The Muscle

by Amy Lane

  Grace’s smile back was… luminous. Full of glory. Breathtaking. And it was all aimed at Hunter. Hunter figured that smile could keep his heart warm for a full year.

  He’d been telling the truth when he told Grace that there wasn’t any competition between Grace and Paulie. But the way Hunter’s heart pounded with that smile alone drove home to Hunter how much truth those words held. Paulie would have been a passing thing. Grace—there was no way Hunter was getting past Grace.

  For the thousandth time in the last two hours, he wondered how that conversation with Gabriel Hu had gone.

  Grace didn’t look inclined to bolt back to Springfield and back into the troubled young man’s arms, and Hunter was pretty confident that wouldn’t have happened even if Gabriel Hu had been at full “Yeah!” strength. But Hunter was curious. He wanted to know how it had gone, and Josh’s illness had kept that from happening.

  “Let me park,” he told Grace. “I’ll be right in.”

  Grace bobbed his blue-and-purple-streaked head and turned to scamper up the lawn toward Josh and Chuck while Hunter headed for the separate garage.

  JOSH WAS too sick to come down for dinner that night, so Danny led the planning session in the basement afterward.

  They were all given maps to the Institute, full of nooks, crannies, and hidden rooms where the illicit auction might happen, along with the plans for the sewers underneath the complex and a blueprint of all the rooms that would be open to the public that night for the debut of the showing.

  “Our homework is to figure out where we can plant personnel, and how we can get the people tailing our jewel delivery boys through all the hoops to get into the show as quickly as possible so we have everybody where we need them. I’ll be slightly preoccupied as MC, but that means I’ll be hooked up to security, so I can help you all avoid them. And I can cue Felix and Julia in so they can smooth your way when I can’t. I’ve uploaded a virtual museum tour. See how the rooms are labeled in the schematic up here?” Everybody nodded.

  “So, you all need to divvy up the schematic and start looking for places you think they’ll meet. We can be ready for anything, but there will be a few rooms that will call your names, so we can concentrate our focus on those. I’m going to leave you to your studies here and go check on Josh, yes?”

  They all nodded, and Danny disappeared, leaving the group to work in an uneasy silence.

  “Is it food poisoning?” Molly asked unexpectedly.

  “There was blood,” Grace said, surprising them all.

  Hunter looked at him. “Ulcer?” Josh’s pallor, the tiredness of the last few weeks, the getting sick—he wasn’t sure what he suspected, but it had been coming for a while.

  Grace shrugged. “You all know Josh. He puts too much pressure on himself.”

  There was some general murmuring, and then Stirling said, “We can take more of this on.”

  “He loves running the show,” Chuck said. “I don’t think it’s an ulcer. He does work too hard—but he loves this. Maybe he just got a bad chicken sandwich.”

  “Well, let’s not give him anything to worry about,” Molly said. “Squad goals—we all have a suggestion for where we think the meet will happen before we go to bed tonight. Who’s with me?”

  Hunter grinned at her. The girl had management skills. “I’m in,” he said.

  “Excellent! Any opposed?”

  They shook their heads, bemused, and Molly said, “Break!”

  And Hunter didn’t think about Josh again until they’d all figured out a possible room for a group of thieves to break into that wouldn’t get busted by security but wouldn’t be too far off the beaten path.

  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?”

  Danny let loose a small smile. “He’s undergoing some tests. Felix and Julia are with him in the hospital. He should be back in the morning.”

  Grace stared at him. “And we’re just sitting here? Why aren’t we in the—”

  Hunter caught his elbow. “Let’s get Danny his plan first, Grace. Then I’m sure Danny will let you go see Josh.”

  Danny gave Hunter a grateful smile. “It’s not like we could keep you out,” he said frankly. “But Hunter’s right. Plan first, then you and I can go give Felix and Julia a break. What do you say?”

  Grace grunted. “The plan is simple. They’re meeting in the display room behind the newly refurbished kitchen. The one with the label Hidden Masters because it’s hard to get to, so they figure they’ll put things there nobody wants to see. There are giant ventilation shafts to and from the room, because, well, it’s the kitchen. Hunter and Molly can be catering for the main event to run interference, Stirling does coms so we know what’s going on. Chuck’s in a van watching Stirling’s back, ready to run in and help. Felix can direct the show, since Danny’s busy. Felix shows up, looks all supportive and shit, says snarky things with Julia, and Chicago thinks he’s there for real. While he’s doing that, I go in and figure out where the gem is going and steal it from whoever wins it in the auction. Then we watch all the bad guys run around like headless chickens and laugh because we caught Sergei selling it and probably doing other scummy things so we can turn him in. Can I go see Josh now?”

  Everybody—including Hunter—turned their attention to Grace in shock.

  “Is that what that room is?” Chuck asked. “I figured it would be in the Picasso gallery, since that was closed down.”

  “Everybody in the world wants to see that weird picture of the naked lady,” Grace argued. “That would be a shitty place to hide something.”

