Stars & Stripes

Zane tensed as his sister spoke to him. Ty set the frying pan aside and watched his lover as an unsettling feeling started in his gut.



“Why the hell didn’t you call me earlier?” Zane blurted. “Do I need to come out there?”



Ty held his breath, straining his ears to hear. He couldn’t make out any of Annie’s words, but whatever she was saying was making Zane’s nostrils flare and his shoulders snap back. Classic signs that Zane was about to delve into Dark Mode.



Zane listened for a few more minutes, then bade his sister good-bye and hung up. He looked at Ty with wide eyes.



“You okay? What happened?”



Zane didn’t answer immediately. When he did speak, Ty knew he was whitewashing whatever he’d just learned. “Annie said they’re having trouble on the ranch. Trespassers. They think maybe it’s poachers or rival breeders after the horse stock.”



“Okay,” Ty said, confused about why that would warrant a call to Zane. As far as he knew, Zane had little contact with his family. Even his sister, who Zane got on well with, rarely called just to chat. “So, what, you need to go down there?”



“I don’t know. I mean no. No, they don’t need me.”



“Then why’d they call you?”



Zane waved his hand. “I don’t know, Ty. I can’t help, so there’s no point.”



“If you need to go, we can figure something out at work.”



“I don’t!”



Ty arched an eyebrow. “Wow.”



Zane shook his head, although he looked conflicted and more than a little annoyed that Ty hadn’t just let it go. “I’m sorry. If it’s still a problem when the weekend hits, I’ll head down there.”



“You sure?”



“Yeah, can we drop it now?”



Ty nodded and watched with a frown as Zane headed back upstairs. He stopped halfway up, then turned and thumped back down.



“Forgot what I was doing,” he mumbled. He snatched another piece of toast before Ty could stop him.



“Hey!”



“Shut up,” Zane said as he went back up the steps, taking them two at a time.



Ty watched him go, frown in place. Despite seeming to shrug it off, he knew Zane was worried. Whatever was going on in Texas, it was so much more than a few trespassers.



Ty jumped at the sound of a file folder hitting a box on the floor. He glanced up at Special Agent Scott Alston, who ignored the file when it skidded off the top of the stack to thump to the industrial-grade carpet. Alston leaned back in his chair as he loosened his tie, and then stuck his hands behind his head and closed his eyes.



Their whole work group had been tasked with slogging through a load of files sent over from one of the other investigative teams, desperate to dredge up evidence on a case that was going colder by the day. There were literally hundreds of files, and the six of them were on their last hour before they could break for the weekend.



“Garrett, are you getting off on all this paperwork?” Alston asked.



“Zane went to the bathroom like five minutes ago, Scott,” Ty said. His words were marred by the yellow highlighter between his teeth. Both hands were full of papers, held aloft as he planted his elbows on his desk.



“Oh.” Alston said, running his fingers through his blond hair. Ty felt like Alston looked: exhausted, seeing double, and desperate to go home.



“Thank God it’s Friday,” Alston said on a deep sigh as he looked at the clock. Ty glanced at it too, out of habit. Close to quitting time.



His cell phone began to buzz at his hip, and he twisted to try to see the display. He had no free hands, and no free space on his desk to set one of the unorganized stacks down.



“Want me to get it?” Alston asked. He pushed out of his chair, and Ty nodded and stood as well, turning his hip toward Alston.



He spit the highlighter out. It clattered to the desk and rolled until it hit a stack of files too high to bounce over. Alston plucked the phone off his belt and hit the speaker button.



“Grady,” Ty said as Alston put the phone on the desk and took one of the stacks of papers from his hand. “Thanks,” Ty whispered.



“Ty?”



“Hey, Ma,” Ty said, distracted as he and Alston tried to switch things around while still keeping the stacks in order.



“You’re not still at work, are you? I can call back.”



“No, I’m about done here.” Ty glanced up at Alston and waved a handful of files at the shredder nearby. Alston shook his head, and Ty nodded in response, managing to start an argument without a single word.



