Turning my head, I followed her line of sight, trying to see whatever it was that she did.
"What are you two looking at?" Megumi asked, frowning down the street.
"Mrs.
Stanton."
Clancy approached, having abandoned the town car he'd been driving at a safe but discreet distance behind us.
"Is everything all right?" "Did you see - ?" she began, looking to him with her question.
"See what?" I demanded, as his head snapped up and his trained gaze raked the length of the street.
The absoluteness of his focus sent a shiver down my spine.
"Let me drive you three the rest of the way," he said quietly.
The entrance to the Crossfire was literally across the street, but something in Clancy's tone brooked no argument.
We all climbed in, with my mother taking the front seat.
"What was that about?" Megumi asked after we'd been dropped off and had moved into the cool interior of the building.
"Your mom looked like she'd seen a ghost."
"I have no idea."
But I felt ill.
Something had frightened my mother.
It was going to drive me crazy until I found out what it was.
Chapter 7
My back hit the mat with enough force to knock the air from my lungs.
Stunned, I blinked up at the ceiling, trying to catch my breath.
Parker Smith's face came into view.
"You're wasting my time.
If you're going to be here, be here.
One hundred percent.
Not a million miles away in your head somewhere."
I grabbed the hand he extended to me, and he yanked me to my feet.
Around us, a dozen more of Parker's Krav Maga students were hard at work.
The Brooklyn-based studio was alive with noise and activity.
He was right.
My thoughts were still stuck on my mom and the bizarre way she'd reacted when we returned to the Crossfire after lunch.