Touch&Geaux (14 page)

“Thanks, Zane,” he whispered.

Zane pulled Ty’s hand to his lips and kissed his knuckles.

“Ugh, gross,” Digger said with a laugh.

“And we’re leaving,” Nick added. They headed for the

door, but Ty knew they wouldn’t go far. They could smell

trouble just like he could. The door closed and Ty returned

his gaze to Zane.

“I hate seeing you like this,” Zane whispered.

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Ty laughed. Hard. He was folded up in a rol ing hospital

bed with an IV in his arm and a catheter in a less pleasant

place, wearing hospital-issue socks with little rubber paws on

the bottoms and a gown that didn’t close all the way in the

back. And Zane hated seeing him like this?

“I hope so!” he said. He covered his mouth to stop the

snickering, but his eyes watered as he watched Zane. His

partner did offer him a weak smile, but he wasn’t hiding the

worry in his eyes.

“Oh come on, Zane!” Ty said as he squeezed his hand.

“Enjoy it while my meds last.”

“I’m not enjoying anything until you’re healthy and out

of here.”

Ty sobered and looked at him apologetically. He patted

his hand. “Last time it only took a few hours from start to

finish. I just didn’t have any drugs, so I was begging O and Eli

to kill me the whole time. This time is much more fun so far.”

Zane moved his other hand so both of them closed around

Ty’s. “Maybe some of it will be lingering when I get to take

you out of here. You can be a lot of fun when you’re so open to

suggestion,” he drawled, making a visible effort to relax.

That got another round of laughter out of Ty, and he had

to be careful not to move his legs or roll as he cackled at his

lover. “Because nothing says sexy like a catheter.”

Zane finally laughed with him. “Not my kink, but okay.”

Ty was still laughing when a nurse poked her head into

the room to check on them. “I see he’s feeling better.”

“Don’t let it fool you,” Zane said, turning his head to look

at her. He didn’t let go of Ty’s hand. “He’s got the good drugs.”

“Oh I know it, honey, I gave them to him.”

Ty was still laughing. The nurse came into the room and

changed his saline bag, telling him the more he got in him,

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the easier the stone would pass. She checked his vitals, then

moved on, leaving them alone again.

“I almost think I’d rather be gut shot than have to pass

a kidney stone, from the sound of it,” Zane said once she

disappeared.

“Same here,” Ty muttered. Suddenly, nothing was all that

funny anymore.

Nick and the others were in the waiting room, sprawled

among the sick and injured, when Zane joined them. Zane

had no idea how to proceed. He didn’t want to be around

Ty’s Recon team without Ty there as a buffer, and he certainly

didn’t want to go to the New Orleans PD and tell them

his lover had been cursed by voodoo and wanted them to

investigate. He wished Ty had never answered that phone call

in Baltimore right now.

“How’s he doing?” Kelly asked.

Zane winced and shrugged. “He’ll be fine. They’ve got

him drugged up. Now he just has to wait it out, I guess.”

“The one thing Ty hates doing most,” Digger mused.

“Waiting. So poetic.”

“You’re a sick man, D.”

“He ruins every trip,” Nick muttered. He smiled at Zane.

“What do we do about the hoodoo thing?”

“What hoodoo thing?” Owen asked.

Digger poked at him. “That voodoo you do, baby!”

Owen batted Digger’s hands away. “Stop it, what is wrong

with you?”

“Ty found one of those gris-gris bag things under his

pillow this morning,” Nick explained.

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“Like the one with the dead girl?” Owen asked.

“He thinks he’s cursed.”

“He wants us to report it to the police,” Zane said with

a grimace. The bag was in his pocket, and he pulled it out to

look at it.

“He wants to report being cursed to the police?” Owen’s

voice had gone flat.

Nick stood and stretched. “I’m going out on a limb and

guessing they get that a lot down here.”

“So what do we do? Are we really going to call the police?”

