And he came back because we’re better together,Felix reminded himself fiercely.
“Please, no,” Felix answered in response to Danny’s stony silence.
Danny gave him an expression of annoyance, putting his hand up to cup his ear as he listened to Stirling.When he was done, he nodded and glanced up to the hillside, searching, presumably, for the lights from Kadjic’s vehicle.
Then he focused on Felix.“Fox, this isn’t a death sentence.Stirling’s got a fix on Josh and Grace—and me.But even if we’re stripped of our earwigs, he’s got a fix onKadjic.Grace gave him some information to look up, Stirling tagged his phone, and now, even if they send a signal jammer to burn outourcomms, Stirling’s got a track onKadjic’s.So follow me.Let him take me and follow me.If we get Grace and Josh back, it’s all worth it.”
Felix nodded, his brain seeing the sense of it, but his heart….
He kissed Danny hard, desperately, needing him so much in that moment, his common sense checked completely out of the picture.Couldn’t this man see that Felix was nothing without him?He’d spent ten years as nothing, a shell, Josh and Julia his only ties to the land of the living.They’d kept him there, sure, and he’d never be sorry he’d kept the promises he and Danny had made—of safety, of shelter, of caring—but none of that had been forFelixuntil Danny had come back into his arms.
Danny pulled away, giving a shy grin that yanked Felix immediately back to twenty years ago, when they were practically children, and Felix had first let Danny kiss him in his tiny, airless garret room.
And then Felix had kissed him back.
“This isn’t the last of me,” Danny said.“I promise, Fox.I won’t leave you.I meant it.Never again.”
“You had better fucking not,” Felix said thickly and then held him close, so close, against his chest, wondering if he’d ever learn to breathe again after this night.
At that moment, Danny cocked his head and parted from him, then whispered, “Go lay on the hill, there, in the grass.They can’t see you, Felix.I need you to come get me!”
Felix nodded dumbly and hurried to do as Danny said, sliding into the weeds on the hillside, which were, as the fall rains threatened, high enough to cover his shoulders as he flattened himself to the ground.At that moment the car—an enormous luxury vehicle, black, of course—slithered down the last curve of the hill to the upper lot.The headlights picked up Danny, slouching insouciantly, looking for all the world like he wasn’t waiting for his ex-lover and greatest mistake, the man who had tried to murder him in a back alley and left a twisting of scars on his ribs and worse ones on his heart.
In his ears there was a crackle, and Stirling said, “Josh is in the trunk—they don’t know about him.Grace is in the back with Kadjic, and they’re making the trade for him.Josh says there’s a quick-release handle in the trunk.He should be able to open it, but he says he might need an assist out.”
“An assist?”Felix asked, shocked out of his fear.“Josh?”
And Stirling, who while running comms on an op always sounded at least fifty years old instead of Josh’s age, suddenly sounded much, much younger.“Felix, he hasn’t said anything, but he’s not sounding… great.I didn’t want to tell Danny that, but I think the reason he ended up in the trunk was he was too weak to run anywhere else to hide.”
Oh.“Oh no,” Felix whispered, his heart aching.Of all the bloody times.Josh had been so conscientious since Felix had arrived from Stuttgart.But the last two weeks had been a lot to ask from anybody.
Good God, the way that boy drove himself.Felix had seen it as a child—even before Danny left, he’d wanted to be the best at everything he tried.(Except test scores.Felix was aware that Josh had fixed his test scores to be slightly behind Grace’s, but even that spoke to Josh’s kindness and his intense loyalty.) And since embarking on this enterprise, this… thisadventureto go out into the world and not simply tilt at windmills but slay the real giants, Josh’s drive had amped higher.
Felix had been so relieved he’d allowed Liam back into his life.But Liam—for all that he seemed to be a verygoodboyfriend—was not a miracle worker, and Josh’s body needed a year of peace in which to heal.
Felix would not object to that.That month at home, him and Danny working their actual jobs, Julia consumed with the joy of a pregnancy not only wanted butcelebrated—and Leon, their new brother, who had come to him and Danny for counsel and for companionship every day—that had been golden.
And Felix wanted more of that peace.Jobs, yes, he thought yearningly, but he wanted jobs they could do from home.He wanted time with his family not fraught with danger.
But first they all had to survive this night.
Felix watched anxiously through the tall grasses as the car drew to a halt, Danny still illuminated by the LED lights, looking for all the world as though he were waiting for a bus.
DANNY TRIEDto block the headlight glow, dying for a glance at Grace.He wished he’d known Josh was still in the trunk—he would have placed Felix closer to the main road so he could run, open the trunk, and get Josh out, all while Danny was occupying Kadjic.
And the thought that that’s what he was doing—occupying the man and not fencing for his life—helped keep him calm.
Anything he and Andrejevic Kadjic said to each other would be inconsequential to getting Josh and Grace out of the man’s clutches.
An enormous man emerged from the rear of the town car as it idled, and Danny dismissed him.Muscle.Yes, he could probably snap Danny’s neck like a twig and probably had several weapons on his person—but Kadjic was the real killer, the commander of the troops.
“Andres?”Danny asked politely, and the man with no neck scowled and shook his head.So Danny raised his voice.“Andrejevic, get out here and face me yourself, you coward, and bring the boy with you.”
The muscle backed up, and Grace emerged from the town car, moving jerkily as though pushed.
Kadjic himself emerged behind him, glaring through the mist now lightly peppering the space between the headlights and Danny.
“What are you doing here?”Kadjic asked, sounding shocked, and it occurred to Danny that while his empire had been collapsing, Kadjic hadn’t thought to connect the flamboyant art thefts with the massive inroads he and his people had made at dismantling the branches of Kadjic’s life work.
