Chapter 24 - Try The Fair Adventure of Tomorrow.

“So what are we supposed to do now?” Justin asked after they’d been huddled together in the tiny closet for long enough that the adrenaline had begun to wear off

“No fucking idea,” Brian replied, pulling his phone out of his pocket, the blue light from the screen providing at least some illumination. “Something’s definitely going down. I’ve got about twenty messages.” 

He held the phone out so Justin could read the messages along with him. The first one said, ‘Where are you, Brian? Daphne says she can’t find Justin . . .’ That was followed by at least a dozen other messages from Cara, Greg, and Azaria, all asking where Brian was. The last one was from ‘Auntie M’ - which was the code name for their Interpol connection - and it said only, ‘Mother sends her love and congrats on your big day.’

“Shit!” Brian cursed quietly. 

“That’s the code phrase to abort the mission, right?” Justin asked, just to clarify; he knew it was but was having trouble believing his eyes. He felt more than saw Brian’s nod as he checked his own phone and found the same messages. “So . . . What the fuck are we supposed to do? All I remember was that Cara and Greg were supposed to get us out of here. But . . .”

“. . . Who the fuck knows where they are right now,” Brian finished Justin’s sentence for him. “And it’s probably not a good idea to broadcast where you and I are hiding because we can’t be sure someone isn’t reading their messages.”

“Doesn’t the FBI have tracking on our phones though? They’ll find us eventually, right?” Justin pointed out.

“Yeah. Just in time to identify our bodies, probably,” Brian offered unhelpfully. 

“So, what? We just hide out here until . . .”

“Until either Aleksi’s goons find us or the good guys send in the cavalry to rescue our asses, I guess,” Brian said with a sigh.

“Or until your friend Laura comes back for us,” Justin added, slumping back against the row of shelves that lined the wall behind him. 

Which is when they both heard an audible ‘click’. Justin immediately jumped forward again. This resulted in the entire rack of shelves shifting forward to reveal the entrance to a small passageway leading off into the darkness at their backs. 

“What the fuck?” Brian pulled the shelf-lined door panel further open and turned on the flashlight function on his phone so they could see down the hidden hallway. 

Just then the fugitives heard a renewed hubbub of raised voices coming from the chapel outside their secret hideaway. Brian and Justin looked at each other and silently came to the same conclusion. Together, they stepped through the doorway into the narrow passage and pulled the shelf-wall closed behind them. Then, using only the light from Brian’s phone, they made their way single file down the cramped corridor into the unknown.

The hallway - if you could even call a space that was barely half a meter wide a hallway - led straight for about a dozen paces and then made a sharp right turn. Two dozen meters after that, the intrepid pair found themselves at a juncture where they could either continue straight or take another right turn. The path to the right seemed to end at a door only a little ways down, while the corridor ahead went on for quite a distance. Justin pointed to the shorter path and Brian silently led the way. This option dead-ended at another of those door panels; the only thing giving away that it wasn’t just another wall was the small metal lever on the right that would presumably allow someone to unlatch and open the door from this side. Before they could even think about attempting this exit, however, they heard more shouting coming from whatever was behind the panel. 

“What do you mean the pederu is missing?” Aleksi Kacmar’s voice was so loud that the men hiding in his walls could easily hear him even through the wall insulation. “Nadi ih! Smjesta!” 

There followed a whole lot of yelling and cursing in Croatian. Even though Brian didn’t know what the man was saying, he could tell from the tone that Kacmar was livid. Brian didn’t envy whoever was on the receiving end of that diatribe. Meanwhile, Justin had wisely begun to record the rant using his own phone, just in case they ever managed to get out of this mess in one piece and were able to get someone who mattered to translate. You never knew what would help put this monster behind bars. 

“Aleksi, please. Think about what you’re doing.” The voice that responded in English was none other than their very own Beks. “This is getting out of hand. If they really are the police, doubling down and going after them like this isn’t going to help. You haven’t done anything you can’t back out of . . . Yet,” Beks pleaded. “You can still walk away. Nobody has to get hurt.”

