Ball & Chain

The constant press of Nick’s presence beside Zane was beginning to make him edgy. He didn’t know if it was simply because of how worked up Nick was, or if it was something about Nick’s current mien that made sitting beside him almost physically painful. Zane had always known Nick to be a calming presence in a room, not the epicenter of something that felt like it was about to explode. That was usually Ty’s role.



“You okay?” Zane finally asked him.



Nick turned his head but didn’t quite look at Zane. He nodded, but his jaw was tight. “He plucks people up and puts them out there, tells them they’re doing good. But he leaves them hanging in the wind. Just out there hanging and . . . dying. And for what? Their country?” He shook his head. “It’s bullshit.”



Zane didn’t even have to ask who Nick was talking about. “Burns tried to recruit you when he did Ty and Sanchez, didn’t he?”



Nick nodded curtly.



“Why didn’t you go in with them?”



Nick leaned back in his chair, rubbing his hands over his face. “It felt wrong. Everything he told us, it just felt . . . it’s hard to explain. It felt like maybe he wasn’t the good guy.”



Nick glanced at Zane quickly, probably to judge his reaction. Zane tried hard to keep his face neutral.



“I tried to tell Ty and Eli why I didn’t like it, why I hadn’t agreed to do it. But I couldn’t explain the feeling, and there wasn’t a fucking thing I could point to to back me up. Ty had already made up his mind, and you know how he is when he thinks he’s right.”



Zane smiled. “Yeah, I do.”



“And Jesus Christ, you add in making his dad proud and he’s a brick wall. I gave up on Ty, but I begged Eli to come to Boston with me instead of signing up for Burns.” He trailed off, eyes on the desktop. His eyes were no longer focused on anything but the past.



Zane couldn’t help but stare at him. “What happened?”



Nick shook himself and met Zane’s eyes again. “Eli stuck with Ty. He said he’d rather go out with his boots on than be a civilian. And Ty told me I was a coward for refusing the offer and going back home to Boston.”



“Really?” Zane asked, dumbfounded by that disclosure. He’d always imagined Ty and Nick so tight they had to be untied to take a piss. To discover they’d ever shared a harsh word was a revelation. And to hear that Ty had gone so far as to call Nick a coward, well . . . it gave Zane serious pause, especially after what he’d just witnessed. That Nick had been harboring the same feelings of betrayal Zane had felt . . . how the hell had he done it without letting it tear him apart?



Nick was nodding. “I didn’t hear from him for a solid year. And I didn’t try contacting him either. After ten years of going with gut feelings, it hurt like hell that neither of them would just trust me.”



“How’d you two get right again?” Zane asked.



Nick was silent, staring at the desk, and Zane realized he already knew the answer. Ty and Nick never had gotten right again. Not really. And then New Orleans had happened, with all those secrets and lies spilling over.



“I’m sorry,” Zane whispered.



“You remember on my boat, when you asked why I kissed Ty when I did?” Nick asked.



Zane nodded, not keen to relive those memories and emotions. “You said you knew you’d already lost him. I thought you meant . . . to me. That wasn’t what you meant, though, was it?”



Nick was nodding, not seeming to realize that he was doing it. The issues between the two men went deeper than even Ty or Nick knew. They’d both simply been playing the parts they were familiar with, loyal to the very painful core, without questioning why it felt different.



Something about it made Zane inexplicably sad. Ty and Nick had the most pure friendship Zane had ever witnessed; to see that it had crumbling foundations hurt his heart.



“Burns took a handful of the best Marines in the Corps and turned them into six pieces of nothing. And all the bullshit his little side jobs put them both through? Eli being shot down like a fucking dog in some hotel room.” Nick met Zane’s eyes. “So yeah, I’m having a hard time controlling the urge to punch Richard Burns in the face. Or Ty, for that matter.”



Zane snorted. “Understandable.” He waited a beat, glancing at Nick again. “I’ll hold him down for you if you decide to go for it.”



