Cut and Run 4 - Divide and Conquer

out of it?”
    30 | Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux

    “You get to keep your jobs, you worthless hack,” McCoy
    answered without any real heat in it.
    Ty‟s face was nearly expressionless as he held the phone up
    between them. “Yeah okay.”
    Zane shook his head, giving Ty an obstinate look. He still didn‟t
    know what the hell this was all about, but he had the prickly feeling he
    wouldn‟t like it.
    Ty turned away from him so he couldn‟t object again.
    “Look,” McCoy said, “Garrett gives a great lecture on cyber and
    criminal connections. I‟ve heard it and didn‟t even feel the need to
    shoot myself or him. With all the Internet crime lately, it‟s a popular
    topic. And you have enough of a sense of humor to talk about
    undercover investigations without getting morbid or scary. I know it‟s
    short notice, but there‟s going to be a whole series of these things—”
    “A whole series?” Ty broke in, his voice going higher in distress.
    “Do you remember how many times you‟ve said I‟m bad for PR?”
    McCoy sighed in disgust.
    “Thirty-seven times, Mac.”
    “You‟ve counted?” McCoy asked without sounding surprised.
    “Latent OCD,” Ty answered, unashamed. Zane pressed his mouth
    to the back of Ty‟s shoulder to stifle the laugh that threatened.
    “All right, look, here it is straight. You‟re both personable and
    competent, but the real kicker is that you‟re both pretty, and bottom
    line, it‟s better to have eye candy in the newspaper than some
    nondescript drone. Be there at eight, best suit you own. And call Garrett
    and fill him in for me, will you?”
    Ty grunted in outrage, but the phone lit up in his hand, and he
    pulled it away to look at it. Zane could see the display informing him
    the call had been ended.
    “„Pretty‟,” Zane said flatly. It was funny—usually—when Ty
    teased him about being pretty, but this was too much. “When the hell
    did we become fashion plates?”
    Divide & Conquer | 31

    “Eight a.m. on a Saturday, Zane,” Ty said through gritted teeth.
    “ This Saturday? As in tomorrow Saturday? We have to give
    lectures in twelve hours? We‟re not prepared for that! I can‟t just pull a
    cybercrimes lecture out of my ass!” He could , but it was the principle
    of the thing.
    Ty nodded and dropped the phone to the couch. He looked Zane
    up and down and narrowed his eyes, a slow smile forming. “But we‟re
    still in for the night,” he pointed out.
    Zane let the momentary annoyance fade into the background.
    They could bitch about work later. “Sure you still want dessert before
    dinner?”
    “You‟re not dessert, Zane. You‟re the main course,” Ty informed
    him in a husky drawl. “And you have about five seconds to take your
    pick of flat surface before I do it for you.”

    ONE thing about working for the FBI was that sometimes time passed
    and Ty thought it might be going in reverse. Other stretches Ty didn‟t
    even notice until months had gone by. He and Zane did their jobs,
    whether that included the god-awful boring paperwork and research
    Zane seemed to enjoy or the actual tracking and chasing of criminals
    that was more to Ty‟s taste. Unfortunately, working for the FBI
    consisted of 5 percent chasing and tracking, 90 percent paperwork, and
    5 percent getting your ass handed to you by your superior, a reporter, a
    nurse who insisted you‟d tear your stitches, or your mother.
    Ty would much rather run down a guy and tackle him into the
    Inner Harbor than have to sit and fill out forms.
    He‟d ruined that suit, but it had been a hell of a good day.
    Ty‟s evenings had gone one of four ways through January and
    into mid-February: most often they‟d be out working, which meant no
    time with Zane away from work. Otherwise Ty was going to softball
    practice and then home late to Zane, or suffering through another
    freaking PR presentation. And then home late. To Zane. Ty still wasn‟t
    too sure how he felt about all the extra responsibilities that were taking
    32 | Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux

    up his free time, so he mostly tried not to think about it and just go with
    the flow.
    Time passed almost unnoticed when it had so much structure to it,
    so when Ty went to meet his partner for a late Friday night dinner after
    a particularly harrowing lecture to a group of high school kids who‟d
    only wanted to know if he was single or if he‟d ever killed anyone, he
    hadn‟t expected the chaotic mess he‟d found. He‟d