Grace—who had been pretty sure he could feel empathy for nobody outside his very tight little circle—was dismayed to find a slight pain in his chest.
“We’ll take care of him,” Grace said softly. “I’m sorry, Nick. It’s not your job.”
Nick nodded. “Well, then,” he said, his voice firming up, “I’ll go do my actual job.” His face softened. “Tell him I was worried.”
“Sure,” Grace lied.
Nick turned and strode purposefully down the parking garage, and Hunter bumped Grace’s shoulder.
“What?” Grace asked.
“Later. When we’re not commed.”
“Whatever. Are we dead yet? Are things blowing up? I need something to happen!”
“If you don’t shut up, you may get your wish,” Chuck almost sang, his voice echoing from the floor. “Okay. All right. Righteous! Josh, how they hanging?”
“Shriveled and pruney at this point,” Josh said through coms. “Stirling is doing a bunch of eShopping, by the way. Molly, if we live through this, I think you may have to redecorate your room with plushies.”
“Aw!” Molly cooed. “See? Best brother in the world.” Then they all heard her talking to someone else. “No! Shoo! No access here. Go away!”
Lucius Broadstone’s voice echoed through the garage. “But my car’s alarm went off! My phone told me it had suffered an impact!”
“Car’s fine, Lucius!” Chuck hollered. “Now go away before… oh, wait. Heh heh. It’s done. Fine. Everybody come get your tools—bomb’s completely disassembled. That last piece there was a bitch!”
“Bomb?” Lucius’s voice held a faint note of incredulity, but none of panic.
“Nope,” Molly said cheerfully. “Not anymore. But there’s scumbags by your car. You may want to go back to the gala until the scumbags are picked up by the police.”
“Can we get out of the van first?” Josh said weakly. “Not to complain, but a little bit of fresh air would be very, very appreciated.”
“Oh! Yeah, course. Here, let me put all the components right here….” Murmuring to himself, Chuck gathered his tuxedo coat—which would never be the same—and the bomb components gingerly into a little ball and took it to the ledge behind the van. Very carefully he extracted each component and stacked it, separately, at least six inches away from its fellow bomb component, lining them all up like little bomb soldiers until his suit coat—now stained from its time on the garage floor—could be shaken out and put back on.
Chuck sighed as he did so. “Shame,” he murmured. “I liked having a bespoke sui—”
Julia rushed into his arms and held him tight, her shoulders shaking. Everyone on coms could hear her whispering, “I’ll buy you a thousand of them. I’ll buy you a million. I’ll buy you a mansion and fill it with tuxedos,” before Felix pulled her away.
“Josh,” Felix said, holding Julia tight and out of the way, “if you and Stirling could come out, I think your mother needs you.”
“Sure, Dad,” Josh murmured. “Stirling, kill coms.”
A moment later, the van door slid open, and Josh stood shakily in the entrance. Felix held his hand up so his son could lean his weight on it, but everybody saw Josh’s knees buckle at the last moment, and he fell.
Right into a waiting Liam Craig’s arms.
The two of them stared at each other for a moment, and Liam—doing one of the most manly things Grace had ever seen—swept Josh up, like a child or a bride, and held him while Danny and Molly came to make sure Stirling’s legs were still in working order.
“I’m fine,” Josh mumbled. “Who even are you?”
“I’m Liam Craig. Your Uncle Danny called me in to arrest the dead guys.”
“Oops,” Josh said, breaking into a giggle.
At Grace’s feet, gun guy groaned. “Jesus, Hunter, you piece of shit. It’s like you attract gay men like flies.”
Hunter kicked the guy in the ribs.
“I’m not that big of a shit,” he said mildly. “I don’t mind being a fly.”
Grace grinned at him. “You’re my fly. My fly guy. My fly guy spy.”
Hunter groaned, and Grace found himself crushed up against his big chest. “You’re insane,” Hunter said gruffly. “Stop rhyming and just… just stay. Right here.”
Grace found himself melting. “Sure. As long as you appreciate my crazy, it’s all good.”
“It’s all good,” Hunter murmured. “So all good.”
“Hey,” Josh asked from the safety of Liam Craig’s arms. “Whatever happened to the gem?”
Grace had to pull away from Hunter so he could reach into the pocket of his yoga pants. “Cool your jets,” he said, producing the stone. “This asshole—” He took a few steps away from Hunter so he could stand on brown-haired guy’s ass. “—had it in his pocket.”
“I didn’t even see you do that!” Hunter said with admiration.
Grace grinned. “I am a very good thief,” he said, holding the gem up. A perfect, pure rose-colored diamond the size of a walnut sat in the palm of his hand. “Do you think we could keep it? After the information is scrubbed and all?”
“Why?” Danny asked. “And let him stand up, Liam. Felix, Julia, and I need to smother him.” His voice broke. “A lot.”
As Liam complied, Grace said, “I want to give it to my dance teacher in a little glass case. He spent a lot of his life transporting these things back and forth. I figure he deserves to keep one, just this once.”
“Good thought,” Danny said thickly, wrapping his arms around Josh and holding him tight. Felix and Julia gathered round and smothered their son, as promised, and that’s all anyone said for a while.
Except Hunter, who murmured, “You know, they were probably thumb drives until Laslo Hu got co-opted.”
Grace had thought of this also. “Too bad Sergei got himself shot,” he said sadly. “The gem idea—you don’t find bad guys with that much imagination, you know?”
“Truth.” Hunter nodded, getting him, and into the blessed, blessed echoing silence of the parking garage, Lucius Broadstone was heard.
“So I’m just stuck here until the cops come and get my vehicle?”
Chuck laughed out loud. “Sir, if you want to get out of here anytime soon, I think you need to hop a ride with one of us.”
And that was how Lucius Broadstone ended up on the couch in the den that night, while the rest of them curled up in their sweats, had appetizers and beverages, and rehashed the job. Except for Josh, who went to sleep immediately upstairs, Julia in attendance. Grace knew that Felix and Danny would take their turns, because Josh was loved.
But they would also all take a turn down with the after-party, because even a criminal family was a family.
And gathering to brag about what they’d done in the night was family tradition, after all.
Bowing Out
HUNTER LOOKED sideways at Grace in the darkened theater as the alternate dancer performed Cinderella with grace and brilliance.