Kelly asked, smirking. They were all looking to Nick to make

the decision. Zane supposed that was their habit, since Nick

had been the team’s second-in-command.

“He does have a point. The dead girl had a hoodoo bag,

and whoever put that shit in Ty’s room was slick enough to

get in and out without either him or Zane noticing.”

“Did you two stumble into the room groping each other?”

Owen asked Zane.

Zane glared at him for a second before deciding it didn’t

warrant a response.

“Anyway,” Nick said loudly. “I’ll call the number they left

me when I gave my statement last night. Let them decide if

they want to pursue it as a lead.”

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

“What about him?”

“You can’t let the cops come here and interview him. They

might recognize him.”

Nick glanced toward the doors, chewing on his lip. “We

can’t report it without him.”

“Do we have to report it at al ?” Kelly asked.

“Ty is drugged up to his asshole right now; can’t we just

tell him we called it in and let it drop?” Digger said.

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Nick stared at him for a long moment, then met Zane’s

eyes with a shrug. “Works for me.”

Zane rolled his eyes. “We’d be withholding evidence in a

homicide investigation.”

“It’s either that or run Ty right into a whole load of

questions with no answers.”

“How do we know this bag thing is even connected?”

Owen asked. “Are we going on Ty’s assessment? Because he

didn’t even see the other one.”

“A valid point,” Kelly said. “He’s also high. I mean . . . y’all

remember the last time he was high?” He began to laugh, then

cut himself short and schooled his expression when no one

else laughed with him.

Nick had his hands stuffed in his pockets, not reacting as

each man offered up his opinion. He glanced to Zane again.

Zane found himself nodding. He was tired of finding himself

embroiled in problems that weren’t his.

He immediately chastised himself. Truth and justice were

part of his job. What the hell was he thinking? If that bag had

any possibility of being linked to the murder of that girl, they

had a responsibility, not only as officers of the law, but also as

human beings, to report it.

Nick seemed to read his expression, and it wasn’t the first

time Nick had done so since Zane had met him. The man was

perceptive as hell. “Okay. You and I will go down there and

turn this thing in. If we can keep his name out of it, we will.

If not . . . maybe we can use the FBI thing to slip past it. You

have your badge?”

“Yeah. What about Ty?”

“We’ll stay here. Make sure he doesn’t die,” Kelly offered,

smiling widely.

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“That’s . . . that’s comforting, thank you,” Zane drawled.

Kelly shrugged. “I do what I can.”

Ty faded in and out of sleep after Zane left him. It was

easier to let whatever was in that IV do its work than to fight

it trying to stay lucid. He dozed, never quite sure when he

was asleep and dreaming, or when he was awake staring at

the ceiling and listening to the beeps and thrums of the busy

emergency department.

At times he dreamed of visitors coming to see him. Zane

holding his hand. Nick sitting on his bed to laugh at him.

Kelly bending over him to check his vitals. Sanchez begging

him to wake up and move before they were blown up. Deuce

sitting by his bed with his brand new baby girl in his arms.

Chester waving a shovel at a nurse.

He would sort out the reality from the hal ucinations

later.Something jostled the bed and Ty forced his eyes to open.

There was a man sitting on the side of the hospital bed, dressed

in blue scrubs and sunglasses.

“Hello, Tyler,” he said, British accent steeped in sarcasm.

“Fancy meeting you here.”

Ty jolted in bed, adrenaline racing through him when he

recognized his visitor.

“Liam.”

Liam Bell’s lips curved into an evil smirk. Ty tried to sit

up, but Liam put a hand on his sternum and shoved him back

to the mattress.

“Don’t make a fuss, love, I won’t be long.”

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Ty reached to grab at the front of his scrubs, but Liam

gripped his wrist, twisting Ty’s arm away and pinning it to the

hospital bed.

“You never did handle the hard stuff well,” Liam said as

he peered at the little machine that registered Ty’s heart rate.

