Texas Wildcat. Lindsay McKennaЧитать онлайн книгу.

      One

      “All hell’s broken loose, Kelly!”

      Kelly tiredly raised her head. She stared blankly at Jake for a moment. Her office manager’s face was drawn. Her heart plummeted. What now? she wondered miserably. What else could go wrong? Brushing an auburn strand of hair away from her forehead, she sat up a little straighter in the huge leather chair.

      “What’s wrong?” Her voice sounded tired and strained after the events of the past week.

      Jake grimaced, giving a sorrowful shake of his head. “Boots and Coots’s office just called. Two of our monitor pipes blew up on them.”

      “Oh, no!” Kelly groaned, slumping back into the chair. “How? I mean…”

      Jake came inside the door and shut it softly behind him. “They’re sending Sam Tyler over to tell us about it.”

      She frowned, pushing aside the mountain of paperwork. “Who’s he?”

      “Number three man in the outfit, that’s who. They’re angry, Kelly. We’re gonna lose the account.”

      Kelly made an agitated gesture, then got to her feet. “Dad never made bad pipe. What’s going on, Jake? I don’t understand it,” she muttered, walking around the large square desk. She fought back tears of remembrance. Tears of grief. Only a week ago her father, a Texas wildcatter as well as the president of Blanchard Pipe, had been sitting in his office. Now, he was dead. Dead because of a senseless automobile accident. A drunk driver had ended the life of the person she loved more than anyone in the world. Kelly’s green eyes narrowed with pain as she stared over at Jake. She chastised herself for not knowing more of her father’s business. Now, it was up to her to run the multimillion-dollar company, which made a variety of pipe for the oil and gas industry around the world.

      Placing a slender hand on her brow, she massaged her temples. She had to think coherently regardless of the circumstances. Boots and Coots were one of their major buyers. They used Blanchard pipe at oil and gas well blowouts to spray water on the raging inferno while their men worked to put the fire out.

      “Who spoke to you, Jake?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

      “Boots Hansen did.”

      “What happened?”

      Jake released a heavy sigh. Coots Matthews and Sam Tyler were up on a call in Canada. They trucked in a load of our pipe for the job. Their men had set up the unmanned water monitors close to the gas fire to protect the crew working beneath it. When Sam went in to help with the welding on the blowout preventer our pipe failed on two out of the six water monitors.” Jake shook his head, stealing a glance over at Kelly. “That type of fire can reach temperatures of twenty-two hundred degrees Fahrenheit. A heavy water fog pattern is used so the men can work at the mouth of the well.”

      Kelly’s full lips thinned. “Don’t tell me they were injured?”

      “’Fraid so, Kelly. They put Slim Hudson in a burn unit up in Canada. Tyler was burned too, but apparently not as badly. The team just landed at the airport and he’s on his way over here right now.”

      It was far more serious than she had first thought. Blanchard pipe was designed to withstand thousands of pounds of water pressure hurtling through it for months on end without failure. This was the third time within a month that their pipe had buckled during a critical phase. Word was getting around. The business her father had started twenty years ago was in danger of failing because of it.

      Tears glittered in Kelly’s green eyes as she lifted her chin. “Okay, Jake, bring Mr. Tyler to me when he gets here. I want to deal with this one personally. Boots and Coots have been good customers for too long. This has to be investigated.”

      “Man, you’re telling me. I feel bad about this one.”

      “Is Slim going to be all right?”

      Jake managed a sliver of a smile. “You know Texans, Kelly. We’re all tougher than horseshoe nails. Yeah, he’ll make it.”

      “Have Susan get more information. I want to know when they’ll transfer Slim back to Houston,” Kelly ordered.

      Walking dejectedly back to the leather chair, Kelly stared at the floor. Normally, her shoulders were straight and proud. Today they slumped. The guilt bore down on her. Why hadn’t she gotten more involved in her father’s business this last year before his death? The answer was simple: her crumbling marriage had finally fallen apart. This past