Cut and Run 4 - Divide and Conquer

better the few nights a week they
    slept together.
    Ty remained still for a long time, trying to piece together
    yesterday and trying to decide just how badly he hurt this morning. He
    felt like he‟d been hit by a tank. Again.
    Finally, he had to shift and roll. He gasped in surprise as he did
    so, not expecting the stabbing pain in his side.
    Zane‟s eyes snapped open, and he pushed himself up on one
    elbow. “Careful, you‟re bruised as hell.”
    “Sorry,” Ty gasped as he tried to decide which way to move.
    Because after he settled, he wasn‟t going to move again. Ever.
    “Need to get up? Might be a good idea. I bet you‟re stiff.”
    Ty grunted and nodded, pushing himself up carefully. He looked
    at the tape on his fingers and grimaced as he sat up fully. Zane stayed
    where he was, watching silently. He was still warm and sleepy, and he
    looked it too.
    “Sorry I woke you,” Ty offered pitifully as soon as he was sitting.
    Zane shrugged and slid back down, pulling his pillow to his chest.
    “Got any Tylenol?” Ty asked him with a wince. He rubbed
    gingerly at his ribs.
    “Yeah. I‟ve not flushed the Vicodin yet, if you want it,” Zane said
    quietly.
    Ty turned and looked at Zane in surprise. Zane raised one brow
    but didn‟t say anything else. Ty gave him a grunt and gingerly laid
    himself back down. He reached out wordlessly with his good hand and
    slid his fingers into Zane‟s as he closed his eyes.
    Zane remained still after curling his hand around Ty‟s, and a quiet
    minute passed before he took a deep breath and let it out loudly before
    sitting up. “I‟m going to get you something. You have to be hurting
    pretty bad.”
    Divide & Conquer | 87

    Ty didn‟t argue. He‟d had so much worse than this, but in recent
    years his motto had become something like “why hurt when you don‟t
    have to?” He opened his eyes and watched Zane appreciatively but
    didn‟t try to sit up again.
    Zane smiled, apparently not surprised by the response. “I‟ll be
    back.” He walked out of the bedroom, disappearing down the hall.
    When he came back, he set the tiny envelope in Ty‟s lap before
    reaching for a bottle of water from the nightstand and offering it to him.
    Ty looked at the packet of Vicodin in distaste as he accepted the
    bottle. “Think it would hurt me any more to take another one?” he
    asked uncertainly.
    “Are you planning on going anywhere? It is Monday, you know,”
    Zane said. “You might at least consider going into work, although….”
    He shook his head as he looked over all the bruises.
    “I have to go into work. I‟ll catch all sorts of shit if I call in.”
    Zane shrugged. “Your choice. You can man up, go to work, and
    be miserable all day, or you can stay here, chill out, and deal with
    people‟s shit tomorrow.” He started pulling clothes out of the closet.
    “You‟re probably all over the news anyway. Again.”
    Ty sighed and started trying to get out of bed. “When you put it
    that way,” he muttered as he stood up.
    Zane picked his duffel up and tossed it on the bed. Then he
    stopped and looked up at Ty. “Would you at least take the Tylenol?
    Because you look like shit and it hurts watching you.”
    Ty cocked his head and grimaced again. “Do I look too bad to go
    in?” he asked with real concern. “I mean from the drugs, not the
    bruises.” He would be damned if word got around that he was hungover
    or high this morning, not after the scene he‟d made yesterday.
    Zane shook his head. “No, you just look like you‟re really in
    significant pain. Of course, other people might not recognize that on
    you and think you‟re being your normal grumpy self.”
    “I can deal with that,” Ty said with a satisfied nod. He winced
    once Zane turned away from him and headed for the spare bedroom,
    where a couple of Zane‟s suits hung in the closet. “Wear the gray one,”
    88 | Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux

    he called out on impulse, hoping Zane would do it just to humor him.
    He loved Zane in that charcoal suit—it made his dark coloring that
    much more striking. Zane might argue against being pretty, but he was
    wrong.
    “Yeah, fine,” Zane called back.
    Ty smiled, then sighed as he looked at the pills in his hand.
    Opening the flap on the packet, he shook the tablets out into his hand
    and contemplated them sourly. Zane came back down the hall just as he
    popped a pill and chased it with a few gulps of water.
    “Guess I‟m driving, then,”