Blacklake-Book4-1 Three Cousins

Chapter 11
~

Daze glared at me. I waited for the troll bull to say something. I could sense Thomas gettin’ ever more anxious next to me. Maybe had a little to do with the way he had to twist his neck at about a ninety-degree angle to see the face of the nine-foot-tall troll. Even among trolls, Daze is a big troll.

“Okay,” the bull said. I about swallowed my tongue. Just like that? Daze isn’t what ya’d call a good team player. He likes to work on his own. His small staff does a good job not irkin’ him off.

“Ya aren’t gonna hurt him, are ya?” I mean, I had to ask. If he answered too quickly, I could assume Thomas wouldn’t live long. If he overthought it, he was thinkin’ about the various ways he had to hide a body. I was havin’ way too much fun with this whole mental thread.

“Why would I hurt the little fool?” he asked with hardly any reflection.

“Cause. Let’s be honest,” I said. “The constables visit ya every week for a reason.”

“What?” Thomas hissed. “Why do they visit him?”

“He’s been known to have anger issues,” I said. I don’t know how I kept from laughin’ out loud. “But he’s our facilities guy. Can make a moon launcher out of three beer cans and some litter he finds on the side of the highway.”

“No one litters in the Range,” Daze murmured. “I’d kill em.”

Ha. He was gonna play along.

“Kill them?” Thomas soft-shrieked.

“Well. Maybe mess em up some,” Daze said. Can’t say he isn’t honest, as well as a lover of the Range. And Nature.

Thomas was studyin’ the side of my face now.

“Ya sign the contracts yet?” Daze asked. “Never figgered out why ya two were draggin’ yar feet. Still have a project plan for puttin’ together yar fabrication facility?”

“Not signed yet. Kriz has been finishin’ up the bits and bobs on two theses. I had finals to study for.” Pretty sure they’re on Kriz’ desk. I’d already asked him ten times to sign em. “Plans are on the server,” I said.

Daze’s brows veed. Looked over at Thomas, folded a long thumb Thomas’ way. “Can he get to the server? Take care of followin’ the plan?”

“Ya’re the boss,” I said. “Just don’t kill him, okay?”

“Are you assigning me to work with some psychopath?” Thomas whispered.

“Never been diagnosed,” Daze said with a straight face. “Let’s keep it that way.”

I told em I’d get out of their way and let them get acquainted. As I turned to leave, Thomas may have been whinin’ a bit. I mentioned to Daze he needed to take him to see Uknol to get him on payroll, and the other stuff.

I was almost to the door leadin’ from the warehouse to the offices when I heard Daze whisper to Thomas, “Ya tick Ike off or something?”

I may have paused, hidden by the door, to listen. Thomas groused he was totally innocent.

“Then why’s the boss punkin’ ya like that?”

“Punking me?”

I didn’t need to hear anything more. Frankly, kind of hoped Daze would maintain the drama for at least a few hours. If the constables ever visited Daze, it was ’cause they needed suggestions for a Mama’s Day gift. The important thing, no one was gonna be messin’ with Thomas as long as Daze was in sight. The troll might be a grouchy introvert, mostly mute on a good day, but he would squeeze the efficiency out of the Plain human. Or kill him. And I wasn’t gonna have to babysit the man.

Didn’t look forward to the bottom half of our keep-Thomas-safe plan. Was counter to reason for Ezra to take on the babysittin’ in the afternoon. The two of em together is what placed Thomas in danger to begin with. But. Thomas would truthfully be as safe in Ezra’s company as in Daze’s. But the situation might get deeper. It was the whole, in their face, part of our plan.

My desk was in sight when my phone pinged with a text from Kriz. He’d signed the seven contracts which committed us to our new project, had them on their way to council legality. He added, the contractors were organizin’ their gear and preparin’ to roll.

I had figgered it would take several years to earn back our investment in plant and capital. But if Kriz is right, which he always is, we’d get a lot of work from outside the Valley, considerably shortenin’ the cycle, considerin’ businesses in the Range have had to rely on human firms up North for their fabrication.

“Ya really left him out there with Daze?” my lead admin asked as I settled in my chair. “Ya know we call him Grumpy-butt Daze for a reason?”

~ Ezra ~

I stopped by the warehouse first thing, but Daze and Thomas were nowhere to be found. I texted Thomas. Answered he was on site with the surveyors. Didn’t expect that—didn’t think my cousins were anywhere near that stage. Got back in my truck and drove up the road five hundred feet.

Thomas was busy hammerin’ in stakes as twenty-odd trolls and ogres wearin’ high-viz-orange vests stood in front of fancy contraptions that looked like—don’t know what they looked like. Maybe space guns on tripods. Dozers were runnin’ back and forth.

I sat and stared. The last time I was here no playin-in-the-dirt work had started. But engineers had clearly been busy today, and were still playin’ here and there in the dirt on bright purple tractor-things, levelin’ off the earth in S-shaped curves that followed the elevated side of a highland watershed. Orange tape had been strung from poles on this side of the shallow trout creek.

Small growth pine and underbrush was no longer in sight. I said a quick prayer to whatever gods would be carin’ for their souls now. A hundred, grander pines still stood about, prolly in mourning for their younglings. Ike had said they would accommodate what they could right in the facility footprint. I wiped away a matchin’ pair of tears that threatened to race down my cheeks. This was the sin we have to live with, expandin’ our properties inside the Range.

Thomas stood straight, caught sight of me, I guess, and gave me a wave. But returned to whatever task Daze had set him to doing.

I guess he’d forgotten I was supposed to be pickin’ him up to play tourist. Really, it was babysittin’. But he had a task, and a purpose. Bulls need a purpose. They’re simple like that. Think my mama told me that once. Guess human men need purpose too. Decided to leave him be. If he needed me, he could text me. I put my truck back in gear and made a three-point turn to head back into the Hamlet.

How did Ike ever get the council’s approval for the murder of all those trees? They would visit my dreams tonight, no doubt. Would the gods smite Ike and Kriz? Hopefully, not. I’m kinda use to havin’ em in my life.

~