Touch & Geaux (Cut & Run 7)

“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 him 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.”

Chapter 13

“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 f**ked-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.”