Brody (Rock Hard Mountain Men #2)

Chapter 1

Brody

If you look up the word “lumberjack” in the dictionary the entry says, “a person whose job is to cut down trees to be used in building and industry.” This typically brings to mind the image of a man, often wearing red flannel, hacking away at the base of a tree with an axe.

Well, that image was correct in one way. I did often wear various colors of flannel to work. It was sturdy, comfortable, and easy to clean.

The rest of that image, however, was inaccurate. In the modern era, we were beyond the point of cutting down forests with hand axes.

First of all, a hand axe takes too long.

We’d never be able to keep up with current demand if we had to cut everything down by hand one tree at a time.

Instead, we used specialized equipment. Being a lumberjack wasn’t just about raw strength anymore.

We also had to double as mechanical engineers and operators.

Secondly, we couldn’t just cut down any tree. Forests were delicate ecosystems that had to be protected, so there was a strict and complicated system for selecting exactly which areas we were allowed to harvest.

For this reason, I was surprised when I arrived at work and was told the location of our current job was being moved.

“What do you mean moved?” I asked as I stood in the doorway of our worksite’s temporary office.

It was really just a shipping container that had been furnished to look like an office on the inside but was still clearly a metal box on the outside.

The entire thing was easily portable, including the generator that gave the “office” power.

There was only one door and one window that had been roughly cut into the box. Standing in the doorway, blocking half the natural light, I cast a shadow over everything inside.

Including my boss.

Technically, his full name was Richard Fellsworth.

He was relatively new, having been hired as our manager less than a month ago.

On his first day meeting the crew, he’d requested that everyone call him Rick in an attempt to promote a friendly atmosphere.

Unfortunately, he spoke as if he’d stepped right out of a corporate boardroom.

From his too white teeth to his fake Rolex watch, nothing about the man was genuine.

I wasn’t certain who started it, but less than twenty-four hours after being assigned as our manager, everyone on the crew unanimously started calling him Dick. He hated it and had tried numerous times to get everyone to stop, but the more he pushed back, the more the nickname stuck.

Dick was a physically large man who looked like he could have been a lumberjack in his youth. However, anyone could tell after two minutes of talking to him that he’d never done a day of physical labor in his life. His spine was too weak, both literally and metaphorically.

Despite the naturally cool temperature this high up the mountain, sweat still beaded on Dick’s forehead. He dabbed at it with a handkerchief as he stuttered out an explanation, never looking me in the eye.

“Th-the order just came in a few hours ago. We’re changing the location of the jobsite. Something about finding a protected species of plants in this area that we can’t disturb.”

I sighed, already knowing it would be useless to complain. Magnus would know more about the local plant life. If he were here, he’d probably have a million questions about what they’d found and want to see it for himself.

Not me. The only thing I knew about plants was how to cut them down.

“Fine. We’ve already got the machinery set up, so it’ll take us some time to get everything moved.”

“A… about that…”

I could already tell I wasn’t going to like whatever Dick had to say, so I just glared at him in a silent command to keep talking.

“The higher-ups say they want everything moved in two hours.”

“What?”

The whole office shook as I stormed over and slammed my fist down on Dick’s desk. “Two hours? That’s barely enough time to get everything packed up, let alone moved. What the hell are they thinking?”

Dick leaned back, but his desk chair didn’t have wheels so he could only move so far away without looking like that’s what he was doing.

“I don’t know. That’s just the order. They need everything moved within two hours.”

“Well, where even is the new location?”

Dick pointed it out on a map, and I nearly blew my lid all over again.

“It’ll take us forty-five minutes just to drive all the equipment that far. That’s gives us barely more than an hour to get everything packed up.”

Dick had his phone up to his ear, putting on an act of productivity even though he hadn’t actually called anyone yet.

“Look. I’ll make a few calls and let them know that you need more time.

Just get started, and I’m sure it’ll be fine so long as it’s clear that you’re moving as quickly as possible. ”

I wanted to keep arguing, but there was no point.

