Coming Up for Air Read online

  “Tolly,” he asked once they were lying side by side, “when you say you want to stay with me forever….”

  “I mean just that. Nothing about our time together or what I have learned of you has changed my mind. You gave me legs. You are everything the stories said you would be.”

  “What did the stories say?”

  “That when a merfolk finds their pact-bearer, that person will be their complement in all things. A friend and lover and partner in one, as you have proven to be.”

  Leigh was quiet for a time. “You know, if this was a movie, you’d be the Disney prince more than the little mermaid.”

  Tolly smiled, for he would happily be Leigh’s prince. Leigh deserved one, just as Tolly deserved a home. Surely they could find all they lacked and needed in each other.

  The hazy meeting of their gazes ended in a yawn as Leigh’s exhaustion caught up to him.

  “You are tired,” Tolly said, lifting the covers so they could crawl beneath, though he curled close to Leigh again as soon as they settled. “You should sleep.”

  “It’s okay. Not a big fan of sleep lately. Can’t seem to shake those dreams.”

  “Ah yes. May I ask what your nightmares are about?”

  “Always the same thing lately,” Leigh admitted with a soft sigh. “A monster. It’s silly, I know. It’s like I’m drowning again, but it’s darker, colder, and there’s something circling me. Gotta be the scariest thing I’ve ever seen, only something a dream could make up, or a horror movie.”

  A sense of dread began to fill Tolly’s stomach. “What does the monster look like?”

  “Like something that would try to eat you. I never get a good look at it, but it has claws and too many teeth and bloodred skin like a demon. And its eyes… they’re the worst part. No feeling, just empty. Awful. It keeps trying to reach for me, and the last thing I want is for that thing to touch me.”

  There were other parts to the stories, to the old tales of love found and love lost among Tolly’s kin. If a pact-bearer were to ever catch a glimpse of the merfolk’s true form, they would never love them. Who could, after all, when just as Leigh described, Tolly was nothing but a monster?

  “Hey… you okay?” Leigh asked, gentle fingers brushing a tear from Tolly’s cheek.

  “Yes.” Tolly smiled but felt further anguished, knowing that for the first time he was lying. “I simply feel your pain and do not wish for you to feel it anymore.”

  Starting at a low hum, he began to sing, not to erase Leigh’s memories or to control him, he would never do that, but to ease his mind and wipe the dreams away.

  “Tolly….”

  “Sleep and be at peace. You will not dream of the monster again. You will never see it again. I promise.”

  Leigh’s eyes were heavier already and slowly began to close. “Thank you,” he said, and fell into a soothing sleep.

  Chapter 9

  LEIGH HAD no idea what time it was when he started to rouse, but it wasn’t near dawn like he had been waking lately—or rather, been forced to wake from a knock. He’d slept, not only because he hadn’t been disturbed, but because his sleep had finally been peaceful. Tolly had sung him to sleep after….

  A smile and swirl of warmth brought Leigh to full alertness. Tolly wasn’t buried under the covers for once, but slept with his arms clinging to Leigh’s waist, creating a heat all down his side, their legs interlocked. There was not a single regret in Leigh that he had given in and stolen this remarkable creature’s virginity. It hadn’t really been stolen, after all, but freely given.

  Though there was something nagging at the back of Leigh’s mind, something sour that had almost pushed through their connection before Tolly began to sing, like maybe Tolly had been lying about something, but Leigh had no idea what it might be.

  He chalked it up to paranoia and chose to enjoy the continued afterglow of waking up with someone in his arms.

  Eventually, he decided to let Tolly sleep and carefully extracted himself from the bed without waking him. He watched with a fond smile as Tolly stirred only enough to roll farther onto Leigh’s side of the bed and bury his nose in the pillow.

  After taking a quick shower, Leigh returned to find Tolly still asleep and decided to wake him with breakfast. He still didn’t have what was needed for muffins but he could manage french toast. He brought his phone with him into the kitchen to check for messages. Nothing of importance yet, but he knew that the powwow with Moretti could come any day, and the further along in the week it got, the more anxious he would feel until it happened.

