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“The drone, Mama. You remember.” He didn’t look up from coloring.

I continued to fill in a space cowboy’s hat with a gray crayon, waiting.

“I remember the drone earlier. I’m sorry it was so scary,” she said.

He glanced up. “I wasn’t scared.”

“What do you mean when you said another drone? Have you seen one before?” she asked.

“Yeah.” He glanced up again. “Last week, I looked out my window and I saw it in the sky.”

“You saw a drone at nighttime?” she asked.

“That would’ve been hard to see,” Paloma said neutrally.

“It was. But I saw it going back and forth in lines. It was a drone.”

I cleared my throat. “Hey, Brady?”

He faced me.

“When you notice something like that, can you please tell me? Or your mother? Even Paloma.”

His lips dipped down. “Did I do something bad?”

“No,” I said. “You didn’t. But sometimes, bad people might use those because they want to… do bad things.”

“That’s why it’s important to tell us,” Louisa said. “So we can know what to do.”

“Is that why we live here?” he asked. “Because bad people were by our apartment?”

Louisa opened and closed her mouth, seeming caught with not knowing what to say to that.

I moved my free hand to her thigh and placed it there. Squeezing once, I gave her the cue to let me handle this. Paloma and Brady couldn’t see my hand, anyway.

“Bad people were by your apartment,” I told him. I was creeping closer to the dangerous territory of explaining more details that we’d so far skimmed over. He’d been curious when they first stayed here, but we didn’t tell him too much. Just that we’d be staying here for a while due to a ‘little problem’ at his mother’s workplace. As a five-year-old with a seemingly endless curiosity, he’d taken those replies and left it alone. Now, it seemed he was determined to know more.

“But Nikolai took care of it,” Louisa said.

I had also taken care of that other guy who broke in. I’d “take care” of every issue that could come up.

“Are you a police officer?” he asked.

I shook my head. “I’m a manager,” I told him, sticking with the former line I gave him. “And part of that job includes protecting people. Like you and your mom.”

He scrunched his face. “Like a security guard?”

I nodded. “What would you think of not living here but somewhere else?” I asked.

“With my mama?” he asked.

“Of course!” Paloma said with a laugh. “Me too!”

“Really?” He grinned at her before facing me again. “Do you have another big house?”

“I do. And I would really like it if you and your mother could go there with me tonight.” I stroked my thumb on Louisa’s thigh, reassuring her in case this news was a shocker for her, too.

“Would I get my own room?” he asked.