by Abigail Roux
Page 25
Julian licked his lips, sharing a look with Ty that was oddly familiar, as if they shared a secret. “Studying the way animals stalk is an effective way to… sell antiques. ”
“Yeah,” Cameron drew out, keeping his eyes on Julian and shaking his head.
Zane groaned and rubbed his eyes.
“C’mon, Simba, go buy me some lemonade while I find a table,” Cameron said, hooking his arm through Julian’s.
Ty and Zane remained behind them for only the briefest of moments, glaring at each other, before Ty broke away to trail behind them. Cameron got the very distinct feeling that they were communicating silently and that they would be discussing elephants the next time they were alone.
When Ty joined Cameron at the table, it was just the two of them. Zane had gone off to find a restroom, and Julian was waiting in line for a lemonade.
Cameron sat in the metal chair with his club sandwich as he watched Julian. It was always interesting to observe him interacting with strangers, whether he was a lion or a shark or a teddy bear. He was much the same as when Cameron had met him: mostly silent, otherwise soft-spoken and succinct. It had made for a challenge when Cameron served as his waiter at Tuesdays, the gourmet restaurant where they’d met. It still made him smile, thinking about how he’d been so sure Julian hadn’t even known he existed.
Ty thumped down beside him and huffed, breaking his reverie. “You know how you can tell when someone’s really in love?” Ty asked him out of the blue, his tone casual. He glanced sideways at Cameron, one eyebrow raised. “You’re sitting here, watching him do something completely mundane, and you’re grinning like an idiot. ”
“And what’s wrong with that?” Cameron asked with a light laugh.
“Whatever, you make my teeth hurt,” Ty grumbled, though Cameron could see the barest hint of something beneath the gruff exterior, perhaps amusement.
“I think you’re just as sentimental as I am. You hide it better,” Cameron claimed, remembering Ty’s snappy response about being away from his loved ones. “I just don’t have to hide it at all. It’s really freeing. ”
“I bet,” Ty murmured. Though his eyes still followed Julian’s movements, they seemed to be staring off into the distance as well, as if he was seeing someone or something else. Cameron wondered, as he looked at Ty, what sort of person a man like him would love. Ty shook it off and glanced down, then looked away as if he sensed Cameron’s eyes still on him.
Cameron took a bite of his sandwich. “Don’t you get tired of it?” he asked. “This tough guy image?”
Ty didn’t look at him, but Cameron could see his eyes gaining distance again. “It’s all I’ve ever known,” he answered, voice matter-of-fact and melancholy.
A glance showed Cameron that Julian was accepting the cups from the lady at the counter. Ty would totally clam up once Julian walked over. “It doesn’t have to be that way. Julian was able to adapt,” Cameron offered, hoping Ty might be able to see it could be done. “You just have to love the right person. ”
“What makes you think I don’t?” Ty asked in an oddly distant voice.
Cameron was brought up short, staring at him with narrowed eyes. “I have a finely tuned macho bullshit detector, and it’s shrieking,” he said.
“You get a lot of macho bullshit from your boyfriend over there?” Ty asked in what seemed to be sincere curiosity. But with Ty, it was hard to tell what was said in seriousness and what wasn’t.
Cameron shifted uncomfortably. “It doesn’t bother you?” he asked, watching Ty.
“What? Bullshit? I work for the government, man. ” Ty laughed and shook his head.
Cameron repressed a smile. “No. That Julian and I are lovers. ”
Ty was already shaking his head, as if he’d known all along that was what Cameron had been referring to. “Now who’s making generalizations? Just because I wear flannel doesn’t mean I’m an asshole. ” His knee was no longer bouncing, and he seemed to have finally relaxed a little as he sat there. “Guy’s willing to charge into a room full of guns to protect you and then drag you across the country in handcuffs to keep you with him. Seems like a keeper to me. ”
“Yes. He’s a keeper,” Cameron agreed, even though Ty’s words were sarcastic. He cleared his throat. “And Julian is indeed a master of macho bullshit. ”
“Yeah, he seems the type. ”
“So do you. ”
“Oh, I know it,” Ty said. He didn’t seem to take it as an insult, or anything else, really. Just a fact. That alone intrigued Cameron. The more Cameron got to know Ty, the more he realized that the guy seemed to have absolutely no shame.
