Brass Tacks #2
Danny sent his friend a droll smirk. “If all I had was bad news, I would have left already to throw myself on his mercy,” he said acerbically. “I’m only giving you background here. Kadjic isn’t simply a villain with awkwardly shiny shoes—”
“And deeply in need of a skin-care regimen,” Julia added.
“And some manners,” Grace added.
“And a breath mint,” Josh said with deep disgust.
Danny’s smirk deepened. “Anyway, he’s a business octopus, and we need to examine that before we bring him down.” He turned toward the man he loved with all his heart. “Which is where Felix comes in. Fox?”
Felix Salinger had a sort of mythic grandeur about him, Liam thought.
When Danny had been recovering in that hospital room in Morocco, Liam couldn’t imagine who would be a match for Lightfingers, but once Liam had met the tall, broad-shouldered, leonine business magnate, Liam had seen it.
He’d also seen how Danny had ended up with Kadjic when deep in his cups, because the two men were the dark and bright side of the business magnate’s coin.
“The thing is,” Felix said thoughtfully, “Kadjic’s business is very much like my own.
” He sent a shadowed glance toward Danny, which told Liam he hadn’t been the only one to reach the two-sides-of-the-same-coin conclusion.
“I like to diversify, and I work with lieutenants and VPs to make each leg of the business as strong as possible. Lucius, your business is built on the same model.”
“Yes,” Lucius said, cocking his head. “But as you may recall, it’s not exactly invincible.” The Salingers had met Lucius when he’d been fighting both outside and inside enemies with an eye to not only destroying Lucius’s electronics business but also his hidden shelters for abused women.
“No,” Felix said. “But it is harder to attack strictly from the outside, particularly when an astute businessman is at the helm. But last night Danny and I were thinking—”
Danny let out the oddest sound then, a sort of schoolboy’s snicker that caught Liam completely by surprise.
“Heh heh heh heh….”
“Danny, don’t be rude,” Julia said, but her own face was lit up with an almost eldritch amusement.
“What were you thinking?” Josh prodded.
“We’re dying here!” Grace demanded.
And Danny turned to all of them, his expression a combination of Pan, Loki, Coyote, and Puck.
“What I was thinking,” he chortled, “was how utterly freaked out Kadjic must have been when he ran out of there. I mean, I know we were all worried about the op, and we had jobs to do, and Josh here had to visit the hospital one more goddamned time, but don’t you see? ”
“I saw him,” Molly said, her own amusement showing. “He was literally purple, he was so angry.”
“Oh God!” Hunter said, as though just remembering this. “He knocked over a tray when he hit the second floor. He was tracking a canape napkin all the way down the stairs!”
There were some more snickers, and then the room erupted into chuckles, a hearty, honest laugh from people who had been far too tense for the last six months when they’d realized that Kadjic knew Lightfingers was alive and the whole crew had gone on red alert.
When the laughter had faded, Grace said the one thing they all should have been thinking.
“Why didn’t any of us laugh before now?”
“Because we’ve all been too afraid,” Danny said bluntly. “But that’s where we need to change, children. Because what Fox and I have planned for our finale in this case is going to take everybody’s talents, and we’re going to need to have fun.”
“So,” Chuck drawled from the back of the room, “I’m always in the mood for fun, Danny. What do you have in mind?”
What followed next, Liam had to admit, was as intense a briefing as he’d ever gotten at Interpol, followed by a slew of follow-up questions that would have put the international task force assigned to bringing down Kadjic to shame.
The five basic “heads” of Kadjic’s operations were drug smuggling, gun smuggling (recuperating, of course, from January), human trafficking—primarily abducted girls from Slavic countries to serve as sex workers in the United States—illegal gambling, and art theft.
“That last,” Danny said thoughtfully, “is more of his personal hobby than a pillar of his operations, but we need to keep it in mind because it is close to home, and as of yet we don’t know where his home actually is.”
“Where was it ten years ago?” Leon di Rossi asked, then hesitated. “I mean, we are allowed to bring that up, right?”
Danny gave him a mild look. “Yes, Leon. We’re all in this mess because I slept with the wrong mobster. Of course we can bring up the past.”
“That’s not true,” Julia said, and before Danny could protest, she held up her hand.
“No, Danny. I know that’s why he’s after you, but think about it.
We wrecked his plans any number of times before he caught you hacking one of his stooges.
Gunrunning, drugs, information—hell, I’m sure some of his girls have passed through Lucius’s doors. Am I right, Lucius?”
