Page 55 of Shifters in the Night

“You can’t do that. I have a contract!” Victor screeched.

Sonja slapped a thick manila envelope on Lia’s desk. “Yes, please review the fine print on section seven. You’ll find that your nephew putting Alex and Jon’s lives in danger, not to mention putting Lia’s personal safety at risk, is a violation of that contract. I personally call it the ‘No Being a Felonious Pain in My Ass” Clause, but Alex refuses to humor me.”

“It’s a shame, really,” Zed said, sounding far calmer than the rage that was flowing around him in a brilliant sunset fog. “It says exactly what it is.”

Sonja patted Zed’s shoulder fondly and then turned back to Victor. “You’re no longer welcome in Mystic Bayou. Please leave.”

“The complex is less than half-finished,” Victor objected. “You can’t just bring someone else in to finish it.”

“You’ll find that we can,” Sonja retorted. “We’ll reimburse you for the materials involved and make sure your crew receives their pay, as outlined in the same contract, but other than that, consider any business relationship with the League to be terminated. I have a signed letter from the League’s board of directors, which you’ll find in the packet I just handed you.”

Victor turned beseeching eyes on Lia. “This whole thing with Jeff was just … a big misunderstanding,” he assured her. Or at least, he attempted to. “He had these silly ideas about keeping you secured to the business through a family connection.”

Regret at being fooled and used by him for so long burned through Lia. She didn’t consider herself an angry person, but she really wanted to hurt Victor.

“I’m sure he thought he was doing something … helpful,” Victor said.

“You pause one more time and I will break your entire face,” she seethed at him.

“If she doesn’t, I will,” Zed added.

“Jeff only wanted a deeper relationship with you. Is that so wrong?” Victor asked.

“I can’t help but think you encouraged him in a way that was exclusively beneficial to you,” she noted.

Victor jerked his shoulders in what was probably supposed to be a helpless gesture. “You know how essential I consider you to the business, Lia. I saw his growing interest in you and decided to channel it. And I expressed concern that you might outgrow our little family operation one day, and how devastating that might be for us. And Jeff somehow got it into his head that securing you through a relationship would be the best way to keep the business afloat. And well, I just couldn’t tell the boy that you were hopelessly out of his league. I didn’t know he would go so far as to attack the competition. You should honor his good intentions and keep your commitment to my company.”

“No, Victor,” she told him. “You may not have known what Jeff had planned, but you knew it wasn’t good. You should have told him to keep our relationship professional. And for the record, I didn’t see Jeff as a threat because you were being so damn weird about the Main Street project! I was distracted.”

Victor eyed Zed warily. “Well, obviously, that’s off the table.”

Zed growled.

“Tell me that, at the very least, you didn’t encourage him to hurt Alex or Jon,” Lia demanded.

“Why would this Carmody fellow even enter into my consideration?” Victor scoffed.

“Really not helping yourself here, couillon,” Zed told him.

“You can’t leave me, Lia,” Victor pleaded. “What will happen to all of my employees if you’re not there to secure deals for me? What will happen to their families?”

“I will personally help every single one of your employees find other jobs should they want the help,” Sonja told him.

Victor’s eyes were going dark and Lia wondered if she would finally see his other form. His voice was torn between panic and anger as he rasped, “I can’t do this without you.”

Lia stood, leaving her ID badge, her work laptop and Range Rover keys on the desk. “You can. You just don’t want to.”

15

JON

Jon’s head was killing him, but he didn’t have the heart to tell Zed to shut up.

Zed was perched on the chair in Jon’s hospital room, telling the story of Lia’s “damn near queenly” exit from the New Ground offices. And in his usual fashion, he was talking way too loud in a tone that stretched Jon’s recently concussed nerves to the brink. But Zed was just so proud of Lia, Jon decided to put up with it

“And then, she said, ‘You can, you just don’t want to’ and swept out of the room with her head held high,” Zed boomed, grinning at Lia. The other members of their little group were crowded around the room, enjoying Zed’s retelling, though it was framed as an official briefing for Alex. “She didn’t even look back. I’ve never been so proud of a little sister in all my life, and I have a lot of them now, so that’s saying something.”

Jon squeezed Lia from her position at his side on his hospital bed. “He licked your forehead, didn’t he?”

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