Ball & Chain

Ty smiled against Zane’s lips. “Must have missed that.”



“Means we should probably shower together again, don’t you think?”



Ty was already nodding. “For nature.”



“Obviously.”



Ty chuckled and they shared a languid kiss. Ty was smirking when they parted. “Marry me, Zane,” he whispered.



Zane burst out laughing and sat up. These weren’t exactly the ideal conditions for a proposal they needed to be telling to family. “Nuh uh.”



“Oh, come on!” Ty called after him as he ducked into the bathroom. “Lying naked on a rug in front of a fireplace in a fucking castle?”



“Nope.” Zane caught himself grinning in the mirror, but he didn’t even try to wipe it off when Ty joined him.



Ty shoved him against the sink to kiss him. He mumbled against his lips. “You might have to lower your standards.”



Zane hummed. “How about you . . . up yours?”



“Is that . . . is that a pun?”



Zane held to Ty as he tried to pull away.



Ty rolled his eyes. “Jackass.”



Ty and Zane were some of the first people down to breakfast, beaten only by Chester, Ty’s parents, and Nick and Kelly. The five of them were sitting at a table together, talking.



Ty glanced around the morning room, surprised by the nerves he felt when he saw Nick with his family. He gave Zane’s shirtsleeve a tug at the doorway, stopping him from entering the room before the others saw them. Zane let him draw him to the side, out of sight.



Ty hesitated and peered around the door again. Earl and Nick were carrying on what appeared to be a pleasant conversation. Earl was laughing, and Nick looked like he might be telling a story. Ty turned to Zane. “How much do you know about Nick’s father?”



Zane raised both eyebrows, obviously confused. “Nothing?”



Ty sighed. “Okay. Well, Nick’s dad used to beat the hell out of him. I mean legitimately should have spent time in jail for what he did. When we graduated from Basic, our parents all came down for the ceremony and they took us out for dinner that night. They got into an argument, and Nick’s dad started in on him and then walked out when Nick stood up for himself. Let’s just say Dad took offense and basically adopted Nick after that.”



Zane nodded, still frowning in confusion. “I thought Earl didn’t even remember Nick’s name from the snake incident.”



Ty shook his head. “He was just messing with you, trying to make you nervous about hiking. Nick spent practically every leave with us after that. Ma and Dad are pretty close to him. I’m telling you this so . . . just don’t let Nick know how Dad reacted when Grandpa outed us, okay?”



Understanding finally dawned on Zane’s face, and anger swiftly followed.



“Please?” Ty tried. “Dad can handle himself, he deserves what he gets, but Nick . . . Nick sees my parents as his own.”



Zane schooled his initial emotions, merely nodding instead. “I promise. For Nick, not for Earl.”



“Thanks, Zane,” Ty whispered, and he slipped his arm around Zane’s waist as they headed into the breakfast room.



They were greeted by the others with good mornings from Earl and Mara, and knowing smirks from Nick and Kelly.



Ty plopped down in the seat next to Kelly and peered over at his friends. “What the hell happened to you two this morning?”



Nick began to snicker and Kelly rolled his eyes as he took a sip of coffee. “I fell out of the bed.”



“Fell?” Zane asked. “Or you were pushed?”



“Legit fell. Rolled right out of that thing and took the covers with me. I dreamt I was being attacked by a giant squid and woke up thinking I was drowning.”



“I woke up cold and very confused,” Nick added.



Ty couldn’t help but laugh.



Kelly smiled slyly. “What happened to you this morning?”



“I wasn’t attacked by a giant squid, if that’s what you’re asking,” Ty drawled. He glanced toward the end of the table at his grandfather, giving him a smart salute. “Gramps, how’s it going?”



Chester grumbled over his bacon and eggs, piling them all together onto a piece of bread to make a sandwich. He glanced up at Ty and Zane, narrowing his eyes before turning his attention to Nick, who was sitting next to him and minding his own business.



Chester pointed his fork at Nick’s face. “When I was your age, sonny, they used to say redheads was relations of Satan.”



