Touch&Geaux (36 page)

years ago; he’s trying to kill me. He’s got us locked down. The

agent we tried to contact for extraction was dirty. I don’t . . .

we can’t get out.”

Burns didn’t respond for a tense moment. Ty licked his

lips, meeting Zane’s eyes.

“I’m sorry, Grady,” Burns finally said, his voice stern and

professional. “I can’t help you.”

Ty stared at the phone, his mouth fal ing open. Zane’s

heart raced. Richard Burns was like a father to Ty. There were

photos of the man holding Ty as a baby on Mara Grady’s wal .

“Uncle Dick . . . we’re going to die down here,” Ty said,

hoarse and pleading. “Please help me.”

“I can’t, Ty,” Burns whispered. “You’re too far out. Good

luck, son.”

He ended the cal , leaving Ty holding the phone in a hand

that had begun to tremble.

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Ty hadn’t said a word since his call with Burns, and Nick

wasn’t sure they were going to pull Ty back from the brink in

time to save any of them.

Digger had taken them through several shortcuts and

odd turns and finally back into the French Quarter. Road

blocks had cropped up everywhere, and there was no way for

the group to get out now. If they were going to escape New

Orleans, they would have to split up to do so. And none of

them were willing to do that.

They headed for the last place Ty knew to go. He said it

was his former boss’s home, the man who’d been murdered

before they arrived in New Orleans. Arthur Murdoch had no

family left, and his house would probably still be vacant. He

had resided in the Tremé, a historical black neighborhood

that bordered the other side of Rampart Street, across from

the French Quarter.

They arrived at Murdoch’s house and sat on it for an

hour to watch it for surveillance. When they found it clear,

they dumped the van nearby, where it was unlikely to be

found any time soon. And if it was found, it would simply

serve to point their pursuers away from the neighborhood.

As they made their way back to Murdoch’s house, Nick got

the impression the area was usually a lively place, though it

was run-down and in disrepair. It was also dead quiet after all

the shooting on Rampart earlier.

They all crowded around Murdoch’s living room, stretched

out on the couch, hovering on the arms of the chairs, and

sitting around the tiny dining table.

“He left you in the wind?” Liam asked in patent disbelief.

“What are you going to do?” Nick asked Ty.

Ty’s jaw tightened and he stood, pacing away from the

rest of them. Nick watched Zane and Liam, who were sitting

at the table. Both men looked worried and defeated.

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“Hey, this isn’t the first time we’ve had to rely on our own

devices, right?” Nick tried. He looked over at Ty, who still

had his back to them, staring at a wall full of photographs

and artwork. Ty was in several of those photos, arm around a

grandfatherly black man in a Panama hat. “Ty?”

When Ty turned, he looked like a different person. His

eyes had gone hard and flat, his mouth set in a thin line. All

the humor and charisma that made Ty Grady who he was

had disappeared, replaced by the soulless, lifeless person the

military had battered them all into. They had been trained

to morph into that person when they needed to act without

emotion. Nick hadn’t seen that look since they’d come home.

It had always ended in blood. It sent a shiver down his spine.

“I need a few minutes,” Ty said, then he stalked through

the room and out the front door.

“Well, that’s that,” Liam sighed.

“What?” Zane asked.

Liam shook his head. “The only things Tyler’s ever

understood were loyalty, honor, and orders. His entire life has

been devoted to them.”

“I know,” Zane growled.

“Do you really?” Liam shook his head. “Because I think

if you did, you’d be a little more frightened right now. Do

you know what happens to people like Ty when they realize

everything they’ve been living for has been a con?”

Zane glanced at Nick quickly, then back at Liam. Nick

lowered his head and closed his eyes.

“Have you ever seen a trained dog that’s always been kept

on a leash?” Liam asked after a few moments of tense silence.

“Only released when the order to kill was given?”

Nick looked up. Zane was staring at Liam, grim.

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No one answered. Liam sat straighter. “Have you ever

seen what one of those dogs will do once no one’s giving it

orders?”

