Cut and Run 3 - Fish and Chips

soaking the linen tablecloth and the majority of it flowing over the edge onto Ty’s chest and lap.
    He stood quickly with a curse under his breath. Norina exclaimed loudly and reached with her napkin to help him. Zane sat back quickly, managing to avoid all but a small splatter across one pants leg, and he had to stifle a laugh. He hadn’t expected Ty to react so violently, but maybe he was in a worse mood than Zane suspected.
    Ty convinced Norina not to help him dry off, instead taking her napkin with thanks and then turning narrowed eyes on Zane, as if it had been his fault. “Excuse me, won’t you?” he said to the rest of the table through gritted teeth. “Order me fish, darling. I’ll be back,” he snapped at Zane as he turned and made his way out of the dining room quickly.
    Only after he was out of sight did Zane realize Ty had probably taken advantage of the heavy tuxedo to hide a weapon on himself for the first time all week. He couldn’t take the jacket off — they’d see his gun.
    Ty wouldn’t let this go without payback, and Zane resigned himself to his fate with a small smirk. It had been worth it.

Chapter 12

     
    T Y DIDN ’ T bother changing once he got to their cabin. He did take off his coat and toss it on the couch as he moved past it. After a moment’s thought, he also regretfully pulled their one gun out of his waistband and set it down on a side table. He didn’t have a holster to carry it safely, and if he had the bad luck to get caught in Armen’s room, having a weapon would only increase his chances of being shot.
    Muttering, he dug into their luggage and found the portable scanner Knight had outfitted them with before they’d left Baltimore. He shoved it into one of the deep pockets of his satin-lined tuxedo trousers and headed for the balcony. He tried not to think about just how badly it would hurt to smack into the water so many stories below as he hoisted himself up onto the slippery railing. His knuckles were white as he gripped the thick partition that he would need to swing around to reach Armen’s balcony.
    He was beginning to wish Zane had objected to this plan.
    Ty took a deep breath, dug his fingers under the slight lip at the edge of the partition, and swung his foot out over open air. He threw the weight of his body with it, knowing the railing on that side would be just as slippery and damp as his side was and hoping to propel himself over it rather than bouncing off of it and toppling into the sea.
    The strategy worked, sort of.
    It wasn’t nearly as difficult as he’d imagined it would be, and he went sailing over the balcony and landed in an ungraceful heap on the deck.
    He popped to his feet and looked around, straightening his shirt and nodding. “I’m okay,” he said to the deck chairs. He cleared his throat and tried not to laugh at himself, glad that this was a solo mission. Zane would never have let him live it down if he’d seen that nimble bit of action.
    He headed for the glass doors of the balcony, confident that they’d be unlocked. No one ever locked their balcony doors, trusting in gravity to keep intruders out. So he was nonplussed when he found the glass sliding door not only locked but barred with a piece of wood.
    “Son of a….” He looked around for something to counter the low-tech obstacle. He didn’t want to leave evidence of his being here, so throwing a piece of furniture through the door was not a good idea. He slipped out his knife and knelt in front of the door, sliding it through the crack and easily tripping the lock. He was able to get the door open an inch or so, but then the piece of wood stopped it. It appeared to be a thick cord of balsa wood, most likely taken from a piece of decorative furniture in the suite. Ty slipped his hand through the crack and pushed with all his strength, levering himself against the wall. Nothing budged for a moment, save for perhaps a tendon or two in his elbow that wasn’t supposed to stretch that way, but then the wood gave in to the pressure. It didn’t so much snap as it imploded, bursting into little shreds and causing the door to fly open. Ty pitched forward as soon as the door was no longer there to take his weight and fell face-first into the deck. Again.
    He pushed himself up with a grumbled “I hate this case” and crawled into the stateroom.
     
     
    Z ANE settled back into his seat after a small smile at Norina and reached for his water glass. Bianchi waved down a