Ty punched the button for their floor and then leaned against the elevator wall, watching Zane with sidelong glances. Zane gave him a small smile. Hopefully they’d be able to get back to that hotel suite before the night was over.

The elevator lurched to a stop and the doors shivered open. Ty didn’t move. Zane stepped out of the elevator first. He looked over his shoulder at Ty, frowning.

As soon as he turned, roughly three dozen coworkers and friends jumped out of their various hiding places amidst the desks and file cabinets and cubicle dividers, all of them yelling some version of “Surprise!”

Zane’s hand went to his gun, but Ty grabbed his wrist before he could pull it. Everyone was laughing and blowing on noisemakers, and for a long moment Zane just didn’t understand what was going on. “What the hell? This is what the damn calendar thing was for?”

Ty laughed and wrapped his arm around Zane’s shoulder. “Just an unfortunate necessity we managed to take advantage of. Happy twenty years with the Bureau, partner.”

Zane groaned and rolled his eyes as people all around them started whistling and applauding. “The first eighteen were easy,” he said, deadpan, drawing laughter as he jabbed Ty in the ribs with an elbow.

“But the last two were fun.”

“Our definitions of ‘fun’ clearly vary.”

“Whatever, Zane. There’s cake.”

Zane grinned. “You realize last month was actually twenty-one years, right?”

Ty shrugged, smiling crookedly. “Wouldn’t have been a surprise if we’d done it at the right time.”

Zane rolled his eyes, fighting the huge grin on his face.

“Congratulations, Garrett,” Clancy said as she approached them.

Others began surrounding him, offering him words of admiration, some bringing him cake, a drink, or a present. Probably thirty minutes had passed before Zane looked up and realized Ty was nowhere to be found.

“Where’s Grady?” he asked, looking over at Perrimore.

Perrimore shrugged. “Skipped out about fifteen minutes after you got here.”

Zane frowned and scanned the room. Why would Ty leave in the middle of a party he’d obviously helped plan? Zane shrugged it off. Lassiter gained his attention by approaching to shake his hand and ask for advice on how to be old. He was distracted by more laughter and light ribbing, and he lost track of time again, surrounded by the men and women he’d come to call his friends.

It was Good Friday, though, so the party cleared out quickly. Some left to spend the holiday with their families. Others wandered with every intention of heading to one of the local bars to continue what they’d started here. Zane sat at his desk looking at his twenty-year certificate, which had been stolen and framed while he was gone and then presented as a gift from the rest of his team. The back of the frame was signed by everyone he worked with. In the very middle, Ty’s signature stood out. Under it was written a simple note: “You’re the best partner I could have asked for.”

Zane smiled as he read it. It was so like Ty. Short, sweet, and with a meaning that was innocuous and yet so meaningful. He turned it over and ran his thumb across the glass. Twenty years.

He was so intent on the certificate and what it meant that he didn’t realize he had company until Ty sat on the edge of his desk.

Zane smiled and gazed up at his partner. “Where’d you run off to?”

“I was here,” Ty told him. “Wanted you to enjoy your day in the sun so I made myself scarce.”

“Would’ve been just fine with you next to me,” Zane said, but he smiled and shrugged. It was a sweet thought on Ty’s part, and they’d been making a point not to hover over each other at work functions. “Maybe you could have kept them from ragging on me about my age. Apparently I’m the old man of the department, which I find hard to believe.”

“No, I’m pretty sure you are.” Ty’s voice was teasing, but there wasn’t much heart behind the effort. He reached behind himself and picked something up he’d been hiding with his body, setting it in front of Zane with a wistful smile.

Zane stared at the row of delicate white flowers stemming from a sleek black pot, nonplussed until he realized what it was.

“An orchid.” He laughed, remembering the day Ty had suggested they cut and run to start a flower shop together and sell black-market orchids out of the back. He glanced up at Ty as warmth spread through him. Anyone who knew Ty may have said differently, but Zane knew he had a knack for sentimental gestures. Of the two of them, Ty was the real romantic.

