Chapter 12 Operation Rembrandt #2
His mind was wandering, a stress response, he knew, and he pulled it into focus again as he spotted his bathroom. Every one of them had a different restroom to run into, and every restroom had a yellow backpack with a worn, nondescript T-shirt in it, and a pair of pants in anything but black.
Tienne was waiting in Josh’s bathroom so he and Josh could exchange clothes.
Tienne wore a white shirt and tan baggy shorts, and within minutes, he was escaping wearing all black with a yellow backpack that held a rolled-up reproduction of Rembrandt van Rijn’s An Angel with Titus’ Features, which had disappeared from circulation when the Nazis had stolen it in the late 1930s.
They didn’t think the authorities would care that the reproduction was missing, since the real one was now hanging in its place, and Danny did like his trophies.
Twenty minutes later, Liam was back in the Palais Royale shopping center, his yellow backpack on his back, the black one wadded in his pants pocket, while the Louvre, he was sure, was swarming like a hornet’s nest.
“How we doing, gang?” Josh asked, and Liam glanced up to see him walking briskly toward their exit platform.
“Grace and I are heading for the airport,” Molly said. “Peace out. Good job, everybody.”
“Liam, don’t let Josh die,” Grace said, and Liam grimaced, because of course he said it.
“Josh can take care of himself,” he said, and was relieved by Josh’s gentle snort.
“Tor and Marco are in place for our signature,” Stirling said. “And I just got word that stage one is complete on the other side of the world.”
Liam let out a breath. Stage one had been the most dangerous part.
“And I’ll be sitting next to Josh in five,” Liam said.
“Off to Germany to meet our next team.”
“Good work, everybody,” Josh said. “Comms off.”
Liam watched as Josh hit the bud in his ear, and then, to Liam’s horror, he staggered.
It was almost imperceptible—if he hadn’t been watching to see if Josh was okay, he would have missed it.
In spite of their plan to meet when they sat, Liam picked up the pace, coming alongside Josh and slipping his arm around his waist.
“Almost missed you,” he said, breathing with relief as Josh let him support some of that slight weight.
“I’m here,” Josh said, his breath coming fast.
“Adrenaline?” Liam asked kindly.
“Didn’t expect to crash so hard,” Josh muttered. “God, I’m glad we’re not flying to Germany.”
“Not too much longer,” Liam said, kissing his temple.
There were big screens along parts of the mall concourse, showcasing things to visit in the Louvre, and suddenly the one in front of them erupted with a breaking story.
The volume was turned down, but Josh and Liam got a good view of the famous glass pyramid above them, and the hologram bounced off one of the panes into the pathway to the museum itself.
It featured an outstretched hand, beams of rainbow light coming from the fingertips.
“Nice job, Stirling,” Josh murmured as they rushed past.
“Did Tienne design that?” Liam asked. He’d only heard the caper finale described as “the signature.”
“Oh yeah. Danny gave the specifics, though. He said Kadjic’s smart but unimaginative. It’s why he keeps stealing and hoarding art. He doesn’t understand it himself—he just wants to keep it from other people.”
“Nice,” Liam said thoughtfully. “So Danny’s rebranding. Instead of ‘Lightfingers,’ meaning ‘thief,’ he’s becoming ‘Lightfingers, the spreader of light.’”
“Exactly,” Josh said, and they passed under the archway to the train platform. Josh’s ankles wobbled on the raised bumps alerting pedestrians of directions and platforms, and Liam pulled him a little closer.
“So, should we—”
“Here’s our platform,” Josh interrupted, like he knew what Liam was going to say.
“I guess not,” Liam muttered. God, this sucked. He’d never realized that taking on the care and feeding of a lover meant taking over from a perfectly competent group of parents who had already proven they’d go to hell and back for their son.
“Please,” Josh said as they came to a halt, waiting for the train that would take them to a hotel in Bavaria where their luggage had already been sent.
Liam sighed. “We get some rest before the next one, right, boy-o?”
And Josh must have been tired because he let this slide.
“It’ll take a week for the others to get into place,” he said. “But we need to do some sightseeing in the meantime.”
“Sightseeing I can handle,” Liam told him. “But steady bedtimes and solid food will make me a very happy zookeeper in the meantime.”
“Fair,” Josh said. “Besides—Michael really hasn’t seen anything outside the US besides the Caribbean so far. If we’re going to be smuggling him around the world, we should show him and Carl a nice time this go-round.”
