Rollie Brown decided to take a short detour and drive through the old downtown on his way to work. He snickered as he passed Brave New World, wondering how long it would be before Kyle gave up the ghost and admitted defeat.

He wasn’t exactly sure when, why or how he had become so competitive. He had always liked Kyle, and until recently, Brave New World had been his favorite store in town. Now, however, nothing would do but to crush his rival. Mercilessly.

He’d even fantasized about throwing a Molotov cocktail through the store’s front window and burning the whole fucking place to the ground.

The thought made him smile.

Bypassing the highway, Rollie pulled off Main onto Pinyon and took the winding street all the way to Granite, where his store was located next to the Goodwill, across from Jake Simmons’ used car lot. The library was only two blocks away, so book lovers did frequent this area, but he had to admit that the location didn’t seem to be as prime as he’d originally thought it would be. Business was definitely slower than expected.

Still, Amazing Stories was doing better than Brave New World.

Part of that was because he was investing in his business while Kyle was stagnating. The loan he’d gotten allowed him to outbid his rival at every turn, and his stock was increasing exponentially. At the moment, more money might be going out than coming in, but that’s how investment worked, and pretty soon that trend would reverse itself.

Rollie parked in front of his store, took out his key, unlocked the door and walked inside. Trying to see the bookshop the way a customer would, he had to admit that he could use some better bookcases. Kyle did have him beat in that department. But he was proud of his music section, something Brave New World did not have. In an alcove at the rear of the store, boxes of records were sorted by musical style atop a table, while shelves on the side walls housed CDs. It looked pretty impressive even from here, and he wondered if he should amend the sign painted on the front window to “Amazing Stories Books and Music” from “Amazing Stories Books,” which was what it said now.

He turned on the lights, unlocked the cash register and clicked on the radio. It only received the local Montgomery station, which played country music exclusively, but that was what he liked anyway, and as Merle Haggard’s “Big City” issued through the mounted speakers, Rollie thought to himself that if he didn’t own this store, he would shop here.

The door opened, and three men walked in. He recognized one of them as the loan officer from The First People’s Bank who’d gotten him the money for his store. The other two he didn’t know.

“Welcome,” he said. “Let me know if you need any help—”