Cut and Run 2 - Sticks and Stones

Zane. “Ty has a protective streak a mile wide,” he finally said. “He always has. He takes a lot on himself. He doesn’t like to be leaned on because he’s terrified of letting people down. So being charged with protecting something, especially if it’s a job he’s not sure he can do, it’s something that weighs heavy on him. So when he has a choice, he only protects the things he holds close to his heart,” Deuce continued, giving his chest a pat.
    “And?”
    “That’s for you to figure out, Zane,” Deuce answered with a shrug.
    Zane didn’t have anything else to say. He was pretty sure Ty cared about him, just as he cared about Ty. They were partners. They watched out for one another. They depended on each other. Only Zane was finding himself more and more attached to Ty—and that was something that scared him.
    Deuce sat silently as Zane mulled it over, the hiss of his bottle cap as he twisted it off the only sound he made. “I’ll send Ty the bill,” he finally said with a small smile.

Chapter 17

    “ S HOULD he be traveling as sick as he is?” Mara Grady asked worriedly as she fussed back and forth between Ty and the pies she was preparing in the kitchen. “Maybe he should stay here until he’s feeling better.”
    “I’m feeling better, Ma,” Ty called out from where he sat on the couch, covered in blankets and holding a mug of hot chocolate his mother had shoved into his hands.
    “You are not,” she insisted from the kitchen as she banged a pie plate onto the counter and began rattling utensils and plates.
    “God hates me,” Ty muttered from under one of the heavy quilts she had draped over him.
    Zane snorted from where he was sprawled in a rocking chair across from the couch, under an afghan of his own. Mara had taken to mothering him too. “If God hated you that cat would have bitten you somewhere more sensitive,” he said, teasing.
    “Yeah, wait ’til the drugs wear off and I can tell which one of you is real,” Ty grumbled at him. He sniffed at the air as the smell of apple pie began to waft to them.
    “When do you have to go?” Mara called.
    “Leave the boy alone,” Earl told her from his seat in the kitchen, and their voices dropped as they continued talking quietly to each other. Ty sat and scowled at Zane.
    “I’d say it’ll freeze that way, but you might like it to,” Zane murmured as he rocked, the chair squeaking a little.
    “When are we leaving?” Ty asked.
    Zane was quiet for a long moment as he watched Ty. “I’m leaving tomorrow.”
    Ty inclined his head and frowned harder. “You’re not leaving me here,” he whispered harshly.
    “Don’t you think you need to rest and heal up instead of driving all the way back to Baltimore?” Zane asked. “It’ll be a hell of a lot easier for you to fly home. It’s only a short drive to the airport in Charleston.”
    “Don’t you think you should be baking pies or something?” Ty responded gruffly.
    “I bet you already know how,” Zane said. “ Deliverance .”
    “What the hell does that have to do with pie?” Ty asked in annoyance.
    “Just a comment about your wide and varied skills.” Zane paused. “Of which healing seems to need some practice.”
    “I heal just fine,” Ty argued. “And you’re one to talk,” he added, pointing at the colorful bruise that stretched from his very black eye along the full line of Zane’s cheekbone, which was apparently so painful that Zane hadn’t shaved his beard off yet. Zane wrinkled his nose and winced.
    “You boys want more hot chocolate?” Mara called out as Deuce came thumping into the living room and threw himself onto the couch beside Ty.
    “No, ma’am,” Ty and Deuce both called out.
    “I’m good, thanks,” Zane answered as he gave Ty a disbelieving look.
    “What?” Ty asked him defensively.
    “All I’m saying is, you have a chance to kick back and relax, have someone take care of you. Maybe you should take advantage of it.”
    Ty blinked at Zane slowly and pushed the quilt off his head as he leaned forward. “Do I look relaxed to you?” he asked in a low voice.
    Beside him, Deuce began to chuckle softly. Zane raised an eyebrow, still rocking gently. Ty began to struggle with the heavy quilt, trying to get out from under it. Deuce moved beside him, pulling the edge of the quilt out from under himself in an attempt to help, and Ty growled as the throbbing in his hand got worse and worse.
    “What do you need?” Mara asked as she