Josh stared at him.“Liam.We left them alone with Grace and Molly.”
Liam groaned.“God.Yeah.Sorry.”
“At this point they know I’m circumcised, and Grace can tell them how much you snore.”
Liam scrubbed at his face with his hands.“What do you think Molly can add?”
Josh shook his head and rolled his eyes.“There’s always the time the four of us broke into this one old bigot’s store to put all his window mannequins in compromising positions,” he hazarded.
Liam’s chuckle sounded authentic.“All four of you?”
“Well, Stirling disabled the locks, Molly dressed them all in BDSM gear, and Grace slid in through the door and let the rest of us in.”
“And you?”
Josh grinned.“My idea.”He sobered.“Also, I kept Molly from beating the shit out of the guy when he was mean to Stirling.We worked as a team.”
“Still do,” Liam said softly.“Looking forward to seeing Stirling tomorrow.”
“He’s excited about running point,” Josh said.
“And Grace and Molly?”
“Wherever needed,” Josh said staunchly, and then, in the interest of truth telling, added, “Or, in Grace’s case, wherever chaos will be most entertaining.”
Liam shrugged, resigned.“Going to have to trust the boy sometime.”
Josh smiled.“My whole life.Once—only once—has he really, really crossed a line, but he won’t do that again.”
“What happened?”Liam asked.
Josh shook his head.“I’m done with secrets.Let’s run through the job a few more times and go to bed.We’ve got a lot to do tomorrow.”
Liam nodded.“Fair.Will he tell me?”
“He would,” Josh said, “for me.But it’s like that alley in Morocco.There are some moments we would really just rather keep to ourselves.Life’s complicated, Liam.You of all people should know that.”
“God, you’re older than your years,” Liam muttered.
Josh had nothing to say to that, so this timehetook the plates to the kitchen, and they went through the job three more times before bedtime.
JOSH WOKEup at seven that morning because Grace was watching him sleep.
“Are we doing this again?”he asked his pillow, not wanting to move from under Liam’s protective arm over his backside.For such a sweet guy, Liam had a streak of protectiveness in him, and Josh wasn’t going to argue with that one bit.
“Of course we are,” Grace told him.“I thought that was part of our agreement.We wouldalwaysdo that.Remember when you showed up at Hunter’s apartment, broke in, watched us sleeping, and then went back out and did us the courtesy of knocking?”
Josh scowled, not wanting to remember that night.He’d been so scared for his friend, so relieved when Hunter had been the one to find him, had grounded him, convinced him that nothing he’d done was so terrible that Hunter couldn’t love him.
“If you’dcalled,” he grumbled, “that wouldn’t have had to happen.”
“My bad,” Grace said, meaning it.“But see?Turnabout’s fair play.”
“It’ll be turnabout if Liam ever tries to sneak out of my flat with my wallet.”
Grace grunted.“That was only a couple of guys.”
“Yeah.And they were all stupid.What are you doing here again, besides creeping me out?”
