Alex turned and walked away. He stopped in the office long enough to grab his keys and head for the back door. He wasn’t going to be satisfied until he could see with his own eyes that Emory was fine.
* * *
“Have you ever actually been inside Phoenix Rising, Dacey?” Emory picked up a stack of new releases and handed them to the bookshop owner.
Dacey placed the paperbacks on the shelf and evened out the spines. With her ponytail, glasses, and sedate skirt and top, she looked like a stereotypical librarian. “Actually, no. I rarely go to bars at all.”
“What about Cheeky’s Wingshack?” Emory forced back the giggle that always seemed to accompany her use of MacIntyre’s bars’ silly name. She’d never gotten up enough nerve to actually ask the man who Cheeky was. Did he call himself that?
“No, of course not.” Dacey made a face. “I can’t stand watching those poor girls get groped just for being in uniform.”
Emory glanced at the next stack of books and picked them up. “You realize his stupid indecency ordinance change could extend to cover romance novels, right?”
“No, it couldn’t. I have a right to sell whatever kind of books I want to.”
Sometimes Emory got a glimpse of why her brother’s job could be so frustrating. People so rarely paid attention to the big picture. “MacIntyre’s intention is to change the public indecency ordinances. Best-case scenario, he closes down the bar and everybody forgets it. Worst-case scenario? He sets a precedent for some vague definition of what public indecency is. Vague, meaning he can pick and choose. I’ve heard him threaten Morgan Talley already.”
“Some of her window displays are rather inappropriate, Emory.” Dacey blushed as she put the romance novels on the shelf.
“Didn’t she do something about it when you asked her to?”
“Well, yes.”
“So can you really complain about it?”
“I suppose not.”
Emory grabbed one of the books Dacey had just shelved. The cover featured a couple embracing. One of his hands strategically covered her breast, and the title managed to cover the rest. But the picture essentially featured two naked people. “I’m the last one to tell you not to sell this book. In fact, I think I might buy it. It looks hot. But don’t you think this might catch Captain Downtown’s attention?”
“What purpose would closing my shop serve?” Dacey was starting to look kind of frazzled. She tucked a stray strand of brown hair behind her ear and pushed her glasses back up her nose.
“Well, MacIntyre is closing the Phoenix because it’s a bar and it competes with his place for business, whether he’ll admit it or not. What happens when he decides he wants this location for his new beer garden? Your shop does sort of share this corner with the Wingshack, and you’ve got a really cute courtyard you use as an outdoor reading room.”
“Do you know how pissed he’s going to be if I renege on that petition?” Dacey looked terrified.
“Either piss him off now, or give him a weapon to shut you down later. Trust me. We’re all in the same boat here.”
Dacey gnawed her lower lip. “I’ll have to think about it.”
“I understand.” Emory patted her on the arm. “Call me if you need anything. Or swing by my shop.”
Emory was feeling pretty good when she left the bookstore. She pushed open the door and hopped off the curb. The sun was just starting to dip into late afternoon, but the temperature was pleasant and the humidity wasn’t suffocating. She wondered what Alex did on Sunday afternoons.
Visiting Clement Latham at his art gallery was going to have to wait until the morning. She could see the closed sign on his corner door from across the intersection. The streets were quiet. Only a few couples strolled toward the park situated between Clement’s gallery and the city building at the end of the street.
Music drifted out of Cheeky’s Wingshack across from the park. Sunday afternoons were one of his busier times. There were plenty of men who would rather spend a few hours watching the game and eating wings than hanging out at home. Emory made a face and turned deliberately in the opposite direction. It was a short walk back to her shop around the corner.
As she turned, she caught a glimpse of Captain Downtown himself stalking angrily away from Phoenix Rising. His normally impeccable hair looked mussed, and he seemed thoroughly pissed off. He was walking back toward the Wingshack and muttering to himself like a crazy person.
Panicking, Emory ducked behind a car parallel parked along the curb. She stretched her neck at an awkward angle to watch MacIntyre’s progress back toward his home turf. She was just starting to feel sorry for the poor employees that were going to be likely vessels for his wrath when someone grabbed her from behind.