She was heading deeper into downtown than she usually went outside of business, well above the speed limit. She didn’t know if Luke told Walker to stay put or keep moving. Her eyes were peeled for that obnoxious purple hoodie he was wearing earlier.
She slammed on the breaks when she saw him. He was missing his sweatshirt, but she recognized his curls as he jogged in the opposite direction she was heading. At the squeal of her tires, he tripped to a stop and stared wide-eyed at the car.
Frankie watched him expecting him to get in, but he just watched the car. He looked windswept like maybe he hadn’t quite cleared the blast radius.
She rolled down the window. “Are you getting in or not?”
“What?” Walker sounded shocked.
“Are you,” Frankie repeated, “getting in or not?”
“I mean...Yeah, okay.” He scuffed a hand through his hair taking those last couple of steps toward the car. He pulled open the passenger side door and slid slowly, carefully into the seat. “Jesus,” he breathed. His hands glided reverently over the dashboard, afraid to smudge the pristine leather interior.
“Seatbelt,” Frankie said.
Walker, looking younger than ever to her, clicked his belt into place and she peeled away from the curb.
“So,” she said. “Crazy about that explosion by the docks, huh?”
She saw Walker staring at her through her peripherals. His eyebrow raised up behind his hair. “Yeah,” he said, slowly. “Never seen anything like it before.”
At this, she darted a glance at him. With a smirk, she said, “If that’s true, then I have no idea why we decided to bring you in.”
Walker huffed a raspy laugh. “Well, I am known to lie. Comes with the career choice.”
Her smirk grew into a smile, eyes still on the street. They zoomed by buildings and weaved in and out of traffic. Blowing through a red light, Frankie spoke. “So, you kinda fucked up this morning, huh?”
He sank a little in his seat. He really was pretty young. Couldn’t be older than 25. “Luke didn’t tell me that someone else was in charge. He made it sound like he ran the crew.”
Frankie’s hands clenched, white-knuckled, on the steering wheel. “He does run the crew.” She puffed out a tense breath. “I run Luke. You got a problem with me, you got a problem with the crew. You get me, Walker?”
He was silent for a moment. “Grey.”
“What?”
“The only people that call me Walker are trying to arrest me. It’s Grey.”
“Fine. You get me, Grey?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I get you.”
“Okay, then we’re good.” She relaxed her grip on the wheel, and her right hand dropped to the gear shift. “You want something to eat?”
She took him in again out of the corner of her eye. Without his hoodie on, he looked even thinner. Grey had bony elbows and she could probably fit her fingers all the way around his forearm. She had noticed his ratty jeans earlier, but his shirt was also wearing thin.
“Nah, I’m good,” Grey said. His hands were clenching the hem of his shirt.
“Okay, but I’m stopping for food. Luke is an absolute baby when he’s hungry. You might as well get something, too. You’ll be the only one not eating.” She watched his hands slowly, slowly relax on the wrinkled fabric.
“Yeah,” he said quietly. “Yeah, alright. I’m not picky.”
“Okay.” Frankie pulled in through a fast food place and just ordered at random. Looking at Grey, she knew it’d get eaten.
The rest of the drive back to the penthouse was quiet except for the muted sound of tires on asphalt. They pulled smoothly into the garage, and she cut the engine. They sat there in the silence for a moment.
Speaking quietly, Frankie asked. “Can you get the drinks for me?”
Grey nodded. He cleared his throat awkwardly and as Frankie was getting out of the car, he said. “Thanks, uh… For the food. And you know…”
She hid her smile and thought that it was unfortunate that she was probably gonna like this kid. She didn’t want any unnecessary complications in the job to come. “Don’t worry about it. C’mon.”
He shuffled after her towards the elevator juggling the three large soft drinks she got. Grey’s already had a straw and a couple sips missing. Frankie wondered when the last time he ate was.
He followed her quietly through the penthouse once they left the elevator. The lights were all off and she clicked the kitchen light on with her elbow. She dropped the bags of food onto the counter next to the sink. “Luke!” She yelled towards the master bedroom.
She didn’t notice Grey jump and yelled again. “Luke! Your food is here, and if you don’t get out here I’m letting Grey eat all of it.”
She turned to Grey to give him a smile at the joke. And she saw him try to cover his pale, worried expression with the bravado she saw earlier. That blustery, angry attitude. Right as she was about to say something to try and put him at ease, Luke came banging in.
“Who put that fucking table there?” He whined then brightened when he saw the food. “Food!”
