10. Chapter Ten
Chapter Ten
The sky was clear, the temperatures in the high sixties, when Liam left to get a coffee that morning by himself.
The others were nowhere to be found, but that was fine with him. He’d never lived near downtown Denver and had only been there rarely. Getting out and looking around was something he’d meant to do from the first day. People all hurrying by, barely glancing up at him. That was his favorite part of living in the city.
He found the library and went inside, giving his ID to the librarian behind the big front desk. The place smelled like books, and it was a comforting scent. Like centuries of minds flowing onto paper, crafting stories that would entertain and enlighten others.
Anonymity. That was what he loved about the city and what he loved about books. The authors didn’t know him. The characters didn’t either. He was just someone witnessing from the shadows, learning about a life that may not be real, but became that way in his mind.
“You’ve never had a card before?” she asked in her hushed voice.
She was young and rather pretty. He thought librarians were all older ladies, or stiff-necked, middle-aged men. So much for assumptions. “No, never. I never knew how much I liked to read.”
“Well, whatever opened this world to you, I’m glad you’re here. Look around and before you’re ready to check out, this should be finished, and I’ll have your card.”
“Thanks.”
He ambled through the stacks, seeing titles jumping out at him. Imagination flowing, he looked inside his own mind at what he might like to read.
Then, when he thought about it practically, he rushed to the reference books, and to the huge section of cookbooks. There, he found at least ten books on mixology, it was called. Fancy name for slinging booze, but he might as well wear the title proudly. It looked as though he’d have it for a while, at least.
With that kind of money to be made in one night, he couldn’t imagine leaving the job.
He got two books on mixing drinks and then found a good mystery, too. When he took them to the front, she handed him his card. “There you are. These will be due in two weeks, but you can call or get on that website there at the bottom of the card to check them out again, if you like. Only the new books must be back in two weeks, as we usually have a waiting list.”
“Thanks a lot. I’m pretty sure I won’t need longer.”
“Well, I’ll see you then.”
Taking the books to the coffee shop near the pub, he ordered a tall black coffee with three sugars and started on the first mixology book he’d found.
In it were the “gold standards” of drinks, it boasted. Mostly, it was those that had been around for a long time. He read up on those he hadn’t already memorized, laughing to himself over some of the names. Sex on the Beach was idiotic. No drink, no matter how great, would compare to sex. Not that he remembered all that well. It had been a while since he’d gotten laid.
“Hey,” he heard from a nearby table. As he turned his head, the guy asked, “Aren’t you that bartender from Murphy’s Pub? Cosmo, they all called you.”
Liam’s eyes locked with those cerulean blues, and he felt his jaw dropping. The same guy he’d been flirting with all the previous night was sitting at a table right by him, laptop open and a half-drunk latte sitting by it.
“That’s me, yeah,” he said as he grinned shyly, closing the book in front of him.
It was too late. “Boning up on the drinks?”
“My first bartending job, yeah. I’m a newbie.”
“Well, if it helps, you made my drinks perfectly every time.”
He was tall, lean, hair combed back, unlike the night before when it had been much shaggier. Showing his handsome face, framing it perfectly in dark brown. Yeah, he was as handsome in the light of day as he was in the light from the bar.
“Thanks. That helps.”
Lashes fluttering over pinking cheeks, Liam could almost read the guy’s mind as he blushed sweetly. He was over thirty, for sure. It was more obvious in the daylight. “Listen, uh, I gave you my number last night, but I saw you were getting a lot of them. If I was presumptuous…”
“No! Not at all. I got a lot. Not that I asked for any.”
He was almost stumbling over his words, but he was very much out of practice. The guy didn’t seem to notice. “I get that. You’re…you’re nice looking. If you want, I could give you mine again.”
“I’d like that, yeah.”
On a piece of paper, he jotted down the number and handed it over to Liam, who looked at it and asked in a laugh, “Is there a name to go with it?”
“Oh! Oh, right! It’s Taran.”
“Taran. Nice name,” he flirted, and placed the paper in his pocket. “I’ll call you this week. I can’t, uh…I can’t go on dates on the weekends, you know, with work…”
“Weekdays are fine with me.” The laptop was closed and his dark pink lips curved again into that crooked, enchanting smile. “I gotta get to work myself, but…it was really good seeing you again, Cosmo.”
Yeah, Liam didn’t give two fucks if anyone saw him watching Taran walking away, because that was a sight he could watch anytime and be happy about it. Nice body, and his jeans filled out perfectly.
The books forgotten, he finished his coffee and headed back to the pub, going in the back entrance from the alley. As soon as the books were deposited in his room, he changed into his sweats so he could get to the basement and workout.
The one thing he couldn’t change, however, was the smile he wore. Taran had put it there, and it felt pretty good to have it.
*****
“It can’t wait any longer. I brought you all down here to tell you what we found out about Cosmo,” Murphy told them, shoving his hands into the front pockets of his jeans to keep from fidgeting.
Tally sat behind them, but her face was tense.
“Are we going to hate him, because I really don’t want to hate him,” Abs groaned. “He’s a nice guy, no matter what he did in his past. We all pulled stupid shit, too.”
