by Abigail Roux
“Yes,” Ty answered curtly. His knee was bouncing faster, and he had his hands clasped between his thighs, trying not to fidget.
Zane stared at him, waiting for him to make eye contact. When the silence began to stretch too thin and Ty was still staring at the floor, Zane sighed. He knew Ty’s M.O. “Were you involved with him?”
Ty finally looked up and met his eyes. He nodded jerkily. Zane wasn’t surprised, but the other four men burst into a chorus of shock and anger. Ty winced as they each expressed themselves.
Kelly and Digger both shouted, “What?”
Nick ran a hand through his hair and turned away.
Zane raised his voice to be heard. “Why is that a problem?”
“Because Ty’s the one who fucking shot him!” Owen blurted.
Zane’s eyes widened and he gaped at Ty, unable to conceal his surprise. Ty had his hand over his mouth and his eyes were closed again.
“Ty?” Zane whispered. “Was he the mole?”
Ty ran his fingers over his lips and took a deep breath, his eyes still closed. He finally opened them as he nodded.
“You fucking shot a guy you were sleeping with?” Owen asked, and it was hard to tell which part scandalized him more.
“It’s not what you think it was,” Ty explained, voice hoarse.
“Jesus,” Kelly whispered. He sank to a chair, brow furrowed.
“That’s cold, man. Even for you, that’s some shit,” Digger muttered. He paced toward the balcony, shaking his head.
Nick was still standing in the little entryway near the bathroom with his back to them. His head was down and he had one hand on his hip. Zane’s eyes were drawn to him. Why did he seem so betrayed by the knowledge? What Ty had done was harsh, Zane had no illusions about it. But it didn’t necessarily bother him. He knew how Ty felt about treachery, and he was a dangerous man, quick to action and rarely looking back. Nick and the others had to know that too. Once you turned on Ty, your time was up.
Nick finally raised his head, but he didn’t turn around. “You hit center mass,” he said, his voice low.
Ty turned, but Zane couldn’t see his expression as he stared at Nick’s back. His entire body trembled, and Zane wondered if it was the meds, the nerves, or both.
Nick turned to face him, looking grim. “You fired at center mass from seven yards away, but you missed almost every vital organ.”
“How do you know that?” Kelly asked.
“Because I wrote up the report,” Nick snarled. He pointed a finger at Ty. “You missed on purpose.”
Ty stared at him, unmoving. The trembling had stopped almost as if Ty had shut it off with a switch.
Nick took a step. “You helped him escape. Didn’t you? That’s why you know he’s alive.”
Ty hesitated before giving a curt nod.
The group erupted in another round of protests.
Nick dragged both hands through his hair and turned around again. “You missed center mass to help him escape, and you’re the one who covered it up!”
Zane stood, intending to try to calm the emotions he could see brewing, but the movement stirred the room instead. Ty stood with him, stepping toward Nick. But Nick whirled around when he felt Ty behind him, grabbed Ty by his shirt front, and slammed him into the wall.
“Hey!” Zane called, taking a step to intercede. Kelly grabbed his arm and held him off, patting him on the chest like he would to calm a dog.
Nick snarled in Ty’s face. “I swore under oath you had nothing to do with it, Ty!”
“So did I,” Ty gritted out. He shoved at Nick’s chest, forcing him to loosen his hold.
Kelly let Zane go. His voice was grim. “You helped a traitor escape.”
Ty glanced around at everyone before meeting Nick’s eyes again. He squared his shoulders and raised his head, preparing for the worst. “Yeah. Yeah, I did.”
“All this time!” Ty shouted as he stalked around the room. He was too angry to be still. He gripped his gun so hard that his knuckles were turning white.
“Tyler, I know you’re angry, but–”
“Angry? Liam! This is beyond angry!”
Liam nodded and took a step to the side.
“Stop moving!” Ty shouted. He raised his gun and pointed it at Liam’s head.
Liam stopped and stared, meeting Ty’s eyes without flinching. “Do you intend to shoot me, Ty?”
