Coming Up for Air

by Amanda Meuwissen

  “And once a traitor, always a traitor?” Leigh towered over her. “Leave him alone. He’s out. Trust me, he doesn’t want anything more to do with you.”

  “I’m just making sure it stays that way,” she said snidely back at him, so Tolly stepped forward, offering that same cold stare. She took an immediate step back. “Be good, Ralphy-boy, and you’ll never see me again.” She twirled her fingers in a wave and headed for the stairs.

  She would have fit in well with Tolly’s kin.

  “Ralph?” Leigh said after she had gone.

  “I’m fine,” Ralph said, though he did not look fine, arms crossed tight over his T-shirt-clad middle and eyes downcast. “She really was just ragging me about not telling anyone what really happened. I wouldn’t.” He gave Leigh a heartfelt glance. “But she’s right. I ratted out you. I never should have said your name. I’m just as bad as—”

  “Hey.” Leigh reached for Ralph’s shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “It doesn’t matter. They had you scared. They still do. But I’m fine. I’m gonna be fine. All you need to worry about is taking a breath and enjoying your sick day. Order a pizza or Chinese or something for dinner—on me.”

  “Can I come back to your place again tonight?” he asked tentatively, already inching out his doorway.

  “Sure, kid,” Leigh said, and Tolly smiled in agreement. They had an entire batch of cookies to share, after all.

  While Ralph looked over Leigh’s take-out menus to decide on dinner, Tolly pulled Leigh aside. “She is the lowest in my mind. She betrayed her own, her lover, and is willing to sacrifice even a child for herself. And she is going to get away with murder.”

  “Maybe,” Leigh said thoughtfully, the cleverness Tolly loved so much shimmering in his eyes like the beginnings of a plan forming. “I need to think, but tomorrow, we’re gonna see Sweeney again. Rosa gave me an idea.”

  THERE WAS hope in their steps on the way to Sweeney’s club the next morning that had been absent along the same path the day before. Even more exciting was the text message Tolly received.

  I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna ask Cary out. I told him to come to the club this morning. You guys are coming, right?

  We are on our way now, Tolly texted back.

  I so need the moral support! But I’m ready.

  Tolly showed Leigh the messages as they stopped at the final crosswalk.

  “How exciting. You see? There are still good things in this world.”

  The explosion that shook the block, erupting from the very club they had been headed toward, threw them both to the ground.

  Chapter 11

  LEIGH’S EARS rang from the explosion that had gone off so close in front of them, leaving him floundering on the sidewalk, coughing through the dust and trying to get back his bearings.

  The club.

  An explosion.

  “Alvin!” he cried, scrambling to get up and reach what was left of the doors.

  “Leigh!” Tolly hung on to him. “It is too dangerous. There is smoke and fire.”

  “Alvin’s in there!”

  “I know. And I will retrieve him.” Tolly stood as if hardly fazed by being thrown to the ground, not talking as loudly as Leigh to be heard over the ringing, the headache, the panic. He remained calm as he headed for the carnage, Leigh left feeling helpless but unable to tell Tolly not to go when he knew he was stronger and more resilient than Leigh could ever hope to be.

  The time between Tolly entering the building and coming out again could only have been minutes, but to Leigh it was still far too long. Sirens filled the air by the time Tolly emerged, carrying Alvin’s unconscious body.

  Leigh choked on the accumulating ashes as he sat up. The important thing was to get Alvin away from the smoke, where Tolly laid him down to make sure he was breathing.

  He was. He was alive. Leigh didn’t even care if anyone else had been inside. He knew Cary wasn’t, or Tolly would have gone back in after him.

  The fire department showed up in due course, then the cops, but by then Leigh and Tolly had helped Alvin into an ambulance headed for Cove City General. Leigh wanted to go with him, but he’d have to follow later because first he needed to find out the damage.

  The fire department pulled Selene and Mark out of the back, less injured than Alvin, still both conscious since the blast had been focused at the front of the club. Sweeney hadn’t been in yet; he was on his way like Leigh and Tolly. It had to have been Leo Moretti taking swift action.

