Strays

Chapter 37

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Theo wasn't talking to me.

He locked himself into his room when Michael and I arrived back at The Roaming Troll and when I managed to crawl out of bed that evening, it was to find him training downstairs with Arran and Rhys. He didn't so much as glance in my direction when I wandered inside and when Arran asked if I wanted to take over, Theo turned his back to me and said, "I don't need anything else from her."

It was like time had folded back on itself and dropped me in that stupid registry office in the Imperial City. One of Sebastien's lackeys had taken over – a smug-faced woman in a pinstripe suit that didn't quite suit the old-fashioned, Victorian furnishings in the office she'd claimed as hers. Her eyes darted from the sullen-faced boy sitting in the chair next to me to the envelope I'd just shoved across the table, her voice dripping with scepticism as she asked, "You're willing to take responsibility for... him?"

Theo had snorted. "She's willing to take responsibility of my family's bank account, more like," he sneered. "It's all scum like her want."

I could hear the same vicious contempt lacing his words as he reached for one of the bottles of water stacked on top of the bar. I'd known he was probably still upset but that knowing didn't really stop the knife from digging a fraction deeper into my back as he pointedly ignored me.

Gritting my teeth, I turned to Rhys. "You got this?"

He looked a bit confused, but he nodded anyway. "Sure."

"Good," I said. "Make sure you give him hell."

I could almost sense the spike of resentment emanating from Theo's corner as I turned to leave, and I couldn't help but feeling a childish surge of satisfaction at the thought of him hobbling up the stairs in a few hours, his skin a mottled black and blue with bruises, and his ribs cracked and aching.

It wasn't enough to dull the echo of pain in my chest, but it was still worth it.

At least, it was until we made it to work that night.

Theo and I – and a handful of techs – managed thirty minutes in one of the studios on the fourth floor together before Elton arrived to chew me out for skipping out of here last night without completing my shift. He was mid rant, yelling about hellbitches and docking my wages when Theo decided to interrupt him with, "I'd be careful if I were you. You know her kind are liable to snap and take your head clean off when you rile them up."

I was mid lunge before Ricardo caught me around the waist and forcibly dragged me back. "Enough," he snapped at us. "I don't care what's going on with you two but cool it in front of Elton. He won't just fire your asses – he'll toss you both out somewhere no one will find you for years."

"Whatever." Theo shook his head and slammed a box of cables down on a nearby desk. "I'm going to clean up next door."

Ric shot me a questioning look but I ignored him, my hands curling into fists as I fought to rein in my temper. I wanted to stalk after him and drag him back inside, kicking and screaming, before I yanked his head back and sank my teeth –

"Juliet?"

"Just... get back to work." I pressed my lips together and reached for the nearest box of recording equipment, hoping like hell he didn't notice the way my hands shook as I lifted the damn thing.

Theo's attitude set the tone for the next few nights. Whenever we were forced to work together in the same room – which was often, since I was still unwilling to let him wander off on his own – he would pepper the tense silence with snide comments about me to whoever we happened to be working with until my temper eventually snapped and we were forcibly separated.