Zane sniffed and ran a hand over his face. He nodded,

staring at the darkened window. “Not a goddamned thing.”

“That’s right,” Liam said in disgust. “He won’t even eat

unless someone tells him to. He curls up and starves without

his master.” He stood and grabbed his jacket.

Nick scowled as Liam pulled on the coat. “What are you

doing?”

“I’m leaving.”

“What?”

“Leave. Ing. Leaving.” He pointed toward the door. “That

is not the man I knew ten years ago. He’s not even half the

man I knew. And now look at him. His heart’s broken, Dick

Burns has betrayed him, and he’s getting his men shot left and

right. He’s done. And I for one don’t intend to follow him

into the hereafter.”

Nick lunged to his feet, shaking with anger. If they knew

half the things he and Ty had done, half the sacrifices Ty had

made to see orders through, it wouldn’t be so easy to sneer.

“Don’t,” Liam grunted. He waved a hand at Nick. “Don’t

defend him. Jesus, it was hard enough watching you two

circle-jerk in service, I don’t need to see it now.”

He headed for the door, still shaking his head. When

he yanked the door open, a hand reached out and grabbed

him by the throat. Liam didn’t have time to react or defend

himself before Ty shoved him back into the room. Nick and

Zane both lunged to their feet.

Liam kicked out, but instead of dropping back and

defending like Ty often did, he attacked. He used Liam’s leg

and then shoulder for leverage, kicking up, wrapping a leg

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around Liam’s neck and twisting and rol ing to slam him to

the floor. The entire house seemed to shake when they hit.

Then Ty was on Liam, his knee in Liam’s solar plexus, his

hand on Liam’s throat again in an iron grip. Liam kicked and

flailed, grasping. Ty easily avoided every attempt he made to

free himself.

“This trained dog’s still got a few tricks up his sleeve,” Ty

snarled.

Liam made a gurgling noise and kicked his feet against the

battered hardwood floor, trying to get leverage. He smacked

at Ty’s face. The veins in Ty’s arm jumped as he squeezed Liam

harder.

“Grady,” Nick shouted, the same voice he’d used to relay

orders. “Let him up.”

Ty squeezed just long enough for Liam to start clawing

at his head. Then he released him, grabbing him by his jacket

col ar and lifting his shoulders off the floor. “You’re in this

until the end,” he hissed. “Is that understood?”

Liam grasped at Ty’s wrists, gulping for air. He nodded.

“As long as you can still do that to someone like me? I’m with

you.”Ty released him and stood. They all stared at him with

wide eyes. “Time to stop waiting for the cavalry.”

A grin slowly overtook Nick, and he sat back down and

put his hand over his mouth to hide it. That was the Ty Grady

he remembered, the one a lost eighteen-year-old from Boston

had fallen in awe of.

He wondered if Zane was seeing the same thing.

Zane’s arms were crossed and his eyes narrowed. “Do you

have a plan?” he asked Ty.

“No. But I’m in a room with some of the smartest, most

devious assholes I’ve ever known. If we can’t slither our way

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out of this, then we don’t deserve our titles.” Ty nodded at

Owen and Digger, then at Nick. Nick smiled.

Liam began to sit up, but Ty put a foot on his shoulder

and shoved him back to the floor. A ghost of a smile crossed

Zane’s lips.

“Right now we have two enemies, after two different

things, who’ve joined forces,” Liam rasped. He shoved at Ty’s

foot. “We need to pit them against one another. Will you get

off me!”

Ty stepped away, smirking at Liam as he pushed himself

off the floor and brushed himself off.

Owen stood from where he’d been lounging on the couch.

“What if we give them what they want?”

Ty sat down hard in the chair Liam had vacated, across

the table from Zane. “I’d rather not die in this plan.”

Owen held up a hand. “They think you’re Tyler Beaumont,

right? Ex-military, wandering performer, hired henchman. CI

important enough for the FBI to try to save.” He shrugged.

