“O’Flaherty,” he answered, his voice choked.
“Hey, Irish, you okay?” Ty asked. “You sound like shit.”
Nick cleared his throat and glanced at the house behind him when he got to his car. “Yeah, you just did me a solid, man. Got me out of a tight spot. What’s going on?”
“Well, long story short, you want to be one of Deacon’s groomsmen? All expenses paid.”
“When?”
“Next week.”
“Where?”
“Scotland.”
“Scotland?”
“Scotland.”
Nick stared at the window above him, pursing his lips. “Yeah, okay.”
“Bring a date.”
Nick closed his eyes and smiled. “Okay.”
“And a gun.”
Nick opened his eyes. “Wait, what?”
Ty’s laughter was all the answer Nick got.
Chapter 2
“There’s not a single town name here I can pronounce,” Zane said as he peered at a map inset of the Scottish highlands and Inner Hebrides. He kept pronouncing Hebrides wrong on purpose, and it was driving Ty crazy.
Ty tossed his arm over Zane’s shoulders, leaning back in his chair. His feet were propped on a suitcase. They’d flown into Glasgow via a hellish eighteen-hour layover in Iceland, and now they were waiting at baggage claim for Nick and his date to join them. They were a little behind the rest of the Grady family, who’d chosen to take Theodore Stanton up on his offer to fly in his private jet. Zane hadn’t been able to get off work in time to do it or Ty would have been all over it.
“You don’t need to pronounce it,” Ty said. “Apparently the Stantons own the entire f**king island.”
Zane shook his head. “Private jet, private island, private security force. I’m starting to think Deuce is in way over his head.”
Ty grunted, and a sense of unease fluttered through him again. “I wish I’d been able to talk to him a little more before he left Philly. Nick’s going to be pissed that I don’t know more about what’s going on.”
Zane hummed.
“No, seriously. Nick’s going to kill me.”
Zane began to chuckle. “Maybe this date he’s bringing will make him behave.”
“Or at least keep him distracted,” Ty mumbled.
A few minutes later, Ty caught sight of Nick making his way through the crowd. He stood to go meet him, but stopped short when he recognized the man walking with Nick.
“Doc!” he cried, and wrapped Kelly up in a hug when they got closer. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“You said to bring a date and a gun,” Nick said with a crooked smile. “So I brought a date with a gun.”
Ty laughed and stepped in to give Nick a hug as well. Zane shook both their hands. “How was your flight?”
“Flight was good. Security was rough,” Kelly said.
Ty frowned. If Nick and Kelly hadn’t been able to bring their weapons along, their trip had been for naught. “They give you shit about your gear?”
Nick shook his head.
“No, no, no,” Kelly said before Nick could answer. “The guns and knives and f**king night vision goggles or whatever he has in there, those permits went through fine. It was him they wouldn’t let go through.”
Zane began to laugh despite obviously trying not to. “Why not?”
“The way the new machines are? They take a picture when you stand there, right?” Nick said, raising his arms above his head. “The f**king shrapnel in my thigh makes it look like I have something sharp in my pocket. They kept telling me to empty my pockets, and I was like, ‘I can’t!’”
Kelly began to laugh. “They made him drop his pants. He got whistled at.”
“By you!” Nick shouted.
Kelly laughed harder. Nick rolled his eyes as Ty and Zane snickered.
“Anyway,” Nick said. “How long a drive do we have to this place?”
Ty slung his arm around Nick’s shoulders. “Couple hours. You feel like driving it?”
“I’d rather me do it than you.”
Ty snickered, and Kelly jabbed his elbow into Zane’s ribs. “Never let him drive in a country with left-hand driving.”
“Okay?” Zane said with a raised eyebrow at Ty.
Ty shrugged and winked at him. Nick and Kelly headed for the luggage conveyors to retrieve their suitcases, and Ty slid closer to Zane. “They’re right, never let me drive here.”
“Noted.” Zane’s grin was a warm one. “I can’t believe O’Flaherty brought Doc instead of a real date.”
“The thought of a week at a wedding with a real date probably flat gave him a panic attack.” Ty gave Zane a spontaneous squeeze around the waist.
They gathered their luggage, and Nick and Kelly joined them to head for the rental car counters. Ty told Nick to go to the counter and handle the rental because he knew Nick’s luck. The man was f**king blessed when it came to traveling. He’d been Sidewinder’s “acquisitions specialist,” and he’d been damn good at it. But even beyond skill came luck, and Nick had that in spades.
They’d booked a compact car, but sure enough, Nick came back with a “free upgrade” to a brand new Audi A4 and the counter girl’s phone number. He handed the number to Kelly and the receipt to Ty, then waved the keys as he headed for the door to the parking lot.
“How the hell does he do that?” Zane asked. Kelly merely laughed as they trailed after Nick with their luggage.
Ty and Kelly both fell asleep in the back of the sedan as Nick made the three-hour drive to the little town where they were to catch a very private boat to the Stantons’ very private island. Ty woke whenever they took an especially sharp curve or slowed for a trekking biker, and each time he did, Nick and Zane were talking companionably. Several times their laughter roused him.
Halfway through their deployment, Nick had been sent home for forty-eight hours. Ty knew he’d been sent to Maryland to deliver a message to Naval Intelligence because Ty had specifically chosen him for the mission. When he’d returned, Nick had told him that he’d dropped in on Zane and brought a letter back with him, the only communication Ty and Zane had been able to have during those six months.
From what Ty had observed since landing in Scotland, Zane and Nick had come to an understanding during that visit. He might even call them friends. The level of relief he felt at that was astronomical, given their rocky start.