Page 51 of Part & Parcel

Ty watched him head back to the group, then turned to Zane with a wide grin and leaned his elbow against the counter. “I wish you’d known him a decade ago.”

“Oh yeah? Why is that?”

“Think you would have liked him,” Ty said in a lower tone, his eyes turning melancholy.

Zane glanced at Ty with a confused frown as he took a stack of papers from the counter agent. He and Nick hadn’t exactly been friends at first sight, but they’d come to an understanding and had actually become quite close. “I like Nick, baby. We get along fine.”

Ty seemed sad as he stared off across the waiting area. “You don’t know the Nick we did.” He waited a moment, watching as Nick and Digger argued over something Digger was trying to stick into Nick’s pack. Something flammable, no doubt. A hopeful, mischievous smile tugged at Ty’s lips. “Not yet, anyway.”

Zane’s eyes strayed to Nick and the others as Ty’s meaning sank in. It was painfully obvious, and had been for some time, that Nick wasn’t okay, and he hadn’t been okay since his last deployment. He’d even admitted as much to Zane one night as they’d sat together, but at the time Zane hadn’t known him well enough to be alarmed. Looking back, Zane often wondered how things would have turned out if he had simply pressed Nick for an explanation that night, if he had offered his friend an ear and a shoulder to lean on.

They found out eventually, in a bloodbath of fire and alphabet agencies, why Nick’s last deployment had shaken him. Nick had been tapped by the NIA to carry out an assassination of a deputy assistant director of the FBI who also happened to be Ty’s mentor and the man who’d pulled Ty and Eli into the Bureau years ago. Nick had killed him right under their noses, operating so dark that even Kelly hadn’t sniffed him out. The whole thing had come out when Nick had confessed to Ty under extreme duress, and it had culminated in the operation that had nearly taken Nick’s life in Miami.

Thinking back on all of it, Zane supposed Ty was right; he’d never really known any of Sidewinder before that. There was nothing Zane could say or do to help Nick, of course, but he was holding out hope that maybe Elias Sanchez and his letters could.

He nudged Ty’s elbow instead of commenting. “Go get him back, he has to sign this stuff since he’s driving.”

“What about me?”

“What about you?”

Ty slid the papers toward him. “Don’t I need to sign too?”

Zane pulled the papers away from him. “No.”

“Did Irish tell you not to put me as a driver?”

Zane cleared his throat. “I have the right to remain silent.”

“Put me on there,” Ty demanded. He smacked Zane’s ass before he headed off, and Zane watched him go in bemusement.

“Your week’s going to be interesting,” the counter agent commented as she clicked away at her computer.

Zane snorted. “You have no idea.”

With six big men in the Chevy Suburban they had all piled into, and a suitcase for each of them, they had to set up the third row seat. Bags and stuff were shoved into the floorboards and in the uncomfortable center seats. Seymour had a prime seat up front. The kittens were let loose so they wouldn’t cry the entire drive, and Nick got assurances from everyone in the vehicle that they wouldn’t be allowed to get near his feet as he drove.

Nick couldn’t quite get a handle on why Eli would peg him for taking half the driving. He knew why the others would want him to drive, if given the choice: He’d always done most of the driving. With as many courses as he’d been through—between the Marines, the Boston PD, and Paddy Whelan’s most talented getaway drivers—he was actually qualified to be a stunt driver if he felt the need to die in a fiery crash. Everyone felt better with him behind the wheel, especially on tricky roads. He would have been driving for most of the trip anyway, so Nick was having a hard time figuring out why Eli had insisted.

No matter why, he was sitting in the driver’s seat, waiting for everyone to get settled and buckled.

“We’re not going to try to make it to Yellowstone tonight, are we?” Kelly asked from the third row seat. “That’s a long way to drive after a long day.”

Nick glanced in the rearview mirror. Kelly and Digger had offered to sit in the back, saying they were the shortest and needed the least leg room. Nick suspected they were plotting back there where the grown-ups couldn’t supervise them, but their logic was too sound to object.

He gave Kelly a fond smile, and Kelly returned it with a wink.

Ty looked up from struggling with his seat belt, and met Nick’s eyes in the mirror. “What’s halfway?”

Nick shrugged.

“Probably Rock Springs,” Zane offered. He had been given the passenger seat simply because he needed the legroom. He had his phone out, scowling as he tried to set the directions up.

“How long is that drive?” Nick asked. “To Rock Springs?”

“Five hours.”

Nick grunted and slid his hands over the wheel, looking over the Chevy, familiarizing himself with the vehicle. “Let’s get going then,” he said, and he started the Suburban with another glance in the mirror.

---