Page 10 of One Hell of a Deal

“Not quite,” he says with a smirk. “But it’s close enough, I think. It’s not the actual book, but it's six hundred scanned pages of the original text.”

Without thinking, I run over to him and wrap my arms around him. “I can’t believe you got this, Max. You really are quite amazing.”

His body is stiff, but I feel it soften slightly with my words. Realizing I am making him uncomfortable, I back away, but I am relieved to find he is smiling at me, looking a bit proud of himself.

“It’s going to take us a long time to sort through it all,” he says, and takes a sip of wine. “But I think we can get through a decent chunk of it on the ride tomorrow.”

I pep up even more at this news, and my entire body bounces in delight. “Oh, yes. How exciting. Where are we going?”

He laughs, but not in a mean way. I think that he thinks I am cute. I’m not sure, though. I’m still learning how to decipher his expressions. “I’m taking you to the Sliver. It’s the place where I grew up.”

“What will we do there?”

“Well,” he runs his hand through his hair and looks off to the side. “I promised Garrett that I would look in on his mother, and it's been over a month since…since…”

Realization hits me. “Since I called in his contract. Right.”

The warmth in the room a moment ago is now gone. We stand in awkward silence and sip from our wine.

Finally, he clears his throat. “It’s about a five-hour drive, so you can scour the pages on the way.”

I nod, but a lump in my throat keeps me from saying anything.

“Don’t worry, Daphne,” he says, looking me in the eyes again. “She won't know what… em… I mean…whoyou are. She won’t make a problem for you.”

I nod again, but my chest is tight, and my eyes start to sting. I’m not worried about myself. I am scared. I’ve never had to face the human consequences of my crossroads duties, and I’m about to meet a mother who has lost her son because of me. I’ve never felt like such a monster before.

“You all right, Daph?” he asks, and I try to shake the sadness out of my expression.

“I just feel bad,” I answer honestly. “I know I didn’t have any choice in the matter, but I am the reason this woman is all alone.”

He surprises me with another laugh. “Wait until you meet her. She prefers to be alone.”

I don’t really understand, but I appreciate his attempt to comfort me. I want to change the subject. “I’ll be okay. Besides, we have pizza. Everything is better with pizza.”

He smirks at me. “New York Pizza. You mean that everything's better withNew Yorkpizza.”

I roll my eyes. “Okay, sure. New York pizza.”

Chapter Ten: Max

With another hour of driving to go, I’m growing weary of the silence in the car. Other than a few frustrated groans andthe shuffling of pages, Daphne hasn’t made a peep. The old texts might not be as helpful as she thought they would be, and that worries me.

“Still no luck?” I ask, desperate for a break from my boredom.

She slaps her hands down on the pile of papers in her lap and grunts. “I thought this would be easier.”

Nothing is ever easy. “Why don’t you take a break from all of that for now. I can help you scour the pages later.”

“If I could just find something,” she says, thrusting her hands up in frustration, “I would take a break. But I haven’t even found a single word about the crossroads yet. What if there’s nothing in here? What if we can’t find a way out of this?”

Her concern surprises me. It’s a relief to know she does care and that her offer to help me wasn’t just to get the help she needed. “There is no point wasting your energy on it anymore right now. You seem so frustrated, which in my experience means you are likely to miss a fine detail anyway.”

I can feel her eyes burning into the side of my head. She neatens the stack of papers and reaches into the back, and places them on the seat.

“How the hell did you get so smart anyway?” she mumbles and blows out a long sigh.

“Don’t let me fool you,” I reply with a chuckle. “I’ve learned the hard way when to keep going and when to walk away.”

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