“Good.” She took a bite of River’s cake, covered in mango sauce. “Goddess only knows what trouble you’d get into without the shop to come to each day.”
River grinned. “Kind of makes me want to find out.”
The Attic was packed. Store owners and community members both talked at full volume, and River winced at the amount ofchaotic energy swirling through the huge media space. Quickly, she slammed her shields into place, and the chaos pressing against her abated to a manageable level. The screen at the front showed an image of a red circle with a black line through it and the words “community isn’t a commodity” beneath it. Clearly the owners of the Attic felt like River did.
“Thank fuck.”
River turned to look at Sam, one of the members on the community board. “I do when it’s a good one.”
He laughed, then turned serious again. “We should all be grateful when we get a good one. But tonight, Duncan has had an incident and can’t come. We need someone to lead the meeting…” He raised his eyebrows expectantly.
“And that should definitely be one of the board members.” River frowned at him. “Is Duncan okay?”
He rolled his eyes. “He was messing around with his beehives and tripped over a bucket. Windmilled into a hive and pissed off his little stingy children. He’ll be fine but right now, he’s a pin cushion being de-pinned.”
She couldn’t help but laugh and think of Marina, a thought she quickly pushed aside. “I’ll get people’s attention, but you need to be beside me to give details.”
He ushered her toward the raised platform that served as a low-key stage.
She tapped the mic. “Hey, everyone. Can we quiet down to have a real conversation?” Slowly, the chatter stopped, and all eyes turned toward her. “Thanks. For anyone who doesn’t know me, I’m River Rigel. I run Echoes and Insights with my business partner, Audrey. I also own the building, and I grew up here in South Shore. Tonight, we’re here to share what we know about the developer making offers to some of us, and to talk about what that means for our community.”
There was a general rumbling, and she held up her hand. “I know it’s an emotional topic, but we need to try to stay calm so we can hear each other. First of all, can I ask who has been contacted?”
Four store owners held up their hands. River recognized them all. “Okay. If I’m not mistaken, all of you own the buildings.”
They nodded, and Paul looked from the others to River. “Why would they contact anyone who wasn’t an owner?”
Sam stepped forward. “They’ll start with the building’s owners. If they can get them to sell, then kicking out whatever tenants are in place is down to the owner. But if the building owner won’t sell, then they go to the businesses and offer them an incentive to move out. When the building owner loses their tenants, they’ll be more likely to sell to the developer, especially when construction starts and new tenants don’t want to deal with that. Depending on what kind of shithead the developer is, they may try to make it almost impossible.”
Again, grumbling started like a wave through the crowd.
“Can I ask who the developer is this time?” River asked.
“Black Pinnacle.” Paul held up his letter, and it was passed forward to River.
She scanned it quickly and noticed the pretty paltry sum of money being offered. “This doesn’t seem like it’s worth entertaining. Surely your place is worth more than that?”
He nodded, his arms crossed. “Way more. They can go eat turds as far as I’m concerned.”
She looked at the other three. “Are your offers similarly low?” When they all nodded, she shook her head. “All right. That tells us what they think of us, and that they think they can take our neighborhood for pennies. I won’t put you on the spot and ask if you’re considering it.” She saw the flicker of relief in at least twopairs of eyes, including Chris’s. The owner of the Sweet Moon was clearly torn.
Sam looked around. “Can we get a show of hands? All those who think redevelopment should be considered, raise your hands.”
A smattering of hands went up. “We don’t have the money to make our neighborhood better. We need money for the school, and to clean up the streets,” someone called from the back.
“But they’ll take it all, and we won’t be able to afford to live here anymore,” someone else shouted from the front, and then everyone was talking at once.
River raised her voice and her energy, spreading it out over the crowd, which calmed once again. “Sam asked so we know what level we’re starting at. This meeting is just for information. I’m sure we’ll have plenty more if and when things start to happen.”
Sam shot her a grateful look. “River is right. Let the board know if you get any offers or contact. Not so we can persuade you one way or the other, but because we want to know what’s coming at us from a community standpoint. And if you have questions, or want help, or just want to talk things through, we’re here.”
River scanned the crowd and froze.
Marina leaned against the wall at the back of the room, her arms folded, her head tilted, her expression thoughtful. There was no reason for her to be here.
Unless, of course, she was the one standing in the way of River helping her people…
Marina caught her eye, winced, and backed away before slipping out of the room. River had a distinct feeling she’d been there as a spy. Now her unsubtle probing made sense.
