Chapter Seventeen
Sheldon looked up at the sound of Aidan’s voice. “Hey, man. How’s it goin’?”
Aidan dipped his chin in a nod and slowly approached the young Second. “Sheldon.”
Balancing two substantial sandwiches on a plate, Sheldon shifted his gaze to Dana. “Hi, Dana. Great to see you again.”
“Nice to see you, too.” She tried not to stare. She really did. But failed miserably as her lips stretched into a broad grin.
The handsome redhead wore a tight black T-shirt that revealed muscled arms and a chest as broad as Aidan’s. He also wore badly scuffed combat boots that were in dire need of replacement, worn black cargo shorts that ended just above his knees, and—atop the shorts—a fluffy pink tutu that began at his waist and fell almost to the hem of his shorts in delicate, filmy layers. A pretty yellow sunflower decorated the center of the waistband.
“I heard about the attack at your place,” Sheldon said, his eyes on Dana. “That sucks. But from what I understand, you really kicked ass and took names.”
That attack seemed so long ago now. “Those names being numbnuts and dumbass?” she asked, trying not to laugh.
He grinned. “Those would be the ones. I also heard you tranqed Roland. Well done. I wish I could’ve seen that.”
“Sheldon?” Aidan said.
“Yeah?”
“What the hell are you wearing?”
Sheldon sighed. “Dude, don’t dis my boots. I know I had to glue the soles back onto both shoes with superglue, but these are the most comfortable boots I’ve ever owned, so I don’t want to replace them.”
Dana glanced up at Aidan, whose expression remained deadpan.
“The tutu, Sheldon,” Aidan said.
Sheldon glanced down. “Oh, that.” He shrugged. “I thought Ami and Marcus could use some alone time and offered to take Adira to the playground. Adira didn’t want to go without her mommy, so I promised her if she would let me take her she could go to my closet and choose what I would wear.”
Aidan arched a brow. “And she chose a tutu?”
“Yeah.”
“Do I even want to know why you happened to have an adult-sized pink tutu in your closet?”
Sheldon grinned. “Tracy ordered it online for Adira a couple of months ago, thinking it was child-sized, and didn’t feel like returning it once she realized it wasn’t.”
“And you just… wore it to the park?” Aidan asked.
“Sure. A promise is a promise.”
Dana smiled. “That was very sweet of you.”
He shrugged. “Adira has me wrapped around her little finger.”
Aidan grunted. “You and everyone else who frequents David’s home. Didn’t the other adults at the park find your attire odd?”
Sheldon laughed. “Are you kidding? The women loved it. Two moms and three nannies gave me their phone numbers.”
“Hey!” a woman called from down the hallway. “I heard that!”
Grinning, Sheldon called back, “I only took their numbers in case Ami wanted to arrange a playdate or something.”
The woman—Tracy?—grumbled something Dana couldn’t hear clearly.
Sheldon held up his plate. “Are you two hungry? I saw Ethan and Heather pass by a minute ago and it looked like you guys might have had a long day.” Word must not have gotten around yet about the battle with Gershom.
Aidan nodded. “I could use a bite.” He looked down at Dana.
“I could eat,” she said, only then realizing she hadn’t had a meal in a while.
Sheldon handed her the plate. “I’m glad recent events haven’t scared you away.”
“Not yet,” she said with a wry smile.
Sheldon waved a hand. “I wasn’t worried about the violence. You kinda give off a Xena, Warrior Princess vibe, so I knew you could hold your own.”
Dana looked up at Aidan. “Really?”
Aidan smiled. “I don’t know who Xena is, but the term Warrior Princess suits you well.”
“Oh.” She couldn’t help but feel pleased.
“Nah,” Sheldon continued. “I figured if anything would send you fleeing to the hills, it would be Aidan’s age.”
She looked up at Aidan in time to catch him glaring at Sheldon.
That was the second time Aidan’s age had come up, and he seemed no more interested in imparting it now than he had before.
She turned back to Sheldon. “Why? How old is he?”
Sheldon’s features slipped into a comical oops expression. “Oh. He, uh… he hasn’t told you yet?”
“No.”
Recovering from his gaffe, Sheldon waved a hand. “You know what? It’s not a big thing. It really isn’t. Some people are just weirdly sensitive about their age. Hell, Tracy is only eight years older than me and she still freaks out about it.”
