Cut and Run 09 Crash & Burn (48 page)

“You look it. You haven’t been awake. I was getting worried.”

“I could say the same to you,” Zane said with a ghost of a smile. He turned his head further, grimacing as his stitches pressed into the pillow. “Did we win?”

Ty’s stomach tumbled, and his tenuous façade faltered. How was he supposed to answer that question when winning might mean they had lost everything? “Yeah, baby. Yeah, I think we did.”

“How?”

“You used the head of the cartel as a parachute.”

Zane weakly waved his free hand at Ty; the other was trussed up in IVs. “He flew like a dodo.”

Ty’s laugh surprised him, and he tried hard to contain it. It would hurt too much to laugh.

Zane wasn’t laughing, though. “Who made it?”

Ty nearly gasped. “I don’t know,” he whispered, fighting a pain in his heart he wasn’t sure would ever ease. He smiled, though, taking a deep breath. “You did. I did. You and me, baby.”

Zane’s eyes opened a little wider and he focused on Ty, looking him up and down. “No one else?”

Ty’s heart was going so fast his monitors were beeping at him. “I don’t know. Everyone who comes in plays dumb.”

They were both silent for a long while. There was really nothing they could do to get more answers until someone came in to speak with them. It was almost worse not knowing, but for right now, Ty could imagine everyone had made it out alive, even Nick, that he and Zane were the worst of the injuries, that no one had come to see them because they were all out celebrating.

Zane finally wrinkled his nose and winced, reaching up to touch his cheek. “What did they do to me?”

“Things you would not have liked.”

“Didn’t break my nose again,” Zane muttered as he patted his face. Then he raised his arms and stared at the bandages for a long moment. He picked at one to look underneath, and then to Ty’s surprise he let it be, resting his arms back at his sides. He checked Ty over again. “You okay?”

“I’m fine.”

Zane drew a breath like he was going to say something else, but then stopped for several heartbeats before actually speaking. “How long have you been awake? You’ve just been over there stewing, haven’t you?”

“No,” Ty said with a straight face. “I’ve been flirting with the cute nurse every time she comes in to change your cath bag.”

Zane snorted. “Won’t take much to be cuter than me right now.”

Ty shook his head, adjusting his shoulders to a more comfortable position. “I don’t know. You’re kind of cute when you’re all stitched up like Frankenstein.”

“Frankenstein’s monster,” Zane grumbled.

Ty smiled fondly. He was used to Zane correcting his literary references by now. He’d even started making incorrect ones just so Zane could do it. They both knew it, too.

Zane’s chuckling continued for a few more seconds before he fell quiet. Then he asked, “How long have we been here?”

“Nurses told me a day before I woke up. Feels like a week since then,” Ty told him as he tried to adjust and get comfortable. He couldn’t manage it, though. “Maybe two days?”

Zane huffed. “You’re too far away.”

“I was here first. Means you’re too far away.”

“Well.” Zane looked down at himself. He pushed the thin blanket and sheet down and sat, bracing himself on both hands.

“What are you doing! Lay back down, you dumbass, you’re going to tear your stitches.”

“I don’t even know where all the damn stitches are.” Zane surveyed his bandaged chest and then moved the sheet to reveal the gauze wrapped around his thighs. “Okay, I’m not Frankenstein’s monster. I’m the Mummy.”

“Zane, lay back down,” Ty said again, the beeps of his monitoring machines picking up speed.

“Nothing’s beeping on my side,” Zane argued as he lifted the edges of some of the bandages again, trying to see under them.

“Don’t you make me fall out of this bed trying to stop you, Garrett,” Ty growled.

Zane glanced at him, and then carefully lay back down without pulling at any more of the bandages. “I feel pretty okay. Tired, but not too bad.”

“Good for you, Rocky,” Ty griped.

“How long are we going to be stuck in here?”

“Give me a break, would you, Zane? I deserve to stay here with my IV for a while.”

“If I give you more breaks, you’ll be nothing but cast.”

Ty rolled his eyes. “I broke it when I hit the bottom of the pool.”

