Chapter 15 Prague #2
Danny sighed. “They took a biopsy of your bone marrow this morning, which is why your arm hurts. Tomorrow we’ll know if your cancer’s back. If it is, by next week we’ll know how we’re going to treat it.”
“No…,” Josh mumbled. “No… plan without me. Please.” His eyes were closing. “Liam… tell Liam….”
Liam could take care of the family while Josh was sick. But Josh had fallen asleep as quickly as Grace. Goddammit. He had so much left undone.
HE WOKE up to bright morning sun, and a… a different presence at his back. A little bulkier, snoring softly, and something about the scent—clean, yes, but a little darker, more cedar….
“Liam?” he mumbled, and his mother, ethereally lovely as always, moved to close the blind so the sun was deflected to the ceiling and not in Josh’s eyes.
“He’s sleeping, darling,” she said, turning toward him now that her task was done.
Impeccable. Julia Dormer-Salinger always looked impeccable, he thought proudly.
She was wearing a pale blue pantsuit, with a cream-colored blouse and a rope of pearls at her throat.
Her hair was done up in a twist, and her makeup—always subtle—had masked some of the ravages of sleeplessness and worry.
But not all.
“Sorry to drag you out here,” he mumbled.
“Not at all,” she said sweetly, taking a seat next to his bed and picking up a paper cup of tea.
“It’s nearly September, and Prague is just breathtaking.
It’s a treat to come out this time of year.
” Her expression dimmed. “Unless, of course, I’m worried about my child. Not so much of a treat then, is it.”
“Sorry,” he said again.
“The person you should apologize to is lying right behind you,” she said gravely. “You promised the world to him, Josh—do you understand that?”
“I don’t want to let anybody down,” he said.
“Oh, bollix the rest of us,” she said sharply. “He’s the one who’s been waiting for you. We’ve had you. Do you want to break his heart?”
“Uncle Danny yelled less!” he complained, somewhat unfairly, and she gave a ladylike and delicate snort.
“Uncle Danny never had to convince you to do your algebra,” she told him crossly, and he could see the marks of crying on her features and felt even worse. But instead of yelling more, she reached out and feathered that lovely healing mom-touch across his forehead.
“Don’t mind me,” she said softly. “Apparently it’s a good thing I didn’t have a whole day care center full of children, because I’m not great at balancing worry and pregnancy.
And I’m not only worrying about you—although you do your share, let me tell you.
The men try to keep the details from me, because my ‘delicate condition’ scares the raisins out of them—all of them.
It’s hilarious and terrifying. But I’ve caught some of the transmissions and…
.” She shook her head. “My God, the risks you all are taking. I can’t believe I thought I could nap and retire during some of the planning stages and you all would carry on without me.
Did Grace tell you about the cocaine plantation job? ”
Josh’s lips twitched. “Something about him and Molly getting a face full of cocaine and how drugs are bad.”
She eyed him sourly. “That’s exactly what I got, and given that’s the sanitized version, I think we should both be having a retroactive panic attack.”
His shoulder still hurt, and his body felt like it was under a giant dollop of molasses. “Sure, Mom. I’ll get right on it.”
She let out a sigh and slumped back into her chair. “I’m sorry,” she said after a moment. “I… it’s strange. I’ve never in my life had so much good fortune, but for the first time in my life I’m—”
“Afraid of losing it all,” Josh filled in for her, understanding exactly.
She stroked his brow again. “Yes,” she murmured. “That. Okay. I promise not to overreact, but you—you have to promise me something too.”
Oh no. He knew where this was going. “Stay back with Stirling for this one?”
“You’re very bright,” she whispered. “No matter what the biopsy results are, yes. Please. For me?”
“Whatever,” he grumbled with little grace. “It’s not like I can move much now anyway.”
“How very adult,” Liam said into his hair.
“Wait until I exact promises from you,” Josh said, starting to fall asleep again.
“Yes, I’ll keep your family safe,” Liam said softly.
“How did you know?” But he was asleep before Liam could answer.
LIAM KNEW because Josh had been saying it in his sleep for the last ten hours.
He’d gotten back to the hospital early in the morning, after catching a few hours of sleep at Danny’s apartment and updating everybody there on his condition.
(The team seemed to have split itself up into older and younger regarding the apartment/hotel sitch.