“Nine,” Tracy called from down the hallway. “I’m nine years older than you, loose lips.”
Sheldon laughed. “See what I mean? She’s only nine years older than me and still can’t believe I’m not going to ditch her for a younger woman. But I keep telling her that I don’t care how old she is. She could be a hundred years older than me, or a thousand years older, or even a million years older and I would still want to be with her.”
Tracy entered with a smile. “Yeah, but what makes you think I’d still want you if I were a million years older than you?”
He grinned down at her. “All the wisdom you would’ve acquired over the ages would make you recognize my value.”
She smirked. “And if it didn’t?”
“Then vanity would make you want me for your boy toy.”
Laughing, she curled a hand around the back of his neck and drew him down for a quick kiss. “I’m sure it would.” She turned to Dana. “Hi, Dana.” She jerked a thumb toward Sheldon. “Ignore this one. He’s still high from all the female attention he got at the park.”
Aidan shook his head. “Who would’ve thought a man wearing a tutu would evoke such adoration.”
Tracy rolled her eyes. “I know, right?”
“Unca Aidan!” a small voice cried with glee.
Aidan’s face lit with a wide grin. “In here,” he called.
The redheaded toddler Dana had seen briefly the previous night ran into the room on chubby legs. A fluffy pink tutu like Sheldon’s covered pink shorts while matching pink fairy wings bounced on her back and a flower garland sporting a pink veil jounced on her curls.
“There’s my lovely fairy princess,” Aidan crooned, bending to scoop her into his arms.
Giggling, she wrapped adorably plump arms around his neck and gave him a hug.
She was beautiful. And Aidan looked damned appealing, hugging her and bussing her rosy cheek. This must be the little one for whom he had cleaned up his language.
“You did, did you?” he asked, his brown eyes alight with pleasure as he grinned at the little girl.
Nodding, she waved a glittery wand with a pink butterfly on the end.
“So he told me. And you had fun?” Aidan asked. A minute passed, then he laughed.
Dana looked to Tracy.
Tracy smiled. “Adira doesn’t talk much yet, but she has strong telepathic abilities.”
Dana looked at the child in surprise. Really? She couldn’t be more than two years old.
The little girl turned her attention to Dana.
“Hi there,” Dana said with a smile.
Giving her a grin that exposed little white teeth, the toddler lunged toward her.
Sheldon grabbed the plate of sandwiches while Dana scrambled to catch Adira and wrapped her arms securely around the little beauty.
Adira raised bright green eyes to meet hers and touched her cheek. “Annie Dana,” she said with a grin.
Tracy’s eyebrows flew up. “I think she just called you Auntie Dana.”
Adira rested her head on Dana’s shoulder and snuggled against her with a happy sigh.
“Dude,” Sheldon said, his eyes going from the toddler to Dana to Aidan. “Adira can see the future. I’m pretty sure that means you’re in.”
Dana glanced up at Aidan, who looked as surprised as she was.
After a moment, he smiled and touched her shoulder. “Don’t worry. You still have choice.”
She smiled back and rocked from side to side, enjoying the feel of the baby against her chest, all anxiety fleeing amidst the comfort the child brought and the light, family atmosphere that welcomed her. “I know.” But she didn’t really. At least not where Aidan was concerned. She was in love with him. And that made choosing anything other than a future with him impossible.
The hallway behind them darkened as a figure filled it, then moved forward to join them.
Dana’s eyes widened as she tilted her head back and stared up at him.
Wow.
Tracy laughed. “I bet I had that same expression on my face the first time I saw him. He’s a handsome devil, isn’t he?”
Chuckling, the man met Dana’s gaze with dark brown eyes that infused her with as much warmth and comfort as the child did. “I’m David,” he said, offering her a slight bow. “Welcome to my home, Dana.”
“Thank you,” she managed to say.
She estimated his height to be about six feet seven inches. His smooth, flawless skin was as dark as midnight. Pencil-thin dreadlocks—pulled back from his face with a leather tie—fell all the way down to his hips. Like the other immortals, he wore all black and wore it well. His shoulders were as broad and his body as muscular as Aidan’s.
David nodded to the toddler she held. “I see you’ve already made a new friend.”
“Yes. She’s beautiful.” As with Seth, there was just something about this man that screamed power. Dana actually found herself a little tongue-tied around him.
