Cut and Run 4 - Divide and Conquer

painkiller and his natural inability to be still.
    Another moment later he stepped away from the umpire and knelt
    behind home plate as the first batter of the game approached the
    batter‟s box. But Ty wasn‟t there for more than a heartbeat before he
    raised a hand to call time and stood back up.
    A collective groan ran through both teams and the crowd.
    “Oh, good grief,” Elaina said as she rested her chin in her hand.
    Zane shook himself out of his thoughts and looked to Elaina
    before turning his eyes back to Ty. “What?”
    “He does this every game,” Elaina complained. “He says the
    plate‟s crooked!”
    A woman sitting behind them laughed. “He says it‟s latent OCD.”
    Zane frowned. Ty‟s shoulders were straight and stiff, in total
    contrast to the loose relaxation he‟d exhibited just a couple minutes
    before. That wasn‟t OCD. Zane leaned to the side to try to get a better
    look at what was going on.
    Ty and the batter were standing together, Ty pointing down at the
    plate as the batter nodded. The umpire was shaking his head, holding
    his mask in his hand and frowning. It was anyone‟s guess what they
    were saying to each other, but whatever Ty was saying, he was
    adamant. Finally, he yanked his mask off and knelt over the plate,
    pointing to something Zane couldn‟t see.
    66 | Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux

    “It‟s not the freaking major leagues, Grady! It doesn‟t have to be
    perfect!” someone shouted from the visitor‟s dugout.
    Zane shifted on the metal bleachers as he watched. “Something‟s
    wrong,” he murmured.
    The batter stepped closer and took his bat off his shoulder,
    pointing it at the plate. Ty reached out and grabbed the end of it quickly
    to stop him from poking it, then stood and held up both hands
    impatiently, like he was begging them to listen to him.
    He turned to scan the bleachers, his eyes finding Zane
    quickly. Zane recognized the look on his partner‟s face and was
    moving even before Ty started toward the fence backstop and waved to
    him.
    He met Ty at the fence, reaching up to twine his fingers through
    the chain-link. “What‟s wrong?”
    “The plate‟s wrong,” Ty said under his breath. “It‟s not crooked
    anymore.”
    “Maybe someone fixed it?” Zane asked. He had no doubt that Ty
    would notice if it was sitting differently than usual. He just didn‟t know
    if it was something worth stopping the game over.
    “I‟ve been bitching about it for weeks, and they finally fixed it in
    the middle of the night last night?” Ty muttered as he looked over the
    crowd restlessly. His eyes met Zane‟s. Looking at him this close, it was
    easy to see what the painkillers were doing to him. “It‟s too high.”
    The plate was not the only thing that was too high. But what Ty
    was saying made it sound like someone had wedged something under
    it. “You really think it‟s trouble?” Zane asked quietly. “There‟s plenty
    of cops around.”
    “That‟s what I‟m worried about,” Ty told him as several people
    shouted at them in annoyance. Ty ignored them like only he could. “Do
    you have your phone on you?”
    Zane pulled it out of his back pocket and offered it to him. They
    struggled almost comically to get it through the chain-link as those
    around them became more vocal with their displeasure.
    Divide & Conquer | 67

    “Why don‟t we just take it up and adjust it?” the hitter asked Ty
    curiously.
    Ty finally pulled the phone through and glanced over his shoulder
    at the man as he flipped Zane‟s phone open.
    “Who are you calling?” the umpire asked, obviously perturbed.
    “Bomb squad,” Ty answered gruffly.
    Zane‟s fingers clenched on the fence. Ty wouldn‟t joke about
    something like that. “Better start telling people to clear out,” he told the
    ump evenly. He‟d back Ty up no matter how stoned on painkillers his
    partner was. “Is there a field announcer?”
    “Are you shitting me?” the umpire said incredulously. Other
    players were beginning to drift closer, obviously realizing that
    something was wrong beyond the crooked plate and Ty‟s supposed
    OCD.
    Alston came jogging up to them from the mound, and Ty took a
    quick step and pointed at him. “Stop!” he shouted urgently before
    Alston could get to home plate.
    The tone of his voice seemed to do the trick. They all knew Ty
    didn‟t screw around, and he sounded truly scared.
    “I‟ll get the announcer going,” the umpire mumbled as he