The Caledonian Inheritance (The Athena Effect) Read Online Free Page B

okay?”
    Layla’s face was flushed red and burning with heat when she straightened up and locked eyes with him again. “I’m fine,” she declared, her voice high and false, “It’s alright.” 
    Now he was at a loss for words, admiring the way the sunlight reflected the flecks of gold in her green and brown eyes. “How do you like it?” he managed to ask. “I mean… The town…”
    “It’s fine,” she said.
    “How’s your cousin doing?”
    “She’s fine.”
    “I heard she was working over at Doc Wilson’s clinic.’’
    “Yes,” her eyes shifted away and back to his nervously.
    “New car?” he asked, gesturing with a toss of his handsome head.
    She nodded wordlessly, swallowing hard. Damn, he was just as cute as she remembered.
    “Yours?”
    “Yes.”
    She could feel burning curiosity tinged with bitter lime suspicion, and she rushed to slip behind the wheel, desperate to escape his penetrating eyes. Her hammering heart screamed out a warning, and she gripped the steering wheel to keep her hands from trembling. He was dangerous, because just standing next to him threatened to upend the comforting order of her newfound routine. She started the engine, nodding towards him curtly. “Well… Thank you again.”
    Layla pulled away, drawing a ragged breath and finally glancing into her rear view mirror to see him standing at the curb with his hands thrust deep into his pockets. He was cloaked in a mist of disappointment and frustration, and she wondered exactly what he expected from her anyway.
    No, she hadn’t forgotten about Ramon at all. She’d seen him from a distance, but after her ordeal at the hands of Max, she wasn’t feeling too flirtatious, and she’d gone out of her way to avoid him. Everything she’d seen in the past year had made her doubly suspicious of any man’s motives, and her run-in with Senator Blackwell only served to confirm that dark secrets could lurk behind even the most upstanding image.
    She could see that Ramon’s smile was genuine, but something about him unsettled her, and she preferred to avoid that feeling. She had plans, and she mustn’t allow herself to be sidetracked from her mission. She shouldn’t risk getting involved with someone who could prove to be so… so… disturbing . She took another deep breath and brought her hand to her throat, twisting the pearls on her choker one by one like a strand of worry beads.
    She had a sudden urge to go shopping.

    ~
     
    Chapter Three
    CLEANED UP
     
    ~
     
    Caledonia threw a roll of tarps onto the massive bonfire, standing back with Michael and Calvin to watch the burning plastic send greasy black smoke spiraling into the sky. Recent wet weather made it safe to conduct a burn, but the rains also made a muddy mess of the trails leading into the remote encampments, so even after a few sunny days getting around in the backwoods was proving to be difficult.
    Still, the three of them were making great progress. It was their second full day of cleanup, and they were finally wrapping up the ir demolition of the last of the makeshift camps.
    “They’re not gonna like what they find when they get back,” Calvin said, heaving the final armload of splintered drying racks onto the bonfire.
    “Good,” Caledonia replied. “Then they’ll get the message that they’re no longer welcome.”
    The mild climate and rugged terrain that nurtured the dense redwood forests also made them an ideal location to conceal pot farms, and illegal growers had taken advantage of the property’s enormous size to build a sizeable marijuana operation on her land. Smaller operators had flown under the radar for years, but now Mexican cartels had taken over the spot, and Caledonia was dismayed to discover that a number of new plots had sprung up, tucked into hidden ravines and valleys. She vowed to rid her property of them once and for all.
    So alongside Calvin and Michael, she set out with ferocious determination to root out each encampment and