“Our ass is covered. They won’t risk the reputation of the whole firm over this. They’ll settle out of court.”
Cecily took Norah’s hands. “Say something.”
“What you did was reckless, dangerous, unethical…and if it had gone another way, you could’ve faced criminal charges. You shouldn’t have risked that for me. Not to mention that you both lost your jobs over it.”
“Correction, we both quit our jobs over it,” Christoff said. “We figure you were our supervisor and will give us amazing recs when we need them. And that aside, we couldn’t just stand by and let them keep trying to ruin you. You’re worth so much more than that.”
Norah felt her eyes prick with tears. “Y’all, I just can’t even…”
“You should call your attorney,” Cam said.
“I’m afraid to. If any of this comes out, I should probably maintain plausible deniability.”
Christoff checked his watch. “Well we’re closing in on forty-two hours now, so you ought to be hearing from your attorney soon anyway.”
As if conjured by his words, a phone began to ring. She looked to Christoff. “You’re performing voodoo, aren’t you. Making deals with sketchy deities. Crossroads demons?”
Christoff only grinned.
But it was Cam’s phone. “Avery, what’s the update?” He listened for a minute, then nodded. “We’re on it.”
“Problem?” Norah asked.
“Nope.” He broke into a wide grin. “We did it. Forty-eight signatures over our threshold. It’s time to validate.”
Chapter 24
Speakeasy should’ve been closing. After nine on a weeknight, downtown Wishful should’ve been deserted.
It wasn’t.
Cars lined the streets and lights blazed, cheerful beacons in the dark as Norah climbed out of Cam’s truck. Exhaustion would set in soon, but for the moment, hunger and anticipation were keeping her going. Cam, Avery, and Sandra joined her and strode toward the pizzeria, where the vast majority of the coalition was waiting for the final ruling on the petition. Judge Carpenter had been kind enough to make it after business hours.
Tucker shoved open the door as soon as they approached. “Well?”
“Let us get in the door,” Cam said.
By tacit agreement, the others hung back, letting Norah inside first at the head of their little group. She wasn’t about to complain about the spotlight. At their appearance, Tyler let out a two-finger whistle that silenced the crowd and drew every eye to the front. Expression sober, Norah scanned each face, absolutely playing the room, drawing out the tension until she could’ve heard a pin drop. These were her troops, the people who’d made this happen, so it was pure pleasure to drop the mask and shoot up a fist of triumph. “We got it!”
Cheers nearly blew off the roof.
“The vote is officially set for a week from today!”
A stampede of well-wishers crowded around, shaking hands, slapping backs, giving hugs. Norah’s heart swelled at the praise and compliments. In the wake of the nasty from Chicago, she needed that.
As they made their way through the impromptu receiving line, she saw Cam make a face as he got a gander at his own brand of nasty in the form of a smirking Vick Burgess. This was the last place Norah expected to see Cam’s nemesis, and she braced herself for some kind of ugliness.
“Coming over to the Good Side or did you just have a hankering for pepperoni pizza tonight?” Cam asked.
“Oh, I’m just enjoying the party. It’s the last one y’all will have. This is a delay tactic, like everything else you’ve pulled. The popular vote will come down exactly the way the City Council decision did. And all this time and effort will have been wasted when GrandGoods moves forward exactly as planned.”
Norah joined them, curling her hand through Cam’s. “There’s something y’all evidently didn’t factor into that assumption, Mr. Burgess.”
“And what is that?”
“That the land GrandGoods planned to buy, the parcel tied to the special use permit, is no longer for sale.”
“If Mr. Costello is holding out for more money, I’m sure GrandGoods is open to negotiation”