Maddy's Oasis by Lizzy Ford Read Free Book Online Page A

long hours, too,” she said. “You
can’t really judge my life when yours isn’t much different.”
    “I’m not judging. I'm
telling you-- your life sucks. Ask anyone. Even Eric says so,” he
countered. “You have no life aside from work. How could it not
suck? I like my job; it’s my passion, but even so, I don’t work
more than twelve hours a day. I start early enough for there to be
sunlight at the end of the day and happy hour on Friday and
Saturday. I take one day of work off a week when I’m on a difficult
project, two days off when on a normal project. When I’m on no
project, which I make a point of doing three months a year,
I live. ”
    “To each his own,” she said curtly.
    “Whatever.”
    Irritated once again at the man, she looked
at the time.
    “I have to be at work in an hour,” she
muttered. “So much for getting extra sleep staying here.”
    “Take a nap,” he suggested.
    “You said you called the police about an hour
ago, which means they’ll be here soon.”
    “That’s Texas time, city-girl. One hour back
east is about two hours here in Texas.”
    Frustrated, she sighed and allowed her head
to drop back against his arm and closed her eyes. Warm, safe, and
fatigued, she felt a familiar sense of floating wash over her.
    “I’m not going to sleep,” she told him. “I
want to be awake in case they come back for me.”
    “The vandals?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Why would they?” he asked.
    “Because they said they would.”
     
    Jake frowned at her words, about to pursue
until he felt the full weight of her against him. She drifted into
a deep sleep fast. Duke inched closer to sniff her once she was
out, and he patted the massive Rott affectionately.
    "Good boy," he murmured. "Think you can take
care of this one while I take a look around?"
    Duke didn't respond, but Jake knew he could
count on him to keep an eye on things in the trailer. Jake waited a
few more minutes until certain the woman was in a heavy enough
sleep. He eased away from her and straightened her out on the
couch. He left Duke in the trailer and descended into the early
morning desert air.
    He strode toward his truck and withdrew a
shotgun before whistling loudly for the remainder of his dogs. The
three dogs bolted to him, and he tossed out snacks to them with a
smile. They trailed him as he walked toward the structure in the
first light of morning.
    He took in the hideous contraption of a
building, which they'd made a great deal of progress on already
regardless of what city-girl thought. He knew the financing was an
issue, and part of the funds for working his men overtime was
coming out of his and Javier's wallet.
    Javier liked the city-girl for some reason.
Jake knew his uncle well enough to know he'd do anything for
someone he liked, no matter how irrational that seemed. He scoured
the building for new signs of damage and checked the inventories of
everything from tools to equipment to materials.
    The vandals had taken nothing and destroyed
nothing.
    He almost wished they had. If they weren't
there for the high ticket items, they were there for Alex and
city-girl, which wasn't a good sign. He returned the gun to his
truck and leaned against it with crossed arms, watching the sunrise
as he thought.
    He had half a mind to call his uncle and have
his uncle call Carlos Cortez, Javier's cousin and the man in charge
of the drug gang that probably was looking for extortion money--
rather, protection money, according to Carlos-- for not interfering
with the building of the hotel.
    He debated and then decided against it.
Javier didn’t like or talk to Carlos, and Jake didn't know enough
about what Alex had or hadn’t done to interfere. There were rumors
all over town about Alex's gambling and whoring. He might've owed
anyone money.
    He wasn't sure what to do about Madeleine,
though. She couldn't know how dangerous a drug trafficking gang was
despite the local newspaper she brought in daily. Some of what
happened between the