Page 50 of Part & Parcel

Fifteen minutes after getting off the shuttle, Zane was still standing in the rental car line, wondering how in the hell he kept getting himself into these situations and weighing the good and the bad of being officially adopted by Sidewinder. He’d been flattered at first to be accepted by Ty’s former brothers-in-arms, but now he wasn’t sure it was a great development.

Sidewinder was bunched together in the waiting area, huddled around Kelly as he read the second letter of Eli’s instructions. Zane glanced over his shoulder at them, smiling despite himself.

He sure as hell hoped Elias Sanchez knew what he was doing.

Ty glanced up like he’d felt Zane’s eyes on him, and he smiled and winked. Zane had to look away before he found himself grinning again. Ty was sitting with the cat carrier between his feet, cooing at Jiminy and Cricket to keep them calm. Zane had tried to talk him into kenneling them, but Ty had argued that they were still too young, too feral, too uncomfortable with strangers. And he was right, damn him. So they needed a vehicle large enough for six men, six bags, two kittens, and one very bossy letter-writing ghost.

When Zane got to the counter, he asked for a Chevy Suburban.

Nick joined him as he was filling out the rental information.

“Ty told me to list you as the main driver,” Zane told him without looking up.

“Good,” Nick grunted as he got his license out. “Don’t put Digger on there. Or Kelly.”

“Got it,” Zane said with a slow grin, keeping his attention on the forms.

“Or Ty, for that matter,” Nick added, causing Zane to snort and chuckle.

“Got it,” he drawled out again, finishing up the form and handing it back to the agent. He turned to look Nick over, taking a deep breath. “How are you?”

Nick looked up, eyes wide like Zane had surprised him with the question. “I’m good.”

“Really?”

Nick licked his lips slowly, glancing over his shoulder at the others. He looked solemn when he turned back to Zane. “Not . . . yet.”

Zane didn’t really know what to say to an honest answer, so he settled for a nod that left the silence between them awkward. Zane was almost glad for the interruption when Ty joined them, the letter in his hand.

“You put Nick as the main driver?”

“Just like you told me to,” Zane answered with an exasperated roll of his eyes.

“Eli says Nick has to drive every other day. No one else can do it.” Ty handed Nick the letter so he could read it for himself.

After scanning it, Nick mumbled almost to himself. “He doesn’t say why.”

“I’m sure he has his reasons,” Ty said with a careless shrug. He was watching Nick carefully as he spoke, and he waited a few seconds before adding, “He’s sending us to Wyoming.”

“What?” Zane asked flatly.

“Yellowstone?” Nick asked as he shoved his wallet back into his jeans and handed the letter back to Ty.

Ty nodded, grinning.

“Oh God.”

“What’s wrong with Yellowstone?” Zane asked. “I’ve always wanted to go there.”

“Nothing, it’s fantastic. We camped there for a few days, back on this road trip Eli’s having us retrace,” Ty explained. “We were stalked by a herd of bored teenagers on vacation with their families. For the entire three days we were there.”

Zane snorted before he could stop himself, and he tried to school his expression into a sympathetic frown. “I bet the six of you, ten or eleven years ago, were quite the hormone bait. Y’all were what, twenty-six to twenty-eight?”

Nick and Ty shared a glance that Zane couldn’t quite decipher, both of them smirking.

Zane rolled his eyes. “Please tell me there was never any underage dabbling.”

“We vetted everyone,” Nick assured him with an insulted glare. “Gross,” he added as he walked away.

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