“This is shit of bull!” Aleksi retorted, clearly in a rage. “It is that malo pederu. The blond one. I know this! He is coward and double crossed me! But I will make him pay! First, I find him and tear his balls off with these my hands and then I make him watch while I kill all the rest of these kurac. Nobody jebeti with Aleksi Kacmar. Nobody!”

“Fuck, Aleksi. Isn’t it too late for that? If they really are Interpol or FBI or whatever, you need to just back the fuck off and let this go. Whatever your plans were, they can’t be that important,” Beks countered.

“Ajde U Kurac!” Kacmar yelled back and Brian interpreted the words as some form of ‘fuck you!’, because that sounds the same in almost any language. “I have too much invested on Kinney already to find another American this late. I have investors. They not be happy if no return on their money after much long time. They want American investments and American dollars. Now. We can’t spend dirty kuna here or even the judges we paid to protect us won’t be able to help. Without Kinnetik, or some other helpful American zrtva to do the cleaning on the money, we are jebati!”

“That makes no sense,” Beks pressed. “How is hiring in an advertising agency in the US going to help your investors here?”

“What are you, glupi?” Aleksi practically screamed. And it seemed like Kacmar had become so angry by that point that he was no longer being careful with his words, because he just started blurting everything out. “We don’t want the jebati advertising agency! We just use Kinney and his company for access to US banks. And real estate. We make shell companies. LLCs. Shell pay money to US company. That company buy Miami condos. After sale, kuna turned to squeaky clean dollars and investors much happy. Is simple. But they will much not like more delay. Aleksi not be the one they take out unhappy on. So, we find Kinney and his boy and we MAKE them understand . . . Or we break all their bones until they change their minds, yes?” 

Brian and Justin looked at each other, each man’s expression a mirror of the other, a mixture of satisfaction and dread. They’d just gotten the evidence they needed to put Kacmar away for good. But at the cost of him wanting them both either dead or disfigured. And they were still on the run, hiding from the man in the walls of his own hotel, cut off from the only people who might be able to protect them. It was a bittersweet victory at best. 

“Sefe,” a new voice entered the discussion at that point, speaking mostly Croatian, which left Brian and Justin lost again. 

Brian was about to suggest they move on, maybe try the other branch of the secret passage, when Aleksi erupted again, this time yelling even louder than before, “I don’t care your excuses! Koji si ti Kurac? Don’t tell me you no can do my orders! First you let Kinney escape last night so I get no Kompromat pictures. Now you lose them both again? I tell you to FIND THEM! NOW! THEY HERE SOMEWHERE! KINNEY NOT GO OUT OF HOTEL OR I WOULD KNOW! SO YOU FIND THEM NOW OR I KILL YOU BOTH IN THE PEDERU’S PLACE!”

There was a lot of clattering and a jumble of voices that got gradually quieter after that. It sounded like everyone involved had left the room - probably Kacmar’s office judging by what they’d overheard - even Aleksi, whose yelling diminished as if he was following along behind his minions as he continued to screech at them. Justin tapped at the button on his phone to stop the recording. 

“Now what?” the blond whispered. 

Brian had no clue. “I . . . Fuck . . . I don’t know.” He looked at the doorway they’d been eavesdropping through and shook his head. “No sense in following through there. We don’t know when they might come back.” Looking the other direction, Brian decided, for lack of any better alternative, to carry on the way they’d been heading. “Let’s see where this fucking passage leads, I guess. Maybe there’s another way out?”

“That’s as good a suggestion as any,” Justin agreed and gestured for Brian and his flashlight to precede him. 

So they continued on, going back to the main corridor of the secret passage and turning right again, heading further away from the chapel entrance where they’d started. Just a few more meters beyond the ell that had led to Kacmar’s office, the main corridor took another jog to the right and then the path they were following dead-ended again at another panel door. They paused there and Brian leaned forward, his ear against the crack of the doorjamb, listening. 

“I can’t hear anything out there, but . . .” Brian looked at his companion for advice but Justin simply shrugged. “Fine.” 