“You put the table there, Luke.” Frankie sighed.
Luke walked towards the kitchen table, dragging a hand from her shoulder to wrist as he passed and grabbing one of the bags to take with him. He paused when he saw Grey standing there.
“Hey, kid. Good work today.” Luke saw the way Grey had guarded himself with crossed arms and a blank expression. “Pull up a chair.”
Grey cleared his throat and clutching his drink, too nonchalantly sat down opposite Luke. Frankie grabbed the other bag and tossed it down in front of him.
“Eat.” She commanded. He opened the bag and ate a burger in about four bites.
She brought over her and Luke’s drinks and sat down between them.
“So,” Luke started, taking a bite out of a burger. “Where are you staying? I want you close by until we get the rest of the crew in.”
Grey fidgeted in his seat and chewed his bite extremely slow compared to the way he’d inhaled the cheeseburger previous. “Uh…” He swallowed. “I haven’t gotten a place yet.”
“Yeah, no.” Luke’s hands waved vaguely towards the window. “But what hotel have you been staying at?”
Frankie saw Grey’s jaw clench and his left hand slipped under the table. She was pretty sure this translated to nowhere, or in the ride he had to ditch.
“Well,” she broke in. “Wherever it is, just call and say you’re checking out tomorrow, instead. You can just stay here until you find a place. We need you close anyway. No need to be at a hotel, when we have empty rooms.”
His jaw was still tight, but Grey took another slow bite of his second burger and nodded. She watched him and kicked Luke under the table when he opened his mouth looking confused.
“Yeah, sure. I mean, that’s what the rooms are for.” Luke tapped her back under the table, demanding an explanation later. In private.
Luke crumbled up the wrapper from his meal and downed the rest of his soda as he stood. He nudged Frankie’s chair as he passed and clasped a strong hand on Grey’s shoulder. Grey allowed it in confusion but tensed up when the moment lasted longer than what would be considered normal. Luke let go and moved on to the kitchen.
“Any room you want,” Luke said. “All of them are open except for the master, which is mine, so…”
“I…” Grey cleared his throat. “Cool, thanks. Just until I can get something. Didn’t know how permanent this would turn out.”
“I got ya,” Frankie said. Giving him a small smile, she felt the need to make sure he finished eating and was almost positive he wouldn’t if he were eating alone. So she stayed sitting, nibbling at french fries. “No point getting an apartment if you were only gonna be in town for a couple of days.”
She watched him take another bite. The way he’d been acting since she picked him was completely different from earlier. It highlighted how young he seemed. She kind of wished she could go back to when he was just an asshole, but the dick had to kick her mothering instinct in. Luke was making eyes at her from the sink, impatiently.
She ticked an eyebrow up at him.
He frowned, shaking his head good-naturedly. “Well, I’ll leave you to it. Big shit going on tomorrow and all.”
“I’ll just show Grey to the rooms.” Luke nodded and exited the same way he came, just narrowly missing hitting the side table again.
Frankie was chuckling when Grey finally looked up from his empty burger wrapper. “So, uh…” He trailed off.
“Here.” Frankie placed another burger in front of him.
“I’m good.” Some of that pissed off rasp was back in his voice. Defensive.
“If you don’t eat it, it’s getting thrown out.”
He carefully reached out for the parcel.
“Why don’t you just take the rest of it. And I can show you to the rooms. So you don’t have to pretend to keep me company when you really want to sleep.” Frankie said.
“I’m not–”
“I’m kidding.” She pushed her chair back. “I’m actually pretty beat, and Luke still wants to talk about some stuff for tomorrow. So you’d actually be doing me a favor.”
Grey stood immediately to follow. She took the burger still on the table, put it in the bag with the rest, and brought the whole bag with her. Grey watched her walk away for a second before following.
She showed him the side of the penthouse dedicated to housing. Grey was dwarfed by the empty hallway. The only light was the one backlighting him from the kitchen. The off-white walls reflected the small amount of light onto Grey’s pale, drawn skin. He looked tired and ragged.
She would need to bring him some of Luke’s old clothes so he could change tomorrow. They’d need to get him some clothes anyway. If everything he had was in that car. Either that or get the car back. If someone hasn’t stolen it yet, it shouldn’t be too hard to find. Frankie came to a stop midway up the hall.
“They’re all fully furnished,” she gestured to the doors. “And most of them have en suites. So whichever one you want.” She shoved the bag of food into his hand. “See you tomorrow.”
She walked away leaving him in the hallway of doors with more choices than he’s had in about a year.
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