Pearl studied my sign and nodded her head. “Good one.”
Pearl, with me right behind her, held her sign at her side and then pushed it high in the air. She belted out the first marching commands through her megaphone. The ladies to our side took up their march, and I fell in behind them to keep an eye on the pack.
Despite a few missteps at first, the ladies soon marched in sync. We were becoming a well-oiled machine, and it made me proud to know I helped create this. It was like raising my own little children, but they were all middle-aged or older women. Regardless, they were my greatest creation and one of my biggest accomplishments in life.
Yet, as I followed my third turn of the picket line following Pearl’s chants, something was missing. This wasn’t enough. Picket signs and fancy sayings would not close Pierce for construction.
We needed to do more.
I’d always been a regular nuisance to Pierce, but lately it felt as we were both headed toward a collision course with one another, and I wanted to make sure I came out the winner. If I let him, Pierce would steamroll right over my life and leave me behind without a care in the world.
He wouldn’t even notice my prone body on the sidewalk as he went off to his next conquest, probably to purchase another Pelican Bay landmark. Next, he’d be after the diner. He’d successfully purchased the bed-and-breakfast and I’m sure that would be our next protesting point when the truth came out that he wanted to tear it down and build a modern hotel.
That sounded exactly like a Pierce thing to do.
No, I couldn’t allow him to continue the way he had for years. Something had to stop Pierce.
I ducked underneath the caution tape, leaving my sign on the grass behind me.
Pearl stopped her march and let the line move ahead of her. “Katy, don’t get too close.”
“I’ll be safe,” I said waving away her concern. “I want to get pictures of the destruction.”
Pearl didn’t try and stop me again, and I left the ladies to their chants as I snuck closer to the building. If I got close-up pictures of the damage this building caused, not only by the most recent accident but the ugliness to the façade, I’d present my findings in the City Council and possibly get the site shuttered for good. It was a long shot, but at this point desperation was what I had left.
A curvy brunette met me at the sidewalk in front of the Kensington building as she stepped out of the small brick store beside it and stopped on the dusty sidewalk.
“We are open. I just got in the most wonderful mums for this fall season.”
“Sorry, I’m just here to protest.”
The woman’s face fell, and I made a mental note to stop back at my car to grab cash and purchase a mum later this afternoon. I’d take it to Nanna at the nursing home. The front desk was bare last time I stopped by, so I could grab two and give one to the receptionist.
“I’m Katy,” I said reaching out to shake her hands.
“Lily.”
She looked back at the shop and somehow my brain made room for more guilt. Not only did I feel crappy about breaking up a fake marriage to Pierce, but now I got to feel guilty for losing her business while the cleanup happened and customers couldn’t reach her.
“Are you losing much business?”
I guess in a way it wasn’t my fault. The protest probably wouldn’t cost her much in sales, but the destruction from this building should be laid on Pierce’s back fair and square.
“Yes, since the start of construction,” she said. Her gaze followed the tall building’s corner edge beside us.
A devilish thought came to mind immediately. “Want to sue Pierce for lost profits?”
We’d start with an angry letter, and then threaten a lawsuit, maybe move it to arbitration, at worst case mediation. They probably had an insurance policy on the building and they’d cut her a couple thousand dollars in payouts at step one.
My mother was right. I should’ve gone to law school.
“Can I do that?” she asked, her eyes squinting as she thought about the possibilities.
I shrugged. “Who knows, but it would be fun to find out.”
With a huge ass smile, I pictured Pierce and me facing off against each other in a courtroom. He’d be smug and business tight with his thousand-dollar suits, but I would have the town on my side. And this cute little brunette would cry a tear when I put her on the witness stand.
“Honestly, I’m just happy to be alive. The accident was horrible.”
