Cut and Run 6 - Stars and Stripes

kitchen, gathering supplies and making preparations. “Go ahead. I’ll see what Mother wants and be there in a bit.”
    Ty nodded distractedly as he took his gun and checked it. It’d become a habit of his every time he entered or exited the house, and like every new quirk Zane noticed Ty developing, it fascinated him. He turned to head for the drawing room, but he stopped in the doorway and peered in before entering.
    Beverly was sitting at her desk, papers spread out around her.
    Zane walked into the richly decorated room. “You wanted to see me, Mother?”
    Beverly looked up, surprised. Zane glanced around the room, the same sense of foreboding assaulting him as when he’d been little and gotten in trouble. This time, it seemed, Beverly was nervous too.
    She offered him a weak smile and stood. She was dressed in one of her pristine white suits and had her hair pulled back in a chignon. Surprisingly, a few red and blue ribbons were woven into her hair, a delicate touch of whimsy for the party on an otherwise staid and severe visage.
    “I’ve been having a crisis of conscience, Zane.”
    Only Zane’s years of practice at hiding his emotions let him cover any outward reaction. Inside, he went cold. He’d gotten that ability from his mother.
    He knew what this was about, and he prayed he’d misjudged her. He swallowed hard. “Excuse me?”
    “You’re my only son, Zane, and I have loved you in the only way I know how. I have tried to hold my tongue when you made your decisions. I prayed that you would come home to us, in one piece, and find solace in your family. But I’ve seen these past days that you’ve chosen to get your comfort elsewhere. And it is one place I cannot in good conscience allow you to go.”
    “Mother,” Zane said, surprised when his voice came out hoarse and tight.
    “You are the last Garrett in a long line, Zane. This family needs you in more ways than you can imagine.”
    Her words were like ice, biting and sharp, and each one cut Zane deeper. How could she not care one iota that he was happy now? He tried to stay calm as he spoke. “Mother, we’ve beaten this horse to rawhide. I’m not coming back to Texas, much less to anything else you seem to think is my duty. I certainly won’t marry some woman I don’t love just to produce another generation of miserable Garretts.”
    “You seem to have no problem flaunting your . . . your what? Friend? I don’t even know what to call him,” Beverly said, her lips twisted into an ugly frown as she stalked around her desk.
    “His name is Ty. You can call him my partner. Or my boyfriend. How about prospective son-in-law?”
    “Zane Zachary Garrett!” Beverly slapped her hand on the desktop, cheeks flushing. “I will not stand for it! I will not ruin this family’s name by having a son who thinks he’s gay simply because he’s got an easy screw on hand!”
    Zane’s eyes widened, and the anger he’d been trying to hold back broke free. “You are totally out of line.”
    “As are you,” Beverly snapped. “He is after your money, pure and simple.”
    “You don’t even know him. You’ve said all of three words to him, all of them cruel.”
    “I know his type, and they’re all the same no matter what parts they have.”
    “I guarantee you’ve never met his type before.”
    “Zane.”
    “I love him, Mother. And he loves me. It has nothing to do with money.”
    “Did he tell you he loved you before or after you mentioned your family was wealthy?”
    Her proposition was patently ridiculous, but his analytical mind was forced to stop and a take a moment to consider the answer anyway. It had been after, in fact, but it didn’t matter.
    His pause made Beverly close her eyes and sigh deeply. She seemed truly tortured by the revelation, and for a brief moment her defenses dropped and Zane could see the war behind her mask. She was torn between love of her son and prejudices and preconceptions she had held all her life.
    Zane stepped forward, desperate to use that torment to his advantage. “Mother. Please, just give him a chance. You said you have only one son, but you could have two if you’d just see him for what he is.”
    She pressed her lips into a thin line, fighting not to show any more emotion than she had. She knew it was a weakness Zane would exploit, and she made an effort to bury it away again, right in front of his eyes.
    Zane understood suddenly, the realization hitting him like a blast of cold water, what Ty