Chapter 11 Landing Gear
Landing Gear
“JOSH—JOSH, luv. Time to wake up. We’re almost there.”
Josh groaned and rolled into Liam’s warmth, wondering where this delicious feeling of safety, of security, had been all his life.
The heady smells of aftershave and wool had settled into his bones during the commercial flight, and since they were in first class on an overnight, their closeness had been guaranteed.
It was the first downtime they’d had in the two weeks since the big planning meeting, and with the exception of a few hours stolen deliciously in the downtown apartment, they had been intensely busy.
Josh’s ability to plan all night, work out in the morning, and then run scenarios for the next twelve hours, was not what it had been the year before.
“No,” he mumbled. “Wanna stay right here.”
And oh! Liam’s arm around his shoulders, like it hadn’t been on the yacht when Josh had needed it so badly but had denied them, because needing wasn’t loving, dammit.
But now it was everything he’d wanted. But more because they had shared those delicious private hours, that sweet possession, those moments of bare skin, gazing into each other’s eyes, and growing sober after laughter—those moments made them more, put into place all Josh had dreamed they could be.
“Come on, luv,” Liam murmured. “You wake up now, we’ll get through customs, and I’ll get you to my flat. My brother’s there. He’s stocked the place up, aired it out. You’ll be able to sleep off the jet lag, and you’ll be ready for the day after tomorrow.”
“Fuuuuuuuuck….”
Because while the back end of the plan was subject to change, the first two phases were locked in and ready to go.
But Josh and Liam needed to be in place.
They’d draw attention to Lightfingers, Kadjic would be hopefully tracked to their location, and while they got the hell out of Dodge (or Paris, as the plan called for), something else—something big—would go down on the other side of the world.
But it was early morning now, which meant Josh got a day to rest, and, he had to admit, for him and Liam to be what they hadn’t been able to be in the mansion: alone.
Still, Josh couldn’t help but feel a sense of homecoming after they disembarked. Liam summoned a cab, and they were on their way to the once industrialized and impoverished East End.
“A lot of it was still slums when I was younger,” Liam said, taking in the refurbished lines of pointed-roof brick buildings, and Josh nodded.
“I remember Danny and Felix were careful around Brick Lane and Whitechapel,” Josh replied, those moments from his childhood when his family had been in Europe making for a happy memory.
“But every year we returned they said the place was getting better and better. Banglatown is one of Danny’s favorite places now—he used to write me about it, about the food and the color and the people.
” Josh had kept every postcard, every letter.
When his mother and Felix had finally divorced, they’d had a sort of private family celebration that Felix could finally come quietly out of a closet he’d never meant to live in.
Felix—who had probably been missing Danny at that moment more than he’d miss breathing—had gotten a wee bit drunk, one of the very few times Josh could remember that happening.
Josh had run to his room and pulled out his shoeboxes full of letters, grabbing some of the more recent—including postcards from Banglatown.
Now, Josh wondered if Danny hadn’t been to the East End to visit Liam, and the thought made him smile.
“Yeah,” Liam said, but his own voice held hints of melancholy. “My dad had thought he was born to be a dock worker, and then when the neighborhood changed, when the jobs changed, he didn’t know where he was anymore. It’s one of the things, I think, that made it so hard to be himself.”
“Mm….” Josh gave him a sidelong glance. If he was an open book when it came to falling for cops, he knew Liam was the same about wanting to be one.
Funny, how such an old-fashioned symbol for stability, for peace, still held weight, even though history had born out that law enforcement was often the most lawless establishment of all.
“I’m sorry about that,” he said. “That’s… hard.”
Liam gave his own sideways look. “You would know, right?”
Josh shrugged. “Believe it or not, I didn’t see Danny drunk that often.
He was pretty good at hiding it, and—” He sighed.
“—I think he saved the worst parts of it for Felix. Thinking back on it now, I can see he was so lonely. After we got back from Europe, he’d check me out of school sometimes and take me on field trips—museums, plays, ballets.
It was like his entire life, when he was my age, he’d been poor and ignored, but once he had means, the only person he had to share those means with in public was his son.
I-I see that cottage, the one Tor and Marco live in, and remember when Danny would get back from trips and they’d stay there.
