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Summary
Three ways Johnny could have learned Henry was pining for him, and what he did about it every time.
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"Johnny," Henry said, low and sharp.
Johnny looked up.
He'd meant to push, that was all. He'd meant to make the thought cross Henry's mind, the same way it wouldn't stop crossing his, and then maybe if Henry found it didn't put him off—if he let a few more hands pass, let Johnny lose his belt and his undershirt and his socks, and decided he liked the view all right, then Johnny would have a shot at getting somewhere.
But Henry was—Johnny sucked in a breath, startled, and the sound felt loud, the air still and hot, the room smaller than it had been. Henry looked the way Henry always looked, and yet every line of his face had changed, fierce and hard and intent, and his eyes were so blue Johnny felt burned by the weight of them on him."You're a damn fool," Johnny said again. "And you let me know it, thanks to that fever."
Henry's face changed, and his whole body went still. He was sitting, casual, elbow on his knee, and he didn't move an inch, kept the easy curve of his spine and the loose draping angle of his wrist exactly as they were. But it was a cover, now: like this was a grift after all, but it was Johnny who was the mark.
Wouldn't do him any good, though, seeing as Johnny already had his number."I don't think we're going to need to cut it off," Johnny said. "But it's going to be about as much use as if we had, getting out of here. You go on, all right?"
"No," Henry said, real low.
Which was stupid, because he had to know as well as Johnny did that he needed to. He'd be in for a world of trouble if the police picked him up—if word made it back to Lonnegan somehow that he was still breathing. Wasn't any help for it, for Johnny, but he still had a shot, and he had to take it.
"Henry," Johnny said.
"No," Henry said, and leaned down.
Johnny got what he was about maybe two seconds before Henry's shoulder was in his gut. "You're an idiot," he said, to the back of Henry's jacket, but there wasn't much of anything he could do about it except make it harder for Henry, and making it harder for Henry would mean getting dropped.