Page 27 of Lost Track

“No, ma, I didn’t see Aunt Silvia. Because Ialmostdied. I didn’t actually die.” Max paced between Dave and the television.

Shit that had been scary.

But it was over.

It’d gone incredibly fast.

One minute he was flirting with the cute teacher, and the next Max was choking on a chicken wing.

Life in one breath and the end of life in another.

Dave shivered at his own dark thoughts.

Nope.

He didn’t like that.

Luckily, distractions were never hard for him to find.

He pulled out his phone and opened the voice memo. He grabbed his beer, took a long drink, and then started to pour his thoughts into the receiver.

What felt like just a few seconds later, the smell of pizza invaded his thoughts. He closed the phone down and looked up to see Sabine eyeing him thoughtfully.

She arranged the pizzas carefully on the table and served slices to Leslie, Max, and Dave.

“How about the secret agents?” she asked when she was near enough to him that no one else could hear her.

Dave frowned in question.

She got closer and jerked her head just slightly towards the door. “Do they get…?” She held his pizza out to him.

“Yeah! Of course.” Truthfully Dave hadn’t even thought about it, but obviously they could have food.

Sabine smiled and dished up two more plates and took them to the security guards. They seemed surprised but pleased. It kind of made Dave feel like shit for not thinking of it.

They probably hated him.

See? This was why it was hard to hire people to protect him. He wasn’t special. Not really.

He was just a dude who happened to be good at meeting the right people.

Sabine came back and started cleaning up their empties. Dave plopped his pizza down and waved at her. She tilted her head to the side in question.

“You should eat with us,” he offered.

She seemed taken aback. “Oh, that’s very sweet of you, but I don’t eat with the guests.”

Her gentle refusal hurt even though it shouldn’t. She hadn’t meant it to, she hadn’t been rude or unkind. And yet he was sore.

And embarrassed.

“Are you sure?” he asked again. “We have all this pizza.” He scooted over on the couch. “And all this extra room to sit down. You’ve been working so hard for us all night. You can sit down for a second.”

Her mouth opened to protest but her eyes were sizing him up again.

She looked confused.

Damnnnn it.

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