Ty was smiling, but it didn’t reach his eyes. He was fidgeting, messing with the USMC signet ring on his finger.

“Hey, what’s that about?” Zane asked, keeping his voice low as he nudged Ty’s knee.

Ty looked up at the ceiling and inhaled deeply. “I think you could call it melancholy,” he admitted. He didn’t even try to deflect it with a joke or a denial.

“About . . . me being older than you?” Zane asked.

Ty shook his head and looked back down at the ring. “It’s just . . . what am I going to do when you retire?”

Zane blinked. “Retire? I . . . can’t say I’ve ever thought about it.” The words grew more painful as they came out, as it sunk in what Ty was thinking about. Them, apart. Or not together, anyway. No longer partners.

“Well, I think about it all the time.” Ty reached out and ran his hand down Zane’s face. “You ready to go home?”

The intimacy of both Ty’s comment and touch stopped Zane’s immediate reply, and he considered his lover for a long moment before nodding. “Yeah.”

Ty slid off the desk. He reached across it to gather his keys and coat. Zane’s mind flashed back to the photograph of them in bed together and suddenly it was important for him to say something. He stood up and stepped around the desk to stand close, catching Ty’s elbow with one hand. “Hey.”

They were close enough that Ty couldn’t even turn to face Zane. He tried to, brushing his cheek against Zane’s nose. Zane whispered in his ear. “I’m not going anywhere. Not without you.”

Ty smiled, crow’s feet appearing briefly. He was staring at Zane’s hand on his arm. “Okay.”

“Okay,” Zane said, even though it didn’t feel like the subject was resolved at all. He watched Ty for a moment, wondering if it was something they’d need to bring up later or if the melancholy Ty had admitted to would pass naturally. That’s how Ty usually handled these things.

“C’mon. I’ve got a hotel room all lined up for something dirty. I also have cake,” Zane growled as he stepped back to pick up the napkin-covered plate Alston had given him when he’d cleaned up. He dropped his voice to a near-whisper and grinned. “I’ll feed it to you.”

Ty laughed breathily and turned toward the elevators, shaking his head.

Zane glanced at the framed certificate and decided to leave it on his desk. It wasn’t something he wanted to think about at home. In the reflection, he caught sight of a figure moving down the hallway. They weren’t alone, after all. He turned to look over his shoulder and saw Richard Burns stepping into the stairwell. The door shut behind him, not making a sound. Zane stared for a moment, then hurried to catch up with Ty.

“I didn’t see Director Burns here during the party, did you?”

Ty shook his head and pushed the button on the elevator. “No, why?”

“He was here.”

Ty turned and glanced past Zane at the empty floor. “Pretty sure he wasn’t.”

“I’m pretty sure he was. I just saw him,” Zane said with another look at the stairwell. “We can probably catch him if the elevator hurries.”

But Ty shook his head. “Why would Dick be here?”

“You’re the one who said he called you.”

“I just used his name ’cause I knew you wouldn’t argue when I said we had to come here.”

Zane searched Ty’s eyes for any hint of a lie, but saw nothing to indicate one. He gave the stairwell door another hard glare. He knew what he’d seen. Why the hell was Richard Burns in Baltimore on a Friday night? And why wouldn’t he come say hello? What was brewing? The elevator dinged and Ty stepped in, holding the door.

“Zane?”

Zane nodded, eyes still on the stairwell as an uneasiness began to settle in his chest.

Chapter 2

Ty began to laugh when the Valkyrie turned toward the waterfront instead of the row house.

“He’s actually going back to the hotel,” Ty muttered, following in his old Mustang.

By the time Ty found a spot for the car, Zane had already disappeared inside. Ty gave the front of the car a pat as he walked by. He’d intended to spend the Easter weekend working on her, since he’d only managed to restore the mechanical and interior parts so far, but he had a feeling Zane had other plans. Ty strolled into the lobby, expecting Zane to be waiting for him, but he didn’t catch sight of his partner anywhere.

“Special Agent Grady?” a woman asked from the front desk.

Ty walked over, still grinning.