On the other side of the pod of desks, Michelle Clancy began to giggle.



“What’s going on?” Ty asked his mother as he sat down and leaned closer to the cell phone, struggling to finish up his last file and listen at the same time.



“Well, I need a favor. A few favors, actually. But they can wait ’til you get home and call me back.”



Ty rolled his eyes and shook his head. Alston chuckled as he leaned against Ty’s desk. “Ma, will you just get to the point, please?”



“Well, we’re aiming to fix the old tin roof on the storage shed this weekend ’cause it’s leaking.”



“Oh God,” Ty groaned. He lowered his head, files forgotten. Alston squeezed his shoulder, mockingly comforting him.



“We wouldn’t need your help normally, but this morning I cut your daddy’s finger off, and he says he can’t hold a hammer.”



Ty’s head shot up. “You what?”



“Cut his finger off,” Mara said again, as if she hadn’t realized the news would be shocking.



The others were drifting closer, trying to hear the conversation. Ty sat silent a moment longer, his mouth agape. “On . . . purpose?”



“Well, no, it was an accident.”



“Right, of course.” He glanced up at his teammates to see all four of them watching and laughing.



“But it’s not like he don’t have four more fingers to work with. And it was only part of the little finger, and they sewed it back on. He has two hands, one of ’em can hold a hammer just fine, but no, he says he can’t do it.”



“Is he okay?”



“Well, yeah. Like I said, they sewed it back on. So can you come home this weekend and help out with the roof tomorrow? Deacon said he would come too, but you know how he gets with tools.”



Ty shook his head, mouth still hanging open as he tried to process. Clancy leaned over to catch his eye, even waving a hand at him. “Hi, Mama Grady! Ty’s checking his calendar to see if he can get away.”



“Don’t you lie to me, honey. He’s sitting there with his mouth hanging open, ain’t he?”



“Yes, ma’am!”



“Ty, if you come tonight, I’ll get your daddy to tell you all about it. Your brother and Livi’ll be here. It’ll be fun!”



“Fun does not start with a story about how you cut Dad’s finger off!” Ty said, laughing despite himself.



“It does in my book. He deserved it.”



The others gave up on etiquette and laughed raucously. Ty shot them all a glare, and he finally dropped what he was doing and picked up his phone. He caught sight of Zane coming back down the hall. His partner had been sullen and distracted for the last day or two, and though he knew Zane was having issues over that call from Texas, he had his own problems to deal with now. He spun around in his chair to put his back to his coworkers, trying to turn the speaker off.



“Does it have to be this weekend?”



“Honey, if you can’t come help, that’s okay.”



Ty rolled his eyes and rubbed a hand across his forehead. “Okay, Ma. I’ll leave after work and be there . . . I don’t know, a little before midnight.”



“Reverse psychology,” Fred Perrimore whispered.



“So that’s where Ty learned it,” Harry Lassiter said under his breath.



Mara either couldn’t hear them over the speaker that wouldn’t shut off or ignored them. “I’ll have pork chops waiting! And honey, will you bring that big sharp knife of yours with you? Your daddy’s is awful dull, and the whetstone went missing.”



“Yes, ma’am,” Ty said with trepidation.



“I’ll see you tonight! Bye-bye!” Mara said, then ended the call without waiting for more.



Ty stared at the phone as the display lit up, and then he looked at the others, who were all trying to keep straight faces.



“Can we come?” Alston said, grinning widely.



“No.”



“We’ll help!” Clancy said.



“No!”



“Spoilsport,” Perrimore muttered, and they all drifted away to leave Ty to finish his paperwork.



Zane sat against the edge of Ty’s desk, in the same place Alston had occupied. He was frowning and seemed distracted, but that was nothing new. He was just close enough that Ty could have used his knee as an armrest, and though the thought hadn’t crossed his mind when Alston had been sitting there, he almost did it now without thinking. He stopped himself just in time, making it look like a frustrated flop of his hand.



This wasn’t the first time they’d come close to getting too friendly in front of their coworkers, and it was happening more frequently. He didn’t know how to address the problem, or if he even wanted to.