He turned the light off, so as not to give them away, and then carefully, slowly, and as quietly as possible, he lifted the metal lever that served as a door latch, pushing the panel mere millimeters before stopping again. Another anxious minute or two passed while they listened so intently Brian thought he could hear the blood coursing through his ear drums. There was no sound coming from behind the panel so he pushed it a little further open. A dim light began to seep through the crack from wherever the passage opened onto. Looking over his shoulder, Brian saw Justin nod, so when they still heard nothing Brian sighed, pushed the door wide enough to stick his head out, and took a peek. 

“Damn it,” he cursed quietly then pushed the door all the way open so Justin could see where they’d emerged. 

They’d come out in the back corner of the nightclub, next to the special, roped off, VIP area. No one was around and the lights were off. It seemed safe enough so they both stepped out of the cramped hallway into the wide open spaces of the club. Brian could hear Justin inhaling deeply, as if to clear his lungs after being in the musty, narrow passage for so long. 

“I was hoping that passage would lead to an exit. Get us out of the building somehow,” Brian said, venting his frustration. “What’s the point of a secret passage that only goes from the fucking nightclub to Aleksi’s office to the damn chapel?”

“Maybe it’s so Aleksi can sneak in and out of the club without his wife knowing. Or maybe it’s the way he sneaks his prostitutes into his office? Didn’t Laura say something about only the working girls knowing about the closet she shoved us into?” Justin suggested as he collapsed onto the closest couch. 

“Maybe. But why connect it to the fucking chapel?” Brian asked, unconvinced. 

“Makes sense to me. Where’s the last place you’d think of to look for nefarious types who were sneaking around in a mafia run hotel? The church, right?” Justin reasoned it out. 

Brian nodded and sat down next to his adventure companion. “You know, Sunshine, I’m starting to suspect there’s more to you than just a pretty face and a spectacular ass.”

“It’s true,” Justin joked back, hitting Brian with one of his blindingly bright smiles. “I also have a really big cock.”

“That too,” Brian agreed and then leaned in to take the big-brained boy’s lips in a searing kiss. 

When the kiss finally came to its natural conclusion, though, they both sat back and really looked around themselves. Even though they appeared to be safe for the moment, they were still trapped in the resort and didn’t know where the rest of their team - the ones that carried guns and knew how to take out bad guys - might be. They didn’t dare contact the LEOs either, because they had no idea if those communications would be safe now that their operation had been blown up. For the time being, it appeared that they were on their own and out of ideas.

“Fuck it,” Brian declared, getting up off the couch and making his way over to the bar where he liberated a bottle of Aleksi’s best scotch. After taking a swig from the bottle he held it out in Justin’s direction. “Want some?”

Justin got up and came over to join his partner. “You hoping to find inspiration in there or just get so drunk you don’t mind when Aleksi’s goons find us?”

“Definitely, option one.” 

Brian waited until Justin had a couple of swallows and then took the bottle back for himself. And it seemed to work. After a few minutes of thought, and about a highball worth of whiskey, Brian felt fortified enough to make a plan. 

“Okay, this is what I got so far,” he said with a wobble of his head to indicate he only felt so-so about his plan. “The nightclub has its own entrance that’s off to the left of the main lobby. There’s nothing else down this hallway and we’d only be in view of the front desk staff for a few seconds. I think we might be able to make it out that way, provided we’re lucky and don’t get spotted.”

“And then what?” Justin asked, looking over Brian’s tall, elegant frame and then making a point of looking at his own attire. “Two Americans running down the streets of Split in tuxes in the middle of the afternoon? You may be equally as pretty, Brian, but you’re not James Bond. Unless you have a secret weapon hidden in your shoe or a way to contact Q, I don’t know how far you think we’ll get.”  

Brian huffed a small laugh but remained mostly serious. “You got any better ideas?”

“Fuck, no.”

“Then it’s International Man of Mystery time, Sunshine.”

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Justin groaned, took the bottle away from Brian so he could get one last fortifying gulp, and then squared his shoulders. “Lead on, Brian Kinney - my middle name is ‘Danger’.”