Lucius nodded soberly. “Many,” he said. “And you all have been helping me scare up jobs, resources, and new IDs for them for the last year.”
“Exactly,” Julia said. “Danny, you’re free to give us all the information you can, but I absolutely refuse to let you feel badly about it for one more minute, do you understand?”
Danny gave her a fond smile. “Of course, precious.”
Julia preened and then got to business. “So about Leon’s question—where is Kadjic’s home?”
Danny shook his head. “It’s a closely guarded secret,” he said.
“It was back then, and I can’t imagine he’s gotten less paranoid.
But here’s the thing. I know we said Kadjic’s like a hydra, but we can also think of him like a big stinky onion.
Thanks to all those frantic phone calls—and then some basic business calls—we’ve got a feel for where the different legs of his business are and a list of his lieutenants.
If we go after the different pieces of his business, one at a time in quick succession, we can peel away at his security measures.
Our hope is the more hot water his business gets into, the more he’ll need to retreat to his home and his art, which means more to him than all the other. ”
“How do you know?” Liam asked curiously. This had been a vital chunk of Andres Kadjic’s personality that his own sources had missed.
“Because I was there,” Danny said. “The whole reason Kadjic picked up on me is because he saw me palm an authentic antique Berber necklace from a street vendor and then leave it in a museum drop box. The bugger stole the necklace from the drop box and presented it to me as a gift. I spent the rest of the night trying to explain to him why I didn’t want the thing as a gift—I’d admired it for the craftsmanship but didn’t covet it—and when I woke up, well, I was still drunk, and nobody here wants the details.
But the point is, while he didn’t know Moroccan art or jewelry, it was because he was so fixated on European art and jewelry, and he really had a thing for the nineteenth century British and French artists, which was unfortunate, because he was skipping his entire cultural history. ”
“Yes, Danny,” Felix said dryly, “that was the unfortunate thing about Andres Kadjic. He liked Degas.”
Danny snorted. “But moving on…. He talked about his home and how it was full of the most beautiful—and the most stolen, I’m sure—art, but he never gave me an address or even a country.
All I know is there’s a waterfall nearby and snow in the winter.
So like a lot of our gigs, we’ll have to improvise, but in the meantime, well, we have some ideas. ”
“Thanks to Josh’s caper with the painting,” Felix said, “we not only know what will draw him out, we also know what will get under his skin. He’s absolutely sure Lightfingers was responsible for what happened last night, and he has vague suspicions about J.D.
Morgan as well, although so far the ID has held. ”
“So we need to protect Josh?” Grace asked, and Danny and Felix both gave him sympathetic expressions, but it was Liam who got it first.
“No,” Liam said, staring at them like they’d both gone mad.
“Now hear us out,” Danny started.
“No,” Liam repeated, feeling a little more panicked.
“Oh!” Josh said, because he wasn’t stupid and he’d figured it out.
“No,” Liam said, imploring him with his eyes.
“Yes!” Josh said. “It’s perfect!”
“It’s dangerous!” Liam’s voice was rising, and even though Josh was narrowing his eyes and glaring at him, Liam couldn’t help it.
“I bet they have more planned,” Josh said, sounding excited. “Don’t you see it?”
“I see it. I see you out alone, roaming the world, with Kadjic on your heels—”
“Oh, like any of us will let him go alone,” Grace snapped. “If you can’t keep calm, Mr. Interpol Man, we’ll kick you outside for all the planning meetings.”
“Seriously, Liam,” Josh snorted. “You’re planning to desert me now?”
“No!” Liam repeated, feeling the panic flutter in his chest. “No, but I am not enough.”
“I think you should listen to the plan,” Josh replied, infuriatingly calm. “I mean, seriously―”
“You could get hurt!” Liam yelled at the same time Julia said—not yelled, but insisted, “Honestly, Liam, do you think I’d approve of anything foolhardy? He is my first born, after all.”
A silence rang through the basement as their voices faded, and Josh held up his hand.
“First,” he said, cocking his head, “Liam, I love you. Yes, everybody, we’re there, take a breath, get over it, it’s love. Liam, I love you, but we could all get hurt. I want you by my side, not in my face, so take ten deep breaths and let me deal with the other thing going down here.”
Liam swallowed and then followed Josh’s deductive reasoning to the one place he’d been pretty sure it would go.
“Mom?” Josh said, cocking his head and grinning. “Is there something you’d like to tell us?”
Leon let out an absolutely besotted chuckle, and Julia gave him a sideways glance and blushed.