Kelly choked on his breakfast, but Nick just gave Chester an enigmatic smile.



“What do they say about you now?” Chester asked him.



Nick gave an easy shrug. “They say we have no soul.”



Chester pursed his lips, nodding thoughtfully as he patted one gnarled hand against Nick’s shoulder. “Eh. True enough.”



Nick raised both eyebrows, but then he held up his orange juice and Chester toasted him by tapping his coffee to the glass. Kelly was still coughing, trying to swallow and laugh at the same time. He finally had to excuse himself and stumbled out of the room to go find somewhere to spit it out.



Ty glanced at Zane and found the man hiding his face with both hands, laughing silently. At least now he knew it wasn’t just him Chester spoke to that way. But Nick had always taken Chester’s eccentricities in stride, probably even better than Ty and Deuce did because Nick just never gave a fuck.



Nick was still smiling, shaking his head as he ate. From the first time Ty had brought him home, he’d fit into the Grady family shockingly well. Earl had taken a special interest in him after the scene Nick’s father had made at their graduation. Whether Nick’s father would have tried to hit Nick in front of them all was questionable, because men like him usually worked behind closed doors, but Ty had known immediately that he was going to have to pull his father off Nick’s if a punch was thrown.



Ty realized he was staring at Nick, frowning with the memories. Something about Nick had been off ever since they’d been deployed, and it had gotten worse once they’d returned home, but Ty couldn’t put his finger on it. Something just felt . . . wrong. Nick was keeping something to himself, something that was troubling him. Ty told himself to find some time alone with his best friend to see if he needed to talk.



Zane jabbed him in the ribs. “You okay?” he whispered in Ty’s ear.



Ty tore his eyes away from Nick and nodded, realizing belatedly that Earl had been speaking to him. “I’m sorry, what?”



“I asked how your night went, but I guess I know,” Earl said with a short laugh.



Chester began to cackle at the end of the table. “I’m the only Grady didn’t get lucky last night!”



Nick dropped his fork and put his hand over his eyes.



Chester grabbed his arm and shook him. “You want to bang something too, sonny, you can borrow my shovel!”



They were still laughing when Kelly came jogging back into the room. He looked flustered. “Guys, there’s something wrong outside.”



Ty shoved back from the table, Nick and Zane on his heels as they followed Kelly to the front door. Several other early risers were milling around, looking worried or confused. Kelly cut a swath through them and shoved through the door, pointing toward the staff cottages near the shore. Another small group of people was gathered down there.



Ty took Kelly’s arm. “Doc, will you go to Deacon’s room and make sure they’re safe?”



“Aye,” Kelly said, then darted back into the house.



Ty and Zane took off at a run toward the commotion, with Nick hesitating briefly and then following them instead of Kelly. When they reached the crowd of roughly half a dozen people, Zane immediately took control of the situation, trying to discern what was happening in a loud, commanding voice. They received a cacophony of confused answers, but the prevailing words seemed to be “dead” and “murdered.”



A redheaded man with a hawk-like nose and a ruddy tan finally broke away from the other staff and came up to Zane. “Jockie Fraser,” he said in a Scottish accent, offering his hand. His fingers were stained dark and he was wearing a pair of heavy-duty overalls. “I’m the groundskeeper. I was on my way to the docks when I heard Maisie scream and I came running. Found her hyperventilating and found him like this.” He led them over to the scene, wringing his hat in his hands.



The body was facedown in the sand, just yards away from the encroaching surf. The shoreline around him was completely trampled.



Nick cursed under his breath. The homicide detective in him must have been pulling the pin on a grenade inside his head just looking at this messy scene.



Zane made his way carefully to the body to check for a pulse. He found none, as he’d probably expected, and he stood and backed away in his own footsteps. “We need to secure the scene and call the local authorities,” he said to them.



Ty pulled his phone out of his pocket, but soon found he had no service. He glanced at Nick, who was shaking his head at his own phone.



“We got nothing,” Ty muttered.