“Calm down, I’m not here to hurt you. Yet.”

Ty’s other hand grasped at him. “Why are you here?

How?”

“Haven’t you heard? Revenge is all the rage this season.”

He leaned closer to Ty’s face, using his elbow to push into Ty’s

chest. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

“Where have you been?”

Liam smiled crookedly and peered over the tops of his

sunglasses, blue eyes shining. “The same place you have, Ty.

Hell.”

Ty gasped for air. He couldn’t understand why he couldn’t

defend himself, why his breath was so hard to catch. “Did you

leave the bag?”

“I don’t intend to kill you when you can’t fight back.”

Liam leaned closer, close enough for his breath to gust across

Ty’s face. “We shall meet again, Tyler. When you’re well. Until

then.”

He pulled away from Ty’s grasp, which was easier than it

should have been. Ty struggled to sit up, but Liam was gone.

They went a few blocks before Nick worked up the nerve

to broach the subject with his companion, but he took a deep

breath and cleared his throat. “Hey, Zane, I need to apologize

to you. For the others.”

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Zane glanced at him as they walked, eyebrows raised.

“What for?”

“They’re assholes.”

Zane laughed, shaking his head. “They haven’t done

anything.”

“Yeah, maybe not. It’s just . . . Ty and I have always been

sort of responsible for them, you know?” Nick reached out to

stop Zane so he could face him as they spoke. “Look, the guys,

they judge pretty harshly. They think you have something to

prove.”

Zane’s smile fell. He glanced away, nodding and pressing

his lips tightly together.

“They’re wrong, you know.”

Zane looked back at him sharply.

“I’ve seen how you handle yourself. Give it some time;

they’ll realize Ty trusts you with his life. They’ll come around.”

He waited for Zane to say something, but the man

remained silent, his dark eyes unreadable. At last, Zane licked

his lips and smiled weakly. “Thanks,” he said before he started

walking again.

They were stepping through the iron gate surrounding the

coral-colored 8th district police station on Royal Street when

Nick’s phone rang. He dug it out and called for Zane to hold

up when he saw it was Kelly.

“Hey,” he answered, giving Zane a shrug when the man

made an inquiring gesture with his hands.

“You guys gotta come back here,” Kelly said in a rush.

“Ty’s freaking the fuck out, he’s trying to take out his IV and

they’re talking about sedating him.”

“What? What happened?”

“He keeps saying he’s not hal ucinating and you two can’t

go to the police. I don’t know, that’s all I can get out of him.”106

“What’s going on?” Zane asked.

“I have no idea,” Nick mouthed.

“Just come back here,” Kelly said on the phone. “Maybe

Zane can get him calm, because I sure as hell can’t.”

“Okay, we’re on our way.” Nick ended the call and waved

at Zane. “Kelly says Ty’s losing it, they need us back there.”

It was almost eight blocks from the station to Tulane

Medical Center, but Zane didn’t even hesitate. He took off

at a run, and Nick sprinted after him. Taxis in the French

Quarter were few and far between, but by the time they

crossed Rampart and got to the emergency department doors,

Nick was pretty sure they could have carjacked someone and

gotten there with less trouble. He had a hard time keeping up

with Zane’s long strides.

When they were let into the room, they found Ty sleeping.

Owen and Digger were leaning against the supply cabinet

on one wal , and Kelly was sitting on Ty’s bed, arms crossed.

Everything was calm, except for Nick and Zane gasping as

they both tried to catch their breath.

“What the hell, man?” Nick blurted.

Kelly shrugged. “They had to sedate him.”

Nick leaned against the wal , panting.

Zane moved closer, taking Ty’s hand. “What triggered

him? What happened?”

“No clue,” Kelly answered. “We barely got any sense out

of him.”

“We were in the lobby when a nurse came running out

begging for our help,” Owen explained. “When we got back

here, three orderlies were holding him down. We tried to tell

them he didn’t like being restrained, but they said he’d tried to