by Abigail Roux
Zane’s stomach lurched at the thought. Ty wasn’t the happy escape Becky had been for him. He might never offer Zane the warmth and light Becky once had, but Zane knew Ty would be there in the dark. In the last twenty-four hours, Zane had lost sight of that, blinded by the anger.
“Where would he go?” Liam asked as he led them through the hallways, looking for a back exit.
“You’re asking us to think like Ty?” Owen snorted. “I don’t think that’s possible; my brain isn’t powered by squirrels on treadmills.”
Nick shook his head, unbuttoning his bloody shirt as he walked. He shrugged out of it and dumped it into a hamper in the hallway. The others followed suit, discarding as much of their bloody clothes as they could in various nooks and crannies they passed on their way out.
“He’d go where they’d least expect,” Nick said.
“Somewhere public?” Digger asked.
“The hotel, maybe. The rooms are still under your name, they can’t be traced to Ty or Garrett,” Owen said to Nick.
“That’s how they found him to start with,” Nick growled. “He’s familiar with this city, there’s no telling what kind of places he knows.”
Zane inhaled sharply. “Ava.”
Nick looked over his shoulder at Zane, eyebrows raised. “Maybe so. If he didn’t go back there for help, maybe she’ll know where he would go.”
“He doesn’t know Ava’s the one who called her father.”
Nick stopped short, and Zane almost barreled into him. “Wait, she what?”
Zane huffed. “She’s the one who called her father. She hoped Ty would go up against him and take him out.”
“That chick’s all wrong, man,” Digger whispered.
The change that came over Nick O’Flaherty was almost frightening. His face hardened, his eyes going a deep, striking green when he lowered his head. He glanced at Owen and Digger, and both men nodded at some unspoken communication.
Nick headed off toward the exit, Owen and Digger on his heels.
“Oh dear,” Liam said with a sigh.
“What the hell just happened?” Zane asked.
“You flipped the wrong switch in that one. I think we’ve just landed the job of white knight,” Liam grumbled. He started after them at a jog. “Let’s go save the girl from the rabid Yank Marines.”
They double-timed it from the hospital, skirting the edges of the confusion and panic that was now the French Quarter, and headed for Marigny and Frenchmen Street. Nick kept looking down each street as they ran by, both hoping to see signs of Ty’s passing and praying he didn’t. The chaos meant the pursuit had been hard and fast, and it seemed to have encompassed two or three blocks.
Ty had made a worthy chase of it, at least.
Nick hoped the calm of the latter regions meant that Ty had gotten away and blended into the scenery, rather than getting caught.
“What’s the reach on these ear buds?” Zane asked. He refused to slow down, and for once Nick was glad for the man’s stubbornness.
“You got to be in a mile range of the hand unit,” Digger answered. “If Ty’s got his unit on him, we should be able to hear him and he should be able to hear us.”
“So we can’t hear him, that means he dropped his radio?” Owen asked.
“Or his ear bud. Or he went into the drink. Or he’s underground. Or he’s behind lots of concrete. Or somewhere the signal’s getting jacked.”
“Digger!”
“What? They ain’t military grade. Damn.”
“Have any of you actually tried contacting him?” Liam asked.
They had to stop at Esplanade to wait for the heavy traffic. Nick put a finger to his ear and pulled the hand unit out, holding it up for the best reception he could give it. “Grady?”
They all waited, breathing shallowly to better hear.
All Nick received was the buzzing of radio silence in his ear.
“Maybe he’s hiding,” Zane said. “Maybe he can’t talk.”
“Yes, we’ll go with that,” Liam said, sarcasm dripping from his words.
Nick stared at him for a long moment, and when Liam met his eyes, Nick hit him. Liam tumbled to the sidewalk as everyone else watched impassively.
Digger patted Nick’s shoulder. “Me too, brother.”
Liam sat up and wiped a hand over his mouth. “Do you feel better?”
“A little,” Nick said. The signal changed and they hustled across the street after Zane helped Liam to his feet.
