and die anytime soon.”
“That’s what he thinks,” Grace murmured. He and Chuck cleared the parking garage, and Grace took off at a soft-footed run, knowing Chuck was going to stride up to the entrance with the big copper lions like he owned the place.
A cooling breeze blew off Lake Michigan as Grace dodged the blazing lights coming from the museum’s marble steps and impressive pillars. The women streaming up the stairs had their best dresses on, with wraps or shrugs to warm their shoulders, and the men could wear their tuxedos without sweating.
Grace had managed to evade notice and approach the east end of the building before he saw an unwelcome uniform and the glint of a badge lurking at the corner of the stairs and heading down the side. “Shit! Security!”
Grace only had a few steps before he could disappear into the shadows of one of the great canopied trees that shaded the scant lawn on the side of the building. Swearing, he scrambled up the tree and crouched, hidden in the leaves and the dark, while the guard—a woman in Kevlar—made a very determined circuit down the side of the building and toward the back.
“Hold on,” Chuck murmured. “We may have a problem.”
“What?” Josh’s voice sounded strained, and Grace wondered how much of his strength was feigned for the sake of making everyone else feel better.
“Hello, Mr. Broadstone,” Chuck said, his voice obviously pitched for the person he was talking to, and everybody on coms groaned slightly. They hadn’t told Lucius about what they were doing tonight because so very much of it was going to be illegal, right up until the infobomb was in Interpol’s possession. Apparently that was remiss on their part—and about to bite them all in the ass.
“What are the fucking odds,” Julia said, sotto voce, because she was mingling with Felix in the crowd.
“Chuck,” Josh started, but Chuck had his own patter, and Grace figured it was probably better to get out of the way.
“Hello. Charles, was it?” They’d met more than once at Felix and Danny’s—and there was a flirty note that told everybody Lucius was being coy.
“Got overwhelmed in the basement den, didn’t you?” Chuck asked, his voice a little south of smarmy. “You can call me Chuck.”
“Mm.” Lucius didn’t sound convinced. “I had a business to run. Apparently I missed a big chunk of meetings. So, Chuck, am I to infer from your presence that there will be… complications this evening?”
“Oh, you sure do talk pretty. And yes. Yes, there will be. You should be fine, but you may want to hang out here at the base of the steps for a few minutes. I need to go make something of an ass of myself, and you don’t want any of that action.”
“I wouldn’t be too sure,” Lucius muttered. “Does this mean you’ve found out where—mmf?”
Grace frowned. It sounded like Chuck had put his hand or his fingers or something on Lucius’s mouth, and that was… well, intimate for two guys currently locking horns instead of cocks.
“You know nothing,” Chuck said. “You saw nothing. And in two seconds, I’m going to go up and get kicked out of your little shindig, and you don’t want to have a fucking thing to do with me. Are we clear?”
Chuck must have moved his fingers because Lucius spoke breathlessly. “I’m unsure as to whether—”
The next sounds were muffled and sort of lip-smacky. Grace peered from the darkness to the corner of the building where Chuck would be and gasped.
“Wow,” he murmured.
“Are they kissing?” Josh asked. “Because I can’t see shit, but that sounds like they’re kissing.”
“They’re practically making babies on the lawn,” Grace blurted. “Stop that! Stop that, Chuck! You’re making babies in a very bad place.”
Something in his voice must have done the trick because Chuck pulled back, and from his perch in the tree, Grace watched him wipe Lucius’s mouth with his handkerchief.
“You stay here now, yeah?” he asked, almost tenderly.
“Yeah,” Lucius replied, and Grace would have put money down that he had big eyes and a slightly open mouth.
Gross. Grace wouldn’t kiss either of those people for money.
Chuck broke away from Lucius, who remained in the shadow of the building. As he trotted up the stairs, Grace saw Lucius touch his own lips in wonder, and he sighed.
Then he scrambled down the tree before the damned guard came back.
Stealth came to him like breathing, so he was not prepared for Lucius to suddenly, perceptively, search the shadows for him as