And then Kadjic started glancing wildly around, screaming at his muscle man in Russian as he, too, searched the immediate surrounds.
Oh hell.
Where the fuck was Grace?
Danny’s smile widened, and as Kadjic shook him harder and Felix strained against Leon and Lucius’s restraining hands….
Wait for it.
BOOM!
Forgetting stealth, the three people in the grass rolled over so they could scope the river below them, and stare in horror as theSpelyy Presikburst into flames, a handful of people throwing themselves off the aft deck and into the black water twenty feet below.
As Felix caught his breath, worried for his friends, he heard faintly—so faintly—Josh’s cry of “Liam!”but before he could run to the back of the town car and pull Josh out of the trunk, Kadjic gave a howl of rage and threw Danny in the car, lunging in after him and screaming for the driver to pull away.
Their no-neck friend barely claimed his foot from the pavement before the car squealed up the hill and into the night, and as it disappeared from the circle of ambient light, orange from the burning ship, Felix saw the back hatch of the vehicle slam shut, obviously yanked from the inside.
“Ohhell!”Felix cried.
And Grace was nowhere to be found.
Reichenbach Falls
AT LEASTGrace was warm, because the outside temperature was dropping with every mile, and even beyond the exhaust and the smell of the tire and engine grease—and his own blood—Josh could catch the tang of snow.
“You’re so stupid,” he mumbled, about an hour into the drive.“You could have been free!”
“I’m stupid?”Grace mumbled back, cuddling into Josh closer.“You’re too weak to walk!How could I know you were too weak to walk!”
“I’m sorry,” Josh told him, trying not to shiver.“I’m so sorry.”
Grace had tunneled under the foil blanket too—they wouldn’t freeze to death here in the trunk, but comfort was at least a hundred kilometers behind and below them.“I was trying to plant the trackers.I didn’t expect….”Josh tried to keep his voice from breaking.“I didn’t expect….”He didn’t expect his body to give out, not now, when they all needed it most.
Grace pulled him closer.“Why?”he asked softly.“Why now?”
“What?”Josh was trying not to cry.
“You were strong and fucking silent for a year—why does this hurt you so much now?”
Josh almost laughed.Who said Grace hadn’t grown emotionally since he and Hunter had gotten together?
Which was the answer, wasn’t it?Having someone in your life to lay your burdens on made you stronger, but it also made you realize how weak you were alone.
“You’re so brave,” he whispered.“Loving Hunter.It’s so scary knowing they could leave, even if they don’t want to.”
“Liam won’t leave you,” Grace said.“I mean, you know, he might leaveChicago, but you don’t have to stay there all the time either.”
“I’m so muddled,” Josh admitted, “as to how that will work.I’ve kept you out of school enough.You were going to get your degree and teach kids to dance, and you have shows to be in and—”
“And you’ll be following your Interpol boyfriend around the world, helping him break into shit,” Grace said with satisfaction.“And then you’ll come home for months at a time, and you and I will raise hell.Don’t worry, Recovery Boy—you can’t ditch me.”Joshheardhis scowl.“Not that you didn’t try.What was that shit?”
Josh had listened in horror as Danny threatened to trade himself for Grace, but at the same time, he got the plan.Danny trades himself for Grace, Grace swings around and picks the lock and lets Josh out, and then, when they were clear, the cavalry would rush in and the yacht would explode and hey, they’d track the car to Kadjic’s lair, Liam would call Interpol, and Kadjic would be busted, his empire in shambles, his secret art collection discovered and released to the world—hooray!
Except Grace got to the trunk and found it open, but Josh was unable to do more than that.By the time Grace arrived, Josh was so weak he could barely lift himself up on his elbow to tell Grace to run.
And while Grace had been trying to wrestle him out of the trunk—all in silence because, of course, Danny was scaring the shit out of everybody as he sparred with Kadjic—the yacht had blown up.
Josh had watched his friends, and, hey, the man he loved beyond reason, leap off the aft deck and—hopefully—not get singed on their way down.
