Cut and Run 4 - Divide and Conquer

him to dinner with the rest of the
    Recon team. Nick, who had been Ty‟s best friend since boot camp, who
    understood what Ty had lived and how to deal with him. Who had
    heard about Zane and made his own move to give Ty an alternative.
    Zane knew why. As he tightened his arms around Ty and pressed
    his forehead to Ty‟s shoulder, he knew why.
    Zane had wanted Ty since he‟d met him, and every time chaos
    had crashed down on them—separation after the Tri-State case, Ty‟s
    near-death experience in the mountains, the danger on the cruise ship,

even Ty telling Zane that he loved him—that attachment had grown
    more intense, despite every doubt and fear and weakness Zane took
    into consideration.
    But Nick‟s attachment to Ty might be even stronger.
    Zane didn‟t think he could bear to lose Ty now. He loved Ty.
    Painfully. Desperately. But now wasn‟t the time to finally get his head
    out of his ass and admit it, not after what Ty had said tonight. Ty would
    see it as a reaction to external pressure, not an honest feeling from the
    heart, and Zane‟s words would be set aside like the first time he had
    said them, slow dancing in Ty‟s arms.
    As his unseeing eyes burned, Zane thought very seriously he
    might cry.

    Divide & Conquer | 227

    Chapter Twelve

    THE next morning was a Sunday, and Ty headed to the hotel to say
    goodbye to Nick and the others. It was time for them to leave, and
    though Ty hadn‟t been able to spend much time with them, there was
    just too much going on for him to feel good about them staying in
    town. Not to mention the ramifications of his confession. Owen
    wouldn‟t speak to him, avoiding him under the auspices of last minute
    packing. Ty‟d had trouble looking Nick in the eye, but he had forced
    himself to do it, recognizing the same awkwardness in his best friend.
    “Ty,” Nick said uncomfortably when he pulled Ty aside. “I‟m
    sorry. What I did, it was shitty and selfish, and I wish I could take it
    back.”
    “Don‟t worry about it,” Ty told him, wishing Nick would just
    pretend it had never happened, like so many of the other things they
    never spoke of.
    Nick shook his head. “I just—I need… to tell you this, okay?”
    Ty nodded with trepidation, wondering what could be harder for
    Nick to say than anything that had happened last night.
    “I‟ve loved you since the day you sat next to me on the bus to
    Parris Island,” Nick blurted.
    Ty blinked at him, unable to do anything more.
    “And I was going to tell you when we finished our last tour. I
    planned it out every night in my head.” Ty started to speak, but Nick
    stopped him. “But then the helo went down. And… what happened to
    us….”
    228 | Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux

    Ty closed his eyes, immediately assaulted with memories he‟d
    spent years repressing. They hit him like a physical blow. Flashes of
    chains and dull instruments, peeling plaster in a dark cell, making
    marks on a ceiling so low he didn‟t have to stand to reach it.
    Nick stopped talking.
    Ty opened his eyes to find the same haunted look in Nick‟s eyes
    that he could feel seeping through himself.
    “I will always be your friend, Ty,” Nick practically gasped. They
    hugged, a tremble going through both of them before they let each
    other go.
    What they had been through together—there was nothing that
    could break that bond. There was also nothing that could turn that bond
    into something else, and in that moment, they both knew it.
    When it was time for them to catch the shuttle to the airport, they
    all shook hands and hugged, Owen saying a stiff goodbye instead, and
    Ty saw them off with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.
    Nothing was resolved there, but Ty knew he would have to deal with it
    later. Just one or three more personal problems he had to push to the
    back burner because of his job.
    Zane seemed down and didn‟t have much to say when Ty got
    home, and for the first time, Ty was too tired to try to reach into his
    darkness and pull him out. He went to bed early, asleep before Zane
    fumbled his way under the sheet and wrapped around him.
    The next day he headed back to work, something he dreaded for
    the first time since Jimmy Hathaway‟s funeral years before.
    “Grady, welcome back. I hope you stayed out of trouble—and the
    press—over the long weekend?” McCoy said as Ty stopped in his
    office doorway.
    Ty nodded, sedate. A bad week had only gotten worse, and he
    was in no mood to be