“What’s up?” Zane asked.



Ty stared at him for a moment, trying to decide how to answer that simple question. He was still distracted by Zane’s proximity, by the way he smelled, by how easy it was becoming to slip in front of coworkers who were trained to see mistakes.



He gave Zane the bare-bones version of his call from home, and after Zane had stopped laughing, Ty tapped him on the knee.



“You heard anything about Texas? You thinking about heading down there?”



Zane shrugged, though his expression clouded over and he looked down at the carpet rather than meet Ty’s eyes. “I haven’t had a call back. I don’t see any reason to bother.”



Ty sighed. He wanted to poke at that soft spot and see why it was there, and he added that to his list of shit to do. But he had some pretty pressing problems of his own to handle first. “Want to go to West Virginia and risk life and limb with me?”



Zane smirked and gave a single nod. “Sounds like fun.”



Chapter 2



Ty shouldered his overnight bag and walked through muggy mountain air across the gravel and up the porch steps to his parents’ house, stopping when he realized the rocking chair was occupied.



“Grandpa?”



“You’re an observant one, ain’t you, boy?” Chester Grady grumbled.



Ty smiled as he looked over his grandpa, sitting in his rocker, shovel in place over his lap. “Love you too.”



“Damn fool federal agent,” Chester mumbled as the screen door squeaked. “Where’s your damn fool partner?”



“He’s getting his damn fool bag out of the truck.” Ty slipped him a smuggled cigar as he bent to hug him. “What are you still doing up? I thought you old folks went down with the sun.”



Chester waved him off, grumbling and smirking. Headlights caught them as another car pulled up to the front of the house, and Chester’s eyes shone with mischief.



Ty turned to watch Deuce get out of the car, squinting past the headlights.



“Hey.”



“Hey,” Deuce called back, sounding just as tired as Ty felt. He thumped up the steps, carrying a small overnight bag just like Ty’s. He greeted Chester with a hug, then turned to give Ty one as well. Ty hugged him tight. He nodded at the black Lexus in the driveway.



“Is that a new car?”



“Like it?”



“No.”



“Me either,” Deuce grunted with a curl of his lip. He turned toward the door.



Ty laughed as he followed. “Where’s Livi?”



“Morning sickness. We figured it was best for everyone if she stayed home.”



“Good plan.”



“Where’s Zane?”



“Wearing his invisible suit,” Zane called from the driveway. His shoes crunched on the gravel, and soon he materialized out of the darkness, joining them on the front porch with his bag.



They left Chester sitting on the porch and headed inside. Ty hadn’t been home since he’d been attacked by the mountain lion last fall, and he was surprised when a jitter of nerves ran through him. He’d been sure someone would figure out that he and Zane were so much more than partners, that he was gay—a revelation he’d feared since he was seventeen. He still feared it, even though he’d started wishing he could tell his family the truth. He would have to soon, before they found out on their own. Zane was too important to him to hide anymore.



He hadn’t told his mother Zane was coming, and while he wasn’t surprised that Deuce had inquired about his partner’s whereabouts, it did strike him as odd that Chester had done the same. Maybe they were already starting to figure things out on their own.



He took a deep breath to calm himself.



“Hello?”



They heard footsteps from the back of the house, and soon Ty’s mother came around the corner and smiled brilliantly. “Come here and give your mama a hug before I have to go back outside.”



Ty and Deuce moved toward her, hugging her obediently. She had to stand on her tiptoes to put her arms around their necks, and she squeezed them both tightly. Ty couldn’t help but smile.



“What are you doing outside this time of night?” Deuce asked when he let her go.



“Zane,” Mara demanded, ignoring Deuce’s question and holding her arms out for a hug from Zane as well. Zane smiled and moved to obey. “You look better than the last time I saw you!” She pulled away from him and held him by his shoulders, looking up at him with a critical eye. “Such a handsome boy,” she said as she patted his cheek. She turned her eye to Ty again. “You could use some work. Come on.” She turned and headed toward the back door.