“Did we miss all the fun?” A tall, athletic man pushed his sunglasses onto his head as he strode boldly into the room. “Emmy, are you all right? You look pale! Doesn’t she look pale, Chris? If Alex did this, I’m going to bust his balls. You know that right?”
A quiet man, Alex assumed it to be Chris, followed the drama queen into the bar. Alex recognized them as a gay couple who came in occasionally to have a drink. When Emory pulled herself away from his embrace to hug the quieter of the two, Alex decided it had to be her brother.
“All right, Em, we’re all here. What’s going on?” Chris glanced from his sister to Alex and offered a smile.
Gabriel ghosted quietly into a seat at the back of the room beside two men and a woman Alex knew by face but not name. They owned a restaurant, bookstore, and art gallery respectively.
Alex didn’t know how protective or possessive her brother was, but Emory was literally shaking in her boots at the prospect of addressing everyone in the room. Without a thought as to how people might view it, Alex tugged Emory back into his embrace and held her close. With her back pressed to his chest, she seemed to relax just a little.
“We all have a problem.” Emory took a deep breath. “The Donovan MacIntyre welcome train has officially gotten out of hand. How many of you have been asked to sign a petition to close down this bar?” Everyone but the Phoenix crew raised a hand.
“I wondered how long it would take him to make a move against me,” Connor rumbled. “The little bastard tried to buy me out once last year, and then again two months ago.”
Alex was stunned. “You didn’t tell me that.”
“Didn’t figure it mattered.” Connor shrugged. “You’re never one to care about the day-to-day shit.”
It was like a slap in the face. They’d known each other since grade school. Alex had always supported Connor’s decisions. When the big guy had met Jessa and acted like a love-struck lunatic, Alex had been the one to keep him from walking away. Hell, Alex had been the one to hire Jessa in the first place! Connor had been afraid of her, of what she could make him feel.
The shorter man in the back of the room raised his hand like a kid in school. “MacIntyre tried to buy me out too. And my cousin who runs the deli around the corner? MacIntyre offered him the same deal.”
“Where the hell does that little prick get all his money?” Morgan fumed. “How much does a pound of wings cost these days?”
“I thought about that too,” Emory mused. “Then I remembered something weird he said to me the other day.”
She had their full attention. She seemed utterly comfortable there in his arms. Alex marveled at the fact that he’d known her less than a week. He’d thought her nothing but a little girl. He’d been so wrong. She was a strong, capable woman. No matter how badly her past had battered her, she was standing up for what she believed in. She’d delved into everyone’s troubles even when she didn’t have to. She wasn’t afraid to invest herself in things that mattered.
Alex was more than a little in awe of her.
Emory looked at her brother’s lover. “Foxy, would you say that Mayor Strand is gay?”
“As a football bat,” Fox quipped. “He plays the straight guy pretty well. But I’ve met him quite a lot at various city events, and if you talk to him for any period of time, especially after a couple of cocktails, he lets things slip.”
“Yeah, I’m with Foxy,” Morgan chipped in.
“You can’t tell that from a conversation,” the bookstore owner argued. “He’s always seemed very nice when he comes into the store. In fact, he’s a big fan of romance novels.”
Fox shot her a droll stare. “Which ones?”
“Well—oh, I see.” She blushed. “Still, you can’t tell that from just a conversation. That was all I was getting at.”
“Point taken, Dacey.” Chris offered her a smile to dull the sting of Fox’s sarcasm.
“I think MacIntyre has been blackmailing the mayor.” Emory steered the conversation back on track. “And if he’s gotten away with it once, we can’t rule out the possibility he’s doing it to the other aldermen.”
“I’d bet good money you’re right, Em.” Chris’s face was set in an introspective expression Alex recognized from Emory’s repertoire. “In fact, I would lay good odds that he’s got something on the other alderman from this ward. Some of the zoning changes lately have been wildly inconsistent with public opinion, and MacIntyre isn’t the one who sits on the board.”