Dick was just a middleman manager. He may be the one to relay orders to the rest of the workers, but he wasn’t the one who made the decisions.

I had no choice but to turn my back on that cramped little office, slamming the door hard enough to nearly rip it from its hinges as a final punctuation on my anger.

“Two hours,” I grumbled to myself as I weaved my way between machinery and stacks of already cut logs to find the rest of my crew. “It’s a joke, is what it is.”

I’d only just arrived for my shift, and I already wanted to be back home.

The incident with the body we’d found and the Mothers of the Mountain cult still hadn’t been fully resolved.

It’d been two weeks since Magnus and Trent returned from their last trip out to the hidden mausoleum, and so far, no one else had bothered us, but I didn’t trust the situation to stay so calm.

Although I usually enjoyed my job as a lumberjack, I would have skipped out on my shifts and stayed home if I could.

Unfortunately, we still needed money to live, and Magnus couldn’t support us just by moonlighting as a cage fighter.

The other lumberjacks on duty were, unsurprisingly, just as upset by the order as I was. After shouting complaints for a few minutes—and other less savory threats—we eventually decide to just say “fuck it” and start getting everything moved.

The higher-ups were undoubtedly going to be upset when we couldn’t meet their impossible deadline, but what could they actually do about it?

If they fired us, then they’d have to move the equipment themselves, and the prissy little suits that owned the logging company would never do that.

In the end, we managed to get everything moved over to the new site in less than four hours, which was already a miracle.

When Dick came out to inspect the work after his office space was set up again, he had a phone held up to his ear.

I could tell from the expression on his face that whoever was on the other line was probably yelling at him to speed things up.

“They want us to start on the north side,” he said while covering the speaker of his phone with one hand.

I’d just looked at the surveyor’s map, so I already had a good idea of the landscape, but I double-checked it again just to be sure. “That area’s on a steep slope. Anything we cut there is going to roll. It would be better to start on the south side where the land is flatter.”

Before I’d even finished, Dick was already shaking his head.

“The south side is too dense. We’d have to clear things out first in order to get the machines out there. There’d be no actual productivity until tomorrow. Start on the north side and harvest what lumber you can while we get another team to start clearing out the south side.”

It was a terrible plan. There was no way we’d have enough time to properly survey the lower side of the slope. We’d basically be cutting down trees and letting them fall blindly, hoping they didn’t land on anything.

Dick turned away from me, talking into his phone to assure whomever he was talking to that we would follow their orders.

I grabbed his shoulder and forcibly turned him around, so he’d have no choice but to hear me.

“I want it in writing.”

“What?” He scowled, but then his eyes trailed up to look at me, reminding him of our height difference. Dick wasn’t a small man. He probably wasn’t used to having to raise his eyes to meet someone’s gaze.

“I want these orders in writing. If you want to rush and do things out of order, fine. But I won’t be held responsible if anything goes wrong, so I want this order in writing.

” I crossed my arms over my chest in a move that I knew emphasized the scars crisscrossing over my forearms and the general width of my shoulders.

Dick instinctively took a step back.

“All right. Fine. I’ll get an email sent to you. Just… get started on your job.”

His last words were probably meant to be a command, but they lost all authority as he scurried away and darted back into the safety of his office.

Laughing quietly to myself, I let my shoulders slump.

I’d put on some weight in the last few years, especially after retiring from the military.

The flat stomach and chiseled physique I’d once had during my boot camp days were a long-forgotten memory, replaced by love handles and a soft stomach.

I didn’t feel as powerful as I had in my youth, but apparently, I could still put up an intimidating appearance when I wanted.

Oh well.

What else could I expect at forty-six years old?

At least I was still more fit than most, and perfectly capable of doing my job.

It was well past noon when the first tree fell. Much later than usual, though sooner than I expected. Our work progressed slowly, as we were trying to set up and move forward at the same time.