Touch&Geaux

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Touch

&

Geaux

Cut & Run Series Book 7

By Abigail Roux

Riptide Publishing

PO Box 6652

Hillsborough, NJ 08844

www.riptidepublishing.com

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the

product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to

actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely

coincidental.

Touch & Geaux (Cut & Run, #7)

Copyright © 2013 by Abigail Roux

Cover Art by L.C. Cha
se, lcchase.com/design.htm

Editor: Rachel Haimowitz

Layout: L.C. Cha
se, lcchase.com/design.htm

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in

any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,

recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written

permission of the publisher, and where permitted by law. Reviewers may quote

brief passages in a review. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact

Riptide Publishing at the mailing address above, at
Riptidepublishing.com,
or at

[email protected].

ISBN: 978-1-937551-86-5

First edition

April, 2013

Also available in paperback:

ISBN: 978-1-937551-87-2

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about

Touch &

Geaux

After having their faces plastered across the news during

a high-profile case, FBI Special Agents Ty Grady and Zane

Garrett have become more useful to the Bureau posing for

photo ops than working undercover. Just as Zane is beginning

to consider retirement a viable option, Ty receives a distress

call from a friend, leading them to a city rife with echoes from

the past.

New Orleans wears its history on its streets, and it’s the one

place Ty’s face could get him killed. Surrounded by trouble

as soon as they land, Ty and Zane are swiftly confronted

with a past from which Ty can’t hide—one with a surprising

connection to Zane’s.

As threats close in from all directions, both men must come

to terms with the lives they’ve led and the lies they’ve told.

They soon discover that not all their secrets are out yet, and

nothing lasts forever.

To Fate. May it treat you as well as it has me.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1

Chapter 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Chapter 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Chapter 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Chapter 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Chapter 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Chapter 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Chapter 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Chapter 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Chapter 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Chapter 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Chapter 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

Chapter 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

Chapter 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Chapter 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

Chapter 1

ane Garrett glanced up in time to see Alston toss a

Z
balled-up scrap of paper across the pod of desks where

their team of six sat. Ty Grady threw up his arms, signaling

a touchdown as the paper skidded across his desk and into

his lap.

“Garrett, Grady, in my office,” McCoy called from his

door. He disappeared inside.

“What’d you guys do now?” Alston asked.

Zane rolled his eyes. “Wasn’t me.”

“This time,” Clancy chimed in.

“I hope it was me,” Ty said with relish. He stood and

buttoned his suit, leaving a half-finished firearms discharge

form open on his computer.

“Sometimes I wonder how far you’d go to get out of

paperwork,” Alston said.

“Watch old episodes of Pinky and the Brain and you

might get close,” Zane muttered, drawing snorts of laughter

from their other two teammates.

“Before everything went digital, I had the Bureau docs

convinced I was allergic to paper pulp,” Ty told them, dead

serious. His hazel eyes were shining. “It was beautiful.”

“You’re allergic to everything else,” Zane said as he pushed

out of his chair. “Come on. You know what he did to us the

last time we made him wait.”

“Salon appointments,” Lassiter mused.

“PR lectures,” Alston said.

1

“Enforced vacation?” Clancy added.

“Christ, I don’t know which of those is worse,” Zane said.

It was all part and parcel of being Ty Grady’s partner. And,

Zane had to be honest, some of it was his own fault too.

Ty pointed around at each of his teammates, playfully

threatening them as he trailed after Zane. He knocked on the

doorjamb, peering into the Special Agent in Charge’s office.

McCoy looked up from his computer screen and smirked.

A cold chill ran through Zane’s body. “Oh hell.”

“What now?” Ty blurted. They both knew that the look

on McCoy’s face was a harbinger of doom.

McCoy shook his head and motioned for them to come

in and close the door. Once Ty had pushed it shut, McCoy

waved two sheets of paper at them. “Several weeks ago, we

had a request put in. An unusual one, but it’s a reasonable step

toward keeping our noses clean in the press.”

“Is this more PR bullshit?” Ty asked.

“It’s not bullshit,” McCoy had the gall to say with a

straight face.

Zane sat with a deep sigh. “You’ve still got me giving

a community lecture once a month as it is. The last one?

The deputy mayor asked me if I’d speak to the Chamber of

Commerce. How am I supposed to be a discreet, undercover

criminal investigator when everyone knows who I am?”

“That’s a very good point,” Ty said.

“That’s one of the things I need to speak to you both

about. Individually. Later,” McCoy added with a more somber

cast to his face. “But for now we’ll deal with this one—very

reasonable—request.”

“Which is?” Ty asked.

“There’s a fundraising calendar being put together by a

local first responder organization.”

2

Ty stood up, holding his hand out toward McCoy as if to

ward off evil. “Hell no!”

Zane blinked. “A calendar?”

McCoy nodded. “They’re using people from state, federal,

and municipal organizations, and all proceeds are going to a

fund set up to aid first responders injured in the line of duty.”

“Admirable,” Zane said.

“You’ve both been requested as . . . models,” McCoy

managed to say without cracking a smile.

Zane looked from his partner back to McCoy. “You’re

joking.” Ty was shaking his head, thumbing through numbers

on the cell phone in his hand. Zane hadn’t even seen him pull

it out.

“I never joke,” McCoy said with a hint of mischief. He

looked to Ty. “If you’re intending to call Richard Burns to get

you out of this, I won’t have it. The Bureau needs this and

you’re the ones they want.”

Ty narrowed his eyes at McCoy, then turned his phone

off and curled his lip at Zane. There was also a hint of

apprehension in his expression, but he hid it quickly.

“We’ve been assured the photographs will be tastefully

done,” McCoy said.

“Fine,” Zane said, pointing at Ty. “Send him. But why

me?”Ty shook his head and gestured toward Zane while raising

one eyebrow at McCoy. “I think the real question is: Why

do they need me when they have such a fine specimen right

here?” he said, sounding like a used car salesman trying to sell

a Pinto.

Zane reached out and whapped Ty on the back of the

head.

3

Ty laughed and ducked away, still trying to sell Zane.

“Little bit of eyeliner, some spray tan, I mean, come on! He’s

beautiful!”

McCoy smiled, though he looked as if he was trying not

to. “Am I to assume the two of you will agree to representing

the Bureau in this?”

“I think ‘agree’ is too strong a term,” Zane said. “This is a

bad idea. Remember when we were on TV?”

“Yes, Grady got fan mail for a month.”

“I did?”

“We burned it, as you should all evil things,” McCoy

answered.

From Ty’s expression, he was trying to figure out if McCoy

was being facetious or serious.

Zane laughed and wiped his hand over his face.

“I’m not going to force you, Garrett. But I am going to

force Grady because he owes me.”

“What?” Ty shouted.

McCoy ignored him. “But I need an answer from you

right now.”

Zane was still laughing over the absurdity of the idea as he

glanced at Ty, weighing his options and wondering just what

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