“Yeah, until they come down and lock the wrong person inside.” Hawk turned his attention to me. “What are you going to do when that shit happens? You gonna give them some of your miracle pot?”
“I’ll take care of it,” Braylon answered as he stepped through the side door. “Along with Timms and Duggar. We’re all ex-military and have no issue handling whatever comes our way.”
“What about the cops?” Hawk pushed. “How are you gonna handle them?”
“The police here aren’t an issue,” I answered.
“The cops are always an issue.”
“Well, we live on a nature preserve, so they have no reason to disturb us.” I could tell by his expression, Hawk wasn’t convinced, so I added, “Besides, the deputies here are under a great deal of stress and need a way to unwind.”
“Hold up.” Hawk’s brows furrowed. “You’re selling to the fucking cops.”
“I didn’t say that.” I shrugged as I repeated, “I said they were under a great deal of stress.”
“Unbelievable.”
I took a step towards Hawk. “Look, I get that you and your brothers have your concerns, and I’m sure many of them are justified. But you’ve come here to see how we run our business, so please, stay and see the entire process. I believe that in the end, you’ll be glad you did.”
When he didn’t immediately answer, Menace gave him a pat on the shoulder. “What do you think, brother?”
“I think we’ll be wasting our time, but we came prepared to stay, so we might as well stay.”
“Great.” I tried my best to hide my excitement as I said, “I’ll show you to the guest quarters, and we can meet back up after you’ve gotten settled in.”
“Sounds good.” Hawk looked up at one of the security cameras as he told me, “Tell Riggs I’ll be in touch.”
“Of course.”
I pressed the button on the remote to disengage the security brigade, then showed the men back to the front parking lot. After they grabbed their things, I took them across the grounds to the guest house. It was a little bigger than the other houses on the property with a large kitchen and living room and four bedrooms. After I’d given them a brief tour, the men dispersed to their chosen rooms. Each of the doors closed behind them—all except one. Country was standing in his doorway, glaring at me like I was public enemy number one. “Did you know?”
“I didn’t.”
“Well, I didn’t have a clue.” I felt even worse about the whole situation as I admitted, “I would’ve never... you know, had I known you were a Sinner. I’m actually surprised you thought I did.”
“Why wouldn’t I? I mean, come on. You were laying it on pretty thick that night.”
“What?”
“You asked about places to stay or sights you needed to see. It was all a crock of shit.” Country’s face was void of expression, which made it difficult to tell if he was being serious when he said, “You live thirty minutes away.”
“I was making small talk, Country. That’s what people do. They talk. They flirt. Blah, blah, blah.”
“Flirt? Oh, I see. Guess that explains why you were all over me.”
“What!” I gasped. “I was not all over you!”
“Yeah, you were, and you know it, but I don’t blame ya.” A mischievous smirk crossed his face as he arched his back and ran his hands over his muscular chest. “I’m quite the catch.”
It took all I had to keep from laughing—not that what he said wasn’t true because it was, but the playful way he was poking at me helped to ease the tension I’d been carrying around all afternoon. “You’re an ass.”
“Yeah, I’m that, too, but don’t hold it against me.”
“I’ll try my best.” We stood there for a moment, just looking at one another, until I finally said, “Well, I guess I’ll let you get settled.”
I gave him an awkward wave, then rushed out of the house and back over to the main office to find Braylon. I wanted to take a minute to fill him in on everything that had transpired with the Sinners—including my conversation with Country. When I walked in, he was sitting at the desk going over our numbers for the day but put them aside the second he saw me enter the room. “Well, how do you think it’s going?”
“Couldn’t be going much worse.” I walked over and sat down in the chair beside his desk. “I think I’ve handled this whole thing the wrong way.”
“What do you mean?”
“I should’ve never done the whole cryptic email thing.”
“I tried to tell you that.”
“I know, and you were right. They don’t trust me or anything I’m doing here.” I dropped my head into my hands. “I should’ve just gone to their clubhouse and met with them face to face. I certainly shouldn’t have had sex with one of them.”