Chapter 14. Thief

Rae POV

Gus was already standing in the alley when we pulled up at seven the next morning, coffee in one hand, a can of paint thinner in the other, swearing in a steady low stream that would've impressed a sailor.

"Nobody does this to my shop," he said. "Nobody does this to my kid."

The door looked worse in daylight. The red paint had run before it dried, so every letter bled long drips down the wood like something out of a horror movie. THIEF. Two feet tall, right where anyone walking down the alley would see it.

I looked at it for a while.

Then I shrugged, put my coffee on the stair rail, and went to get a scraper.

"Rae," Wade said behind me.

"It's fine. It's latex. It'll come off with thinner and elbow grease