Touch & Geaux (Cut & Run 7)

“We’ve been looking for this mole for months,” Ty said through gritted teeth.

“I’ve been right by your side.”

“You’re a traitor!”

“No, I’m not. Not to you,” Liam said, remaining calm in the face of Ty’s growing rage. “And not to them.”

Ty shook his head.

“I’ve never betrayed you, mate. I’m just doing my job.”

“So am I.”

“If you’ll let me explain.”

Ty growled, his grip tightening on the gun. “I don’t want to f**king hear it, I’m tired of spy games.”

“That’s funny, Ty, because you’re one of the best players I’ve ever seen.”

“Likewise,” Ty snarled.

Liam nodded, taking a harsh breath.

Ty could barely look the man in the eye, and he lowered his gun for fear of shooting him in the face just to wipe that wounded look off it. “Fine. Explain. Do it quickly.”

“I was planted here by the NIA.”

“The NIA? Do you think I’m stupid?”

“Tyler, I think you’re anything but.”

“NIA is a toothless old aunt in the CIA’s basement. They don’t get involved in this shit.”

“They didn’t. They’re being militarized. Dipping into military personnel who already have the access to build their stable. The NIA pulled me from SAS and recruited me for military ops they couldn’t get their own people into. I know you know about this, because they tried to pull you too.”

Ty gritted his teeth, fighting not to react to that knowledge. Chas Turner had tried for months to recruit him for the National Intelligence Agency’s first wave of dark military ops, but Ty never bit. He’d worked a few missions and become a valuable piece of artillery, but he took his orders from the Marine Corps, not suits at the NIA.

“They put me here to feed false information to the opposition.”

“Why you?” Ty demanded.

Liam licked his lips. “I have family in Russia. They created a KGB past that could be exploited, and waited for someone to find it and contact me.”

“That’s weak, Liam.”

“It worked nonetheless. I’ve been transmitting false information for months. I’m not your enemy.”

The gun lowered as Ty stared at the SAS sergeant he’d called his friend and lover for the past few months.

“Every day you’ve looked me in the f**king eye and lied to me.”

“I never lied.”

“Bullshit!” Ty raised the gun again and jabbed it at Liam in utter frustration.

“Stubborn wanker! Listen to me. Life isn’t black and white! You know that better than anyone. I’m not the bad guy here.”

Ty realized he was nearly hyperventilating. He was so livid the edges of his vision were beginning to blur.

Liam continued talking, voice soft and low, like a man trying to calm a wild animal. He’d done it before to Ty, soothing him and coaxing him back to sanity.

“Now listen, I need your help. Word has to get out the spy’s been rooted out and eliminated, or the insurgent forces will try to extract me. I don’t know about you, but I don’t fancy that sort of homecoming. If they can’t extract me and they don’t hear of my death, they’ll know all those messages were fake. It will cost lives. Many lives.”

“You’re asking me not to turn you in?”

“No. I’m asking you to come with me.”

“Come with you?”

“I have to fake my death, I’ve known that all along. It was always the only exit strategy. But then you came along and . . .” He licked his lips, wincing. He sighed and flopped his hands. “I’m in love with you, Ty.”

Ty took an involuntary step back, gaping and grasping for words, and nearly tripped over a pair of boots. Liam followed and Ty raised the gun again in unsteady hands.

Liam noticed the tremble and shook his head. “I need you steady tonight, darling.”

“No.”

“Help me die tonight. Then you can come with me, we’ll start over somewhere.”

Ty shook his head, at a loss for words.

“I’m offering you a chance at a life without orders, without rules, without being a pawn in someone else’s game.”

“We’ve never been pawns.”

“No? Your code name is Rook. Make no mistake, you are just a player in a game. As am I.”

Ty stared, fighting to calm himself. Liam stood with his hands at his sides, nonthreatening and earnest.

“Let’s run, Ty. Come with me. We’ll bury ourselves and start over. With nothing to do but lie on a beach all day and drink and f**k.”

Ty couldn’t answer, still torn between shock and anger. “Yeah,” he finally sneered. “Drink and f**k and run from the NIA.”

“You bloody stubborn bastard!” Liam shouted, his façade finally cracking. “I’m telling you right here, I love you! We have a chance to cut and run, and I want you to come with me!”

“Liam,” Ty said as despair and uncertainty began to seep in.

“Fine. You still want to serve? I’m game. Come with me to the NIA,” Liam tried. “We’d be unstoppable.”

“How?”

“We’ll shoot it out. You take me down, I’ll clip you in a leg, make you unfit for service in the Corps.”

“I’m not going to shoot you! And you’re sure as shit not shooting me!”

“I’ll get you with a knife then! Come with me, Ty.”

Ty took in a shaky breath, not allowing himself to ponder the possibility or even be tempted to desert. “I can’t.”

Liam’s mask broke, and Ty could see the pain in his clear blue eyes. He recognized it well because he’d been feeling it ever since he’d discovered that Liam had been using his clearance to transmit on the CB frequency the rebels were monitoring. Ty gritted his teeth. He’d thought Liam a traitor, and though he was relieved to be wrong, it seemed he would lose him anyway. For the first time, uncertainty began to gnaw its way into him.

Liam shook it off, rallying faster than Ty had been able to. “If you don’t intend to go with me, will you still help me? Will you join me later?”

“How?”

Liam shook his head sadly, his hands still held out to his sides. “You have to shoot me. And it has to be out there, in the common areas, to make sure you’re not at risk and to get scuttlebutt going.”