Fish & Chips (Cut & Run 3)

He got in the door fifteen minutes late—not the best of ideas for a dinner reservation on a regular night, much less a holiday, but he was sure Ty would have been on time. It was one of Ty"s favorite restaurants. After all the fish on the cruise ship, Zane figured a high-grade piece of beef would endear him to his carnivorous partner.

In a couple minutes one of the hostesses led him toward the back of the narrow restaurant; along the side wall ran a whole line of booths for two to four, and as he expected, Ty was facing the restaurant proper. Zane had given up the fight over who would sit with their back to a full room some time ago. Ty always proffered the argument that more people wanted to kill him, and he was right.

Ty sat diligently tearing a piece of paper into thin shreds, his knee bouncing under the table as he tried to keep himself occupied while he waited. He glanced up when he saw the hostess leading Zane toward him, and he straightened slightly, gathering the pieces of paper and crumpling them into a ball in his fist.

“Hey,” Zane greeted, handing the hostess his heavy, waist-length wool coat, unbuttoning his suit jacket, and sliding into the booth across from him.

Sitting in the booth straight and tall, well-fitted suit actually pressed and his stylishly narrow tie straight, the bleached-blond hair shaved almost completely off in what was practically a scalp trim, Ty looked more like a Jarhead than Zane had ever seen him. Damn the man, he even made a shaved head look good. And he looked much more like himself. Zane was pretty sure Ty had gone somewhere and rolled around in the mud for several hours once they had gotten home from the cruise ship. That would have made him feel better.

Now Ty seemed nervous, which wasn"t like him. While apart the past few days, back to their normal routine of sometimes together, sometimes apart—as wrong as it felt—Zane had worried Ty"s confession of love and his conspicuous lack of response would make things awkward between them the first time they got back together. So Zane drew a settling breath as he sat on the bench and offered Ty a smile.

“I"m sorry I"m late,” Zane started.

Ty nodded and leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table.

“You all right?” he asked with a frown.

“Yeah,” Zane said, trying not to wince. “I didn"t think I"d be this late or I would have called.”

“It"s okay,” Ty told him easily as his eyes traveled carefully over Zane, as if checking him for injuries or any undue wear and tear. Ty didn"t trust Zane"s motorcycle any further than he could throw it, and he knew Zane usually rode it. With that look, Zane felt a lot warmer, inside and out, than from just walking into a heated building from the cold weather outside. He tried to catch Ty"s eyes. It was a little weird, this new dynamic to their partnership. Maybe he should call it an actual relationship now. Yeah. Weird. But Zane really liked it, and he smiled slowly.

“What?” Ty asked him suspiciously as he met Zane"s eyes and saw the smile forming. He groaned. “What have you done now?”

Zane shook his head, just looking at his lover across the table. “I didn"t do anything,” he protested, amused by Ty"s reaction. Now Ty knew how he felt every day when he woke up or came to work to see Ty smirking.

Ty narrowed his eyes and pointed a warning finger at Zane, obviously not believing that he wasn"t up to something. Zane instantly noticed what was missing from Ty"s hand, and he found himself oddly disconcerted to see the ring gone. The finger was still noticeably swollen, and Zane could guess what had happened. “They had to cut it off, huh?”

“Cut what off?” Ty asked, shoulders squaring as he sat back, almost offended.

Zane had to laugh. “Your ring.”

Ty looked down at his hand. “Oh.” He nodded. “Yeah, no way was it coming off without taking my finger with it.”

“You sound disappointed.”

Ty shrugged, and Zane could tell he was uncomfortable. “I miss it,” he admitted, making Zane"s stomach flip-flop. “It gave me something to do with my hands,” Ty continued, holding his hand up and moving his thumb as if he were playing with a ring on his finger.

Zane snorted. Yeah, that sounded more like Ty than being emotionally attached to a piece of jewelry. Now he was kind of glad he"d left the necklace at home.

They glanced up as a server arrived with bread and the drinks Ty had already ordered.

Once the server was gone with their appetizer and entrée orders, Ty picked up his glass, which was full of soda instead of beer or champagne, and raised it to Zane with a smirk. “Here"s to being us again.”

Zane chuckled and lifted his goblet of iced tea to clink it against Ty"s. “Hear, hear,” he said. “Bon voyage, Corbin and Del Porter.”

“I can"t say it was fun,” Ty muttered wryly as he set his glass down. He glanced up at Zane almost carefully. “Did you hear what ended up coming out of the interrogations?”

Zane knew that Corbin and Del Porter were now in New York under long-term investigation by the FBI for Corbin"s extended criminal activities. He hadn"t heard anything more about them, though.

“No. Anything interesting?”

Ty shrugged uncomfortably, as if he wasn"t sure the news was interesting or not. “Well, Del admitted he"d been hired by Armen to weasel his way into Corbin"s life, seduce him and spy on him, and send out information. But in the end, he actually fell for him. He said he was told about Armen"s plan to take over during the cruise, and he claims he deliberately orchestrated having himself and Corbin caught before the ship sailed to save Corbin"s life.” He looked up at Zane as he said the last, watching his reaction.

Zane blinked in surprise, raising both brows. “That"s pretty impressive. Del didn"t seem to have much of a backbone, and that would certainly take one.”

“I think he fooled a lot of people. Us included,” Ty said softly.

“He had to have known he risked losing Corbin either way. He sacrificed himself.” Ty paused, letting that sink in. What he left unspoken was clear. Del had sacrificed his freedom and his heart just to keep the man he loved safe.

Zane couldn"t escape the meaning in Ty"s words. “Takes a special person to do that,” he said quietly.

Ty nodded and looked away. The knowledge put Del and Corbin in a different light than Zane had originally perceived. It reminded him that he shouldn"t make assumptions, especially when it came to matters of the heart.