Ball & Chain (Cut & Run 8)

Deuce sat with his head in his hands, not even trying to be stoic anymore. Livi took the news a little better than Ty had expected, though. Her eyes were tearing over, but Ty had seen her sob over Milton’s demise as well. Livi was a tenderer heart than Ty was used to dealing with.

“This is awful,” Livi said. “I didn’t even know her that well. I don’t know how to get in touch with her family.”

Ty frowned, and the bouncing stopped for a second. “What do you mean?”

Amelia cooed to him, complaining about the halt in her ride. He began the bouncing again, smiling down at her.

“I mean I didn’t really know her well,” Livi said again. “I met her a few months ago when she took one of my classes. I have three really close friends, and . . . frankly I was dreading choosing one of them. I don’t have any sisters or cousins. So when I found out Nikki was a party planner, it just clicked. She became the maid of honor, she planned all the pre-wedding stuff, and I didn’t have to choose between my closer friends.”

Ty nodded, still a little confused. He was relieved, though, because he’d been absolutely terrified of making Livi cry.

Amelia latched onto his nose and giggled. Ty tried to pull his face away, but couldn’t get out of her grasp. Livi laughed shakily, still wiping at her eyes.

“Ty, what’s going on here?” Deuce asked. He sounded desperate. “Is this your shit following you around, or is this entirely new shit?”

“I’m pretty sure it’s new shit,” Ty answered, his voice nasal as Amelia held on to his nose. He almost wished he could say it was his fault, that this was about his past. But he wouldn’t lie to Deuce just to make him feel better. He was done with lies.

“But what did Nikki have to do with Mr. Milton?” Livi asked. “I understand that Mrs. Boyd was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but why kill Nikki?”

“That’s a good question. I intend to find out.”

Deuce and Livi both nodded, wearing almost identical frowns.

Amelia squeezed Ty’s nose, and he made a honking sound that set her giggling.

“Do you want to take her for a while, Ty?” Deuce asked.

Ty glanced at him, raising an eyebrow.

“I mean, when you’re not investigating the series of murders at my wedding,” Deuce said wryly. “You’ve barely seen her. I know she’s safe with you. And Maisie is running late, so we’re sort of in need of a babysitter anyway.”

“Maisie’s the girl who found Milton’s body,” Ty said with a frown. “Why is she late?”

“She wasn’t feeling well,” Livi answered. “She’s not handling all of this . . .”

Ty gave that another nod and a deeper frown. He sometimes forgot that normal people didn’t handle finding dead bodies well. He looked down at Amelia, who was reaching for the compass pendant around his neck. Her little tongue was stuck out of her mouth as she concentrated. Ty grinned. “Yeah, I’ll take her for a while.”

Deuce tossed him a tattered gray lamb. “Don’t leave home without it.”

Zane actually had a good morning, working down in the kitchen with Mara and Nick trying to get enough food prepared to feed anyone who still had an appetite. He was able to show off some of the things he’d learned to Mara, who seemed to be thrilled that “another one of her boys” had finally learned to feed himself.

He also learned a few things from Nick, who gave Zane the tip to fold his fingers in when he was cutting so he could feel the knife with his knuckles and didn’t have to look at what he was doing. He shrugged it off when Zane asked where he’d learned, saying it was nothing more than spatial recognition and the need to hurry when he’d been learning to cook. He seemed to be in an unusually evil mood, so Zane mostly left him alone.

After breakfast, Zane sat in a secluded alcove off the great hall and began flipping through the photos on Nick’s iPad, reading his notes, trying to follow the jumps in logic and make sense of the scribbles Nick obviously hadn’t felt the need to connect when he’d been taking them.

Zane could tell which interviews had been first and which had been last because, while the questions remained thorough, Nick’s notes became less legible and the scribbles devolved into pleas for someone to kill him.

Zane snorted as he read them.

He glanced up when he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. Ty was striding across the great hall, Amelia riding on his shoulders and gripping his hair like the reins of a horse. He had Amelia’s favorite stuffed animal stuck in the back pocket of his jeans.

Zane lowered the iPad and notebook, relaxing his shoulders and watching his lover. Ty would take a few steps, then stop and weave to the side, then stop again, making a sound like brakes screeching, and then he’d veer in another direction. Zane realized that he was letting Amelia steer him by pulling on his hair.

They were never going to get wherever Ty was heading if they kept on like that. Zane gathered his things and stood, coming up beside them and putting a roadblock in their path.

“Uh oh!” Ty said to Amelia. “Brake!”

Amelia was laughing, her tiny fingers clutched in his hair.

“Brake!” Ty called out again.

She leaned forward instead, and Ty walked into Zane, making the sound of a nasty crash when they collided. Amelia howled with laughter and crawled over Ty’s head, sliding into Zane’s arms. Ty gave Zane a quick kiss, still grinning.

“How’d you wind up with this?” Zane asked, tossing Amelia up and turning her upside down to hold her by her feet. She squealed in delight.

“I don’t know. I’m easily duped, I guess.” Ty took her back from Zane, turning her right side up. “The nanny isn’t doing too well with finding that body; she’s MIA. I took Amelia so they could have an hour to get stuff done.”

“Makes sense. Poor girl. You missed breakfast, by the way.”

Ty grinned. “Was there venison involved?”

“Actually, yeah.”

“Gross. Are those Nick’s notes?”

Zane nodded. “I’m still trying to make sense of them without asking him what they mean.”

“Where is he?”

“Probably curled up in a corner hissing at people as they pass by.”

Ty’s laugh was a surprised one. “Bad mood, huh?”

“Very. Last I saw him, he was still in the kitchen cleaning up.”

“Let’s go find him. I want to sit down and hear what we all know, see if we can connect some dots.” Ty headed off, carrying Amelia under his arm like a sack of potatoes. Her giggles echoed off the ceiling of the great hall.