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“Oh, I’ll come wif you!” Grinning, she shovels another mouthful of egg in. “I’ve never been to work wifyoubefore. Are you gonna fix people?”
“Because I’m a doctor?”Not exactly, kiddo.“Hopefully. I like to help people as best I can.”
It takes her another five minutes to eat until her stomach protrudes, and then a giggling few more for her to chug her juice and complain of a brain freeze, despite the drink not being frozen.
I work my way through my meal in the time it takes her to get herself under control, then I push up to stand and hold out a hand, waiting for Mia to take it.
She slides out of the booth, her shoes squeaking on the leather, then plops down onto her boots and grins when the sound echoes off the tile.
Together, and without a backward glance for the man, we make our way to the counter and charge our meal to my credit card, then we step outside into the cold and head toward the street.
“You can come into my building and ride the elevator, Moo. You can stay with me for maybe an hour before I have to take you—”
“Lady?” The bell of the restaurant door jingles at our backs, then heavy feet thud on the sidewalk. “Hey, lady! Your kid forgot her teddy.”
Turning back, I meet the eyes of the man who rushes our way with Mia’s monkey clutched tight between his fingers.
Like she doesn’t believe what’s right in front of her, Mia looks down at her hands, then back up with a gasp. “I forgot!”
“Nope.” When she tries to shake my hand off and bolt, I hold on that much tighter and tug her back. “Never, ever run away, Moo.” I stare down at her and lower my voice. “Always choose safety, okay? Make sure you’re thinking.”
When the guy is just six feet away and his gaze remains trained on Mia, I clear my throat and bring his attention to me. Extending my free hand, I open it palm side up. “I’ll take it. Thank you.”
“Oh, sure.” He places the stuffy in my grasp and drops his hand to his hip. “Kids freak out when they lose this stuff.”
“Yeah.” I pass it to Mia and keep my eyes on the guy, even when his gaze drops to study the girl. “Thanks for grabbing it for us.”
“So that was your dad, kid?” He jerks a thumb back toward the restaurant doors. “He’s the police on the television?”
“Ye—”
“It’s absolutely not appropriate for you to question a child you don’t know.” I paste on a sweet smile and pull Mia close enough that her shoulder touches my hip. “Maybe you’re just a good guy with odd social cues, but you looking at her, asking her questions…” I raise a single, threatening brow. “Comes across as creepy. Now, we’re leaving, and you’re never gonna speak to us again. If you happen to see either of us in the street, it would be best if you turn and go a different way.”
“It would bebest?” Losing a little of his odd watchfulness and instead smirking, like he thinks my words are funny, his dancing gaze moves across my face. “Like, a threat? ‘Cause her dad is a cop.”
Forget her dad, I have my own arsenal and ways to stop a creep from causing harm.
“A friendly request. Goodbye, Mister. I intend to never see you again.” Giving Mia’s hand a gentle jerk, I lead her toward the street and across.
There’s no point walking some other direction and hoping he won’t know where I work—he already heard too much. But the George Stanley security team is good at what they do, so being inside that building is legions safer for us both than if we were to stay on the street.
“Was your breakfast nice, Moo? Did the eggs fill you up?”
“Uh-huh!” She skips while we walk and half runs to keep up. “You weren’t very nice to that person.”
“What do you mean?” Somewhat offended, I look down at the girl and lead her up on to the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street. “I said thank you for bringing us the toy. I said goodbye. I even smiled one time.”
She wrinkles her nose. “It wasn’t a nice smile. It was the kinda smile I do beforeSMACK!” She actually slaps her thigh and makes me jump. “I kill a bug.”
“Oh, well…” Chuckling, I lead her through the revolving door, and peeking back, I find the guy still standing in place, his hands on his hips, his eyes cast straight ahead.
If not for the glare of the doors, he’d be looking directly into my eyes.
“Maybe my smile wasn’tsupernice. But I was being as polite as I could. Now come on.” I tug her out of the spinning door and onto the large, tile floor. “Let’s go do some work.”
ARCHER
“We’ve got her!” Fletch shoves through the war room door and slaps a sheet of paper onto the table in the middle.
