Ty chewed on his lip thoughtfully, trying to give Zane a real answer even as he dreaded the punch of the final question. “I missed the smell,” he finally decided.
Most people would have taken that as a joke, but Zane would take it seriously. He’d been there, that somewhere you remembered by feel and scent more so than sight or sound. It was a visceral answer.
“Why?” Ty asked when Zane didn’t respond.
Zane slid his other hand into his pocket and shrugged. “No one ever asked me to remember the good things.”
Ty sighed. He’d done things here he hadn’t necessarily been proud of. But for the most part, it had been two of the better years of his life. He remembered all of it fondly until the end. He knew Zane’s experience in Miami had been vastly different.
They were still standing there, silent and uncomfortable, a few minutes later when Ava returned.
“You find what you need?” she asked, her voice breaking the spell.
Ty cleared his throat and shook his head. “Got distracted,” he said, surprised when his voice came out hoarse.
“I called Shine. He wasn’t home. I can go out there, snoop around.”
“No, I can’t let you do that,” Ty said.
Ava smirked. “You won’t be letting me do anything.”
Zane snorted. Ava looked him up and down, then whistled and shook her head. “Tyler does have a type.”
“Okay,” Ty said loudly.
She merely smiled at him. “I’ll go keep a lookout for your friends.” She turned away.
Zane leaned sideways to watch her walk down the hall. “I like her.”
Ty nodded, unable to say anything.
“Is there anything else you want to tell me before the others get here?”
Ty took in the rigid line of his shoulders, the tension in his jaw, and the hardness of his eyes. Zane had every right to be angry. The timing could have been better, but all of this mess was on Ty’s head.
“I love you,” he said quietly.
“That’s it?”
Ty nodded.
Zane met his eyes for a few seconds before turning away and disappearing down the hall.
Chapter 9
“I would very much like to know what the hell is going on,” Kelly said.
He was sitting across from Nick at the largest table in the place. Nick had his eyes on Liam, who was wandering around the edges of the barroom and refused to sit with the rest of them. Nick didn’t trust the man one bit, but he was willing to hear an explanation from someone before punches were thrown.
The woman who’d let them in, Ava, had subsequently barred the door and disappeared behind a curtain. Nick could hear her moving back there, but he had no idea what she was doing, nor did he really care.
Ty sat to Nick’s right, sedate and unusually flustered. And to Nick’s left sat Zane, who seemed irritated and harsh. It wasn’t difficult to deduce whatever Ty had told Zane had jammed a wedge between them. Nick hoped they could keep it together long enough to get through whatever this was and sort it out when they got home.
The floorboards above them creaked, and all of them looked up.
“Is someone else here?” Owen asked.
Zane shook his head.
“The floors do that,” Ty muttered. He was rubbing the bridge of his nose with two fingers, hunched over the table.
Nick glanced at the ceiling again. The place had an eerie feeling to it, like it had been abandoned by the living but was still occupied. A shiver ran down Nick’s spine. The whole city kind of felt like that, actually. All the voodoo crap was getting to him.
“Garrett, why don’t you fill us in,” Nick said, keeping his voice low. If Ty wasn’t going to lead the discussion, someone had to.
Zane’s dark eyes slid to glare at him, then he glanced up, his gaze following Liam as the man moved. He took a deep breath before speaking. “I was undercover for a while in Miami, working in the Vega cartel.”
“I’ve heard of them,” Nick said. “They reach all the way to Boston sometimes.”
“And further. They got a tip that they had a mole, so they started a witch hunt. I got arrested one night on a DUI and the Bureau took the opportunity to pull me out, to save me and the information I’d stolen.”
Liam drifted closer, and everyone was silent as they waited for Zane to connect the pieces.
“I thought that part of my life was history, but . . .” Zane stared at the tabletop, shaking his head.
