“What’s wrong?”
His brow furrowed as he looked back and forth before settling his vision on her. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“You’re being too nice. I’ve known you less than thirty-six hours. You haven’t been all that kind during that time. Why are you being so considerate now?”
He laughed, an honest chuckle that rumbled in the air, easing the suspicion pulling at the edge of her thoughts. He threw his hands up in surrender, broadening his smile as he looked at her with those maple-colored eyes, making her wish she could be the one giving up instead. “I thought I was supposed to be the mistrustful one. I’m the law-enforcement agent.”
She shook her head. “I’m from Brooklyn. We’re mistrustful by nature. I’m also a lawyer. Suspicion is part of the training. So come on with it. What are you really up to, Jackson Dean?”
He put his hand down and held the edge of the counter in front of him. “Nothing bad, but I would like you to eat with me. It’ll give us a chance to discuss some important things about your ranch’s security.”
She relaxed, walking around the counter and taking the seat he’d pulled out for her. “Next time, don’t bury the lede. You could’ve simply said you wanted to talk.”
“Yeah, but it was way too much fun watching you go into bullshit-radar mode.”
She gave him as much side-eye as she could muster and went about placing food on her plate. When she finished, she was about to grab her napkin when she saw Jackson bow his head. She followed in kind, smiling as he said a simple blessing over the food.Hmmm. A man who pulls out chairs for women and says grace? If he wasn’t such an asshole most of the time, he might actually be a nice guy. Forgive me, Lord. But you know it’s true.
“So what did you want to talk about?”
He was midchew when she spoke, holding up his finger as the muscles in his jaw flexed with each movement. “This is really good. I mean, it tastes like you maybe know a little more about country cooking than your New York City pedigree suggests.”
“I could always take it away if it’s not to your liking.” She stretched her hand out as if she would take his plate. “I think we’ve got some peanut butter and jelly around if that’s more to your tastes.”
He blocked her hand by placing his thick forearm on the counter. “Touch my food and you’ll draw back a nub.” Aja laughed, pulling her hand back. He took a few more bites, washing them down with a healthy chug of the sweet tea in his frosted mug before he grabbed his napkin to wipe his mouth. “Honestly, the food’s great. I haven’t had a roast this tender in a while. Thanks for going through all the trouble.”
“No trouble.” She took a sip from her mug. “Cooking and baking are stress relievers for me. Whenever a case was giving me trouble back in New York, I’d stay up all night cooking or baking, or both, until I worked the problem out in my head. Our associates loved it whenever I was working on something problematic. They knew the food would always end up in the staff kitchen.”
“These attacks on the ranch really have you worried, don’t they?”
She blew out a weary breath. “Until someone burned down the barn, I thought it was about running us off the land, not physically harming us. Even the tampering with the scaffold… I thought someone was simply attempting to stop us from working on the ranch. Now, I’m not so sure. Not knowing is the stressful part.”
“I think I have a way to take care of some of that worry for you.”
“How?”
He reached for his frosted mug, allowing his finger to glide around the lip of the cup. “I want to take a few measures to improve the security on the ranch.”
“What does that mean exactly?”
He moved his mostly empty plate to the side and turned to face her. “On the tour, I spotted at least three access points where anyone who wanted to enter the ranch undetected could. I think you need to get better, electrified fencing to keep people out. I also think you need to add surveillance cameras all around the property. This place is enormous; there’s no way any one team can monitor it completely. Having cameras will give you eyes all around the ranch.”
She took a deep breath and leaned back into her chair. “I’m not opposed to any of the things you’ve mentioned. I know, as a proprietor, I must have cameras somewhere on the property anyway. But right now, while we’re still closed, it seems almost voyeuristic. I don’t want to compromise Seneca’s and Brooklyn’s privacy.”
“This isn’t about their privacy, Aja.”
She understood why he didn’t see it that way. When you’d never had your freedom taken from you, it was hard to see why someone wouldn’t want to be watched constantly. “For nearly ten years, Seneca and Brooklyn have lived in cages, having their every move monitored by a camera or an authority figure. I promised them they wouldn’t have to live like that here.”
“Integrity is very important to you, isn’t it?” He cocked his head to the side as if he were trying to gauge her answer simply by watching her.
“I know most people think lawyers are inherent liars, and the truth is, I’m not all that certain I disagree with that notion. But I try to be as honest as I can. My word is all I really have in this world. Breaking it always costs me something valuable.”
“Is your integrity worth more than their lives? Could you carry the burden of knowing you could’ve protected them but didn’t act in time?”
Her heart rate sped up, each beat a heavy thud in her chest. She closed her eyes, taking deliberate breaths to calm down.He doesn’t know. He couldn’t.A few more breaths and reminders, and she got her pulse under control.
“No,” she murmured. “I don’t want to be responsible for anyone getting hurt. How do you suggest I handle this? Eli Bennett has everyone in this town running scared; getting local help is almost impossible. You’ll have to find someone out of Fresh Springs to do it like I did with this second contractor. It’s the only way I could get a replacement construction crew out here in time.”
“Why do you think the town is scared of Bennett?” Jackson asked. Concern marred his smooth features, and her fingers twitched to touch them. Determined to keep her actions appropriate, even if her thoughts weren’t, she tapped her fingers on the counter instead.
