AN: Long chap! Hopefully you're all still with me. I know it's not the type of fic most people like to read, and I get it. I hope you'll give me a chance though.

Dialogue from the movie, everything else is me.

DAY 4:

Tuesday, July 11th

Laguna Beach, California

Edward

"If they want the business, we'll hand it over," Jasper said to me as we drove along the coast and five minutes before we reached our meeting destination.

It was at some expensive fucking hotel I'd already forgotten the name of.

My head snapped up at that idiotic statement. "What?" I couldn't believe my ears. "You're serious?"

He shrugged – fucking shrugged – and acted like giving up on all our hard work, blood, sweat, and tears, was nothing. "Listen, man, it's time. We made our fortune and accomplished everything we set out to accomplish."

"Maybe you have, but I'm not done yet."

Jasper shook his head. "When is enough, enough?"

"It doesn't matter. The point is, they don't get to decide when we stay in or when we're out." I reached into the bag by my feet and pulled out my .45 revolver.

Jasper glanced once and then twice before realizing what I had. "Aw, man. I thought this was a business negotiation."

"Did you see the video?"

The meeting was a shakedown, and I refused to be caught unarmed.

"Yeah, that was Mexico. This is Laguna. And cops here wear shorts and ride bikes," Jasper said, and as the words left his mouth, he didn't believe them.

"That's why we're thinking about running."

Last night, as Bean prepared dinner, Jasper floated the idea of skipping the meeting and just getting on a plane and never looking back. It was a cowardly move, but he was afraid of them.

"You start running, Jasper, you never stop."

The moment we took that route, we would be looking over our shoulders, never feel safe, and constantly have to bounce around. Fuck, I've been living that life since Afghanistan, and it's a living hell.

Jasper pulled into the hotel drive and headed straight for valet parking. His Tesla two-seater convertible turned everyone's heads. For how hippie Jasper claimed to be, he sure liked to be flashy. It was at least electric. Sure, the environment or whatever.

He was nervous and talked just to fill the silence. "Now look, we go away for a while. It would be nice. Besides, there are other ways to make money. Don't get locked into one view of the world, Edward."

"What?"

"Did you know they're making 14-dollar laptops for kids in Africa? What if you could make a 10-dollar solar panel? You'd change the world," he said this all bright eyed and shit.

It pissed me off.

I rolled my eyes and got out of the car. "Grow up, Jasper," I said. "You don't change the world; it changes you."

When we were younger, his idealism didn't bother me. It gave me a reason to hope, and in part, it brought us Bean, but fuck. Now wasn't the time to spread that bullshit. He needed to wake the fuck up.

As we entered the hotel lobby, rode the elevator to the top floor, walked down the hallway, and approached the suite door, we didn't talk. We didn't need to. Our connection with each other had been with us since we were kids, and there was this sixth sense, sort of telepathy, between us.

Right then, we both thought the same thing: This fucking sucks.

I stood with my hands clasped before me as Jasper gave me a final head nod. If the negotiations go as he hoped them to go, we'll hand over our business and leave Laguna.

I doubt they'll let us live in peace unless we skip town.

Jasper took a deep breath and raised his hand to knock on the door, but it opened instead.

Five men stood there. The leader, I assumed, was centered at the front. He was Mexican, but not the blue-collar type. This prick was in a black two-piece suit and tie and higher up on the cartel's hierarchy.

"I'm Alex," he said, shaking Jasper's hand and then mine. He stepped aside, allowing us to walk in. He gestured to a man beside him, also wearing a suit, but without a tie. Possibly his younger brother. "This is Jaime."

"Hola," Jaime said to Jasper and me.

Two men approached us, and I knew what they wanted to do. I swore under my breath and raised my arms to the side. Jasper followed my lead. They ended up taking my revolver, two speed loaders, and the knife Bean had given me. I'm a fucking idiot for thinking they would let us pass without checking.

Guess Jasper isn't the only one who was kidding himself.

They took our stuff to another room while Alex and Jaime led Jasper and me to the main living room. We sat on the sofa as they took the two adjacent chairs.

They wasted no time, and Alex got right into it.

"Everything stays the same. You're intact. Over the next three years, we'll study your techniques, production methods, and distribution. In return, your business will grow immensely."

I am doing several things while listening.

First, two men flanked Jasper and me behind the sofa with their guns. One wrong move, and there would be a bullet to the back of our heads. This made me uneasy, and I sat on the edge of the sofa.

Second, I noted the balcony behind Alex and Jaime and the mountain hill two miles away. We were several stories up, so jumping off would lead to our deaths. Not something I was too keen on.

Third, there was three cameras in each corner of the room, about ten feet above us, one for each angle of our faces—ours, Alex and Jaime's, and all together in one shot. Someone else was watching, telling me this fucking crew was high-level, but not the shot caller.

And lastly, fuck, fuck, fuck! My gun and knife were being disassembled and too far away to be of any help.

"Our distribution is international," Alex continued. "We'll give you protection on a scale you're not accustomed to. We provide low-cost insurance, low-interest startup loans, and money-laundering services to all our producers and distributors. You see, we lease a lot of land in this country. Some of it, Indian tribal land, not subject to federal law."

Wal-Mart, indeed.

