Cut and Run 3 - Fish and Chips

bad.
    Ty was still smiling at him, but it was a gentle smile that was unusual for his partner. There was no trace of a tease, no joke in his eyes. He was as serious as Zane had ever imagined him being, but there was also a softness to him right then, a gentle tenderness that, combined with his sincerity, made Zane’s pulse pick up a little. He moved his hand back to cover Ty’s on Ty’s chest. Zane couldn’t think of anything to say, anything that wouldn’t ruin the mood. So instead he leaned in to press his lips gently to Ty’s.
    Ty slid his hand up Zane’s shoulder and hugged him close as they kissed. When it ended, he was still smiling warmly, his hand on the back of Zane’s neck. “Go clean up,” he ordered gruffly, a smirk curling his lips as his hazel eyes shined with renewed mischief.
    Zane kissed him again quickly before he sat up and moved to the precariously curved edge of the bed with a groan. He rubbed his hands over his face as his head whirled. That kiss was so damn… much. Zane sighed and stood, slowly stretching his arms up in the air and bowing his back before he let his arms flop back down. He pulled off the condom and padded toward the bathroom, glancing toward Ty as he crossed the room.
    Ty had pushed himself up to sit in the bed. He was sitting cross-legged, his eyes closed and his head bowed as he ran a single finger across his eyebrow. His forehead was creased with worry lines, and he was almost imperceptibly rocking. Zane knew the signs of something weighing heavily on Ty’s mind. It made Zane’s stomach plummet as he entered the bathroom. He chucked the condom at the wastebasket and turned to head back to the bed, climbing onto the mattress and reaching out to touch.
    Ty looked up at him critically. “That was not cleaning off,” he said with a laugh.
    “What?” Zane said with a wave to his own body.
    “You didn’t even bring me a towel! What kind of Romeo are you, huh?” Ty teased easily.
    Zane frowned slightly, his hand pausing just short of Ty’s chest. He wasn’t able to reconcile Ty’s quick shift of hidden emotions, and it bothered him. That frown he’d seen on Ty’s face bothered him. But he offered Ty a half a smile, pushed himself off the bed, and padded into the bathroom, where he turned on the light and looked at himself in the mirror as he rubbed his chest, trying to banish that tightness that was making it difficult to breathe. The worry lines on Ty’s forehead when he didn’t know Zane could see scared him. He was terrified that Ty would pull away from him if he knew how the possessiveness Zane felt was growing into a serious addiction. Zane knew how Ty felt about addictions.
    If Zane let himself feel more, if he let this want grow, it would drive Ty away. And it would hurt like hell when he lost him.

Chapter 10

     
    S MUGGLING the spare scuba tank to the platforms where the boats were moored was not as easy as it had been to sneak in the ceramic knife he had used on his last attempt. He’d had to disembark at the last port and hire his way to this island to get ahead of the cruise ship, then track down the service that would be used for the scuba excursion. But he was quite good at his job, and he managed to slip past the attendants in the little shop and get to the staging area unmolested.
    He had failed to kill or maim the blond man on the rock wall, and he had been shocked when he’d learned the man hadn’t even fallen when his rope broke, much less been injured. Before taking the assignment, he’d been informed his target might be easily underestimated, but he had fallen into the trap anyway. This time he did not intend to fail. He did not have to kill the man to succeed, merely put him out of commission.
    The scuba gear lay lined up on the pier alongside the small boat that would be used to take the group to sea later today. The gear had been conveniently labeled with the names of the users, according to size and skill level. He scuttled along the bundles until he found the one for Del Porter. He hefted the tank he’d brought with him, checking its weight. It was filled with the correct amount of oxygen: approximately 21 percent. But the rest of the gasses were a dangerous mixture of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide. Maybe it wasn’t lethal, but breathing it would induce a certain lethargy, courtesy of the poisonous carbon dioxide, and combined with the euphoric effect of the nitrous oxide, that certainly would be lethal when a person was