“You’re lucky only bones broke,” Zane said, pointing at him. “I’d say what the hell were you thinking, but . . . hell, I would have gone after you, too. And if it hadn’t been for you teaching me how to fall fourteen thousand stories to save myself, I probably wouldn’t be in one piece right now at all.”

“You’d be in a lot of pieces,” Ty assured him. He held Zane’s gaze, eyebrow arched. Zane stared right back at him stubbornly.

“I’m digging the tough guy routine,” Ty finally told him with a smirk.

Zane leered. “Getting the blood pumping?”

“No, that’s what the squeezy blanket on my foot is for.”

Zane’s quirked lips pulled into a full grin. “I’m much more fun than a blanket.”

“My blanket isn’t attached to a catheter,” Ty shot back.

“I was going to fix that, but you told me not to.”

Ty rolled his eyes and turned his head away. “You realize we’re looking at our future, right? Two of us in a retirement home, bitching about our catheters and heated blankets.”

Zane chuckled, the sound somehow both warm and tired. “I’m okay with that.”

They both lay silent for a long time. Ty was exhausted and hurting, trying to parse through what he remembered, trying to feel relief over the fact that he had Zane right here beside him and didn’t have to worry or wonder about his fate. Zane was probably doing the same thing, trying to adjust to the knowledge that it was all over, that they’d lived through it. They had each other.

Ty glanced over to find Zane still awake, watching him. Ty smiled tiredly. “Hey, do me a favor and press your call button.”

Zane did so without a remark or question, and it didn’t take long for a nurse to arrive.

“He wakes up mean,” Ty told her with a smile and a wink at his husband. “I’ve dropped my bed thingy.”

“Easy enough fix,” she said as she walked over to Ty’s bed and retrieved the remote. Then she moved to the monitors at Zane’s bedside.

“Do you have any word on our friends?” Ty asked, too impatient to let her get through the pleasantries.

“There was a man here during visiting hours, he said he was your brother.”

Ty’s stomach flipped, and he and Zane shared a worried glance. What the hell would Deuce be doing here? Was the news that bad that he’d had to sail in from his Caribbean vacation to give it to them?

“Would you like me to see if he’s still here?” the nurse asked.

“Please,” Ty managed.

She left, and Ty and Zane lay in uncomfortable silence. Ty fought not to think about all the scenarios that could come out of this, fought to keep his mind clear and peaceful. There was no use in borrowing trouble, no use in thinking of everything he might have lost until he knew for sure. He rolled his head until he could see Zane again, and they stared into each other’s eyes, taking strength and calm from each other.

Zane tried to smile. “It’ll be okay. We’ll handle whatever happens. Together. I love you, Ty.”

Ty swallowed hard and nodded, closing his eyes. He didn’t open them again until he heard light footsteps in the hallway, one foot dragging as the other hit hard with every other step. Oh God, it really was Deuce. Ty stared at the doorway, his heart in his throat. Did that mean no one else had made it? None of them had made it out of that maze of corridors alive?

The man who peaked around the doorframe, though, wasn’t the brother he’d been expecting.

“Johns?” Ty whispered.

Owen gave him a gentle smile and closed the door behind him as he limped into the room. He had some sort of walking boot on his foot, but otherwise he looked pretty good. A little less fully pressed than usual, but at least he was upright. “I told them I was family,” he explained. “It was the only way they’d let me in to see anyone past visiting hours.”

Ty could barely catch his breath. He stared at the man, his head swirling, questions flying through too fast for him to grab one.

“Who’s left?” Zane asked Owen.

Owen glanced between the two of them. “We lost a few.”

“Who?” Ty asked desperately.

“Your FBI man. The tall guy with the dog name.”

“Lassiter?” Zane asked, voice breaking.

Owen nodded. He swallowed hard before continuing. “The CIA guy, Preston. We all know what happened to him. His friend, Cross? He disappeared. No one knows where he went. Liam Bell . . . he
said
you wanted us to claim he didn’t make it out of the complex.” Owen sighed. Ty could see his lips trembling. “Sending a dying message with that jackass, it’s . . . it’s mean, Six.”

Ty nodded. “I’ll apologize later. Right now I’m just glad it wasn’t a dying message after all.”

