Cut and Run 3 - Fish and Chips

someone had just tried to murder his lover. Again .
    Ty smiled at him but remained silent. They didn’t want the staff getting wind of yet another attempt on their lives. The news would spread like wildfire on the ship, and they’d already had more attention than they wanted.
    After a few more moments to make certain they were both well, the two instructors left them sitting alone near the bow of the little boat. Ty waited until no one was within earshot before he leaned against the back of the padded seat and muttered, “I’m beginning to dislike this case.”
    Zane groaned and rubbed his eyes. “I hadn’t really anticipated murder attempts,” he muttered.
    Ty’s hand slid onto his knee, resting there in a familiar gesture that would have felt so odd just a week ago. “We’ll figure it out tonight. I’m tired of sitting around and waiting for someone to kill me.”
    Zane moved his hand to cover Ty’s as he silently agreed, watching his partner instead of the blue Caribbean tossing gently behind him.
     
     
    A FTER a long, hot shower, Zane simply pulled on one of the plush bathrobes in the bathroom and joined Ty in the main room. He was hungry after their excursion. “Hey, want some sandwiches or something?” he asked before flopping on the couch and putting his feet up on the low table in front of him. It would be six hours before dinnertime, according to the itinerary that ruled their lives.
    “Anything but fish,” was Ty’s disgruntled reply. He was pacing, having foregone the robe after his shower in favor of the soft, tattered jeans he was probably going to end up stealing from Del Porter. He had his head lowered as he worked toward making a groove in the floor in front of the balcony, striding slowly back and forth.
    Zane decided to suggest the short walk to a nearby counter-service shop that served burgers and fries. Comfort food sounded like a brilliant idea, and he was sure Ty could use something normal . But for this moment, he sat silently and watched his partner. He could almost literally see the smoke rising above Ty’s head.
    “Okay, here’s what we know,” Ty blurted as he turned on Zane and pointed a finger at him almost accusingly. “Vartan Armen hired Del to spy on Corbin Porter. When he saw us playing the happy couple, he decided his plan had backfired, right?”
    Zane blinked at the outburst and answered with a drawn-out, careful, “Yeah.” Something about that idea bothered him, but he wasn’t quite sure what. But Zane was somewhat surprised to discover that the idea of him and Ty described as a “happy couple” engendered both laughter and longing.
    “And then we have the Italians in the mix, and if Dolce and Gabbana were legit Guardia di Finanza agents, I will eat my shoes,” Ty went on with a careless wave of his hand as he turned and paced away from Zane in agitation. “So we make the logical leap that the Italians are crooked or working off the books. Agreed?” He turned back to look at Zane with raised eyebrows.
    “I guess it’s possible they could be Guardia di Finanza tailing Bianchi, but it’s not really likely that they would be sanctioned to operate on a ship under another country’s flag. So, yeah, they’re not legit,” Zane agreed.
    “Okay,” Ty said, almost to himself. He abruptly stopped pacing and crossed his arms, lowering his head and closing his eyes. He covered his eyes with one hand and stood there, motionless. “Okay,” he repeated, his voice a soft, almost intimate murmur.
    The low purr of Ty’s voice never failed to get Zane’s attention. It didn’t matter when he used it: at work, at home, out shopping, while eating… and now, thinking more about what Armen must have seen to deem him and Ty a “happy couple,” it made Zane wonder about what exactly other people saw.
    “Let’s say I’m Armen,” Ty said, obviously not expecting Zane to comment. “And I have two business partners I want gone. Is it because the Italian authorities are onto them? Is it because I’m a greedy bastard and I want all the business proceeds to myself? If that’s the case, then I’d need their information as well, since the business has been compartmentalized. So I’d be after their laptops, cell phones, anything with business records.”
    Once Zane figured out that Ty was mostly rambling, the majority of his thought processing returned to chew on the “happy couple” idea. Zane knew people at the office saw them as partners who didn’t