Ball & Chain (Cut & Run)

by Roux, Abigail

  Ty knew they were going more to protect her than to use their considerable combined culinary skills. He appreciated that both men had taken responsibility for protecting his mother just as quickly as he would have.

  Ty spent the morning in Deuce and Livi’s room, bouncing Amelia on his knee and breaking the news of Nikki Webb’s murder.

  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.

  Zane hurried to catch up. “Wait, Ty, you want to do that with her with us?”

  “She’s a year old. She won’t understand death and destruction for at least another year.”

  “If we ever decide to adopt, you’re a mute in any interviews.”

  “Understood.”

  They found Nick and Kelly outside, sitting on the patio with Emma and Marley. Kelly had a stick in his hand, and he seemed to be drawing things in the dusty brick. Nick had his sunglasses on even though the day was overcast, and he was sipping from a glass that Zane doubted was tea. Emma and Marley were talking animatedly, but Zane couldn’t tell if either Nick or Kelly was listening, much less responding.

  Emma glanced up when she noticed Ty and Zane there, and her face transformed into a bright smile. “My baby!” she cried, and she held her hands out for Amelia.

  “No!” Amelia shouted, clinging to Ty’s shirt.

  “What did you bribe her with?” Emma asked him.

  “Unicorns and rainbows and fun,” Ty said with a grin. “What are you guys doing?”

  “We wer
e pregaming the next murder,” Nick said before taking a sip of his drink. Emma and Marley both raised their own glasses and drank with him.

  Kelly glanced up. “I over-drugged him last night. He may be a little cranky.”

  “A little,” Emma agreed, snorting.

  Nick lowered his sunglasses, squinting at Zane. He looked like he was completely done with everything on this island. “Any new leads?”

  “That’s why we came out here, actually. It’s time for all of us to sit down and figure out what we know.” He pointed at Emma and Marley. “You too.”

  Nick gave that a curt nod. He pushed his sunglasses back up and hefted himself out of his chair. Amelia immediately lunged for him and grabbed his sunglasses. Nick held on to them, and after the ensuing tug of war he somehow wound up with Amelia in his arms, wearing his sunglasses on her little round face.

  “What am I supposed to do with this?” he asked.

  “Do what it says, no one gets hurt,” Ty said, putting her lamb on top of Nick’s head before going to retrieve more chairs.

  “Ty, you know I don’t do well with kids!”

  Kelly stood to take Amelia from him, but the little girl clung to him just as she had to Ty. Nick rolled his eyes and sat back down with her.

  They gathered more chairs and circled them on the patio. It was pretty wide open, but Zane trusted it more than any of the rooms in the house since there were passages and peepholes in the walls. They leaned close so their voices wouldn’t carry to anyone nearby.

  “What’d you two find on the videos?” Zane asked Emma and Marley.

  “Nada,” Marley answered. “That dude avoided the lens like a vampire. In total, I found seven frames with him in them. Frames. That’s like less than half a second of video.”

  “And we didn’t find anyone that screamed ‘I’m a killer’ either,” Emma added. “Nothing really suspicious. Although, the dead girl was on her phone in almost every single frame she’s in, and I thought it was weird because there’s no service here.”

  “Nikki Webb,” Nick provided. “She mentioned looking for service to text her boyfriend. Her roommate said she was up half the night trying to get a signal. And several witnesses stated they saw Milton on his phone. That’s pretty much the only thing I know the two victims had in common.”

  “Hell,” Kelly said as he propped his feet on Nick’s knees. “I’ve seen every person here wander around looking for a signal at least once.”

  “Livi told me Nikki showed up around two months ago, took one of her classes. That’s how they met,” Ty told everyone.

  “How’d she earn maid of honor?” Nick asked.

  Ty shrugged. “She was a party planner. Livi didn’t have to choose between her better friends. It’s chick logic.”

  Emma snorted derisively. “If that girl was a party planner, I’ll eat my boots.”

  Ty frowned at his cousin, looking troubled. He glanced at Nick and then met Zane’s eyes.

  Zane nodded, knowing exactly what Ty was thinking. “Sounds like Nikki Webb was a plant.”

  Nick sat forward, shifting Amelia onto his shoulder. She had fallen asleep on him, and she clutched at his shirt as she snored, resting her head on his shoulder. “Livi told me Milton was the reason she and your brother met. He steered Deacon toward her class.”

  Ty brushed a hand over his chin. “Livi’s a friendly girl. It’d be easy to strike up a conversation at her class, make contact with her as a mark. She’s the least sheltered member of the family, the easiest way into the company. But why plant Deacon with her?”

  Nick shrugged. “I’m just telling you what I know. What really bothers me is that watch.”

  “What really bothers me is getting shot at,” Kelly spat.

  “You guys got shot at?” Emma blurted.

  “Last night, in the woods,” Ty answered. “We were checking to make sure the boats really were taken out by the storm. On the way back, a few shots were exchanged. I had Fraser, the groundskeeper, do a sweep of the woods. He didn’t find any trace of anyone being hit. No casings, nothing.”

  “Come on,” Kelly said in annoyance. “We know those were silenced shots, and we all know who would have silencers on this island. Those Snake Eaters are part of this.”

  “Kels, those Snake Eaters are ex–special forces,” Nick said in exasperation. It sounded like they’d had this conversation a few times already. “If they’d fired at us last night, they would have hit us.”