“You won’t hate him, Abs,” Mims said, then reached over to hold his hand across the table. “You’ll like him more.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean he’s good for the place,” Murphy tried to remind them, but all the guys were halfway rolling their eyes.
Hippy was drumming his fingers on the table, in a jazzy beat, like usual. His voice was low, but no one else spoke, so it was clear as day. “I don’t like meetings about other people. Talking behind their backs like some assholes.”
“Me either,” Haze agreed, but Murphy knew he had to take the meeting back from them.
“Listen, I don’t like it either. But you all deserve to know who may or may not be working with us on jobs that aren’t…aren’t here, you know?”
“We get it, Murph,” Goldie said. “Just get out with it, please?”
“Fine,” he grunted as the rest of them just nodded and mumbled their agreement with Goldie. “Cosmo, he lost his family a long time ago. And it wasn’t just some car accident or fire or something. His mom killed his siblings, all of them, then herself. He’s…he’s the one who found them.”
Abs pulled his hand from Mims’s and both of his hands slapped over his own mouth as he gasped loudly. There wasn’t an eye there that wasn’t pointed right at him, most of them obviously hoping to see Murphy was lying.
All except Tally and Mims, of course. After Murphy didn’t say, “April fools,” or some such bullshit, they all looked to Mims, who slowly nodded. “It’s true. It wrecked me, especially since I couldn’t tell you guys about it.”
“I wanted to be the one to tell you,” Murphy hurried to clarify. “And now that I have, let me tell you my concerns.”
Haze, the most mature and straight shooting one of the guys, had to break in, “It’s why he’s stand-offish with us. I get it now and can relate. I mean, well, none of us had that happen, but we’ve all had our shit. Everyone here has had some kind of difficulty with their parents. It’s just his is multiplied by a thousand.”
He hated Haze was so calm as he spoke, because he himself was a mess. “Thank you, Haze, but it’s more than problems with his parents.”
“No, he’s right,” Goldie interrupted. “I get what your worries are, Murph. He ain’t into family, and for good reason, and the only reason we work is because we’re a chosen family.”
Haze nodded and added, “And if he doesn’t get close to us, if he doesn’t think of us like brothers, then he’ll be more likely to snitch us out if he gets busted. No one wants to go back inside, and he’s fresh from that.”
Frustrated, exhausted, Murphy sat in his chair and glared out at all of them. “You all know what I’m saying, so discuss it.”
Hippy, the most laid-back of them all, on purpose, said, “We don’t gotta bring him in right off. Let him love us.”
Abs tapped the table with both hands and agreed, “We’re already becoming friends, so why can’t we just wait long enough to see? I don’t want him to go!”
They were all in agreement there, and Murphy had expected it, especially after Eazy had told him that was exactly what would happen.
The guys were all good, right into their fucking souls. Of course, they’d want to help him. The thing was, helping Cosmo might not be a choice they had. He might not want help.
As they discussed the things they could do for him, Murphy laughed to himself. He’d lost them all to their better natures. They would never willingly boot him from the group, and if it came to having to do just that, they’d fight for him.
Abs was the most vocal, but he’d already figured that. “We don’t let on we know, not right away, but we can’t keep it from him forever. I say we tell him about what we do. He’ll know he can’t tell anyone.”
Murphy was surprised that he agreed. “We, uh, can tell him in a few days. Let’s all settle down. We’ll continue to feel him out, continue to help him with the routines for the weekends, and play it normal.” Murphy looked right at Abs and Mims. “That means you two, no fawning over him, treating him any differently than you have been. He’ll know by those looks you have on your faces right now!”
Hippy laughed and said, “Good luck hiding their faces. They ain’t no poker players, Dad.”
“Well, they can learn and learn right now.”
Abs nodded sadly, looking at Mims. “It’s like a play. We’ll act like we just barely met him, but we like him. Deal?”
“Sure. I think I can handle that.”
They left the secret area of the basement after checking to assure no one was working out, but the second they all started filing up the basement stairs, each saw Cosmo standing off to the side at the entrance to the stairs.
Murphy spoke to him, careful to keep his voice light. “Hey! Going to work out?”
Cosmo looked down at himself and waved a hand over his sweats. “I’d hope so.” As he looked back up and scanned over the faces, he asked, “What are you guys doing?”
Never at a loss for words, Murphy suddenly found himself without a thought in his head to voice. Thankfully, Haze took over. “We were just trying out a new move. After we asked Tally and Murphy about it, we were going to work on it a little more, then show you. Gotta get up on board with us.”
“Oh. Yeah, I felt like the odd man out last weekend, but I get it.”
Goldie threw his thumb back over his shoulder. “Can I join you working out? I only got an hour yesterday.”
“Sure, yeah, that would be great. Get me ripped like you and get me some more phone numbers.”
“Like you need it,” Abs said, totally pulling off being nonchalant. Well, that was until he grabbed Mims’s hand and hurried up the stairs.
Smooth, Murphy thought. Then, he decided it was better than stammering more explanations, so he took his leave as well. “Like that routine, guys, I’m all in. Gotta go take the kids so Eazy can go…do whatever he’s doing.”