  “The library?” Molly asked.

  “All the books have to be protected. Temperature controls, humidity controls. I could do it, maybe, but holding an auction would be a nightmare.”

  “Why not the conference room?” Stirling asked.

  “Because why break into a museum if you’re not going to see art?” Grace retorted. “This guy likes to stage things. It’s stupid. Stage a ballet—don’t stage a thieves’ auction. But he’s stupid because a carved gem is sort of over the fucking top. Whatever. I’m over it. Can we go see Josh now?”

  Danny’s eyes were wide.

  “Hunter, could you, perhaps, look over the plans with Chuck and see if you like this idea? I think we can add some wrinkles that might keep Sergei tied up and arrested for some time after, but if we can lock down our approach—”

  “Then I can go see Josh,” Grace said stubbornly. “Can we go?”

  Danny looked at Hunter. “Please make him eat.”

  Hunter looked at Grace. “Please finish what’s on your plate.”

  Grace shoved a forkful of risotto into his mouth, chewed, and swallowed. “I’m eating,” he said. “Just—”

  “We’ll take you there as soon as you’re done,” Danny said, and Hunter saw some of the tension easing from Grace’s face and neck.

  He knew two things then. One was that Danny was really worried, and the other was that nobody in this family was going to let Grace slip through the cracks, even if Josh was sick.

  He wasn’t comforted, but he did know Grace was in good hands.

  Growing Up

  “DO YOU want me to come?” Hunter asked.

  “Yes,” Grace said, because that wasn’t the real question. “But you need to be here because all the leaders are gone and they need you. Felix and Julia will be here soon, but they need you here now.”

  Hunter looked unhappy, but Grace rolled his eyes. “You’re the responsible one,” he said. “Everybody knows you’re the responsible one. Don’t be stupid.”

  “But, baby—”

  Augh! An endearment! Grace stared at him, nakedly begging. “You need to be here when I get back, okay? The team, they need to be here when I get back so I can tell everyone that Josh is okay, and it was all stupid, and he should eat more.”

  He wasn’t sure how he could make this more known. Grace and Josh were Grace and Josh, but Hunter needed to be there for the others. Why was that so hard to understand?

  “Okay,” Hunter murmured, kissing his temple. “I’m your guy.”

  Grace smiled at him, all sunshiny bright, and then let him shut the door as Danny drove away into the night.

  “He could have come,” Danny said mildly.

  “No,” Grace said.

  “Why not?”

  “Because I’m going to be a basket case either way, and I don’t want him to see.”

  Danny let out a long sigh. “Oh, Grace. Don’t you understand? You get to have more than one person in your life who you can let see you like that. Do you think Josh is the only one?”

  “Yes,” Grace said, not mincing words. “Who did you get? You were on your own for ten years. Who did you have?”

  “Not a soul!” Danny burst out in exasperation. “But that’s because I fucked up. I had to go out on my own and do my growing up somewhere else. You’re better than that, aren’t you? My poison was whiskey, and I had to walk away from everything—and everyone—to walk away from it. Your poison was drugs and risk, and you walked away from it and stayed with the people who loved you. So don’t te
ll me you don’t get to have an entire family to hold you together. Because you have us.”

  Grace glared at him. “Felix was stupid,” he said, referring to the lost ten years between the two of them. “You were drinking because you had to hide. Because you couldn’t be in love and have everyone know it. I knew that even before Josh’s mother came clean after you left.”

  Danny grunted. “That is quite impossible,” he said.

  Grace let loose a humorless laugh. “I stole a picture of all of you when I was seven. Josh told me you were his Uncle Danny, and I looked at you and Felix and thought, ‘I want an Uncle Danny,’ and it all seemed perfectly logical.”

  Danny gave a snort. “You are the Uncle Danny in your relationship. You realize that, right?”

  Grace thought about it for a minute. “Yeah,” he said, “but you can concentrate for longer.”

  “But I don’t have an IQ of 175 either,” Danny said dryly. “You tend to concentrate on all the things at once.”

  Grace made a hurt sound. “Why?” he asked, tired. “Why are parents such a lottery? Josh got three spins—how wild is that? And he came up cherries every time. I got two spins and bankrupted the house.”

  “Have you ever gambled in your life?” Danny asked, maneuvering the car toward Highland Park. It seemed like all the hospitals in Chicago clustered around the lake. Grace wondered if doctors thought being near the water would make people feel better. He thought it was a risky move, particularly in the winter. Lake Michigan could be a mean bitch, and there was nothing cheerful about horizontal snow.

  “No,” Grace muttered. “Why?”

  “It’s a good thing. You got Josh and Felix and Julia in your third pull, and me in your fourth, and apparently that very good-looking young bouncer on your fifth. You have won the slots, the lottery, and poker, young man. Now it’s time to spend some of your winnings.”

  Danny found a parking spot in a structure that looked like it had been battered to death by Lake Michigan.