Page 41 of Sin Deep
One had to give people the opportunity, Winter mused silently. He hadn’t done much of that in the past few years. If not for Harley, he’d be celebrating his birthday at the club, having a light dinner without anyone knowing one way or the other and treating himself to cake or ice cream on the way home. “I’m difficult to approach, I think. Although you didn’t seem to have any difficulty.”
“No one told me I couldn’t. You can’t break the rules if you don’t know them, right?”
He’d never told anyone they couldn’t either, not in as many words, but he knew what he’d been doing. “I’m going to remember that and never ask what the rules are.”
“It’s a great plan.” Harley held his hand tight.
“Tell me about work today. What did you move?”
“Files. Lots of classified files. I actually had someone try to get access, which was cool.”
“Try to get access? You mean to the files?” Was that cool, or dangerous?
“Yeah. I told my boss, and the FBI came and everything. Never had that happen before.”
“That sounds rather scary, petit. Did you feel safe?” Harley must have had a background check to be moving classified materials. “I think I would have worried about you had I known.”
“Sure. Folks think they can do anything with money. My boss pays me, treats me good, trusts me, and I’m part of a team. I’m solid.” Harley shrugged like it was nothing. “My integrity’s worth more than someone can pay.”
It never occurred to him that something as simple as moving things could put Harley at risk. “They offered you money? You did the right thing, but…what if they’d pulled a weapon instead of handing you cash? Maybe it’s time to rethink this job.” Harley was young, not from New York. Integrity was important, but safety was the priority.
“Oh, they texted my work phone. It wasn’t like they offered me a twenty for the box. If they’d pulled a weapon, I’d have explained that I’m not from here, and if they shot me, they’d best kill me.” Harley fastened a confident look at him. “I’m not scared of dying. Bad folks are, so they don’t understand a man that’s not. But really? We work in a group. We want to be safe.”
“All right, petit. It’s not every day someone runs into the FBI. I care about you, so I want you to be safe. I’m not as brave as you are.” Not at all. He had no reason to be afraid of dying, but he was afraid of people with guns.
“The FBI part was cool! They asked all sorts of questions and all. I felt like I was helping catch a bad guy, and my boss was tickled as hell.” Harley’s laugh filled the air.
“Sounds like we’re having fun over here.” Their steaks arrived and the server set their plates down, turning them just so. “I hear we have a birthday at the table, Mr. Love.”
He grinned. They knew his name. How exciting. “Yes, thank you. One that ends in zero, in fact.”
“Twenty?” The server winked at him.
“Close.” They all laughed.
“Happy birthday. Enjoy your dinner.”
He picked up his napkin and put it neatly in his lap. “That was spectacular. He even knows my name!”
“Well, it is an amazing name, isn’t it?” Harley winked over, so obviously pleased with himself.
“It is. I chose it for myself, and I have been very happy with it.” He looked at his steak, his mouth watering at the aroma as well as at how wonderful it looked. “This is so indulgent. I can’t wait to try it.” He would have liked Harley to take the first bite, but he suspected the boy had been raised with manners much like his own, so as the guest of honor he knew Harley would wait for him to pick his fork up first. He did, and his serrated knife cut through the meat as if it were butter. It tasted even better, and he chewed slowly, savoring. “Oh my.”
“Yes.” Harley beamed at him, before taking a bite of his own, closing his eyes as he chewed. That was a blissful expression.
They were several bites in before either of them was ready to talk again. “Have you tried the potato? It’s perfect. Look at all the sour cream they brought me.” He had a whole ramekin of it, topped with chives.
“You can just dip it in, bite after bite.” Harley did just that, so playful, getting a forkful of mostly sour cream.
“That is exactly what I had planned.” He cut himself a bite because he liked the skin, dipped it and took a bite. “Mmm. Do remember the first steak you ever had?”
“Lord no. I probably didn’t have teeth yet. Do you?”
He nodded. “I do, in fact. I was on my way from central Pennsylvania to here on a bus, and the man who sat next to me bought me dinner in Philadelphia where we both had to change busses. He was headed to Washington DC on a train, actually, and I think he saw that I was alone and short on money. I was certainly hungry. In any case, he bought me my first steak. I thought it was amazing, but this one is far better.” There wasn’t much more to that story. He’d assumed at the time that the man wanted something, but he hadn’t. They’d eaten and gone their separate ways.
“Oh, that’s cool. Kindness from strangers is the best, because there’s nothing attached to it.”
“I’d assumed there would be, and I honestly wasn’t sure what I was going to do if it came to that, but it didn’t. I was shocked, to be honest. I didn’t know at the time that people just…did things for others without wanting anything in return. In a small way, that man set me on a better path I think.”
