She nodded. “I do. I just wasn’t sure how to handle this and Nathan is less likely to freak out on me.”
“Shit. What have you done now?”
“I haven’t done anything!” she said indignantly. “Well, not exactly.”
“What does ‘not exactly’ mean?” he asked dryly.
She glanced back over her shoulder again and then heaved her shoulders in resignation. “I sort of hired someone to work part time at the hardware store.”
“Sort of? Either you did or you didn’t. And why didn’t I know anything about this? I spoke to Dad earlier and I’m sure he would have mentioned it. So my next question is, does Dad know about this new employee?”
“No,” she muttered. “I haven’t gotten around to telling him yet. But I wasn’t planning to keep it from him! I only just hired the kid yesterday. I’ll pay him out of my own pocket if Frank doesn’t want to hire him.”
Donovan studied Rusty intently. “You said kid. And you sound very passionate about this kid. Mind telling me the whole story?”
“I was going to call Nathan. I said that. I want to follow him home after he gets off.”
Donovan blinked. “You want to do what?”
“He’s in some kind of trouble, Van. I can see it. You don’t understand. It’s like looking at myself when I was that age. He’s scared shitless and he’s hungry and needs the money. He says he doesn’t have parents. Just two sisters he looks out for. Now that’s a hell of a lot of responsibility for a fifteen-year-old kid. I’m worried about him. I wanted to check this family of his out. Make sure he’s not in any danger. But I’m not stupid. I wasn’t planning to go alone. I was going to ask Nathan to go with me. And now you’re here,” she finished lamely.
“And you want me to follow this kid with you to where he lives. What then? Do we just say, ‘Oh, hi! Just wanted to make sure you weren’t being chained in a basement’?”
She shook her head, but her shoulders had relaxed and a smile flirted with the corners of her lips.
“I hadn’t gotten that far in my plan yet. I was hoping Nathan would have an idea. I can’t explain it, Van. I hurt for this kid and I only just met him yesterday. You’d like him. He’s quiet. Very respectful and he’s obviously protective of his sisters. I just want to see if there is anything I can do to help.”
Donovan’s heart softened at the earnestness in her eyes and her impassioned speech. And the hell of it was, he had a huge soft spot for women and kids. Especially kids. It ate at his gut to think of a fifteen-year-old boy living hand to mouth, working part time in a hardware store to support two sisters. Where the hell were his parents?
“I’ll go with you,” he finally said. “But, Rusty, you’re going to do it my way and you’re going to listen to everything I tell you. Got it? Which means you stay behind me at all times, and if I tell you to cut and run or to get down, then you better do exactly that. We have no idea what kind of situation we’re walking into, so I expect you to pay attention.”
She nodded vigorously. “There’s another thing, Van. And I don’t know how to do it without being pushy.”
“You? Pushy?” he mocked.
She rolled her eyes but laughed. “Okay, yeah, I can be pushy. But this is for a good cause! The kid is hungry. And if he’s hungry I can only assume his sisters are as hungry as he is. I bought him a burger for lunch yesterday and he scarfed it down in about three bites. So today I got a burger for him, but he didn’t eat it. He didn’t want me to know he hadn’t eaten it. He hid it and is saving it. My guess is he’s bringing it home for his sisters to eat. And that kills me, Van. I was that hungry once. It’s why I broke into your parents’ house. I was starving and would have risked jail just to have something to eat. I don’t want that to be this kid. I want to bring them food. I have to do something. I can’t just stand by, knowing what I know and seeing what I see and do nothing.”