Cut and Run 6 - Stars and Stripes

Riptide Publishing
    PO Box 6652
    Hillsborough, NJ 08844
    http://www.riptidepublishing.com
    This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
    Stars & Stripes (Cut & Run, #6)
    Copyright © 2012 by Abigail Roux
    Cover Art by L.C. Chase, http://lcchase.com/design.htm
    Editor: Rachel Haimowitz
    Layout: L.C. Chase, http://lcchase.com/design.htm
    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher, and where permitted by law. Reviewers may quote brief passages in a review. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Riptide Publishing at the mailing address above, at Riptidepublishing.com, or at [email protected] .
    ISBN: 978-1-937551-42-1
    First edition
    August, 2012
    Also available in paperback:
    ISBN: 978-1-937551-58-2
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Special Agents Ty Grady and Zane Garrett have managed the impossible: a few months of peace and quiet. After nearly a year of personal and professional turmoil, they're living together conflict-free, work is going smoothly, and they're both happy, healthy, and home every night before dark. But anyone who knows them knows that can’t possibly last.
    When an emergency call from home upsets the balance of their carefully arranged world, Ty and Zane must juggle family drama with a perplexing crime to save a helpless victim before time runs out.
    From the mountains of West Virginia to a remote Texas horse ranch harboring more than just livestock and childhood memories, Ty and Zane must face their fears—and their families—to overcome an unlikely enemy and bring peace back into their newly shared world.

For my Little Roux. Because family is worth fighting for.

The waitress came up to their table in the middle of an argument. “Would you like some more iced tea?”
    Zane Garrett looked from his ranting partner to the waitress and smiled. “Thanks.” He slid his glass across the small bar table so she could fill it from the pitcher she had in her hand.
    “No problem, Zane. More wings?”
    “Yeah, but just the medium ones this time. I’m not too hot on the honey barbecue kind.”
    “Bad pun penalty,” Ty Grady muttered from across the table.
    “Shut up.”
    The waitress laughed. She set a pint down in front of Ty and he pointed at her with his celery stick.
    “Designated Hitter or real baseball?”
    “I’m cutting you off,” she answered before turning away.
    “No!” Ty called out, and Zane laughed, the sound almost lost in the midst of the mid-week revelry. Ty turned a glare on him, dipped his celery into a plastic cup of ranch dressing, and then pointed at Zane with it, sending drops of dressing flying. “You know what we should do next weekend?” he asked without seeming to notice he’d sprayed Zane with ranch.
    Zane grabbed a napkin and wiped up the splatter on his shirt. These weekly outings were the only time Ty drank around him, and he seemed to make up for lost beers at them. Zane didn’t mind. After a few months of regular Wednesday night baseball viewings at the local bar, he was used to Ty’s semi-drunken antics. He had to admit, he enjoyed Ty when he was drunk. And as long as Ty stuck to beer or wine, and Zane continued his AA meetings, he