Chapter 11
Marina hurried down the street, careful not to get her heels caught in any of the cracks in the uneven sidewalk.
Damn it all. Why had River been up there, looking out at the crowd?
Marina had checked the members of the board, and River’s name hadn’t been on it.
She’d been so sure she could hang out at the back without being noticed.
“Marina.”
River’s voice was far closer than it should have been, and Marina yelped in surprise. She spun, her heel caught in the cracked sidewalk, and it snapped audibly in the silence around them. She teetered for a moment and before she could reach for River, she fell backward onto her ass.
“With any other woman, I’d find it adorable that she kept falling at my feet.” River held out her hand, her expression inscrutable.
Marina took it and hissed at the pain in her ankle when she stood.
“I really liked these shoes.” How the hell was she going to walk the two blocks to her car?
She hadn’t been able to find parking any closer.
Most of the buildings were businesses with apartments above, and street parking was at a premium.
“You’re hurt.” It wasn’t a question, and River sounded resigned.
“I’ll be fine.” Only then did she realize she still hadn’t let go of River’s hand, and she dropped it like she’d been burned. “Shouldn’t you be in there?”
“Shouldn’t you be in a different part of the city altogether?” River’s eyes narrowed. “Why are you here, Marina?”
Marina winced when she shifted from the foot still four inches off the ground to the one now flat on the pavement. “Can we talk about this somewhere else? I’d like to sit down.”
River’s gaze finally left Marina’s, and she looked up the block. “Goat and Girl is around the corner.”
Marina nodded and did her best not to think about how utterly ridiculous she looked limping along, up and down like a drunk pogo stick.
There was no way on earth she’d go barefoot, though.
River, in a forest green button-down shirt and ripped jeans, looked the ultimate in cool, making Marina feel even more absurd.
River opened the door for her at the restaurant, which was quiet on a Thursday night, thankfully.
“Hey, Cara.” River kissed the cheek of the woman who came to show them to a table. “Mel over at the meeting?”
Cara glanced at Marina, then her feet, then back at River. “She is, and then she’s going to walk Mrs. Crabtree home.” She held out her hand. “Cara. I’m the manager here.”
“Marina. I’m…” She faltered, unwilling to play her hand without having talked to River first. “I’m in need of some ice for my ankle, if you have any?”
“Yeah, of course. Broken heels suck. Come on back here, and we’ll get you set up.” She led the way to a table and then pulled a chair up for Marina’s foot. “Put it here, and I’ll be right back.”
River sat across from Marina, silent, waiting, her arms folded.
“Aren’t you some kind of witch? Shouldn’t you know why I’m here?” Marina’s tone was all wrong, and she knew it. But when defensive, go on the offence.
River handed her the drink menu without saying anything, and Marina vaguely noted the cute drink names. Cara came back with a bag of ice wrapped in a towel and gently put it over Marina’s ankle.
“What can I get you?”
“I’ll have the Cat’s Pajamas,” Marina said, handing River the menu.
“Green Street, thanks,” River said, giving Cara a quick smile.
Cara left and River turned her attention back to Marina. “Have you known from the moment we met that you were going to try to tear my world apart?”
“First of all, that’s a bit melodramatic. It’s rebuilding, not Armageddon. Second, no, I had no idea who you were until just before the last time we met.” The time River had said there was something off about her. How had she known?
“When you rip a community apart and make it so people have to move because they can’t afford to live there anymore, it is that dramatic. And I’m glad you haven’t been a fraud the whole time.” River’s body remained stiff, her jaw set.
“This is why I didn’t tell you right away. I wanted to get to know you before this came between us.” Marina moved the bag of ice and noticed the swelling around her ankle. There was no way she’d be able to walk to her car. Fucking fuck.
“Yeah, well, you decided you weren’t interested in anything with me before that. So I call bullshit.” She leaned back when Cara set their drinks down. “Thanks.”
Cara nodded, looking between them. “Everything okay, River?”
River gave her a tight smile. “Marina, I think, works for the developer trying to mess up the neighborhood.”
“Oh.” Cara stepped back like Marina had cooties. “Drinks are on you then.” She walked away without another word.
River tilted her head and smiled a little. “What she said.”
Marina sipped her concoction and decided she hadn’t had a drink that good in the city in years. Every note blended together perfectly.
Unlike the notes she was creating with River.
“I’m sorry.” Marina hated saying those words, but it seemed like the only way forward right now.
“You’re right. I should have said something the last time we met.
I’m not used to knowing the people involved on the other side of the cases I take on. It took me by surprise.”
River looked at her for a long moment. “Okay. Apology accepted. Now tell me why you were here tonight.”
“Information gathering.” Marina figured there was no sense in obscuring the truth. “My client—”
“Black Pinnacle?” River asked.
“Yes. They want to know how much opposition we’re going to face, and it’s my job to get a sense of it. I could have hired a PI, but I wanted to see for myself.” The drink was helping muffle the pain in her ankle and the embarrassment of having been caught lurking.
“I admire your diligence,” River said. “And what did you learn?”
Marina shook her head. “Not much. It sounds like people are divided, like they usually are in these situations. But come on, River. Look around. Your community is flatlining, and the only way to revive it is by rebuilding it entirely.”
River took a long sip of her drink. “You’re wrong.” Her fingers drummed gently on the table. “Yeah, maybe some areas need some love, and it isn’t all polished marble and steel. But it has character, and people who love it. What is it your client wants to do?”
Marina swallowed. “I can’t tell you that without her permission. Client confidentiality and all that.”