“Who’s to say you weren’t hired to off someone?”

Ty cut his eyes toward Nick, not yet willing to say he

wasn’t following but obviously not following any more than

Nick was. Nick shrugged.

“And Garrett,” Owen continued, “he could be a dirty Fed,

still be part of the cartel crowd.”

Ty and Zane shared a look over the table. Both men still

seemed confused.

Digger leaned over and put both hands on his head.

“Johns, I swear to baby Jesus, if you don’t start making sense,

I’m gonna kick you.”

“Listen,” Owen insisted. “Bell contacts the cartel, tells

them Garrett, or whatever name you used, wants a meet with

them. Follow?”

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The room was silent.

“Oh my God!”

“Can you . . . draw it in a chart or something?” Nick asked.

“Look, Garrett’s a dirty Fed. Liam’s a hired gun. They’re

both after Ty, who is a dirty rat.”

“Hey!”

Owen flopped his hands. “Well, you were!”

“Granted, but I am no longer after Ty,” Liam added.

“Turned the job down, remember?”

“Details. Garrett has Grady, wants to trade him in for safe

passage to Miami, and Bell tells the cartel.”

“Why didn’t you just say that the first time?” Liam

grumbled.

“I don’t want safe passage to Miami,” Zane said.

“He’s not being literal, Garrett, Jesus Christ,” Ty snapped.

“I’m sorry, Grady, I have a hard time thinking like an

asshole!”

“He means getting back in good with the cartel. Or

getting out clean, what the fuck ever. Would your cover still

fly with them? Could you go in as a compromised agent?”

“Yeah,” Zane said, nodding slowly. “I was there two years

ago. The story was I got out of prison. When they pulled me,

though, I just disappeared.”

Ty tapped the table. “That was right around the same time

de la Vega was killed.”

“You would know,” Zane mumbled.

“It’s possible he found out you were a Fed, turned you,

and gave you a job to do in the Bureau. You left to do it right

before he was offed, and ever since, you’ve been looking for

the man who killed him. Will that work?”

Zane stared at Ty for several seconds before nodding.

“They’ll be suspicious. Going in and admitting I’m a Fed,

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that . . . that might actually work. Yeah. Yeah, I can work with

that.”“So Zane calls up the cartel boys,” Nick drawled, “tells

them he’s their long lost buddy, and he’s got the man who

killed big papi?”

Digger made a clicking sound with his tongue. “So far, all

I’m seeing is Garrett handing Grady over to the people who

already want him dead and telling them more reasons why he

should be dead.”

“But they’re not the only people who want him dead,”

Owen said.

“You want to play a fiddle game where Ty is the fiddle?”

Liam asked.

“Fuck no.” Ty shook his head. “The fiddle dies.”

“I’m good with it,” Liam said.

“The fiddle is usually an object,” Digger said. “What the

fuck kind of messed up fiddle game you been playing?”

“No, no,” Owen said quickly. “We make the cartel believe

Ty is the one they want, not Zane. And then we call up Papa

Gaudet.”

“Who obviously wants to talk to me before killing me,”

Ty added.

“Right. And we tell him when and where the cartel plans

to acquire and kill Ty.”

“So you’ve, in theory, pitted Gaudet against the cartel.”

Nick winced. “That’s banking on Gaudet still wanting

information from Ty badly enough to keep him alive. And

hoping they’ll fight over him instead of just teaming up to

make him dead.”

Owen’s shoulders slumped and he sat back down. “True. I

wouldn’t want those odds if I was the fiddle.”

“It’s not the fiddle game!” Digger shouted.

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Ty sat silent, resting his chin in his hand and scowling.

His knee began to bounce as he examined the floor. Finally,

he waved his hand and sat up straighter. “So we give them

what they want.”

“You? Dead?” Zane asked incredulously.

Ty nodded. “We don’t need the two sides to wipe each

other out, we don’t need them to fight. We just need them to