Ty looked back at him, his expression softening. “I’m sorry.”
“I know. Me too.”
Ty frowned. “What for?”
Zane shrugged. “Either for letting the secrets go on so long or for pushing about it now, I’m not sure. Either way, it puts you in a bad spot.”
“Excuse me, can one of you please help me here!” Cameron said as he lifted Julian’s head off the ground.
Ty rolled his eyes and bent to shoo Cameron’s hands away. “Zane.”
Zane moved closer, bending to help Ty lift the unconscious prisoner onto the bed. The man was solid and a deadweight, way too heavy for his frame. “Jesus, he’s made of granite,” Zane said in a strained voice.
Ty grunted in agreement as they flopped him onto the bed. “Bungee cords,” he said, breathless.
Zane went to get them, and he could hear Cameron’s tremulous voice, asking Ty questions and demanding more satisfactory answers than Ty was giving.
“You know if it was you, you’d be trying to escape too!” he was shouting as Zane came back into the room.
Ty’s eyes flashed dangerously as he squared his shoulders on Cameron, and Zane stepped between them.
“Cool it. Get comfortable. We’ll tie you two up together tonight,” he said, hoping the consolation prize would keep Cameron from squawking all night about his “dead” boyfriend. They made a cursory job of tying Julian and Cameron down, then Zane grabbed Ty’s elbow and dragged him out of the room.
“Okay, talk,” he demanded, unwilling to let it stew any longer.
Ty nodded, and his eyes shifted to the side to glance at the bedroom door before he looked back at Zane. “This is one of the things I wanted to tell you when we got home,” he said in a low voice. “It wasn’t my call to be able to tell you before. I wanted to, Zane, I don’t like keeping secrets. But I couldn’t.”
“So what’s so different about now?”
“Well, for one, I wasn’t the one who spilled it.”
“Granted. What about when we got home?”
Ty sighed. “While I was on the road I decided I didn’t give a damn anymore. I’m not keeping anything from you from now on. I don’t care if it’s classified.”
Something inside Zane started doing a Snoopy dance at Ty’s words. He studied Ty for a long moment before saying, “I trust you.”
“I know. That’s what made it so hard.” He stood there for another moment, leaning forward as if perched on a precipice. Then he shook himself and reached for his gun. He drew it out of its holster and checked the magazine as he strode toward the bedroom. Zane blinked after him for a moment before jumping in front of him. He took Ty by the arm and swung him around, getting between him and the door. “Whoa, Bulldog. That’s not going to help.” Zane paused. “Well, okay, it would help you feel better. But it wouldn’t help the situation here and now, and it certainly wouldn’t help any situation later.”
“I disagree,” Ty said in a calm voice.
“I am sure you do,” Zane said, keeping one hand on Ty’s forearm, not holding, not squeezing.
“I’m not going to kill him, Zane, just threaten them both until I feel better.”
“That’s a relief, but please listen. You would have to shoot his ass to kingdom come to scare him when he wakes up, and then we’d have a worse mess. Can’t we just… settle this first, and then you can deal with him about the other? Hell, maybe that’s why Burns wants him to begin with! Maybe that’s why he sent you.”
Ty stared at him mutinously for a long moment, long enough that Zane began to suspect his gentle persuasion might not work.
But then Ty rolled his eyes and sighed, sliding his gun back home. “Yeah, okay,” he mumbled. Zane felt his heart start back up, and he sagged against the wall as Ty glanced around the room and spoke. “I need to put a call into Burns. This just went over our pay grade.”
“Okay,” Zane said, regretting the need for Ty to go anywhere right then. “Say hi to him for me.”
Ty turned away from him with a nod, going to grab his coat off the bed. He was almost to the door when he stopped and turned. “Zane. Nothing else has been a lie.”
Zane nodded. He wasn’t sure he’d say Ty had lied to him at all—Zane didn’t consider lies of omission lies—but he didn’t want to get into a long, circular logic puzzle with Ty, of all people. His head would explode.
“Be careful.”
Ty stood there for a heartbeat longer; then he advanced on Zane just like Julian had on him earlier. He took Zane’s face between his hands and he kissed him, pushing him back against the wall and holding him there, his lips demanding against Zane’s. Then it was over as suddenly as it had begun, Hurricane Ty passing by. When he stepped back again, he jerked his head in a nod. Then he turned and headed for the door.
“WHAT do you mean you know he knows me?” Ty asked Burns in outrage.
“Of course I know he knows you! Why do you think I sent you after him? He’s listed as a possible contact on one of your old jobs.”
Burns could hear Ty making a sputtering noise on the other end of the line that may or may not have been a minor hissy fit.
“You dealt with him in France!”
“No.”
“Yes. I have the reports. His name was different, but this is the same guy. Julian Cross is a CIA codename. You worked together!”
“No! Dick! I have never seen this man in my life! I would remember that!”
Burns frowned, confused. Ty sounded genuinely upset and offended. “I don’t understand,” he muttered.
“Well join the f**king club!” Ty hollered on the other end of the line. “The guy from Paris that I worked with, the guy in that report, was a French guy, six one, white-blond hair. He was not a six-foot-five ass**le Irishman!”
“That complicates things.”
Burns could hear another series of sounds, culminating in a string of curses.
“Are you sure the man you have is Julian Cross?”
“I don’t know, Dick, he doesn’t have a f**king bar code I can scan!”
“This doesn’t change your objective,” Burns tried in a loud, authoritative voice, trying to pull Ty back on point. “You still need to get him to DC, understand?”
“Why?” Ty demanded in frustration. “What’s this really about?”
Burns hesitated. “Need-to-know.”