  “They did hit you,” Kelly snapped without looking back at Nick.

  Nick closed his eyes and rubbed his fingers over his nose.

  “There are way too many weapons on this island,” Emma said.

  Zane found himself nodding. Not only were the Snake Eaters all heavily armed, but there was a room devoted to nothing but hunting and stalking, lined with rifles. Not to mention all the gear they had brought with them.

  “We could try to round it all up,” Kelly suggested.

  “That should go over well,” Ty said. “Worth a try, though.”

  “What good is that going to do?” Nick asked. “Anyone intending to use their weapon isn’t going to give it up voluntarily. And you don’t need a gun to kill someone, even without training. What are you going to do, play Mr. Green and Colonel Mustard and round up all the candlesticks and lead pipes, too?”

  Kelly set his stick down and glared at him.

  Nick raised both eyebrows in a silent challenge. “You’re not getting my gun.”

  “Quit being a dick,” Kelly grunted. He pushed himself to his feet. “I’m going to go get some Advil for the dick.”

  Nick grumbled to himself as Kelly walked away.

  “You two had a fun night,” Ty said.

  “Shut up, Tyler.”

  Zane was flipping through the pictures Nick had taken as the rest of them spoke. Ty leaned forward to look over his shoulder. When they reached the photo of the broken wristwatch Nick had fixated on, Zane zoomed in on it, cocking his head. There wasn’t anything special about it, but it did look familiar somehow.

  Ty patted his shoulder. “I had one like that.”

  Zane raised his head. “You did,” he said as the realization hit him. “The one we smashed in Gettysburg. It had a tracker in it.”

  “You wore a tracker in your watch?” Emma asked, sounding bemused.

  “Dick gave it to me.”

  “Burns?” Nick asked, his voice going hard. “Asshole.”

  Zane nodded. Why would someone first smash the watch, then come back and take it? Was it possible that Ernest Milton had been one of Burns’s misfit ops men? “We need to talk to Burns,” he said.

  “What? Why?” Ty asked.

  Nick leaned forward. “You think Milton was his?”

  Zane nodded.

  “It’s a common watch,” Ty argued.

  Zane clambered to his feet. “Common or not, I’m going to ask Burns about it.”

  Ty frowned at him.

  Zane sighed heavily. “You don’t have to come. But I’m going.”

  “I’ll come,” Nick said eagerly, and stood. He handed Amelia off to Emma, looking relieved to have her out of his arms. He didn’t even try to take his sunglasses off her, and he placed her lamb gently on her belly.

  “What, you two are going to track him down and beat the truth out of him?” Ty asked.

  “Sounds fun,” Nick said as he looked away.

  Zane raised an eyebrow at him, then met Ty’s eyes. “Why don’t you find Doc and you two go search Milton’s and Nikki’s rooms. O’Flaherty and I will politely question Burns.”

  Nick lifted his glass. “Always at the center of it, isn’t he?”

  “Burns has nothing to do with this,” Ty snapped.

  Nick just raised his eyebrows.

  Ty looked between them, then stood reluctantly. “Promise you’ll be civil.”

  Zane nodded, but Nick didn’t answer. He narrowed his eyes at Ty instead, then shook his head and turned away to go off in search of Burns.
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  Ty pointed at him. “Keep him under control,” he hissed. “Don’t let him get his hands around Dick’s neck.”

  “Are we talking figuratively or literally?”

  “Both,” Ty spat. He glanced over Zane’s shoulder again. “Nick blames Burns for Sanchez’s death.”

  “Oh God,” Zane groaned, and he turned to jog after Nick.

  Ty caught Kelly coming back down the steps with his canvas medical bag over his shoulder. Ty held up his hand. “He bolted, no drugs for him.”

  “What? That bastard.” Kelly stopped on the staircase. “Where’d he go?”

  “He and Zane went to question Burns about the dead guy’s watch. It was the same as the one I used to wear, so they think Milton was one of Burns’s operators.”

  Kelly just blinked rapidly.

  Ty didn’t bother trying to explain further. He climbed the steps toward him. “Anyway, we’re supposed to go search over Milton’s and Nikki’s rooms, see what we can find.”

  “This is the worst vacation ever,” Kelly said as he turned and followed Ty up the steps.

  “Yeah, we don’t use that word.”

  They hit the landing and made the turn down their hall. Milton’s room was in the same wing as theirs were, but closer to the stairs. Kelly leaned against the wall as Ty fished the key he’d gotten from Stanton out of his pocket. “What are we looking for when we get in there?”

  Ty shrugged. “Motive. Anything worth killing over.”

  “You realize I’m not a cop, right?”

  Ty glanced at him and smiled. “No, but you’re fucking one.”

  Kelly’s cheeks reddened and he bit his lip to hide a massive grin. He failed miserably. “Thanks for being cool with it, bud. Nick stressed a lot about telling you and the guys.”

  “Seems Nick’s stressed about a lot of things,” Ty said with another sideways glance at Kelly. “Is he okay?”

  “You’ll have to ask him about that.”

  The nonanswer hit Ty harder than he’d expected. He lowered his head and jammed the ancient key into the door, wriggling it to get it to catch.

  Kelly cleared his throat. “He’s still terrified to tell the others. He’s watching your reaction closer than you might think he is. I think he was afraid everyone would assume he’d taken advantage of me being hurt and drugged.”