“Anything you don’t like?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “I’ll eat anything.”
“So what happens now? You gonna patch me up, feed me, and send me back?”
“I’m gonna feed you, and you’re going to tell me about your mom and stepdad so I can do some digging. You’ve been here since you broke in, right?”
His face flushes, but he nods.
“How the fuck did I miss you? I looked up here. Closet?”
“Um…I waited for you to disable the alarm.”
Kruger blinks, then laughs. “You followed me in?”
Theo swallows and nods. “I figured you’d search the place and then give it the all clear and assume kids broke the window.”
“Which I did.”
“I didn’t want to get close to the window because I figured you’d have someone looking at the cameras pointing that way once you realized they were off.”
“You turn them off?”
He shakes his head. “I noticed the lights didn’t blink on them like they did on the others. The ones on the back entrance don’t work either, but I wasn’t sure if the alarm was wired to the apartment like the shop was. Anyway, I followed you in and hid downstairs, waiting for you to check the place out. I heard you on the phone tell someone you were coming back, so I hid upstairs and waited for you to finish, worried you’d decide to crash here for the night.”
“Lucky for you, I had Delphi at home, or I might have.”
“I’ll pay for the window. I just have to get a job. I got fired from the last one when my mom turned up wasted.”
Kruger waves him off. “We’ll work it out later. Let me figure out the food first. Anything you want in particular?” Kruger looks at me.
“I’m easy, but if you have a prospect coming, a hoodie would be great.”
He winks at me and heads for the door, but I can see the strain around his eyes.
“He didn’t know about Samuel?”
I shake my head at Theo’s question, knowing the only way this kid will trust me is if I’m honest with him. “I used to be married to his friend. He died, but not before doing some really bad things to some good people, and for a while, they blamed me too.”
“People are idiots.”
I smirk because that’s something I say often enough myself. “I know.”
“People think I’m a loser because of who my mom and stepdad are. They’ve already decided exactly who I am, which is hilarious because I’m still trying to figure that part out myself.”
“I’ll let you in on a secret, kiddo, I’m still trying to figure that shit out, and I’m thirty.”
He grins before wincing when his lip pulls. He looks toward the door. “Any idea which way this is gonna go? I recognize the patch on his back. I know he’s a Raven Soul. I just don’t know if that’s a good thing for me or not.”
“Depends. You have any ill intent toward any of them?”
“My stepdad wanted to prospect for them a few years ago, but they said no. He didn’t have what it took. I figure if they could tell that even back then, when he hid it better, then they must be smart at least.”
“They are. Doesn’t mean they don’t mess up and make dumb choices sometimes. But then we all do that, don’t we?”
“I guess.”
I lean closer to him. “Maybe don’t mention the gun. I‘ll keep hold of it for now. You got ammo?”