“And as happy to have you here as the rest of us are. Seth has informed me of this afternoon’s events.”
Aidan’s expression sobered. “Have they caught Gershom?”
“Not yet. They’re pursuing him now.”
Tracy and Sheldon exchanged a look.
“Seth got a lead on Gershom?” Sheldon asked, all business now.
David nodded. “Gershom posed as Seth and attacked Aidan this afternoon.”
Sheldon’s eyes widened. “Shit!”
Tracy popped him on the back of the head.
He glanced at Adira. “I mean shoot!”
David held up a hand to halt the questions that otherwise would’ve poured forth. “We’ll discuss it later. Right now Aidan needs a healing sleep.”
Sheldon nodded. “Of course.” He handed Aidan the plate of sandwiches. “Let us know if you two need anything.” Taking Tracy’s hand, he headed down the hallway.
“With all that’s happening,” Aidan said, lowering his voice, “I’m surprised you let Sheldon take Adira to the park.”
David’s lips turned up in a wry smile. “I followed and watched over them in the form of a crow.”
He could shape-shift? “That is so cool,” Dana murmured.
David’s smile broadened. “Fun, too.” He turned his gaze to Adira. “Come here, sweetheart. Uncle Aidan and Auntie Dana need to get some rest.”
“You heard that, did you?” Aidan asked.
“The Auntie Dana? Yes, I did.”
Adira smiled and let Dana transfer her to David’s arms. Reaching over his shoulder, Adira pulled one of his dreadlocks forward and began to play with it.
“I hope you will enjoy your stay in my home, Dana. I’ve had a room prepared for you both. Would you like to see it?” he asked.
“Yes, please.”
Aidan nodded. “Thank you, David. I appreciate it.”
David motioned for them to accompany him down the hallway. “This way.”
Dana glanced curiously into the rooms they passed. A bathroom. A huge study/library. What appeared to be a medical facility of some sort. Perhaps an infirmary?
When David passed through a doorway and led them down a flight of stairs, disappointment threatened. They would be sleeping in the basement?
Her eyebrows rose though when they reached the foot of the stairs.
On their left, a pair of open double doors revealed a gym or training room roughly the size of a high school gymnasium with a padded floor, a wall of mirrors and a lot of exercise equipment.
That must be for the Seconds, since immortals were already superstrong.
On the right, a long, elegant hallway with at least a dozen doors stretched before them. Lovely dark wood floors. Earth-toned walls adorned with modern paintings. A high white ceiling with recessed lighting. Wingback chairs stationed in twos. Plant stands supporting plants that somehow thrived without any sun exposure.
Very nice.
Aidan nudged her shoulder, amusement dancing in his eyes. You were expecting something cold and damp and crypt-like?
She grinned. Maybe.
David led them down the hallway, stopping in front of the next-to-last door on the right. Opening it, he motioned for them to enter.
Dana stepped inside a large, sumptuous bedroom with an adjoining bathroom.
Aidan followed. “Thank you again, David.”
Smiling, he turned to Dana. “My home is your home, Dana. You are welcome to explore it as you will. Grab a snack from the kitchen. A book from my study. Whatever will make you comfortable. I only ask that you knock first before entering any of the rooms down here, save the training room, because they are bedrooms and most are occupied.”
“Thank you. That’s very kind of you.”
He clapped Aidan on the shoulder. “Get some rest.”
David turned and headed back down the hallway, Adira waving at them over his shoulder. Aidan waved to the little cutie, then closed the door.
“He’s so nice,” Dana said.
Nodding, Aidan shrugged off his coat and tossed it over the wooden back of a nearby chair. “Go ahead and ask me.”
She tilted her head to one side. “Ask you what?”
“The question you’ve been wanting to ask ever since Sheldon opened his yap upstairs. He’s bound to blurt it out eventually, so I’d just as soon get it out of the way.”
“Are you sure?” Dana saw the way his shoulders slumped with weariness. And David had said he needed a healing sleep. “It can wait.”
“I’m sure.” Sinking down in the chair, he began to tug on the laces of one boot.
She drew in a deep breath. “How old are you?”
Pulling the boot off, he set it aside. “I’ve lived just shy of three thousand years.”
She stared at him. She had heard thousand, but he must have said hundred, right? “I’m sorry. I don’t think I heard that correctly.”
