Cut and Run 09 Crash & Burn (6 page)

Ty’s smile grew more predatory. “That something you’d like to help me with?”

Zane’s hum of approval was nearly a purr.

Ty kissed him again, this one much more heated than the last, and then stepped away. “Let’s go. I’ve got dust caked in places it was never meant to get.”

Zane sprawled on the king-sized bed in the suite at the Admiral Fell Inn where he’d been living for the last week. And yes, he’d come here because the Inn’s name was a pun.

Every night, he would wait impatiently for Ty to come prowling in. And according to Ty, every night at the row house Ty would make a fuss about going to bed, make a commotion and grumble to himself as he got into bed, then turn out the lights and sneak out like the trained professional he was so he could spend the night with his fiancé. It made Zane laugh to think about a man like Ty, with all his training and experience, using those highly developed skills for the adult version of breaking curfew. How had it come to this?

Zane was trying to decide how they could use the bugs to their advantage. Julian Cross had once told them that if they were facing an opponent larger than themselves, the best way to beat them was to use their own strengths against them. He hadn’t phrased it that way; he’d used an inane chess analogy instead. Zane had since become pretty adept at the game, so he finally understood what the man had been trying to tell them.

The only problem was that Zane couldn’t decide how best to use bugs against their mole. They could feed them wrong information, try to get them to overplay their hand. But they didn’t even know enough about the mole’s game to do that. They were playing blind. Until one of them came up with a solution, the only way they could converse freely was at the bookstore, which they’d ultimately chosen to list in public records under the name of the Carter Garrett Ranch for the express purpose of keeping it out of the spotlight, or here in this hotel suite.

At least it was a nice suite.

The water cut off in the bathroom, and a few seconds later Ty stepped out in nothing but a towel, steam roiling behind him. Zane propped his head in his hands and stared.

The first marks of age were finally starting to hit Ty. A little gray in his scruff when he grew it out, which he did more often than not these days. Arthritis in the hand he’d broken so many times. But he was still cut and lithe, he still reminded Zane of a large jungle cat when he moved, and his mind and tongue were still as sharp as ever. Zane had never imagined himself loving a person like Ty, but now? Now he couldn’t imagine his life without him.

Ty gave him a cheeky grin when he caught Zane staring. “Want a show?” he teased, his voice a low purr.

“What, like late-night cable?” Zane asked, trying to sound innocent. “Skinemax presents?”

Ty tossed his wet towel at him, then crawled into bed and laid himself out over Zane as Zane fought to disentangle himself from the towel. Ty’s body was still hot and damp from the shower, but Zane didn’t care. He ran his fingers through Ty’s hair, grinning as he waited for some further form of punishment. But Ty remained silent, merely peering down at Zane with a slight frown marring his features.

“What?” Zane asked when he realized Ty didn’t plan on sharing what was on his mind.

“Let’s elope.”

Zane laughed, but he realized almost immediately that Ty wasn’t laughing with him. His grin fell into a frown. “Wait, what?”

“I’m tired of not being married, Zane. And God knows neither of us can make a decision to save our lives. Where do we have it? Do we do the whole nine yards or shorten the ceremony? Do we try to make it religious or keep it nondenominational? Do you have a best man or do you ask Annie to stand with you? Do we involve our families, make one of them travel? Does Chester get to put a corsage on his shovel? If we have to go to Texas, can I put Barnum in a bow tie and have him be the bouncer for the reception?”

Zane had to bite his lip to keep from laughing. He wished Ty were exaggerating, but those were all conversations they’d had in the last year, including Ty insisting that if he was ever made to go to Texas again he’d string Barnum the Bengal tiger along behind him on a leash until Zane let him go home.

“Screw the big ceremony,” Ty said with a snarl of his lip. “Screw what our families and friends want or think. For once let’s just . . . do it for us. They just legalized it in Maryland, we could go down in the morning and apply for a license. It’s only a forty-eight-hour wait; that’d give us time to wrangle up two witnesses to get here, and by Monday morning we’d be hitched. And it’s not like we don’t have some federal connections we can abuse. There’s a way you can get the wait waived by a judge, and I talked to Hank Freeman, you remember him?”

“The judge who always rushed your warrants for you?”

“Yeah.”

Zane laughed and he wrapped his arms around Ty to kiss him.

“He said he’d do the ceremony if . . . when you agreed.”

This wasn’t just some whim Ty had come up with in the shower. He’d researched it, made inquiries, probably even greased the wheels with Judge Freeman so he’d rush the application and perform the ceremony on short notice. Zane nodded, a little in awe as he met Ty’s shining eyes. “Let’s do it.”

“Yeah?”

“Right now. If we take the Valkyrie we can make it to the courthouse before they close and get the license. We could be married by Monday,” Zane said. If Ty wanted spontaneous, Zane could give it to him this time.

Ty kissed him messily, then rolled out of bed and scrambled for his clothes.

“Are you . . . you heard me say Valkyrie, right?” Zane asked. Ty
always
complained about the motorcycle.

Ty straightened, pulling his jeans on and buttoning them. He was beaming. “You’ve always wanted me on the back of that death trap, right? Here’s your chance.”

“This might be the best day of my life,” Zane said disbelievingly.

Ty crawled over him again, pressing him to the mattress and kissing him until they were both breathless. “I’ll make sure of it tonight. Now get your ass in gear, let’s go get legalized.”

