Rick’s mouth twisted. “We all did, I guess. It was supposed to be a sure thing. Gunther said Luther had inside info.”
Luther. Tina should have known he was involved somehow. The guy was bad news wrapped in a shiny, smooth-talking package.
“But ...” she prompted.
“But something went wrong. And before you ask, I don’t know what exactly. All I know is, we’re fucked.”
“How fucked?”
Rick looked miserable. “We leveraged everything. Bet the whole farm.”
The true horror of the situation began to dawn on her. “You did what?”
“He was so sure,” Rick murmured.
“There must be something—”
“There’s not,” he said abruptly, cutting her off. “We’re going to have to sell. Gunther’s been talking with some developers. He thinks he can get us a decent deal.”
Tina shook her head. “No. No! It’s not possible. It can’t be that bad.”
Rick lifted his eyes and met hers. His gaze said more than words ever could. He believed it was. That didn’t mean she wasn’t going to try to find a way out. There had to be some recourse. A four-hundred-year-old legacy farm didn’t just go belly up overnight.
“What about those guns? What do they have to do with anything?”
Rick exhaled. “I wish you hadn’t seen that. I don’t want you involved.”
“But I did, and apparently, I am involved.”
“Luther said he could fix things. He just needed some cash to work with.”
“And you thought dealing in illegal arms was the way to do that?” she asked in disbelief.
“It’s not like that,” he said irritably.
“Oh? You’re telling me the weapons in that crate are legal? Should I call Chief Freed to come check them out?”
“Where do you think they came from?” he said with a humorless laugh.
Sadly, Tina should have been more shocked than she was. “Friedrich Elias Obermacher, what the hell is going on? Straight up. No bullshit.”
The fact that Rick didn’t argue, just exhaled and nodded, told her more than anything that he’d lost all hope.
“Dwayne met a guy when he did time downstate.”
Dwayne was the police chief’s son and at one time, Rick’s best friend. He’d gotten into some trouble outside his daddy’s jurisdiction. Unlike every other time, Daryl hadn’t been able to get him out of it, and Dwayne had been sentenced to a prison down around Philly somewhere.
“They got to talking about hunting and shit, and this guy told Dwayne he could get his hands on some quality firearms for cheap. When Dwayne got out, the guy hooked him up, and Dwayne brought a few pieces with him to the compound.”
“The hunting camp?” Tina asked.
Everyone knew about the private encampment on the Freed family’s mountain parcel. Many of the guys in town were members and used the club as an excuse to drink beer, shoot guns, and get away from their wives and kids on the weekends.
Rick nodded. “They were pretty slick. I’m talking military-grade, black ops shit, like the kind your friends are trained in and probably stockpiling up there at Sanctuary.”
Tina was about to protest but held her tongue. She didn’t think they were doing that, but she couldn’t prove that they weren’t, and she wanted to stay on topic.
“So ... Dwayne brings cool new toys to the playground,” she said, moving her hand in a circular motion to get Rick to continue.
“Yeah, well, everyone wanted one. Including me.”
Tina had a feeling she knew where this was going. “Let me guess. Gunther’s eyes turned green.”
It was an inside family joke that Gunther’s blue eyes turned green when he saw an opportunity to make money.
Rick nodded. “At first, we just got enough for us, you know? But Gunther saw the potential and figured other survivalist groups might want in, too. He was right. The demand was there. We even had a waiting list.”
“This was the sure thing you were talking about?” she asked quietly.
“Money was rolling in. Luther said he could double or triple it, so we gave it to him to invest. Everything was fine until those Sanctuary fuckers got Dwayne put back in the slammer,” Rick said with vehemence. “Dwayne’s contact got nervous. He didn’t want to go back to prison and ghosted, leaving us with orders to fill.
“It was just as well. Demand was greater than he was willing or able to supply anyway. Gunther found an alternate supplier, one who could think beyond a couple of crates now and then. But they demanded more—a lot more—up front. Gunther said if we pooled our resources, we’d make bank.”
“And you didn’t even think to question it? You just went along with