The New York Halifax League

The morning turned to afternoon and Sidney had yet to share his plan with the team. The boys drifted in and out of the penthouse, coming back with food, drinks, or in Pat’s case, a large crate of firecrackers.

“I actually like living here, Kaner,” DZ warned. “You can’t shoot them off of the roof.”

Patrick looked sheepish. “Who said anything about that?”

While he was rummaging for food in the kitchen again, Bianca scooped the crate up. With a wink to DZ, she stashed them in the back of the walk-in and locked the door. She’d only heard rumors about Patrick and his habits, but she didn’t particularly want to take any chances.

Just past two, Bianca filled a travel mug with coffee and grabbed her purse from the front table. Marchy was passed out on the couch, Jon was dozing on the loveseat, and poor Gabe was stuck on a chair much too prim for his long frame with the TV practically muted.

“Hey,” Bianca hissed. “Hey.” Gabe lurched forward and whipped his head around. “C’mon.” The poor kid looked so uncomfortable.

“What’s up?” he towered over her in the hallway. Bianca wasn’t particularly tall and Gabe’s frame was quite intimidating. But maybe it was his smell. Something musky, but still fresh. Cologne and laundry detergent? Or maybe soap…

“Uh,” she stared. “I was gonna go for a walk. Get out of here for a bit, you know? And you looked pretty uncomfortable in there so I thought I might give you a tour of the city or something.” She was starting to babble. “I don’t know if you’ve spent a lot of time her before or not, but I have so I might as well show you the sights.”

Gabe smiled in spite of himself. Was Bianca Tatem, a total femme fatale, getting flustered because of him? He hoped so. “That’d be… cool. Let me get my shoes, okay?”

She nodded, not wanting to open her mouth only to start chattering again. He looked good too. Blond hair a little shaggy, perfect for summer, a black v-neck that fit so well it wasn’t fair, and khaki shorts – that weren’t even cargos! Could he be any more fashionable? – made him look much too good. He slipped on a pair of boat shoes – boat shoes! – and opened DZ’s front door.

“After you,” Gabe motioned.

She died a little bit inside.

‘Get a hold of yourself!’ she cursed silently.

“Where to first, Tour Guide?” Gabe asked as they reached ground level.



They walked for nearly two hours going from store to store and hidden gem to hidden gem.

“When are we going to go someplace touristy?” Gabe asked as Bianca led him through a gallery in Soho.

“Shh,” she quieted him and played with the frilly tutu attached to her coffee cup. “Is there a certain place you had in mind?”

Gabe stood slightly behind Bianca in the narrow space as they looked at different pieces. Bianca liked going to galleries because it was like seeing into someone else’s mind. Their interpretations, their characteristics, were there on canvas, painted or drawn.

“Let’s go see the Statue of Liberty.”

She tried to turn around, but stopped halfway when she realized she would have been pressed flush up against Gabe. “You’re serious?”

He shrugged. “Why not?”

Bianca looked at him for a minute. “Yeah, okay. Let’s go.” She made to move through the gallery, but Gabe’s frame inadvertently blocked the way. “Um, after you.”

Gabe led the way towards the front of the building, but Bianca pulled on his arm. “I’ll meet you out front. I’m going to use the bathroom.”

He nodded waiting for her to move past him in the wider front room. Once she had slipped through the ladies’ room door, he continued out the front, smiling to himself. What was really going on?

Bianca leaned against the outside of a stall. What was wrong with her? She’d worked in a very cold, very boring Siberia surrounded by a roster of relatively attractive men. Even then, when she hadn’t gotten laid in months, she hadn’t turned into mush when a pretty boy looked her way.

She put some cold water on her cheeks, chugged the last bit of her coffee, and reapplied lipstick. Straightening out her shirt, she put on her tough-girl-smile. Lips pursed out, corners just barely turned up, and eyes narrowed just a tad.

Emerging from the gallery, Bianca found Gabe leaning against the building on his phone. “Are we getting a cab?” he asked.

She knew wouldn’t be able to take another confined space with Gabe, but Bianca was chilly. Even though Gabe was in shorts, he seemed just fine.

“Yeah, a cab,” she nodded, extending an arm, and stepping from the curb.



“Just start without them,” Jon insisted.

Gathered in the dining room of the penthouse was the whole team – except Gabe and Bianca. It was approaching dinner, but there was no sign of them.

“Fine,” Sidney uncrossed his arms. “We’ll fill them in whenever they reappear.”

Sidney spent the next twenty minutes detailing a plan and each of its highly involved steps. They would be traveling; not staying in a single place too long. He had obviously put a lot of thought into the plan.

Brad leaned back in his seat, arms folded behind his head. “When do we leave?”



Bianca slipped down the hallway and around the corner. She and Gabe had gotten back to DZ’s penthouse a few hours before and she had been able to avoid Sidney. Bianca wasn’t scared of confrontation, but she wasn’t in the mood to be reamed out like a child.

“Where are you going now?” a voice stopped her just as she got to the door.

Bianca turned slowly. It was only Taylor. “I have an apartment here in the city. I was going to pick up some more clothes…and things.”

“Is that really why you’re sneaking out like some cartoon?” Taylor crossed his arms.

“Is it any of your business?”

“I’m not the one pissed off at you,” he reminded her. “Although, I have every right to be. That tech that you crushed? Yeah, I’ll probably need five-hundred grand to repair and redevelop them.”

Bianca sighed. “Taylor, you know how sorry I am. When you’re in the field, shit happens and you have to go with your first instincts. I didn’t mean for it to happen.”

“But it did,” Taylor insisted. “You know what? I don’t want to argue about this. But Sidney will.”

She ran a hand over her face. This was exactly the type of conversation she had wanted to avoid. She didn’t need reminding of how disappointed Sid the Kid, the Golden Boy, would be. “I know he will, Taylor. But if you don’t mind, I need to pick up more bras and tampons at my apartment. Is that okay with you?”

Taylor gagged and pulled a face. “Say no more, say no more. But on your way back, can you pick me up three rolls of duct tape, one of those cheap, pay-as-you-go phones, and the biggest batteries you can find at a corner bodega?”

“Tape, tracfone, and big batteries,” Bianca nodded. “Okay, gotcha.”

She finally escaped out the door and hustled down the hallway to the elevator. Bianca really was running out of clothes and she wasn’t entirely sure where her big suitcase was. If she was lucky, by the time she got back to the penthouse, Sidney would be sound asleep. But of course, her luck ran out.