Eli nodded solemnly.
“So, we get Caffrey locked up, and then you give us a try?”
Sadness flashed in Eli’s eyes so quickly Daniel couldn’t be sure he’d even seen it. Eli smiled and touched Daniel’s cheek gently with his hand. Daniel quickly turned and kissed his palm.
It was only after Eli had gotten dressed and gone to the kitchen to sort them some dinner, Daniel realized Eli hadn’t answered him.
Chapter Twenty
Eli lay still just as dawn was breaking. Daniel was still completely passed out, lying on his stomach, but with an arm slung over Eli’s waist as if pinning him to the bed. It was such a blatant show of possessiveness even in sleep, it made Eli want to cry, because he couldn’t be what Daniel wanted. He couldn’t share what wasn’t in him in the first place, and he wouldn’t poison Daniel with the hate that had kept him alive for so long he didn’t know how to live without it.
And after all his big talk yesterday, he was terrified. He didn’t know if he could face Caffrey, but if he didn’t Caffrey would win, and Eli couldn’t let that happen. Not after all this time. Not after everything. The team thought the whole point of tonight was getting Sawyer closer to try and find Kai, convinced if they got to him it would break the case. Eli wanted the boy to be safe, but what he really needed was to show Caffrey he didn’t have any power. That he hadn’t won. He wanted to look at him and for Caffrey to see he’d lost. He needed him to see that, but he didn’t know how he was even going to get the courage to walk in the door.
Eli slipped out of bed without waking Daniel, grabbed his phone, and called the one person he never imagined asking for anything.
He needed confidence. He needed armor. He needed Caffrey to see he had lost in the minute before the bastard died.
“Finn?” Eli said as Finn answered the phone. “I need help.”
Daniel really didn’t understand what was going on. Eli had barely spoken more than a dozen words nearly all day and then dropped the bombshell that Finn would be coming round at 6:00 p.m. to lend him some club clothes.
“Club clothes?” Daniel asked incredulously.
Eli shrugged. “I can’t go in my jeans. There’s a dress code for upstairs.” Which Daniel knew, it just hadn’t occurred to him. He had assumed Eli would go in shorts and a shirt. When the buzzer sounded and Eli let Finn through the door, he still hadn’t recovered.
“Makeover services,” Finn trilled, and Daniel got his second shock as a blue-haired pocket dynamo and his future brother-in-law followed him in. Finn grinned at Daniel’s surprise and waved at Sam. “I brought reinforcements.”
“Reinforcements?” Eli echoed, clearly not expecting anyone other than Finn.
“Good,” Sam said as he looked Eli up and down. “I like a blank canvas to work with.”
Daniel grinned at Sam in full “angel” mode and wondered from the look on Eli’s face if Sam had ever considered adding singed eyebrows to his ensemble.
Both Sam and Finn declared they needed to use Daniel’s bathroom because it was bigger, and he waved them through. He grabbed some more bottles of water from the fridge and gave Eli the one he had been drinking earlier. “Want a fresh one?”
Eli shook his head, and for the first time that day, Daniel got the ghost of a smile. Sam stood in front of Eli and seemed to study him. Finn joined him, and Daniel could see Eli was trying not to squirm. “I’d love to do a full-body wax, but if it irritates him, it could be a disaster,” Sam said.
Finn chuckled as Eli widened his eyes and stepped back. “But we want drop-dead irresistible, not necessarily twink extraordinaire.” Eli shot a panicked glance at Daniel, but Daniel decided to just get comfortable and watch the show. Maybe the threat of beauty treatment was bigger than the threat of going tonight. He could only hope.
“I thought you were bringing clothes?” Eli asked weakly.
“If I had more time, I could at least have done pink highlights,” Sam grumbled, ignoring Eli’s question. “Okay, get in the bathroom. I’m going to pluck your eyebrows first so the redness goes down.”
Eli stared at the zipped bag Sam needed both hands to hoist onto the bed. “What’s that for?”
“Makeup. Odds and ends.” Sam shrugged. “I didn’t bring everything, but I wasn’t sure what your skin was like.”
Eli looked at Daniel in panic, but before he could respond, Finn took both of Eli’s hands and Eli was obviously too startled to protest. He smiled at Eli. “We can absolutely just do clothes, or we can do a full suit of armor. Sometimes confidence is a perfect disguise.”
Eli drew in a long breath.
“Let me show you the outfits we picked up, and then you can decide.” Sam paused. “No, I absolutely have to do those eyebrows first.”
Finn turned around to Daniel and made a shooing motion with his hands.
“Go. You can see the tweezed perfection when we’re through.”
Daniel stood up obediently. “I need to call Talon anyway and sort out who’s riding with who. Let me know if you need anything.”
He was just dialing Talon’s number when he heard Eli swear.
“Shit! What the fuck?”
Sam chuckled. “Don’t be a baby. I could be giving you a wax.” Daniel winced in sympathy. “And I mean all your junk as well.”
Ouch.
“Has Eli set the apartment on fire yet?” Talon joked when he answered the phone.
“I have a fire extinguisher all prepared,” Daniel retorted. “They’re discussing waxing at the moment.”
Talon made a sympathetic hissing noise. “Seriously. I have ten APD officers milling with the main crowd downstairs. Adam’s a barback upstairs. Vance is going to stay outside to coordinate and to send in the troops if we need anything. Jake, Finn, Sawyer, Gael, you two, and myself will be upstairs. The idea is to let Sawyer go and do some snooping. He’s up to holding it for nearly fifty minutes now, so we just act normal to give him the cover he needs not to be noticed.”
“So not all of us sitting still at any one time. A couple dancing, that sort of thing, so if anyone’s watching they don’t notice.”
“That’s the idea.”
“Okay,” Finn called from the bedroom. “I laid out three outfits, so you can come and choose.”
Daniel wasn’t sure they were talking to him, but he quickly hung up on Talon and walked in, glancing over at the clothes on the bed. Two pairs of shorts that Daniel dismissed immediately. Eli had Daniel’s robe on and stared at the bed. “The jeans won’t fit.”
“Yes, they will,” Finn said. “They’re Balmain. Too long, but there was no way I was walking out without them. I can get them shortened, but lucky for you I haven’t gotten around to it.”
“I thought there was a dress code?” Daniel reminded them.
Sam snickered. “There is. ‘Sexy.’”
“Have you made any plans yet?” Sam asked Finn while he held the jeans against Eli and seemed to consider a sparkly top that Daniel thought would look fantastic on Sam, but he wasn’t sure about Eli. He wasn’t sure about giving an uninvited opinion though.