“We’ve been looking for this mole for months,” Ty said through gritted teeth.
“I’ve been right by your side.”
“You’re a traitor!”
“No, I’m not. Not to you,” Liam said, remaining calm in the face of Ty’s growing rage. “And not to them.”
Ty shook his head.
“I’ve never betrayed you, mate. I’m just doing my job.”
“So am I.”
“If you’ll let me explain.”
Ty growled, his grip tightening on the gun. “I don’t want to fucking hear it, I’m tired of spy games.”
“That’s funny, Ty, because you’re one of the best players I’ve ever seen.”
“Likewise,” Ty snarled.
Liam nodded, taking a harsh breath.
Ty could barely look the man in the eye, and he lowered his gun for fear of shooting him in the face just to wipe that wounded look off it. “Fine. Explain. Do it quickly.”
“I was planted here by the NIA.”
“The NIA? Do you think I’m stupid?”
“Tyler, I think you’re anything but.”
“NIA is a toothless old aunt in the CIA’s basement. They don’t get involved in this shit.”
“They didn’t. They’re being militarized. Dipping into military personnel who already have the access to build their stable. The NIA pulled me from SAS and recruited me for military ops they couldn’t get their own people into. I know you know about this, because they tried to pull you too.”
Ty gritted his teeth, fighting not to react to that knowledge. Chas Turner had tried for months to recruit him for the National Intelligence Agency’s first wave of dark military ops, but Ty never bit. He’d worked a few missions and become a valuable piece of artillery, but he took his orders from the Marine Corps, not suits at the NIA.
“They put me here to feed false information to the opposition.”
“Why you?” Ty demanded.
Liam licked his lips. “I have family in Russia. They created a KGB past that could be exploited, and waited for someone to find it and contact me.”
“That’s weak, Liam.”
“It worked nonetheless. I’ve been transmitting false information for months. I’m not your enemy.”
The gun lowered as Ty stared at the SAS sergeant he’d called his friend and lover for the past few months.
“Every day you’ve looked me in the fucking eye and lied to me.”
“I never lied.”
“Bullshit!” Ty raised the gun again and jabbed it at Liam in utter frustration.
“Stubborn wanker! Listen to me. Life isn’t black and white! You know that better than anyone. I’m not the bad guy here.”
Ty realized he was nearly hyperventilating. He was so livid the edges of his vision were beginning to blur.
Liam continued talking, voice soft and low, like a man trying to calm a wild animal. He’d done it before to Ty, soothing him and coaxing him back to sanity.
“Now listen, I need your help. Word has to get out the spy’s been rooted out and eliminated, or the insurgent forces will try to extract me. I don’t know about you, but I don’t fancy that sort of homecoming. If they can’t extract me and they don’t hear of my death, they’ll know all those messages were fake. It will cost lives. Many lives.”
“You’re asking me not to turn you in?”
“No. I’m asking you to come with me.”
“Come with you?”
“I have to fake my death, I’ve known that all along. It was always the only exit strategy. But then you came along and . . .” He licked his li
ps, wincing. He sighed and flopped his hands. “I’m in love with you, Ty.”
Ty took an involuntary step back, gaping and grasping for words, and nearly tripped over a pair of boots. Liam followed and Ty raised the gun again in unsteady hands.
Liam noticed the tremble and shook his head. “I need you steady tonight, darling.”
“No.”
“Help me die tonight. Then you can come with me, we’ll start over somewhere.”
Ty shook his head, at a loss for words.
“I’m offering you a chance at a life without orders, without rules, without being a pawn in someone else’s game.”
“We’ve never been pawns.”
“No? Your code name is Rook. Make no mistake, you are just a player in a game. As am I.”
Ty stared, fighting to calm himself. Liam stood with his hands at his sides, nonthreatening and earnest.
“Let’s run, Ty. Come with me. We’ll bury ourselves and start over. With nothing to do but lie on a beach all day and drink and fuck.”
Ty couldn’t answer, still torn between shock and anger. “Yeah,” he finally sneered. “Drink and fuck and run from the NIA.”