Liam allowed himself to be distracted. “It’s funny that he’s the one with the big scary passport—of the lot of you, he’s the least inclined to break the law.”
Josh didn’t have time to agree. The TGV/ICE came to a halt just then, and they jumped on, Liam shouldering his way through a dense crowd that was off-putting to a lot of Americans, before spotting two seats facing forward and dragging Josh into the one next to him.
Josh sank gratefully, leaning immediately against Liam as the rest of the car filled up.
“You doing okay, boy—”
“Fuck,” Josh muttered, and Liam’s tongue froze and then his heart and lungs and then his stomach and then his balls.
A small stream of crimson dripped from Josh’s nose as he dug frantically through his pockets for a microfiber cloth to sop the flow.
BY THE time they pulled into the station in Bavaria, Liam was thoroughly wrung out, not from the gig but from worry.
In spite of Josh’s reassurance that he needed to take his iron pills and get some sleep, Liam couldn’t help but remember the entire year previous, when the state of Josh’s health had stood like a cinder block between them.
He reached for his phone a dozen times to tell Danny and Felix that it was time to pull out, to get another point operator for the scheme, because Josh wasn’t ready yet.
He didn’t, though, because Josh would probably accept and forgive a romantic betrayal a lot easier than a betrayal of a secret to his family. The one thing Liam had learned in the past year was that this family’s currency wasn’t in cash, gold, or diamonds—it was in trust.
Josh trusted him right now, but Liam had to figure out how to get him to trust that Liam would work with his family or not at all.
Liam summoned a rideshare in spite of the short, maybe four block distance to the hotel, and in no time at all the two of them were bathed, changed, and Josh, at least, was ensconced on the couch, a throw wrapped around his shoulders while he ate a hearty soup.
“Good?” Liam asked, coming out of the bathroom and toweling his hair.
“It’s not hasenpfeffer,” Josh said dryly.
Liam gave him a blank stare.
“You know, hasenpfeffer? Rabbit stew? Didn’t you ever watch Bugs Bunny cartoons?”
Liam snorted. “No, and you shouldn’t have either. Those didn’t always age well.”
“Politics, schmolitics,” Josh chided. “If you don’t think a rabbit in a dress is funny, we’ve got nothing in common.”
“I’ll give you that,” Liam said, flopping down on the couch next to him. “When do our guests arrive?”
Josh took another bite of soup, giving Liam a sideways glance that said he wasn’t feeling great, and if Liam hadn’t been there pushing things, he would have shoved the bowl aside.
Liam gave him a stern glare, and he sighed.
“Tomorrow morning,” he said. “And they should probably sleep for a day or two, and then we’re off scoping out the next job.”
“Good,” Liam said. “So we’ll do the same.”
“Don’t you want to do the tourist thing?” Josh asked in surprise. “I know you get to travel a lot, but….” He smiled winningly. “Bavaria. Andechs Abbey is close by, and there’s several schlosses.”
“Castles,” Liam supplied dryly, because, dammit, he lived in Europe.
“Yes, but schloss sounds so much grander, you think?”
“It does,” Liam agreed, cupping the back of his neck. A soft shudder seemed to encompass him then, and Josh melted a little farther into the very comfortable couch and took another bite of soup. “You all comfy, boy-o?” Liam asked.
“Yeah,” Josh admitted, and Liam took the half-finished bowl of soup from him.
“So you need to listen to me, because I don’t want this to be a fighting point. It needs to be an agreeing point.”
“Go on,” Josh said, swallowing.
“I won’t keep a secret from your folks any more than I’d keep a secret from you, do you follow me?”
Josh, looking mildly embarrassed, nodded. “Yes, I follow.”
“So here’s what we’re going to do. I am willing to hope that today’s little incident was no more than pushing yourself too hard these last weeks, plus travel, which always whacks it out of you even if you’ve been doing it from the cradle, understood?”
Josh swallowed. “Yes.”
“Good. So we’ll take some days of rest—real rest. If we sightsee, we take a car, walk around for a bit, take the car back. No scaling walls, no hiking that dreadful hill to Andechs Abbey, which is a shame because their beer is first-rate.”
Josh sighed. “I haven’t even been able to taste it—everybody says that.”
“Well, we’ll have to come back,” Liam told him gently. “But if you’re up to full strength by the time Carl and Michael get here, I’ll hold my peace, we’ll do the gig, and you’ll see your doctor when we get back to the States. Fair?”
