“He loves doing that,” said Eli.

“Isn’t it bad for business to punch a famous author?” AJ spoke up now. His whole face looked like he was trying to solve a problem, but he didn’t even understand the question.

The events of the day really settled onto Jo and she slumped over onto the desk, defeated—no matter how many adorable women were smiling at her—banging her head lightly against the surface. Every beat punctuated a word. “I can’t believe I got out of that one. I can’t believe we got out of that.”

“You didn’t,” said Rinn, piping in.

All heads swiveled to hear. Enough people said “What?” that Imogen wasn’t sure who had spoken. Maybe she’d asked out loud, maybe she’d just asked in her head. Maybe everyone had asked.

“We didn’t get out of that. Hunt just wanted a lawsuit. He wants the business to go under. He wants Wild Nights Bookstore to fail. Everything we’ve done today—Eli with his terrible inventory order and Jo punching Harvey—just adds to his case that this business is no longer viable. That he’s allowed to sell this business free and clear.”

“Oh my God,” said Jo. “You’re right. He can’t sell the property as long as the business is still functioning well enough.”

“He’s been ordering way less inventory,” said Imogen.

“And not putting in any of the customer orders,” piped in Daniella.

“He’s slowly been bleeding the place dry,” said Rinn. “I think he’s had this plan in motion for a while. Plus, he made sure that we could never tell anyone about it. No cell phones. No photos. No geotag even available. We’re in a dead zone.”

“Oh God.” Jo must have felt it more keenly than the rest of them. “What am I going to do?”

But they were all thinking it, really. What were they going to do? Because the bookstore was still in trouble. Beyond trouble, really. There were still stacks of fake Air Jordans sitting behind Jo’s desk. They were all going to be out of a job soon. It had felt good to best a bully and a creep. But all of their problems were still there, waiting.

“What do you need to do?” Maya started rubbing Jo’s arm, the one that Jo had used to throw a punch at Harvey, and Jo whimpered in approval.