For all intents and purposes I hadn’t done a damned thing since the night. I was beginning to wonder if I would ever reach a point that I cared enough to work again. My desk looked like a combat zone, and I had customers who were threatening to go elsewhere if I didn’t at least return their calls.
“Time for a drink.”
“It’s not dark yet.” I glanced out the window. It was just about dusk. “Not quite, anyway.”
He flopped down in the seat on the opposite side of the desk. He looked exhausted. “It’s dark somewhere. And I’m done with the AR-15s. Time to celebrate.”
“Done?” I looked up from the pile of papers. “Like done?”
“Yeah, motherfucker. Done. Like there’s five fuckin’ hundred assembled weapons in crates in the shop. We could arm a small country. Or maybe the northern half of Texas.”
“Holy shit.”
He nodded toward the corner of the desk. “Pour me a glass, would ya?”
A million dollars’ worth of inventory, finally completed and ready to ship. I was excited, but not in the manner I would have expected. I pulled open the drawer and peered down into it, looking for the bottle of celebratory scotch. “I will.”
A light knock on the door startled me. Hell, I hadn’t even heard the footsteps. Convinced I was losing my nerve, my mind and my sense of awareness, I looked up from the drawer.
Terra.
My heart stopped.
And then, it began to beat rapidly. She looked no differently than she always did.
Magnificent.
Her hair was draped down over her shoulders in the front, and her brown eyes were filled with hope.
Or maybe it was mine.
She was dressed in a little black dress, but I couldn’t decide if it was the one we purchased together at Saks. It seemed like so long since I had seen her wear it, making it impossible to decide.
I decided it was.
Around her neck, the diamond pendant hung by the necklace I had purchased her for our two-month anniversary.
“Can I come in?”
I jumped from my seat and wiped my hands on the thighs of my pants. “Absolutely. Come in, have a seat.”
Cap stood up. “I’ll come back later.”
“No,” Terra said. “Stay for a minute if you don’t mind.”
Cap glanced at me. “I don’t mind if...”
“Okay by me,” I said. “Sit.”
I walked around the corner of my desk and motioned to the seat beside Cap. “Have a seat.”
She looked incredibly...perfect. The dull ache that seemed to fill me for the last few weeks instantly vanished and was replaced with an irregular heartbeat.
She sat down. “Thank you.”
It was difficult not to stand and stare, and I felt like I was doing just that. I pried my admiring eyes from her and walked to my seat. “So, how’s it going?”
She smiled. It was slight, but a smile nonetheless. “I’ve been better.”
“Is there anything I can do to—”
“There is. I need to ask a few questions.”
“Okay,” I said. “Anything.”
“The night I came in here. You said it was complicated. I want you to uncomplicate it. Is that a word? Uncomplicate?”
“Simplify,” Cap said.
I glared at him and then shifted my eyes to her. “I think so.”
She sighed lightly and crossed her legs. “Well?”
“You want him to...” I tilted my head toward Cap.
“Yes,” she said with a nod. “I want him to stay.”
I hadn’t given any thought to what I would say if I was ever given the opportunity to talk to Terra about the incident that night, or about my business. I truly believed I would never have an opportunity, and therefore had nothing canned to respond. I wanted a glass of scotch to calm my nerves and my heart, but decided against it.
Just tell her the truth, Tripp.
“Before I get started, I want to say this—I wish I would have been forthright from the start. For what it’s worth, I didn’t and I still don’t feel like I lied to you, but I didn’t offer you all of the facts, either. In the future, if there is a future, ask me anything you’re uncertain of, and I’ll never lie to you.”
“Okay,” she said.
“I buy and sell firearms. They’re typically, but not always, the types of firearms the military uses, but in civilian form. Assault weapons. I sell them to who I believe needs them, and no one else. Are they always legal law-abiding buyers? Probably not. But they’re never the types of people who are going to go shoot up a school, movie theater, or anything like that. Most, if not all, are shipped out of the country and used elsewhere. That is what I invest in.”
“Anything else?”