Cut and Run 3 - Fish and Chips

and try to at least appear involved in the meeting. The idea about the FBI softball team and setting up tournaments with other city and state agency teams that would be open to the public seemed to be taking root. And Ty had become the focus of the planning, so he had to pay attention.
    Ty liked the plan, actually. He didn’t know if it would work, but it was never a bad thing to put a human face on the big bad blue line every once in a while. A downside, as he pointed out, was that they might get backlash if too many people wondered why cops and ambulance drivers were playing softball while the city was being ransacked. But hell, they were already taking heat, so it couldn’t hurt.
    Ty jotted down a few notes, people he’d need to contact within other agencies to see if they could set something up, city fields and scheduling and things that he really didn’t have time to deal with but would anyway. Then the conversation moved on, and Ty leaned back in his chair.
    He stared at McCoy listlessly as his mind began to wander again. He tapped out his response to Zane slowly, trying to get the message out and pay attention at the same time.
    If a hunter can shoot a deer with either hand does that make him bambidextrous?
    Have you seen eagles catch their prey? They’re really talonted.
    Ty closed his eyes. The puns were too much. They were just too stupid for his brain to deal with at the end of a long day. He decided to raise the white flag and live to think another day, so he eased back in his chair and slowly punched in the last message.
    You win. Ill do anything please make it stop.
    It took a minute, but Zane’s answer finally popped up.
    Promise you’ll scream for me tonight.
    Ty stared at the phone for just a moment too long. When he cleared his throat and looked up, McCoy was watching him expectantly.
    Ty smiled at him widely, the smile that said he knew he’d been caught and wasn’t McCoy glad he was so good at his job so he didn’t have to punish him?
    “Care to share?” McCoy asked drily.
    Ty looked around at the other people around the table and sighed heavily. Perrimore reached into his lap and grabbed the phone from him. Ty didn’t try to resist; that would just have made them even more curious. He’d never been more thankful that he rarely put real names into his contacts list, though.
    Perrimore read the last message from Zane out loud, eyebrows raised. “Who’s Lone Star?” he asked with a grin as he looked at the name Ty had stored in his phone. “And does she carry a whip?”
    “Everyone get out before my eyeballs explode,” McCoy ordered as he sat rubbing his temples with the heels of his hands.
    Ty snatched his phone from Perrimore and whapped him in the head as they stood to leave. Alston trailed behind them, laughing the entire way.
     
     
    Z ANE looked up from the files he was stacking when he heard Ty’s voice, low and wry and borderline aggrieved. A smile pulled at Zane’s lips. There hadn’t been a reply to his last message of a little less than ten minutes ago.
    “Hey, Garrett, have you met Grady’s latest fling? She sounds like a real piece of work,” Alston said as they arrived, chuckling. “Probably has the key to his handcuffs pierced through her tongue.”
    That certainly wasn’t what Zane expected to hear when they came back from the meeting. So that probably meant Ty had been caught. He didn’t appear to have that “just outed by his co-workers” look about him, though, and Zane knew Ty nicknamed all his phone contacts, so he was relatively certain they were okay.
    “Getting texts at work again, partner?” Zane drawled as he looked over to see Ty.
    “Well, you know my type,” Ty responded with a saccharine smile as he passed Zane’s desk. “No self-control and loads of mental issues.” He did sound exasperated, though.
    “That’s never seemed to bother you,” Zane answered as he stood up and lifted his suit jacket off the back of his chair.
    Alston laughed and took off with a wave, not bothering to stick around to hear the banter the whole team had become used to. Clancy and Lassiter had departed half an hour ago, and Zane had seen Perrimore detour toward the elevators as the group came back from the meeting. So once Alston disappeared down the hall, it was just Zane and Ty as Ty locked up his desk drawers.
    Ty glanced up at him darkly, and Zane grinned. Oh, he was so going to pay for his mischief tonight. The look in Ty’s eyes promised as