  Or Rosa.

  Or both.

  Leigh was in a daze, wanting to leave now and make sure Alvin was okay, but Perez and Horowitz showed up to pull him and Tolly aside.

  “We don’t know anything. I have to get to the hospital.”

  “You were almost blown up with Sweeney’s kid and you’re still following at his heels?” Perez barked.

  “He can’t help who his father is any more than I could,” Leigh said. “He’s my friend. He’s hurt. We don’t know anything. We were just headed to the club to meet him. You know who likely did this, but I got no further info to give.”

  “Why were you meeting Alvin Sweeney?” Horowitz asked diplomatically.

  “For moral support,” Tolly said.

  “Moral support?” Perez repeated.

  “Yes. He was going to ask the man he loves on a date and wanted us to be there. I can show you the text messages if you like.” Tolly pulled out his phone, but Horowitz waved him away.

  “We believe you. If you can think of anything that might help the investigation, you know how to contact us.”

  “Right,” Perez huffed.

  “Nick,” Leigh tried, “I’m going to put a stop to all this. I mean it. I had no idea anything like this was going to happen. I just want to check on Alvin.”

  Perez’s patience was clearly running thin, but he jutted his chin away from the mess of firemen and frantic bystanders to dismiss them.

  For once, Leigh wasn’t taking the long way. He and Tolly made it a couple streets over until they could hail a cab. Then they headed straight for CC General.

  Sweeney hadn’t finished his trek to the club after he heard what happened; he’d gone to the hospital first and was placing one of his larger grunts at Alvin’s door to keep watch.

  “Is he okay?” Leigh asked as he and Tolly rushed up.

  “Leo is bold, I’ll give him that,” Sweeney said with his usual half-cracked smile. “He thinks he can go after what’s mine—”

  “Sweeney,” Leigh cut him off, “you can’t retaliate.”

  “Excuse me.” Sweeney’s eyes snapped to his like two burning coals. “Are you telling me what I can’t do?”

  The grunt shifted from the door as if he’d pull his piece right there in the hallway. Tolly pushed forward to protect Leigh, but Leigh held him back.

  “I know how we can bring the whole thing down on Moretti’s head,” Leigh said, “but you need to do as I say. You are going to calmly call Leo, thank him for the remodel on the club, whether he did the deed or not, and ask him for a truce for everyone to get their bearings and then to meet at one of your other clubs in one week’s time to talk things out.”

  Sweeney tilted his head with a twitch of that mad grin, right on the precipice between laughing and ordering Leigh’s head on a block.

  “I’ll handle everything else, and everyone will know to never mess with you again. But you have to trust me.”

  It was a gamble. Dealing with Sweeney always was. He could probably find a way to dump a body easy in a hospital, but with Tolly there….

  Sweeney’s eyes darted to Tolly as if he was thinking the same thing. He only knew of Tolly’s strength secondhand, but it made him pause enough to think about what Leigh had said.

  “He’s still asleep.” He nodded back at the room. “Concussion. Too much smoke. But he should be fine in a day or two. Let me know the moment he wakes up or I won’t be so accommodating,” he said, as close to sounding like a normal, concerned parent as Leigh had ev
er heard.

  “Of course.”

  Sweeney nodded to the grunt and left, presumably, hopefully to do as Leigh had asked. The plan was still forming in Leigh’s mind after having to recalibrate from the explosion, but he saw no other course.

  The grunt let Leigh and Tolly into the room. Alvin wasn’t connected to much, just fluids as he remained passed out from the smoke, which meant they weren’t worried, but Leigh still felt something catch in his throat to see him like that.

  This was his fault. This was what someone loving him got him and why the promises of love and saying the words were always empty, because words couldn’t protect anyone. If Leigh had been smarter, if he hadn’t brought so much heat down on them….

  “This was not your doing, Leigh.” Tolly read his mind like always.

  Leigh couldn’t defend himself, so he simply sighed, looking at Alvin’s smudged face. “Can you help him?”

  “I would need access to water….” Tolly trailed off as he scanned the room.