“So you met him at a restaurant,” Ty said almost to himself.
Cameron nodded. “Tuesdays is a very nice restaurant. ”
“Tuesdays,” Ty repeated. He mulled over the name for a while and then nodded. “I can see why that name would draw a man like that. Wait, wait, let me guess,” he said in amusement as he held out his hand to Cameron. “Man that named it was a friend of his. ”
“What makes you say that?” Cameron asked in shock, his hand straying to rub at his throat, where the necklace Julian had given him used to hang before it was lost. He still missed its reassuring weight, if not the symbolism of it.
“European criminals. They love their mythology. Tuesday was Mars, the god of war. That restaurant is like a beacon to anyone wanting to deal. ”
Cameron almost laughed. He’d had to Google the information when neither Julian nor Blake would tell him. “You know more than I did. ”
“Well, that’s what a federal agent does when he’s not watching other people,” Ty told him with a smirk.
“Read up on European mythology?”
“That too. ”
Cameron shook his head, amused that he was constantly being surprised by both Ty and Zane. They were anything but what they appeared on the surface.
Ty didn’t speak again. He didn’t even move, not a twitch of a muscle or bat of an eye. Cameron frowned and tipped his head, then tried to follow Ty’s line of sight. But it didn’t seem that he was looking at anything but the blank terminal walls over by the restrooms. Cameron sat back and took another bite of sandwich, turning his chin to offer Julian a smile as he joined them at the tiny table.
For once Ty didn’t have anything snappy or clever to say to Julian. He was still sitting stock-still, now staring at the food counter where Julian had been standing.
Julian sat fluidly next to Cameron and handed him his lemonade. He glanced at the agent in mild surprise when he wasn’t greeted with at least a derisive grunt, and Cameron saw him do a double take when he looked at Ty.
Cameron looked from Julian to Ty and back. “What?”
Ty inhaled deeply and turned to look at them. He shifted his shoulders so that he was facing Julian directly, and he met Julian’s eyes with a look so grim that it almost scared Cameron. “To my five thirty,” Ty said to Julian, almost under his breath. “What do you see?”
Julian’s black eyes carefully drifted to gaze over Ty’s right shoulder. Outwardly he didn’t change, he still looked relaxed and somber, but Cameron could almost feel the alteration come over the table when Julian spotted whatever Ty had pointed out to him.
They met each other’s gaze again and sat staring at each other across the table.
Cameron cleared his throat. “What is it?” he whispered.
When Julian looked at him, there was a hint of apprehension in his lover’s eyes. That alone terrified Cameron, and he had to try to swallow twice to get the last bite of his sandwich down.
Ty cleared his throat and stood. “Come on,” he prompted as he slid one arm into his jacket and used the motion to glance over his shoulder.
“What about Zane?” Cameron asked as he stood, abandoning his pretzel and drink on the table. They left the tray of barely touched food.
“Take your things,”
Julian said under his breath. He held his cup in his hand, looking down as he stirred it with his straw.
“Zane should be okay, we’ll circle back for him if we can,” Ty answered as he led them out of the café’s sitting area and into the crowded concourse. After Cameron shouldered his bag, Julian took Cameron’s hand and followed, not even hinting that he might try to escape while Ty was distracted.
Cameron tried to ignore the tension and dread curling in his gut. If he wasn’t safe with Julian and Ty, he wouldn’t be safe anywhere. But it wasn’t himself he worried for. He caught himself before he could glance behind them to check for Zane. Soon he’d be coming out to find them gone.
When Cameron gave in and turned his chin, he saw a man in a dark suit step away from a magazine rack and begin making his way after them. Another man moved out of the alcove of a service door, and yet another got up from a table at a deli further down the causeway.
“Julian,” Cameron whispered.
“I know, love,” Julian murmured, voice tight.