“Your partner said to give this to you,” the young woman said with a polite smile. She handed him a room key.

“Thank you.” Ty turned toward the elevators as he searched for the room number on the envelope. He’d gotten a suite. “Jesus, Zane. You go all out, don’t you?”

He hadn’t even gotten through the door of the suite when he was grabbed and shoved against the wall. Hands found their way under his tailored suit and lips pressed against his.

“Zane,” Ty gasped.

“You better hope it is,” Zane growled. “You ready to be fed cake?”

Ty grinned, looking into Zane’s nearly black eyes. He dragged his fingers over Zane’s shoulder, tugging at his dress shirt, enjoying the way Zane’s eyes were drawn to his lips when he licked them.

Zane’s voice dropped. “And some cream too?”

“Bad pun penalty,” Ty announced in the deep tones of a sportscaster as he held up an imaginary red card.

Zane grabbed his wrist and pressed it against the wall. “Oh, punish me,” he said as he started unbuttoning his shirt with his other hand.

“I think I’m the one being punished.” They both laughed.

Ty tugged Zane’s shirt out of his pants and ran his hand up Zane’s belly. Zane pressed against him and dragged his lips over Ty’s. His grip tightened on Ty’s wrist and Ty’s heart sped up. This first round was going to be hard and messy, he could tell that much.

“Let’s get to the bed,” he managed to grumble. “Last time we did this against a wall, my calves cramped for a week. And my back has been killing me the last couple days.”

Zane chuckled and nodded. He put his lips against Ty’s ear, then cupped Ty through his trousers. “Tell me where you disappeared to tonight.”

Ty huffed against Zane’s cheek. “You think you can torture me for information?”

“Yeah I do.” He nipped at Ty’s ear, and a shiver ran all the way to Ty’s toes.

Ty tried to laugh, but it came out as a gasp as Zane squeezed him again. “I had to get your orchid from the car.”

Zane turned his head to brush his nose against Ty’s cheek. He was humming, as if trying to decide whether to accept Ty’s explanation. He finally chuckled, then ran his hand up and down Ty’s torso and kissed him.

“You’re lying.” Zane’s harsh whisper broke the kiss. Ty groaned. “What were you up to?”

Ty slung his free arm over Zane’s shoulder, holding on tight. “You always know.”

“You have a tell.”

Ty laughed, then sighed. “If I tell you now, you promise to still fuck me?”

“Depends,” Zane growled.

“Mac pulled me aside. He said we’re going to have to start looking at options that don’t involve undercover work soon.”

Zane took a small step back, his grip on Ty’s wrist loosening. “Well, we knew that’d be coming soon. We’ve had too much exposure.”

Ty nodded. “He said we have until November when those calendars hit the shelves. Then we’re off UC work and into strictly investigative stuff.”

Zane chewed on his lower lip, a frown creasing his brow briefly before it passed and his fingers tightened against Ty’s wrist again. “Maybe we can start talking about the afterlife then.”

A grin stole over Ty’s lips and he nodded. The afterlife. Their plans for when work no longer called them, for when they could come out and truly build a life together. That familiar warmth began to seep through Ty as he stared into Zane’s eyes. It wasn’t the blinding flare of consuming heat it had once been. The flash and bang were gone, but the desire had grown into something less glitzy and more intense. Ty would never get tired of feeling that way when Zane was close.

“I love you,” Ty said, a hint of longing in his voice that he was surprised to hear. He didn’t want to have to wait for that afterlife; he wanted it now.

Zane took Ty’s face in his hands. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Ty’s stomach flipped at the mere thought, but he nodded.

Zane huffed, then he was against Ty again, kissing his neck, holding him against the wall and murmuring into his ear. “I have something for you. Something I need to ask you.”

“Ask me anything,” Ty whispered.

Zane wrapped an arm around him. Ty could feel him trembling. His hand delved into his pocket, searching for something as he gave Ty a slow, sensual kiss. The moment held a sudden weight, something intense enough to push aside Ty’s odd sense of impending trouble.