  For now, he tried not to think about it, until just as he was dishing up the French toast, his phone rang, and instead of Alvin, he saw Tabitha’s name on the caller ID.

  “Beckett. Good news for me, I hope?” he answered, excitement replacing his anxiety, which was not what he usually felt when speaking to his parole officer.

  “Hello, William. I wish it was good news.”

  Leigh’s stomach dropped as she continued, telling him plainly but sympathetically that an ex-con getting a business loan was not so easy an ask, something he knew and should have expected, but still he’d hoped.

  He could get one, eventually, but not so soon after he’d been locked away. It would take a long time before anything would be possible, maybe years, to build back credibility, prove he was a worthwhile investment, and a handful of other phrases that meant society didn’t trust him to become something other than what he’d always been.

  He’d never get out from under Sweeney without a better plan, but as good as he usually was at forming new ones on the fly, he couldn’t think of any way to escape his fate. How was he supposed to tell Tolly that he might have traded one prison for another by choosing to be with Leigh?

  “Thanks for the heads-up, Beckett. I’m sure I’ll figure something out.”

  “Call me if you need advice, anything more I can do—”

  “I will,” Leigh said and hung up promptly, because there wasn’t more to say. He would figure something out, he had to, but it likely wouldn’t be legal.

  “That smells divine.” Tolly startled him from his thoughts. He’d grabbed fresh underwear but had chosen to put on that too small T-shirt again, hanging in the doorway looking coy and delicious, even more so than the French toast.

  Leigh had to smile despite fearing that someday he’d let Tolly down.

  SOMEHOW, WITH seemingly so little to do, the rest of the week passed quickly, waiting on news from Alvin of Jake and Rosa’s movements. Some days Leigh went out. Some days Tolly joined him. Every day there were people stopping by for Leigh’s skill set, but never anyone unsavory trying to take him out.

  Most nights they ended up at the pool—and eventually in bed to revisit their first experience. Leigh wasn’t used to having a regular partner, but by getting to know each other’s bodies, each successive time together felt better than the last.

  They hadn’t tried with Tolly topping yet or anything with his merfolk self, but after the first few days, Leigh couldn’t stop thinking about both and almost asked several times before he chickened out.

  He really was some nervous preteen when it came to Tolly, blushing and fumbling for words. He’d never been good at flirting, expressing feelings, seducing someone, but Tolly made him comfortable in so many other ways, made him happy—and that just made his inability to ask for what he wanted worse for fear of saying the wrong thing and screwing this up.

  It wasn’t easy to be someone else’s fairy tale.

  Maybe he could find some other way to get the money he needed to buy that shop and make an honest man of himself. It was hard to change one’s stripes, but not impossible. After all, Tolly usually had a tail and now he had legs. Surely Leigh could manage something simpler.

  He might have believed more in that too if his hope in the universe hadn’t been dashed one afternoon late in the week when he and Tolly slipped out to grab lunch somewhere that wasn’t his living room, and he saw a familiar figure pickpocketing
someone.

  “Is that Ralph?” Tolly asked.

  Leigh quickened his pace, the victim already heading away, unaware that his wallet was gone.

  Unfortunately, Leigh wasn’t the only one who’d seen. Perez and Horowitz really did get around lately, and they crossed the street to intercept Ralph before Leigh and Tolly could reach him.

  “Well I’ll be, they sure are startin’ ’em young, eh, Horowitz?”

  “Mr. Abbott, shouldn’t you be in school?” Horowitz said. “And returning that man’s wallet?”

  Leigh rushed forward as Ralph turned with wide eyes that proved he had no idea how to talk his way out of this. “I’m sure he was planning on informing the guy he dropped it, detectives.”

  All three spun at Leigh and Tolly’s approach, Ralph looking cookie-jar caught before he mouthed an earnest “thank you” at Leigh.

  “Hurley,” Perez scoffed. “Showin’ him the ropes to make sure his form’s up to snuff?”

  “Don’t know what you’re talking about. All I see is a kid trying to be a Good Samaritan.”