Come Monday morning they were in Zane’s hotel room yet again, except this time Zane was tying his shoelaces over and over, trying to get them right as Ty paced in front of him, his phone held to his ear. They’d called Deuce as soon as they’d received their marriage license and told him to come to Baltimore and bring Livi, Amelia, and a suit. They needed two witnesses, after all, and Amelia would jump at any chance she could get to dress up and peg people with something pretty like flower petals or rice.

They’d decided not to call anyone else. Their families could wait, and this way each family could be given their own time, their own celebration, something that suited them. Understated and elegant in Texas for Zane’s mother, moonshine and shovels in the mountains for the Gradys. And they’d be able to hold off the meeting of the families for a little longer, something Zane wasn’t keen on seeing happen anytime soon.

Zane didn’t really have any friends or family he desperately needed to be with him today, but Ty . . .

Zane glanced up at him with a sympathetic frown. His brother was coming, and Zane knew that was paramount to Ty today. But Ty had more than one man he considered a brother, and blood had little to do with it.

Ty cleared his throat and stopped his pacing, squaring his shoulders as if fighting nerves when his call went through. “Hey, babe, it’s Ty again.”

His voice sounded shaky, but everything sounded shaky right now. They were just a few hours away from getting to say “I do.” He didn’t remember much from his first wedding, but these moments of nerves building up to it were familiar.

Ty coughed, closing his eyes. “Nick, I don’t know where the fuck you are, man, but I kind of need you here. Please call me back.”

Zane stood slowly, watching Ty with a frown. “Still not answering?”

Ty shook his head, not looking away from his phone.

“You worried?”

Ty raised his head. “Little bit.”

“I thought Nick disappeared like this without telling anyone pretty often. Isn’t that why he lives on a boat, so he can go off the reservation?”

“He does, it’s just . . . he usually still checks in with
someone
even if he’s AWOL. He still checks his phone, calls back for emergencies. I . . . I thought he’d call me back by now, even if he’s too far away to get here. You know? I told him we were getting married. I mean . . .”

“We can do this later,” Zane offered, but Ty was already shaking his head. Zane took a step and rubbed his hands up Ty’s arms, squeezing gently. “You want him here, Ty. We can do this later.”

“No,” Ty said, and his voice wasn’t shaking any longer. “You’re the only person I care about being here.”

Zane pulled Ty in for a kiss. He was wearing the blue suit Zane loved so much, at Zane’s insistence, and Ty had demanded Zane wear his charcoal pinstriped suit tonight. Zane was happy to oblige. By the time they went to bed, Zane would be able to call Ty his husband, and both of their suits would be wrinkling on a floor somewhere.

A knock at the door saved the blue suit from Zane’s wandering hands, and Ty pulled away with a wink. He opened the door to his brother’s smiling face. Deuce was dressed sharply, and was holding a plastic container in his hand.

“I’m so going to be the favorite after this,” Deuce crooned as he stepped into the room.

“Deuce, the maid of honor
died
at your wedding,” Ty said.

“Well, I didn’t kill her,” Deuce argued. “Ma’s going to disown both of you.”

Ty nodded and gave Deuce a hug. “We’d have to do this in Maryland regardless of what kind of ceremony we had elsewhere. Might as well do it now.”

“Can’t wait to watch you explain that to Ma.” Deuce turned to Zane and offered him a hearty handshake. “Y’all ready?”

Ty met Zane’s eyes. The hazel was glinting in the light, and his lips curved in a smirk.

“Oh yeah,” Zane said, unable to fight his grin. “Yeah, let’s do this.”

“You nervous?” Deuce asked them.

Ty snorted and shook his head.

“That’s a yes,” Deuce said wryly.

“Shut up, I’m not nervous.”

“Yes, he is.” Zane softened the words with a fond smile in Ty’s direction.

Deuce handed Zane the container he’d brought in, then patted him on the shoulder. “Take your time. We’ll be in the lobby, ready when you are.” He squeezed Ty’s shoulder in passing and then left them alone once more.

Zane lifted the container. The plastic was clear, but fogged over from whatever Deuce had in there, so it was impossible to see the contents.

“What is that?” Ty asked.

Zane shrugged, then shoved the container at Ty. “He’s your brother . . . you open it.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Why not?”

Ty huffed. “Well, why don’t you?”

“Because . . .”

“He handed it to you, it’s obviously yours to open.”

“But he’s
your
brother. You should open it.”

“I can’t,” Ty insisted.

“Why?”

“Because it might be alive.”

“Why would it be alive?” Zane cried, and he shoved the container into Ty’s arms.

“I don’t know!”

Zane snorted and popped the lid. They both winced away from it, but nothing fuzzy or breathing jumped out. Ty lifted the lid and stared for a second, then broke into a wide grin.

“Deacon, you sly son of a bitch.” He held up a small boutonniere and twirled it between his thumb and forefinger. It was made of a single orchid.

“Orchids?” Zane asked.

“I told him about the black market orchid thing when I first realized . . . well, that I was in love with you,” Ty admitted. Then he smiled and turned the boutonniere over. “He made fun of me because he said black market anything was not romantic. God, I can’t believe he remembered.”

Zane took the container from Ty and set it on the desk nearby. There were three more boutonnieres in there. Deuce had obviously planned for Zane to have someone at his side, but Zane didn’t need anyone else. He had everything he could have wanted today.

He took the orchid out of Ty’s hand, their fingers lingering as their eyes met.

“Come here,” Zane whispered, and dragged Ty closer, kissing him gently as his palm slid against Ty’s cheek. “I love you. So much.”