Mountains Apart

In her place was a charming and professional, confident and articulate executive from Cam-Field Oil & Mineral. And it struck him right then and there that he’d vastly underestimated Emily Hollings on the professional front. If he didn’t know better, he would think he’d been good and thoroughly snowed. Bering felt a shift in his entire being; a knot formed in his stomach as Tag’s words of warning came back to him. For the first time since meeting her, he wondered if he really might be in trouble after all.

As she wrapped up the last of her speech, which had come off like more of a fireside chat, Bering knew without a doubt that Emily was a great deal more than good at her job. He was watching men and women he’d known all his life eating out of her hand like ponies at the petting zoo. She was charming and witty and, worst of all, full of statistics and dollar signs and promises of high-paying jobs and “community improvements.” And she’d pulled the hospital card. Rankins was in desperate need of updated medical facilities, and she’d basically just promised a few million of Cam-Field’s pocket change to the cause if the permitting process was successful.

And while Bering was relieved and, he grudgingly admitted to himself, impressed, he was also terrified. It was as if he’d been deluged by a bucket of ice-cold water. What was wrong with him? What had he been thinking?

Tag was right—Emily was Cam-Field in the flesh, and in spite of whatever personal concerns he may have had for her as a woman, the executive was going to have to be stopped. Cam-Field still had to be stopped. As the crowd began dispersing, Bering stood up and slipped silently from the room.

He looked from one end of the empty hallway to the other and quickly walked to the receptionist’s station, which currently stood empty. He plucked the telephone off the desk and rapidly tapped out a long-distance call.

“Jack? Hey, it’s me, Bering. Listen, I’m calling about the situation here in Rankins.... Uh-huh, yeah, I think we may have vastly underestimated the, uh, threat here....”

CHAPTER FIVE

THE MEETING WITH the Chamber of Commerce had gone unbelievably well. It had resulted in several appointments with community members and invitations to numerous social events. She’d scored an invitation from the mayor himself to attend the Rotary Club fund-raiser, which she’d learned was unequivocally the social event of the year in Rankins.

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