*****
Liam had the distinct feeling he’d walked in on something that had nothing to do with a new routine, but he knew he was paranoid from prison. He shrugged it off, then he headed to the basement while Goldie told him he had to change.
As he stretched, his eyes kept landing on the books. Those weird bookshelves, just sitting there in the wall, holding a lot of books he’d never read.
Kicking himself for forgetting about them before he’d gone all the way to the library, he went over and browsed through them, seeing a lot of classics.
He’d read A Tale of Two Cities in prison and loved it. He’d had to read more than a couple pages more than once to decipher them, but that was the only classic he’d read.
Moby Dick, The Raven, Catcher in the Rye and more lined the shelves. As he was reaching for The Raven, Goldie came in and said, “What are you doing?”
He jumped like he’d been busted stealing jewels. “Shit! Scared me.”
Goldie walked over quickly and laughed a little tensely. “Sorry.”
“I was stretching, then saw these. Abs and me, we were trying to figure out our things.”
“Your things?”
He was laughing, and Liam knew how it sounded. “You know, yours is working out, Hippy’s is music or something, you know.”
“Oh, your things! I thought Abs’ was being dark and mysterious.”
He and Liam got a good laugh from that. “He…looks dark, but mysterious is a bit of a stretch.”
“Tell me about it. So, what did you guys come up with?”
“Abs is gonna try doing more makeovers and stuff, and mine is boring, but I like reading.”
“Reading’s not boring. I like to read too. You get a library card?”
“Yesterday, yeah. But there are these too, so I was looking.”
Liam noticed Goldie getting a little fidgety, but he did not know what the guy was like before a workout. “Should we get started?”
“Yeah, definitely,” he said with a long sigh.
As Liam went to stand by him, he felt a tug back to the books. Maybe it was because of the way Goldie’s eyes kept darting over to the bookcase. Maybe it was just his same paranoia. Either way, it made him nervous.
Having it on his mind for the rest of the day, once the pub quieted, and Goldie and Murphy were busy downstairs serving the few customers that had come to drink, he sneaked back to the basement.
He looked around, finding the two big rooms to the left of the entrance filled with extra booze, boxes of napkins, cleaning supplies, extra glassware. Things anyone could expect to find in the storage room of a tavern.
When he’d satisfied part of his curiosity, he had nowhere to go but to the books. His eyes scanned over them again, seeing the same classics and a few reference books, like an old thesaurus. Nothing was out of the ordinary. They were just books.
If he didn’t quit with his paranoia, he’d have to get a shrink, and he hated fucking psychologists. Before he turned away, he saw a book that caught his eye. Fall of the House of Usher. He’d heard about that book from one of the old timers in prison. He’d said it was good, but hard to read too. Took him over two months to get through it.
Liam took the book from the shelf and turned it over in his hands. Plain hardcover, no dust jacket to read. He hated that.
After taking out his phone, he looked up the summary, and once he read it, he realized it might take him a long time to read it too. Figuring he should get through those he’d borrowed first he pushed the book back into its place on the shelf.
It didn’t seem to want to go all the way to the back, so he pushed a little, and he heard a soft click, then he watched in awe as the bookcase swung open into a hidden room.
He stared, shocked, not sure he was even seeing what he was seeing. This was something out of a damn book, not real life! There were no hidden rooms, not really!
He pushed the bookcase a little more, and he felt along the wall for a switch, finding one quickly. Lighting the room, he saw it was little more than a big space with cinderblock walls and a concrete floor, like the rest of the basement.
There was a long table with less than a dozen metal chairs, some white boards hanging on the back wall, and a stack of tablets on a small table in the corner.
Then he saw that wasn’t the only room. Through an arch was another room, filled with the most sophisticated computer setup he’d ever seen on the right hand wall, another smaller desk on the back wall with another computer, and on the wall that was opposite the other room was a huge whiteboard with lists.
Finnigan’s stamp collection- Payout five hundred fifty grand.
Coletti’s original Maxfield Parrish-Daybreak- payout four to six million.
Coletti’s three other original Maxfield Parrish paintings-oil- payout seventeen million at lowest.
Johnson’s New York Bank and Trust safe deposit box- payout unknown.
Bentley Mulliner Batur- Payout one point five million.
That was the one that held his attention. Not because he knew that car well, having salivated about stealing one for the big payout, among other high-end vehicles. But it hit him then, why Murphy had wanted him.
He hadn’t needed an inexperienced bartender. He needed a man that was great at another skill.
Boosting cars.
“Fuck. Well, at least it makes sense now.”
He turned to the computer. Not that he knew much about them, but he had been getting better before being thrown in prison. He sat at the desk and touched a key, worrying some alarm would sound, but nothing happened. Nothing except the screen coming to life.
It was password encrypted, so he couldn’t snoop, but he could take a few wild guesses as to what was on the computer. Likely more things they could steal, and likely something about him.
He left the secret part of the basement and pulled out the book enough for the door not to engage again. Once he got to his room, his eyes fell on the pile of phone numbers. “The feds know. Fucking hell.”
He got the card and flipped it over to look at the message again. The words kept repeating in Liam’s mind. In your best interest …