“That she is,” he agreed.
They returned to the dining area, and she was just about ready to invite James to sit, when a young man at a table started yelling at a person who wanted to sit at the same table.
“No!This is my place!Mine!No, no, no.”
She went to go over to him, when James grabbed her arm.
“You can’t.”
“I’ll be okay.This is what we do, James.This is how we help people.”
“He could hurt you.”
“And if I don’t step in, he could hurt many people who are already traumatized.”
“No,” he said again, with a little more force.
“You just outsmarted an assassin.This is a little less stressful than that.Please, trust me.”
She smiled, patted his hand on her arm, and then pulled away to head over to the young man.Right on her heels, however, was James and the bodyguard.Ignoring them for a moment, she carefully approached the man who rocked himself while keening.
“No.No.My spot.No.No.”
“Hello,” she said softly.“I was wondering if you would talk to me.My name is Kleya.”
The man didn’t say anything to her.He didn’t even acknowledge that he’d heard her.She slowly, carefully took another step.
“Do you have a name?”she asked.
He didn’t answer.
“Would you like some food?If you don’t want anything hot, I can get you a dessert.Would you like a piece of cake?Or maybe a cookie?”
He ceased his movement and looked at her.“Cookie?”
“Yes,” she said with a smile.“Let me get you one.”
“Two.Two.I want two.”
“Okay, I can bring two back for you.Stay here.”
She turned and winked at James before heading back to the kitchen area.A brief moment passed, no more than a minute, then she was back with a napkin holding two sugar cookies and a glassful of soda.Once again, she carefully approached the young man.
“Here you go.”
She held them out to him, and he eyed her for a moment before grabbing the items.In the abrupt nature of him taking them, he snarled and pushed her away.With a yelp, she fell back onto her butt.James immediately went into hero mode, but she couldn’t allow him to destroy the fragility of the connection with the teenager, even if James didn’t like that.
Kleya threw out a hand.“Stop.He didn’t mean it.”
The room went deathly silent.
She rose and placed herself between the young man and James.He reached into his suit, and she laid a hand on his arm, halting him from pulling out a gun that no doubt had to be under there.From the small amount of time she’d known him, one thing was blatantly clear.He would never sit back and play big bad boss, like her father did, while other people did all the heavy lifting around him.
“He.Touched.You.”James’s voice was low and dangerous.There was no way to mistake the fury surging through him.
“I’m all right,” she said softly.Imploringly.“If you pull that out, it could aggravate an already tense situation.I’ve got this.Okay?”
A nerve twitched in his jaw, no doubt from grinding his teeth together.Then he eased up and pulled his hand from beneath his suit jacket.She mouthedthank youand turned back to the young man, who had his hands buried in his hair.He looked scared.
