Page 59 of Crash Course
"Man, oh, man." Rohan smiled like a freaking madman while peering at Cruz. "Ilikeher. You can shove that whistle so far up your ass it’ll come out your ear."
Cruz raised his hands and waggled them. "Now I’m scared."
Phin, wearing one of his slick suits, joined the party. He nodded at Cilla and then pinned his brothers with a hard look. "You two, shut up. It’s been a long day, I’m tired and I have a fundraiser tonight. I need to conserve energy." He pointed at the duffel. "What’s this?"
"Soil," Cilla said. "We took water samples from a stream while we were at it. Just in case."
"Speaking of water." Cruz pointed at Rohan. "Remember our convo about free sludge? Randolph Industries has its own water reclamation facility."
"Huh."
His brother. A man of many words.
Rohan shifted his gaze to Cilla. "Why their own facility?"
"The community had concerns about Randolph taxing the town’s water facility. My father agreed to build their own. Everything is self-contained."
"And," Cruz said, "they recycle the toilet water for flushing."
"Are they giving away sludge?" Rohan asked.
Cruz pulled the chair next to his out for Cilla. "Have a seat."
He waited for her to sit, then dropped into his chair. "We don’t know about the sludge. On the drive back, Cilla tried searching the company database. It’s a lot of files."
Cilla nodded. "I didn’t want to be in there long."
Phin took his normal seat and unzipped the duffel. "Why?"
She glanced at Cruz, her green eyes holding a question Cruz couldn’t decipher. But nothing they discussed in this room would be shared outside of BARS.
Cruz did the only thing he could and jerked his head, letting her know it was safe to talk and they had her back.
Cilla turned back to Phin. "I logged in using my father’s credentials."
"Nice," Phin said. "Go, you."
"I found out the other night that my own credentials expired. I was locked out. HR is supposed to be working on giving me access again, but so far, no luck. I’m not exactly a priority unless Dad tells them I am. I figured out my father’s password and logged in. Today, I searched for sludge, but there were too many files to look through."
Rohan met Cruz’s gaze, sending him a WTF look.
"I know what you’re going to say," Cruz said. "You need a good reason, blah, blah. I get it. Earlier, we met a little girl, maybe ten-eleven years old. Bald as a cue ball."
That got Rohan’s attention. He sat back, drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair. "Don’t tell me."
"Cancer," Cruz said.
"Shit," Phin said.
"Dammit," Rohan said. "I told you not to tell me."
Cilla cleared her throat, drawing all eyes to her. "Brittney is her name. She’s the daughter of the people who own the farm my father is trying to buy."
"Does your father know she’s sick?"
"I think he might."
More drumming of Rohan’s fingers. "Which," he said, "would be why you want to know if these folks are getting sludge from the plant?"
