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“Thanks, honey. I have some business to take care of online, and then I’ll make that grocery run.”
Rusty hesitated. There was something she was curious about, so she just came out and asked. “What, exactly, do you do now? Or are you pulling retirement?”
“I didn’t serve long enough,” Cameron said, and then hesitated. Nobody outside of the families on Pope Mountain knew about PCG Inc.
Rusty saw him hesitating. “I don’t mean to pry. It doesn’t matter. That was pure curiosity and it’s not my business.”
Cameron sighed. “It’s not that. I’m the CEO of a corporation. PCG Incorporated, to be exact. It’s just that nobody outside of the families up here knows about our connection to the corporation.”
She frowned. “PCG Incorporated. Is that manufacturing? And why would it matter if people knew?”
“This is between you and me and no one else. Okay?”
“Sure, but if it bothers you to break a confidence, I’m fine with not knowing,” she said.
“I live in the hope that one day you’re going to marry me and live here. If that happens, you’ll have to know then. All spouses do.”
Rusty put the dirty dishes into the sink and plopped down in his lap.
“Did you just kinda-sorta propose to me?”
He grinned. “Probably.”
“Then when you do get around to a for-sure proposal, the answer will be yes,” she said.
He laughed and planted a kiss on her lips that left her breathless, then cupped her face.
“PCG stands for Pope, Cauley, and Glass. The three ‘first families’ of Pope Mountain. Our ancestors have been here since the 1800s. When locals began building little shops down the mountain about sixty years ago to sell their homemade goods and food, they never expected the tourist trade to blow up like it did. So to protect ourselves from less-than-desirables setting up shop there and protect our privacy up here, we incorporated the land in the valley. No one has a business in Jubilee without the board’s approval, and we own the land and the buildings. People lease places to open their businesses, but there’s no land for sale.”
Rusty frowned, trying to absorb what he was telling her. “Wait. What?”
“Basically, we own the town of Jubilee, lock, stock, and barrel. The hoteliers have one-hundred-year leases on a set amount of land. They built their hotels on our land and pay a percentage of their monthly profits to the corporation. Like rent. If they decide to sell the hotels, then the new owners would have to sign a whole new agreement with the corporation. The people on Pope Mountain may come off as hillbillies, but they’re drawing quarterly dividends from a very profitable business, and have been for years. We made a pact when the corporation was created. Nobody outside the family circles knows. The hoteliers don’t know. They think it’s some big-city corporation.”
Rusty’s mouth opened, then she shook her head and smiled. “That’s freaking brilliant. I’ve taken vows of loyalty and secrecy. I know how to keep my mouth shut.”
He hugged her. “Now you understand why I immediately agreed to help a federal agent with the human-trafficking investigation. We don’t want anything like this entrenched in Jubilee.”
“Yes. I understand why this is so personal to you, even over and above your niece’s kidnapping,” she said. “You go do you. I’m going to clean up in here and then get to work myself.”
She got up from his lap and began clearing the table while Cameron went down the hall to his office. She was glad he’d confided in her. It explained a lot.
***
Ray Caldwell was furious, but kept his anger intact and Rusty’s request uppermost as he waited for Emily Payne to come to his office. He didn’t know what she was up to, but if Rusty was investigating her, it couldn’t be good.
Moments later there was a knock at his door.
“Come in!”
Emily Payne came in, smiling and walking with that little bounce in her step as if she didn’t have a care in the world. “Good morning, Mr. Caldwell. You wanted to see me?”
Ray pointed to the chair across from his desk.
“Sit down, please.”
Emily’s heart skipped. Ray Caldwell was frowning.
“I’m really sorry I didn’t think to—”
