Ball & Chain (Cut & Run 8)

“Aren’t you going to take my picture for your records and ask me where I was last night?” Kelly teased.

Nick responded with a low rumble, because he damn well remembered every last second of where Kelly had been last night. They were both silent for a few moments, their hands clasped. Kelly finally picked up Nick’s iPad and took his own picture, making a face when he clicked it. Nick chuckled and took it away from him, setting it aside.

“You remember anything from last night that was off?”

Kelly shook his head. “I’ve been trying, but I can’t think of anything.”

Nick nodded. That was the answer he’d been getting all day.

Kelly stood and walked around the end of the bar, coming up to Nick and sliding his arms around his shoulders. Nick rested his cheek against Kelly’s chest and closed his eyes as Kelly rested his chin on Nick’s head. He wrapped his arms around Kelly’s waist and Kelly slid closer, holding him tight. They stayed that way for long minutes, giving Nick a break, soaking in each other’s presence.

“Ty is waiting for the next interview,” Kelly finally said, his voice suddenly tense.

Nick groaned, closing his eyes and burying his face in Kelly’s chest. After interviewing Ty, they would have to switch and Ty would interrogate him. This was not the way he had envisioned telling Ty about himself and Kelly, but he supposed there was no choice now. It was his alibi, after all.

“It’ll be okay,” Kelly told him. He patted Nick’s cheek and stepped back. Nick’s hands fell away as Kelly headed for the door. “Scream if he tries to kill you.”

“That’s not funny.”

“It’s a little funny.”

Nick grunted as Kelly slid out of the room, and before the door closed, Ty had stepped in.

“You look rough, buddy,” Ty said with a smirk. He set a bottle of water down at Nick’s elbow, along with a couple of aspirin, then took the stool across from him.

“Thanks.” Nick stared at the bottle, feeling like his entire body was tumbling with nerves.

“Anyone stand out?”

Nick forced himself to meet Ty’s eyes. “Not anything glaring. I’ve been starting with the party and having them walk me through to four this morning. Most of the answers I’m getting are alcohol or someone else’s bed.”

“Not surprised,” Ty said with a huff. “Why the party? Why so early?”

“Doc’s temp check said eight hours at least. Even accounting for the night being cold, that puts us around midnight, give or take an hour. The watch is wrong.”

Ty frowned hard, leaning his elbows on the bar. “So he . . . he probably left the party and then bought it. How’d his watch break at three something?”

Nick raised an eyebrow and nodded. He’d been asking himself the same thing. “I have no clue. I have two theories, though. Want to hear them?”

“Yeah.”

“A few people have said they noticed he was messing with his watch all night. It could have been broken, frozen at that time.”

“Huh. What’s the other theory?”

Nick shrugged. “Someone killed him knowing time of death would be tricky way out here, so they wound the watch to a later time and smashed it. Made it an easy TOD. Made sure someone saw them hours later for the alibi.”

Ty narrowed his eyes, cocking his head.

“That’s what I’d do, anyway. In a pinch. Hope no one would bring out the turkey thermometer.”

“You’d make a really scary serial killer, Irish.”

Nick tapped his pen on his pad of paper, staring until Ty shifted uneasily. “Okay. Walk me through the party.”

“Well. We ate. We had the meeting with Stanton. I think I left the patio twice over the course of the night to go take a piss. Then we wound up in the garden watching you smoke a joint with my brother.”

“We’ll leave that out of the notes,” Nick grumbled as he wrote the rest down. “Did you see the victim at the party?”

“Not after the meeting in the study.”

Nick added Ty to the list of people who hadn’t seen Milton after the time of that meeting. He’d obviously not returned to the patio that night, and that gave them roughly a ten-hour window for the crime.

“Did you see anyone leave the party after the meeting, anyone who struck you as behaving oddly?”

Ty gave it some real thought before shaking his head. “Honestly, I was more concerned with you and Doc chatting up my baby cousin than watching anyone else.”

Nick tried hard not laugh. “Where did you go after you left the party?”

“We took a walk toward the beach. I asked Zane to marry me. He turned me down. Then we headed back to the room.”

Nick stared at his best friend for a few beats before saying, “What?”

Ty slammed his hand on the bar top. “He said no! Twice!”

“Ty.” Nick sighed, rubbing his temple as he recognized the warning signs of Ty winding up.

“No, no. Three times! Three times he’s turned me down!”

Nick reached for the aspirin Ty had brought him.

“Three times!”

“Tyler, listen, I’m really sorry about the . . . three times, but you seem to be handling it pretty well this far, and this isn’t one of those instances where I need to talk you off the edge, so could we maybe save this until after I eat?”

“Look, a beautiful beach in Scotland? Nope. Castle? Nuh uh. Rug in front of a fire?”

“Oh God, stop. Ty, please,” Nick said quickly. He put his head in his hands. “That’s . . . no.”

Ty cleared his throat and nodded. “Sorry.”

Nick watched him for a few seconds, still covering half his face with one hand. Ty looked absolutely miserable. He might have seemed like he was handling the rejections well, but Nick could see underneath the mask just like he’d always been able to. “Condolences on getting shot down. Repeatedly.”

Ty didn’t even glare at him. He looked like a kicked puppy, and it made Nick want to slam his face into the wet bar. “You need to talk about it, babe?”

“Please. I’m going f**king insane trying not to give him . . . puppy eyes and beg him to rethink it.”

“Well, you can quit giving me puppy eyes. You’ve asked him three times?” Nick asked, hating himself for giving in and feeling sorry for Ty instead of feeling sorry for himself right now.

Ty nodded. “He said I hadn’t thought it through yet.”