So there they stood at Midway airport as one uniformed man each patted Cameron and Zane down. Ty rocked from side to side, checking the time on his cell phone every few seconds. Zane knew he didn’t want to miss the plane, but he figured Ty also wanted to get rid of Julian as soon as possible. Zane didn’t blame him; he felt much the same. Julian Cross was dangerous. Even standing sedately in front of them, his hands cuffed, Cameron’s jacket thrown over them to hide the restraints from the general public, he made Zane uneasy. Obviously Ty felt the same way. And there was an added element in that Julian seemed to especially dislike Ty and vice versa. The animosity between the two was solid in the air, and Zane couldn’t figure out why, other than Ty sometimes had that effect on people.
The TSA officials reported them done and waved Zane and Cameron over to the side. Zane holstered his gun when the guard spoke up. “Next,” he said, gesturing for Julian to step forward onto the screening mat. The other screener waved Ty forward.
They stood side by side, Ty annoyed with the whole process and Julian calm and serene as the TSA agent took Cameron’s coat from him to reveal his handcuffs.
Ty had his arms up, hands held out to the sides as he was given a cursory pat down. Julian looked sideways at him, then at the TSA agent. After another moment he calmly said, “He has a bomb.”
Zane whirled in place so he could see Julian just as the agent said, “Excuse me?”
Ty’s head snapped up, and he looked at Julian murderously as Julian repeated, “He has a bomb.”
Ty would have lunged and throttled him right then and there, but the TSA agent who’d been searching him wrapped his arms around Ty’s shoulders to restrain him.
“Cross,” Zane said in warning, “they’ve already checked our ID.” Attempting damage control, he took a couple of slow steps to put himself between Ty and Julian. Cameron hovered on the other side of the mat, looking mortified.
“Their IDs are fake,” Julian told the TSA agents with supreme confidence. He was even using his Irish accent as he spoke. He looked at Ty with what appeared to be heartfelt sincerity. “I can’t let you kill innocent people.”
“Shut up!” Ty growled at him. He pointed a finger in Julian’s face. “If I get a cavity search because of you, I will kick your ass!”
“Grady, enough,” Zane said, pointing at him before he turned to Julian. “You’re not helping yourself, Cross.” He pulled out his wallet with the utmost care and held out his ID and a confirmation card with the appropriate security numbers, hoping to head off a mess.
Julian actually smirked and winked at him. Zane resisted the urge to roll his eyes and maintained his calm, professional mask as a worried-looking TSA agent took his cards and made a beeline for the phone on the desk. Zane could practically hear Ty vibrating with outrage behind him.
Several minutes later, two very large security agents returned with the first and flanked Ty. “You’re going to have to come with us, sir.”
Ty growled and pointed at Julian, looking at Zane as they dragged him away. “I hate him.”
Zane quashed a sigh and nodded. It wouldn’t help to rail against the very excitable TSA, and he turned to nod at Julian. “Go ahead and search him. Thoroughly,” Zane told the agents. Worst case, he could leave Ty and Cameron and take Julian to DC himself, though he’d get no end of shit about it from Ty afterward.
Julian was still smiling as he held his handcuffed hands up to be searched.
“WHAT if they’d just locked us all up? What would that have accomplished?” Cameron asked Julian as they walked alongside Zane, following in Ty’s wake. He was talking on his cell phone as he stalked toward the airline desk.
“It would have delayed the inevitable,” Julian told him with a negligent shrug. He was smirking, something he only did when he was feeling particularly evil.
Ahead of them, Ty stopped in his tracks as he spoke on the phone. “What do you mean, rent a car?”
Julian began to laugh.
The delay at Midway had caused them to miss the last flight to DC for the night. When they’d missed that one, whoever was giving Ty and Zane orders had told them to haul it to O’Hare to catch the midnight flight, which they had tried to do, but they’d hit the ever-present Chicagoland construction, and it had taken them a full three hours to get up to O’Hare. By then the last flight was gone, and they were grounded until morning. Which was exactly what Julian had wanted.
Cameron wasn’t sure what surprised him more, the ten-minute-long nearly incoherent rant that had come out of Ty’s mouth as they’d sat in traffic in a minivan taxi with no shocks, or the extent to which Julian seemed to be enjoying himself.
“Antagonizing him probably isn’t the best idea,” he said as they stopped as well. Ty didn’t seem to have a lot of patience to work with, and Cameron knew that Julian could try the patience of a saint if he felt so inclined.
“I’ve had worse,” Julian murmured.
Ty snapped the phone closed and turned to Zane. “He told us to rent a f**king car. He doesn’t want us to hang around until morning. He wants Batman and Robin here on the move and away from the TSA.”
“Sounds like he wants us to scramble,” Zane said, just loud enough for Cameron to discern.
“Exactly, but I’m not sure why. We’re not on anyone’s radar. Unless he’s not telling us that either.”
Julian hummed but didn’t comment. Cameron watched as Zane just looked at Ty, and after a long moment, Ty sniffed, shoved his phone in his pocket, and turned on his heel to head toward the rental cars. Zane turned back to him and Julian. “Ready for a ride, gentlemen?”
“A ride? In a car? With the three of you?” Cameron asked, horrified. “To Washington, DC?” He would have sworn he saw a twinkle of humor in Zane’s eyes before the man looked away.
Ty stomped back up to them and grabbed Julian by the elbow. “Get the lead out, Garrett,” he said to his partner. He was muttering to Julian as he dragged him away. “Come on, funny guy. I’ll show you where they keep the cavity search kits.”
Cameron had to work hard to keep up with the three taller and longer-legged men. “Is your partner always this way?” he asked Zane.
Zane glanced at him, and this time Cameron did see faint amusement. “No. Sometimes he’s a little excitable.”
Cameron stared at him, trying to decide if he was joking or serious. He couldn’t tell with Zane’s dry delivery. When he looked away from Zane, Cameron nearly ran into Ty, who had stopped and turned around to wait on them. Cameron winced. The man had to be made of solid rock. Ty looked from him to Zane. “If you’re going to get friendly with the prisoners, take this one,” he told Zane, unceremoniously shoving Julian at his partner. He took Cameron’s upper arm in an iron grip and turned, pulling Cameron along with him toward the car rental desks.