“But I’m responsible for what I promise,” he says, and suddenly, the air has shifted, thickened, and I’m not sure we’re talking about pizza.
And suddenly, I have to force air out of my lungs. “What are we talking about, Kyle?”
“Many things,” he says, his eyes lightening again, the serious moment gone without answers. He lifts his fork. “Which is why I have to save face now.”
“Save face? Over pizza?”
“Pizza is sacred. You said it yourself.”
Now I laugh. “I did say that and it is. So I guess you defiled the pizza process by not using magical powers to know that it would suck tonight.” I straighten. “I challenge you. How are you going to save face?”
He deepens his voice. “We will begin a hunt to find the best pizza in the world. A new sampling will occur nightly.”
“Nightly? And an extra hour on the treadmill will occur nightly.”
“It’ll be worth it,” he promises.
“On that you’re right,” I agree. “Pizza is actually one of my favorite things in the world, and honestly, I can’t remember the last time I ordered it at all.”
“No?”
“Michael is not a pizza guy.”
“Another reason to dislike him,” he says.
“Another?”
“He’s a kingpin, Myla. I won’t pretend to like him.”
“But you’re working for him.”
“I’m working for me. Not him. And right now, I’m working for you. We should order a new pizza from someplace else, and let you enjoy it.”
“I’m way too hungry to wait,” I say, glancing down at the pizza, “and the sauce and cheese really do look good.” I pick up a slice and glance at the bottom. “It’s not really that bad on the bottom. Just a little brown so you can skip your fork.” I take a bite and the cheese and sauce explode in my mouth with delicious results. “It’s actually really good, Kyle. Really good.”
He looks skeptical, but reaches for a slice and tries it, and nods. “Okay. Well at least they kept the recipe. Maybe I’ll buy the damn place just to save it.”
“Just like that? You’ll just buy it? Are you serious?”
“I actually might. I have a few investments that need to keep growing.”
“What kind of investments?”
“Real estate mostly,” he says. “It’s easy to hire management and just forget about it.” He opens his water, gulps a drink and then reaches for a slice. “My security work keeps me busy.”
“So you just take random bodyguard jobs?”
“I take random jobs that pay well, and don’t require a long-term commitment, but we were talking about you and your sister before the pizza arrived, not me.”
So much for fun and laughter. “What’s wrong with talking about you?” I ask, taking another bite to ensure I have an excuse to process whatever question he throws at me next.
“Nothing,” he surprises me by saying, finishing off a bite of pizza. “You need to trust me and I’ll be glad to give you every reason I can to make that happen.”
I set the burned crust of my slice down and straighten. “Really?”
“Really,” he says, tossing his crust onto a plate. “The sauce is still damn good, right?”
“Very. Sweet and still spicy. I love it.” And eager to take advantage of his invitation to ask him questions, I get back to the topic of him. “Why’d you leave the FBI?”
“Quid pro quo,” he says softly, a rasp of suggestion in his tone. “You give me something I want and I’ll give you something you want.”
Is this where he tells me why he really took this job? Or what he’s really after? “What do you want?”
“Many things, it seems, but I’ll settle for hearing about two sisters who are birds of different feathers.”
He’s back to Kara, which seems to support his claim that he’s been hired to keep her away from me, or me from her, but I want every tidbit of confirmation I can manage. “Tell me again why this is important?”
“Considering the biggest fear Michael Alvarez seems to have is your sister-”
“I get it,” I say, considering he’s just repeated my thoughts from moments before. “You need to know if she’s a problem that could bite you in the ass. She’s not. She thinks I’m dead. I told you that.”
“She’s resourceful and you’re no longer underground.”
He’s right.
“You’re right,” I concede, and I suddenly want to tell him whatever I can to ensure she doesn’t find me. “She is very resourceful and if you’re the one who’s going to make that happen, then you do need to understand the dynamic between us.”
“Which is what?”
“Kara and I were really very much alike. Our mother was a highly successful fashion model, who retired to open her own clothing line, and both me and my sister were helping her prepare for the launch when she died.”
“But you ended up holding onto her dream, while Kara followed in your father’s. It’s hard to see the likeness in that.”
“Our reactions to the murder of our parents was the great divide. Kara got angry and wanted to fight crime, and I got angry at my father.”