Page 17 of Shifters in the Night

“Any other new business?” Alex asked, snapping Lia out of her career-inappropriate contemplations.

Zed raised his hand. Adam rolled his eyes, which Lia did not think was a good idea. If she wasn’t mistaken, Dani appeared to be rolling a tiny ball of light between her hands … which was interesting.

Adam huffed, “You don’t have to raise your hand, Berend.”

“My maman raised me with manners, McTeague,” Zed shot back, making Dani smirk. “And I don’t really need the League’s approval for this, but Alex and I have already talked about it. I thought it would be good to bring y’all in for the early stages. I’d like to hold an expanded Founder’s Day celebration in early March.”

“I thought Founder’s Day is usually a sort of town potluck-slash-picnic on the town square,” Jillian said. “It’s fairly low-key.”

Zed jerked his broad shoulders. “Yeah, but with all the changes happening in town, I think it’s important to remind people how we got started, who we still are, especially with all the new things happening around us.”

“And it wouldn’t hurt for the League to publicly participate, showing the connections between the town’s past and our future here,” Alex added.

“Oh, you rehearsed that, didn’t you?” Jillian teased him, making Alex hold up his hand to measure “a little bit” between his fingers.

Sonja smiled beatifically at him. “I think that’s lovely, Zed.”

Zed nodded sharply, “Good, because I’m going to need your full organizational powers to put it all together in time, Sonja.”

She snorted. “I knew there would be a catch.”

“We’ve got six weeks,” Zed told her.

Sonja brightened. “Oh, well, that’s more time than I expected.”

Lia listened as the “regulars” bounced ideas about food booths, crafts, historical re-enactors and a parade. This was just the sort of thing that New Ground needed to cement its connections in town. But the trick would be finding a way to make Victor think supporting the Founder’s Day celebration was his idea, so he wouldn’t gripe at her or limit her budget.

“Don’t make any decisions! I need to go get my special event-planning binder,” Sonja said, jumping up from her chair and bounding out of the room.

“She’s going to get a binder,” Ivy Portenoy, the coroner said, shaking her head at the mayor. “Do you realize what you’ve done? Wait! Will Mel make his kettle-corn? I take back all criticisms of this plan.”

Lia didn’t know if it was the mention of this “Mel” or if Zed hated kettle-corn, but he suddenly looked way less enthusiastic about Founder’s Day.

“I’d like to help,” Lia offered. “Maybe New Ground can offer a sponsorship or host a booth or something?”

“Sure, you come up with a proposal and we’ll talk about it.” Zed smiled kindly at her, but she could see hesitation flowing off of him in goldenrod branches. She couldn’t say she blamed him. While Zed might like Lia, he didn’t know much about her company. He had a reputation to preserve with his constituents and New Ground was an unknown element.

The conference room door opened. And while Lia expected Sonja to breeze back in with her prized binder – to her horror, Victor strolled in. Lia’s mind went completely blank and she had no idea how to process what was happening before her very eyes. Victor had never shown up at a meeting like this. This growing pattern of unprecedented behavior was deeply disquieting. Did he not trust her to do her job anymore? Was she about to be fired? Maybe he just couldn’t resist the opportunity to schmooze with someone as high up the League chain as Alex?

“Victor? What are you doing here?” Lia squeaked. She cleared her throat, because squeaking did not seem professional.

“I thought it would be best if I came and introduced myself to this little conclave,” Victor told her, gesturing grandly as he dropped into an unoccupied seat.

“Mr. Mayor!” Victor exclaimed in a tone that was three octaves deeper than his normal speaking voice. He extended his hand across the table towards Zed, the one person in the room he seemed to recognize from the video conferences. “Victor Bannister, a pleasure to meet you in the flesh!”

Zed’s lips pursed in discomfort. “Mr. Bannister, Lia here has … told me that she works for you.”

“The Mayor has been very supportive of our efforts, Victor,” Lia said, finally finding her voice. More than ever, she wished she could read Victor’s feelings so she could figure out what the hell he was thinking.

Victor pasted on a big fake grin. “Well, that’s what New Ground does, meet community needs. And we can see that there are a lot of needs here in the Bayou. I could turn this town into something to be proud of. Just let me take the reins and I could bring the real world here.”

Lia had never wanted to flee a room so badly in all her life. This wasn’t just being embarrassed because Victor misspoke. She liked Zed and she was mortified that Victor had insulted him, insulted Mystic Bayou within just a few minutes of meeting him. Before she could even find the words to apologize, Zed responded in the frostiest tone Lia had ever heard from him. “I think you’ll find that we’re already proud of Mystic Bayou. And we don’t hand the reins over to anyone. We run things ourselves, in our own way, always have.”

Victor scoffed, “Well, I wouldn’t say that in front of Alex Lancaster! I’m sure he likes to think he runs the show here.”

Alex commented dryly, “I am Alex Lancaster.”

“Of course!” Victor exclaimed again, reaching for Alex’s hand. “Just the man I was hoping to talk to. I hope that Lia has made it clear how beneficial your relationship with New Ground will be for your little town. We’re going to bring a whole new level of sophisticated living to the Bayou. Of course, you might want us to start replacing all of the other homes in town after we’re done! No one’s going to want to live in those depressing stilt houses.”

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