Coming Up for Air

by Amanda Meuwissen

  “Ralph Abbott? That teenager who’s only barely escaped juvie a few times?”

  Much like the term “parole,” while Tolly had heard of “juvie” in films before, he did not fully understand what it was, so he simply said, “I do not know any other Ralph. He is young and unsure of himself, and Leigh hopes to lead him down a better path.”

  “That’s great!” Horowitz said with enthusiasm. “Having a hard time, though, huh? Yeah, what goes around comes around. We’re just trying to keep what’s around to better things for the people here, you know? So, if you ever see anything….”

  “I am sorry, Detective. I appreciate your concerns and goals, but I will not snitch. I will, however, continue to help Leigh do better. He is a good man. Ralph is a good boy. I do not want to see either of them in jail.”

  “I guess that’s good enough,” Horowitz said. “And hey, I know it’s tough out there. I won’t say anything to Beckett about seeing Hurley at Sweeney’s. He was just exiting a building, after all. But you keep a good eye on him, okay? These are dangerous men, Sweeney and the Morettis.”

  “I understand, and I will endeavor to keep Leigh safe and away from all of them.”

  “That’s all I wanted to hear.”

  Tolly was not sure how he was going to keep Leigh away from any of those villainous characters, but if the only way to keep him safe was their demise….

  He hoped it never came to that.

  “HE’S CUTE,” Tabitha said once Tolly had slipped out the door.

  “It’s not like that.”

  She stared him down with a well-groomed eyebrow raise.

  “Fine. It could be like that, but right now we’re just friends. Roommates.”

  “You don’t have a second bedroom, William.” She called his bluff. Not that it really was a bluff, things were just complicated. “Relationships are good. I’m glad you made a friend without a record for once, but there’s chatter on the streets about Sweeney and the Morettis heating up. I don’t want you caught in the middle.”

  “I won’t be. I can’t help it if I happen to live in their territories. Moving is expensive. Maybe if the cops could catch either of them on something, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

  “You got some leads you want to throw my way?” she asked. She had to try.

  “Sorry, fresh out.”

  “Same old tune? Do you really want to turn out like your father?”

  Leigh looked away from her. She always brought that up, because his deadbeat dad had been in and out of jail most of his life before he drank himself to death. The last thing Leigh ever wanted was to be even a shadow of him, but some things were inescapable. It was one of the reasons he never drank.

  “We done here? I showed up on time, didn’t I?”

  She had no legal reasons to report badly about him—yet—but that didn’t make her any less upset with his evasion. “I need pay stubs or a real plan of action for a job next time or I’m done with you. You hear me?”

  The last thing Leigh needed right now was her breathing down his neck for the next few weeks. “I guess there is something I wasn’t sure how to ask about.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “How’s an ex-con supposed to get a business loan?”

  “Business loan?”

  “I’m not exactly appealing to the banks, but there’s a place in my neighborhood about to be empty. Could be an opportunity. Always wanted my own shop, maybe get some of my neighbors to stop hitting me up in my home and start becoming paying customers. Tolly’s been pushing me toward it.” Leigh shrugged, taking to the lie easily because it wasn’t a full lie. “See, good influence, just like you’d want.”

  “Want me to put in a good word, see what’s possible?”

  “Worth a shot, right?”

  “I’m proud of you, William,” she said. “These are tough decisions, but isn’t it better to try something different than to get sucked into all that drama with Sweeney again? Petty theft is one thing, but I’d hate for you to end up doing something you’d regret.”

  Heaviness settled in Leigh’s stomach like it was filled with the same cement that had once weighted his ankles. “Me too, Beckett. Me too.”

  It was only meant to get her off his back while he planned a man’s murder. He shouldn’t be so curious about how things might turn out if she returned with good news.

  Leigh worried he wouldn’t find Tolly in the lobby right up until he turned the corner and found him waiting patiently. It still threw him for a loop that Tolly even existed. Though as far as the system was concerned, he didn’t, and Leigh needed to fix that before Tabitha did any real digging on “Tolly Allen.”

