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She shakes her head no, her eyes wide in surprise.
The kid keeps staring at me like he’s waiting for me to invite him in and show him his bedroom.
My heart is about to burst.
I feel like punching a hole in the wall.
“Look, kid,” I say sternly, “I don’t know who set you up to do this, but you need to call your parents or guardians or whoever and go back home before I call the cops.”
“Adam,” Nova says softly.
It’s a warning.
A caution.
I don’t freaking want to hear it.
A phone starts buzzing.
The kid lifts his cell out of his pocket and shows it to me. “It’s my mom.”
I refuse to accept the phone. I feel like I’m in a horror movie and it’s at the part where the television is showing static, a ghost just moved a curtain in the corner and now the phone is ringing off the hook.
The kid shakes the phone intently.
The name on the screen reads ‘mom’.
“Do you want me to take it?” Dejonae asks, her brown eyes clawing into my face.
I release a shaky breath. “Sazuki, can you do me a favor? Can you take the kid to the station and get to the bottom of this?”
Sazuki dips his head.
I turn away. Since I’ve made a bit of money, I’ve been on the receiving end of a few elaborate scams. Mostly charities that turned out tonotactually exist. It’s why I have Nova do the investigations before I give any sum of money…
Not that I’ll have Nova to rely on in the future.
My blood pressure rises again. I close my eyes and try to keep breathing.
“I don’t need to go to the station,” the kid says. “You’re my dad.”
I whirl around, my temper spiking. “Listen you little—”
A calming hand appears in front of me. It’s Nova. She places a gentle touch on the middle of my stomach and gives me a ‘don’t dive off the deep end’ glance.
My nostrils flare, but listening to her is a habit and I can’t kick it that fast. I curl my anger back, wrap some self-restraint around it, and pin my lips shut.
“Who told you that he’s your dad?” Nova asks the kid in a quiet voice.
“My mom.”
“What’s your mom’s name?”
“Alexa Vaughn,” he says smartly.
A bell starts ringing in my head and it’s not a pleasant sound.
Nova twists her neck and looks up at me. She reads my face in an instant. “You know her.”
