Troyler AU - Uncuff Me

two

When Tyler saw his partner leaning against the car, kicking loose pebbles under his shoe, and a face of impatience and displeasure, he jogged the last few steps towards him, which in his opinion, was every bit the grand scale of his effort to make up for his lateness. He carded his hand through the mess of his hair, hoping that it would somehow tame the stubborn strands that he didn't have time to blow-dry before he headed out of his apartment that morning.

He was sure that he looked as frantic as he felt, and if he had any doubt about it, there's always the mismatched socks and the crooked tie to squash those doubts away. Not that he regretted it, no. He couldn't bring himself to regret the most exciting night of his life, not even when it was shared with a street rat that he barely knew apart from the criminal records that he pulled out from the system yesterday.

In all honesty, he didn't know what to think of it, and what did it say about him enjoying it so much that he let it distract him from his usual work ethic. When he started joining he force, he had taken great length to practice the one and only rule that he set for himself; no matter what the circumstances, if he can help it, he'd always be punctual to his work. He takes his job very seriously because for him, every minute and every second counts when there are lives on the line.

So imagine his utter disgust when he was woken by Marcus's call (well, technically he woke up when he got kicked off his own bed), asking where the hell was he when he was expected to meet Marcus some time ago. And then one thing lead to another, or one can say, Troye happened and then, well, the rest was history.

"You're late."

"Wow, thank you for pointing out the obvious."

"Really? Keep your sarcasm to a minimum, Oakley. You're lucky your source was caught up with his business, and that he was here only 20 minutes ago. If you're any later, I'd bet every penny in Elizabeth's vault that he would have left and you would have had one less source for the case. You know how fickle Shane is."

"Yeah, I know. Sorry, I kinda overslept. Came as fast as I could." Tyler stopped short and felt his face burnt up a little at how his last sentence could be interpreted as a dirty innuendo. And accurate too. He mentally slapped himself, annoyed that his mind had to go there when he was supposed to have a razor sharp mind now. He cleared his throat before he continued as if he didn't just conjure a familiar naked body connected with his for a split second, and hope that his partner didn't sense anything askew. "So, shall we go and have a chat with Shane, then?"

And they both took off and headed into the abandoned warehouse, a secret location where they agreed to meet with their source that morning.

***

The meeting with Shane took a little longer than expected, but it was all good since the information that he gave was the best lead they've had so far. It's going to lead them to a location, a very well-hidden nest which they suspected to be the temporary lair of Sam Pepper whenever he was operating in New York. Shane had not so much as whispered his words that Sam was getting ready to carry on his next move, transporting a group of five young girls across the border within next month.

With this information, they could play it to their advantage, and hopefully for once, they could stay ahead of their target. Planning for their next course of action though, it may have some split opinions. On one hand, raiding the lair now would almost guarantee the capture of Sam Pepper, which was their objective from the very beginning, a big fish to fry. But then the bigger fish would be waiting it out, keeping a close eye on Sam Pepper and eventually leading them to their ultimate prize and bring down the most ruthless human trafficking syndicate in the history of America. Of course, every big plan isn't complete without a sensible amount of risk. By doing the latter, they may be risking the lives of those five young girls because one wrong move and they were taken across the border, they will go under the radar so fast and disappear from the face of the earth, and their efforts will all be in vain.