Stars & Stripes (Cut & Run 6)

Zane felt Annie’s hand on his arm, pulling at him and trying to calm him. He shook her off. “The only thing you give a damn about is your reputation and that goddamned party. You have a man who could be dying on your couch and you’re bitching about the upholstery?”

“You said he wasn’t dying!”

“Not the point, Mother! Jesus Christ!”

“It’s his job to risk his life for law and order, and that is precisely what he’s doing.”

“He’s not here because it’s his job! He’s here because he loves me!”

Beverly’s eyes widened and she shook her head, looking from Ty, lying half-conscious on the couch, and back to Zane. “Well, the young man is obviously confused, Zane. Shame on you for taking advantage. As soon as he wakes, I expect him to be on the first flight home.” Then she turned and stormed out of the room.

Zane shouted in frustration and ran both hands through his hair.

“Zane,” Annie whispered.

Zane glared at the threshold, peripherally aware of Mark and Cody watching him, and of Joe and Harrison coming through the front door.

“Zane,” Annie said again, more insistent.

Zane turned to look down at her and Ty. She was perched on the edge of the couch near his hip, her hand on Ty’s chest. Ty’s fingers grazed the oriental carpet. His head had lolled to the side, and his eyes were closed.

Zane swallowed hard and went to kneel by his side again.

“He’s gone,” Annie whispered.

Zane looked up at her with wide eyes.

She gasped and put out her hand. “I mean he’s unconscious! Not gone! Just unconscious.” She winced and gave the others a helpless shrug as she put her hand over her mouth.

Zane studied Ty’s face. “I love you, Ty,” he whispered.

He got no response. Annie was feeling for Ty’s pulse again. She nodded, but she still looked concerned. “The ambulance is on the way. They can monitor him in the hospital. I suspect he’s going to be out for a while. He fought it. He fought it hard.”

Zane ran his fingers through Ty’s hair, letting his thumb graze over Ty’s cheek.

“That’s what he does.”

“I don’t understand why you’re keeping him around. Why not send him home? He obviously can’t handle himself in such a rough environment,” Beverly said as they sat at the dinner table.

Zane had been seething ever since they’d loaded Ty’s limp body into the ambulance and he’d come back into the house to find one of the maids hard at work, scrubbing the dust and dirt off the upholstery.

He’d gone to the hospital, but as soon as visiting hours were over, he’d been forced to leave. He wasn’t family, and though he’d tried to argue that Ty might be disoriented when he awoke, maybe even destructive if someone familiar wasn’t with him, the officials at the hospital had heard none of it. To add insult to injury, now he was being forced to sit through his mother’s opinions at dinner.

“He’s . . . actually quite capable, Mother,” Mark said, and Zane could see his brother-in-law’s feathers ruffling too.

“God knows what would have happened had he not been with me,” Annie tried.

“You wouldn’t have been there in the first place,” Beverly said. “I’ll have Manuel drive him to the airport when he’s discharged.”

“Mother, stop,” Zane said through gritted teeth.

“And it’s quite uncouth of him to just drop out of the sky, uninvited, and expect you to play host, Zane.” Beverly spread her salad across her plate, unaware of how angry Zane was getting.

“That’s it,” Zane ground out. He glanced at the others before turning his attention to his mother. “I was hoping to avoid this, Mother, but you really leave me no choice.”

“Oh, Z, slow down,” Harrison said.

Beverly’s eyes widened before she regained control and cocked her head at Zane.

“Ty’s not just my partner and he’s not just my friend. And he’s certainly not uninvited or unwelcome. He’s my boyfriend, we’ve been together for almost a year now, and he’s not leaving.”

Beverly stared at him, not blinking, not even twitching. “Boyfriend?”

“Yes. We’ve been living together for months. And I’ve been seriously thinking about asking him to marry me.”

Annie gave a little golf clap before she could get control of herself, and she bit her lip.

“That is . . . scandalous! Zane!” Beverly stood. “How dare you come into my home and say such things!”

Zane stood as well, refusing to let her feel superior with higher ground.

“Is it really so much worse than letting me kill myself with drink and drugs? He’s the only reason I’m still here!”

Beverly’s eyes hardened, her nostrils flaring. “You’re still here because of him? Not because your family needed you?”

“He’s my family too, Mother. He’s in that hospital alone because he sacrificed himself for my family. And because everyone else thinks just like you, I can’t even go and be with him!”

Beverly took a deep breath and looked around the table. Zane could feel all their eyes on him, but he didn’t look away from his mother. Rage boiled deep inside him, and whether she deserved it or not, she had become the target.

She schooled her features, putting on a painfully familiar mask. It almost sickened him, recognizing himself in her, seeing what his future might have held. An emotionless, tactical assault on the world. Not even Becky had been able to steer Zane off the path he’d started on, rising in the ranks to power, taking the world by both horns and bending it to his will.

Ty was the only one who’d ever been able to break him out of what his mother had taught him, to show him what a life well-lived and hard-felt could be like.

Before he could allow himself to dwell on it anymore, or to say anything to his mother he might regret, he turned and walked away, leaving his family in stunned silence behind him.

He almost barreled over Sadie as he left the room.

“Uncle Z, will you play with me?” she asked, tiny voice full of hope, completely oblivious to the drama around her.

Zane forced himself to exhale and knelt in front of her. “Of course, sweetheart.” He tried a smile. She climbed onto his knee and he gave her a hug as he stood. “You want to go call and check on Ty first?”

“Will he play with me?”

“Probably not, baby doll. He’s asleep.”