He went to work on his other boot. “You heard it right.”
Shock and dismay warred within her. “You’re three thousand years old?”
He winced, his expression almost apologetic. “Almost.”
A heavy silence enveloped them as he removed the second boot and set it beside the first.
“Dana?” He seemed to be waiting for a comment, but…
“I don’t know how to respond to that.”
Leaning forward, he braced his elbows on his knees and clasped his hands between them. “If it helps, I look and feel a lot younger than that. Far younger since I met you and you breathed light and life back into my world.”
“You’re three thousand years old,” she whispered, not really hearing him. He was three thousand years old. And she was thirty. “Why are you even with me?” she blurted, insecurity rising.
His features filled with dread. “What?”
“Why are you even with me?” she repeated. “I mean, all the things you must have learned and the wisdom you must have accrued in three thousand years… I just don’t know what the hell about me would even appeal to you. I must seem so young and naïve and-and-and lacking in knowledge and experience. I must seem like an adolescent to you.”
Her words seemed to take him aback. “What? No. Not at all.”
“Oh come on, Aidan,” she retorted, unable to believe him.
“Clearly I haven’t acquired as much wisdom as you think I have, because the reason I avoided telling you my age is I thought it would repel you or—how would Sheldon put it—creep you out.” He frowned. “Wait. Is that a saying? It sounds odd.”
“It’s a saying,” she confirmed, her dismay lightening a little with amusement.
“How long have you lived in North Carolina?” he asked.
She frowned at the change in subject. “Twelve years.”
“Where did you live before that?”
“Oklahoma.”
“In all my time on earth, I’ve never been to Oklahoma,” he told her. “Does my lack of knowledge regarding that state make you think less of me?”
“No, but that isn’t the same thing.”
“If the two of us went to Oklahoma, would showing me around seem like a chore to you?”
“Of course not. But that isn’t—”
“It is the same thing,” he told her. “And the fact that you think the difference in our ages should bother me more than it does you is a clear indication that I haven’t learned as much as you think I have. Because I thought the opposite would be true.”
She bit her lip. “Our age difference really doesn’t bother you?”
He smiled. “The only thing that ever bothered me about it was the fear that you might declare me a decrepit old geezer when you found out.”
She laughed. “That is one thing you will never be, Aidan.”
He grinned.
Three thousand years. Sorrow filled her as she recalled something she’d learned the first time she had read his palm. “You’ve lived almost three thousand years and you’ve never married?”
He shrugged. “I never found a woman I felt comfortable sharing my differences with. Never found anyone I loved enough to risk it. Not until I met you.”
Her heart ached for him. “So you’ve been alone all this time?”
“I’ve had Seconds and my immortal brethren.”
It wasn’t enough.
Closing the distance between them, she brushed his hands aside so she could stand between his thighs, wrap her arms around him, and hold him close. “I’m so glad my name was on that list you stole.”
Releasing a contented sigh, he slid his arms around her and buried his face in the crook of her neck. “I am, too.”
Branches snapped and fallen leaves crackled beneath David’s big boots as he strode through dense forest.
The usual night sounds serenaded him. Insects buzzed. Frogs croaked and twanged, sounding alternately like growling belches and plucked guitar strings. Wings flapped far above him as an owl rode the breeze, seeking prey to fill its belly. And somewhere off to his left, a large opossum foraged through the brush.
The trees thinned ahead of David.
Stepping out of the forest, he crossed a paved road that no longer saw traffic. Two years of inactivity and no care had evoked quite a change in it. Weeds grew out of cracks in the pavement. Others thrived along the road’s edge, obscuring the border as they crept toward the road’s center, attempting to rendezvous with the weeds on the other side.
The twisted, rusted remains of a gate folded outward in a permanent bow, courtesy of the grenades that had blown it open.
David passed between the two sides, noting the No Trespassing sign each now boasted.
The signs themselves might not discourage curious ne’er-do-wells from exploring the former mercenary compound, but the network guards who monitored the place via hidden surveillance cameras would.
He walked past the remains of buildings that bore scorch marks and jagged holes between the vines that slithered up their walls. Broken windows watched like vacant eyes that revealed interiors damaged by the elements.
In the distance, a lone, dark figure stood in the center of a slab of blackened, weed-strewn asphalt that marked the place where an armory had once stood.
