As Kyle and Serina got in the car, I got out my cell phone to text Mike. I sent him a message saying that I had the book, the cost was on his tab, and that two strangers had attacked us to try and steal the book.
Kyle started the car and drove to the exit of the parking lot. Serina put some slow instrumental jazz on the car radio, perhaps thinking I needed further calming down.
My phone rang, and I saw it was Mike calling.
"Hello?" I said, picking it up.
"Hey." Mike's voice sounded concerned. "Are you alright? Are you somewhere safe? Two on one isn't exactly a fair fight…"
"It's not that bad." I told him. "I am in the back of Kyle's car right now. Oh, and we have Serina here too. So, it was actually three on two, in our favour."
He chuckled at that. "You young people are pretty wild!"
"Yeah."
"But seriously, I don't know where you are heading right now, but I think you should meet with me. All three of you should drive, meet me and hand over the book. That way, hopefully, strangers will stop attacking you for it. Plus, I think there is something going on that's way bigger than the three of you could imagine. "
"What do you mean, there is something going on that is way bigger than we can imagine?"
"Listen, I don't want to tell you over the phone. I will tell you all, in person. Don't drive to my house, it is too dangerous. They might have another ambush waiting for you here."
"What!" I exclaimed with such surprise, that Kyle put his signal on and pulled off onto the side of the road. He turned around in his seat to look at me.
"I want you to meet me at a family restaurant just off the highway…"
Mike explained to me a rough set of directions based off where I told him we were, and I even memorized the address before he hung up.
"What exactly was all that?" Kyle asked me.
I explained to them both all I knew: all that Mike had said over the phone and how he wanted us to meet him and where.
"Alright." Kyle said in a serious voice. "We will go meet him. But before we hand anything over to anyone, Mike has some serious explaining to do."
"Is that all right with you?" I asked Serina.
"Yep." She said, "I agree with Kyle. Also, if he tries anything it will be three against one. It is better to get it all over with now, instead of you meeting him by yourself later on."
Because of the Saturday late morning traffic, we arrived at the small family restaurant about ten minutes later than we expected to.
I undid my seat belt and opened my door, holding my purse close to my body, even though the strap was still across my body.
In my current line of vision, Kyle appeared. He offered me his hand. He pulled me up, out of the car and into a standing position.
"Jump up on my back." He said, turning and crouching low so I could easily hop on. "Let's go get this thing over with."
He locked the car, pocketed his keys, and clasped his hands behind him to give me extra support.
Serina double- checked that the car door was locked and then walked alongside Kyle to the front door. Serina held it open for Kyle and I.
Once inside, we told the lady who was seating people that we were expecting someone else and wanted to look around to see if he was there.
I spotted Mike at a booth, reading a newspaper. "He's right there." I pointed in his direction.
Kyle and Serina walked up to the table.
Mike looked up. His expression looked surprised for a moment. Whether it was my face or the fact that Kyle was piggy- backing me, I did not know.
"Hello everyone."
"Hey, Mike." I said.
"I am interested to know; but am too polite to ask, about what happened to your face."
"Put me down, please, Kyle. Let's have a seat." I said ignoring Mike's comment.
Kyle let me down, and he and Serina slid into the empty booth on one side and I made a shooing motion with my hand at Mike. He slid over and I sat beside him.
"So," I began, "What exactly is this all about?"
Mike shoved his newspaper messily to the edge of the table, near the wall.
"I think we should all order something to eat, as cover and to give the restaurant a reason not to kick us out. After we have all ordered, we can talk."
Just then, a waitress appeared, introduced herself, handed us menus and took our drink orders.
I thought about taking the book out of my purse, I wanted to look at it. I felt a burning curiosity as to what made this book so special. But, seated as I was beside Mike, I wasn't sure he wouldn't snatch it. It was technically his book after all.
"So, how much did it cost, this item we bring you?" I asked him.
"More than you could ever know." Mike answered gravely.
'Being cryptic today, are we?' I thought, as I tried to read Mike's expression.
"And here we are ladies and gentlemen." The waitress said as she stopped at our booth and handed us our drinks. "Do we all know what we would like to order?"
I nodded. We placed our food order and she left again.
"Alright." I said, "It's time to answer some questions."
"The book, although old, is not a rare volume." Mike said. "The value lies in how it is different from all the other copies."
"What exactly do you mean?" Serina asked, narrowing her eyes at him.
"This copy is the only one belonging to a criminal who was recently brought to justice, for a number of crimes including kidnapping, theft, money laundering and murder of a minor. Rumor has it that there is hidden within its covers, clues to where she hid some of the royal treasure. Some even think it documents where the remains of the girl of royal blood lies."
"Why are you so interested in that copy then?" I asked, "If you say you are treasure hunting, I am going to give you a black eye to match mine!"
"First of all, you and I know the only way you could do that is if I let you." Mike said dismissively.
He taught me my fighting skills as well as practiced with me.
"Secondly, my interests are not so shallow as all that. But if I did recover the stolen property, then I would return it to the family."
He sighed. "But it is still personal, all the same. A long time ago, I worked for that family. The are the last of the royal bloodline of the shapeshifters…"
"Wait! I'm sorry, what?" I asked in shock. "Is that even a thing?"
"Yes." He answered me. "But I never told you about it because it never seemed important to anything we covered."
"Hmm." Was all I said.
"So, I was employed by the family to teach their children. They were all too young to learn to shift, so I taught them the regular grade school basics. One day, I took the children out for a little field- trip but things went bad."
"Although I didn't realize it at the time, I was falling into a trap, we all were. The youngest daughter was kidnapped that day, while she was technically under my care. Even the guards with me didn't see it coming. We had our attention diverted and then there was a distraction, and then when I thought to check on her, she was gone."
"I was so upset. I blamed myself, and so did her parents. They fired me from my job, and officially renounced me from the position as the girl's godfather. They also separated me from the other children I taught, and I never got to say goodbye to any of them. It was a terrible day."
"After that, they made sure everyone knew that I was unfit for my job, and so all the years of schooling came to nothing as I was not allowed to teach another shifter child again. I taught human grade schoolers for a long time, until your parents gave me the chance to teach you, Sam."
"I am really lucky they did. I was sure that all my qualifications would just go to rot and ruin."