Cut and Run 6 - Stars and Stripes

difficult, each rife with an undercurrent of antagonism and threats. Ty had to fire a Colt revolver over his shoulder using a mirror, holding it with his left hand, to shoot the ace of spades out of a playing card. He was the only shooter to even nick the card, much less the spade, and he came in first. Zane did both knife-tossing contests, the first to hit a stationary target, the second to hit a target painted on a watermelon as it swung like a pendulum. He won both and caused quite a stir when he twirled the knife around his hand before giving it back to the judge.
    With each show of their skill, Stuart looked more and more mutinous. Zane could feel in every fiber of his being that something was going to happen tonight. The only question was who would instigate it—Ty or Stuart?
    As sunset encroached, Ty was left to handle the last event: the lasso.
    “Goddammit, Zane, you should have let me throw the first knife!” Ty hissed when the event was revealed.
    Zane couldn’t help but laugh. Ty could handle any weapon someone put in his hands and do it with competence, if not skill. A lasso was the last thing Zane had expected, but even if they came in second place in this event, they would still win the whole thing.
    Ty was shaking his head, muttering under his breath as they watched Mark take his turn. Before Zane could quell the urge, he pulled his lover close to give him a very public kiss. It caused a few gasps and murmurs, and Zane could feel all those eyes on them. He didn’t care. Ty didn’t flail or tense up, and Zane felt him smiling against his lips.
    “Even if we don’t win this,” Zane said, “thank you.”
    Ty nodded, lingering just long enough to make Zane’s heart beat faster. Then the judge called for the last contestant to take his turn, and Ty gave Zane one last glance and a smile before stepping out into the cleared arena. There were three targets, and the closer he came to the smallest target, the higher his points. The most he could get was six, and they only needed one point to beat Mark and Jamie.
    Zane laughed heartily as Ty tried to get the rope settled in his left hand. He might have been able to handle the thick, heavy rope with both hands, but with his dominant hand in a cast, it was just too much for him.
    The crowd began to buzz, ripples of laughter going through it.
    “If I was a rodeo clown, you’d all be gored to death,” Ty said as he finally got the rope in place.
    There was more laughter, and Zane realized he was grinning from ear to ear as he watched his lover make a spectacle of himself.
    When Ty got the rope going in circles over his head, Zane thought his partner might actually have paid attention when he’d tried to teach him. He had good form, and the rope was swinging like it needed to. But then Ty released the lasso too early, and the toss came sailing toward Zane and the other contestants instead of the targets.
    Stuart didn’t have time to dodge it; he just stood there as the rope dropped around his shoulders and Ty pulled it tight. He stumbled forward, arms trapped at his sides as the crowd burst into raucous laughter and applause.
    “Sorry!” Ty said with a wave of his hand that pulled the lasso tighter.
    “What the hell are you doing!” Stuart bawled. “You fucking moron!”
    Ty pulled him forward again, and Zane could only shake his head as he watched, stunned by his partner’s gall.
    Ty continued to apologize profusely, making a show of being a bumbling drunken idiot, and Stuart kept up a litany of cursing and accusations as Ty inexplicably managed to wrap him up even more instead of helping him out of the ropes.
    “Wow, these things are really complicated, aren’t they?” Ty said over the raucous laughter of the crowd. Stuart lost his balance and tumbled to the ground. Ty stood over him. “How do you make it let go?”
    Stuart’s friends came over to help, strong-arming Ty out of the way. He held up both hands and took a few steps back, the picture of innocence.
    “You’re insane,” Zane said as soon as he drew close. Ty was grinning, his eyes sparkling in the dying sunlight as they watched Stuart struggle to get loose.
    “I’ve always wanted to do that,” he said, as gleeful as a schoolboy who’d just caught a frog.
    “And?”
    Ty looked Zane up and down, as if sizing him up, then he gave a lecherous grin. “You think we could take one of those lassos home with us?”
    “Ty, focus!”
    Ty grinned. “We got him.”
    “You’re