  There was a sink in the corner and a stack of paper cups, but filling one proved it was little more than a Dixie cup.

  “It will be enough to help anything minor,” Tolly said in response to Leigh’s skepticism, “if he is indeed only as injured as Sweeney said. He was near the bar when I found him. Perhaps it helped to shield him.”

  “You’re not going to dump that on your head, are you?”

  “No.” Tolly smiled and then drank the water but didn’t swallow. He held it in his mouth as he touched Alvin’s forehead and throat. After a few moments, he swallowed. “He will rouse soon enough. There will be no lasting damage.”

  “Thank you,” Leigh said, for so much more than magical healing.

  Tolly took Leigh’s hand and held it, then leaned forward to press a kiss to his cheek. Leigh didn’t deserve him.

  It was less than an hour later that Alvin stirred.

  “Leigh?”

  “Hey.” Leigh scooted his chair closer. “You’re okay. You’re going to be okay. Do you remember what happened?”

  “The… the club!” His eyes sprang wide as he tried to sit up, nearly dislodging his IV.

  “Relax.” Leigh gently held him down. “You were the most hurt, and you’re fine. It’s being taken care of. Just rest.”

  “What about Cary? He was coming to see me. Urg,” he groaned, more like his usual self. “Why do I have the worst luck, just when I was ready to ask him out?”

  “We have not seen him,” Tolly said from the other side of the bed, “but he was not in the club when it blew. I am sure he is well.”

  “Hold that thought.” Leigh pulled out his phone. “I promised your dad I’d let him know when you woke up.”

  He sent a simple text message: Alvin is awake and doing well.

  It was maybe thirty seconds later that the door opened, and Leigh looked over, expecting it to be Sweeney with impeccable timing, but it was Cary, as though Alvin had willed him to appear.

  “Hey,” Alvin exclaimed, sitting up again, but this time he did so slow enough that Leigh allowed it.

  Cary held his cell phone, which made Leigh glance at his own with a frown.

  “Did you hack my phone to intercept my messages?”

  “Maybe.” Cary shoved his phone away, hands staying in his pockets, dark jacket on with a hood Leigh half expected to be up, and probably had been wherever he’d been hiding outside the room.

  “Why did you not join us if you were waiting outside?” Tolly asked. Leigh assumed the answer was because Cary wasn’t the sociable type and didn’t want to be in the same room with them for long, but the way he glanced aside said something else.

  “I didn’t want to see Alvin until I knew he was okay,” he said softly, which lit Alvin right up, because Cary had just admitted he didn’t want to see him hurt. “You’re the one who wanted to talk, and while showing up just about got me killed if I’d been two minutes earlier…. What did you want to ask me?”

  His eyes darted to Leigh and Tolly, which normally would have been a sign for them to scram, but Alvin was having none of it, already looking around for props.

  “I had this whole thing planned with the jukebox and…. Where’s my phone?”

  “You may use mine,” Tolly said and handed it to him, since Alvin’s phone had been fried in the blast.

  “Thanks.”

  Alvin grinned as Cary moved to the end of the bed with nervous eyes, but still he stayed while Alvin took a moment to Google something, then started playing the Righteous Brothers’ version of “Unchained Melody.”

  “I know it should be ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ but that’s kinda the wrong message.”

  For one horrible moment, Leigh thought Alvin might sing, which no one should be subjected to, but he simply used the song as a backdrop, starting to sign as he spoke, hesitant at first but getting bolder with each phrase.

  “I’m a mess. And not everybody likes me. But there’s only one person I want to like me. I think you are everything.” Alvin crossed his hands and spread them wide with emphasis, then moved his hands to his forehead. “Brilliant. And beautiful. And really funny when you want to be.

  “I love the way you fix your glasses when they fall.” He giggled, because Cary had just reached to fix them, which made him huff in embarrassment. “I love how your work has to be perfect and it always is. I love how much you love music. I love that you got stuck with me, and I’m sorry I’m not the best partner, but I’ll try to be better every day even if your answer is no.”

  “Answer?” Cary said, tentative but anxious to hear the question.

