Liam sensed a shifting around the room then, and since he hadn’t slept well or long the night before, he dozed for a bit.When he woke up, Danny and Grace were gone, and Felix was there.
Because of course he was.
“How are we doing?”the big man asked, and he was wearing a sport coat, polo shirt, and slacks, his lion-mane of blond hair tamed by an expensive haircut, like any other buzzenteenillionaire out on a holiday.(Liam rather enjoyed buzzenteen maths now that he’d gotten the hang of it.Saved him a lot of work on adjectives like “polished” and “urbane” and “posh.”)
“I’m sorry,” Liam said, before he knew it would come out of his mouth.He started to move, thinking to get out of bed and meet Josh’s father eye to eye, but Felix shook his head and held out his hand.
“You would not believe how many conversations we’ve had with one person or another in this very position,” he said, mouth tilting upwards slightly.His mouth stayed the same, but his eyes grew shiny as he added, “Even Stirling, who promised Grace that he’d make sure Josh wasn’t lonely when that lot went to Greenland.Had to keep myself from bawling like a baby when I saw that.Those kids….”
“I hear they had a rough go of it with the drug job,” Liam said, remembering Molly and Chuck’s raucous retelling of the adventure in Colombia.Hunter hadn’t laughed as they’d been telling that, though—apparently that wound of worrying about Grace was slower to heal these days.
“Some of them,” Felix admitted.“Stirling, Tienne, and Tor and Marco have actually been having the time of their lives, from what I understand.They got to Stuttgart right as your little stickers and such had been noticed, and somebody asked about the two caskets.”
“Somebody?”Liam queried, catching the extra inflection on the word.
“Tienne,” Felix said.“He’s very good at doing his job and then just fading away, like the Homer Simpson meme.”
Liam chuckled.Everyone knew that one.
“So Tor was there to cover it,” Liam said with some satisfaction.That had been the plan.Stirling and Tienne had also, on a smaller scale, been responsible for other light shows like the one in Paris, and apparently Tienne had been training up—he’d managed to tap the pocket of one of the biggest right-wing politicians in the States, who’d been visiting Paris as they’d been leaving, and then Stirling had spread the man’s passcodes around on the dark web, doingamazingdamage to the man’s reputation and finances.While not exactly planned or sanctioned by the group, it was in fact quite a coup.Stirling had flashed the Lightfingers symbol above the man’s hotel that night from a projector on a timer, while he and Tienne were well and away from the site.So yes, if Kadjic was paying any attentionat allto the news, he’d be chasing his tail, trying to track down Danny while at the same time wondering who was responsible for all the chaos of his businesses.
It would make even a very careful manverycareless indeed.
“Itisworking,” Felix said softly.“We just—we’ve becomeverycognizant, I guess, of all the ways this could go wrong in the past month.And then, while we were grappling with that….”He nodded his chin at Josh.“You exhausted yet?”
Liam gave him a level look.“I can sleep, sir,” he said evenly, as his arms tightened ever so slightly around Josh’s chest.
“Good.”Felix bent to kiss Josh’s forehead and then, unexpectedly, to ruffle Liam’s hair, sending his curls into what was probably a stunning disarray.“You’re good children, both of you.”
Liam opened his mouth to say, at best, Felix was an older brother, but he found he couldn’t.At his feet opened the terrible yawning pit of heartache where his father used to be, and that twin vine wrapped around his heart.What a good, sweet manvied withwhat a terrible selfish git,and for a heart-stopping, breathless moment, he couldn’t figure out which should win.
Felix must have taken in his expression because he reached up to ruffle Liam’s hair again, and this time, his hand stayed, tenderly, like family’s.
“Good and bad,” he said softly.“We love people for their good and their bad.It’s astunningrealization that a human can hold our hearts so thoroughly, isn’t it?”His mouth—full, expressive, with none of the tight wrinkles that accompanied a smoker’s mouth or the flat lips of someone who never smiled—turned down at the corners again, and he sat back in his seat, although Liam could stillfeelthose soft fingers in his hair.
“The day after Danny left, I… I sat and cried.Went into our little cottage and realized he’d packed up everything that mattered and left everything that didn’t.”Felix swallowed hard.“And I realized—our final fight.He’d goaded me.Pushed me into telling him to get out.Because the situation was killing him.”He shook his head.“I cannot live through a moment like that again.”A deep breath.“And some people may wonder why all of us are so willing to go through this for a man who cheerfully admits his worst, deepest flaws at the drop of a hat and doesn’t spare himself when he does it.”
Liam thought of his father, boozy and a little tearful, telling Liam that he was sorry they were poor, but Liam was a good little man who would help his mum when Liam’s father couldn’t.
Liam missed him so badly, booze and all.His father had known that Liam was gay—known, and loved him with no change except to teach him to punch.Liam had been able to walk into the schoolroom or the world with confidence then.No reason to punch when you walked like nobody’s meat.But he remembered those moments, some of them unclouded by drink, when his father told his children, toldLiam, that he loved them.
Those moments were everything.
With aching clarity, he saw how this family would rise in defense of their strongest—and weakest—member.Like peering through a window into his own heart, he saw how much it meant to him to be part of this quest, this thing he’d started by being a substandard Interpol agent but a decent human being.
“I don’t wonder,” he said gruffly, leaning his cheek against Josh’s hair.Soft and thick, it needed a trim, because it was starting to curl against his collar and Josh liked it short.
Here, holding the man he seemed to be destined to love, Liam knew exactly why Josh couldn’t sleep without knowing Liam would protect his family.Liam had spent much of his young-adult life protecting his own family.He knew exactly how Josh felt.
THE NEXTmorning, Josh’s room was… well, crowded.
Josh was sitting up in bed, bathed and dressed and tired and pale—and satisfyingly grumpy.He glanced from parent to parent… to parent to parent and shook his head in irritation.But he didn’t let go of Liam’s hand, and he endured Grace’s semipermanent cuddle practically in his lap.
And was fully aware of the fifty-dozen people (slightly less than a buzzenteen, he’d told Liam, holding on to his humor by his fingertips) standing out in the hallway.
“But Mom,” he’d protested, “what if… what if….”His voice dropped.“What if it’s bad news?”
“Then we’ll tell them all so they can cry together,” she said softly.“Besides.Whatifit’s bad news?What should we do then?”
