-myfamilypies- Emma Hix - Secret Agent Step Dad... -

He reached into his jacket. Emma tensed, but he withdrew not a weapon—but a second USB drive. Identical to the one in her boot.

Mark stepped past her, drawing a silenced pistol from his waistband. He gestured toward the fire escape at the end of the hall.

“Next family dinner,” he said, “we’re ordering pizza. No more missions on school nights.” -MyFamilyPies- Emma Hix - Secret Agent Step Dad...

He wasn’t just early. He was looking directly up at her window.

“Because, Emma,” he said, pressing the drive into her hand and closing her fingers around it, “I’ve been a liar, a thief, and a ghost for three decades. But I have never, not once, been late for your mother’s book club. That has to count for something.” He reached into his jacket

Mark Hix, secret agent stepdad, looked at her with the same exasperated fondness he’d worn the time she crashed his car at sixteen.

But the lobby doors downstairs clattered open. Mark stepped past her, drawing a silenced pistol

She paused at the window.