  “When I get out of here”—Alvin continued signing as he talked—“do you want to go out sometime? Get lunch or dinner or anything you want not as partners for work?”

  Cary was a few years older than them, closer to thirty, a grown man, yet here they were, in a situation that felt so juvenile. But the reality simply made Cary laugh. “You realize it is cheating to ask me this here, now, when you almost died?”

  “Yep,” Alvin said. “I’m good at cheating.”

  “Just us?” Cary eyed Leigh and Tolly again. “Without the peanut gallery?”

  “Of course! I just needed the support to get the nerve to finally ask you.”

  “I guess we could do that,” Cary said, and ducked his head when Alvin practically whooped. His eyes drifted then to look at Tolly. “You taught him that?”

  “He was very eager to learn,” Tolly said.

  “Don’t suppose you’d teach me more?” Alvin asked Cary, as Leigh finally stood and moved from the bed so Cary could take his place. “Be good for jobs, too, communicating from afar. Not that we have to talk all the time. If you don’t want to sign anything back to me, you can just give the universal one.” He promptly flicked Cary off.

  Cary laughed more openly than Leigh had ever heard.

  “Why don’t we leave you two alone?” Leigh had to go over to Tolly’s chair and physically haul him out of it to get him to stop watching the show like one of his movies. It was time to let the budding lovebirds progress on their own.

  “We will see you soon!” Tolly called as Leigh dragged him from the room, but the pair was already in deep discussion as Leigh saw Cary sign something back to Alvin that was one of the few phrases he knew.

  Thank you.

  The burly grunt on guard duty was still there. Glancing at his phone on their way out of the hospital, Leigh saw that he already had a message from Sweeney with the address of another one of his clubs.

  Meeting set. I’m all ears for this grand plan of yours.

  Good. Tell Rosa she’s joining you. I’ll be showing up to run point, but don’t let her know that. You make everything seem like you have this well in hand, then when the day comes, you won’t be going. I’ll handle everything.

  Bold request. Can’t wait to see how it pans out.

  Neither could Leigh. But in case it was one more thing that blew up in his face, he wasn’t going to waste any time.
>
  “Let’s head home, and I’ll tell you what I’m planning to save our skins.”

  A WEEK seemed like so much time, but Leigh knew it still might not be enough. He had to scope the club, figure out exactly who Leo Moretti had left on his side, who might turn traitor if Sweeney looked weak after the explosion, and he needed to get Perez and Horowitz to trust him one last time.

  But all that would come later. The only thing he had to worry about for now was making sure Mark and Selene kept Rosa busy during the truce. As long as Moretti thought he had the upper hand, he’d honor a cease-fire, and Leigh shouldn’t have to worry about any bombs showing up at his doorstep next.

  He set everything in motion that he could, made sure Ralph was okay, got pulled into a few of the usual building chores, but when evening rolled around, all he cared about was Tolly.

  “Let’s go down to the pool. You won’t need your trunks.”

  “Oh?” Tolly asked with a mischievous smile.

  “The supplies we usually use won’t work in the water, so….”

  “A condom would likely not fit anyway when I am—”

  “It’s fine.” Leigh didn’t want to go into detail until he saw the truth for himself or he might psych himself out of this. “I just wanted to know what to bring.”

  “We only need each other, if that is all right,” Tolly said like the Disney prince he was, though Leigh still grabbed a couple of towels—and an extra lock for the pool door.

  Tolly wasted no time stripping and diving into the water to let out his tail, while Leigh stripped more slowly, nervous and excited in one great bundle of tightness in his stomach. He chose to walk to the shallow end and descend the steps slowly.

  “So uhh, you can keep me lifted or….”

  “No need. We will stay under the water.” Tolly grasped his hands to pull him toward the deep end.

  “Uh, Tolly, I need to breathe.”

  “You will have no trouble while submerged. That is one of the gifts bestowed on you with the Breath of Life.”

  “What?” Leigh gaped and nearly let his head dip down before he was ready. “I can breathe underwater? Why didn’t you tell me that before?”