Jaime appeared just as excited as Alex as he jumped in and added to the shit pot. "We have the infrastructure and labor force to cultivate thousands and thousands of acres all at once."

"Mexican field hands don't grow primo," I said.

Do they not fucking realize why Jasper's shit was so good? He fucking planted those seeds, nurtured the plants, and only trusted a select few to help grow them. What the cartel couldn't seem to get through their thick fucking skulls was that you can't mass produce Jasper's chronic.

Alex replied, "You will teach them this, and they will learn."

I smiled and thought, Yeah, and then kill us afterward.

"So you are the pharmaceutical company and the pharmacy. We're the botanists," Jasper said.

They missed his meaning, but I didn't. They couldn't do what we were doing. They didn't have the care or the patience.

The meeting was going as well as I had suspected it would, and I looked over at Jasper, catching his eye and having a wordless conversation with him.

Do you see what I'm saying? They do not want to negotiate with us at all.

He thought: Fuck, you're right. I should've listened.

"Not exactly," Alex said. "We value our scientists and our seed makers very much. It is your methods and your network we want to partner with."

"A joint venture. No pun intended." Jasper said.

Alex smiled and nodded. "Well said," he said as he chuckled with Jaime. "In return, we take a modest distribution fee."

"Which would be?" Jasper asked.

The way Alex looked over at Jaime and how Jaime got uncomfortable and sat back in his chair, I fucking knew it was going to be some bullshit.

Jaime said, "20%." He added, "80% is all yours."

These motherfuckers weren't needed by us, but they were going to hijack our business and charge us a fee? I was seething with anger.

Jasper asked, "And after three years?"

Alex re-engaged and sat up straight. "We will grow your volume. Your profits in three years will be 35 to 40 million. After three years, I'm sure you will be pleased and quite willing to renegotiate our fee."

Yeah, like a chopping block to our necks, I thought.

"We want to encourage other independents to join our association" said Alex.

Jasper smiled weakly. "We need a moment."

We all stood up, and Alex gestured toward the balcony. Jasper and I stepped outside, and across the way, I could see Wiley in his van, a top-of-the-line mixer, who was recording the entire conversation from two hundred yards away. The fucker only cared about sound and Jasper's primo.

"I will say it again, loud and clear. We send Alex and Jaime back in a cereal box and get this party started!"

Jasper shook his head. "Veto that."

"Why?"

"Two errand boys, Edward?" he asked. "They can replace every man they lose, and we can't."

I scoffed and nodded my head toward my squad—Doc, Sam, and Billy. They were ex-SEALs, and exiles from Afghanistan. They were the best fucking snipers I knew and had over 120 kills together.

On my word, they would light these fuckers up.

Jasper argued with me about involving my team as a lookout, but things could go from bad to a fucking shit show pretty quickly, and I wasn't going to be the one caught unprepared.

"If you let people think you'e weak, sooner or later, you will have to kill them."

Jasper sighed in disappointment. "Buddha wouldn't agree."

"What does a fat Jap know?"

"He's a fat Indian."

"Whatever."

Jasper still believed we could negotiate with these savages. So, I looked toward that mountain peak and pin-pointed out the three dots, then gestured that we were standing down by making a hand-swipe across my neck.

Alex and Jaime greeted us as we came back inside, and we walked into the living room. They were apprehensive to hear our answer. I tried not to be too obvious by scanning the room, looking for exits or a gun I could use.

"We don't want to be like Goldman Sachs. It's just not our thing," Jasper said.

Alex glanced at Jaime in surprise. He couldn't hide his shock. "So you are rejecting our offer?"

"No. We're going to give you our business, but we're not going to join you. Nothing personal."

"Nothing personal?" Alex sat down, and we all followed. He looked up at a camera, confirming my suspicions, and said, "I'm afraid our client will take this very personally."

"Well, I am sorry," Jasper said, taking on the diplomatic voice that had worked for him in the past. Like, he could rationalize with these assholes. "We want out of the dope business. It's become a bit of a drag. We want to do something different."

Alex said, "Such as?"

"Such as clean, renewable energy," Jasper said.

"You mean solar wind energy stuff?" Jaime asked, looking pleased with himself.

Jasper said, "There you go."

Alex turned his attention toward me. "What do you have to say?"

"Me?" I asked, pointing to myself.

"Mm-hmm," Alex murmured.

I glanced at Jasper and smiled. He and I had agreed I would keep my mouth shut unless they asked me a direct question.

Jasper internally groaned.

At this fucking point, we're dead either way.

"I think, basically, you want us to eat your shit and call it caviar."

Alex and Jaime laughed. They liked me. I could tell.

"You're making a mistake," Alex said once the laughter died down.

"Right," Jasper said. He wished this had gone another way, but since plan B had failed, we were now on to plan C-Z.

Alex said, "We'll give you 24 hours to reconsider."

Jasper panicked. That wasn't enough time to settle up and get the fuck out of Laguna. He quickly tried to renegotiate that as well.

"Well, in light of our generous offer, we would like to reconsider and think about this. Give us 48 hours. We need to talk to producers and distributors. They're very independent-minded people."

Alex saw right through our bullshit and shook his head. "We'll talk about it the same time tomorrow."

"Well…" That was all Jasper could say.

We were fucked.

Thanks for reading.