“Good thing you’re cute because you’d never make it doing standup,” Brian concluded as he walked towards the door that would take them out into the main part of the hotel and, potentially, into the lion’s den. 

With Justin following closely behind, Brian warily made his way out of the club and inched his way down the short hallway that led past the lobby desk to the side entrance which primarily served the club. At first it seemed like their luck would hold; there didn’t seem to be anyone around. Brian edged up to the section of wall where the corridor they were in opened up on the right to the main lobby. The hotel reception desk was on the other side of the lobby, facing towards the hotel’s front doors. The side entrance that served the club headed off to the left, perpendicular to the reception desk. Unfortunately, the desk and the hall weren’t perfectly aligned, which meant that it was possible for someone at the front desk to see them going down the hall if the attendant was looking just the right way when they passed. Brian craned his neck around the wall and breathed a sigh of relief when it appeared that the desk was momentarily unattended. With a gesture to his blond shadow, Brian trotted around the corner, heading towards the ornate, wrought iron and glass doors that led outside. Hopefully to freedom.

Which is when their luck ran out. 

The pair of fugitives were almost all the way to the exit before Brian could see far enough out past the elaborate metal swirls that partially obscured the glass of the doors. That’s when he noticed that one of Aleksi’s goons was positioned just to the left of the entrance. The man was standing with his back to them, so at least he hadn’t seen them approach. But Brian could tell by the way his head was swiveling back and forth that he was on the lookout for something. Or someone. Maybe two someones. 

“Shit!” He cursed under his breath and froze in place, causing Justin to run into his back. “There’s a guard out there,” he whispered. Justin peeked around Brian’s body and gulped audibly. “Go back. Go back.”

Justin did as ordered but didn’t let go of Brian’s hand. Brian, himself, slowly crept backwards, keeping his eyes locked on the security guard’s back, silently begging the fates that the guy wouldn’t turn around. The walk back seemed to drag on forever, taking ten times as long as it had taken them to walk down the short entryway to start with. 

They almost made it too. 

When they were only a couple of meters from the corner where they could duck back around to the safety of the empty hall, the security guard turned around and looked directly into Brian’s eyes. Brian felt paralyzed. He couldn’t have moved if he’d tried. For a moment the guard seemed to share that paralysis. They just stared at each other while Brian’s heart pounded so hard in his chest it felt like it might break free. Then the guard blinked. He lifted a walkie-talkie to his lips and said something Brian couldn’t hear. And he smiled at Brian with this evil grin that immediately unfroze him.

“Fucking run!” he yelled and turned on his heel, dragging Justin along by the hand. 

The yelling brought the momentarily absent desk clerk out of hiding, though, and the staffer immediately moved to block their pathway back to the club. Brian only faltered for a moment before he zagged the other direction, heading out into the lobby proper, towing his blond behind him while they tried to dodge through a milling crowd of newly arrived tourists. Brian hoped that the chaos caused by the hordes of new guests might provide them enough cover to make it out the main doors. He deliberately knocked over several chairs and tables as he passed, hoping to add to the melee and confusion. The tourists began to shout and swarm, which helped block the path of the guard who was rapidly gaining on them from behind. However, just as they swerved past the last luggage cart between them and the exit, a wall of security guards, all wearing identical blue blazers with the hotel logo imprinted on the lapel, appeared from out of nowhere and completely blocked their escape. 

With nowhere else to go, Brian skidded to a halt and looked around, desperate for any other option. There was only one direction that didn’t seem to be blocked by Kacmar’s goons, so Brian headed that way, still skirting panicked tourists and having to jump over one toppled chair that fell in their path. Justin was right behind him, dodging and juking with the same terror-stricken energy. They ran full-speed down the only open hallway, slued around the corner, and found themselves . . . Right back where they’d started, standing in front of the wedding chapel.

“There you are!” Lucija greeted them, popping up out of nowhere and grabbing hold of Brian’s elbow before he could say anything. “You are late! We think you get lost! Come. No want to miss your own wedding . . .”

