Cut and Run 5 - Armed and Dangerous

Cameron asked him.
    “I get fidgety if I sit too long,” Ty answered almost against his will. He’d found that no matter what Cameron asked him, he seemed physically incapable of lying to the guy.
    Cameron nodded, looking almost like he felt sorry for Ty. “Aren’t you supposed to be able to, like, be still and hide? On… surveillance or something?”
    “I don’t do that kind of thing anymore.” Ty looked at Cameron with one eyebrow raised and a slight smirk. “We have cameras for that.”
    “Really,” Cameron said, heavy on the sarcasm. “So what does a federal agent do if he’s not watching other people?”
    “We cause all kinds of trouble. Terrorize innocent civilians, arrest the wrong people, take advantage of government healthcare.”
    Ty saw Julian put a finger to his own temple and pull the imaginary trigger.
    Ty snorted and shook his head. Wouldn’t that save them all a lot of trouble? He began to shake his knee side to side, starting the sedan rocking. He heard Julian sigh from the back seat.
    “I understand why you can’t sit still, Agent Grady.” He sounded almost as if he were offering a consolation prize.
    “I kind of doubt that.” Mentally sparring with Julian Cross had long ago lost its luster.
    “How long were you there?” Julian asked.
    Ty’s movements slowed, then stilled as his breaths came harder. The hair on his arms rose as a chill went through him.
    “You scream ‘prisoner of war’, Agent Grady,” Julian said, his voice low and almost sympathetic. “But you’re too young to have been captured in the Gulf. That means Special Forces, black ops. Navy SEAL?”
    Ty swallowed hard, ashamed to see that his fingers gripping the steering wheel were turning white. “I was Force Recon.”
    “The batshit insane ones. Of course, that makes sense.”
    “What is that?” Cameron asked.
    “Agent Grady was a Marine. Force Recon is their answer to the SEALs or Army Rangers.”
    “That’s impressive,” Cameron said as his eyes cut toward Ty.
    “It is indeed. Save for the fact that most Marines are slightly insane before they live through the hell of combat. Was it Afghanistan, then?”
    Ty kept his eyes front and center, not looking in the mirror because he knew this man would be able to read him.
    “Captured in Afghanistan, I’d wager. How long were you held?”
    “I wasn’t.”
    It was the same bullshit line Ty always gave when the subject came up. That operation was still classified. The answer, though, the answer only he, Nick O’Flaherty, and that weird little guy from Homeland Security knew, was twenty-three days, nine hours, and fifty-one minutes.
    Ty glanced up to see Julian’s reflection. His dark eyes seemed sympathetic. Ty looked to Cameron in the mirror—the young man had gone pale with the implication. Even though Ty had denied it, they both knew what Julian had said was true. Ty nodded, not intending to discuss the matter any further.
    Maybe now Julian Cross would realize that Ty knew something about trying to escape.

    “I’ M DRIVING . I get to choose the music.”
    “No,” Ty said as he continued to flip through the radio, searching for a station.
    Cameron raised a brow as Zane smacked Ty’s fingers and then hit the preset button, returning the radio to the classic rock station.
    “Dude!” Ty said as he pushed the button next to it and turned the dial to find the station he’d just had it on. “Pay attention to the road.”
    Zane hit the first button again. “Sit back, copilot. You had sports talk all morning.” He sounded calm, though Cameron couldn’t see how he maintained it. Dealing with Ty on a regular basis had to be grounds for anger management classes. Or homicidal tendencies. Maybe that was what was wrong with Zane.
    “So did you,” Ty said as he hit another button at random. Cameron could see a smirk on his face as he looked at Zane. It was obvious now that he didn’t care what they were listening to, he was just pushing buttons. Since Cameron was sitting behind Zane, he couldn’t really see Zane’s face to gauge his reaction, but his next poke at the first button didn’t seem angry.
    Cameron glanced at Julian. “You and Preston have such a different relationship than them.”
    “There are so many ways that statement is correct,” Julian said in a bored voice. He wasn’t paying the two agents much attention. Or didn’t appear to be.
    Ty pushed another button and turned up the volume. Zane hit the first button again but