Touch & Geaux (Cut & Run 7)

Ty focused on his drink, watching the green liquid swirl and mix. “When in Rome.”

“Rome wasn’t the only thing that burned in a day,” Zane replied evenly.

Ty met his eyes for a long moment, for the first time seeing distrust in them. He lowered his head, closing his eyes, then took a drink.

Ava reached beneath the bar again and pulled out a little homemade voodoo doll, made with sticks and a piece of burlap. The eyes had been drawn on, and the hair was bundled sage. She set it on the bar.

“What’s this?” Ty reached for it, recognizing the ring around its neck. It was his, one he’d thought he’d lost years ago. His confusion turned to outrage and he grabbed the doll. “This is me?”

Ava shrugged. “I had some free time. It’s served its purpose. I guess you’ll be wanting it back. I’m going to bed.” She picked up her glass to take with her. “You boys play nice.”

“You voodoo’d me?” Ty gaped at her as she left, the voodoo doll still in his hand. “You bitch!”

Her laughter reached them from the back.

Zane plucked the doll from his hand. “You told me voodoo dolls were good luck.”

“They are,” Ty answered, still scowling at the curtain.

“She’s got a lot of pins in you.”

Ty glanced at him and yanked the doll out of his hand. The pins were mostly in his head, blue ones, meant to draw love. But there were also white, red, and black pins scattered over the doll’s torso, hands, and groin, symbolizing positivity, power, and repelling evil.

“There’s one in almost every place you’ve been hurt the past few years.”

“None of them mean bad things,” Ty insisted, though he was flustered by the coincidence of the locations. He started yanking them out and tossing the pins on the bar.

“I thought you said they meant good things.”

“Shut up.”

The silence began to stretch, growing more unbearable by the second. Ty could feel Zane’s eyes on him. He glared at the doll for a minute before taking a deep breath and looking at Zane. “What now?”

Zane still watched him intently. He shook his head. “You think you did no wrong. And I can’t trust you.” He shrugged. “What else is there?”

Ty held his breath for a few heartbeats, just to see if his heart was actually still beating. Zane couldn’t have crushed it more completely if he’d used his boot heel. Then he took a long drink.

“What’s it taste like?” Zane asked. He seemed remarkably detached for a man who was talking about ending them.

Ty pursed his lips and sighed. If Zane intended for this to be the last night they were together, then Ty was going to make the most of it. He took another sip, then spun on his stool to face Zane. He reached out for Zane’s shirt and pulled him closer. Butterflies started in his stomach, like it was the first time he’d ever tried to kiss his lover. Zane stiffened but allowed Ty to draw him near, his lips parting. Ty pressed his lips to Zane’s. Once his tongue slid along Zane’s, Zane shuddered and gave a barely audible moan.

The kiss felt like they were back at square one trying to decide how brave they had to be to initiate something. Ty was almost light-headed with nerves.

Their lips lingered too long before Ty pulled away and met Zane’s eyes. They were a little wide, but Ty suspected it had nothing to do with the kiss and everything to do with the absinthe. The taste was distinct, as were its effects. Ty could already feel it working its way through him, calming his mind and body, enhancing the sensations of touch and smell. It couldn’t soothe the ache in his chest, though.

“Fuck,” Zane whispered, and he licked his lower lip.

Ty eased back onto his stool and took another sip from the heavy glass. “This was my life for two years,” he finally said. “I almost lost myself to it.”

Zane propped his elbows on the bar and folded his hands. “I can see how you’d get lost in this lifestyle. You’ve never seemed to have an addictive personality, though, so I’m a little surprised.”

Ty finished off the drink, shivering as it went through him. He set the glass down with a loud clunk. “You’re not the only one who fights things every day, Garrett. Yours are just harder battles, closer to the surface. Mine . . .” He swallowed and peered around the bar, taking in the overwhelming mystique of something ageless in the air and in the city. It shimmered. He didn’t finish what he was saying, lost in the glow until he felt the touch of warm fingers on his hand.

“Grady, come back,” Zane said quietly.

Ty tore his eyes away from the shimmer and met Zane’s gaze.

“That stuff must have a hell of a punch.”

“Easy to get lost in,” Ty murmured.

“Yes,” Zane said under his breath. His façade cracked, and suddenly he looked devastated. Like he’d given up. “You are.”

Ty stared hard at him. For the first time it began to sink in that Zane might truly mean to leave. There might not be anything Ty could say or do to stop it, and suddenly he couldn’t sit there any longer. He pulled his hand from Zane’s grasp and stepped away. “I’ll take watch upstairs,” he said, voice hoarse. His boots crunched on the broken glass at the base of the staircase as he walked away.

“Ty,” Zane called after him. Ty paused on the bottom step. Zane hesitated long enough that Ty took another step before he spoke. “Do I really know you? Do I know Ty Grady at all?”

Ty studied him, trying to parse the anger and pain into something that didn’t feel like he was dying. Zane was still sitting at the bar, his eyes dark and wounded, his shoulders slumped. One chance. That was all Zane was willing to give, even if it broke them both. Ty shook his head and started back up the steps, speaking in a low voice as he went. “If you have to ask that, I guess not.”

Chapter 10

Two hours after Ty left him, Kelly joined Zane downstairs for the changing of the guard.

“Nick’s got upstairs,” Kelly told him.

“Great,” Zane grunted. He started up the steps, each crunch of the glass bringing him closer to another confrontation with Ty, to a night of sleeping with his lover right next to him and feeling like there was a stranger in his bed.

When he reached the top of the steps, he took a deep breath to steady himself. It was harder and harder to curb the anger growing. He’d had two hours to think of nothing but all the times Ty must have lied to him to keep from being caught, all the times they’d talked about Zane’s time in Miami that Ty must have been digging for information.