David had known he would find Seth there. The Immortal Guardians’ leader often came to this place of loss when he was troubled. And after the day he’d had, Seth no doubt needed a moment to gather his thoughts.
Head bowed, Seth said nothing when David joined him.
Minutes passed.
“Anything?” David asked softly, referring not to Seth’s hunt for Gershom but to what Seth sought every time he came here.
Seth shook his head. “Nothing.”
David had known it would be thus. The loss of Yuri and Stanislav had hit Seth hard.
It had hit them all hard.
But for Seth, the uncertainty—the not knowing absolutely what had happened to Stanislav, not seeing him fall, never encountering his spirit—had made the loss all the worse because Seth couldn’t quite abandon hope that Stanislav had somehow survived.
“How long to you intend to search for him?” David asked, no criticism in the question.
Seth turned his gaze to the decimated compound around them. “Until I know for certain he is gone.”
David offered no objection. “Gershom eluded you and Zach again.”
“Yes.”
Gershom was proving to be a far more formidable foe than they had anticipated, which made him wonder just how long the Other had been plotting and planning and building his strength.
Far longer than his brethren realized, it would seem.
“The Others tried to aid us in our pursuit,” Seth said.
David had hoped they would. Even the Others couldn’t ignore the chaos Gershom was breeding and wanted him brought to heel as much as the Immortal Guardians did.
“They followed the same pattern they did before,” Seth went on, “scattering themselves around the globe and teleporting from place to place, hoping they would land in Gershom’s general vicinity and be able to hold him until Zach and I could get there. But Gershom was expecting as much and used it against us.”
“How so?”
“He teleported to the Others’ home.”
Surprise gripped David. And very little surprised him after such a lengthy life. “He did? Were any of the Others still there?”
“One, who was caught off guard and easily defeated.”
“Defeated, but not killed?”
“Yes.”
At least Gershom hadn’t lost all his sanity.
“Gershom was already gone when Zach and I tracked him there. But there were so many energy trails leading from the place as a result of the Others teleporting out to try to help us that we couldn’t discern which one was his and lost him despite trying all damned day and most of tonight to locate him.”
“That was ingenious.”
“And unexpected. The Others have vowed they won’t make the same mistake again.”
“At least there is that.” But David knew such provided Seth with little solace.
“The bastard posed as me, David.”
“I know.”
“And he did it so well that even Ethan didn’t know it wasn’t me until Gershom made the mistake of harming Cliff.”
David nodded, finding the news beyond troubling. “He must have been studying you for years. Every movement. Every mannerism. Every inflection in your voice.”
“As Étienne would say, that shit is creepy.”
David laughed. “Very much so.”
“I just wish I understood why he hates me so much,” Seth proclaimed with a sort of helpless bafflement.
“Perhaps Jared was right. Perhaps Gershom simply resents the fact that, while the Others have been merely observing life for thousands of years, you’ve been living it.”
“Well, if that’s the case, I wish to hell he had just defected like me and Zach.”
David shrugged. “Or perhaps he’s insane.”
“I’m not sure which would be worse.”
Frogs continued to croak and twang. Crickets chirped. Insects hummed.
“You need to talk to Aidan,” David offered softly.
“I know. I want him to get some rest first. He isn’t hunting tonight, is he?”
“No. He and Dana are both sleeping. And I ordered all the other immortals in the area to stand down and take the night off.”
“Good. You called a meeting?”
“Sunset.”
Seth nodded. “I’ll be sure to talk to Aidan before then.”
David locked his hands behind his back as the sky began to brighten with approaching dawn. “The day was a long one. The night, too.”
Seth sent him a wry smile, at last meeting his gaze. “Yes, it was.”
“According to Darnell, the internet is all abuzz.”
Seth sighed. “Full of exclamations of dismay upon discovering that Gershom may be as powerful as I am? Whispered fears that he may triumph?”
David waved a hand in dismissal. “No. They’re all confident you will defeat him.”
Seth’s face lit with surprise. “Really?”
“Of course.”
“Then what’s all the chatter about?”
Amusement stole away some of David’s concern. “Every Immortal Guardian on the planet is sharing the jaw-dropping news that Aidan’s woman kissed their illustrious leader.”
His friend’s face acquired a comical, pained look. “Seriously?”
“Yes.”
“Even the men?”
“Even the men.”
