Page 42 of Dangerous Secrets
“A business plan,really?”
“Yeah, really.This isn’tsomething I came up with yesterday.I’ve been thinking about thissince I was in prison.”
A look of confusion crossed her face,but she kept silent.
“Spit it out.I’ve givenyou the heart of the idea.If you have questions, ask them.If thisis going to work, we have to be upfront with eachother.”
She pulled on a thread on the cuff ofher faded denim shorts, and her brows scrunched down.She sighed,then looked him straight in the eye.“If you had a plan coming outof prison, why’d you disappear for six years?”
“I needed tobreathe.”
“And you couldn’t breathehere.”
He shook his head.“I know it soundslame, but no, I couldn’t.I was so fucking angry.I think if I’dcome back to Sisters, I’d have burned down the town.Being caged inthat seven by ten cell messed with my head.I don’t know how toexplain it other than to say I needed to be free to work off themad.I wanted to come back to you, but I knew it wouldn’t’ve beengood for either of us.”
He turned to her.“I was convicted fora fucked-up crime I didn’t commit.Do you know what it does to aman to be so powerless?Someone engineered my guilt, and I was sentto a cage.I wasn’t living, I was existing.I was so fuckin’ pissedoff, I was getting in fights with other inmates, which only madethings worse.”
He could still see the dull gray wallsof his cell and hear the clang of metal doors locking.And thesmell.He’d never forget prison stench for as long as helived.
“I had to rein in the ragebefore it got me killed.Pop came to visit me.He told me not towaste my time inside, because then whoever did this to me wouldwin.He also told me he and Clara had hired an attorney and wereworking another angle to get the charges against me dismissed.Idon’t know how they could afford that high-priced lawyer, but theydid it.”
He narrowed his gaze when he caught aflicker in her expression.“Tell me.”
“Tell youwhat?”
“Whatever you’re holdingback.How’d they pay for the lawyer?”
She sighed, then told him, “Gran andJames took out loans against their shares of the farm, and AntoniaReynoso cashed in some investments.”
“Shit.Fucking shit.”Hestabbed his fingers through his hair.“I wish they hadn’t donethat.”
“They did what they neededto do, and it worked.”
He gave a curt nod.“I need to payback Clara and Antonia, and make it right with Sawyer since thatmoney would’ve been part of his inheritance.”
“The payoff for them wasgetting you released.I’m pretty sure they’re not concerned aboutthe money, but that’s up to you.”She fiddled again with the loosestring on her shorts, but her gaze remained on his.
“Otherquestions?”
“You worked all those oddjobs all over the country.It’s strange to hear you wereresearching hard cider production and even developed a businessplan.”
“I wanted to do somethingthat interested me and would help make the farm more profitable.Iworked on the idea of producing hard cider as my senior project formy degree.Then when I got out of prison, I added to the concept.And even when I wasn’t working directly on it, I learned somethinguseful from every one of the jobs I had.”
Her eyebrows arched.“You have adegree?In what?When’d you do that?”
“I have a bachelor’s inbusiness administration.”He liked having her undivided attention,and to surprise her.“I’d already taken almost all my general edrequirements at the community college before I was sentenced.Theprison has a program with Sacramento State to get degrees online.”He shrugged.“I had to do something with my time or I would’ve lostmy mind.I couldn’t let the fuckers who put me in prison destroy myentire future.”
He stared out the windscreen.The rainhad stopped and the sun was breaking through the parting clouds toreveal patches of deep blue sky.“I know I hurt you, and I’msorry.”
Her expression turned blank and hewished he had the words to make it better.
“It doesn’t matteranymore.”He felt the distance between them stretch as she asked,“Tell me more about your plan.Where would you set up theoperation?Are you thinking of constructing a separatefacility?”
This he could talk about all day.Whyhe couldn’t face her for six long years, though, was too knotted upfor him to fully explain.
“Not a separate facility.The cider mill would be perfect.A lot of what you currentlyoperate with can be used in hard cider production, but we’d have toadd on a few more steps.We’d need stainless-steel tanks.Youalready have the presses and pasteurization equipment in place.We’d have to wall off the area to keep it clean, but could have aviewing window where people can watch the process.It’d be anotherdraw to bring in visitors.Later we might add a tastingroom.”
“Okay so far.How do youpropose financing it?State licensing is expensive, and thestainless-steel tanks alone could be over fifty thousand.Add inthe construction work and we’re heading toward a hundred thousand.I’d thought of expanding into hard cider production down the road,but didn’t want to take on the debt needed to finance theproject.”
