Josh chuckled because it was true—at least for the things that he and his friends did.“Well, taking care of a population usually stops a lot of bad things,” he said, not even wanting to think about how often the Salingers had stopped the rich and the corrupt from hurting people out of sheer entitlement.
“But that takes me back to my question,” Liam said as they made their way through the bustling kitchen—where they’d take the entrance to the dining room and from there down the staircase to the basement den.
“What question?”Josh asked.“Hold up.Marco!”He smiled with genuine pleasure at Phyllis’s head chef—and Josh’s in-house caterer for the night before—who was currently cleaning the sides of a mixing bowl with a spatula.“Hey, I wanted to thank you for taking the gig last night.The feds give you any trouble?”
“Me?”the handsome young chef asked.“No, I’m just the caterer.We were hired by Celeste to do the job.Here, have a canape, they’re delicious.”
Josh chortled.“Good.Is Tor here tonight?”
Torrance Grayson, Marco’s boyfriend, was also one of Felix’s premier anchors on his news network.Torrance split his time between Marco’s cottage on the property and, when he had to work late, his own apartment in the city.The night before he’d been taping a show, but he’d been their very compelling face man since they’d started this endeavor, making sure that whenever the crew’s exploits hit the news, the first spin of the event was to shine the spotlight on the bad guys and away from the people who’d exposed them.
“He’ll be here for dinner and the meeting afterward,” Marco said.“I guess I’m invited downstairs too this time.”
“Not for dinner?”Josh asked.
Marco rolled his eyes.“I’d rather cook,” he said frankly.“Danny’s list of items we can’t talk about at the dinner table is up to two full pages on his phone.”He shuddered.“Liver fluke people.Liver fluke people, Josh.I don’tcareif theX-Filesdid it first, I don’t want them showing up during a dinnerIcooked!”
Josh grimaced.“That wasn’t Grace, was it?”
“No,” Marco said grouchily.“Thatwas Stirling.Apparently he and Tienne have been binge-watching old shows.”
“Well,” Josh said diplomatically, “we take some, uhm, digesting to get used to.”
Marco glared at him.“Get out,” he said.
“I’m sor—”
“It’s my kitchen,” Marco snapped, gesturing imperiously with the spatula in his hand.“Get out!”
“Wow,” Liam muttered.“Is he always that touchy?”
Josh winced.“I think we were a little more tightly wound than usual before this job,” he admitted.“Grace, Hunter, and Carl had been out of town, pretending to be Lightfingers while we set up the job and the ID, and they got back and, well, things got a little, uhm….”
“Out of hand,” Liam said dryly.
“I was going to say up to our usual energy,” Josh lied.
“Sure you were.”
By this point they’d made it through the dining room and were heading toward the stairs.Josh held his hand out for the railing and drew air through his teeth.“Dammit,” he muttered.“Fucking Kadjic.”
Liam sighed and paused at the landing, his brush of fingers against Josh’s shirt noting the absence of the sling.“Listen,” he murmured.“I need you to not downplay this thing with your arm tonight.”
Josh glared at him.“It’s no big—”
“It’s a very big deal,” Liam said.“Because I need the lot of you to take him seriously.He’s averydangerous man.”
“Oh, believe me,” Josh said grimly.“We know.But they’ve got to trust me in there—”
“They’ll trust you more if you tell them the truth,” Liam said without bending.
Well, that was a part of him, Josh knew.A veryattractivepart of him.He could hold his own against Josh, against his family, against the things they took on.“I don’t lie to my crew,” he said.“But I’ll try not to blow it off either.”
Liam kissed his forehead.“Thank you.Now proceed before these sliders get cold.They smell delicious.”
Well, Josh thought with a certain amount of satisfaction, he and Liamhadbeen rather active that day.The sandwiches they’d downed as they hurried toward the garage to leave hadn’t quite hit the spot.
The den was dark, lit only by the giant TV screen where characters fromWorld of Warcraftwere being pursued by bad guys and each other in search of treasure.
