Cut and Run 6 - Stars and Stripes

Harrison said, voice calm as he handed Ty his own wine glass. Ty whispered a thank you and downed that as well. Zane almost said something, but the conversation distracted him from his disapproval.
    “They’ll keep coming back until there’s nothing to come back for,” Mark interjected. “Annie was out there too, and if she saw them, they may have seen her. They’ll know it was her, and she’s in danger too.”
    “We need Zane and Ty here, Beverly,” Harrison said. “Circling the wagons.”
    “Yes, I can see how much use that particular wagon is going to do us,” Beverly said, nodding toward Ty.
    Ty stared at her, and Zane could see it coming from a mile away. He had two, maybe three seconds to stop his partner from tearing his mother’s head off.
    He sat back and crossed his arms instead.
    Ty’s eyes drifted from Beverly, who sat stiff and proper, waiting for his retort, and landed on Sadie instead. She smiled shyly at him and stuck a piece of chicken in her mouth. Zane watched in fascination as Ty gave her a half-smile and returned his attention to the tabletop.
    Everyone else noticed it too. They all looked at Sadie, who was still grinning and chewing.
    Ty cleared his throat. “If you want me to leave because you think I’m putting your family in danger, then I will.” He met Beverly’s eyes, then looked at Sadie again. “But I would like to stay and help protect your family.”
    The table was silent, but for the sounds of Sadie eating. The emotionless mask on Beverly’s face was back, but Zane could see her struggling with her response. Ty had realized that trading barbs with her was not the way to handle it—that a direct, sincere approach was much more likely to throw her off her game. It was a little unnerving sometimes, watching Ty manipulate others. Zane couldn’t help but wonder how many times Ty had done that to him without him realizing it.
    Beverly finally exhaled and gave a curt nod, blinking rapidly. “If you believe yourself fit enough for the job, Mr. Grady, then so be it.”
    Everyone was silent, letting the tension settle over the table. Soon enough, Harrison picked up his fork and knife and began to cut into his steak.
    As they ate, the tension slowly broke, and they filled Ty in on what he’d missed. He sat with a frown, listening and offering little in response. When they were done, Ty sat in silence, still nodding his head, staring at the table.
    “Ty?”
    Ty looked up as if Zane had splashed him with cold water. “I don’t think this is about tigers.”
    “What?”
    Ty glanced around and gave a small shrug. “I don’t think the tigers are the target.”
    “But we caught them in the act. We saw them poaching the tigers,” Mark insisted.
    “Just give it a little time,” Zane said more gently. “Let your mind catch up to the tranquilizers, okay?”
    Ty eyes flickered to Mark, but he nodded. “Right.”
    “Well. You all will excuse me. I have business to attend to.” Beverly stood without waiting for a reply and made her way out of the room.
    Zane sat back, watching Ty, a sense of foreboding creeping over him despite everything. Ty knew something he wasn’t sharing, and Zane intended to find out what it was tonight.

    Ty sat with his booted feet propped on the railing of the large porch, rocking himself in a wooden chair. He held one last glass of wine in one hand and a slim cheroot in the other, secure in the knowledge that he deserved to indulge in both vices. The sheriff had come and gone, taking his statement without even a raised eyebrow.
    The voices of Zane’s family filtered through the dry evening air, but he had no urge to join them. He was feeling decidedly unsociable. He had a lingering headache he would almost have called a hangover, but it hadn’t been nearly as fun to earn.
    The sunset over the rolling Texas landscape was astonishing, though. Nothing like the rising sun burning away the mists on the mountaintops of West Virginia or the moon glowing down on the beaches near Kaneohe Bay in Hawaii, but still beautiful in its own way.
    He’d been to a lot of places in his life, places most men never got to see. Places most people had never even thought about. The dry tropics of Somalia. The jungles of Colombia. The hard rock mountains of Afghanistan and the desert of Kuwait. But he had rarely stopped to appreciate them until after the fact. It was hard to appreciate the beauty of a place when the scenery was being used to try to kill you.
    The