Ladies and Gentlemen I Present You… #2
“I’m good at it,” Molly said, tilting her head over her shoulder so she could beam at them from one of three couches, all facing the screen.
Her hair—mounds of red spiral curls with separate curls dyed in a dark rainbow of streaks—was bundled up on her crown for video games, but Josh had no doubt she’d have it down after she dressed for dinner.
Molly was a talented actress—and strong and aggressive enough to be muscle when Chuck, Hunter, and Carl were otherwise occupied—but she was also a beautiful young woman.
While she complained copiously that all the men at the Glencoe mansion (besides Leon, of course) seemed to be gay, Josh was sort of glad she hadn’t settled on anybody yet, because nobody seemed good enough for her.
But speaking of Chuck, Hunter, and Carl….
“Where’s our muscle?” Josh asked. “And is Carl going to bring Michael?”
“Chuck and Hunter are running an errand,” Grace said. “And by running an errand, I mean chasing down Celeste’s drug dealer and getting him to spill about her finances.”
“She spends ten percent of her trust payout on coke every month,” Josh said, not sure whether to be disgusted with the woman or to feel bad for her. So much potential, so much waste. “We knew that when I got the gig.”
“Yes,” Grace said patiently, “but her dealer works for somebody, and they were hoping he’d have a line on where Kadjic disappeared to after he dodged the FBI.”
“Ooh, good idea,” Josh said. “What about Carl?”
“He’s at the airport, picking Michael up.
” Carl’s boyfriend, Michael Carmody, was also their mechanic, and he kept their assorted vehicles, including their planes, maintained and ready to roll at a moment’s notice.
Josh’s little silver sportster was currently parked in the mansion garage, but he knew for certain that during the painfully uncertain fall and the long winter and spring, Michael had kept his car sheltered in the big airplane hangar they rented out and had kept it tuned up, cleaned, and ready to roll while Josh had been too weak to pick up a spoon, much less drive.
“Okay, so after dinner, then?” Josh asked, making sure.
“I’m sorry,” Stirling said, his customary dry humor making a sly appearance. “Did cancer slow your ability to plot and play video games?”
Batting her eyelashes, Molly held out a controller and patted the open spot on the couch next to her.
She was sitting on the good couch—Tienne and Stirling were on the bad couch that spilled all the occupants to the broken springs in the center, and Grace was sprawled on three beanbags on the floor.
Josh took the end of the good couch, and Liam, to his surprise, set the sliders down on the coffee table, grabbed one for himself, along with a napkin, and made himself comfortable on the carpet near Josh’s feet.
“You want to play?” Josh asked, but he was already pulling up his character and outfitting it, taking his cues from the practice adventure everybody else had played.
“An elf?” Liam asked.
“He likes to be pretty,” Grace said. “He’s vain. You should know that about him.”
Josh felt Liam’s hand encircle his ankle.
“I’m aware,” he said.
“Forget pretty,” Josh told them. “What else am I missing about last night?”
What followed was something he and the crew had done many times, which was to debrief while splitting their attention elsewhere.
It drove some people absolutely batshit—but for Josh and his friends, it became a training ground for paying attention to all the things at once.
Incoming information, environmental dangers, strategy pivots, all of it swirled around them like their characters swirling around on the screen.
By the time the training adventure was over, Josh had heard every bit of gossip Molly and Hunter had picked up while working the catering floor, including who in the crowd had known Kadjic was coming and how they felt about that.
Besides chasing down Kadjic’s phone leads, Stirling had spent the morning doing thorough background checks on those folks and cross-referencing those names with people who used some of Celeste’s other services—her drug dealer, her company’s research and development team, their political analysts—to see where the power structures lay.
Josh added to this knowledge with things he’d picked up working in Celeste’s employ, and Stirling and Grace, when not moving their characters from place to place, picked up tablets lying next to them and added the information to a shared document.
Molly used her spare time to add faces to the bios.
Tienne added to the conversation by connecting his contacts in the art world—because that was important to Kadjic too—and Grace would consult the list whenever one of the people from Carl’s report rang a bell.
By the time they were done playing videos—and it was getting time to go upstairs and change for dinner—they’d managed to organize and prioritize the information gathered from the caper the night before, and they had no doubt there would be more to add that night.
And Josh had managed to build up some life points and some strength points in his elf, Grace’s character had gotten killed multiple times for no reason at all, and Tienne, in a fit of temper, had called Grace an annoying pooh-head and a scattered, cat-brained shitbird, both of which had sent the room into gales of laughter and made Grace preen like he’d earned high praise.
