Stumbling along, Cameron looked over his shoulder at Zane and Julian. “Is this your way of getting friendly?”
“‘He has a bomb,’ he says,” Ty parroted in answer. He kept on, taking on a comically exaggerated Irish accent. “Oh look, Mr. Rubber Glove Man, he has a bomb. Och, we missed our plane.”
Cameron laughed as he stumbled and bumped into Ty again. “Come on, man, you’re like half a foot taller than me. Give me a break!”
“Stop talking.”
“You need a Valium or something,” Cameron said under his breath as he tried to hurry enough that Ty wouldn’t drag him.
“Yes, I do. I should also be given a cigarette after what that TSA agent did to me,” Ty snapped. He looked over his shoulder to find Zane and Julian lagging behind. “Garrett!”
Cameron watched as Zane held out a hand to his side, as if willing Ty to be patient. Neither he nor Julian looked to be in all that much of a hurry, which Cameron knew would just incense Ty more. Ty mumbled as he and Cameron came up to the rental desk. Cameron didn’t even know if what Ty was saying consisted of real words, much less English ones.
By the time Zane and Julian joined them, the rental agent was almost finished telling Ty what models of car were available.
Ty turned to Zane and shook his head. “I refuse to drive to DC in a compact.”
“There’s no way we’d all get into a compact unless we lashed Cross to the roof,” Zane said. Ty looked Julian up and down.
“They don’t even have any SUVs,” Cameron said to Julian and Zane.
“Maybe the trunk,” Ty said.
Cameron gave him a disbelieving look before shaking his head, and he was seized with the urge to smack Zane as the man looked to be considering it.
Julian looked between them without comment, then rolled his eyes and looked away.
“Seriously, Zane, I’m not driving to DC in a f**king Chevy Aveo,” Ty said after apparently dismissing the idea of stuffing Julian in the trunk.
“Train?” Zane suggested.
“We’d have to wait longer for that than the next plane,” Ty muttered. Then a light entered his oddly colored eyes, as if an idea had struck him. “Let’s head to the field office. Steal a truck.”
“Borrow a truck.”
“That’s what I said.”
“The office is nearby. We’ll get a cab,” Zane said, taking Julian’s arm to turn him toward the door.
“Do you two do this kind of thing often? Because you really don’t seem very good at it,” Cameron said as he resettled his bag on his shoulder.
“Practice a little self-preservation, love,” Julian murmured.
“Why? That’s what I’ve got you for,” Cameron said with a smile for his lover.
“Oh, gag me with a sock,” Ty muttered as he pulled Cameron away and headed for the doors.
“You need a little love in your life,” Cameron told him.
Ty narrowed his eyes but had nothing sarcastic to say to that.
“Really,” Cameron said, just to get in a dig of his own for being dragged around. “It did wonders for Julian’s attitude.”
Ty shook his head and looked over his shoulder at Julian as they walked through the automatic doors. “Your boyfriend’s coming on to me,” he told Julian with the same sincere honesty that Julian had used to tell the TSA agents Ty was carrying a bomb.
Julian made an annoyed sound in the back of his throat.
“Zane’s more my type,” Cameron said, just to irritate Ty even more. Zane snorted before smiling again.
“Hear that?” Ty asked Julian over his shoulder. “He’s kind of a whore.”
Cameron huffed and elbowed Ty in the ribs as they exited the terminal. The man didn’t even wince, which made Cameron want to find somewhere he didn’t have a protective layer of muscle and kick him.
TY SAT in the driver’s seat of a “borrowed” FBI sedan, drumming his fingers against the steering wheel. They hadn’t been able to get away with an SUV, so the sedan would have to serve. It was roomier than anything the rental agency had been offering, and when the Chicago field office found the car missing, it would be a nice little “fuck you” to Dick for sending them into this mess without all the information.
Because it was painfully apparent that they didn’t have all the information. They didn’t even have the CliffsNotes version.
Ty smiled as he thought about the reaction the missing sedan would get from Burns, but he was still irritated just on principle. The first half of the day had been perfect, only to be marred by the addition of the two criminals in love in the backseat. Julian Cross got under Ty’s skin simply because he felt dangerous. He was unflappable too, something Ty had rarely encountered. In fact, Ty couldn’t think of a single person he’d ever met that he couldn’t irritate to some degree. Cameron Jacobs, however, was annoying because he was so damn naïve it offended Ty’s sensibilities. How the two had fallen in love and managed to stay that way Ty couldn’t fathom.
Zane had insisted they stop to load up on supplies at the first drug store they came to. He was taking his sweet freaking time with it. Julian and Cameron were in the backseat of the car, handcuffed to the special rings welded to the floorboards, the child locks engaged so they couldn’t get out. Ty sat with his gun resting on his knee, just in case Batman got creative.
“What could you possibly gain by making us miss our plane?” Ty asked when he got tired of hearing the two of them murmur to each other. “Now your ass has to ride seven hundred miles in the backseat.”
Julian didn’t answer him. Cameron leaned as close to him as his restraints would allow and looked to be ignoring Ty as well. Ty watched them in the rearview mirror for a moment before rolling his eyes and looking back at the doors to the store. His knee was bouncing, and he didn’t try to curtail the movement. He was considering the radio when he saw Zane finally approach the car, several plastic bags hanging off each hand.
Ty reached down to pop the trunk for him as he neared the car, but he stayed put as Zane dealt with the bags. Then Zane got into the car, placing a couple of bags at his feet before shutting the door and pulling on his seat belt. “Vamos, compañero,” he said.
Ty glared at him as he started the car. “Took you long enough.”
Instead of answering, Zane leaned over, dug through a bag, then pulled out a can of Red Bull and held it out in front of Ty with an enticing waggle.