“Yeah. Sure.” River shook her head and finished her drink. “Just to be clear, I won’t be selling my building. Not for any of your client’s pristinely washed money. This is my home.” She stood. “I wish…” She sighed and ran her hand through her hair. “I wish you’d been the person I’d hoped you’d be.”
She left with a brief wave to Cara.
Marina shifted the ice on her ankle and took another sip of her drink. Maybe it would burn away the feeling of somehow selling River out.
Cara placed the bill on the table with a thump. “When you’re ready.”
Marina gave her a conspiratorial grin. “I don’t suppose you know what River’s superpower is? She hasn’t said.”
Cara’s pretty brown eyes turned thoughtful. “Kindness. Honesty. Empathy.” She looked down at Marina. “I imagine those are pretty massive superpowers when it comes to the world you work in.”
She walked away, and Marina slumped in her chair.
Okay, so this community was going to be a little harder to get on their side.
That was fine. She’d had fights like this before, and she could finagle the law so that they’d end up having no choice.
It wasn’t a nice way to do it, but Marina hadn’t climbed to where she was on the ladder by being nice.
She called an Uber, then limped out of the restaurant to the sidewalk.
Cara was nowhere to be seen. The Uber driver looked incredulous when she told him to stop a block and a half away instead of at the address she’d put in as a placeholder, but she ignored him.
Just as she was about to drive off, there was a tapping on her window.
An old woman with dark skin and darker eyes peered in at her. Gray hair framed a thin, parchment lined face, and she leaned heavily on a cane.
“Yes,” Marina said, rolling down her window.
“I saw River go running out after you, and I know you’re not from around here.
” She lifted her cane and tapped it against Marina’s car door.
“I don’t know who you are, but don’t you dare go hurting our River.
Her mom and dad were saints, and River has carried on their legacy. She deserves the best.”
Based on her expression, she didn’t think Marina fit that description.
“I think River is a big girl who can take care of herself,” Marina said, wanting to get home and get her foot up on something.
“Ha! Shows what you know.” The woman tapped her cane against the door again, a little harder.
“I take it you’re one of the customers who goes to her to find out their future, or what that one line on their palm means with regard to their destiny or soulmate or whatever?
Someone who charts their way through life by looking at the stars and then blaming the moonbeams when things don’t go right?
” This time, the cane hit hard. “Would you stop doing that? You’re going to dent my door. ”
“Better your door than your head,” the old woman said. “Or maybe not. And River has more understanding in her little finger than you have in any part of you. If you knew her, you’d know you’re messing with the wrong person.”
Marina started the car and revved the engine. “Why? Will she put a curse on me? Is she some kind of mystical hitman?”
The woman stepped back, glaring hard enough to melt metal.
“If she had any sense, she would. But she’s not the type.
Me, though…” She smiled, her old, yellowed teeth glinting under the streetlight.
“I’ll fight, and I’ll fight dirty. If you’re part of the group trying to take away our neighborhood, then you’ll find yourself on the wrong end of my cane for sure. ”
Marina shook her head, too tired for this nonsense. “If you say so.” She pulled out, forcing the woman to take a couple hurried steps backward. “Nut case,” she mumbled as she made her way back to her place.
Once she was home, her foot propped on a cushion and the TV filling the silence of her empty apartment, she let the conversations flood her mind. Replaying what people said often gave her insight and tools to work with in order to bring them to heel.
She could predict the next steps without a crystal ball.
There would be more community meetings. Signs would go up around town saying it wasn’t for sale and that gentrification was bad.
Letters telling Black Pinnacle to back off and go away would start coming in from the more active community members, while others would quietly be willing to talk just so long as it wasn’t made public.
Black Pinnacle would make more offers with bigger dollar signs, and a few more owners would sign.
The holdouts would be left alone, standing in front of the construction equipment that would move forward anyway.
It was inevitable. People like Sheila Black got what they wanted because they could keep throwing money and resources at whatever it was, and few people could withstand that kind of onslaught. Marina was just there to facilitate, and she was good at that.
She pictured River’s expression when she’d seen her at the meeting, and then when she’d said she’d hoped Marina would be something else… What the hell did that mean anyway? It wasn’t like she’d ever pretended to be someone other than the powerhouse attorney she was.
Her phone buzzed, and she reached over the tub of ice cream to grab it.
How pathetic was the community meeting?
Marina winced at Sheila’s harsh wording. Standard fare. Community already divided. Shouldn’t be difficult to move forward.
Good. Start making the rest of the offers tomorrow.
Understood. Good night. There was no response, and Marina was glad.
Sheila had sent an ostentatious bunch of flowers to the office, and Marina had asked Yvonne to put them in the staff room.
The lilies were so strong they made her nauseous, and she’d never liked geraniums, which seemed like a strange option for a bouquet anyway.
She needed to keep Sheila as a client, not just so the partners were happy, but so she didn’t have to tell her outright that she wasn’t, nor ever would be, interested in anything between them.
The notion that people like Sheila always got what they wanted made the world seem that bit darker.
She’d like to think that wouldn’t include Marina’s self-worth or desire to date butch women, but who the fuck knew what she would do these days? What if it meant her promotion?
She rested her head on the back of the sofa.
The rest of the offers meant the one she was going to send to River too.
Should she hand deliver it? No, probably not.
River might very well throw it back at her.
She had to admit to wanting to see River’s shop.
Granted, it was probably as quirky and commonplace as most of those shops but seeing River’s butch presence in it would be markedly different.
She got up and hobbled to the bedroom. She’d put today to rest, and tomorrow, she’d do her job. If that meant getting to see River again, even under awkward circumstances, so much the better.