  “Where to now?” Tolly asked.

  “Now, we get you a backstory and an ID.”

  They left the building, and Leigh couldn’t help but notice how Tolly seemed more determined in his step, though about what, Leigh wasn’t sure yet. He just hoped he never had to see him come to his defense with such brutality again. It didn’t suit him at all.

  Not like the monster following at Leigh’s heels.

  He froze, nearly tripping over his feet as he passed a long row of glass windows, because for a split second, he could have sworn that beside him was the monster from his nightmare. He hadn’t gotten a good look in the dream, not really, but he remembered bloodred skin, black eyes, the fangs and claws and deadly intent….

  “Leigh?” Tolly came up beside him, looking into the reflections as well, but there was no monster. It was just him and Tolly.

  “I’m fine,” he said, because he was good at lying, after all. Forcing a grin for Tolly’s sake, he pushed aside his fears and focused on what he could control. “Let’s go make you a real boy, Mr. Allen.”

  Chapter 6

  TOLLY COULD hardly believe that by tomorrow he would be able to pass as a normal human, with identification and a history, however falsified. Apparently it was much easier for a criminal to accomplish such things than other people, so for once he did not mind that Leigh was a gangster. It made the possibility of starting a new life seem that much more attainable.

  Leigh wanted him to stay. Now Tolly needed him to want him to stay forever.

  “All right, Smiley, you and me need to have a chat,” Alvin said the moment Tolly and Leigh joined him at the café, passing Tolly a cell phone Leigh had requested. “Next time Leigh pulls a stunt like that and leaves before telling me the whole story, you give me a call. My number and his are already in there for ya.”

  Tolly accepted the phone gratefully, though he had no idea how to use it.

  “Play with it later,” Leigh said, meaning he would show Tolly how to use it later, so Tolly put it in his pocket. “Thanks, Al. And I didn’t want to tell you what your old man requested until I’d had time to process it myself. Right now, we need to talk strategy, unless you want to fish me out of the river sometime this week.”

  “Cary is here,” Tolly said, seeing the other man at the café counter with his laptop again. He must never go anywhere without it. “Why is he not sitting with you, Alvin?”

  A sigh left Leigh at the interruption, causing Tolly to smile in apology—though perhaps Leigh was more concerned with Cary’s presence, since he worried about other snitches. Tolly did not think Cary was one, however, not if Alvin loved him so.

  “He wanted to keep working,” Alvin said. “Dad likes his partners to stick together so someone’s always watching the other’s back. I told Cary we were getting Leigh’s new partner papers, why lie, and that Dad has you both working on something big. You’re his bodyguard, right? But why do you need all this anyway? You running from something?”

  “Not your business,” Leigh said with a growl.

  “I don’t want anyone getting you into more trouble, even if he is this cute.”

  “I will not bring Leigh trouble,” Tolly said. “I wish to help him out of it.”

  “Tolly’s getting out of a bad living situation, okay?” Leigh offered a not-quite lie. “He’s
not running from the law or anyone who’s going to make our lives more complicated.”

  Alvin seemed satisfied with that. “Just checking. I like you, Mystery Man,” he said to Tolly. “I’m just protective of my boy. We go back a long way. Used to skip rope in juvie even.”

  Leigh snorted. Tolly would have to ask about juvie later, since it kept coming up.

  “Also, gotta ask—are you wearing Leigh’s clothes?” Alvin scanned the dark gray sweater Tolly wore with a playful twist to his smirk. “Were you wearing his clothes yesterday?”

  “Shopping is next on our agenda,” Leigh said. “That dicey situation Tolly left, he left quickly, got it? Now can we stop with the twenty questions?”

  “Fine, fine. You two shouldn’t be out and about much, though. Hit the strip mall on Eighth to avoid prying eyes. And don’t worry about Long John’s creds. I’ll bring them by tomorrow after they’re done. Now, you gonna get me up to speed on all this Moretti business or what?”

