Cut & Run (Cut & Run #1)(36)
Author: Abigail Roux

“Yep,” Ty responded again as he looked up at Zane and smiled crookedly.

“So, you’re lying to me,” Zane said, just as neutrally as before. “Any particular reason you don’t care to share? Other than the fact that I’m just your partner who might have to bail your ass out of something someday.”

“My file is classified for a reason,” Ty responded readily, as if he had known the cover story wouldn’t pass muster with Zane. “Parts of that story are true, though,” he assured Zane seriously. “And nothing in my past is going to come up and bite you or me on the ass,” he added with a shake of his head.

“I’ve got no mysteries. Only thing I’ve got back there is some broken hearts and a whole lot of red tape.”

Zane studied him for a long moment. “All right,” he murmured, going back to his fries.

Ty watched him, narrowing his eyes. Finally, he sighed loudly and looked around the room, then back at Zane in annoyance. “Special Agent Sanchez,” he announced with a huff. “He was on my Recon team.”

Raising his eyes to look at Ty again, Zane thought he was beginning to understand. Understand why Ty was so determined to stay on this case no matter what exploded. And why he was such an ass to keep people from getting too close. It was a similar defense mechanism to what he himself had, albeit for a different reason. Ty and his companions had lived a dangerous life. They expected to lose one another. Just not to serial killers. “That’s hard,” he said quietly.

“What’s hard is figuring out how some punk serial killed him. He slept with an arsenal under his pillow and one eye open,” Ty told him seriously. “And if anyone looked at the files close enough and saw that we were colleagues before the Bureau, they’d yank me off the case,” he added.

“That’s why you were surprised when Burns handed you this case—

and why you’re so keen to solve it. Beyond keen,” Zane said as it all clicked.

“Burns knows me,” Ty said as a form of answering. “And he knew Sanchez. He recruited us out of the dregs of desk work we were being forced to do at Quantico, personally pushed us both into the Academy. He knows I’m not supposed to be here. Meaning he wanted me here for a reason. I just can’t figure out what the f**k it is, other than to be sneaky.”

“Okay, then why stick you with me? I’d been up in Cybercrimes over two years, mostly off field work. I’ve not been out like this in nearly four years. Why would he try to weight you down?”

Ty looked up at him thoughtfully and tilted his head inquisitively.

“Are you going to weigh me down?”

“I know I won’t. But Burns, he’s the one that threw my ass out of action, sent me into detox on threat of jail. He’s not liked me since. Why give me this chance?” Zane asked rhetorically.

“Why would he care enough to put you in detox and then reinstate you if he didn’t like you?” Ty countered quietly.

Zane didn’t have an answer for that. It was a question he’d asked himself over and over.

Ty just shrugged as he watched Zane think it over. “We got one thing in common, though, Garrett,” he finally pointed out. “Neither one of us belongs here. And they don’t expect us to play by no rules anyway.”

“Do you ever play by the rules, Special Agent Grady?” Zane asked.

“Can’t think of a for-instance,” Ty answered with a flippant shrug.

Zane peered at him for a long moment. “How old are you, anyway?”

Ty raised his head and looked over at the other man. “Why?” he asked suspiciously.

“Just wondering. Thought you were about my age or older until I saw you sleeping,” Zane answered.

Ty frowned at that. “I’m thirty-four,” he answered grudgingly.

Zane nodded slowly and went back to eating his now lukewarm fries with no comment. He would never have guessed that Ty was that young.

“Why?” Ty prodded.

Shrugging slightly, Zane looked up at him. “Sometimes you look older than that. You sure as hell act older than that. Jaded.”

Ty blinked at him, slightly nonplussed, and looked back down at his food with a purse of his lips. Zane watched him, observed him, seeing a glimpse of the more ordered and disciplined man Ty hid under the brash ass**le. He wore a mask, just like Zane did. It was somehow reassuring. It was beginning to become clear that Ty actually expended energy to be as abrasive as he was. The calmer former Marine that was beginning to show through seemed much more natural to him.

“How old are you?” Ty finally asked in return.

Zane smiled slowly, still watching. Ty hadn’t looked up at him. “You mean you’ve not checked up on me yet?”

Ty slid his eyes sideways to look at Zane seriously, the rest of his body unmoving.

Zane shook his head, smile pulling at his lips. “I’m forty-two,” he admitted.

“Yeah, you look it,” Ty drawled with a grin that was slightly more teasing than his usual smirk.

Zane snorted. “I suppose I’ve been ridden hard and put away wet a few too many times.”

Ty rolled his eyes and poked at his food. “Where you from?” he asked without looking up. “I mean, since we’re bonding and all.”

“Texas. Austin, to be specific.”

“I’m sorry,” Ty offered sympathetically, the smirk playing at his lips again.

“Where are you from, ass**le?” Zane retorted.

“Bluefield, West Virginia,” Ty answered, letting his words roll with his pronounced accent.

Zane grinned. “West by-God Virginia,” he said. “Fits you.”

Ty glanced up and smirked again, jabbing at his ketchup with a fry.

“Wild and Wonderful,” he quoted with a barely restrained snicker.

“Wild and Wonderful,” Zane echoed with a short chuckle. “All that mountain climbing got you in shape for the Marine Corps.”

“More like spelunking, but it’s all about rocks in the end.” Ty shrugged with a smile. “Son of a miner ain’t got much in the way of career options,” he added. “It was either the Marines or going into the family business.”

Zane tilted his head. “Somehow, I don’t see you as a coal miner.”

Ty glanced back up at him and narrowed his eyes. The urge to take exception to the statement was clearly written on his face, but finally he gave his head a shake and bit the tip off his fry. “Just add dirt,” he finally responded with a gesture to himself, even though the industry of coal mining had left Bluefield in the 1960s.