BOOK 4

(1896) Salisbury, North Carolina. Plantation owner Nash Taylor is determined to become the south's Cotton King with the first farm to boast a mechanical cotton picker. With two inventors on the job, Taylor has high hopes for success and is willing to play for equally high stakes. Taylor's ambitions clash with well-heeled politician John Jefferson who is looking to buy the same land to sell to Southern Railway to put Salisbury on the map. Amid this contest, a Mexican immigrant and Taylor's wife complicate matters. Meanwhile in present-day Washington Spring, Jimmy Johnson discovers his grandmother's heritage was a web of secrets and his cousins are now digging in the family archives. Will the truth of his family lineage come to light? And if it does, will his access to the lucrative family trust fund suddenly end?

Trade in Secrets

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Excerpt from Trade in Secrets

Juan Ortiz clutched his stomach and struggled for air. Thin sips were all he could suck from the wide world of oxygen around his kneeling body. The baton threatened again, now above him. Reflexively Juan shot his hands up to cover his head. He tried to scream but he had no breath. Just before impact, the black trousers in front of his face suddenly moved back. The wooden bat didn't touch him. Not this time. Not yet.

"Stand!" came from above the trousers.

Juan continued heaving with pitifully little air actually reaching his lungs. Adrenaline pushed him upward. He kept his hands above his head.

The white man sheathed his club. He was taller by half a foot. Thick, calloused hands reached around Juan to pat him down. The man pulled Juan's knife from his belt and a large packet from his pocket. Juan's head felt light. He wondered if he would faint. And then he did.