I wasn’t allowed—and I don’t think it was all because they were having sex.
It was because Danny was… detoxing, I guess, from the loneliness of traveling without Felix.
Fights, tears—whatever. I was never exposed to the worst parts of the situation.
Which, you know, good parenting, but also… .”
“Hard,” Liam said. At that moment, the cab turned off into what had once been an industrial area, but just looking at the shiny scrubbed sidewalks and artful store fronts showed it had been recently gentrified.
The cab let them out in front of what had been an erstwhile warehouse but had now obviously been parsed into units, and the two of them grabbed their luggage and made their way through a makeshift lobby and down the hall to the elevator.
Liam took in Josh’s expression in the elevator and laughed.
“The units are better from the inside, trust me.”
Josh hadn’t wanted to say anything, but the heavily scored concrete, low ceilings, and fluorescent lights had put him off a bit.
He was very aware that not everybody could afford a mansion in Glencoe, but he and Grace had also made do with a modest allowance when they’d had their student apartment in the city, and they’d worked hard to make the place livable within their budget.
He had to admit he was a little bit like Grace in that he was a hedonist and liked comfortable things.
“That’s a relief,” he said, and then Liam opened the door to his apartment, and he gasped.
The apartment itself was much nicer than he’d anticipated.
Designed with a completely open floor plan, with the exception of what was probably a long narrow bathroom that literally took a slice off the big square space, almost the entirety of one wall was consumed with a bank of windows that Josh had seen wrapped around the building.
The floor was still concrete, but Liam had buffed it to a shine and covered it with thickly padded, colorful wool rugs, both big and small, that marked spaces.
A seafoam-green patterned rug sat under sturdy, plain, and comfortable-looking furniture in the center of the space that was obviously a living room.
Another rug, this one turquoise blue and much more washable, sat under a small dining table of thick, bare wood, with matching chairs, each one featuring a cushion on the seat.
And in the back corner was a queen-sized bed with a fluffy white comforter and a few brightly colored cushions on top.
“Better?” Liam asked, before peeking in himself.
“Yes,” Josh said, sincere but also laughing. “But I wasn’t expecting it to be furnished with people as well as chairs.”
Liam did a double take and rolled his eyes. “Robert,” he said, sounding pleased to see his brother. “And Molly and Grace. You two got here quick.”
Robert looked a lot like Liam—the dark freckles across the cheeks, dark brown hair without the curls, and a slightly crooked smile.
But Liam’s jaw was square and firm where Robert’s was rounder and more boyish, and Liam—when he wasn’t slouching in a corner, trying to be inconspicuous—had an upright posture and broad shoulders as well.
Robert’s slighter frame wasn’t unattractive—but it wasn’t Liam, and Josh had grown quite fond of Liam’s body of late.
“Sorry about that,” Molly said cheerfully.
True to her promise, she’d dyed her hair a wheat gold, keeping random streaks of mermaid pink.
Then she’d straightened it and had practiced keeping it in a French braid down her back to her waist. The effect was actually quite lovely, Josh had thought, and while the streaks of color made her appear young and carefree, the straight wheat blond was almost plain compared to the spectacular sunset curls.
“Chuck was flying with Lucius’s pilot as his second.
I didn’t think Chuck could, you know, push the envelope in the air like he did on the ground, but I swear Lucius’s guy was absolutely cloud white. ”
Grace’s laugh was positively evil. “They’re catching a sleep at Lucius’s London condo and taking off tomorrow early, if Lucius’s guy doesn’t quit first.”
“Poor Graham,” Molly said, but she didn’t sound sympathetic at all. “I really don’t think he’s got the stuff somebody like Lucius needs.”
“Which is why they’re not sleeping together,” Josh said dryly. “I thought we were going to meet up tomorrow too.”
Molly and Grace gave each other sly smiles. “See?” Molly said. “You see what I was saying?”
“He’s trying to get rid of us?” Grace sulked, and Josh was tempted to massage his temples.
“No,” he said slowly, “I just have dibs on the bed.”
The two of them broke into raucous laughter, and Grace gave Josh a roughhouser’s hug, shaking him while relieving him of his carry-on at the same time.