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Ty just shrugged as he watched Zane think it over "We got one thing in coh, Garrett," he finally pointed out "Neither one of us belongs here And they don’t expect us to play by no rules anyway"

"Do you ever play by the rules, Special Agent Grady?" Zane asked

"Can’t think of a for-instance," Ty answered with a flippant shrug

Zane peered at hi moment "How old are you, anyway?"

Ty raised his head and looked over at the other ht you were about ," Zane answered

Ty frowned at that "I’ly

Zane nodded slowly and went back to eating his now lukewaruessed that Ty was that young

"Why?" Ty prodded

Shrugging slightly, Zane looked up at him "Sometimes you look older than that You sure as hell act older than that Jaded"

Ty blinked at hihtly nonplussed, and looked back down at his food with a purse of his lips Zane watched hilimpse of the more ordered and disciplined man Ty hid under the brash asshole He wore aIt was beginning to becoy to be as abrasive as he was The calh seemed much more natural to him

"How old are you?" Ty finally asked in return

Zane s Ty hadn’t looked up at him "You mean you’ve not checked up on me yet?"

Ty slid his eyes sideways to look at Zane seriously, the rest of his body un at his lips "I’m forty-two," he adrin that was slightlythan his usual smirk

Zane snorted "I suppose I’ve been ridden hard and put aet a few too many times"

Ty rolled his eyes and poked at his food "Where you fro and all"

"Texas Austin, to be specific"

"I’ at his lips again

"Where are you froinia," Ty answered, letting his words roll with his pronounced accent

Zane grinned "West by-God Virginia," he said "Fits you"

Ty glanced up and s at his ketchup with a fry

"Wild and Wonderful," he quoted with a barely restrained snicker

"Wild and Wonderful," Zane echoed with a short chuckle "All that ot you in shape for the Marine Corps"

"More like spelunking, but it’s all about rocks in the end" Ty shrugged with a sot much in the way of career options," he added "It was either the Marines or going into the family business"

Zane tilted his head "Solanced back up at hie to take exception to the stateave his head a shake and bit the tip off his fry "Just add dirt," he finally responded with a gesture to hi had left Bluefield in the 1960s

Zane saw the look on Ty’s face before the other man shook it off

"Did you want to be a coal miner?" he asked

"Nobody wants to be a coal miner," Ty answered evenly He looked up at Zane and studied hi the rest of the answer "But then, nobody wants to get shot at, neither," he added thoughtfully "I wouldn’t have been a coal miner They don’t mine coal in Bluefield anymore But my daddy minded the abandoned mines He was a caretaker after they were shut down

Meant he was still in those daot down there and lost or trapped Monitoring collapses And I would have been doing it, too Or off in another town doing the real thing I had to choose between a fear of bullets and a fear of small spaces," he admitted "Turns out bullets ain’t that scary, after all"

Nodding, Zane finished off his burger He studied the other ether the details he’d crow barred out The little bit of his history made Ty mucheyes on hi Zane stare for a while "So what else was there, Serpico?" he finally asked after a tense moment of silence "Need o to college or just join the Marines?"

That question did rankle, but Ty visibly repressed his initial reaction

He exhaled loudly and pushed his plate away

"You did say SAT scores," Zane re that he had indeed opened up that door "Govern as well as seeing the tension back in the otherwith that," he said "You earned it""

Ty cut his gaze up to look at Zane fro me, Lone Star?"

Zane set his plate on the table with a clunk "If you served our country in the armed forces, you deserve it" He was dead serious; it showed clearly in his eyes

Ty glared at the er and then looked back down "Thirteen-ten," he finally answered with a nod

Raising a brow, Zane sat back with a nod "Well-done," he complimented

"Bite me," Ty muttered as he poked at his chicken and frowned

"National average is eleven-fifty," Zane said, a suy obviously didn’t take co

"I find it disturbing that you know that offhand," Ty infored "Nu, too," Ty deadpanned

"Disturbing, huh? Maybe I’ll take that as a coo," Ty muttered with a shake of his head

"How’d you fall into this, anyway?" he asked, ready to change the subject