  “Please, keep me informed on what you decide and what you need of me,” Tolly said, “but perhaps now would be a good time for me to make good on my promise. I shall go introduce myself to Cary.”

  “Wait, what?” Leigh reached across the seat to stop him.

  “I will be all right. If you love him so,” Tolly said to Alvin, “I am sure he is a fine man to know.”

  He thought Leigh and Alvin looked fearful as he headed for the counter to meet Cary. Surely, being afraid of one’s heart’s desire was no way to live. If Alvin could not “take the plunge” as people said, then Tolly was happy to do so in his stead.

  Cary seemed preoccupied with his computer and did not notice Tolly’s approach. Holding back to better read him, what Tolly noticed was the way he tugged at his ear like he had the other day.

  Then Tolly saw why. Cary had a tiny, high-end hearing aid in his ear. He was deaf, or partially so. One of the first films Tolly ever saw explained hearing loss and the technologies created to help, and he had his first experience with sign language, instantly choosing to learn it since he knew the difficulties someone without hearing or a voice had to face. He had always been drawn to tales that focused on communication barriers, since his kin communicated quite differently than humans normally.

  Tolly wondered if Alvin knew about Cary, but regardless, this knowledge gave him confidence in fulfilling his task.

  “Hello,” Tolly said, speaking aloud but also signing with his hands in fluid motion. “I am Tolly. We did not officially meet yesterday, but you are Alvin’s partner as I am Leigh’s.”

  Cary was at first disinterested at the sound of Tolly’s voice, but when he glanced up, he froze as he saw the signing that accompanied the words. “You were with Hurley. You sign?”

  “I know many languages.” Tolly continued to use his hands as he sat on the stool beside Cary. “But I have always thought this was a particularly beautiful way to speak.”

  “Most people wouldn’t call a handicap beautiful,” Cary spat.

  Defensive. Tolly understood Alvin’s trouble now.

  “It is merely a difference,” Tolly said, ceasing his signing for fear of offending the man. “Differences do not make us ugly, even if we have a hard time telling ourselves that.” He certainly did some days, but when Leigh looked at him, he thought perhaps now he was beautiful like he had always wanted to be.

  “Did you want something?” Cary asked without looking at him. “Alvin and I are only partners coz his dad doesn’t like loners earning targets on their backs. He’ll love you for ending that trend with Hurley, but I don’t care who you are.”

  He had his cell phone beside the laptop with headphones plugged into it and took one of the earbuds to place in his empty ear.

  “I merely wished to say hello while Leigh and Alvin talk,” Tolly said. “I do not want anything from you. You like music? I love music. May I ask what you are listening to?”

  Cary made an effort to ignore Tolly for a span before his expression scrunched. “Look, it’s tinnitus, okay? Hearing loss as a kid so there’s this ringing all the time I need to drown out. Sometimes that makes it hard to hear people, but I’m not…. I don’t need to sign.”

  He was embarrassed. Someone must have made him feel like his condition was something to be embarrassed about. “You know how, though, I can tell, and it is easier to hear and understand people if they sign for you while they speak.”

  “Why do you care?”

  “Because Leigh and Alvin are my friends, and I wish to be your friend too. For that to happen, we need to understand each other.”

  “Are you for real?” Cary slid his eyes to Tolly without turning his body fully.

  “I am hardly a figment of your imagination.”

  For a brief but important moment as Cary coughed a surprised laugh, the reticence slipped from his face.

  “What was the first song you ever heard?” Tolly asked.

  “You mean really heard and paid attention? ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’’ by The Righteous Brothers.”

  “Good choice.” Tolly loved the deep, resonant vocals in that song. “Does Alvin not know about your… handicap?”

  “I don’t broadcast it. If people notice, I just play my music louder so they think I have wireless headphones.”

  “Why? Alvin would not adore you any less if he knew.”

  “Alvin adores me?” Cary said with a scoff.

  “It is obvious by the way he looks at you. Do you not notice?”

