Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 57350 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 287(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57350 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 287(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
Maggie kept driving slowly along the narrow trail. “If you turn around this corner up against this mountain,” she said, gesturing ahead, “I think it’d be a pretty place to have a picnic. Isn’t there a picnic scene?”
“There is,” Bianca said.
“That would be perfect.” Maggie guided the SUV around the bend, the mountain rising close on one side while the creek curved wider on the other. “We haven’t been out here for a couple years, but someday we want to expand here.”
Bianca looked around again, picturing tents, tables, and a camera crew capturing the quiet beauty of the place.
“You know what would be fun?” Maggie continued. “To put a bunch of cabins out here and do a campground.”
“That’d be wonderful,” Ewan said immediately. “Right by the creek where people could fish. You’d probably make a fortune.”
“Yeah,” Maggie said thoughtfully. “I bet we would.”
The peaceful sound of the creek filled the air for another moment.
Then a deep grinding noise drifted across the valley, low and mechanical, like heavy equipment chewing through rock. “What in the world is that?” Ewan asked.
“I don’t know,” Maggie said. She kept driving as the road widened suddenly.
The grinding sound grew louder.
“Whose property are we on?” Bianca asked.
“This is ours still,” Maggie said slowly. “I know it goes until our line curves around the mountain to the right.”
They rounded another bend and the trees opened. Gray rock spread across both sides of the clearing in wide piles, and the grinding noise roared through the air now while dust hung in thick clouds above the ground and large machines tore into the earth. “What in the world?” Maggie whispered.
Bianca stared.
The entire area had been stripped down to exposed layers of rock and dirt. Heavy excavators scooped into the ground while a crushing machine sat in the center of the clearing, its metal jaws grinding stone into smaller pieces. Conveyor belts carried the broken rock upward before dumping it into waiting trucks.
Several large dump trucks were quiet, their beds already half full.
The whole operation looked temporary but well organized. Fuel tanks sat near one edge of the clearing. Portable lights had been set up around the site, and tire tracks carved deep patterns through the dirt where trucks had been moving in and out.
“Looks like a mining operation,” Ewan said slowly from the back seat, leaning forward to get a better look. “I’ve used a couple of places like this on other movies. Gravel pits mostly. They make good backdrops for action scenes.”
The hair on the back of Bianca’s neck rose.
Large machines sat frozen across the torn ground, their metal buckets buried in the earth where they’d been digging earlier. The crushing unit stood silent nearby, its heavy steel jaws still packed with broken rock from the last load it had processed. The whole operation looked paused rather than abandoned.
“Usually they’re permitted though,” Ewan added, his voice quieter now. “You see signs everywhere. Safety barriers. Company logos. People wearing helmets and vests.”
None of that was here.
Piles of broken stone stretched across the ground like raw scars in the land.
Bianca swallowed.
Maggie slowed the SUV and then stopped.
A truck barreled toward them suddenly from the far side of the clearing.
“Whoa,” Ewan said.
The vehicle raced straight toward Maggie’s SUV before swerving sharply at the last second. Dust sprayed across the windshield as the truck roared past and skidded to a stop nearby. The driver’s door flew open. Boyd jumped out.
“Boyd, what are you doing?” Maggie asked, pushing her door open and standing.
Bianca stepped out of her side of the car, her heart thundering as she stared across the torn landscape. Ewan ducked out of the back and stood next to her. “Whose land is this?” she asked.
“It’s ours,” Maggie said automatically.
Boyd didn’t answer right away. His shoulders sagged and his chin dipped toward his chest. “I really wish you wouldn’t have come out here,” he murmured.
“Let’s get out of here,” Ewan said quickly.
“Yeah,” Bianca agreed, already reaching for her door.
“Sorry,” Boyd said quietly, pulling a gun from his jacket and pointing it at them. “But that’s not going to happen. All three of you move.” He gestured with the gun toward the side of the clearing. “Now. This way.”
Bianca gulped and looked at Maggie.
Maggie frowned. “What are you doing, Boyd? Stealing from us?”
Boyd’s jaw tightened. “Just move.”
For a heartbeat nobody did.
Then Ewan exploded into motion. “Run!” he shouted. He slammed into Boyd, driving his shoulder into the man’s chest and knocking the gun arm sideways. A shot cracked through the clearing, echoing against the mountain as the two men crashed into the dirt.
Bianca grabbed her phone from her pocket and fumbled with a text to Adam, saying where they were. Did she have service? Did he? She threw the phone onto the floor of the car.
“Go,” Ewan yelled again, struggling with Boyd for the gun.