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A scrap of rock broke free under my clutching fingers and slipped from my grasp. It tumbled onto the stairs with a soft rattling. Douglas’s head jerked up, and I yanked mine down. I held there, lungs clenched, praying he hadn’t seenme.
“Hello?” he called. When I didn’t answer, he let out a huff of breath. “Damnedsquirrels.”
I didn’t move again until the sound of his footsteps had retreated beyond myhearing.
Chapter Seventeen
Rose
Damon was waiting in the thin evening light by one of the last houses at the edge of town. When he saw me coming, he flicked the glowing butt of his cigarette into the gutter. He didn’t say anything, just lifted his shoulder in aLet’s gogesture and started walking down the country road that passed Master Cortland’s property about five minutes outsidetown.
I fell into step behind him on the narrow shoulder. A hint of nicotine smell wafted off him, mingling with the battered leather scent of his ever-present jacket. The gravel rattled under our feet. I shrugged my own jacket, thin and cotton, tighter around me against the cool dampness of thebreeze.
The other guys were waiting to meet up with us after, but we’d figured for a quick in and out mission, it didn’t make sense for everyone tocome.
I felt a little awkward just walking in silence and looking at Damon’s leather-clad back. I weighed my words, wondering how to start a conversation without hitting on a sore spotaccidentally.
“You said you were working today,” I went with finally. “What kind of work are you doing thesedays?”
Damon made a scoffing sound. “Not anything you’d approve of,angel.”
The nickname should have been sweet, but the way he said it made it sound like an insult. I glowered at his back. “I don’t think you know what I’d approve of. You’ve hardly talked to me at all since I’ve gottenback.”
“How much do you really think we have in common to talk about? You’re off in that big house with everyone catering to you… Most of us don’t have lives likethat.”
“I know,” I said. Even I didn’t exactly have a life like that. But I wasn’t going to argue that mine hadn’t been a lot easier than Damon’s. “That doesn’t mean I don’t want to hear what you’ve beenthrough.”
He kicked at a larger pebble. “Which part? Watching my mom get beaten down trying to find work so she could put food on the table for me? Getting kicked out of school? Fencing stolen goods to make endsmeet?”
“All of it, I guess.” My curiosity was stirred now. “Is that what you do? Stealstuff?”
He made a noncommittal sound. “You watched me pick my way past a lock yesterday, didn’t you? Some of us don’t have a whole lot of choices. We do what we haveto.”
I wouldn’t have pictured the boy I’d grown up with considering stealing his only option. “Who do you stealfrom?” I couldn’t helpasking.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’m not casing your joint. I don’t even do most of the actual stealing. There’s a guy who brings stuff to a warehouse, and I help with the… distribution, I guess you could say. But maybe if I make a good enough impression, I can move up. Get out of this freakin’ town. Get my mom outtoo.”
He put on this whole show of not caring what anyone thought, but he clearly cared about her. And he must have cared at least a little about me, or he wouldn’t have been here doing thisfavor.
“Iamsorry,” I said. “For how things went after we left for Portland. Your mom deserved better thanthat.”
“Yeah,” Damon muttered. “She did.” Then, after a pause, he added, “I know you didn’t have anything to do withthat.”
Just hearing him admit it felt like a major victory. I drew up beside him as we reached Master Cortland’s property. It was easy enough to hop chain-link. Damon landed first and offered me his hand, but I ignored it and jumped down on my own. The corner of his lips quirkedup.
“Still don’t like to admit you could use a hand,huh?”
I raised my eyebrows at him. “Look who’stalking.”
That shut him up as we crossed the yard to the back door. He pulled out the metal picks from the cloth case he was carrying and knelt down by thekeyhole.
“You don’t really need to be here, you know,” he said as he adjusted the rods. His eyes narrowed with concentration. “No point in you getting the heat if we getcaught.”
“You’re only here because of me,” I said. “It’d hardly be fair if you got in trouble and I didn’t.Ican take responsibility for my decisions, even if my family doesn’t seem to have the greatest track record there.” I glanced around, watching for headlights along the darkening road. “Anyway, there might be something in the compartment Seth found that he didn’t realize was significant and Iwould.”
Damon hummed under his breath with what could have been agreement or skepticism—it was hard to tell. Then the lock clicked over. He pulled the door open and swept his arm for me to enter ahead of him. “Ladiesfirst?”
“Why thank you,” I said, with as much elegance as Philomena could have mustered. Which actually wasn’t that much, given her temperament. Elegance wasn’t really her style. As Damon closed the door behind us, I hurried to the front hall by thestaircase.
