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“How you doing, Joe?” she said, fondness written all over her face
Joey looked up at her, frowning “Where have you been?”
She gave his to take care of But I’m back now”
His nephew grinned “Did Uncle Coop tell you he bought a puppy?”
Oh, shit
Yeah
He had forgotten to tell her about that
Jess’s eyes flew to hih “He did not”
Cooper s The litter is only a feeeks old I pick him up in five weeks”
“An Old English sheepdog? Those are pretty big, aren’t they?”
“I wasn’t going to get a teacup” In all the ti one like Chester, hisup
She shook her head, s it is”
“Uh, can we get on with this?” Tre Cooper back to his original confusion
“What’s everyone doing here?”
Treood doctor here has a plan to stop Devlin”
She hadn’t said a word about a plan to hih to be fair they hadn’t done ht before
Jess glanced down at Joey and then over at Cat
Cat shrugged at the unasked question “As long as no one is planning to swear or plot a murder, he’s fine Joey won’t say a word about what happens here, will you, kid?”
Joeyhis mouth closed
Cat esture
Satisfied, Jess turned to address everyone “Betweenyou all, everyone is up to speed with Ian Devlin’s suspected plans to blockade the renewal of Cooper’s liquor license?”
They all nodded, but Cooper tensed He hadn’t wanted this to be anyone else’s probleet Tremaine to deal with it so no one else would worry about how far Devlin illing to go to get real estate on the boardwalk
He gave Tremaine a look that said as much, but the bastard just smirked at him and turned back to Jess
“We don’t knoho it is on the city board of licenses that Devlin has bribed And we don’t need to All we need to do is a little bribing ourselves” She shot Cooper a reassuring look before turning back to his neighbors “I propose that you all sign a petition stating you will close your doors if Cooper’s liquor license—or Antonio’s, or the hotel’s or the inn’s—is not renewed We’ll take the petition to the city board of licenses and tell them that we’ve received word that someone on the board has been bribed If that turns out to be true, and they don’t do so about it, all doors on the boardill be closed”
Tremaine scowled at her “You really think they will believe that businesses that rely on touris the season?”
“Yes” She gave him a wicked shn Tre to supplement their income until the petition is met by the city board”
Cooper almost choked at the horrified look on Tremaine’s face
“You’re fucking joking, right?” said Vaughn
Jess clapped her hands over Joey’s ears as Cat snapped, “Hey, kid in the room!”
He held up a hand “Apologies But still” He glowered at Jess “Are you kidding?”
“It’s just a bluff, Vaughn Everyone knows you have more money than Croesus You could keep a nuood while”
“No one in their right mind would believe that I would do this”
“He’s right” Bailey stared at hiust “He’s a selfish, coldhearted bastard I can’t believe you seriously thought he’d help Cooper out, Jess”
An iciness Cooper had never seen before crept into Tremaine’s eyes as he stared at Bailey His tone was equally chilly when he said, “You won’t tauntthis, Miss Hartwell”
Cooper had had enough “Look,” he said, rounding the bar, “I appreciate Jess organizing this, and you all co to hear her out, but Tremaine and I are already on it”
Bailey’s eyebrows hit her hairline “He’s helping you?”
“I can be helpful when I want to be,” Tremaine said
“I’ve never seen that side of you”
“I only help the people I like”
It was a direct hit The first one Cooper had ever seen hih of her insults
Bailey tried to hide her flinch, but it was there
Tremaine saw it and Cooper watched the muscle in his jaw flex as he jerked his eyes away from her
Huh
Maybe Jess was right about those two
Not that Cooper had ti to happen “As I said, I appreciate you all co here, but we’ll take care of it”
Jess scowled at him “Do you have a plan?”
“Not yet”
“Well, I do”
Dahlia spoke up “I’ to bully us If we stand together he has way less chance of taking from one of us”
“We’re signing, too,” Iris said o;How you doing, Joe?” she said, fondness written all over her face