Her Surrender (Irresistibly Bound 2)

“That’s not my problem.”

April approached them. “What’s going on?”

Lexi gestured toward the man. “Oasis has sent some lackey over to tell us the library is being shut down and we need to vacate the building next week.”

“That can’t be right. The development project is on hold. The library is supposed to stay open until we can find another location.”

“Like I told her, I don’t know anything about the project. I’m just here to deliver this.” The man handed April the paper in his hand. “I’m not getting paid enough to deal with this,” he muttered.

April skimmed the page. It was an eviction notice. They had seven days to get out of the building. This was even shorter than the three months they’d originally been given.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” April said.

She looked at the signature at the bottom. It wasn’t Vicki’s. Where was she in all this? At worst, this was Vicki’s doing. At best, she would have known about it. Why hadn’t she said anything to April?

Why hadn’t she stopped this?

“April, can you call Vicki?” Lexi asked.

April tried to speak, but there was a lump in her throat.

“Oh, thank god.” The man was looking toward the street. “Here’s Ms. Blake now. You can talk to her about this.”

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April turned to follow his gaze. Sure enough, Vicki was hurrying over to them. April clenched her fists, anger boiling up inside her.

She marched over to Vicki, meeting her on the sidewalk. “What the hell, Victoria? This man is saying that we have to shut down the library?”

“April,” Vicki began. “I can explain-”

“Just tell me it isn’t true.”

“It is. I’m sorry.”

“No.” April’s voice quavered. “How could you let this happen?”

“The decision went above my head,” Vicki said. “A few of Oasis’ major projects fell through, so the board decided that they couldn’t put the Oakmont Street development on hold any longer.”

“The board?” April asked. “So you had nothing to do with it?”

“I was overruled. I tried everything I could to stop this, April. I spent all weekend trying to stop this.”

April furrowed her brows. “This was the crisis you were dealing with at work.”

Vicki nodded.

“You’ve known the library was going to be shut down for three whole days?” April’s voice rose. “Did it ever occur to you to tell me?”

“It did, but-” Vicki brought her hand to her forehead. “Look, I know I shouldn’t have kept this from you, but I wanted to try to fix it first. I thought that I could salvage one of our other projects, so there wouldn’t be any need to rush the Oakmont Street development. I almost pulled it off too, but everything fell apart this morning.”

“Is that your excuse for ignoring me all weekend?” April asked.

“It was stupid. But I know how much the library means to you. I knew you’d be devastated if you found out. I didn’t want to tell you if I didn’t have to. And I knew that if I spoke to you, I’d have to tell you what was going on. I was trying to spare your feelings-”

“My feelings? I’m not some delicate fucking girl. I don’t need you to protect me. And if you really cared about my feelings, you wouldn’t have ignored me like you did. Do you have any idea what I’ve been going through for the past few days?”

“What do you mean?” Vicki asked.