old days, collapses do still happen. We all know a guy that’s died down there in the pitch black, choking on coal dust.

  “I’ll talk to them,” I call out. “We don’t strike, not yet. Any other fucking questions?”

  Nobody says anything, and the meeting ends. I turn to Roy and we walk together back over toward the bar. We’re both handed a beer and Roy leans in toward me as the other guys all get their own drinks.

  “You know why this is happening,” Roy says to me softly.

  “Ingram,” I say.

  He nods. “Damn right.”

  “He’s been wanting this for a long time.” I clench my jaw.

  “What do you think of the girl?”

  I slowly release my tension. “She means well,” I say finally. “But she doesn’t know shit about mining.”

  He laughs softly. “Crazy Tommy didn’t either, but he wasn’t so bad. Maybe his daughter can be better.”

  “Yeah,” I grunt at him. “Maybe.”

  The guys all crowd around the bar and start drinking, and I’m pulled away by a million questions as every guy suddenly wants a piece of me, asking about some benefit or other that I don’t know shit about, but I always try and reassure them.

  Fact is, I don’t know what we’ll get out of this. The conditions down there aren’t great, and the contract is coming up. I don’t know how powerful Amelia is in her company, or if Ingram is going to push her aside. If that happens, we’ll be fucked, I’m sure of that.

  The bar slowly starts to clear out as the night wears on. A lot of these guys have to work early. The bar should get a new influx of customers in a couple hours, as the middle shift gets off and the late shift comes on, though fortunately I have tomorrow off.

  Roy joins me at the bar and I glance at him. “Good job tonight,” he says softly.

  I shrug a little. “I guess so.”

 
“The guys believe in you.”

  “Mostly.”

  He frowns. “Yeah, well, we’ll keep those assholes in line.”

  I sigh. “I don’t want them kept in line, Roy. I want to do what’s best for everyone, not just for myself.”

  He sips his beer, watching me for a second. I trust Roy’s opinion, but there’s a reason he didn’t step up and take this job from the start. Hell, there’s a reason why none of these guys did, just left it for me to figure out.

  “I know what you’re feeling,” he says finally. “But listen, Samuel. You’re the man for this job.”

  I laugh a little ruefully. “I don’t think so. I’m the man that was dumb enough to take it.”

  He grins at me. “That’s true, but it just so happens you’re perfect.”

  “I don’t feel fucking perfect. I feel like I’m drowning here.”

  “You saw the way the guys looked at you.” He stops me before I can interrupt them. “Not every fucking guy, but most of them believe in you. That’s a good fucking start. And on top of that, you actually want what’s best for them, which is even more rare. Do you know how many union bosses we have just fucking take the job and steal everything they could?”

  I hesitate a second. Corruption in unions is a pretty well-known thing. It’s like an open secret for us. We don’t talk about it, and as long as it doesn’t get so bad, we let it keep going on because the union is so important to all these guys. Nobody wants to risk breaking the whole system.

  “I know,” I say finally.

  “You’re honest, Samuel, and you care. That’s what we need right now.” He goes silent for a second. “The real question is, can we trust this new Evans girl?”

  I glance at him. “I like her.”

  “I know you do.” He gives me a little grin. “It’s honestly not her I’m concerned about. It’s Ingram.”

  I nod slowly. “I know. He’s the real problem.”

  “Is she going to roll over and let him run the company?”

  “I don’t know,” I say honestly.

  “I wouldn’t blame her if she did. Far as I can tell, the girl never asked for any of this, probably doesn’t even want it.”

  “I think you’re right,” I say, glancing back to my drink. “But she’s a good person.”

  “Good people aren’t always strong enough.” He pats me on the back. “Fortunately, you are.”

  He stands and heads off to another group of guys that are lingering over in the corner. I glance back at him for a second before sighing, shaking my head.

  I don’t know what the fuck I’m going to do. I want to trust and believe in Amelia, even if she is some rich, spoiled girl that doesn’t know a damn thing about our way of life. Still, she’s better than Ingram, at least so far. Ingram would rape and pillage everything we have without any regard for human lives, all for the profit of his company. He doesn’t give a shit about us, not even a little bit. At least Amelia seems to care about people.

  I care about people, too. Maybe that’s my fucking problem. This whole contract thing, the uncertain future of my people, it’s all driving me fucking insane. I never wanted this kind of stress. Hell, I didn’t think it even existed. I was happy down in the mine, digging away all fucking day, doing something hard that felt good.

  Now I have responsibility on top of this thing with Amelia. I want that girl more than I can even admit to myself. I don’t know how I’m going to juggle my deep, intense desire to take her one more time and my responsibility to my people.

  I sip my beer, but unfortunately the answers aren’t at the bottom of the bottle.

  7

  Amelia

  My father’s old office screams of memories, and it’s almost impossible for me to get comfortable. I took away all of his old stuff, boxed it up and put it away in the house, but I still feel like it’s lurking there.

  I lean back in his chair. I can’t help but wonder how many times he sat in this exact spot. He spent so much of his time on Evans Energy that I feel like he left a little ghost of himself right here in this spot.

