Cut and Run 4 - Divide and Conquer

know. Intimate, I guess. Even than fucking.”
    Ty turned his head, looking at Zane thoughtfully. He just nodded
    minutely and reached up to run his fingers through Zane‟s hair. It felt
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    like the place for “I love you” again. Zane suspected that was what Ty
    wanted to say.
    So now, that left the words to Zane. It was time. He‟d thought it
    to death, tried to reason out if he was right or wrong, worked to let go
    of the past and live in the now, chewed over his fears about being
    worthy of Ty. Zane swallowed hard, taking a quick breath to quell the
    rush of adrenaline. Fight or flight, he thought distantly, his pulse
    roaring in his ears.
    “You okay?” Ty asked, reading him well.
    Zane squeezed his eyes shut for a second, then blinked them open
    and started to nod, but he stopped and gave a half-shrug. “I‟m a little…
    overwhelmed,” he rasped.
    Ty reached up and ran his fingers lightly over Zane‟s face,
    trailing them gently around his eyes. “Have you been sleeping?” he
    asked grimly, as if he already knew the answer.
    Zane turned his cheek into Ty‟s hand, seeking more contact. Ty
    knew him very well, better than Zane knew Ty by far. “Not really,”
    Zane admitted. “Too anxious to relax, I guess.”
    “I figured,” Ty responded with a slow nod. He pushed himself up,
    pulling his arm out from under Zane, and he sat up. “Stay,” he told
    Zane as he got up and headed out of the bedroom.
    Zane lay back against the pillows and closed his eyes. He could
    practically hear his heart beating, it was thumping so hard. He turned
    his face into the pillow and breathed in Ty‟s familiar scent. Nerves still
    sparked through him, and he knew he‟d have to deal with the panic
    soon. The intense relief from the momentary reprieve was tinged with
    an odd disappointment, and he found he wanted to grasp at the moment
    and bring it back, do it differently.
    Zane didn‟t open his eyes until a towel flopped onto his belly.
    “You have that look,” Ty observed as he stood at the edge of the
    bed and looked down at Zane in concern.
    Zane fought the reflex urge to wipe his emotions off his face and
    offered a small smile. “Do I?”
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    But Ty didn‟t return the smile. He sat down instead, then
    stretched out beside Zane on the bed. “You look like you‟re about to
    cut and run,” he observed in an almost offhand manner.
    This time Zane did clamp down on his outward reaction. “I‟m the
    one who came here looking for you, remember?”
    It was nearly impossible to decipher what Ty was thinking as he
    took in Zane‟s features, and Zane felt a moment‟s frustration that Ty
    could block him out so easily. Ty sat up suddenly, bending and
    stretching to the end of the bed where he always kept a spare quilt
    folded up. He shook it out and lay back with it, pulling it up over them
    as he turned toward Zane and rested his head on Zane‟s shoulder.
    Unsure of what to do or say, Zane simply closed his arms around
    Ty. He turned his head and pressed a kiss to the crown of his lover‟s
    head. Suddenly there were all sorts of words crowding on Zane‟s
    tongue, and he couldn‟t get a single one out, much less three that would
    prove he knew the best thing to happen to him in his entire life lay right
    there in his arms.

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    Chapter Fourteen

    “THIS is WBAL TV 11 News at 6, and I‟m Alicia Harrison. Good
    evening.”
    A mugshot of a rather attractive young blonde woman with a neat
    bob haircut appeared over the reporter‟s shoulder. “Baltimore FBI
    Special Agent Lydia Reeves has died at age twenty-seven. Reeves was
    one of six law enforcement agents injured in the first shopping-
    complex bomb at the Inner Harbor just over a week ago. After eight
    days in a coma in the University of Maryland Medical Center ICU, she
    passed away last night as a result of her injuries. She is survived by her
    husband.”
    The video cut to a shot of a somber-looking man in a brown suit.
    The titles labeled him as FBI Spokesman . “Agent Reeves was a fine
    example of the FBI and law enforcement,” the man said with a flash of
    bright white teeth. “Her service to the city is to be commended, and she
    will be greatly missed.”
    The reporter reappeared. “Reeves is the third death in the as-of-
    yet unexplained string of bombings terrorizing Baltimore. Police now
    suspect that a recent, unsuccessful bank robbery may be related to