Cut and Run 4 - Divide and Conquer

lowering his voice until
    Zane couldn‟t hear him above the blaring warning.
    8 | Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux

    “We need to go back to the showers. Hot water,” Zane said when
    he shuddered, and not in a good way. “Riot team will clear those
    assholes out before we leave. And you know whoever pulled that fire
    alarm is in deep shit.”
    Ty shook his head. His fingers dragged against Zane‟s skin as he
    removed his arm from Zane‟s shoulders. “Work, work, work,” he
    murmured, shaking his head.
    “I‟m s-serious,” Zane said as the cold really started to set in. “I‟m
    too cold.” His fingers were almost numb as he tried to grasp the bottom
    of his wet T-shirt to pull it over his head.
    “I‟ll warm you up later,” Ty promised. It was a nice thought, but
    not helpful right now. Ty had somehow mastered the shivering and
    teeth chattering already. He‟d once told Zane that the best way to stop
    the shivering was to consciously relax your body, et voilà, no more
    shaking. But Zane had never gotten it to work.
    Zane turned and led the way back to their lockers, managed to get
    his wet clothes off, and rubbed himself down roughly with his towel,
    trying to ward off the bone-aching chill.
    The alarm abruptly cut off, but the ringing in Zane‟s ears still
    covered any sound Ty might have been making behind him. Then three
    fingers touched the nape of Zane‟s neck and dragged down his spine,
    between his shoulder blades, to the small of his back and across a hip as
    Ty moved past him. “Eight-hour workday to go, Lone Star. Suck it up,”
    Ty said as he popped open his own locker.
    This time the shiver skittering across Zane‟s skin had nothing to
    do with a chill and everything to do with finding the patience to get
    through the day while looking forward to that night.

    THE blinking light on his phone drew Zane‟s attention away from the
    report he was trying to parse. He always muted his phone when he was
    in the office, especially at times like today when the whole team—like
    school kids at desks in a little pod shaped like the Pentagon—was stuck
    slogging through their casework.
    Divide & Conquer | 9

    He was sitting with Michelle Clancy, Scott Alston, Fred
    Perrimore, and Harry Lassiter, the other members of their extended
    Bureau assignment team. Still, it could be a call from one of the other
    departments, a contact, or another agent. So Zane slid the cell out from
    under a pile of folders and thumbed off the key lock as he looked at the
    screen. It was a text message. Frowning a little, Zane hit the key to
    open the message.
    Whats proper workplace etiquette for picking up computer and
    tossing out window? Open window first or break glass?
    Zane blinked and read the text again. Then he focused on the
    number and realized who‟d sent the message. He sighed and set his
    phone down, going back to his report. It wasn‟t a message that needed
    an answer. His partner wasn‟t more than ten feet away, sitting at his
    desk, staring at his computer screen and repeatedly tapping the same
    error key on his keyboard. If Ty wanted a response from Zane, he could
    just open his mouth and speak. When Zane glanced at him, he saw Ty
    sit back in his chair and cock his head at the computer. He‟d stopped
    typing, and he looked listless and frustrated.
    Ty‟s computer never worked the way it was supposed to. The
    team joked that he had electromagnetic pulses going through him,
    because no matter what he touched, the machine nearly always messed
    up. The computer, the printer, the fax machine, sometimes even the
    automatic faucets in the bathrooms. They never worked correctly for
    him. He also hated paperwork with unusual passion, so it made it
    doubly funny.
    Zane looked down at the files spread across the desk in front of
    him. He could sit and do detail-crunching all day; it appealed to his
    analytical brain. Ty, however, made no apologies for being bored by
    paperwork. He was definitely a man of action. Zane usually tried to at
    least send him out on errands, but today there wasn‟t even that to throw
    in front of him. With one last glance at Ty, Zane went back to
    reconciling suspected criminal bank account transfer data connected to
    a series of kidnappings.
    Several minutes later, the light on his phone blinked again. Zane
    stopped typing as he looked at the phone and then across the desks at
    Ty. He didn‟t appear to have moved, and his phone was nowhere in
    10 | Madeleine Urban & Abigail