Hunter, Grace, Molly, Tienne, and Stirling had taken over Danny’s apartment, while Chuck, Lucius, Carl, Michael, Tor, and Marco were staying with the “adults” in the hotel. Weird.)
When he’d returned to the hospital, he’d found Danny, pale and hollow-eyed, trying to console Grace.
“We can take care of ourselves. Why won’t he fucking sleep!”
“Hush, pet,” Danny had murmured, his arms around the young man like any parent’s would be. “It’s okay. He’s going to be worried with all our near misses.”
And Josh had muttered, eyes not opening, “Liam? Liam, take care of them. Keep them safe.”
And helplessly, like being swept away in a wave, Liam was back on the goddamned yacht, when the family had been about to leave to take care of the business that had drawn them to the Caribbean in the first place and Josh had been sentenced to staying behind.
Take care of my family.
And Liam understood about families, about knowing they were strong and fragile, and knowing that the loss of one member, only one, could shatter the peace of the many until the unit repaired itself with duct tape and superglue and sad, bleeding shards of their hearts.
They both knew what he’d been asking, and Liam had jumped into the boat for Gunrunner’s Island without a qualm.
His only regret then had been that he and Josh hadn’t yet kissed.
Well, they’d kissed now. They’d made love, and it had been everything Liam had dreamed. And here he was, being given that same choice again. Stay with his… his person. More than a lover, more than a friend, the one human that fate seemed to have gifted him with, and he was in need.
But more than that, Josh needed Liam to help keep his heart whole.
He’d barely looked at Danny and Grace after that. He’d crawled into bed behind Josh, the spot still warm, he suspected, from when Grace had slept, and he’d pulled his heart close.
“I’m here, boy-o. I’ll take care of them. Don’t you worry.”
“Liam,” Josh mumbled. And then he’d relaxed and, thank heaven, slept.
Liam sensed a shifting around the room then, and since he hadn’t slept well or long the night before, he dozed for a bit. When he woke up, Danny and Grace were gone, and Felix was there.
Because of course he was.
“How are we doing?” the big man asked, and he was wearing a sport coat, polo shirt, and slacks, his lion-mane of blond hair tamed by an expensive haircut, like any other buzzenteenillionaire out on a holiday.
(Liam rather enjoyed buzzenteen maths now that he’d gotten the hang of it.
Saved him a lot of work on adjectives like “polished” and “urbane” and “posh.”)
“I’m sorry,” Liam said, before he knew it would come out of his mouth. He started to move, thinking to get out of bed and meet Josh’s father eye to eye, but Felix shook his head and held out his hand.
“You would not believe how many conversations we’ve had with one person or another in this very position,” he said, mouth tilting upwards slightly.
His mouth stayed the same, but his eyes grew shiny as he added, “Even Stirling, who promised Grace that he’d make sure Josh wasn’t lonely when that lot went to Greenland.
Had to keep myself from bawling like a baby when I saw that. Those kids….”
“I hear they had a rough go of it with the drug job,” Liam said, remembering Molly and Chuck’s raucous retelling of the adventure in Colombia. Hunter hadn’t laughed as they’d been telling that, though—apparently that wound of worrying about Grace was slower to heal these days.
“Some of them,” Felix admitted. “Stirling, Tienne, and Tor and Marco have actually been having the time of their lives, from what I understand. They got to Stuttgart right as your little stickers and such had been noticed, and somebody asked about the two caskets.”
“Somebody?” Liam queried, catching the extra inflection on the word.
“Tienne,” Felix said. “He’s very good at doing his job and then just fading away, like the Homer Simpson meme.”
Liam chuckled. Everyone knew that one.
“So Tor was there to cover it,” Liam said with some satisfaction.
That had been the plan. Stirling and Tienne had also, on a smaller scale, been responsible for other light shows like the one in Paris, and apparently Tienne had been training up—he’d managed to tap the pocket of one of the biggest right-wing politicians in the States, who’d been visiting Paris as they’d been leaving, and then Stirling had spread the man’s passcodes around on the dark web, doing amazing damage to the man’s reputation and finances.
While not exactly planned or sanctioned by the group, it was in fact quite a coup.
Stirling had flashed the Lightfingers symbol above the man’s hotel that night from a projector on a timer, while he and Tienne were well and away from the site.
So yes, if Kadjic was paying any attention at all to the news, he’d be chasing his tail, trying to track down Danny while at the same time wondering who was responsible for all the chaos of his businesses.
It would make even a very careful man very careless indeed.