Page 30 of Shifters in the Night

Lia said, “Victor, you are not following our usual patterns. Showing up to meetings, keeping information from me. That’s not how we do things. It’s really putting me off, and frankly—”

Lia swallowed a lump in her throat, uncertain whether she really wanted to speak because she could be upending her whole life in one sentence. “I’m starting to doubt whether I want to work for you anymore if you keep secrets from me. I can’t work in the dark. And you know I could walk out the door and find another job without any problems.”

Victor’s eyes seemed to flare, the pupils abruptly expanding and contracting. Suddenly, she was uncomfortable being in a closed room with her boss, a feeling she’d never experienced before. She’d been annoyed by Victor, embarrassed, inconvenienced, certainly, but never truly intimidated. Right now, distance and termination of employment were looking better and better.

When he saw her backing towards the door, Victor smiled at her, though it didn’t quite reach those cold silver eyes. “Fine, fine, you win. I can see it was a mistake to try to keep anything from you, you tenacious little thing.”

He reached into his desk and pulled out a proposal binder marked “Mystic Bayou Main Street Development Phase I.”

“This is for your eyes only,” he warned her as she flipped through the binder, which contained artist’s renderings of a completely new Main Street. It looked like some sort of pre-fabricated retail district at a theme park. The cement block buildings had been replaced with carefully arranged strip malls containing chain stores and restaurants and parking structures. It was all done in what could be considered an “updated middle American” cookie cutter-style in muted colors – bland and boring and nothing like the people in Mystic Bayou seemed to want. “I didn’t want you to know until I had the property secured, because I didn’t want you to get overwhelmed by the details when you were already working on one project.

Lia’s mouth dropped open as she looked up at Victor, who seemed very pleased with himself.

“And this is just the first phase,” he said. “If we could get the League to agree to an exclusive contract with New Ground, we could make this whole parish something to be really proud of – people would actually want to live here.”

Lia could only stare at him. New Ground didn’t build retail sites. They didn’t develop properties. They built apartment complexes and they had it down to a science. Victor had never mentioned wanting to expand into non-residential construction before. What was happening here?

“But people already want to live here,” she noted. “That’s why we’re here in the first place, because of the housing demand.”

“Exactly,” he said, as if she hadn’t just corrected him. “So there’s opportunity to be had here, money to be made. Someone has to take control of the progress in Mystic Bayou, why not me?”

Lia had a lot of reasons why not – because the League had already taken control? Because the citizens of Mystic Bayou knew what they did and didn’t want? Because he had no business trying to own the Bayou?

“So when Mayor Berend said you were trying to buy the properties surrounding the site, he didn’t misunderstand, did he?” she asked carefully. “So you lied to me.”

“Well, it’s not really my job to explain myself to you, is it?” he said, before scoffing, “The locals are putting up more of a fight than I anticipated. They seem to think their little piece of this swamp is worth more than money. Just look at the Mayor and his attitude at the meeting. What’s his problem?”

A thousand impulses seemed to be firing in her brain at once. This wasn’t the first time she’d had to think about her loyalty to Victor versus the interests of the locals during a construction project. But it was the first time her loyalties landed away from Victor’s side. She wanted to protect Zed and Jillian and Sonja and Dani. She didn’t want them to lose their home, their way of life, to Victor’s “vision.”

Jon. The idea of hurting him or the people he cared about was unacceptable. She wanted to run out the door and warn him, to ask him his opinions, to include him in her response. Her instincts were telling her to follow through on her threats to quit, not to help Victor finish the complex. But if she left, Victor would just plunge ahead with his plans and Lia didn’t know how far he would go to obtain his goals. She would have to stay for now, to try to mitigate the damage.

Lia took a breath. It felt like her whole life had shifted in just a few seconds. Her priorities. Her career. Her allegiances. The things that she used to enjoy about her job were now outweighed by the things that she just didn’t want to do anymore. She wanted to work in a place where she didn’t have to question her boss’s motives with every decision. She wanted to work somewhere she didn’t spend half of her time apologizing for someone’s words. She just wanted a job where she could help people and sleep at night. She wanted a job that wasn’t her whole life.

But she couldn’t do anything about that right now, because she was still in Victor’s office and he was staring at her. From here out, she had to plan every action, every phrase, very carefully. “The mayor is absorbing a lot of changes really fast and we’re just going to have to be patient with him, bring him along.”

“You know patience is not my strong suit,” Victor answered. “Look, don’t worry about this phase for right now. It’s a future problem. Just focus on the apartment complex, keep things moving forward. We’ll worry about the rest later. I’ll keep you updated.”

Lia nodded, knowing she couldn’t trust anything that came from Victor from here on out. He opened the door for her and she felt dismissed in a way that grated across already raw nerves. Jeff was sitting at his desk, ready and waiting for whatever task Victor was about to assign him. Lia walked out of his office, struggling against the words that were bubbling up behind her lips. But unleashing her frustration would be a stupid move, an ill-advised strategy, so she focused on the moves she could make.

“On that note, the town is planning an event for Founders Day,” Lia said, her tone deceptively pleasant. “And I thought it would be a good idea to sponsor something, a float or a—”

Victor nodded to his nephew. “We’ll do a booth and hand out the usual promotional stuff, Frisbees, keychains, pocket calendars. Jeff, see to the order.”

Jeff nodded sharply and began tapping on the keys to his laptop.

“Keep up the good work, Lia,” Victor said, ushering her out of his office and closing the door. Lia sank against it, taking in a deep breath.

“You OK, Lia? Don’t worry about this festival thing,” Jeff said, making her chuckle lightly because at this point Founder’s Day was the least of her worries. “We’ll make it something great.”

She managed a thin smile. “Thanks, Jeff.”

Walking into her office, she shut the door behind her and flopped onto the comfy love seat she kept against the far wall. As this was the same administrative unit they’d used in multiple projects, Lia’s office was a far more personal space than her trailer or even her apartment back home. The silver deer statuette on the table behind her desk had been a birthday present from her grandparents. Her parents smiled beatifically from a beach picture framed on her desk. She even had a graduation picture, dated though it was, from high school on the far wall.

Lia felt completely disconnected from these comforts. It was like a hand came out of the sky and slapped her mental chessboard against the wall, scattering the pieces at her feet.

“You doing all right? You seem … off,” Jeff asked, after a light knock at her door. He crossed the space to lay a folder of paperwork on her desk. “Can I help?”

“Just a problem I’m working through. It’s no big deal,” Lia said.

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