Page 128 of Broken Daddy
“Why does it say that?”
“Huh?” Silla asked. Then she glanced up at the balloon as though she’d just seen it.
“Oh no! I grabbed the wrong one! What an idiot.” She banged her hand against her forehead and let go of the balloon.
“Shoot!” she cried, jumping up, attempting to grab the string. “Oops. Why did I do that?”
Thankfully the ceiling wasn’t that high and he easily reached up and grabbed the string, pulling the balloon down and handing it back to her.
“Whew. Thank you. Okay, I’m on Devi duty!”
“I can’t leave just Silla with her,” he said.
“Why not?” Silla asked.
“It’s still not safe. The assholes that attacked her haven’t been caught.”
“Well, isn’t that what your boss is for?” Silla asked. “He’s just down there by the elevators.”
He was?
“Also, don’t worry, I’m a black belt in karate. Now, go. Talk to Mac. Maybe get something to eat. A shower would be a good idea too.” She wrinkled her nose. “No offense, but you stink.”
No offense?
How was he not supposed to take offense?
“Um, sorry about Silla,” Mac said. “As you might have gathered, she has no filter.”
No kidding.
“But you do need a break and I need to talk to you. Silla really does have this covered, but we’ll speak to your boss too.”
“All right. If Kent can stay with her, we can chat. I’ll call him, have him come here.” No way was he walking away from her room with just Silla there to protect her.
He wasn’t entirely sure that he believed her claim to be a black belt. She couldn’t even tame a helium balloon, for God’s sake.
After Kent came and promised to stay with Devi as well, Hayes followed Mac to the cafeteria.
“Want a coffee?” Mac asked.
“Uh, yeah. Black.”
“I should have guessed. I take mine with a bit of cream and sugar.”
Right.
They got their drinks and Mac also grabbed a sandwich.
“Listen, I’m not sure what you want to talk about, but I’m hoping you didn’t pull me out of that room to discuss coffee preferences.”
Mac held up his hands before pushing the plate with the sandwich on it over to him. “Eat.”
Hayes sighed. “Not hungry and I don’t need anyone to coddle or micromanage me.”
“Look, I get it. Might be hard to believe, but I was a lot like you when I was younger.”
“Like me?” he asked.