  Perez eyed Leigh with barely a glance spared for Tolly. “What are you pullin’ a Captain America for?”

  Again with the Marvel reference, but any time Leigh went out, he wore the glasses and ball cap to play it safe. “Trying something new. What, not a fan?”

  “I’ll, uhhh… catch up to that gentleman and let him know he dropped this,” Horowitz said, taking the wallet from Ralph and dashing away.

  Ralph inched closer to Leigh and Tolly’s side of the standoff, causing Perez to shoot him a glare before he snarled back at Leigh.

  “I was too easy on ya for too long. Maybe if Abbott lands his ass in juvie sooner, he’ll learn better.”

  “No, you can’t.” Ralph shrunk behind Leigh. “The Moretti guys made me—”

  “Ralph,” Leigh snapped before he could incriminate himself further. Moretti guys? Shit. “Don’t say anything else.”

  Horowitz came back over at a jog, having hurried to make sure his partner didn’t lose his temper.

  “Look,” Leigh tried before this escalated, surprised at the plan forming in his mind that before today hadn’t dared rear its head, but if all this was what it looked like with Ralph, it might be the only way. “Maybe you let this one slide for the kid, huh, because he’s gonna promise me”—he looked at Ralph pointedly—“that this is the last time he ever pulls something like this.”

  “I swear!”

  “And why would we let him off?” Perez growled.

  Leigh was either a genius or out of his mind. “Coz maybe I know why you’ve been hanging around, and I might have a lead on bringing Vincent Moretti and a few rats on Sweeney’s side down.”

  “Leigh?” Tolly questioned his seeming betrayal, but Leigh added:

  “Only if you stop there and leave Sweeney and the rest of his people out of it.”

  “You mean leave Sweeney’s kid out of it.” Perez sneered.

  “Whoever isn’t at the location once I learn it, yeah.”

  “You don’t even have a place? Or a time?”

  “I’ll have it,” Leigh said, leaning into Perez’s space.

  “And you’ll inform us?” Horowitz asked.

  “As soon as I’m sure it’s not a false alarm, I’ll send a message and record everything I hear until you get there. I’ll even testify if it comes to that,” Leigh said, aware of how dangerous having this conversation in the open might be, but fairly certain there wasn’t anyone around with traitorous ears—other than Ralph. “But you let the kid go and leave Sweeney and his people alone. That’s the deal.”

  Horowitz looked all for it, the eager puppy type like an eternal rookie who never lost faith in people, even if he was pushing forty, but Perez was a realist.

  “You must want something big from Sweeney to make this kinda play.”

  “Yeah,” Leigh said—the biggest thing he’d ever wanted. “Out.”

  “Ch. Heard that before.”

  “I mean it, Nick.” Leigh used the man’s first name like he hadn’t in years. “I don’t want to do this anymore. And I don’t want anyone else taking my place.” He shot another pointed look at Ralph.

  Eventually, the gruffness seemed to soften from Perez’s demeanor, if only a little. “This is the last time I trust you.”

  “I know. Blame him for being a good influence.” He thrust a thumb at Tolly. The last thing he needed was for Perez and Horowitz to expect otherwise since Tolly wasn’t a familiar face.

  Tolly, of course, beamed at the compliment.

  “Think I hear a call comin’ in,” Perez said to his partner. “Better get back to the car so we can check it out.” He looked Tolly up and down like he didn’t quite get it, but he nodded and turned on his heel.

  “You got it, Nick!” Horowitz hurried to follow. “Thanks, Hurley. You got our numbers?”

  “How else am I supposed to avoid ’em? I’ll call, any day now.”

  As soon as the detectives were gone, Leigh seized Ralph by the shoulders and ushered him off the sidewalk into the nearest alley.

  “Hurley, I owe you big-time—”

  “You better believe you do.” Leigh pushed him just shy of harsh as Tolly crowded in with them. “You’re joining us for lunch and you are going to tell me everything you’ve been keeping to yourself. Then you are heading right back to school. Understood?”

