Cut and Run 08 Ball & Chain (22 page)

Zane glanced at Ty, smiling widely. He hefted himself into the saddle easily, making himself comfortable on the large horse. “Come on, doll, go for a ride with me.”

Ty glared at each of them, including the horses. “I hate you all,” he said before reaching for Zane’s hand.

Ty held tightly to his waist, refusing to release him even after the horse had settled into an easy trot. They came abreast of Kelly and Nick, the horses tossing their heads at each other. It was nearly impossible to see under the cover of the trees. Nick’s flashlight was the only light.

“What made you two decide to come down here tonight?” Zane asked them, raising his voice over the clopping of the horses’ hooves.

“Same as you,” Nick answered. “I just needed to know what we were dealing with.” He pulled his flashlight, turning it into a small lantern that he held out between them. His other hand was on Kelly’s waist, resting there. He wasn’t gripping Kelly like Ty was gripping Zane, and he seemed pretty at ease with the whole horse thing even though he wasn’t in control of the animal.

“How does a city boy from Boston get to know horses?” Zane asked.

Nick looked from Zane to Ty, both eyebrows jumping. “Ty never told you?”

Zane glanced over his shoulder. Ty shook his head.

“We were some of the first into Helmand Province,” Nick explained. “The mission was to clear Marja, and we were part of the advance team sent in for recon. But there were no roads. No equipment had even been floated in yet. Nothing but what we could hump in on our backs. The only way to get from one point to another was by horse. We probably spent six weeks on horseback altogether.”

“Oh Jesus, Digger on a horse,” Kelly said. “He kept threatening to make his horse into stew.”

“He
named
his horse Stu,” Nick added.

“And Ty’s kept biting him. I even switched with him after a few days,” Kelly continued. “But then it would gallop to catch up to him just so it could bite him.”

Nick and Kelly both laughed. Their horse shied to the side, and Kelly glanced off into the woods.

“It wasn’t funny,” Ty grumbled into Zane’s ear.

Somewhere in the woods to their right, a tree branch snapped, the sound so loud it startled the horses. A moment later there was a thump and another crack, and Zane would have sworn it sounded like silenced gunshots.

The horses both reared, neighing in terror. Ty’s grip on Zane’s waist tightened, and they both managed to stay in the saddle. Out of the corner of his eye, Zane saw Nick hit the ground. The lantern in his hand went rolling with him, casting garish shadows on the trees around them before it disappeared into the ditch along the side of the path and extinguished, throwing everything into complete darkness. Kelly’s horse bolted, and Zane’s galloped off after it.

Zane fought with the reins, trying to turn the horse, to stop it. They heard shots behind them, not silenced this time, but booming through the wet night. Kelly struggled with his horse, trying to force it to turn back for Nick, but it was too spooked by the gunfire. Zane finally got his horse to stop in the middle of the path. Ty pushed off him, dismounting and hitting the ground with a grunt.

“Go get him!” he shouted.

Zane turned the horse, spurring it to a gallop into the inky darkness.

Nick lay in the middle of the road, staring at the moon through the creepy, bare branches of the trees. He had his gun in his hands, still pointed at the trees on the side of the path. He hadn’t emptied his revolver, even though that had been his first instinct. He had two shots left.

He heard the pounding hooves seconds before he felt the vibrations beneath his shoulders. The fall had nearly knocked the sense out of him, and he didn’t think he could move. That horse was probably going to trample him, and he still couldn’t find the ability to scramble off the path. Instead he raised one hand, aiming his gun into the night sky like he could hit Orion’s Belt. He waited until he could see the outline of the charging animal and then fired into the air.

The horse reared, bucking and trying to retreat, and Zane cursed, trying to calm it.

“O’Flaherty!” Zane shouted.

“Don’t let that thing step on me,” Nick called back.

The horse sidestepped toward him, still nervous but calming as Zane cooed to it. Zane hit the ground just feet away, and then knelt beside him, keeping the horse between them and the woods.

“Are you hit?”

“Stag,” Nick said to him.

“What?”

“It was a stag. I shot it.”

Zane looked over his shoulder into the woods. “It wasn’t shots fired?”

“Nope. Bigass deer. Help me up, huh?”

Zane pulled him up to sit, giving him a moment to make sure nothing was broken before dragging him to his feet. He stretched and shook himself out, managing not to whimper. “I think I broke my ass bone,” he said, and they both grinned.

The other horse trotted up, Kelly and Ty in the saddle. “Are you okay?” Kelly cried.

“I shot dinner,” Nick said.

Kelly snorted. “Look, Hannibal, you can shoot back if they’re shooting at you, but it’s still not okay to eat them afterward.”

Zane retrieved the light, converting it back into a flashlight and holding it up so they could see into the woods. The stag Nick had shot was lying a few yards away, the bullet holes right at its heart, steaming in the night.

“Nice shot,” Zane murmured.

“It was a deer?” Ty asked. “Goddamn, I would have sworn those were shots.”

Nick squinted into the woods, shrugging. That was why he’d started firing back, but he supposed the wet pop of the underbrush with the weight of a deer that size would be as loud as what they’d heard. If not, they’d probably all still be taking fire.

“Let’s get the fuck out of here,” Zane said as he stood. He took the reins and pulled himself into the saddle, then held his hand out to Nick. “You okay to ride?”

Nick gave him a disgruntled nod and hefted himself onto the horse behind Zane. He groaned when he got up, resting his forehead on the back of Zane’s shoulder. “Corpsman up,” he said pitifully.

“Did you break your coccyx?” Kelly asked, just barely keeping the laughter out of his voice.

“You can check it for me tonight,” Nick said wryly.