When they reached La Fée Verte, the bar was closed down. Zane banged on the door and shouted for Ava to open it, but they got no response.
“The fucking place has no ground floor windows,” Owen said as they all examined the façade of the building for any point of entry.
“It’s all right, lads, daddy’s here,” Liam drawled. He stepped up to the door, digging in the backpack he was carrying.
“What are you doing?” Nick asked.
“Blowing your mind, love.” Liam pulled out two small squares of off-white clay.
“Is that C4?” Zane asked.
“PE4, thank you very much.” Liam molded the plastic explosive against the hinges of the door.
“You don’t really understand going under the radar, do you?” Nick grumbled.
“You Recon boys sneak under the radar,” Liam said as he set the charges. “The Special Air Service gets shit done.”
Owen raised an eyebrow at Nick. “If you want to hit him again, I’ll hold him down.”
“Maybe later,” Nick said. They all moved away and threw themselves against the wall.
Liam lit the charges and then hustled down the wall, flattening himself at Zane’s side. The blast was small, and the sound was almost entirely covered by the racket of the Easter festivities and the live bands warming up nearby.
Zane was at the door before the smoke even cleared, kicking it off its destroyed hinges.
“You’re welcome!” Liam called after him. “Good lord, to watch him you’d think Ty gave reward blowjobs for being rescued.”
They streamed into the bar one after the other, clearing the room. Zane had already found Ava by the time Nick entered, grabbing her before she could barricade herself in the office. Zane held her around the waist as she struggled.
Nick stalked up to her and grabbed her chin, forcing her to look at him.
“Where are they?”
She was breathing hard, gritting her teeth. “I don’t know.”
“But you know they have him.”
“I didn’t want Ty hurt.”
“That why you threw a butcher knife at him when he left before?” Zane growled in her ear.
“Says the man who threw him into a table,” she snarled. She was still meeting Nick’s eyes. “I didn’t know Daddy had help. I swear. I thought you boys could take him.”
“Doc’s in the hospital dying,” Nick sneered. “And you’re sorry.”
Her eyes widened.
Liam came up behind Nick and patted him on the shoulder, pulling at him gently. Nick released her and backed away before he was tempted to really hurt her. Then Liam reached out to pat Zane’s arm. “Let her go,” he said, his voice oddly soothing.
Zane lifted his chin stubbornly, but he did. Liam took her by the hand and led her to one of the barstools nearby. He sat her down and cupped her face.
“We need your help, dear, or Ty’s days are up.”
She glared at him for a few breathless seconds and then nodded.
“Where would he go if he was being chased?”
“Harrah’s. He always told me, if I got in trouble, to get to the casino. Something about facial recognition. Every bad in town knows they have it, they won’t risk getting swiped by it.”
Liam nodded at Zane and Nick. That was a plan that sounded decidedly Ty-like.
“Now,” Liam continued, his voice still low and almost seductive. “If your father were to get his hands on Tyler, where would he take him?”
“He wouldn’t take hi
m anywhere. He’d kill him right away.”
Liam tutted, still looking her in the eye. “I don’t believe so. Ty told us your father tried to set him up for murder first. He wanted him in his jail, not dead. He wanted to speak to him before he killed him. Think hard.”
Ava shook her head almost defiantly.
“Somewhere underground maybe?” Owen asked.
“There’s no underground in New Orleans,” Zane growled. “It’s all water.”
“He’d take him somewhere no one would hear him scream,” Liam whispered to Ava.
She nodded, closing her eyes. “The Lower Ninth Ward. He’d take him there.”
Liam snapped his fingers at Digger. “You know where that is?”
“Yeah. Area got flooded by Katrina when the levees broke. There’s whole blocks of wrecked houses just sitting there empty. It’s not too far.”
Liam nodded, then turned and backhanded Ava off the stool.
The others jumped, and Owen shouted in protest. Even Zane moved to intercede, but Ava remained on the floor, unconscious.
