And Danny had announced Josh had officially graduated from his course on lifting a wallet without the owner being the wiser.
Josh’s fingers and fine motor skills were so inherently tuned—and so trained—by this point that he could run through the exercise of unscrewing the frame’s backing while avoiding the contact points for the alarm unit several times over without breaking a sweat.But after a half hour, he glanced up and noticed that while Liam’s fingers remained steady on their tasks, his forehead was a little damp.
“Food break?”he called kindly, and Liam grunted.
“You’re taking it easy on me,” Liam claimed, but he fell back against the couch and stretched his neck in relief.
“Well, you have other skills,” Josh placated as they both rose and headed for the take-out containers on the counter.
“I am absolutely mortified by that phrase,” Liam told him grimly.“Oh, Liam,” he mocked, “it’s okay if you can’t get it up and you’re a terrible lover—you have other skills.”
Josh cackled.“Well, I think we just proved youcanget it up and you’re anamazinglover, so maybe don’t take it like that.”
Liam smiled in that self-deprecating way he had that turned Josh’s key before wrapping his arms around Josh’s waist and pulling him against his chest.
“I just… you know.I’m not a dyed-in-the-wool thief,” he said.
Josh kissed his cheek.“I thought we both agreed my type is the man who catches thieves.You caught me.Be happy.”
“I am.”Liam gave him a squeeze before going for the plates in the cupboard.“Just, you know, don’t let my family scare you off, okay?They, uhm, may have heard a lot about you as you were growing up.”
“Now I find thatfascinating,” Josh said, sampling the green lamb curry and finding it mild enough for his poor abused stomach.He dished that up along with some rice, grabbed the fork Liam had left on the counter, and stepped to the side to let Liam make his own plate.Liam glanced at the small spot of food on Josh’s and gave a crooked smile.
“Are you going to make me nag?”he asked gently.
“Let me see how this goes down,” Josh told him.“It’s getting better, and this is made with coconut milk, so that helps, but I never know.”
“Nagging over,” Liam said, much to Josh’s relief.He appreciated people’s concern—he did—but God, he was tired of feeling broken.“So now on to what’s fascinating.”
Josh grinned and made his way back to the couch, where he pulled up his legs cross-legged.To his surprise—and pleasure—Liam sat down next to him and leaned back so Josh could lean into him.
“It’s fascinating that your family is so up on mine.Why is that?Why would you go home and say, ‘Hey, I met this thief called Lightfingers—want to hear his story?’”
Liam smirked.“Not quite like that,” he said, chewing thoughtfully.He closed his eyes, savoring the highly flavored Indian food, and swallowed.“I guess… see, I’d started out being a flatfoot—everybody got to hear those stories.I mean, I patrolled the neighborhood I grew up in.They knew half the people I collared, yeah?”
“Yeah,” Josh said, nodding his head and getting it.A little bite of curry.He sighed, thinking he might be able to have seconds.It was good to eat again.
“But then… well, I didn’t tell them about Alec Lawson.”
“Because your sex life is your own,” Josh filled in wryly, thinking about how the entire family had wanted in onhissex life, but he was surprised when Liam shook his head.
“I was ashamed,” he said thoughtfully.“I… you know.I’d thought I’d discovered something really important—”
“You did,” Josh said in surprise.
“And then I got… sidetracked, I guess.I was lied to and dumped, and I took a promotion for my silence.I was embarrassed, I guess.”
Josh frowned, remembering Liam’s dry wish for Josh to keep his secrets secret.“But youownedthat shit,” Josh said.“You took that promotion and you did a good job with it.You got closer to Kadjic than the rest of your organization combined.Didn’t you singlehandedly clean up prison corruption somewhere too?”
Liam grimaced, and Josh realized he wasn’t supposed to have heard that story either.
“Lightfingers helped me with that,” he mumbled.
“Oh,” Josh said, not liking the mortification on Liam’s face at all.“So it’s okay for us to go in as a group and do all the great stuff, butyoudon’t get to accept help because you’re a poor boy from East End and can do it all yourself.”
Liam gave him a flat look.“No, that’s not what I’m—”
“So our help isn’t good enough?”Josh kept probing.“You’re mad because the busts we’ve helped you with this last year weren’t pure Liam Craig magic?”