Josh nodded like he was off the hook, but he wasn’t.
“But if—” Liam had to clear his throat. “If, even once, you scare me again like you scared me on the train today, we will end up at Europe’s famed social health care quicker than you can ask how much it will cost. Do you understand?”
“Don’t rub it in,” Josh mumbled. “Everybody in America knows you’re more civilized than we are.”
“Well, some idiots put the City of Batshit Crazy in charge,” Liam said with compassion.
Most folks in Europe felt sorry for their friends in the States these days.
It was a terrible place to live right now—they could either fix it or flee.
He was proud, really, of Josh’s family for working so hard at fixing it. It was one of the reasons he was here.
“I’m really okay—” Josh began, but Liam shook his head and allowed some of his fear to show.
“Boy, I’ll forgive you if you’re not okay,” Liam said, wrapping his arm around Josh’s shoulders and pulling him close.
“I’ll forgive you for getting sick on me in the middle of this adventure and making me call your parents and tell them this happened on my watch. You know what I won’t forgive you?”
“Dying?” Josh asked, and Liam’s heart twisted, knowing that it had really come that close in November, and he and Josh hadn’t even been allowed to be then.
“Pushing me away again,” Liam whispered. “Not again. So you get used to that. You give me an honest evaluation. So right now, scale of one to ten?”
Josh grunted. “Five,” he admitted. “I’m fucking exhausted.”
Liam let out a slightly easier breath. “Fair. Stay honest. If you’re not at a seven by the time Carl and Michael are up and about, you and I will go to the doctor, and if it’s more serious than iron and sleep, we call your parents, understand?”
“Yes,” Josh said, all the fight apparently beaten out of him by what had mostly been a pretty awesome day.
“Fair.” Liam shuddered the last of his own stress into the couch, which he had to admit was extremely comfortable.
“Now what are we watching?” He indicated Josh’s computer, which was all set up with a movie, something mindless and entertaining and not in German, which Liam was fair at speaking, but his brain wasn’t up to it today.
“Reacher,” Josh told him, and Liam let out a delighted laugh.
“Trying to see how the other half lives?” he asked, indicating the title character’s enormous size and muscular physique.
“It’s so not fair,” Josh grumbled. “Have you seen Chuck, Hunter, and Carl? Their bodies are made to stack muscles.”
Liam kissed his temple. “Yeah, boy-o, but you’ve got a really wrinkly brain. Nature’s got to balance these things out, yes?”
“The thought of you stroking my brain is absolutely terrifying,” Josh said. “Let’s watch the stupid show.”
He was asleep before the end of the first episode, and Liam did what he hadn’t done since they’d gotten back from the Caribbean in January.
Carried his boy to bed and tucked him in.
He was almost as insubstantial now as he had been then, and Liam thought he should maybe have a private chat with the one parent guaranteed to not lose his shit.
Because if he didn’t, Liam might lose his own.
“TIRED WITH a nosebleed?” Danny asked as Liam crouched in the bathroom, feeling like he was texting his wife or something.
“Yes. He—I made him promise if he didn’t feel better after some rest, we’d call you, but….”
“Nosebleeds are scary,” Danny said soothingly. “I get it. But he’s also right. The doctor said there could be lingering anemia, and his recovery period isn’t anywhere near the three years they recommend. Of course, Josh was always an overachiever, but sometimes….”
“You can’t rush healing,” Liam murmured, and curiously enough he thought of his own father.
“I like your plan,” Danny said. “Hold him to it. And call us if anything else happens. I’ll put a line to his doctor now, and so if you do have to go in to the medicos, he’ll be ready with Josh’s records.”
“Okay,” Liam said, feeling better. “Good. I just….” How to say this.
“Needed a grown-up in the room,” Danny supplied.
“Well, that’s embarrassing.”
“My boy, we are all high maintenance in this crowd. You may or may not have figured that out, but big personalities are often scar tissue over big damage. Second thoughts?”
“Absolutely not,” Liam said fiercely.
“And witness,” Danny said smugly.
Liam had to give him points for that, and then he rung off. Adrift a little, and not quite as tired as Josh but with the edge of his worry blunted, he finished off their dinner and then settled down to watch Josh’s show.
It was entertaining, he thought with a yawn, finally exhausted. But he really did prefer his wrinkly brains to his giant biceps. It was a personal sort of attraction, and he’d stand by that choice any day.