Free Cut and Run 07 Touch & Geaux by Abigail Roux Page B

They tried to get in our room twice after we got in.”
    “Yeah, we got extra towels while we were in the . . . shower,” Zane said before he could think better of it.
    “You dirty little bunnies,” Kelly mumbled, smiling.
    Ty shook his head and looked at Nick. “How many floors did you just climb up?”
    “Only two, why?”
    Ty laughed and touched his beer bottle to Nick’s, and then Kelly’s, and then Zane’s water bottle before taking a drink.
    “Were we interrupting?” Kelly asked.
    “No, Ty was just getting ready to tell me about the Marine he was fucking back in the day,” Zane answered.
    “Seriously?” Nick asked, voice breaking. “Jesus, did everyone know you were queer but me?”
    “Shut up!”
    Zane tossed his head back and laughed.
    “I want to hear it,” Kelly said with obvious relish. He sat forward. “Was it someone we were stationed with?”
    Nick muttered and jerked his head, but he didn’t comment further. Ty just rolled his eyes. He gave the other two men a wary glance. “I don’t want to hear any shit for this if you two listen in.”
    Nick solemnly held up a hand, but Kelly shook his head. “No promises. And don’t leave out the skeevy parts.”
    Ty ran a hand over his face. “Oh God.”
    Zane tried to keep his laughter quiet. He reached out and slid his fingers into Ty’s hand, squeezing.
    “Okay,” Ty said with a deep inhalation. “You asked for it.”

    Corporal Tyler Grady sat in his rack, reading the letter for perhaps the tenth time. He had known he’d get news like this one day, but it still hit him hard. His eyes traced over the handwriting again.
    David Whitlock had written to congratulate him on making Force Recon. He’d ended the letter by telling Ty that he’d met someone in college. He was happy, and he thought he might be in love. But David was asking Ty’s permission to proceed, saying that he would wait if Ty asked it, just like he’d promised when Ty left.
    Ty shook his head as he read it. He wouldn’t stand for that. David deserved so much more than Ty could ever have given him.
    He pressed the letter to his bare chest and fell back onto his rack to stare at the canvas top of the tent above his head. After a moment he threw his arm over his eyes. He’d left for this very reason, to give David the freedom to move, to give himself options that didn’t involve sharing his life with someone he couldn’t commit himself to completely.
    That didn’t make it feel any less like heartbreak.
    The rack beside him creaked as someone sat down. Ty peered out from under his arm to see dark blond hair, compelling eyes that changed from blue to gray and back, and a smirk that always looked like it needed to be slapped.
    “Ugh.”
    Captain Chas Turner pursed his lips. “Oh, I know, it’s the intelligence officer, bury your head in the sand.”
    Ty sat up. “Good afternoon, Captain.”
    “Good afternoon, Corporal.” His eyes drifted to the letter Ty held in his hand. “I came to discuss the new policy I’ve instituted with the mail.”
    Ty inclined his head as a sinking feeling started in his stomach.
    “Every batch, we open a letter or two at random, just to make sure nothing important is being leaked. Yours happened to be that random letter this week.”
    Ty held his breath and waited for the other shoe to drop.
    Turner clucked his tongue and looked behind him to make sure they were alone in the barracks. The rest of the boys were outside, blowing off steam. When Ty had left them, they’d been creating a scarecrow out of munitions debris and dressing it in someone’s pilfered salty cammies. Ty had received his letters before the real fun could start and chosen to retreat to read them in peace, missing the culmination of the exercise.
    “I have a proposition for you,” Turner said when he looked back at Ty.
    Ty continued to stare at him, wary of the man no one in the group trusted. He was the very epitome of what they called a Secret Squirrel. Always