Seth shook his head. “With everything that’s happened in the past few days, you’d think that wouldn’t have even made the headlines.”
David laughed. “Of course it made the headlines. You’re not just their leader, their commanding officer. You’re a father figure to them. And they just found out that their daddy kissed a woman.”
Seth groaned. “No wonder my phone has gone silent. I thought they were all just dismayed over my having failed to capture Gershom again.”
David grinned. “Your phone hasn’t gone silent. I asked Chris to divert your calls to Zach after he returned. If anyone can quash their curiosity and get them to leave you alone, he can. Particularly since he’s cranky over Gershom slipping away.”
Seth’s lips curled up in a wry smile. “I’m sure he can.”
“And will enjoy doing so far too much,” David guessed. “But at least it will give you some quiet time.”
“Thank you.”
“Dana may not fare so well though,” David said. “I’m sure the female immortals and Seconds will pepper her with questions at the earliest opportunity.”
Again Seth groaned. “Poor woman. You see now why I don’t date.”
David knew well why Seth didn’t date. And it had nothing to do with Immortal Guardian family gossip.
The owl David had heard earlier abruptly dove down and plucked a field mouse from the weeds near the abandoned airplane hangar.
David cast Seth a sidelong glance. “So?”
He didn’t have to say more for Seth to know what he wondered.
Seth looked up at the sky. “Thousands of years, and I still can’t kiss another woman without feeling as though I’m betraying her.”
That came as no surprise. David knew Seth still mourned the death of his wife and the deaths of their children.
“You know she wouldn’t have wanted this,” he said gently.
That sparked another wry smile. “I’m not so sure. She was a jealous woman.”
David chuckled. “And you weren’t a jealous husband?”
Seth’s smile widened.
David shook his head. “She loved you, Seth. She wouldn’t have wanted you to be alone all this time.”
Seth shrugged. “I’m not alone.”
David opted to let that pass, recognizing it as the evasion it was. In the thousands of years since his wife had been slain, Seth had taken no wives, had no girlfriends, no one-night stands, no intimacy of any kind with a woman.
Having experienced such a loss himself, David couldn’t really blame him.
“So you felt nothing then,” he asked Seth curiously, “when Dana kissed you?”
Seth snorted. “I felt guilty as hell for kissing Aidan’s woman right in front of him, I can tell you that.”
David laughed. “After what she did to Jared, I think you’d best mind your manners around her in the future.”
Seth laughed. “She’s a fighter. Zach is still chuckling over that.”
“I’m sure he is.”
A breeze set the weeds and grasses around them into motion. The trees beyond the perimeter fence swayed, their leaves brushing together and creating soothing swishing sounds.
“When will it be time to move on, Seth?”
Seth returned his stare to the blackened asphalt beneath his boots.
“How many more years of mourning will be enough?” And how long would the thought of being with another woman fill the Immortal Guardians’ leader with guilt?
Seth responded with a slow shake of his head. “I don’t know.”
It was the same answer he always gave when David broached the subject.
“You were wed once, too,” Seth murmured. “How long did it take you to get past losing your wife?”
Pain pierced David. “I’ll let you know when that day comes.” As in so many ways, he and Seth were the same in this. “I still think of her every day.”
“As do I.”
David tucked his hands in his pockets and sighed. “Well, I guess for a while longer then we shall remain what Chris has deemed us.”
Seth’s face lightened with a smile. “A couple of old farts who would rather read a good book than learn how to troll the internet for women?”
David laughed. “Just so.”
Skillet’s “Monster” blared from Seth’s pocket.
David felt a stab of concern as he watched him retrieve his phone. The only calls that should be coming through now were those that could not be ignored and couldn’t be handled by Zach.
“Yes?” Seth answered.
“Seth, it’s Alena Moreno.” Head of the West Coast division of the network. “I need to see you again. I have some new information, and it’s disturbing.”
Seth met David’s gaze. “I shall be there shortly.”
He ended the call and returned his phone to his pocket. “Monster” again disturbed the quiet.
His brow furrowing, Seth answered the call. “Yes?”
“Seth. Scott Henderson.” Head of the Midwest division of the network. “I need to see you. The sooner the better.”
This couldn’t be good.
“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” Seth told him and slid his phone back into his pocket. “Good thing you called a meeting.”
David nodded. “Looks like we’ll have more to discuss than I’d thought.”