Cut and Run 7 - Touch and Geaux

walked over to Liam and Ava instead. Ava flinched from him when he reached up to take the bandana out of her mouth, and Ty belatedly saw the bruise forming on her cheekbone. “It’s okay,” he said.
    She glared at him as he pulled the bandana down.
    “Did you call him?” Ty asked, voice pitched low.
    She swallowed hard. “Yes.”
    Before she could explain, Ty stuffed the bandana back in. She thrashed her head, but Liam held her still as Ty tightened it and silenced her. Then he turned on Liam, who grinned and patted him on the shoulder.
    “That bruise your handiwork?”
    Liam rolled his eyes. “She grassed us out. And she may still have got the doc killed. So don’t cry to me, Argentina, she got what she deserved.”
    He moved to pass Ty, but Ty stopped him with a hand on his chest. “We all get what we deserve,” Ty whispered in his ear.
    Liam cocked his head, mere inches from his face. Then he sniffed and pushed past him. Ty took Ava by the arm and pulled her with him, pointing in the direction of the house he’d been held at. “Your daddy is that way. Start walking.”
    Her dark eyes glared at him, but she jutted her chin out and started off down the crumbling road without looking back.
    “You sure that’s a good idea?” Nick asked.
    Ty nodded. “Keeping her around would be like trying to keep a raccoon in a cage. You’ll end up bloody. With rabies.”
    Nick chuckled and climbed into the van. Ty looked to Zane again, feeling his chest growing tighter. Liam stepped up to Zane, breaking the eye contact between them before Ty could say anything. He held up a hand, grasping Zane’s and pulling in closer to hug him. “You’ll do all right, mate! Bloody hell!”
    Ty’s attention was still on Zane when Liam turned back to him. Liam gave him a shove. “He deserves a bit more than your usual rescue blowjob, yeah?”
    Ty tore his eyes away from Zane.
    Liam grinned widely. “You don’t give it to him, darling, I sure as hell will.”
    Ty swung at him before he’d thought it through, before it registered that Liam’s words had made him angry. Possessive. Jealous as hell. His punch didn’t land flush, though, because Liam leaned away and blocked Ty’s hand. He wrapped Ty’s arm up and twisted it, pulling Ty sideways toward him.
    Ty grunted and arched his back as Liam torqued his arm and shoulder. Liam put his lips to Ty’s ear, and when he spoke it was in whispered Russian. “Now, now, darling, wouldn’t want you getting hurt in a fight for a man you’ve already lost.”
    Ty managed to land a jab to his midsection before Liam shoved him away as if Ty were some untrained drunken brawler.
    Liam waved a hand at Zane. “Now give me back my motorbike before I knock you off it.”

    Zane sat in the passenger seat of the van as Digger drove. He didn’t know where Sidewinder had found the various vehicles they’d driven to the Ninth Ward, only that Owen claimed they had “permanently borrowed” the van from the rental place near the French Quarter. He didn’t care. His mind was roiling now that they’d pulled off the rescue.
    He kept seeing Ty tied down to that chair, at the mercy of a large hunting knife wielded by an even larger man. He kept hearing Ty’s desperate cry of “Zane!” ringing in his ears. He’d forgotten all the anger, all the hurt and humiliation, forgiven it in a heartbeat when he’d thought Ty might be taken from him.
    But now it was all flooding back, and the way Ty stared at him, his eyes flat and lifeless, his jaw set in a hard line, made Zane cold all over. They couldn’t even say they were back at square one, because now there was so much betrayal and anger between them, Zane could feel the chasm widening.
    Nick’s words echoed in Zane’s ears. What the hell kind of person had Ty been that even Nick was afraid of him?
    “Who’s got a phone?” Ty asked. He was sitting in the middle of the bench seat, between Owen and Nick.
    Zane shifted in his seat to look back at him. “Who are you calling?”
    Ty cleared his throat, barely meeting Zane’s eyes. “Burns. Even he can’t save my job now, but at least he can get us out.”
    Zane locked eyes with him, knowing what that would mean, knowing that a life without his job, without a purpose, was one of Ty’s biggest fears. Nick’s warning echoed again. What would Ty turn into without a purpose, without that anchor? He nodded, though. It was their last resort.
    “Are you sure you want to do that?” Nick