Disruptor Read Free Page A

back of the kitchen.
Dani nudged her hearing up, like mentally turning a dial, and found
the source. Someone was outside the back door, in the alley. She
clenched her fists and rose slightly on the balls of her feet,
ready to run at whoever was on the other side of that door.
    It opened, and a slender man with dark gold
hair struggled to wrestle a mop and bucket through the door.
    Thorpe paused in his cleaning to observe the
much younger man. “You look like you stayed dry this time.”
    Golden hair laughed. “Mostly.” He maneuvered
the mop bucket to a space marked off for cleaning supplies as best
he could on its worn out wheels.
    Thorpe gestured at a spot on the floor. “That
drain’s been stopped up for months. Don’t have the money to get
someone out here to work on it.”
    The guy from last night – she’d taken a
twenty from him and told him to go back uptown when he’d asked for
directions to the shelter. Had he seen her face? She’d done her
best to hide herself with the hoodie, but it wasn’t perfect.
    He looked right at her. No recognition, but
something sparked in his electric blue eyes that made her
nervous.
    Don’t run. Walk out like it’s no big deal.
Just don’t run and draw more attention to yourself.
    Dani eased backward a couple of steps and
forced herself to sound casual. “Hey, I think I’ll check back about
a job another time.”
    “Oh, don’t mind him.” Thorpe chuckled. “He’s
just serving his community.”
    “In a sober and orderly fashion.” The guy’s
smile was as brilliant as his eyes. He didn’t belong here. Too
clean, too pretty, too untouched by the kind of things that kept
her awake long into the night.
    Should she say something else, or just walk
out? She had no idea. With a half-hearted wave directed at Thorpe,
Dani left the kitchen. Once clear of the swinging metal doors, she
sped up and didn’t slow down until she was two blocks away.

    ***

    Kevin spent the rest of his shift wondering
about the brown-eyed girl who’d apparently changed her mind about
asking Thorpe for help. Swallowed up by clothes too big for her,
she looked young and fragile, like so many of the girls he’d seen
in the shelter in his two nights here. The sight of a blond teen
who resembled his sister at that age had nearly caused his heart to
burst with a confusing mix of anger and guilt. How did these kids
survive on the streets? How did they wind up like this, with no one
but each other and a stranger or two to care about them? All the
arguments he’d had with his parents growing up, all the times he’d
disappointed both himself and them, and he’d never once considered
leaving. As much as he’d frustrated his parents, they’d never come
close to throwing him out, either.
    Would it have been different if his father
had worked on a factory floor, instead of owning several? Kevin
didn’t think so. Family meant everything to the Moynihans. More
than the fortune, more than the social standing. That bond,
instilled since birth, was why Kevin felt no jealousy over his
brother’s position at Moynihan Consolidated. Why Sean would have
gladly welcomed his younger brother into the company. A united
front and always having each other’s backs – that was the
Moynihans. Even when they annoyed the hell out of each other.
    So it was inconceivable to Kevin that so many
people lacked the support they needed, especially kids. It was as
foreign to him as the extreme poverty he’d glimpsed, the people
with eyes full of fear and desperation or worse, nothing at
all.
    White liberal guilt, he told himself. That’s
what he was feeling. So be it. Tomorrow he would arrange for a
plumber to come to the shelter to fix the drain and any other
similar problems.
    Or rather, have someone do it. Kevin may not
have worked at the family company but there was an assistant on the
payroll to take care of things for him. He would call her in the
morning.
    Tonight, he would finish up his four hours of
community service,