  Cary glanced at Alvin and Leigh’s table, and in that moment, Alvin darted his attention away as if he had been taking another longing glance. “Guess I didn’t. Who are you exactly? Hurley’s partner, fine, but you don’t work for Sweeney.”

  “I am Leigh’s bodyguard.”

  “You’re a bodyguard?”

  “I am stronger than I look,” Tolly said. “Would you like to know the first song I ever heard?”

  There was a pause, and Tolly knew Cary might easily dismiss him now and end their conversation. When instead he pulled his hands from his keyboard and turned to face him, Tolly knew he had accomplished something profound.

  “WHAT IS he doing? Is he crazy? Cary could eat him alive!”

  Leigh was more concerned about Cary being in cahoots with Jake and Rosa, but Tolly’s certainty that he wasn’t eased him somewhat. Tolly had a sixth sense about people. He should be able to tell if Cary was a conniving bastard. And Alvin was so damn lost on the guy, he needed a win.

  “Can we focus on the Morettis trying to have me killed and how now I need to kill Vincent?” Leigh couldn’t afford to be distracted by Tolly’s obsession with romance, endearing as it may be.

  He explained the attack that morning and how Tolly had scared the guys off.

  “Pretty Boy scared off Moretti goons? I would have paid to see that.”

  Then Leigh explained the harder part—that Jake was a traitor.

  “That asshole. Rosa’s gotta be in on it too.”

  “My thoughts exactly,” Leigh said. “And maybe others.”

  “You didn’t send your playmate over there to grill Cary on purpose, did you?”

  “Do I look like I had anything to do with that? If Tolly said he was going to help be your wingman, then that’s what he’s doing.” Leigh should have seen it coming, honestly, since Tolly knew about Alvin’s crush.

  “But you think we could be compromised by more than just Bonnie and Clyde?”

  “Maybe. Probably.”

  “Shit.”

  “Don’t start poking your nose in too deep.” Leigh leaned across the table to make sure Alvin remained calm. “You’ll tip them off, and whoever else might be a traitor. All I need from you is to know where Jake and Rosa are headed today. I’ll handle the rest. You keep an ear open for any chatter and get me Tolly’s papers when they’re ready like you said.”

  They discussed logistics, a few ideas about who other snitches might be, and possible larger plans the Morettis had in the works, before Tolly returned, le
aving Cary with his laptop and looking oddly content instead of surly for once.

  Tolly was also humming what sounded like “Killing Me Softly.”

  “What did you talk about?” Alvin asked the second he slid into the booth.

  “Music mostly. Would you like to learn sign language, Alvin?”

  “What?” So that’s what Tolly had been doing with his hands. “He told you about his hearing aid?”

  “You knew?” Tolly said in surprise.

  Everyone knew, they just didn’t care. It wasn’t as if it affected how Cary hacked a security system.

  “I’m not an idiot,” Alvin said. “Wait. You can teach me how to sign?”

  Tolly was full of wonders Leigh couldn’t have predicted. Who knew merfolk would know sign language? Or maybe it was just Tolly, in love with the human condition in all forms.

  His hands moved beautifully in sync with his response. “I would be happy to. As well as the importance of the right song.”

  SHOPPING FOR Tolly’s new wardrobe would have to wait. As would teaching Alvin anything more than a handful of ASL phrases. Jake and Rosa were scheduled to be smuggling in the latest drug shipment soon.

  Arthur Sweeney dabbled in a little of every kind of organized crime. Diversity of resources made it harder to pin much on him when he had his hands everywhere and could drop anything in an instant without hurting his business overall.

  Thievery was Leigh’s specialty. It required thought and skill and could even be a little fun—when he wasn’t getting caught and dropped into the river afterward. Drugs and guns and the like he preferred to stay away from.

  He’d brought his hat and glasses along to be incognito, not that it made it any easier to head to the docks, considering Leigh’s last memories of being there. His steps slowed as he tried to think of the best route to sneak up on Jake and Rosa. This was a daylight transaction. Not everything happened at night. Police expected that, so the right location or conducting business at the right off-time could be even more effective than the cover of nightfall.