Page 91 of Death is Familiar

A face flashed in my mind. My unease magnified. The child in the lobby.

I just passed a kid... By themselves. A kid that looked lost.

None of my business. Not my problem.

I mean, she probably wasn’t alone. She was probably just waiting for someone who lived in the building. Maybe she did live here, and the look she’d given me was because of the scar on my face… even though my instincts had told me otherwise.

She’s fine. Everything was fine. She was none of my business. She really wasn’t. I was just operating on high alert, seeing problems that weren’t there.

Just as the elevator doors opened on the fifth floor, I hit the button to return to the lobby.

Damn it.

One quick check. That’s all I needed. If she wasn’t in the lobby when I got down, the issue would have sorted itself. If there was even an issue to begin with. Yes, that was it, one quick check and I’d see an empty lobby, then I could proceed with my day as planned and⁠—

Crap, the girl was still in the lobby. And she didn’t look any less lost.

Well, now I had to do something about it. Maybe it was my passenger-carrying status, but I just didn’t have it in me to be a willing bystander.

Exiting the elevator, I was hit with a sudden wave of dread. My vision shook. A ghost rain pattered against my skin, mud caked beneath me. The last time I involved myself in someone else’s business was with the Almeidas and I was beaten within an inch of my life. What if this child was a lure? Some trick to get me to fall into a trap?

Or, I reminded myself, there could be nothing wrong, and I was just approaching a child to offer them help.

Alone. And I was a stranger. With a prison record.

This was bad. This was not going to plan. I should have kept my nose in my own business, but that was not the way I was wired. How was I supposed to talk to this kid without being weird?

Oh god. This was a bad idea…

“Hi.” I stopped at a respectable distance, and gave the most awkward wave I’d ever given in my life. “I’m sure you’re fine, or waiting for someone, but something told me I should check if you were lost. Are you lost?”

“No.”

“Oh, okay,” See? Nothing to worry about. “Wonderful, I’ll⁠—”

“I’m where I’m supposed to be. I’m in the right place, but don’t know where to go.”

So… lost. I said as much out loud.

She looked at me with defiance, her little nose turned up in the air. “No, I’m in the right building.” She had confidence, I had to give her that.

“But…”

Shifting her weight between her feet, she paused a moment before speaking words so soft I almost didn’t hear her. “I can’t remember where he lives.”

Alarm bells rang inside my head. “Where… who… lives?”

Avoiding eye contact, she twisted her foot on the floor. The alarm bells grew louder. The agents left me alone for five minutes, five, and I already found trouble. I hoped to all hope that she wasn’t here to meet a stranger she met on the internet.

“Did someone message you to meet them here?”

“What?!” Anger and embarrassment flashed in her eyes. “No! My dad!”

Relief washed over me. “Oh, thank god, why didn’t you start with that?”

“You’re a stranger! Stranger danger much?” Me and the child stared at each other.

Then I remembered that I was the adult here. “Fair. Okay, well sorry for scaring you, strange child.” Strange child? Oh, this was going swimmingly. “But since you are sure that your father lives here, and there is no possible way you could have the wrong building, I’ll stop bothering you.”