“Is that safe?”
Hazel touched Nora’s shoulder whispering, “What’s going on?”
“Something to do with the wetlands,” Nora answered with an air of someone not wanting to be distracted.
“I’ll be live streaming, and I doubt they’ll hurt me.I’ll probably just be arrested,” Alicia answered me.
I snorted a humorless laugh.“Just.”
“It’ll be fine,” she was speaking fast.“I just need you to be prepared to bail me out if Jamison isn’t here yet.”
I snapped my gaze to meet Nora’s and then Hazel’s.“You just need to buy some time?”
“That’s it,” Alicia answered.
“And it’s just you against an excavator.”
She groaned.“When you say it like that, it sounds incredibly futile.Rem, I will not stop.If I lose”—her voice shook on the word “lose”—“I will know that I did everything in my power to stop this.Do not ask me to give up.”
“I would never,” I promised.“But I’m coming with you.”
“You can’t come!I need someone to bail me out!”Her voice rose; the stress of the situation had shortened her patience.
“I’ll get that fixed too.”
“Rem.”
“Leese.”
“What are you gonna do?”
My mouth hung open for a moment, not sure exactly what to say until the words formed, “Get arrested with you, I guess.”
“That’s so ...foolish.”
“I have to hang up.I’ll be right there.I love you.”
“You shouldn’t come.But I love you too.”
The click of plastic on plastic broke the otherwise total silence of the room.On the other side of the desk, a couple of clients waited with their pets.Everyone stared directly at me.Waiting.
Rubbing my hand on the back of my neck, I told Hazel, “I have to go.”
“What’s going on?”Nora asked.
“They’re coming to dig up the wetlands.”
Someone gasped, but I didn’t look to see who.
“They haven’t bought it—” Hazel started, but I interrupted her.
“It’s sketchy as hell.Alicia’s going to try and stop them—I’m gonna go be with her.”
“Just the two of you?”
“That’s not gonna work.”Nora typed furiously on her phone.
I shrugged.
