She had watched it over and over again, certain she was making a mistake. But no, Zach was very deliberate. He moved a tall rack in front of the camera eye. What he didn’t know—what no one but Jenny knew—was that there were two other camera lenses aimed at the counter.
“Help me out here, Zach,” she said. “Please. I want to understand.”
His face was as pale as the snow, his eyes milk-glass blue. He looked like a statue, unmoving, unfeeling.
Then, finally, he hung his head and began to talk. “We’re broke,” he admitted. “My dad and me. No one’s supposed to know.”
Of course not, she thought bitterly. Matthew Alger was a proud man and an aspiring mayoral candidate, to boot. She could easily see how a man like that would sacrifice his own son’s safety for the sake of appearances. “If it’s any consolation, I don’t think anyone knows,” she said.
“Please don’t say anything.” His voice was low, urgent. “He’d kill me if he knew I told anyone.” He gestured at the evidence in her hand. “I meant to put back what I took as soon as I was able.” He flinched. “Are you going to tell Rourke?”
The question surprised Jenny. It had never occurred to her to hand this over to Rourke. “I would never do that. I can’t imagine what you were thinking, Zach, but I know there’s got to be some explanation, and I’m here to listen.”
Zach kept his eyes on the floor. A sense of shame seemed to roll off him in waves. He wasn’t a bad kid, Jenny knew. But he was in big trouble.
“Zach?” she whispered.
“He—my dad—keeps saying he’s got some scheme going, that I should just be patient and it’ll all work out. That’s all I know, swear to God.”
She tried to imagine how Matthew had managed to dig himself into such a deep hole. He didn’t seem the type to be on drugs or alcohol, but some people were good at hiding it.
“Online gambling,” Zach muttered as though sensing her speculation. “He’s addicted to it, or something. It’s crazy, you know, but he can’t stay away. He wins a little and he’s all, like, we’re on easy street now. And then he loses that and more. It started last fall and just got worse and worse. So really, the computer’s working. It’s the only thing he won’t hock or sell.”
“I’m sorry,” Jenny said. She had only a vague understanding of the phenomenon; she did know that people could get into big trouble with it. “I don’t know what to say, except that you need to convince him to get help for his problem. You can’t compromise yourself just to get him out of a bind, do you understand, Zach?”
“He doesn’t know I took money from the bakery. I just needed it to pay the gas bill.”
“Tell you what. Let’s take a look at the utility bills. I’m going to take care of them so you don’t freeze to death.”
“I shouldn’t let you—”
“But you’re going to, so let’s not waste time arguing.”
He took a deep breath, and the tension seemed to drain out of him. The expression on his face brought tears to her eyes. All this boy needed was someone to understand him, to show him a little compassion. “Zach, when was the last time you were in touch with your mother?”
“We don’t talk,” he said hurriedly. “She’s got, like, this whole new life in California, and she’s expecting a baby and all. I’m not telling her about this.”
Jenny gritted her teeth in frustration. “I want to help,” she said, “but I need a little cooperation from you. For starters, you need to promise you’ll talk to your dad, make him get help.”
“What, you think I haven’t done that?”
“Keep doing it. Don’t give up on him, Zach.”
“Fine,” he said, sounding tired and far older than his years. “I know what he’ll say, though. He just needs a little more time. There’s a big jackpot with his name on it, and once he gets his hands on that, we won’t have to worry about a thing.” At last, Zach lifted his gaze to hers. His eyes, those extraordinary pale eyes, held a world of pain. “Yeah, right,” he said.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Daisy had been raised to expect much of herself, yet she always fell short and managed to disappoint herself time and time again. So working at the bakery was a surprise. She liked it and was good at it, a new concept for her. This made her realize that maybe the problem wasn’t her. Maybe the problem was buying into other people’s expectations.
“You look happy,” said Zach, who was moving racks out to the loading dock.
“I am,” she said, stepping out into the cold winter day with him. “I mean, it’s totally crazy, but I like everything about working here—the smells, the other employees, the customers. It’s fantastic.”
He grinned at her. “You’re right—crazy.”
“If so, then it’s a good kind of crazy. You know, what’s funny is I’ve had a lot of jobs, and I hated them all. See, at my school in the city, we had to do these rotations to explore different ca-reers. But they were all the ‘right’ kind of careers. Wall Street, PR, law, the legislature. No way would they have sent someone to work in a bakery.”
He drew down the back door of the truck and locked it. They had decided to spend their break taking a walk because Daisy wanted to shoot some pictures. As they started walking, Zach pulled out a cigarette. She plucked it from his hand before he could light it. “Oh, no you don’t,” she warned.
“Great, so you’re some kind of antismoking radical.”
“Ex-smoker,” she admitted.
“You?”
Daisy knew what he was thinking. She looked like the all-American girl, the kind who could do no wrong. That was why she used to get away with so many things.
“So here’s the stupid part,” she said. “Not only did I know
