The bartender deposited our beers on the bar and Mace slipped him a bil , then he ignored the drink and I did too.
“If this is dangerous, we’l leave,” I told him.
He shook his head.
“Finish what you start,” he said. “We have it covered.”
“You have what covered?”
“Don’t know, when we do, it’l be covered.” Eek.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“You’re here to talk to your Dad. Lee’s out there, somewhere, and so are Vance and Matt. I’m assigned to you. Something happens, I grab you and we go to the safe point.”
Safe point?
Safe point?
This did not sound good.
In fact, it sounded real y not good.
I opened my mouth to speak but he wasn’t finished.
“Something happens and I have to grab you, you come with me, no argument, no struggle, no worrying about your friends or I’l neutralize you, no hesitation. Got me?” Oh… dear… Lord.
I was pretty certain I didn’t want Mace to neutralize me. I didn’t know how he’d do that and I didn’t want to learn.
I decided to pul out the attitude. “I’m cal ing it off. No neutralizing, no worrying about my friends and no owing Lee the overtime he’s paying you,” I said.
He watched me for a beat and something happened to his expression. His face became hard but the look in his green eyes went soft. I watched, fascinated, and I felt the change throughout my entire system.
“Get that out of your head and focus. This is voluntary overtime, for al of us.”
I stared, trying to process his words but he didn’t give me a chance.
He got closer and his voice dropped to a whisper.
“Babe, watching you these past months has been like watching a flower bloom. Don’t disappoint us.” Then he was gone.
I stood and stared in the space he’d been occupying.
“Um… hello?” Tod said to me, drawing out the “hel o”.
“Um… hello?” Tod said to me, drawing out the “hel o”.
I snapped to and stared at them al . They were al looking at me.
“Mace was just here,” I said.
“He was?” Indy asked looking around.
I couldn’t believe they hadn’t seen him but I ignored that as there were slightly more pressing things at hand.
I told them al what he said.
They al continued to stare at me.