She led the two disheveled and now sweaty men in through the chapel doors where a small, gray-haired man dressed in a priest’s cassock greeted them in barely understandable English. Brian was too busy looking back over his shoulder, trying to see how far behind Aleksi’s goons were, to bother listening to anything the priest said. Before he knew it the little man had led both him and Justin up to the front of the little sanctuary and was directing them to stand in front of the altar so that the guests in the mostly empty pews would be able to see them properly. There were a few smiling hotel staff members seated in the chapel waiting for them, along with Michael and Ben, seated to the left, and Petra and Lucija, seated to the right. And that was it. None of the undercover law enforcement agents who’d been included in their little wedding party seemed to be in attendance. Meaning that Brian and Justin were shit out of luck.

Justin, who seemed in shock, looked up at Brian with a mix of confusion and fear distorting his beautiful features. Brian was sure that his own face looked equally as forlorn. But they were out of options. Brian couldn’t think of any way out. They were trapped. 

While the two men stood there, helpless and numb, the clueless priest began to orate in a pidgin mixture of Croatian and English that almost no one understood. They were only a few minutes into the performance when the doors to the chapel burst open and three armed security guards rushed into the chapel, only to find themselves at a loss for what to do once they realized what was happening inside. They looked around at each other, almost as confused as Brian was, but didn’t approach any nearer, seeming to telepathically decide to merely stand sentry in front of the doors so that their quarry couldn’t escape. 

Brian’s thoughts were spinning so fast he couldn’t concentrate on anything else. He kept trying to think of some alternative. Some way they could still escape their fate. But nothing came to him. Meanwhile, the ridiculous priest droned on, the wedding ceremony continuing despite the fact that neither of the grooms were paying any attention. Part of Brian’s brain somehow found time to note just how surreal this entire experience was, even as the rest of him was awash in barely contained hysteria. 

“Mr. Taylor,” the priest intoned at some undetermined time later, his wrinkled smile beaming down on the distracted blond youth. “In the light of this community, under the laws of God and the State, do you take this man, Brian Kinney, to be your lawful husband, for better or worse, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish until death do you part?”

Justin looked dazed. “I . . . Uh . . . I . . . I . . .” 

Brian thought for a moment the kid might pass out. But, right as Justin was about to stutter out some response, there was a loud clatter of noise coming from the vestibule of the chapel, and the commotion drowned out whatever words Justin said next. The undeterred priest, however, refused to let this interruption distract him. And, seeming to assume that Justin had voiced his consent, he carried on with the ceremony. 

“Mr. Kinney,” the priest continued. “In the light of this community, under the laws of God and the State, do you take this man, Justin Taylor, to be your lawful husband, for better or worse, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish until death do you part?”

Brian was two seconds away from telling the fucking priest to go to hell when the doors to the chapel once more crashed open and Brian’s head jerked around to find Aleksi Kacmar standing in the back of the room. 

One look at the man’s tomato red face and it was clear that he was lethally furious. Kacmar was flanked on each side by another mountainous, gun-toting security guard. Behind him was the huge Russian guard named Serjay, who was towing a frantically struggling Beks along by her elbow. Out in the other room, Brian could see another half dozen security staff over Aleksi’s shoulder. 

This was it. It was all over. Brian felt caught like a deer in the headlights of a car. He knew he was probably only a couple minutes away from being killed and there was no way out. 

Then something inside his mind snapped and all of a sudden Brian found himself laughing at the absolute absurdity of the moment. “Fuck it,” he chuckled, shaking his head and sighing. “You know what? Sure. Whatever. Why the hell not. If we’re going to die any minute, we might as well, right?” He turned to look at Justin directly, taking up the other man’s trembling hands and holding the gemstone blue gaze as he declared, “I do. Fuck it all, I DO!” Then he looked sideways at the priest and asked, “can we fucking kiss already?”

“I now pronounce you married. You may kiss your husband,” the priest declaimed with a patronly smile. 

