Liam kept hold of Danny’s other hand, and the three of them were winched up, one foot at a time, until they reached the recessed roof of the house, where they literally pushed Danny into Leon’s arms so they could scramble into the alcove themselves.
Liam could feel blood drenching his ribs as he pulled himself to safety.
For a moment they stood, breathless, double-checking each other for new injuries, when their silence was broken by Felix.
He’d engulfed Danny in an embrace so tender Liam had to look away.It was so very apparent Felix was sobbing against Danny’s neck.
“So,” Leon said, coming up alongside Liam.“I think we should see how Josh is doing, don’t you?”
New Day
IT TOOKtwo hours for Interpol to get there, and by the time they did, Tor had arrived in a rental, a flustered Marco by his side to play cameraman, and the rest of the crew had cleared out.
Felix and Leon had needed to restrain Liam to keep him from going with them.Josh was a mess, blood caking the front of his shirt, circles under his sunken eyes, his pulse thready and his temperature spiking.
“You need to stay,” Josh told him, “and get your medical treatment here.Hamlet had it right, Liam—there needs to be reporting here.You need to spin it, otherwise they’ll run fingerprints and we’re all cooked.”
“But God, baby—”
Josh’s smile had been the shy one, the one Liam treasured.“You’ll find me.Don’t worry.It’s not goodbye—it’s just one more goddamned trip to the hospital.”He scowled playfully.“Maybe from now on they’ll start packing plasma in the comms van.”
He’d kissed Liam then, hard, and Liam had responded with all his soul.But inside he knew.This wasn’t over by a long shot.
Two hours after the kiss, Interpol arrived, and somebodynotHunter stitched up his ribs.
Two days later the trailer his supervisor had commissioned to house the Interpol agents and provide offices so they could categorize and report on all the artifacts in the house arrived.Coincidentally, that was the same day the forensics people recovered Kadjic’s broken, bloodied body at the foot of the falls.
Not much of it was left, Liam was happy to report, but his fingerprints and dental records were stillquiterecognizable.
Two weeks after Kadjic’s body was recovered, Liam wasstillat the Fortress of Vanity (as Josh called it in text now), helping to catalogue and source all the stolen artwork.His supervisor had said, rather happily, that the job would take years and had hinted to Liam that he might be in charge of the operation before it was over.
Liam didn’t tell him that ifhewas left in charge, he might be found guilty of shipping some of the more memorable art pieces to a family in Chicago, for no other reason than he thought they might enjoy them when their original owners didn’t seem to care.
He obviously was not the most reliable of agents at this moment.
Two weeks after that terrible temptation to steal art for the Salingers just because Liam missed them, Josh was given the okay to go back to the States, but Liam was still stuck in the fucking trailer, longing for one of the decadent hot showers atanyof the hotels he’d stayed at during his journey and wanting to see Josh so badly he almost couldn’t breathe.
He didn’t even have their fingerprints to hide.Liam resolved to send Michael’s kids acasefull of toys since Michael had been the one to remember housecleaning, which he and the others had done before they left.
Liam got Josh’s text when he touched down in Chicago, and sat in that awful sterile trailer, staring at his phone, his heart, hissoul,feeling empty.
His supervisor was now Carter, who had taken his turn in rehab all those years ago and run with it.He was now an able administrator who trusted Liam since their days in the field together.Liam—knowing that Carter valued humanity and justice more than bureaucracy—had taken that first violation of the rules in shipping Tienne to the hands of the Salingers as his invitation to skirt the rules.
Carter, who had seen that Liam was a decent human being, had allowed for any elisions Liam made with his reports.
It had been a good working relationship, and Liam had no complaints.
Until now.
“Craig?”Carter said, coming up behind him as he sat in the trailer staring soullessly at his phone.“Anything wrong?”
Liam glanced at Carter—terminally single, sagging a little around the middle, hair thinning, living for the job—and his emptiness felt eternal.
“Oh,” Carter said softly.“Time, is it?”
“Time?”Liam asked hollowly.
“You were always meant for greater things than just this unit,” Carter said.“Husband, children, a life….”
