Page 47 of Crash Course
Cilla started walking again, moving at a decent clip so Cruz fell in step, his longer strides catching up.
"I’m thinking," she said. "Trying to decide if I’m crossing a line."
"If you weren’t Darren Randolph’s daughter, would it be crossing a line?"
She halted. Swung back to him, her green eyes wider than dinner plates. "You do have a gift for cutting right to the bone, don’t you?"
"Sorry. But yeah. It’s how I fly."
"Don’t apologize. I prefer honesty." She jerked her head. "Let’s do the testing."
Yes, indeed, a woman on a mission. He slid his phone from his front pocket and punched up Phin, who answered on the second ring.
"Hey," Cruz said. "I’m putting you on speaker so Cilla can hear."
"Yep."
Cruz hit the button and held the phone between he and Cilla. "You’re doing some environmental stuff with Kayla, right?"
"A little. Not much. She’s trying to grow that arm of the business. I basically have training wheels on."
"That might be enough," Cilla said. "This property my father wants to buy. Can we test the soil ourselves?"
"Without the owner’s permission?"
Cilla considered that. She couldn’t knock on the door and say, "Hey, you don’t know me, but do you mind if I test your soil for toxic chemicals?"
"Yes. What’s to stop us from sneaking a sample if it’s for our own purposes? I just want to know for sure."
"Seriously," Cruz said, "I think I love you."
On the other end of the phone Phin laughed. "Ignore my idiot brother. Anyway, unless you get caught trespassing, I don’t see why you couldn’t grab a sample and send it to a lab. I’ve got a bunch of containers in my suite from Kayla’s project. They’re from the lab she uses."
Cilla met Cruz’s eye. "If we’re careful, no one will know."
"I’m in," he said. "Phin, how do we do it?"
"Easy. You take three or four samples from different sections of the property. Gotta use a stainless steel trowel. Get at least six inches deep and fill the container. Label them and we send them off."
Cilla smacked her hands together. "Piece of cake."
How fun was she? No fear and all in.
"Thanks, Phin," he said. "I’ll get those containers in a while."
"I’m meeting Maddy for dinner. They'll be on the table in my suite. Just grab them."
"Will do. Tell Maddy hi."
Cruz tapped the screen and jumped right in. "We can run up to Morgan and take care of this quick. As you said, we’re not using the results for anything other than our own knowledge, so nobody would have to know. At least then, you’d have the answers."
"Exactly. At least I’ll know."
"If the PFOA is high, you have decisions to make on how to handle your dad."
She peeled her lips back, making that same face as earlier when he’d told her about people shitting forever chemicals.
"Hey," he said. "It’ll suck, but you’ll have answers."