  Over the last few years, my dad and I weren’t that close. We were practically best friends when I was younger, since he raised me alone, but after I left town and spent most of my time at boarding school we sort of just drifted. Now, though, I feel closer to him than I have in a long time, and that’s even more painful than I could have guessed.

  There’s a knock at the door and I look up. “Come in,” I call out.

  Ingram steps in. He closes the door behind him and smiles at me. “How are you settling in?” he asks me.

  I shrug a little. “Just getting used to this.”

  “Of course.” He walks over and sits in the chair in front of my desk. “The union had a meeting last night.”

  I raise an eyebrow. I’m not sure how he knows that, but I decide not to ask him. Ingram always seemed like a nice man when I was younger, but now that I’m back, I’m hearing things about him, disturbing things. He’s apparently much tougher than I could have guessed. He’s been pushing the miners hard, and they seem to hate him.

  And he’s trying to push me out. I can feel it, and I’m not really surprised. He probably resents me for walking right in here and taking the job he probably thinks he deserves. I know I need to be careful of him, but I also need him. Fact is, he knows this company better than I do, knows how to run it. I can’t do this without him.

  “How did it go?” I ask him.

  He shrugs. “The usual. Lots of complaining, nothing got done.”

  I narrow my eyes. He has such a low opinion of his workers, it always surprises me. “How is their new leader settling in?”

  “Samuel?” He raises his eyebrows. “In over his head, I’d say.”

  “He seems competent. Cares about his workers.”

  “Of course he does. It’s in his own interest to care about them.”

  “What do you mean?” I ask him.

  He smiles at me like a grandfather smiling at a toddler trying to walk for the first time. It’s patronizing and frustrating, but I keep it together.

  “This is how the unions work,” he says. “The new boss comes in, starts to pillage the coffers, until eventually he retires a rich man. Meanwhile, nothing gets done, except they’re a huge pain in my butt.”

  “That’s pretty pessimistic,” I say. “Unions were made to protect the workers.”

  “They don’t need protections anymore,” he says, waving his hand in dismissal. “There are federal laws protecting them. No, unions are there to gouge the companies for more pay, and to gouge the workers for their dues. The only real winners are those in charge, assuming they’re corrupt enough, which they always are.”

  I hate the way he’s talking about Samuel and the other miners. He makes them sound like a bunch of greedy assholes, only in this for some extra money, when really they just want to make a living. None of them are rich, very far from it, and they work in horrible conditions.

  “You’re too soft on them,” Ingram continues. “They’re going to take advantage of you in this negotiation.”

  “I appreciate your concern,” I say.

  “Trust me on this.” He stands up, still smiling, but now literally looking down on me. “They aren’t your friends. They only care about themselves, not about the company, and they’ll tear this place apart if you let them. You have to keep the union in line. Don’t be soft on Samuel, because he won’t be soft on you.”

  I stare back at him. “I’ll take that under consideration.”

  “Good. You need to trust me, Amelia. I have a lot of experience.”

  He turns and leaves my office without another word. I watch him go, a stone sitting in my gut. He gives me such a bad feeling, but he’s right about one thing. He does have a lot of experience, and I do need him.

  But is it really so black and white? I don’t know why it has to be us against them. I don’t know why we can’t have a contract that works for all of us, but maybe that’s too idealist
ic and naïve. I want to give them what they want, as long as the company can continue to exist and make a profit. We can all work together.

  I get up from my desk and walk over to my father’s filing cabinet. I open the bottom drawer and pull out copies of the last contract before carrying it over to my desk. I start going through it, making underlines and comments in the margins.

  I need this negotiation, I realize. It has to go well for me. If I mess this up, I’m going to be kicked out of this office so fast I won’t even see it coming. Ingram is just waiting for me to mess up, which means I probably can’t take his advice, at least not entirely. He doesn’t have my best interests at heart.

  Whose interests do I have at heart? I don’t even know if I want this job, but there are so many people involved in this company, and they’re all trying to make a living. And then there’s Samuel, that cocky, handsome bastard. I keep thinking about him down in that mine, in that cramped little tunnel, digging through the wall with those huge machines.

  I shake my head and get back to work. I need to concentrate. If I want this to go well, I’m going to need Samuel, even if I want him for more than just negotiating.

  8

  Samuel

  I shouldn’t be surprised when I get a call from Amelia’s office inviting me up for a meeting. I have a little grin on my face the whole time as I’m escorted to her office.

  She’s sitting behind a big oak desk, the sort of thing that big powerful CEOs like to use to impress people. Amelia’s assistant, this older woman with a perpetual frown, closes the door behind me.

  “I didn’t expect to see you again so soon,” I admit to her as I walk over and sit down in the chair in front of her desk.

  “Well, we have a lot of work to do, don’t we?” She eyes me a little bit and I just grin at her, sitting back with ease.

  “What can I do for you, Ms. Evans?”

  She rolls her eyes at that. “I was looking over your old contracts all day yesterday.”