Brian didn’t need any further permission. He pulled the smaller, trembling body to him and wrapped Justin in his arms. They held each other so tightly that it was almost painful as their lips met in one last, desperate kiss. Brian poured out everything he couldn’t say into that kiss. There was so much passion that he’d never been able to share which came out in those few seconds. A whole life of missed chances to be communicated. Regret, affection, tenderness, and maybe even love. He felt Justin’s tears wetting his face and wasn’t sure if any of the moisture came from his own eyes, not that he cared anymore. All he did care about was that he’d get to taste those soft, pink lips one more time. He let his tongue tangle with Justin’s in a rush of sweet lust. He wanted to experience whatever last moments of joy they might have together for however long they might have left. 

“Aleksi Kacmar! Uhicen si!” 

A very loud and very authoritarian voice finally broke through the passion of Brian and Justin’s last kiss, causing them to pull apart and look over to discover a fresh rush of chaos erupting near the doors to the chapel. 

Brian wasn’t sure if it was surprise or relief that caused him to drop to his knees when he saw a new swarm of fifty or more armed folks pouring in through the doors to the chapel. This group, however, seemed to all be sporting official-looking insignia and badges. They were already busy pointing their guns at Aleksi and his goons, pushing the bad guys up against walls to search them, and zip-tying their hands. Kacmar was yelling and cursing in Croatian while struggling to free himself from the grip of two burly men wearing black windbreakers with the word ‘POLICIJA’. 

Before too much longer, a few familiar faces made their way through the crowd. Cara, Greg, and Azaria, now adorned in FBI tactical vests, pushed their way through the local police to get to Brian and Justin. They looked concerned.

“Brian? Are you hurt? Can you get up?” The questions pelted at him and he only then realized that he was still crumpled in a heap on his knees with Justin hovering over him and crying. 

“Yeah. I’m okay . . . I just . . .”

Greg reached out a hand to help him up and slapped him familiarly on the shoulder, leaving his steadying hand there for support. Beside Greg, Azaria was hugging the shit out of Justin. Cara was just standing there looking on and beaming. 

As soon as Brian managed to get his brain back online, his first question was, “where the fuck have all of you been?”

“Sorry it took us a while to get here,” Cara answered for all the LEOs. “Your friend, Laura, came to get us as soon as she got you two into hiding. She was able to provide us with enough evidence to get us the arrest warrants we needed to protect you guys, but because it’s only just after dawn back in New York, it wasn’t easy getting all the paperwork together. We didn’t know Aleksi had found your hiding place, though. We thought you were just lying low. I’m sorry for all this.” She gestured at the chaos that surrounded them.  

“Here,” Justin handed Cara his phone. “If you didn’t get all you needed from Laura, there should be more than enough on there. I recorded Kacmar bragging to Beks about everything. The fucker.” 

“Excellent! Thank you, Justin. The more evidence the better.” Azaria gave her charge another hug and then began to lead him away. 

Justin reached out a hand to Brian who was grateful for the warm touch. He smiled at the other man. He was still having trouble believing everything that had happened. Ten minutes earlier, he’d thought he was about to be violently murdered and now . . . What? They were safe and could go home. But then what?

Before they could get all the way out of the chapel, though, Brian’s attention was demanded by a series of squawks coming from the short, stocky brunet man being rigorously questioned by one of the Split police officers in the far corner of the chapel. 

“Brian! Brian, what the fuck is going on? Who are all these people and where are you going . . .”

“Go ahead and question him all you want. He’s spent the last few weeks trying to run my life and then almost getting us killed. When you’re done with him there will be coach tickets waiting for him and his husband to return home,” Brian told the police, before addressing his former best friend. “When you get back to the Pitts, Michael, stay the fuck away from Justin and me. At least until I calm down. That means don’t call or come by. When and if I decide I want to speak again, I’ll call you.” 

The whining man continued to yell for Brian to help him, but Brian ignored him. He was too worn out to deal with Michael right then. Instead, he squeezed Justin’s hand and followed the FBI agents out of the chapel so they could regroup and figure out what to do next. 

And boy was there a shit ton of stuff to figure out, Brian thought as he led his brand new, accidental, mail order husband out of the chapel, heading towards their new life . . . Together.