Josh raised his eyebrows puckishly.“We ran into him when my family was wandering around Europe, when I was a little kid.Sweet guy.Loves fairy tales, proud Irishman, has a daughter about my age.I think Danny and Felix financed him—gave him enough money to live on until he made it big mainstream, and also kept him going so he could do his street art.”
“I didn’t know he was mainstream,” Liam said, impressed.
“Under a different name,” Josh said.“Anyway, they called it a grant, and he gives them a painting once a year to auction so they can keep giving out grants.Nice guy.”
Liam chuckled.“Of course,” he said.“But back to Joe Strummer coming back from the dead and painting street art.”
“Well, what if he painted street art while he wasalive,” Josh said.“And you got a chance to, I don’t know, own a piece of that wall for your giant loft—”
“Tiny dusty flat,” Liam corrected dryly.
“With a fabulous art collection,” Josh supplied.“Anyway, ifyouwere a power-hungry oligarch, wouldn’tyoucome buy that chunk of wall?”
Liam nodded.“Okay, so yeah.I get it.You baited the hook with a very public exhibition, and then fucked with it.Nice hint of cruelty.That’s how you knew he’d show up,andhow you knew he’d flip out.”
“Exactly,” Josh said.“And we knew Celeste ran in his circles, so that’s why her loft.Besides, it was in Chicago, and we want to take him out onourhome turf.”
“Fair,” Liam said.“So he managed to squirrel out of meeting the FBI—”
“Big surprise.BTW, if anybody asks, Carl’s here right now debriefing us for the insurance company.”
“I’ll be sure to toast him a bagel,” Liam said dryly.
“Well, hewasgoing to come by,” Josh said, his mouth quirking, “but apparently oversharing with my obnoxious codependent does have an upside.”
Liam massaged his forehead with one knuckle.“So good to know.”
“But there’s more,” Josh said, tapping an item on his tablet.“While we were making out?”
“Making love,” Liam supplied without glancing up from prepping his bagel.
“Doing naked things,” Josh clarified, eyes dancing, “two things were happening.Number one, somebody was taking a poke at my ID.”
Liam almost dropped his bagel.“I’m sorry?”
“We knew it might be challenged,” Josh said.“I’m not really a celebrity, but Felix and Julia are out a lot on the society pages.Danny has managed to keep a low profile after that appearance on TV last year, so Stirling backstopped ‘J.D.Morgan’ to the moon.The ID held—Stirling, Danny, and Tienne have built a system the military would envy—but Danny says somebody’s been pretty insistent with it.There haven’t been any breakthroughs, and nobody’s thought about facial recognition software yet, which is good, but we can’t expect that to last.”
“What does that mean for us?”Liam asked, concerned.
“It means we need to get our shit together,” Josh said with a shrug.He glanced up as Liam placed his bagel on a napkin and a glass of juice on the counter at Josh’s side.“But that starts this afternoon.”
“Yes, I heard.”Liam walked around the counter and perched on the stool next to Josh’s.“Two this afternoon.Why?Why did it have to be so early?”
Josh gave him a winsome smile.“Because I wanted to play video games with my friends.With you.Also my friend.”
“More than friends,” Liam grumbled playfully.But he was as weak as the next man; he needed to hear it.
“Yes,” Josh said, and he leaned his head on Liam’s shoulder with that pliancy and sweetness Liam remembered from the yacht.Not weakness, he thought, wrapping his arm around Josh’s shoulders and leaning back.He sighed, some of his insecurity leaching out.
“What was the other thing?”Liam asked.
“Well, the other thing was that phone—remember the one I gave Danny?”
“I do,” Liam said, mostly becausehe’dbeen the one to give it to Danny.
“In the time Kadjic was close to me, we managed to clone his phone.”
“You what?”Liam practically jumped out of his chair.
