It was actually his favorite kind of brainwork—and the company made it better.
BUT THAT night as he and Grace crawled into bed, Grace’s preoccupation told him something was up.
“You okay?” he asked, thinking he’d never had a lover who’d fit so sweetly into his arms before. Not that he’d done a lot of sleeping with most of his other lovers, but Grace was so lithe. And when he slept, it was complete. Even his murmurings added to the comfort of his body in Hunter’s arms.
“Gabriel was sad,” Grace said softly. “I thought he might still be an asshole or a junkie or a thug. But he was just sad. And I’d always looked up to him. But as weird as I am, I’m not sad. And I’m… I’m being held by a good person.” Grace chuckled. “Not that anybody would offer ransom—except Josh.”
“Yeah,” Hunter said, and he heard the note in Grace’s voice. “Josh would break you out of hell if he had to. He’d bitch at you for it, but he’d do it.”
Grace hmmd. “I’m… I’m glad you’re here. The world is random and frightening to me. I don’t understand how one thing happens and another doesn’t. How I overdose and end up having a family and Gabe doesn’t and ends up dying of hepatitis. I can’t make any sense of it. It’s always been that weird. But you—you have always kept things in order. Even me. Don’t leave me, okay?”
Hunter’s breath caught. “You neither,” he said gruffly. “Don’t leave me. Don’t get into any cars without me. Don’t go on any jobs when I’m not there to have your back. Don’t wander away one day and forget that I’m here and I need you.”
“You need me?” Grace asked, the disbelief palpable.
“Well, yeah. I don’t make a habit of sleeping with random people, Grace. I don’t usually move my lovers in, and vice versa. The fact that I spent so much time obsessing about you from the very beginning told me that there was something chemical, something wonderful and perfect, about you that meant I needed to keep paying attention. And now I want to touch you all the time. You went to talk to Gabriel, and I thought, ‘How can he be doing this thing that could hurt him and I’m not there?’”
“’Cause you made me strong enough to do it,” Grace said, so simply Hunter thought it must be true. “I… it was so easy, once I saw he was only a person. You’re such a bigger person than he ever was. I couldn’t be afraid of him anymore.”
Hunter let out a sigh and held him even tighter. “Good.”
“Does it ever hit you?” Grace asked. “That I’m almost ten years younger than you?”
Hunter closed his eyes. “Yes and no. It’s the reason I spent so long keeping my distance. But I can’t imagine you without me or me without you. Not now.”
“Good. It would be a stupid thing if we let it get in the way, especially when most of the time I forget how old I really am. I think that’s why Josh reminds me sometimes. He knows I’m not always aware of time.”
Hunter was going to laugh, but Grace kept on talking. “I think he’ll be relieved.”
“Why?”
“That he’s got help with my care and feeding. I’m pretty sure I’m a challenge.”
And now Hunter really did laugh. “Go to sleep,” he said softly. “We’ve got planning to do in the morning.”
JOSH WASN’T there for breakfast, but then, nobody was there for breakfast. Everybody was in their rooms or jogging or showering or singing opera or whatever it was that theater students and Chuck did when they were trying to formulate a plan.
Even if they were there, they weren’t really there. It wasn’t until Josh missed dinner that Hunter became concerned.
Danny was presiding over the meal, and Julia and Felix were both absent. There was no chatter as they all sat. Instead, everybody looked at Uncle Danny’s strained face and waited for him to say something.
He did, and it was unexpected.
“When Josh first started this little enterprise, back in March, he wanted me to be your Uncle Danny too. He wanted his parents’ house to be your home, and he wanted us to be doing exactly what we’re doing tonight. And that’s why I’m here, when Felix, Julia, and Josh are not. Because this place is your place and always will be. Josh apparently hasn’t been feeling well for a little while, and he needs to take some tests tonight, and when I was all for screaming and running around in a circle and losing my mind, he said, ‘That’s bullshit, Danny. We’re in the middle of something, and you can’t just let it go.’ So here we are, children. We’re still a family, and we still have a job to do, and we all love Josh Salinger, so we’re not going to give up on it. Grace’s friend is counting on us, and her grandfather, and that Lucius Broadstone character, and even, according to Josh, Laslo Hu. So if we’re treating what we do like it’s serious, like we’re professionals, like it’s our job to finish the undertaking and do it right, then we do what we need to do and rally around Josh when he’s here. Do you all follow me?”
Hunter pulled in a breath. He remembered that moment when Paulie went up in flames and his common sense seemed to go with him. That night with Grace in his apartment, Grace had asked him some questions that Hunter should have figured out himself. He hadn’t. He’d let his heart get sad. He’d let his resolve fail.
Part of that was grief, and part of that was weariness, and part of that—he had to admit it now—was that he didn’t see the fucking point. He and Paulie had worked for a sleazebag, and the guys who’d left the bomb and killed the security guard—they’d been motivated by money. Revenge was pointless. There’d been nothing personal in him and Paulie doing their job. There’d been nothing personal in the thieves who’d set the explosive so they could get away. It had felt just like being in the military. Hunter wasn’t stupid. After the first couple of years of active duty, he’d read enough, seen enough, to know his country wasn’t always on the side of right. And, well, being a mercenary had at least allowed him to pick his jobs.
But that’s not why he was here in the Salinger mansion, eating dinner with his friends, listening to a middle-aged con man work hard to be the Uncle Danny that the younger people needed.
He was there because what they were doing mattered. Because Josh Salinger had the highly quixotic idea of putting a bunch of thieves and con men and mercenaries together and being Robin Fucking Hood.
Hunter could get behind that.
He could get behind that with all his soul, especially because his heart—Grace—would follow Josh Salinger into hell.
“We’re behind you,” Hunter said. “Josh’ll be back when he’s back. We won’t leave him hanging.”
Stirling—who rarely spoke unsolicited—surprised them all then. “It’s like you were saying about reputation,” he said softly. “After our last job, for Felix, we have cachet. And we’re the good guys. We need to keep on being the good guys. And that will happen whether Josh is here or not.” He let out a sigh. “But we want Josh here.”
Hunter glanced at Grace to see how he was taking it. “Where’s Josh again?”