Ahead of them, Ty stopped abruptly. Julian drew up and pulled Cameron closer to him. Three more men in various shades of dark suit had materialized ahead of them. Julian turned to face behind them, putting Cameron between himself and Ty.
“FBI?” Julian asked doubtfully, though there was a hint of hope as well.
“Wrong letters,” Ty answered.
Cameron didn’t like not being able to see, but taking a quick look made him more scared, not less. “What now?”
Ty actually reached back and put a hand on Cameron’s arm, turning just enough to look behind them. Cameron heard his breath catch. “You’re not meant to get to DC, are you?” he whispered to Julian.
Julian glanced behind him, and Cameron saw him lick his lips in a rare show of nerves. “I’m the last living witness to a high-level CIA man who was using CIA assets to carry out murder for hire. I’m the only person left who can identify him. ”
Ty cursed. “They’re not here to take you into custody. ”
“Then what?” Cameron froze as one of the dark-suited men brushed up against a passing traveler. His jacket moved, revealing a gun stuck into the waistband of his pants. “Oh. We’ve got to get out of here. ”
“There’s nowhere to go, love,” Julian said, voice grim.
Ty was looking over the heads of the crowd milling around them, and Cameron could practically feel the man coiling against him, like a snake cornered and about to strike.
“They won’t shoot us in the middle of the terminal and all these people,” Cameron insisted. He cast around, desperate.
Ty turned around and grabbed Julian by the arm, yanking him closer until they were almost nose to nose. He didn’t say a thing; they merely stared at each other for a moment before Ty let him go and turned to dart into the tiny gift shop several yards away.
Cameron gaped. Had Ty just cut and run on them? “What just happened?”
The six men were closing in, and the crowd seemed to teem with danger now that Cameron was aware of them. Julian squeezed his hand, squaring his shoulders like a lion might fluff its mane, trying to appear bigger as it was attacked.
A second later Ty came strolling out of the gift shop with a brown paper bag held to his lips. He was blowing it full of air. He calmly held it up, then shouted at the top of his voice, “He’s got a gun!” and slammed the paper bag into his open palm.
Utter chaos ensued. Shrieks and yells filled the air, and the crowd stampeded every which way, creating a jumble of confusion and fear. Mothers snatched their children up and ran. Senior citizens ducked behind pillars and newsstands.
Cameron didn’t think Ty could have caused more of a ruckus if he’d gotten up on a table and danced naked in front of the arrivals and departures sign. Apparently, disorder was Ty’s specialty.
A moment later Ty was at Cameron’s side, urging both him and Julian to move through the panicking crowd. He and Julian both ducked to hide their height, but it didn’t take long until they were confronted with a charcoal suit amidst the zigzagging crowd.
Ty reached out for the man, who was drawing his gun, and he pulled him closer by his shoulder. He shoved the heel of his hand into the man’s chin, snapping his head back, then rounded on him with his left and sent him to the ground. His actions were remarkably quick and powerful, all done in a split second and hard to follow. Cameron had only ever seen Julian move like that. Ty held up something he’d taken from the man, showing it to Julian over his shoulder. Julian still held Cameron’s hand as they vaulted over the fallen man and broke into a run.
Cameron chanced a glance over his shoulder as Julian dragged him down the concourse, looking back at the mess and the agents coming out this side of the crowd. “They’re still coming!”
The crowd was too thick, and there were just too many men after them for Cameron to see how they could get away. The exits were a logjam of people and confused airport security. There seemed to be nowhere to go.
Julian glanced back and turned, putting himself between Cameron and the pursuers. Ty was looking around the concourse, and Cameron caught a glimpse of the wild cast to his oddly colored eyes. He looked like a cornered animal, wily and dangerous.
“We’re trapped,” Julian said.
After a last look at their paltry options, Ty pointed a finger into Julian’s chest, then waved them toward the exits. “Go,” he snarled.
“What?”
“Go! Find Zane. I’ll hold them off. ” Then he turned his back on them, facing the men coming after them with a roll of his shoulders and a tilt of his head.