Chapter 18 - The Last Leverage
The threat had mutated. Evelyn was no longer just an embarrassing, disgraced relative; in her drowning thrash, she had pulled a pin on a grenade aimed directly at Roy and Ellen’s sanctuary.
Naomi and Lucas drove back to Virginia through the night, arriving at dawn. Roy was at the fence line, looking out toward the eastern ridge where heavy machinery had already begun to stage along the access road. Two yellow excavators and a flatbed trailer sat idling just beyond the tree line.
Roy walked over to the truck as Naomi jumped out. His face was weathered, his brow furrowed with deep, simmering anger.
"Some men showed up an hour ago," Roy said, pointing a calloused finger toward the machinery. "Claim they have a timber and excavation easement across my northern pasture to access the ridge. Said an outfit out of Charlotte bought the rights from an Atlanta trust."
"They don't have the easement, Dad," Naomi said firmly, grabbing the binder Lucas had prepared. "Evelyn sold an option on land she didn't own outright."
"Well, they’ve got papers signed by a county magistrate granting them sixty-day exploratory access," Roy said, spitting into the grass. "Law moves slow out here, Naomi. By the time we get a judge to overturn an easement, they’ll have bulldozed three hundred acres of virgin timber and fouled the spring that feeds our cattle."
Lucas stepped forward, his eyes burning with resolve. "They won't touch a single tree, Roy. My father’s codicil supersedes any claim Evelyn manufactured. But we have to file an emergency stop-work injunction at the county seat before their work permits activate at eight o'clock."
"And if the local magistrate takes his time?" Roy asked, looking Lucas dead in the eye.
May you like
Lucas took off his jacket and tossed it into the truck bed. "Then we stand at the gate."
***
