Stars & Stripes Read Free

didn’t matter what Zane did for them, or how many times he fed them or threw Ty in their path, they still hated him.
    Maybe they were trying to kill him.
    Ty pulled on a pair of pants and headed downstairs, stepping over the cats without being molested, laughing again as he heard Zane come out of the bathroom and yowl in pain. After a few thumps and curses, Smith and Wesson thundered down the stairs to swarm Ty’s feet and wait for food.
    “Good kitties,” Ty whispered to them. They were both purring so loudly it was impossible to hear Zane’s movements upstairs, but a few minutes later, Ty glanced up when Zane came stomping down the steps. He had his phone to his ear.
    “Hey, Annie,” Zane said on the phone. He met Ty’s eyes and smirked as he swiped a piece of toast from one of the plates Ty was arranging. Ty swatted at him with a spatula, but missed. “No, no, it’s okay, I was up. What’s going on?”
    Zane tensed as his sister spoke to him. Ty set the frying pan aside and watched his lover as an unsettling feeling started in his gut.
    “Why the hell didn’t you call me earlier?” Zane blurted. “Do I need to come out there?”
    Ty held his breath, straining his ears to hear. He couldn’t make out any of Annie’s words, but whatever she was saying was making Zane’s nostrils flare and his shoulders snap back. Classic signs that Zane was about to delve into Dark Mode.
    Zane listened for a few more minutes, then bade his sister good-bye and hung up. He looked at Ty with wide eyes.
    “You okay? What happened?”
    Zane didn’t answer immediately. When he did speak, Ty knew he was whitewashing whatever he’d just learned. “Annie said they’re having trouble on the ranch. Trespassers. They think maybe it’s poachers or rival breeders after the horse stock.”
    “Okay,” Ty said, confused about why that would warrant a call to Zane. As far as he knew, Zane had little contact with his family. Even his sister, who Zane got on well with, rarely called just to chat. “So, what, you need to go down there?”
    “I don’t know. I mean no. No, they don’t need me.”
    “Then why’d they call you?”
    Zane waved his hand. “I don’t know, Ty. I can’t help, so there’s no point.”
    “If you need to go, we can figure something out at work.”
    “I don’t!”
    Ty arched an eyebrow. “Wow.”
    Zane shook his head, although he looked conflicted and more than a little annoyed that Ty hadn’t just let it go. “I’m sorry. If it’s still a problem when the weekend hits, I’ll head down there.”
    “You sure?”
    “Yeah, can we drop it now?”
    Ty nodded and watched with a frown as Zane headed back upstairs. He stopped halfway up, then turned and thumped back down.
    “Forgot what I was doing,” he mumbled. He snatched another piece of toast before Ty could stop him.
    “Hey!”
    “Shut up,” Zane said as he went back up the steps, taking them two at a time.
    Ty watched him go, frown in place. Despite seeming to shrug it off, he knew Zane was worried. Whatever was going on in Texas, it was so much more than a few trespassers.
     

     
    Ty jumped at the sound of a file folder hitting a box on the floor. He glanced up at Special Agent Scott Alston, who ignored the file when it skidded off the top of the stack to thump to the industrial-grade carpet. Alston leaned back in his chair as he loosened his tie, and then stuck his hands behind his head and closed his eyes.
    Their whole work group had been tasked with slogging through a load of files sent over from one of the other investigative teams, desperate to dredge up evidence on a case that was going colder by the day. There were literally hundreds of files, and the six of them were on their last hour before they could break for the weekend.
    “Garrett, are you getting off on all this paperwork?” Alston asked.
    “Zane went to the bathroom like five minutes ago, Scott,” Ty said. His words were marred by the yellow highlighter between his