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Tabora nodded and took out her phone. “I’ll be off shift in a few hours, but I’ll pass this on to someone before I go if I need to. We’ll keep you updated with the truth, Sneaks.”
Now that his brother was safe, all the fight had gone out of Sneaks. Joe patted his arm. “Let’s go find an office. Do I need to use the cuffs?”
Sneaks shook his head. “I’ll go with you. I just wanted Gogo to be okay.”
It wasn’t long before Joe and Sneaks sat in someone’s office. Joe didn’t go behind the desk. Instead, he sat in the visitor chair across from where the kid sat. “Okay. First off, who do you need to call?”
Sneaks looked up at him with a question in his eyes. “Call?”
“Parents? Whoever you stay with?”
Sneaks shook his head with a shrug. “Never knew my dad. My mother took off a while back with some loser.”
“You staying with anyone? Couch surfing?”
“Surfing mostly. The Roamers have a couple of places.”
“Is that why you joined up? To have a place with your brother?”
He nodded. “I wasn’t letting them separate us.”
Joe knew all too well how the foster care system worked. His parents had been killed when Joe was sixteen and Tansy only twelve. Joe’s best buddy’s parents were foster parents and had taken them in. They’d been very lucky. Not every kid had the same luck. “How old are you Sneaks? How old is Gogo?”
“I’m seventeen. Gogo turned thirteen last month. Everyone thinks we’re older ‘cause we’re tall, so no one gives us any hassle about being on our own.”
And likely no one noticed. There had been an adult and a home at one time, so the school likely just kept using that data even though it was no longer valid.
“Is the doctor lady, Lia, is she going to be okay?”
“I wish I knew.” Because she was one fierce lady with fabulous eyes and balls of steel. The look of absolute devastation on her face as she’d stared at her injured hand had nearly broken Joe’s heart. “I’ll find out more later.”
“What’s going to happen to me?”
The question of the hour. “I don’t know Georgia law that well. I’m from California and just got called in to help.”
Sneaks frowned. “You’re not a local cop?”
“I’m an FBI agent.”
Sneaks’ face paled. “FBI? I’m in serious shit. What’s going to happen to Gogo? He’s got nobody but me. He’s going to be scared shitless when he wakes up in a hospital where he doesn’t know anyone.”
Joe’s heart broke a little more. Sneaks had done a really stupid thing, but he wasn’t a bad kid. Sounded like life had handed him and his brother a truly shitty deal.
“I’m going to try to find out the answers to a few of our questions. Because of the circumstances, I’m going to leave a guard on the door, but I’m trusting you not to do anything stupid from here on out, got it?”
Sneaks nodded. “Can you find out when Gogo should wake up? And if I could see him for a bit. It’d be better if I explained things so he’s not so scared. Please?”
Joe nodded and stood up. No matter what he’d done, this boy had a good heart underneath it all. “I’ll do what I can, Sneaks. I don’t know how long I’ll be gone right now. There’s a lot of people to talk to. Make good choices.”
Sneaks nodded. It was a phrase Joe’s parents had used a lot. And Nico’s parents too. He needed to find the local version of Manny and Lisa Rivera, foster parents of the highest order.
Sneaks and Gogo were going to need at least one local adult in their corner.
Chapter 3
On A Break
Three months later
