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Tatiana
I know you and Alex are probably chatting it up or doing things I don’t need to know about. But I need you both to get down to city hall by ten.
Avery
Dude, where are you? Answer my calls.
Willow
Earth to Yara, where are you? Get to city hall by ten this morning. It’s going to be a circus. The town is turning on Cole.
I glanced at the time, then nudged Alex.
He stirred a little before waking. “What’s going on?” He yawned, sitting up in the bed.
“I think we’re supposed to head back into town. I’ve been receiving calls and messages from my sisters and Tatiana nonstop.”
He reached for his phone, and his eyes widened. “Yeah, me too. Let’s go.”
I shot off a few texts to the ladies.
Yara
We’re on our way.
When we arrived in town, the city hall was packed with people. Cole sat on stage, trying to calm the angry crowd, as Tatiana stood on stage opposite Cole. Behind Cole were a few of his police officers, clearly they were there to protect him.
What in the world was happening?
Cole sweated bullets as he stood in front of the crowd. He never was great at public speaking, but he looked awful. “Listen, everyone, I hear your grievances, and I can assure you the chief's department is looking into everything and—”
“And what’s to stop this from happening to my shop down the way?!” Pat shouted, cutting Cole off. “What happened to Alex’s restaurant is unacceptable, and you’re doing a half-assed job figuring out who’s been harassing the man for months now! Sure, Alex is kind of a dick with a ‘don’t ever talk to me’ kind of persona. And, sure, he tried to bang Yara in my shop while they were covered in clay—”
“Wait, what?” Daddy hollered, hearing about Alex and I almost hooking up in the pottery shop.
More for me to add to the ‘discussions for my future therapist’ list.
Pat continued. “But, he’s a decent guy! He’s even working with me to have a few of my pieces used in his restaurant as artwork. We talked about expanding into catering for my shop. So, having his spot vandalized is damaging my business, too.”
“Now, listen, Pat—” Cole started, but he was cut off again.
“Alex has been nothing but helpful to everyone in this town even though he had a million reasons not to be,” Mr. Lee said, shooting up from his seat. “Sure, he’s a grouchy guy who doesn’t know how to smile. And sure, he acts like every interaction with other humans outside of Yara is like getting a root canal. And, sure, he looks as if he might murder a person if they tried to engage in small talk with him—”
“What the hell? Is this fucking roast Alex hour?” Alex murmured. “I can’t tell if they are defending me, or trying to make me cry.”
I couldn’t help but snicker at all the little digs people were making toward my black cat. They weren’t wrong, though. Alex had a way of growling at anyone who wasn’t me. I kind of liked the fact that he hated most of the world outside of me.
Lee continued. “—But my business is surpassing my goals due to Alex pushing my wine in his restaurant! He even had it shipped to his other locations and told other chefs about it. People are buying my wine from simply trying it at his spot. To think the law enforcement hasn’t done a dang thing to help him is outrageous. You should be ashamed of yourself, Cole!”
Before Cole could get another word in, everyone in town leaped up to shout their anger for what was happening to Alex’s restaurant. Everyone voiced their opinions. Some with much more spicy word choices than others.
“What’s happening?” Alex whispered as he stood beside me, stunned at how the people had shown up to support him.
I took his hand and squeezed it. “You’re seeing the real Honey Creek. This is who we are. This is what we really stand for.”
I looked up at Tatiana, who was smirking with a big grin. She winked my way and shrugged. It was clear that she was on stage to destroy Cole, but somehow, he managed to do that all on his own.
“My team and I have been working for weeks to catch the boys harassing Mr. Ramírez’s establishment,” Cole lied.
“That’s not true,” a shaky voice said from behind him.
The room grew quieter as Officer Jeff rose to his feet. “Now, I understand that we have a rule of looking out for one another, Chief, but this has gone too far. I pushed it to the side as long as I could, but when Yara came down to the station last night, she was right. If we don’t stand up for what’s right, then we are what’s wrong. You told us not to investigate the incidents with Mr. Ramírez. You told us to bury them.”