They asked the staff about their cell service, since they were locals, and were told the island’s service was spotty and only found in the highest of places. They were too remote.



Zane singled out one of the onlookers to go to the mansion and have someone contact the mainland. The girl ran off, and Ty and Zane stood staring at each other for long moments. How did this always happen to them? Every single time. Another vacation, another psychopath.



Nick smacked Ty on the back, bringing his attention back to the present. “You recognize that vest, man?”



Ty took a closer look at the victim’s muddy vest. Burgundy with a gold-stitched fox-and-hound scene repeated over and over. His stomach sank. It was the head of operations, the man who’d insisted the island was safe. “Milton.”



“What do you mean we can’t contact the mainland?” Ty hissed to his brother’s future father-in-law.



The man had ridden down from the mansion when he’d heard the news, accompanied by his two bodyguards and Deuce. Nick assumed Kelly had remained behind with Livi and Amelia to watch over them, but his eyes kept straying to try to catch sight of him.



Stanton’s voice was strained when he answered Ty. “The house telephones aren’t operating properly, there’s too much static on the line. Hamish believes there’s water in the lines. But we’re not getting a radio signal either.”



The larger of his two bodyguards, the overeager leader of the Snake Eaters they all called English, took his sunglasses off and stepped forward. “It could be the work of a signal jammer.”



Stanton sighed in annoyance. “That is one possibility, perhaps. There’s also a massive storm cell all around us, the same one that passed over last night. That’s why we moved tomorrow night’s rehearsal ceremony inside. Communications are disrupted like this two, three times a week during the stormy seasons. It’s no real reason for concern.”



“I’d say it’s reason for him to be concerned,” Ty said with a point to the dead man.



“Of course,” Stanton said, staying impressively calm. “I’m merely saying the lack of communications is not unusual. It could be a coincidence.”



“What about a sat phone?” Zane asked.



“Do you have one?” Stanton asked, his tone one of hope rather than sarcasm.



Zane shook his head.



“Neither does anyone else. My personal one has gone missing.”



“That’s a little bit of an alarm, there, boss,” Ty grunted.



“Amelia was playing with it at dinner on the first night. Maisie was trying to retrieve it from her, but I haven’t seen it since. There’s no telling where it is.”



“Great.”



“I’ll have the staff begin a quiet inquiry for anyone else who has one, but we’re trying not to alarm anyone.”



“Even the radios on the boats are out?” Nick asked.



“I’ve not yet got word back from the man I sent to the dock. I don’t have high hopes. Even the staff’s walkie-talkies are on the fritz.”



“Storms usually do that?” Zane asked.



“Not that I’ve seen, no.”



Nick gritted his teeth in frustration. This was kind of like being in the Marines all over again and trying to communicate with cans and string.



“What about the ferry?” Ty tried. “When will they notice they’ve lost contact with us?”



“The day of the wedding is the next arranged landing if the weather is fair. After that, next week. Next month. Maybe. There’s no real schedule for the ferry because the island is private.”



Nick scratched at his eyebrow, looking over at Ty with a shrug. “We’ll send someone in one of the island’s boats, then. The authorities have to be notified of this, we can’t just wait until nature lets us call.”



Stanton turned to one of the groundskeepers. “Will you please send word to the dock to have one of the smaller launches prepared for the crossing? And see what’s keeping them so long with the radios.”



Once the man had gone and the rest of the staff had begun to disperse for their daily responsibilities, Stanton drew closer to Ty and Zane, lowering his voice. “Is this . . . was this an accident?” he asked, obviously more rattled than he had been letting on.



Ty and Zane shared a look. “We don’t know. We haven’t touched the scene other than to clear it.”



Nick moved closer, keeping the two Snake Eaters in his peripheral vision because they both annoyed the shit out of him. “If help is going to take a long time in getting here, we need to look at that body,” he told the others. “Evidence is disappearing as we stand here, and there’s more rain coming. And we can’t leave the body like this for much longer. The tide will come in. We’ll have to document the scene as best we can and then move him somewhere to preserve whatever’s on him.”