  Ralph’s head nearly popped off as he nodded like a bobblehead.

  They made sure to head the long way to a diner well out of any territories, and Ralph spilled his secrets. He’d been running for the Morettis for months, but he’d also been running on the down-low the past couple of weeks for Sweeney.

  “You are the last snitch,” Leigh said, though he’d figured as much. He would have been more pissed if he wasn’t impressed he hadn’t caught on sooner.

  “They said it was the only way they’d stop giving me grunt work and take me seriously.” Ralph sat alone on his side of the booth, facing their scrutiny, shoving fries in his mouth every few sentences. “I figured a few tidbits of info wouldn’t hurt anybody, and I’d be set.”

  “It never works that way, Ralph.”

  “I know. I didn’t think mentioning your name would mean they’d send someone after you.” He slowed his chewing and stared at his plate with a thick swallow. “Then someone said these thugs were in the building and you weren’t answering your door when I went to check and I… I was so freaked I’d gotten you killed.”

  He almost had, but Leigh didn’t want to make things worse by telling him that. “Jake and Rosa would have fed the Morettis the info I was alive within a day anyway. What matters is that you’re in deep with both sides and your only way out is by letting me take care of this through those detectives. Hopefully after that, Sweeney will be so pleased to have the competition out of the way, he’ll listen when I ask him to forget you ever did errands for him. But you stay low and you stay safe, you hear me? You go to school, you come home, that’s it.”

  “Totally.” Ralph nodded rapidly again as he glanced up. “I was thinking about what you said, really, about other options, but they wouldn’t let me stop.”

  “It’s a lot harder to get out than in, kid. But I’ll take care of it.”

  “You are the best, Hurley.” Ralph smiled brightly. “I’ll make this up to you. I promise.”

  “The only way I need you making this up to me is by getting out of here someday any way other than by heading to lockup.”

  “Of course!” Ralph laughed, the way only a teenager could in a deadly situation he didn’t fully understand, then he turned to Tolly as he shoved more fries in his face. “You are a good influence, Tol, but he’s always been like this.”

  Tolly had been annoyingly quiet through it all, watching Leigh with a knowing smile. “He has trouble believing that, and I think you have very much in common in that regard.”

  “Yeah? Well, save the doe-eyed glances for him. I’m spoken for.”

  “You
are not,” Leigh said.

  “Ralph, perhaps you should pursue someone closer to your own age,” Tolly tried, since they all knew he was talking about Deanna.

  “Hurley said that once I’m eighteen, the age difference won’t matter.”

  “That is not what I said, I said….” Leigh sighed. “Aren’t there any girls at school you like?”

  “Sure, but they all laugh at me.”

  “Laugh?” Tolly repeated.

  “The crappy pickup lines might have something to do with it,” Leigh said.

  “I don’t sound like that around them!” Ralph defended. “I just… kinda fumble and don’t know what to say.” While Deanna, being her wonderful, motherly self, had never made Ralph feel like he was a gangly, geeky goofball, so of course he’d fallen for her.

  “Would you like to practice?” Tolly said. “You could pretend we are one of the girls you fancy, and if you say the wrong thing, we can lead you in a better direction.”

  “Really?” Ralph brightened before instantly deflating again. “I don’t know, Hurley’s tried that before.”

  “Ah, but I think your problem is trying too hard to woo when first you need to befriend.” Tolly took on an air of authority, maybe because he’d succeeded in wooing Leigh. “A friend will not laugh at you. A friend will make you feel comfortable enough to be yourself and express how you feel. Do you have any girl friends? Or boys, I suppose.”

  “Girls,” Ralph affirmed, though without the reflexive disgust someone might have responded with when Leigh was that age. “And not really, I guess.”

  “Then we shall start there.”

  Tolly was a good influence, on everyone and everything in Leigh’s life.

  They let Ralph play hooky for another hour to help him forget his mess with the families and focus on romantic troubles instead. Then Leigh pushed him in the direction of the high school and threatened to call to make sure he showed up, but Ralph swore he’d be good. He would be, Leigh hoped. Better than he’d ever been.