Cut and Run 4 - Divide and Conquer

life.”
    Ty nodded, but he still had to swallow against being sick. He took
    a step after the stretcher. “Hey,” he called to the paramedics. They
    stopped, looking at him expectantly. The assistant SAIC nodded for
    them to let him closer. He stepped up to the stretcher and looked down
    at the girl. Her face was streaked with tears, her blonde hair mussed and
    bloody from the spray after the high-velocity round hitting her.
    “You‟re that guy from TV,” she stuttered at him, still sobbing.
    “No. I‟m the guy who just shot you,” Ty told her, voice hard with
    anger.
    “You aren‟t supposed to be here,” she sobbed hysterically.
    “You‟re supposed to be at the other place!”
    The paramedics ended the interview before Ty could ask her
    anything, citing her vitals as too dangerous to continue with the stress.
    They carted her off as Ty frowned after them, trying to decide what
    other place she‟d meant.

    234 | Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux

    “THEY got Hannah,” Graham told Pierce and Ross as soon as the two
    boys walked through the door. “They shot her, man.”
    “Good,” Pierce responded succinctly.
    “ What? ”
    “She was a dead weight, man. Why do you think I sent her
    alone?”
    Graham stared at his former friend, not believing it. “What about
    the agents?” he asked, heart in his throat.
    Pierce just shook his head, not intending to explain what had
    happened.
    “Pierce! What about your white whale?”
    “I said forget him. He‟s not worth it.”
    “You said he was Moby Dick.”
    “Yeah, well, now he‟s just a dick, and I‟m done with him.”
    “Why?” Graham needled.
    “Dude, just drop it,” Ross grunted, irritated.
    Pierce whirled on him. “We didn‟t go after those douchebags. We
    were watching at the bank, okay? Moby Dick is the one who shot
    Hannah.”
    Graham frowned as Pierce stormed out. He didn‟t understand.
    Pierce had wanted Hannah dead, but he was upset because Agent
    Grady had been the one to shoot her?
    He looked at Ross for some sort of explanation.
    “Pierce is scared of him,” Ross muttered. “He thinks he had it
    wrong and he‟s not Captain Ahab after all.”
    Graham looked back at the door where Pierce had disappeared. “I
    think he had it right the first time.”

    Divide & Conquer | 235

    TY PACED through Zane‟s living room, making figure eights around
    the coffee table and couch as he kept up a constant undertone of
    muttering and cursing.
    Zane was gone. Just gone .
    Ty had gone home first. There had been no signs of struggle,
    which had made Ty feel a little better. But also no note, no phone call,
    nothing to let Ty know where Zane had gone, who he was with, or if he
    was okay. So Ty had come over here on the off chance Zane had tried
    to walk it or gotten someone to drive him by for clothes or something.
    And again, nothing. Ty was scared and angry. He didn‟t like worrying
    like this. He didn‟t like the abject terror that came with knowing Zane
    was practically helpless without his sight. And he definitely didn‟t like
    knowing that these kids, these stupid, spoiled psychopathic teenagers
    who were killing people left and right, had it out for him and Zane.
    Standing there in the bank lot, Ty had mulled over the girl‟s
    words, trying to decide what she‟d meant when she‟d said “the other
    place.” He would have suspected she was just rambling, referring to the
    diversionary bomb. But where were the other three? What had they
    used her as a diversion for?
    It had struck him that they might have intended to come for him,
    for him or Zane.
    He had called, but Zane hadn‟t answered. On the torturous drive
    in a Bureau sedan to his row house, he‟d tried to tell himself Zane
    might be in the shower again. It hadn‟t eased the vise around his chest
    or the guilt he felt every time the girl‟s blue eyes flashed through his
    mind.
    Now, he was no longer worried that Zane had been taken. Even
    blind, Zane would have made a mess if someone had attacked him.
    That meant he‟d left without considering that Ty might freak the fuck
    out when he found him gone.
    And that was possibly worst of all, that after all the crap he‟d put
    up with in the last week, all of himself he‟d given and taken, he didn‟t
    even warrant a spare thought or simple note before Zane went skipping
    out the door.
    236 | Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux

    He steamed and stewed another ten minutes and was just about to
    go out and do something when he