Chapter 3
Not having a game plan for the day, Conner swung by his house to change into work clothes. Made a pit stop at his mom’s house and managed to get fed a full breakfast. Sophie may be the new chef in residence, but his momma’s cooking was always the best. She knew how to feed a growing boy.
“My baby,” Connie said, squeezing him tight before pushing him out the door to work.
Conner drove through their latest planting. Everything looked well, tiny seedlings dotting the hillside. In a few years they would be knee-high and you wouldn’t be able to see the ragged stumps left from the logging.
He made sure to hit the site of the current cut too. It was still being worked, men sawing and large semi trucks idling, waiting to be loaded with logs. Seeing the foreman Jake, Conner made his way over to him to get an update.
“Hey, Jake, how goes it?” Conner called, walking up to him.
“Conner, fancy seeing you here. It’s going good, no delays and the weather…well, it is what it is,” he said with a laugh.
Nodding, Conner asked, “No issues with equipment?”
Still on constant watch for more sabotage, he didn’t want to let his guard down. Logging was dangerous work on its own without some assclown purposely trying to hurt them.
“Day’s still young. I’ve got guys double checking everything before they use it. I can’t say that it’s perfect, but everyone is at least aware of the situation,” Jake assured.
Surveying the area, Conner watched a semi receive its last tree and the driver start lashing down the logs. The trees sat inside two giant forked prongs for transport. They couldn’t roll off the truck sideways, but there was always a possibility of them shifting front to back. That’s why the cables were used as backup.
Still watching the driver ratcheting down the load, his ears picked up on a whining noise. Looking around he tried to figure out where it was coming from. It wasn’t the usual noise of engines, saws, and cable rigging. It was something else, like metal grating against metal.
Hearing the noise grow louder, his bear got more agitated. Something wasn’t right and the humans around him didn’t appear to hear it.
Conner started walking towards the semi-truck and the noise got louder. As he was almost to the back of the truck, he heard a ping and loud snap.
“Fuck!”
“Heads up!”
Voices yelled at the same time as the back cable strap on the truck exploded over the top of the logs, ricocheting across the wood, scoring them deep as the cable came down the other side hitting a work truck parked next to the trailer, breaking out the window from the impact.
“Everyone all right?” Conner called out, rounding the end of the trailer to see his driver Matt, holding his arm, blood dripping down his fingers.
“Just a cut, boss,” Matt called. There was a lot of blood, but he seemed to still have all his fingers. In this business that was a good sign.
“Get the medical kit,” he called to the other man standing next to him. Conner grabbed Matt’s arm and put pressure above the long deep gash on his arm.
“What happened,” he said, seeing the wound was deep, but appeared to be only in the fleshy part of his arm.
“I swear boss, that was a new cable. No way it should have busted,” he answered.
“I believe you, let’s get you patched up and Jake will run you down to the hospital,” he said as the med kit arrived and he worked up a makeshift bandage and sling.
“Come on ya big sissy,” Jake called, out walking to a passenger van parked by the entrance. “Hmphf, in my day we’d wrap some moss and duct tape around it and keep working. Loggers, getting soft, needin’ stitches, and pain killers. Bunch of pansies,” he mumbled, getting into the truck.
Conner slapped Matt on the back and gave him a smirk, “Good luck.”
“Hah, thanks, boss,” Matt said, walking to the van.
Grabbing his phone out of his pocket, Conner called Cage and Wyatt and filled them in. As he was talking to them, he inspected the cable. Matt was right, it was new, but it had that faint dirty smell that they’d noticed at the other accident sites. The edge was frayed, but clearly had cut marks along the spiraled cable. It probably wasn’t very deep, but the tension caused it to eventually split.
Cage and Wyatt both showed up within thirty minutes. Flying down the dirt road, kicking up dust and coming to a screeching halt.
They stood around and contemplated the broken cable.
“This shit has got to stop,” Wyatt growled.
“Agreed, my bear has had more than enough,” Cage replied.
Conner stayed quiet. His bear was loud enough in his head, he didn’t want to give him a voice too. Realizing his brothers were waiting for him to chime in, he mentally warned his bear to back off before he spoke.