“You bloody stubborn bastard!” Liam shouted, his façade finally cracking. “I’m telling you right here, I love you! We have a chance to cut and run, and I want you to come with me!”
“Liam,” Ty said as despair and uncertainty began to seep in.
“Fine. You still want to serve? I’m game. Come with me to the NIA,” Liam tried. “We’d be unstoppable.”
“How?”
“We’ll shoot it out. You take me down, I’ll clip you in a leg, make you unfit for service in the Corps.”
“I’m not going to shoot you! And you’re sure as shit not shooting me!”
“I’ll get you with a knife then! Come with me, Ty.”
Ty took in a shaky breath, not allowing himself to ponder the possibility or even be tempted to desert. “I can’t.”
Liam’s mask broke, and Ty could see the pain in his clear blue eyes. He recognized it well because he’d been feeling it ever since he’d discovered that Liam had been using his clearance to transmit on the CB frequency the rebels were monitoring. Ty gritted his teeth. He’d thought Liam a traitor, and though he was relieved to be wrong, it seemed he would lose him anyway. For the first time, uncertainty began to gnaw its way into him.
Liam shook it off, rallying faster than Ty had been able to. “If you don’t intend to go with me, will you still help me? Will you join me later?”
“How?”
Liam shook his head sadly, his hands still held out to his sides. “You have to shoot me. And it has to be out there, in the common areas, to make sure you’re not at risk and to get scuttlebutt going.”
Ty shook his head, his voice harsh. “I can’t do that.”
“You can.”
“I can’t let you go like that.”
Liam gave him a weak smile. “Oh, how I wish you meant that like it sounds, darling.” He took a step toward the door.
“Stop moving.”
“Make me, Ty.” Liam took another backward step and put his hand on the doorknob. “You and I both know you can’t take me down without a gun, and you won’t even shoot me when I ask you to.”
Ty drew in a deep breath. “Liam. We’ll figure something else out. Please don’t go.”
“Why not? Would you miss me?”
Ty looked into his eyes and nodded jerkily. “Yes, I would.”
“So tell me why I shouldn’t go.” They stared at each other. Liam took a step back. “Or better yet, come with me and tell me every night.”
Ty’s heart pounded, the blood rushing through him and making him light-headed.
“If you don’t follow and shoot me somewhere that looks like a kill shot, I’m going to go find someone else who will. Someone without your aim.”
Ty narrowed his eyes.
“You could be killing me if they miss.” Liam turned and disappeared around the corner.
Ty holstered his gun and darted after the man, knowing Liam would do exactly what he’d threatened. He caught up to him in the canteen. It was crowded with troops, laughing and eating, playing pool and darts, relaxing after a long, trying day.
“Sergeant Bell!” Ty shouted.
Liam stopped on the other side of the room, turning to meet his eyes.
The room gradually quieted, confused by their combative stances.
Liam glanced around at their comrades in arms. Ty understood now that Liam had always intended to leave them, known forever to them as the spy among them who was shot and killed. They would never know what he’d done for their safety, what he’d sacrificed, and Liam had known that all along.
Ty grew angrier as the confusion ebbed. Who the hell had the right to ask them to be like this? Who decided it was their job to sacrifice their lives?
Liam looked at him expectantly, silently begging him to announce he was a traitor, to draw on him. A low murmur of confusion and amusement began to rumble through the room.
Ty couldn’t get the words out. They stuck in his throat. His hand wouldn’t reach for his gun. He shook his head, unable to come through for Liam when he needed him most.
Liam mouthed the word, “Please.”
Ty’s hand settled on his gun. His body was cold all over and his hand shook. There was no way he could take that shot. He’d miss the target and kill him.
Liam sneered and peered at Ty with icy blue eyes. He drew his gun. Shock and alarm rippled through the soldiers and Marines as Liam aimed at Ty. “I’ll shoot you, Tyler,” Liam murmured.
Ty went cold, seeing the truth in the man’s eyes, and yet he still couldn’t pull his own weapon. If he had to die, he wanted someone worthy to take the kill shot.