Owen cleared his throat.

“Our boys?” Ty asked him shakily. If Owen had more bad news, Ty wasn’t sure he could take it.

Owen straightened his shoulders and raised his head. “Nick . . .” He trailed off and stared at Ty for a few heartbeats, then shook his head as he looked down at his hands. “They got him off the street.”

Ty’s world sank into him with a suffocating weight. He fought the tears that choked him, thinking of the way they’d just left Nick in the middle of the road. Those tears would come no matter what he did. At least someone had gotten to him, pulled him out of that mess so he didn’t die there, alone.

He opened his eyes to find the world around him watery, and he fought to focus on Owen again, who was still standing with his head bowed.

When he looked up, Ty was stunned to see him smirking. “They say that stupid motherfucker should wake up any day now.”

Ty stared at him, not even blinking. “What?”

“Someone got him in an ambulance. He’s in bad shape, but he’s alive.”

“Holy shit,” Ty breathed, turning to Zane as a smile began to spread across his face. He couldn’t even be pissed at Owen for the way he’d delivered the news. “The others?”

“Doc and Digger came out a little scuffed, a little worse than me. But they’re both being released right now. I was on my way to see them when the nurse told me you were awake.”

Zane cleared his throat, speaking gently. “What about my other two? Clancy and Perrimore?”

“They’re okay.” Owen winced. “That redhead is not happy with you, though. She says you shot her.”

Zane smiled and relaxed, breathing easier. “I hope she makes me pay,” he said with a chuckle.

“By the way. You shot me too, dickface,” Owen grunted. Zane just laughed. Owen glanced between the two of them, still looking too smug for Ty’s liking. “When you can walk, I’ll take you to the others.”

“Let’s go right now,” Ty croaked. He started pawing at his sheets, trying to get himself free as relief filtered through him.

“Six,” Owen tried.

“I’m not your Six anymore, bud,” Ty said, tears in his voice. He waved a hand as he tried to get out of bed. “I’m just your brother. Now, help me out of this bed.”

Owen gingerly got Ty to his feet, trying to keep all the wires and lines from tangling. He fixed them on a rolling stand and hustled to catch up as Ty shuffled across the room and bent over Zane, smiling gently.

“There’s nowhere to kiss you,” Ty murmured.

Zane gave him a warm smile, his brown eyes dancing with light even though Ty could see pain in them. “It’ll keep. Go on. Tell him I said we have a new season of
The Walking Dead
to watch.”

Ty gave him a kiss on the very tip of his nose, and then, after a moment to consider, he pressed his lips to Zane’s with the utmost care. After making sure he’d had his fill of the way Zane’s breaths felt against his lips, he took the arm Owen offered, and they made their way out of the room and down the hall.

Ty was almost at the end of his strength when they finally reached Nick’s room. The lights were dimmed, only the one above the bed on. Machines beeped accusingly. Ty and Owen found Digger sitting in a chair in the corner, his chin resting on the handle of a cane. Kelly was in a chair by the bed, both hands clutching Nick’s.

They both turned when they heard Ty and Owen.

“Hey, Six,” Digger whispered.

Ty shook his head.

“He says he’s not our Six anymore,” Owen provided, a smile playing at his lips.

Digger scoffed and stood, limping over to pull Ty into a careful hug. They hung on for a few seconds, Digger’s fingers clutching at Ty’s hospital gown. Then they turned to the bed again.

Nick was still, his eyes closed, his breathing shallow.

Kelly gave them a weak smile. “They say he hasn’t woken at all.”

Ty wasn’t sure what to say or do. He moved closer, shivering as the cool air found its way past his blue socks with the paws on the bottom, up his hospital gown. It was hard to breathe, and he wasn’t sure if that was because of his injuries, the drugs, or just seeing Nick in a hospital bed, fighting for his life.

Kelly pulled Nick’s hand to his chest, clutching it as he laid his head on the mattress beside him. Ty sat in a chair on the other side of the bed, sliding his own abused fingers into Nick’s just to make sure Nick knew not to fucking let go. Digger and Owen drew closer, setting up around the bed. They had a lot of time. They could wait for him to wake.