I didn’t expect her to actually come down into the mine, but damn if I don’t respect her for it.

“As far as I know, she’s the first corporate person down there,” I say to the room. The guys look up at me as I stand in front of the tables, shoved together and covered in beer bottles. The miner’s union stares back at me, missing a few guys, but mostly there.

“So what?” one of the guys calls out, an idiot named Arnold.

“So, that means she might actually give a fuck,” I say to him.

A few guys chuckle. “Doubtful,” Arnold grumbles.

“You know how it is down there, Samuel,” Vance grumbles, a portly guy with dark blue eyes. “Almost had a fucking collapse just a few days ago.”

“He’s right,” Boone says. “Not exactly been safe down there since crazy Tommy died.”

There’s a grumble around the room, and I can’t disagree with them. Ever since Tommy died, our quotas have been doubled, and the safety checks that used to be standard have mysteriously disappeared. Corporate doesn’t send anyone down to oversee what we do, as long as we fill their orders on time, they don’t give a fuck about us.

“I don’t know why it’s happening,” I say to them. “But we can all agree that things are changing.”

“Fuck yeah, they are,” Arnold grumbles.

Vernon stands up. “I don’t want to die in that fucking mine,” he says, looking around. “Ain’t no man here that wants it. So what are you gonna do, Samuel?”

I nod at him as he slowly sits down. “I hear your complaints,” I say. “I fucking share them. You all know I’m down there with you, working those fucking shafts. But I don’t have any power right now, not until we start to negotiate.”

“We can give you power,” Roy says suddenly. I look over at him, surprised.

“What do you mean?” Arnold calls out. There are grumbles all over the room.

“We can strike,” he says simply.

I shake my head quickly. “We don’t strike. If we go that route, they’ll never fucking deal with us, and they’ll replace us all with scabs.”

“We’ll kill the fucking scabs!” someone yells out, and a few guys cheer.

I sigh, shaking my head. This is why nobody wanted this job right now. These guys are all angry and emotional, and I can’t blame them. The mines are getting more and more dangerous every day we’re pushed to dig faster than we should. Some of these guys might die doing this job, and although it doesn’t happen as much as it used to in the old days, collapses do still happen. We all know a guy that’s died down there in the pitch black, choking on coal dust.

“I’ll talk to them,” I call out. “We don’t strike, not yet. Any other fucking questions?”

Nobody says anything, and the meeting ends. I turn to Roy and we walk together back over toward the bar. We’re both handed a beer and Roy leans in toward me as the other guys all get their own drinks.

“You know why this is happening,” Roy says to me softly.

“Ingram,” I say.

He nods. “Damn right.”

“He’s been wanting this for a long time.” I clench my jaw.

“What do you think of the girl?”

I slowly release my tension. “She means well,” I say finally. “But she doesn’t know shit about mining.”

He laughs softly. “Crazy Tommy didn’t either, but he wasn’t so bad. Maybe his daughter can be better.”

“Yeah,” I grunt at him. “Maybe.”

The guys all crowd around the bar and start drinking, and I’m pulled away by a million questions as every guy suddenly wants a piece of me, asking about some benefit or other that I don’t know shit about, but I always try and reassure them.

Fact is, I don’t know what we’ll get out of this. The conditions down there aren’t great, and the contract is coming up. I don’t know how powerful Amelia is in her company, or if Ingram is going to push her aside. If that happens, we’ll be fucked, I’m sure of that.

The bar slowly starts to clear out as the night wears on. A lot of these guys have to work early. The bar should get a new influx of customers in a couple hours, as the middle shift gets off and the late shift comes on, though fortunately I have tomorrow off.

Roy joins me at the bar and I glance at him. “Good job tonight,” he says softly.

I shrug a little. “I guess so.”

“The guys believe in you.”

“Mostly.”

He frowns. “Yeah, well, we’ll keep those assholes in line.”

I sigh. “I don’t want them kept in line, Roy. I want to do what’s best for everyone, not just for myself.”

He sips his beer, watching me for a second. I trust Roy’s opinion, but there’s a reason he didn’t step up and take this job from the start. Hell, there’s a reason why none of these guys did, just left it for me to figure out.

“I know what you’re feeling,” he says finally. “But listen, Samuel. You’re the man for this job.”

I laugh a little ruefully. “I don’t think so. I’m the man that was dumb enough to take it.”

He grins at me. “That’s true, but it just so happens you’re perfect.”

“I don’t feel fucking perfect. I feel like I’m drowning here.”

“You saw the way the guys looked at you.” He stops me before I can interrupt them. “Not every fucking guy, but most of them believe in you. That’s a good fucking start. And on top of that, you actually want what’s best for them, which is even more rare. Do you know how many union bosses we have just fucking take the job and steal everything they could?”

I hesitate a second. Corruption in unions is a pretty well-known thing. It’s like an open secret for us. We don’t talk about it, and as long as it doesn’t get so bad, we let it keep going on because the union is so important to all these guys. Nobody wants to risk breaking the whole system.

“I know,” I say finally.

“You’re honest, Samuel, and you care. That’s what we need right now.” He goes silent for a second. “The real question is, can we trust this new Evans girl?”

I glance at him. “I like her.”

“I know you do.” He gives me a little grin. “It’s honestly not her I’m concerned about. It’s Ingram.”

I nod slowly. “I know. He’s the real problem.”

“Is she going to roll over and let him run the company?”

“I don’t know,” I say honestly.

“I wouldn’t blame her if she did. Far as I can tell, the girl never asked for any of this, probably doesn’t even want it.”

“I think you’re right,” I say, glancing back to my drink. “But she’s a good person.”

“Good people aren’t always strong enough.” He pats me on the back. “Fortunately, you are.”

He stands and heads off to another group of guys that are lingering over in the corner. I glance back at him for a second before sighing, shaking my head.

I don’t know what the fuck I’m going to do. I want to trust and believe in Amelia, even if she is some rich, spoiled girl that doesn’t know a damn thing about our way of life. Still, she’s better than Ingram, at least so far. Ingram would rape and pillage everything we have without any regard for human lives, all for the profit of his company. He doesn’t give a shit about us, not even a little bit. At least Amelia seems to care about people.

I care about people, too. Maybe that’s my fucking problem. This whole contract thing, the uncertain future of my people, it’s all driving me fucking insane. I never wanted this kind of stress. Hell, I didn’t think it even existed. I was happy down in the mine, digging away all fucking day, doing something hard that felt good.

Now I have responsibility on top of this thing with Amelia. I want that girl more than I can even admit to myself. I don’t know how I’m going to juggle my deep, intense desire to take her one more time and my responsibility to my people.

I sip my beer, but unfortunately the answers aren’t at the bottom of the bottle.