Liam’s eyes were burning.He didn’t know the whole of the story, but he knew enough now.He’d had a dalliance with a man who had lied about being married.It had hurt, but the thought of being in love, not only with a man but with afamily,and being the dirty secret—the ache that would cause….
Chilled Liam to the bone, and he was just sitting by the man’s bed.
“What next?”he asked, settling down in the chair again, this time so Danny could see him sitting.
“I have no idea,” Danny mumbled.
“I do,” Liam said.“You know, Interpol agents have a thing for scotch.”
He got a crooked smile.“Oh really?”
“Or coke or gin.”Liam had seen enough of it—Carter was headed for a treatment program if he didn’t stop taking a snort in the morning to wake himself up.Either that or a cardiac infarction.
“There’s a center—a good place.Not an awful place.It’s in Ireland.I can get you a bed there, Lightfingers.”
“So I could wake up in prison?No thank you.”Danny managed to open his eyes for that one, and Liam had to laugh.
“Well, you get me a name I can give them thatisn’tan international art thief, and I’ll get you there,” Liam said, meaning it.
Danny closed his eyes.“This is a nice fantasy,” he mumbled.“But it’s never going to work—”
“That boy,” Liam said harshly.“You’re going to just leave him?”
“Tienne?”The reply was puzzled.“I thought we were hashing that out!”
“The other one,” Liam said.“Josh.The one you snuck in to see.He’ll want to see you again.And again.My father was a drunk.And, you know, he died early, and he left us poor, but you know what?We miss him.You keep going like you are, I won’t be in the next alleyway to bail you out.”
“Oh God,” Danny groaned.“You’re young, copper, but I think I hate you.”
Liam reached out and took one of those fine-boned, trembling hands in his own.He felt a kinship for this man.
“You,” Danny said, “are far too young for me.”
“My last lover was ten years your senior,” Liam told him dryly.“But that’s the last time I sleep with a married man, and your heart is obviously already taken by this Fox fellow.No, this is a simple human touch, my friend.”His dryness faded.“Please.My father was a sweet man with a weakness.I’d give anything to have him back.You… you just saved a boy at your worst moment.I think you’ve got the strength to fight this thing.That boy you love—he’s waiting to see you again.Think about how he’d feel if you crawled off to die.”
There was a deadly quiet then, and Liam could hear, barely, the changes in Danny’s breathing as the tears slipped through in spite of his best efforts.
Finally, “I’ll need a sedative,” he murmured.“Enough to kill the DTs while I go find my cache.”
Liam cocked his head.“I’m inInterpol—”
“Nothing stolen!”Danny retorted, voice wounded.“My God, you people—you and Julia—with the insults.Just my ID, my computer.Did you think I left that withKadjic?Not enough booze in theworld.”
My God, he was sharp.Liam wondered what sort of menace he’d be when he was fully sober.
And suddenly resolved to find out.
Liam wasn’t in love with Danny Lightfingers—and Lightfingers didn’t seem to be in love with him.But Liam thought of his father, of his siblings, of this man who was loved so much that his lover’swifebegged him to come home.
He seemed like a man worth knowing.
Kadjic had left Morocco, but Liam still got points for getting so close to him in the first place when his entire detail thought Liam was mad for searching there.He was reassigned to the UK to take on a ring of car thieves, which proved to be exciting.And it gave him opportunities to visit Lightfingers in rehab, where he stayed for three months.While he was there, Liam helped him set up a dead drop in New York so he could send mail to Josh without being traced and witnessed firsthand the brilliance of the man when unhampered with booze or despair.
Toward the end of Danny’s stay, Liam arrived with a gift.A trunk-sized suitcase to hold the things Danny had gathered in Ireland, since he’d left Morocco with barely the clothes on his back.
Danny had greeted him warmly, but as he did so, he gave a tall young Viking about his own age a gentle “this is private” glance, and the man nodded and ambled off in a dignified manner.
“A conquest?”Liam asked, laughing.Not handsome or beautiful, no.In fact, perfectly ordinary—but there was that puckish appeal that was, apparently, irresistible.