Nick barked a laugh and smiled wryly. He jutted his chin out toward the laptop, scratching idly at his arm. “Okay, so what are we looking for here?”



Zane turned his attention back to the computer. “We’re . . . we still need a place to start. We’ll go through the other emails, see if we can make a timeline, see if there are any keywords or numbers that repeat. Did you come up with anything like that in your interviews?”



“Keywords or special numbers?” Nick asked.



Zane nodded.



“Not really. Only number I got out of it was the time on the watch. Goddamn, why am I itchy again?” Nick rolled his sleeve up and frowned at his arm. He’d scratched it almost to the point of bleeding. He glanced over his shoulder at the wall where he and Kelly had emerged. “It’s got to be something in those walls, man.”



“Kelly’s not itchy. I wonder why you are.”



“Curse of the red hair, I guess,” Nick said wryly. He stopped scratching, staring at the desk and his notepad for a second before looking up at Zane with wide eyes. “I’m not the only one on the island who’s been itching.”



Ty and Kelly made their way to the dining room, where a sort of buffet lunch had been set up. With the cook dead, the head of the house still sedated, and the staff all frightened and grieving, everyone else was just doing whatever could be done to make life easier. The buffet was being cleared up already, though. Ty checked his watch.



“I didn’t realize it was so late,” Kelly said under his breath.



“Yeah, time flies when you’re in a freezer playing with someone’s intestines.”



Kelly snorted. “Tell me about it. Every time.”



Ty glanced at him, but Kelly was maintaining a straight face. He met Ty’s eyes and grinned impishly.



“I think almost dying did something weird to you; you’re like the beginning of a horror movie,” Ty told him. He returned his attention to the large dining room, searching for Stanton or Burns. He didn’t see either man, but he did spot Deuce and Earl, sitting in a corner eating. He tapped Kelly’s chest and gestured for him to follow as he wound his way toward their table.



Deuce saw them coming and gave them a halfhearted smile. Ty and Kelly both pulled up chairs and sat down.



“How’s the investigation going?” Deuce asked.



Ty shook his head. “Not too good.”



“What have you found?” Earl asked.



Ty shifted uncomfortably. How the hell should he even get into this with his dad, who had known Burns since they were teenagers? It would be like someone telling him that Nick had been doing all the things Burns had been doing for years, using his son to do it. He licked his lips, stalling until he could come up with something.



“Milton was a spy,” Kelly told them before Ty could speak. Ty gaped at him. Kelly reached out and plucked a cucumber from Earl’s plate. He pointed it at Earl. “For your buddy, Burns.”



Ty stared at him as he crunched down on the cucumber. Deuce and Earl were both wide-eyed, mouths hanging open.



Earl finally turned to Ty. “What?”



“I . . . basically, yeah.” Ty glared at Kelly, and Kelly shrugged. “Burns runs certain operators for jobs that . . . aren’t really aboveboard.”



“You’re talking about black ops,” Deuce said. “Uncle Dick runs black ops for the FBI? It’s not just you?”



Ty cleared his throat, wondering why it had suddenly gotten so damn hot in this place. “Yes. And the dead man was one of his.”



“And you’re one of his?” Earl asked in a stunned voice.



Ty met his father’s eyes and nodded.



Earl sat back, exhaling slowly. “That rat bastard.”



Ty put up a hand, trying to calm himself more than anyone else. “Let’s just focus, here. Do you know where Dick is right now?”



“I haven’t seen him since Zane and Nick came to talk to him,” Earl said through gritted teeth. “He came back to the table, said he had to get something from his room. Haven’t seen him since.”



Ty shook his head, glancing at his brother. Should he tell Deuce what they’d found on the laptop? One more glance at his father’s angry face and Ty decided he’d lit a fire under enough of the Grady family for now. He pushed back in his chair. “If you see him, tell him we need to talk to him, okay?”



“Oh, I’ll tell him all right,” Earl growled.



Ty nodded, retreating with Kelly toward the great hall. Once they rounded the corner, Ty turned and smacked Kelly in the arm. “What the hell was that, Doc?” he hissed.