“What the hell?” Nick cried.
Liam shrugged and poked her with the toe of his boot. “Now we have leverage.”
“What if Gaudet doesn’t have him?” Nick gritted out.
Liam pursed his lips, then shrugged again. “Then that was for the doc.”
“You’re either real stupid or real brave.”
Ty shook his head. The world was spinning. He couldn’t feel the ground under his feet.
“Why are you back in town, Tyler?”
Ty looked up at Commander Louis Gaudet. “Do you . . . do you ever become just very aware of your ears? They’re . . . right there on your head.”
“Is he high?”
“Probably,” Shine answered.
Gaudet’s voice came from right in front of Ty’s face. “Is that some sort of code, boy? You took his little radio away, didn’t you?”
“Yes, sir,” Shine drawled. He pointed to a pile of Ty’s effects in the corner of the room.
“Even so, check him for a wire.”
The big man grabbed Ty’s shirt and yanked it, pulling the buttons from their threads. Rough hands patted him down. Ty’s head fell forward. He couldn’t seem to make the spinning or the buzzing stop.
Fingers gripped his hair and yanked his head back. A callused hand smacked his face.
“Wake up, damn it!”
Ty forced his eyes open and inhaled noisily. Louis Gaudet peered at him. His face wobbled and Ty tried to blink the apparition away.
“What the hell is in that powder?” Ty asked.
“Couple things. Valerian root. Poppy dust. Bones of a pure white cat.”
“That’s messed up, man,” Ty mumbled. “You’re messed up.”
He looked Shine up and down. The man had gained some muscle in the last five years, if that was possible. Ty’s eyes landed on a cylinder shape in Shine’s pocket. It was either a tube of his fucked-up hoodoo dust, or it was one of Ty’s EpiPens from the room above the bar. Zane had dumped them out, and Ty hadn’t been able to find them all in his haste to pack up that morning. That meant Shine had been in that room, which meant Ava had either given them up or been forced to talk.
Ty closed his eyes. “How much poppy dust?”
Shine laughed, and a moment later a bucket of water hit Ty’s face. He gasped, trying not to hyperventilate as the icy water trailed down his arms to drip off the ropes that bound his hands.
“Why are you back in town, Tyler?” Gaudet asked.
Ty worked hard to swallow. He shook his head. “You wouldn’t believe me.”
“Try us, son. We got all day and all night to get the real story from you.” He held up a syringe and waved it for Ty to see. “We can make it a quick overdose, or we can make it a painful one. Your choice.”
Ty closed his eyes and nodded. “Okay. Okay.” He licked his lips and began to flex his muscles, testing the ropes. His wrists were tied to the back legs of the chair, and his ankles were secured to the front legs. The water had given him a little leeway, but he still couldn’t get free. “I . . . I’m here on a job.”
“What sort of job?”
Ty opened his eyes as the buzzing in his ear continued. He was breathless, but that was good. It gave his words an element of truth, made it harder to detect a lie. “I hunt vampires.”
Gaudet stared for a few seconds before straightening with a loud sigh. “Vampires.”
“You have a very serious vampire problem here.”
Gaudet rolled his eyes and scrubbed at one cheek. He looked at his son. “Shine? Make him sorry for pulling my leg.”
The big man began to wrap a strip of cloth around his knuckles.
“No, Shine,” Ty groaned. He shook his head. “Down boy.”
Shine began to laugh. “Boy, you got bad gris-gris sticking to you. Almost like you’re cursed.”
“That was you, huh?” Shine nodded and Ty chuckled, even more breathless and hoarse than before. “Is this a bad time to talk about how I fucked your sister?”
Shine backhanded him hard enough to tilt the chair.
Gaudet sneered. “You got a smart mouth on you, boy. Always did. Shine’ll fix that right up, though.”
“He better hurry,” Ty managed to say. He gulped for air, trying to force himself to hyperventilate. He had to be convincing.
