Cut and Run 4 - Divide and Conquer

to
    tell where he was. He didn‟t seem to make any other noise when he
    moved. No footsteps, no swish of clothing, no cracking bones or
    creaking joints. Nothing. Eerie. Vintage Ty.
    “Want food? It‟s not too late yet,” Ty asked as he moved away.
    “Yes,” Zane said fervently as he lightly batted after Ty‟s hand.
    “There was nothing wrong with me and still they wanted to feed me
    broth and Jell-O.”
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    “Jell-O‟s good,” Ty argued from the kitchen.
    “Not when you‟re starving, it‟s not,” Zane shot back. He kicked
    off his shoes, making sure to carefully push them under the old coffee
    table before he stripped off his socks and propped his legs up. He
    leaned his head against the back of the couch. With his eyes closed, he
    could almost imagine it was a Sunday afternoon and he was just being
    lazy instead of it being Monday night after the day from the third ring
    of hell.
    “Well, what do you want?” Ty asked in something close to
    annoyance. His voice had moved. He was standing right in front of
    Zane.
    Zane twitched in surprise and his eyes flew open. “Christ, Ty,” he
    complained.
    “What?” Ty asked defensively. “I‟m hungry!”
    “It‟s a good thing I‟ve calmed down recently,” Zane told him. “If
    I‟d had my gun, I‟d have pulled it.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    Zane shook his head and wiped one hand over his face. “Order
    deep dish from Isabella‟s. They should still be open.”
    Ty pressed a phone into Zane‟s hand. “Here. I need ibuprofen,”
    he said as his voice trailed away.
    “Kitchen cabinet next to the sink,” Zane said distractedly as he
    ran his fingers over the buttons, trying to figure out how to do this. It
    was easier to do with his eyes closed, even though he couldn‟t see
    anyway. After two aborted attempts, he got the number he had
    memorized into the phone and made the order for delivery.
    He could hear Ty banging around and rattling the bottle of
    ibuprofen. He heard him open and close the refrigerator. Then he
    stopped making noise again. A few seconds later, Zane heard the pop
    and hiss of a carbonated drink being opened just a few feet away.
    Zane turned his face that way. “You know, I knew you could be
    scary. I just didn‟t realize how fucking scary. I didn‟t hear you move.
    At all.”
    120 | Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux

    “What?” Ty asked in the same distracted, slightly confused tone
    of voice he‟d used earlier. “You want a drink?” he offered belatedly.
    “I‟ll wait for pizza. I said, you‟re so quiet when you move I didn‟t
    hear you at all. Even footfalls in the carpet, and I know how to listen
    for those things.”
    “Oh,” Ty said abashedly. “Sorry.”
    “It‟s okay. Just confirms that you don‟t even have to think about
    it.” Zane tipped his head, turning an ear toward him. “You going to
    stand there ‟til the pizza gets here?”
    “Thought about it. Kinda hurts to sit,” Ty admitted.
    “Still hurting a lot from the baseball game?” Zane frowned. “You
    didn‟t go into the building and get hurt, did you?”
    “Nope,” Ty answered as he sat down. The couch beside Zane
    shifted as he got comfortable.
    Zane still frowned, listening to Ty‟s voice carefully, but there was
    nothing there to clue him in. “I‟d like to know what happened. One
    moment I was walking through this store to check the storeroom, the
    next I‟m waking up to total black.”
    “There was an explosion,” Ty told him. He grunted heavily, and
    the next thing Zane knew, Ty‟s head was resting on his thigh. “About a
    dozen agents and cops were injured. Six of ours in the hospital. No
    fatalities, as far as I know.”
    Zane‟s frown faded, and he moved his hand to gently settle atop
    Ty‟s head, stroking lightly. “You saw it from the truck?”
    “Yeah,” Ty answered softly. He stretched, set his drink on the
    table, then settled back against Zane. “You were carried out by a very
    large fireman named Tank,” he informed Zane in amusement.
    “Tank?”
    “That‟s the guy who ran me over.”
    “Oh yeah, met him at the field briefly.” Zane slid his fingers
    down over Ty‟s cheek. “Got about half an hour on the pizza. Why don‟t
    you catch a quick nap?”
    “You gonna be okay?” Ty asked him, not even trying to argue.
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    “I‟m staying right here,” Zane said, his hand settling on Ty‟s
    shoulder so his fingers flickered along Ty‟s temple