Liam cleared his throat. “But. Roughly two years ago Garrett was inserted back into the cartel for a brief stay. He was pulled again, just days before Antonio de la Vega, the head asshole in charge, died in a plane crash in the Caribbean while returning to Colombia. Of course, Zane’s alter ego became the prime suspect within the cartel. Juan Carlos de la Vega took over, righted the Vega ship, and went on a crusade to find the man who murdered his brother.”
“How do you come into this?” Ty asked.
Liam kicked out a chair and sat, staring at Ty. His face was expressionless. “After you shot me, thank you for that by the way, I couldn’t go to the NIA as planned. I had to find work somewhere.”
Owen huffed and leaned away from Liam to look at him. “You’re a mercenary.”
“Pays the bills.”
“Why not NIA?” Ty asked. His frown had deepened.
Liam’s eyes narrowed and he leaned closer. He tapped his chest with one finger. “Because you missed, darling.”
Ty’s eyes followed Liam’s hand, and Nick could see the blood draining from his friend’s face.
“Clipped my heart. The right ventricle.”
Ty either couldn’t or wouldn’t respond. He sat back in his chair, resting his chin in his hand. Nick wondered what was going on inside Ty’s mind, how he would have reacted if everyone at the table weren’t looking to him for leadership.
“It was repaired before I bled out, but they weren’t willing to take an active field agent with a compromised heart.”
“I thought you always had a compromised heart,” Digger muttered.
“That’s funny from you, Back Woods. How many innocent little bunnies do you have strung up in your hunting shed right now?”
“I don’t eat bunny!” Digger shouted.
“Why are you here?” Kelly asked Liam.
“I was hired by de la Vega. He received an anonymous tip saying the man who killed his brother would be here Easter weekend.”
All eyes shifted to Zane, but Zane’s eyes were on Ty. He tore them away to glance around the table. “I didn’t kill him,” he said, returning his gaze to Ty.
“Tyler?” Liam drawled. “Care to share with the class?”
Ty didn’t move, which was never a good sign. He looked from Zane to Liam, then spoke without removing his hand from his chin. “I tampered with the navigational equipment of his plane,” he admitted. “The horizon should have read wrong and they would have flown straight into the water when the autopilot was turned on. I planted explosive charges as a backup.”
Zane inhaled sharply. Nick got the feeling Zane already knew this, but hearing it straight from Ty’s mouth was disconcerting, even for Nick.
“Did you go with the polymer bonded?” Digger asked.
“Slurries and gel mix.”
“Oh, nice.”
“Is that how you broke your finger when we were apart?” Zane demanded. Ty nodded curtly and Zane grunted, looking away with a sneer. “You deserved it, then.”
Kelly cleared his throat and pointed at Liam. “So let me get this straight. You’re here to kill him,” he said, indicating at Ty. Then he gestured to Zane. “But you thought you were after him because he was the mole.”
After a moment of contemplation, Liam nodded. “At its very basic, yes.”
“So why aren’t either of them dead?” Owen asked.
“Well,” Liam said, drawing out the word. “Either I am the worst assassin in the world, which, if you want a hint, is not the right answer. Or . . . I realized I was after a couple of Feds and I pulled out.”
“You refused the job?” Nick asked.
“Yes.”
“You told me you hadn’t called it in yet!” Zane shouted.
“I lied.” Liam winked at Zane. “I do that, remember?”
“Are you lying now?” Nick asked.
Liam grinned as they locked eyes. “Maybe.”
Nick ran a finger over the bridge of his nose. “Either way. By now they’ll have sent a backup.”
“Precisely!” Liam grinned. “You were always the brains of this operation, weren’t you?”
“Bite me, British.”
Liam shivered theatrically and grinned. “They won’t have had the time to plan that I did, so they will go for something with less charisma and more brute strength.”
“How many?” Ty asked.
“I would say six to eight. Just to cover their bases.”
“So, we have cartel hit men after us?” Digger asked. “What the shit does that have to do with gris-gris?”
“What is a gris-gris?” Liam asked.
Liam and Digger stared at each other, eyes narrowing, lips curving into snarls.
