Cut and Run 4 - Divide and Conquer

drew out. “Shit, man, I‟m sorry! Didn‟t mean to go
    buzzing you so early in the morning.” The last glance at his watch had
    told Zane it was nearing seven in the evening. “But hey, do you know
    Jimmy, man? Could you grab my pants for me?”
    There was a longer pause, long enough that Zane thought the man
    on the other end of the speaker had abandoned the conversation. But
    then the box clicked again.
    “There‟s no Jimmy here. Buzz somebody else.” The words ended
    with some ring of finality.
    Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux

    Ty clucked his tongue again and shrugged at Zane. “Worth a try,”
    he told his partner with a smirk. He reached out and hit another button.
    A moment later a woman answered. “Delivery,” Ty chirped.
    “I didn‟t order anything,” she said brusquely, and that was that.
    Four more tries later—one no answer, two immediate denials, and a
    bizarre conversation with a stoner about the phases of the moon during
    which Ty had way too much to offer, in Zane‟s opinion—Ty huffed in
    frustration.
    “How many more are you going to try?” Zane asked. They didn‟t
    really have the time to call the field office and ask for a warrant. Not to
    mention that would go over really well with Burns, who obviously
    wanted them to keep this as low as it could go. Was this the kind of
    thing that Ty was always doing for Burns?
    Ty glanced at him stubbornly and pushed a button at random.
    Zane rolled his eyes. As soon as there was an answer, he stepped closer
    to the speaker and said, “Federal agents, ma‟am.”
    “Nice try, asshole,” the woman said smugly, and then the speaker
    box clicked off.
    Ty growled dangerously. “I hate this town,” he muttered as he
    took his gun out from under his coat.
    Zane straightened in mild alarm. “What are you doing?”
    Ty yanked a glove off one hand and wrapped it around the butt of
    his gun, then turned smoothly and rammed the handle into the glass
    door. The mottled glass cracked and shattered noisily, but there was
    mesh wire embedded inside it that kept it from falling in. Ty used the
    butt of his gun to clear out the window, ripping through the wire,
    raining pieces all over the sidewalk and Ty‟s feet. He reached through
    the iron bars and pushed the handle, opening the door and holding it
    open for Zane with a gallant wave of his hand.
    “Why, thank you, sir,” Zane drawled as he walked through the
    mess, already thinking of ways to make sure Ty would be the one
    writing up the report for this trip.
    “Assholes,” Ty muttered as he looked up at the floor display
    above the elevators. He stopped in front of the fire alarm and looked at
    Armed & Dangerous |

    it for just a moment too long for Zane‟s comfort. Zane cleared his
    throat pointedly.
    Ty looked at him almost guiltily and then followed him toward
    the stairwell. Zane didn‟t know if there was any sort of alarm on the
    door, but they needed to move a little more quickly regardless.
    The condo they had targeted was on the second floor, not nearly a
    long enough hike up the steps to pacify Ty‟s annoyance, which
    manifested in muttering. Zane pushed past him and started checking
    doors until they found the number they‟d been provided. He glanced at
    his partner, knocked on the door, and listened to what sounded like a
    rush of feet that immediately retreated. Zane frowned and reached out
    to rap on the door again, but someone approached from the other side
    and stopped. Zane figured the man was looking out the peephole, so he
    held up his badge. Behind him, Ty did the same. “Federal agents.”
    A bolt slid and the door opened just a bit, blocked by the chain,
    and a slim, wholly average-looking man peered out.
    “Cameron Jacobs? I‟m Special Agent Zane Garrett, and this is
    Special Agent Ty Grady. We‟re looking for Julian Cross.”

    CAMERON stared through the four-inch gap as he studied the two tall,
    capable-looking men holding out badges that looked pretty official.
    They could be federal agents. Or not. With Julian‟s past business, there
    honestly was no telling who might come looking for him. It was the “or
    not” that was scaring Cameron right now, and his hand gripped the
    doorjamb so tightly that it hurt. “I don‟t know who that is.”
    “Perhaps you know him better as Julian Bailey?” the man called
    Special Agent Grady said dryly. “Or Sir? Maybe even Boss?”
    Cameron frowned as he shook his head. Surely federal agents
    would be nicer than this.