Well, Tienne, slender, blond, and as ephemeral as a summer wind, was notorious for his easygoing nature. Pissing him off that much in a video game really was something of an achievement.
“Okay, then,” Josh said, yawning as he set down his controller. “I’ve got to go change—”
“Nap,” Grace supplied.
“Dinner’s at six!” Josh protested.
“Dinner’s at seven,” Liam said. “It popped up on everybody’s phones while you were otherwise involved.” He stood then and extended a hand, which Josh found himself needing. “Nap?” he asked solicitously.
“Only if you build up a character while I’m napping,” Josh said on a yawn. “Next time, we need to be beating the snot out of you while we’re doing this.”
Liam grunted. “You think more of my intelligence than I do,” he said. “I’d just as soon study your notes while you’re all resting your brains. That was more impressive, but I don’t think it’s necessary.”
Josh gazed at him, troubled. “These skills keep us safe, Liam,” he said earnestly. “Please think about it.”
“I will, boy-o—if you concede on the nap.”
Josh yawned again and gave up—gave up on being frustrated too. “Fine,” he said. “Grace, if I’m dressing up, you have to wear something besides thieves’ clothes.”
“I know, I know,” Grace muttered. “I’ll blow everybody’s eyeballs out with my color.”
“Dear God,” Tienne retorted. “Is there no end to my indignity? If you must, could you at least let Molly dress you? She’s very good with color, and she’s even better with clothes.”
Molly beamed at him. “You and my brother need to marry so you’re officially in my family.”
“First, we will find you a man,” Tienne said magnanimously. “Because we want you to have one, not because you need one.”
Molly had stood up, and now she kissed his cheek. “Are you taking notes, Stirling?”
“And we also want you to stop whining about it,” Stirling said, giving her a “I’m a brother, so I can pick on her” smile.
“Apparently not,” she said, flicking him on the back of the head as she passed.
They made their way up the stairs, and then passed through the dining room to the back staircase, where they made their way up one more flight for the bedrooms. Josh had a suite, and when he noticed Grace splitting off to come with him and Liam to the suite, he made a grunt of unhappiness.
“Really?”
“You sleep,” Grace said. “I’ll go over stuff on my tablet. I’ve got a thing in my brain. I want your stupid Interpol boyfriend to talk to while you’re all recovering and shit.”
Josh yawned again. “Fair,” he said. “Stupid Interpol boyfriend, are you okay with that?” He opened the door to his suite and gestured everybody inside, grunting with the damned pain in his shoulder.
“Painkiller time,” Liam said perceptively. “Kick off your shoes and get in bed.”
Liam went for water while Josh did as ordered, the exhaustion taking over as soon as his head hit the pillow. After he’d washed down his meds, Liam bent over and kissed him. “Tell us if we’re too loud,” he murmured.
“Too much quiet bothers me,” Josh said.
And then he was asleep.
GRACE WAS gone by the time Liam woke him, but Liam had freshened up and dressed nattily in an outfit Grace had apparently culled from, well, everybody.
“Marco’s pants,” Liam qualified, “although they’re a little loose around the waist. Chuck’s suit jacket—which fits me great, but I suspect it was tailored to fit him quite tightly. And Hunter’s plain blue dress shirt, which is perhaps the best fit of all.”
“Nice,” Josh said. “I’m sorry. I should have had you bring a suit from the apartment.”
“I didn’t bring any suits to the apartment,” Liam told him, searching through Josh’s wardrobe for something dressy but not over the top.
“Danny emailed me that Kadjic would positively be there, and I thought, ‘I absolutely can’t let him do this without me.’ I took two trains and three connections from Paris to Chicago and got there just in time. ”
“Wow,” Josh murmured, accepting a tie from him that he hadn’t particularly liked until Liam put it in his hand. “You do know how to make a romantic entrance.”
“It paid off,” Liam said dryly, fetching a sleek black dress shirt that really would look good with that sapphire-blue tie.
“I’m glad you think so,” Josh said, taking the shirt. “I can dress myself, you know.”
“I know,” Liam said. “This is part of me being proprietary and possessive. Give me a few months and I’ll get this shit under control.”
“You know that for certain?” Josh asked, taking the clothes to lay out on the bed.
“It’s a guess,” Liam admitted. “I’ve never been in love before.”