Kelly rubbed at his arm, scowling. “What? You were going to take a fucking week before you got around to telling them. Wasn’t it more painless my way?”



Ty rolled his eyes. “Nick is going to strangle you in your sleep in the first six months, I guarantee it.”



Kelly shrugged. “He tries that every night.”



Ty squeezed his eyes closed, holding his head. “I told you, no sex stories and I won’t freak out. That was our deal!”



Kelly was laughing, an evil little giggle that Ty knew well.



“I have a very graphic imagination, okay? Do you want me to freak out?”



“It’s kind of fun to watch you freak out. Reminds me of the old days.”



“I hate you so much right now,” Ty grumbled.



They made their way toward the back patio in search of Burns or Stanton, but it was deserted. It seemed people were staying inside, sticking close to where they felt safe.



“Everyone must be locked in their bedrooms or something,” Kelly observed wryly. He and Ty shared a frown. “What if they’re rooming with a killer?”



Ty snorted and surveyed the patio one last time. Then Kelly’s words truly sank in, and a cold dread began to settle in his stomach. He turned to Kelly. “Locked doors don’t mean shit in this place, not with the passages in the walls. Even if they’re not rooming with a killer, they’re still in danger.”



Kelly nodded and shrugged. “Hasn’t that been true from the beginning?”



He and Ty stared at each other, then Kelly began to nod when he saw the look dawning in Ty’s eyes.



“Difference is, we know they’re in danger now,” Kelly said.



“Shit.” Ty turned to head back inside, striding for the dining room and Deuce. There were still a few people perusing the buffet, but for the most part the house felt deserted. Ty placed both hands down on the table where Deuce and Earl still sat and sighed heavily. “We have to get everyone in one room.”



“What? Why? What’s going on?” Deuce demanded as he took to his feet.



Ty shook his head. “Don’t panic. Will you just help us gather everyone for me, get everyone together in that big sunroom? I promise I’ll explain.”



“Wait, the sunroom?” Kelly asked. “That doesn’t sound safe at all.”



“You can see through the walls, Doc,” Ty whispered.



“Oh, good point,” Kelly huffed, then patted Ty’s shoulder and jogged away.



Deuce stared at Ty for another moment, then nodded. “Okay.”



Ty left them there without further explanation, running after Kelly to head back to Zane and Nick. Finding the killer amongst them wasn’t the priority right now. Making sure no one else wound up in that freezer, that was Ty’s goal.



They met Nick and Zane emerging from the study, both men looking like they’d discovered something important.



“We need to get everyone together,” Ty called to them.



“We need to get to the freezer,” Zane told Ty as he and Nick brushed past them. Ty and Kelly shared a confused frown, then turned and followed.



They were almost to the kitchen steps when the lights flickered around them and went out.



The entire house was thrown into near darkness. The great hall had no windows, nothing to let light in except for the patio doors at the very far end, which were still covered with the massive tent. The storm was darkening the horizon, and the winter light was waning. Zane couldn’t see a goddamn thing. He turned and reached out, cracking his knuckles against someone’s hard muscles and earning a surprised whoof in return.



“Sorry!” he whispered, grabbing at the man he’d hit.



“You better know it’s me if you’re grabbing me there,” Ty responded wryly.



Zane snorted and pulled him closer, hugging him tight.



“What the shit is this?” Kelly asked.



“Goddamn it!” Nick shouted. Something banged in the darkness as they all remained still to let their eyes adjust. “Unfuck your shit, Scotland!”



“Storm hit the generators?” Ty asked hopefully.



“Or someone hit them,” Zane said softly.



“This place is run off a single power generator?” Kelly asked incredulously.



“It’s run off wind, solar, and hydro power, just like all the other island communities in the Hebrides.”



“How do you know so fucking much about these islands?” Ty shouted at him.



“I watch Discovery Channel when I can’t sleep!” Nick shouted back.



“I . . . I did not know that,” Ty said, sounding both angry and apologetic at the same time.