“Sounds like it.” Bubbling excitement rose inside her with every word he said, and it was all she could do to keep herself from dancing in place. “Maybe I’ll call him and set up an interview once my month is done here. That is, if I eventually come to the conclusion that I’m not going to stay at House Of Payne long-term.”
“That’s exactly what you’re going to conclude,” he assured her. “Trust me, I know these things.”
Her eyes narrowed even as she carefully tucked the card into the same pocket holding Badtz-Maru. “You know, Luke, someday you’re going to run into someone you think you’ve got all figured out, only to realize that person’s turned the tables on you and has actually snowed you up the wazoo.”
“Maybe,” he shrugged, looking so doubtful he seemed to be on the verge of laughing. “But you’re not that person, and today is not that day. I’ll tell Cap to expect your call at some point in June.”
*
The problem with long weekends was that they came to an end, Loki thought, finally heading down the stairs and waving to Sunny and Ice as they headed out for the night. Today had been one ass-dragging drudgery after another. His first client had been a whiner about the pain of getting a tattoo and wanted to know if there was an alternative to using a needle to do it.
His second client had been no better. The guy had brought in artwork he’d done himself, was clearly very proud of it, and proceeded to be the worst backseat driver—or, more accurately, backseat artist—that Loki had ever dealt with.
The one thing that kept him going was the promise that he’d see Alice at the end of his shift. Just the thought of bundling her into the car and driving home with her filled him with such a warm feeling he almost didn’t recognize himself. But that was cool. The feeling was too good to reject, too strong to be denied, and he’d do whatever it took to keep it in his life.
“Hey, Chantal.” Loki tried not to blink when the young shopworker jumped and nearly dropped the merchandise she was busily cramming onto shelves. “Things are looking better in here. How’re you doing?”
“Loki, hi. I, uh… I’m fine.” Her eyes did a nervous sweep of the place before she released a gusty sigh. “Actually, I’m not fine. Thanks to what happened last week, I’m now convinced that every person who walks in here is going to blow us all away.”
“Hate to say it, kid, but that has always been the case, it’s always going to be the case, and it’s not just something that could happen here. You could get blown away anywhere, at any time. The trick is not to let that scare you away from living your life.”
He doubted she could have looked more horrified. “How are you supposed to do that?”
“You do it by remembering all those days where absolutely nothing happened and you were bored out of your fucking skull. On balance, what does that tell you?”
Chantal shook her head. “What?”
“It tells you that generally speaking, the good shit in life outweighs the bad. And coming from me, that’s saying something.”
“I guess.” From her frown, he could tell she wasn’t entirely convinced before she tilted her head toward a door behind the counter. “Alice is in there with a junior Al Capone who tried to boost a box of condoms. He’s twelve.”
“I don’t know why I’m impressed by that, but I am.” With a nod of thanks, Loki headed around the counter and slipped through the door. He almost bumped into one of the security agents—Loki thought his name might be Steele—before he focused on the scene before him.
The room itself was small, windowless and totally white-washed, even the floor. There was just enough room for a small desk and a couple uncomfortable-looking chrome chairs, one of which was occupied by a kid with a downbent head and curly black hair falling into his eyes. Alice, facing the kid while leaning back on the desk, flicked a glance his way before refocusing on the kid.
“You seem to think that I’m only talking to you because I’ve got your best interests at heart, and that I care about the path your life is on right now,” she said while Loki made himself comfortable against the wall beside Steele. “That’s where you’re wrong, kid. I don’t know you. I don’t care about how you could be doing something better with your life than stealing condoms. Why would I go out of my way to scare you straight? I’m not bothering to come up with lies in order to scare you about what’s going to happen to you now that you’ve broken the law. I’m just telling you the truth.”
It was all Loki could do to keep from snorting out loud. Ha. Anyone with half a brain could see Alice had just lied through her teeth. She’d turn the world upside-down to help this kid out, and she wasn’t going to leave until she’d found a way to reach him.
“The truth is that when I call the police to pick you up, they’re going to basically mark you forever as a bad guy with a record. That bad-guy record’s going to follow you until the day you die. And for what? A box of condoms? Your voice hasn’t even changed. You’re not shaving yet. I doubt you’ve even had your first acne breakout. Do you even know what condoms are?”
“I know,” the boy muttered sullenly, and Loki could only shake his head at the high-pitched voice. Kid still sounded like a fucking toddler.
“Yeah? Who taught you about condoms? This guy?” Alice reached behind her and plucked up a laptop. Loki caught only a glimpse of an image as she turned it around to show it to the boy, but Loki saw enough to recognize it was a shot of the sidewalk outside House Of Payne. “See this kid standing around with his hands in his pockets, looking all nervous outside by the front door? Take a close look,” she invited, holding the laptop closer, but the boy turned his head and refused to acknowledge Alice’s existence. “There’s a definite family resemblance going on here. Same curly black hair, same eyebrows, same dimple on the chin. Gotta love the high-res cameras House Of Payne has around here. Not only did we get excellent images of you stealing something you’re too young to use, we also got this guy. This older boy right here, who never even came inside to look for you when you didn’t come out again. It looks like he just got tired of waiting and took off.”
That got the kid’s attention. His gaze jerked back to Alice while devastation clearly rolled through him. “He left?”
“Yes, Mal. He left.” Alice turned the laptop around so she could type on it for a minute, then turned it back to the kid. “Here’s the footage. Timewise, he waited around for about half an hour before taking off. As you can see, he never even bothered to come inside to look for you, or to see if you needed his help. He landed you in all this trouble, and then he just…left.”
“He left me.” The boy, Mal, watched the screen with such a shattered expression it was all Loki could do to stop himself from going out to find the little assclown who put this poor kid up to steal fucking condoms for him. “I can’t believe he left me.”
“He did,” With a sigh, Alice set the laptop down. “And because he seems to be the real bad guy and not you, I’ve just decided to not call the police. Instead, we’re going to call your parents or guardians. They’ll punish the both of you far more than the police ever could.”