Nick passed a hand over his eyes, groaning.
“Why did you come to the hospital?” Ty demanded of Liam.
A frown creased Liam’s brow. “I haven’t been to hospital.”
“You didn’t come to my room and threaten me?”
“Why in the hell would I go to all this trouble if I could have found you at the hospital? Why were you in hospital?”
Ty glanced at Nick and slid lower in his seat, rubbing his hand over his face.
“Does that mean you really did attack a male nurse at the ER?” Owen asked.
Ty nodded from behind his hand.
Liam shook his head, peering at Ty. “You really are off the rails, huh?”
Ty sat forward, holding out a hand. “The point is, the situation has changed. The cleanest way to handle any of this is to skip town.”
“You want to run?” Zane asked, practically sneering.
Nick narrowed his eyes, trying not get defensive. “There’s running and then there’s strategic retreat. It’s good to know the difference.”
“You want to run,” Zane repeated.
“Yes,” Ty said. “We’re not equipped to handle this here.”
“We’ll never have a better chance against them. There are seven of us.”
“Six,” Ty corrected.
Liam counted the men around the table. When he got to seven, he pointed to himself and shook his head. “This is not my fight,” he said. “I don’t plan on dying for any of you.”
Ty and Zane locked eyes again. Nick sort of wanted to lean away from the line of fire.
“You know damn well we will never have another opportunity like this one,” Zane said through gritted teeth. “We know they’re coming. Even if this isn’t their fight, it’s yours and mine.”
“Garrett, we are outgunned,” Ty said, his voice getting louder. He pressed a finger against the table. “We know they’re coming, but we don’t know how or when. And in case you’ve forgotten, there is a city full of cops hunting us down right now. If there’s trouble, we’re just as likely to end up in jail as we are dead, and either way ends bloody for me.”
Zane crossed his arms and huffed. “I never thought I’d see the day I wanted to call you a coward.”
“Whoa,” Owen whispered.
Nick sat straighter and put both hands out. “Okay, slow down.”
Ty stared at Zane, not moving, not blinking. He didn’t even appear to be breathing. Nick tensed, preparing to grab Ty when he lunged. Zane returned the stare, unwavering. Across the table, Liam whistled softly.
Ty stood as if the noise had propelled him, his chair scratching against the wooden floorboards. Nick stood with him, but Ty didn’t attack.
“Where are you going?” Kelly asked.
“To get a drink,” Ty spat. Nick sighed as Ty stalked toward the bar.
“Well that was productive,” Digger muttered.
Nick sat again. Digger and Kelly were both shaking their heads, looking to Nick for guidance. Owen had his arms on the table, resting his head on them. Liam was sitting with his lips pursed, and when Nick made eye contact, Liam grinned and winked. Zane was still leaning back in his chair, but his body wasn’t relaxed. He was resting his mouth against his hand, elbow propped on the arm of the chair. His hard eyes followed Ty’s movements.
“Okay,” Nick said. “Nothing good is going to come of us sitting here sniping at each other. We’ll call it a night, come back with clearer heads at dawn. Keep watch in shifts of two. Bell doesn’t take a turn.”
“You’re putting a guard on me?” Liam asked.
“Yes. Would you like to tell me why I shouldn’t?”
“I’d like to tell you where to go, do I have permission to do that?” He stood, muttering under his breath as he walked away. He said something to Ty as he mounted the stairs, then ducked and covered when Ty chucked a heavy glass at him. It shattered against the wall and rained shards over Liam’s shoulders.
“Excellent idea, Grady!” Liam shouted. He stood from his crouch. “Lace the steps with glass so we can hear them coming, good thinking.”
“Keep running your mouth, you bastard, you’ll wake up bloody!” Ty shouted.
“Yeah, in my sleep, that’s the only way you’ll ever get the upper hand.”
Liam hustled up the steps before Ty could reply, taking them two at a time and narrowly avoiding the second glass Ty threw at him.