Season 3, Episode 10: Midland

We were back on the Stafford jet for a trip to the Permian Basin again. But this time it was four of us rather than three. I'd brought Amber, because Harlan had asked me to, and joining the two of us and Michael was Erica.

This was as top-level as it got. Harlan had invited us to stay over at his ranch, and the invitation involved "a discussion of the future of Stafford Oil and opportunities presenting themselves."

I expected that was verbiage Barker had written up. Harlan would have simply said "Come on out to Midland and let's talk about a merger."

On the plane I could tell that Erica had her armor on, so I sat next to her and tried to be entertaining. I told her the story of how Chad Beckstrom had ripped me a new asshole while Michael and I were trying to hire him to run Stafford's Permian operations, and I might have embellished it a little for effect.