Liam fired and the bullet caught Ty in the left shoulder. He cried out and stumbled back, fighting past the shock to realize that if he didn’t shoot Liam, someone else in the room would. He pulled his service pistol, not taking the time to think, not letting his nerves overtake his hands, and put two rounds in Liam’s chest.
“You shot him because he asked you to?” Zane asked.
Nick released Ty’s shirt and backed away. They all gaped at Ty.
“Technically, I shot him because he shot me.” Ty pressed his back against the wall. He was breathing hard, like he expected one of them to come at him again. He looked cornered.
Zane knew what happened to Ty, and to the people around him, when he was cornered. He moved forward, brushing past Nick. “You need to sit down,” he said under his breath.
Ty nodded, taking a deep breath. He locked eyes with Zane, refusing to look away as Zane placed a hand on his shoulder.
“If he asked you to shoot him, why would he be here for revenge? Why are you scared?” Owen asked.
Ty cleared his throat, taking a step toward the bed and then reversing and pacing past Zane. He met Zane’s eyes again briefly, then turned back to the bed.
Nick caught him by the arm to stop him. “Answer him.”
Ty took another deep breath. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.
“For what?” Nick demanded.
Ty cleared his throat and glanced around the room. He gently pulled his arm out of Nick’s grasp. He sat down hard. “Liam is the reason Sidewinder was discharged.”
A chorus of questions and complaints arose, but all Zane could do was watch the line of Ty’s shoulders as he leaned forward and rested his face in his hands. He suddenly looked like a man who’d been carrying a great weight, and Zane knew there were other secrets Ty carried, secrets as big as this one. Secrets that weighed on him in ways no one could understand by merely looking at his façade.
Nick took a step into the center of the room, raising his hands to calm the other three. He turned to Ty and knelt in front of him. “Tell us what happened. Please, Ty. You’ve obviously been keeping this on yourself, it’s time to trust us.”
Ty straightened, both hands on his knees. He looked down at Nick.
“Once they had him declared dead and he’d recovered enough to move, I think Liam pulled strings with NIA. He convinced them we’d make a good asset, the whole team, that we could be military assets for NIA just like he’d been.”
“NIA made a deal with the Marine Corps?” Kelly asked.
Ty nodded, looking sick. “They tried to, from what I was able to gather. I was never given the full briefing, but I do know we were to be released into the umbrella of the National Intelligence Agency to be used as part of a new ultra-militarized arm of the CIA. We’d have had to jump whenever they called. We wouldn’t have been real Marines anymore, we would have been spooks in Marine uniforms. When I was informed of the orders, I . . . I refused them.”
“You spoke for the whole team?” Zane asked.
“Yes, I did.”
“You’re telling me I got kicked out of the Corps because you had a lover’s spat?” Owen growled.
Ty stood, baring his teeth like an animal. Nick stood with him, just managing to stop him from advancing. He shoved him back to the bed. Ty bounced on the mattress, grabbing his side and grunting.
“Shit, sorry!” Nick said. He patted Ty’s head but kept his body between him and Owen. “Why would Bell be back here for revenge?”
“I don’t know, but that’s what he told me in the hospital. His plan all along was for me to join him. I chose the Corps, all of you, over him. I can only assume.”
“And now you’re here with Zane,” Nick added. “Who is the partner you never let Liam be.”
Zane’s stomach flipped to hear someone say that. He probably should have been ashamed to be thrilled by the words, but he wasn’t.
“So you think he’s here in New Orleans, murdering people because he’s pissed at you?” Kelly asked. “Why?”
Ty shook his head.
Digger stood and ambled toward the balcony. “This explains so much. I feel like I’ve just finished a crossword puzzle.”
“How do you know what that feels like?” Kelly asked.
“I don’t.”
Kelly sniffed.
“This is why they paid us off, to keep quiet about the NIA. And why they gave us those release terms,” Owen said. “Good God, Ty, why didn’t you tell us any of this?”