Ty made an offended sound and followed it with a simple, “Nope!” before spurring the horse into the darkness.

“It bothers you, doesn’t it?” Zane asked as Ty paced in front of the fireplace in their room. Ty hadn’t even shed his dirty clothes yet; he’d been too busy thinking about what Nick and Kelly were probably doing next door.

“No,” Ty insisted. He winced, realizing the lie in his answer. He turned to Zane almost desperately. “Yes. A little. Should it? I feel like it shouldn’t.”

“I don’t know, Ty,” Zane answered. He was sitting at the little desk, booting his laptop up. He still had the flash drive Deuce had given them, and it was the first chance they’d had to look at it.

Ty stopped and ran his hands over his face. “I thought I was okay with it, but it’s
weird
!”

Zane simply smiled and shook his head. “No, it’s not.”

“Maybe not for you. But they’ve known each other for fifteen years, and suddenly they’re all . . . and it’s . . .” He waved his hand helplessly at the wall.

“It’s not the fact that they’re fucking,” Zane told him.

Ty pointed at the wall. “That is exactly what they’re doing!”

Zane smiled, nodding. “Ty. You’re upset because you know there’s something else going on with Nick, and he hasn’t talked to you about it.”

“How could he not fucking tell me about them?”

Zane raised both eyebrows. “Maybe he was afraid you’d react like this?”

“Well, I didn’t do it in front of him!”

“And now that you know they’re together?” Zane continued. “You’re pretty sure he’s told Kelly what’s bothering him, and not you. He’s talked about things with the doc that he used to reserve for you and that upsets you.”

Ty swallowed hard. “When you put it that way, it makes me sound like an asshole.”

Zane chuckled. He was silent for a moment, then cursed quietly. “My laptop’s been fried!” Zane cried. “Son of a bitch!”

“How’d that happen?”

“I don’t know, looks like it didn’t like the trip here; it’s completely dead. I think Nick was right, these islands are cursed.”

“Told you to buy a Mac.”

Zane slammed the lid of the laptop closed and turned away from the desk, coming over to the bed.

Ty watched him, feeling out of sync and a little desperate to understand why.

Zane took pity on him and ran a hand over his head. “He’s your best friend, Ty. It hurts when you feel like your friends are pulling away, I know. I lost every one of mine, but none of them were like Nick is to you, you know? He’s not replacing you with anything. Trust him.”

Ty slumped his shoulders, his brow furrowing as he looked down at the USMC signet ring on his finger. He twisted it, trying to find the truth in Zane’s words. Aside from Deuce, Nick was the most consistent, oldest friend Ty had. They had been through everything together, shared everything together. They’d lived in the same room in some fashion for almost seven years; in some ways they were closer than brothers, and they had no secrets.

Or they hadn’t, until the last few years. Ty shook his head. No, it was earlier than that. It was when he’d signed on for the FBI, for Burns’s work. Ty had been so angry that Nick wouldn’t come with him, he’d just shut him off entirely. He supposed that had been the beginning of the secrets. The beginning of where they were now. They’d reconciled, but their friendship had felt different ever since. There had been times during their deployment when Ty had been sitting in the canteen and seen Nick walk in, but Nick hadn’t come over to sit and talk. A few times Nick had even acknowledged him, but gathered his food and left anyway. There had been moments they’d passed each other in camp and Nick had saluted and been on his way without even a knowing smirk at the oddity of Ty’s rank.

Ty groaned and threw himself onto the bed, staring up at the high ceiling. “I feel like I lost him somewhere.”

Zane stretched out next to him, lying on his side so he was facing Ty. “Did you ever think maybe he feels the same way?”

When Ty glanced at him, Zane was smiling.

“What?”

Zane shrugged. “Out of all the problems we could be lingering on tonight, I think it’s kind of sweet that you’re moping about your best friend.”

Ty rolled his eyes. He finally snorted and swiped his hand over his face.

“You want to shower?” Zane asked, lowering his voice suggestively.

“Yeah,” Ty whispered.

“You want to get dirty first?”

Ty raised one eyebrow in a show of detached interest, trying to hide his smirk. He turned his head, looking Zane up and down.

Zane grinned, his eyes warming. He rested his hand on Ty’s chest, pushing the buttons apart to get to skin.

“Let’s go to the hot spring,” he suggested, the warmth in his eyes turning into outright fire.

“But it’s all the way down there,” Ty protested, pointing toward the balcony.

“It’s in its own little area . . . secluded . . . steamy.”

Ty began to smile, but he held his ground, shaking his head. “You kinky little exhibitionist, you.”

“I’m just suggesting that a hot soak would feel
really
good for aching muscles.”

“I do have some aching muscles.”

Zane hummed and scooted closer, nudging his nose against Ty’s chin.

Ty closed his eyes and smiled, sliding his hand up Zane’s back. “You were sexy as hell on that horse tonight. Riding to the rescue.”

Zane stole a kiss. “I can think of someone else I’d like to see riding something.”

Ty bit his lip, loath to admit that he enjoyed Zane’s cheesy come-ons. He wrapped his arms around Zane and brushed the tip of his nose against his lover’s. “Whatever makes you happy, Lone Star.”

Zane chuckled. “Come on, Captain. It’s late. No one else will be out there.”

“I thought you said I need rest for the vapors. Thought you said you were tired.”

“I was until I thought about you and me in that damn hot spring.”

Ty hummed as his body responded favorably to the idea. Zane’s playful smile was another reason to say yes. No matter what had happened to Ty and the rest of Sidewinder while they’d been deployed, Zane had definitely benefited from those six months. He seemed unburdened now, more willing to simply grab onto life and go for a ride. Ty brushed his fingers through Zane’s hair with an affectionate grin.