Ball & Chain (Cut & Run 8)

Ty rolled several feet away, flattening out in time to see Nick, his side bloodied by the stray shot, lose his balance and fall over the edge of the cliff with Amelia in his arms. Ty scrambled to his feet and dove toward the edge of the cliff, grasping desperately. His fingers found Nick’s, and their hands clasped together, the momentum dragging Ty several feet in the wet grass and ripping something apart inside his shoulder. He dug his toes in, managing to stop their slide. He wound up with his chest at the edge of the cliff, his shoulders and head hanging over, and his fingers wrapped around Nick’s forearm.

Nick hung from one arm, grasping Ty’s wrist in an iron grip. He swung freely over the jagged rocks and the frigid ocean below. A teddy bear fell away from his other hand, the white blanket fluttering after it. Nick watched them fall, then grimaced up at Ty.

“Give me your other hand!” Ty shouted.

Nick reached up and fumbled for Ty’s other hand, but when he moved and his weight shifted, Ty began to slide again. The earth beneath him was soft and muddy, the grass wet.

Nick cried out in pain and dropped his hand, shaking his head. “Let go, Ty!”

“Fuck you! Find a foothold until we get help!”

Nick tried to reach out for the cliff’s inverted face, but as soon as he moved, Ty slid yet again. The cliff was too far away for him to touch it, much less grab for anything solid.

“Ty!” Nick shouted. “We’ll both fall if you don’t let go!”

Ty shook his head, flat out refusing to accept that. He tried to pull Nick up, but his separated shoulder screamed even when he flexed his muscles in preparation for moving. He felt a hand at his belt, heard Emma shouting at him.

Ty opened his eyes again, meeting Nick’s. “I can’t lift you, you’re going to have to climb.”

“I can’t climb,” Nick said through gritted teeth. Even hanging by a thread over certain death, he sounded annoyed with Ty for being an idiot.

“Try!” Ty shouted.

“I can’t climb if you’re the thing I’m climbing because you’re not attached to anything! Fucker!”

“Try it anyway, Jesus Christ!”

Nick made one more attempt to reach for Ty with his other hand, but it merely pulled Ty closer to the edge. Gravity tugged at him, taunting him, beckoning him toward the sea as the top half of his body slid over the sloped edge. The earth beneath him began to crumble, falling into Nick’s face and hair.

Nick shook it away. He looked back up, meeting Ty’s eyes. He sounded calm when he spoke. “Let go, Ty.”

“I’m not letting go,” Ty told him. “I’m not.”

“Don’t make me be the reason you die,” Nick growled. He relaxed his fingers, leaving Ty to cling to him alone.

Ty let out a whimper as he tightened his hold. “Don’t do this to me, Nick, please don’t.”

“Let go.”

Ty shook his head.

“Let go!”

“No! I have help, they’re coming! Just hold on!” Even as he spoke, though, he could feel himself slipping. Where the f**k were Zane and Kelly? He shouted over the roar of the ocean, “Help!”

Nick reached down, fumbling for his belt.

“What are you doing?” Ty asked.

He pulled a knife from a sheath, looking up at Ty with a grim smile.

“Don’t you do it,” Ty said. “Don’t you stab me, you f**ker!”

Nick flicked the knife over his fingers, the blade catching the reflection of a streak of lightning.

“Zane! Doc!” Ty shouted. He shook his head at Nick. “Don’t you f**king dare stab me with that knife!” He tried to slither backward, desperate to get more purchase in the ground, to hold Nick there until more of the others came to their aid. Emma didn’t weigh enough to keep them from going over the edge.

Nick’s green eyes were unreadable, the knife in his hand. Ty shook his head. “I gave you that knife for your birthday, you motherfucker!”

Nick made one last lunge, swiping the knife through the air, aiming for Ty’s forearm, aiming to create a scar that Ty would carry in his nightmares for the rest of his life. The motion of his body pulled Ty even closer to the edge, and Ty squeezed his eyes closed because he would be damned if he let go when that knife sank in.

He wasn’t letting go.

Zane heard a sickening crunch when Ty made contact with the man. He didn’t know if it was Ty’s bones breaking or the other man’s, but the way the man sprawled told Zane those cracked bones probably belonged to him. The gun went off when Ty hit him, then again when he hit the ground. Zane felt a bullet whiz between himself and Kelly, narrowly missing both of them. Neither man took cover, though. They both bolted forward to attack.

Zane grabbed the gun as it skidded across the wet grass and backed away to train it on the mystery attacker. He needn’t have bothered because Kelly pounced on the man, hitting him over and over until his knuckles were bloody and raw and the man was nearly unrecognizable.

“Kelly!” Zane shouted, moving closer as Kelly continued the thrashing.

“You mess with my f**king team!” Kelly shouted. He grabbed the man’s shirt and pulled him off the ground, throwing himself into the next punch. “Chase him off a f**king cliff and think that can kill him!” He threw another brutal punch, then pulled him up and put their faces close together. There was no way the man was conscious. He gurgled as he breathed. His eyes rolled into the back of his head.

“Doc!” Zane shouted.

Kelly sneered at the killer, and he hissed when he spoke. “I’ll show you how we deal with your kind, you sniveling little son of a bitch.”

Zane stuffed the gun in the back of his belt and went to pull Kelly off the man before he could beat him to death. Kelly tried to break from Zane’s grasp, but Zane shouted at him. “We have to help Ty and Nick!”

Kelly stopped struggling immediately, and his head whipped around. It was then that Zane noticed Ty stretched out, hanging over the edge of the cliff. Emma had Ty’s belt in her hands, pulling with all her might. Zane could see her boots creating furrows in the grass as they slid over.

Zane and Kelly both scrambled to the cliff. Zane threw himself over Ty’s back, hoping his weight would slow the inexorable pull of gravity. They got there just in time to see Nick draw his knife. Kelly reached over the edge, catching Nick’s forearm with his hand before Nick could strike.

Kelly yanked the knife out of his hand and tossed it into the night. He grabbed his arm with both hands. Ty screamed in pain when he tried to help, but neither man let go. Zane slid his arms under Ty’s and used him as if he were a rope. The three of them worked together to pull Ty and Nick from the brink.