Ball & Chain(13)

Kelly began to laugh. “They made him drop his pants. He got whistled at.”

“By you!” Nick shouted.

Kelly laughed harder. Nick rolled his eyes as Ty and Zane snickered.

“Anyway,” Nick said. “How long a drive do we have to this place?”

Ty slung his arm around Nick’s shoulders. “Couple hours. You feel like driving it?”

“I’d rather me do it than you.”

Ty snickered, and Kelly jabbed his elbow into Zane’s ribs. “Never let him drive in a country with left-hand driving.”

“Okay?” Zane said with a raised eyebrow at Ty.

Ty shrugged and winked at him. Nick and Kelly headed for the luggage conveyors to retrieve their suitcases, and Ty slid closer to Zane. “They’re right, never let me drive here.”

“Noted.” Zane’s grin was a warm one. “I can’t believe O’Flaherty brought Doc instead of a real date.”

“The thought of a week at a wedding with a real date probably flat gave him a panic attack.” Ty gave Zane a spontaneous squeeze around the waist.

They gathered their luggage, and Nick and Kelly joined them to head for the rental car counters. Ty told Nick to go to the counter and handle the rental because he knew Nick’s luck. The man was fucking blessed when it came to traveling. He’d been Sidewinder’s “acquisitions specialist,” and he’d been damn good at it. But even beyond skill came luck, and Nick had that in spades.

They’d booked a compact car, but sure enough, Nick came back with a “free upgrade” to a brand new Audi A4 and the counter girl’s phone number. He handed the number to Kelly and the receipt to Ty, then waved the keys as he headed for the door to the parking lot.

“How the hell does he do that?” Zane asked. Kelly merely laughed as they trailed after Nick with their luggage.

Ty and Kelly both fell asleep in the back of the sedan as Nick made the three-hour drive to the little town where they were to catch a very private boat to the Stantons’ very private island. Ty woke whenever they took an especially sharp curve or slowed for a trekking biker, and each time he did, Nick and Zane were talking companionably. Several times their laughter roused him.

Halfway through their deployment, Nick had been sent home for forty-eight hours. Ty knew he’d been sent to Maryland to deliver a message to Naval Intelligence because Ty had specifically chosen him for the mission. When he’d returned, Nick had told him that he’d dropped in on Zane and brought a letter back with him, the only communication Ty and Zane had been able to have during those six months.

From what Ty had observed since landing in Scotland, Zane and Nick had come to an understanding during that visit. He might even call them friends. The level of relief he felt at that was astronomical, given their rocky start.

The next time Ty woke, Kelly was using his lap as a pillow, and they were making their way through a tiny, crowded coastal town. Ty stretched and patted Kelly’s chest as he peered out the window. The quaint shops seemed to lean toward them as they drove past, and the cars on the wrong side of the road came way too close to the car for his comfort. He was glad Nick was driving because the roads in the UK made him twitchy.

They could see sailboats in the harbor and a great expanse of deep blue water beyond. In the far distance, the tops of gently rolling mountains were visible.

The Stantons’ private island was somewhere out there in the wilds of the Inner Hebrides, two hours away. It didn’t have a name on the map.

Ty shook Kelly awake as Nick found a tiny parking spot and turned the car off. They all climbed out, stretching and groaning. Nick rolled his neck and Kelly took hold of his shoulders, massaging them to loosen him up. It made Ty smile. It had been odd being deployed without Sanchez, without Kelly. Seeing Kelly and Nick together was like a balm on an open wound he hadn’t realized was there.

They gathered their luggage and began making their way to the private dock tucked into the picturesque seaside near the larger ferry landing. Kelly and Nick pulled ahead of them, heads bowed as they talked.

Zane took Ty’s arm and slowed him. “Is there something going on with them?”

“What do you mean?”

“They’re kind of . . . touchy-feely.”

Ty laughed. “Nick and Kelly have always been like that. Either one of them would cuddle you if they had the chance.”

Ty picked up the pace again to catch up with their companions. Zane trailed behind for a few steps.

“Huh,” Zane finally said.



When Zane climbed out of the craft, the sun was trying desperately to shine through the afternoon cloud cover. The dock seemed to be out in the middle of nowhere, with a winding dirt pathway that supposedly led up to the mansion that inhabited the small island. There were patches of snow in the shade, and the wind was frigid. The crew began to unload mail and packages from the boat, and two men piled them into a small electric vehicle.