Gaudet bent in front of him, narrowing his eyes. He waved at Shine. “He’s having one of those damn allergy attacks,” he said, disgusted. “I told you not to use that damn powder, boy, now he’s gonna die before he can talk!”
“How in the hell are we supposed to search an entire neighborhood of ruined houses?” Owen hissed.
Zane pulled out a top shelf bottle of whiskey and didn’t offer to share.
Nick sat beside him and leaned close so no one else would hear him. “You want to go easy on the hooch, Garrett?”
“What’s it to you?” Zane whispered. He stared at the tabletop, unable to get Ty’s face out of his mind.
“You’re sitting here drinking when Ty’s in trouble. That doesn’t seem like the Zane Garrett I met.”
“That man died last night.”
“I get it,” Nick said. “He lied to you.”
Zane glanced at him then looked away quickly. The last person he wanted to talk to about this with was Nick O’Flaherty. Hell, the man was probably standing in line waiting for Ty to be single.
“You know what, Zane, he lied to us too. In fact, I don’t know a single person Ty hasn’t lied to, including himself.”
Zane huffed and took another drink of whiskey. “You must be one hell of a loyal bastard.”
“He’s earned it.”
“Has he? Has he really earned that from you, O’Flaherty? Because I thought he’d earned it from me too, and then I found out the truth. I found out he uses things like love and loyalty as tools.”
“You have no idea what love and loyalty mean to him if that’s what you really believe.”
“No?” Zane took a gulp of whiskey. “Why don’t you educate me then, O’Flaherty, because you know him so fucking well.”
“I know Ty’s not all there,” Nick said, tapping his temple with a finger. “He has always been a step away from the wrong path. One screw comes loose, and he’s gone. The only thing keeps him on the side of the righteous is his loyalty. His sense of purpose. You take that from him? And you’re looking into the eyes of a monster.”
Zane glanced at Nick, surprised by how hard the words hit him.
“So you question his motives. You question his tactics. But you be damn sure you know what you’re doing before you question his loyalty.”
“Two days ago, I was trying to decide how to ask him to marry me,” Zane whispered. “Tonight I’m trying to figure out if I can even love someone like him.”
Nick was silent for a long while, long enough for Zane to drain his glass. Then he leaned closer. “You ask yourself if you’re in love. You’re not asking the right questi
on.”
Zane laughed bitterly. “What’s the right question?”
Nick pressed a finger onto the table. “Would you bust him out of prison?”
“No,” Zane answered immediately.
Nick sat back, eyebrows climbing high. “No?”
“No,” Zane said again. He poured another glass, gritting his teeth. “I wouldn’t let him make it to a cell.”
“How is that not enough?”
Zane glared. “Look, I know you’re the team mother or whatever, but stop. I’m not part of your team.”
Nick tilted his head. “You are now. And I know if Ty were here, he wouldn’t want to see you like this.”
Zane slammed a hand on the table and grabbed Nick’s shirt collar. “Well Ty’s not here!”
Nick didn’t retaliate or try to break his hold. He just put a hand on Zane’s shoulder. “So help me find him. And I’ll help you break him out of jail.”
Zane wanted to lash out, to shout again or to shove him away. But it was nearly impossible to remain angry and sullen under Nick’s calming influence. Besides, Ty needed them. He let go of Nick’s shirt and sat back. Nick reached slowly for the bottle, giving Zane a chance to stop him; Zane shook his head and stood up, running both hands through his hair. “Just put it where I can’t find it.”
Liam cleared his throat loudly. “Now that that crisis has passed, can we focus here?”
Zane glowered at him, but Liam merely leered in return.
“Okay, we can narrow it down,” Digger said. He took out his combat knife and gouged a deep line across the table. “This is the canal. When the levees broke, the barges in the canal and the storm surge took out most of the houses alongside it. What’s left in these first few blocks,” he said, slashing the table into a grid, “is nothing but empty lots or rebuilt homes.”
Zane studied the grid closer. “So we can narrow it down.”