Zane ran his hands through his hair.
“And frankly, Liam Bell scares me more right now than any secrets I’ve been keeping from you.”
“Are there more?” Zane asked sarcastically.
Ty hesitated, and Zane caught a flicker of guilt in his eyes.
“Oh my God,” Zane whispered. “There’s more. There’s something worse than this?”
“Zane.”
“Tell me what else you’re hiding.”
Ty raised his head and squared his shoulders, his nostrils flaring. “No.”
Zane stared. His heart was pounding. He’d known they had secrets between them, things they weren’t ready to share. They’d discussed these things, shady parts of their pasts they’d rather not take out of the box. But Zane had never expected Ty’s secrets to be something that could hurt him. Hurt them.
Zane studied his lover, letting that truth settle somewhere deep inside him.
“Tell me now, tell me everything I need to know.”
Ty’s jaw muscles jumped, but he stayed straight and tall, matching Zane’s glare with his own. When he spoke, though, it came out broken. “No.”
Zane gritted his teeth and slammed his palm against the wall. “Tell me the truth or I walk!”
Ty swallowed hard, but it was obvious that he was weighing whether or not he should speak.
“You really have to think about it?” Zane shoved away from Ty, unable to tear his eyes from him even as the pain twisted in his chest like a knife. “I guess we finally found the one thing more important to you than I am.”
Ty’s face hardened. “You know that’s not true.”
“Fuck you, Ty! I feel like I don’t know a goddamned thing now!” Zane jabbed his finger toward Ty. “I tell you I’m going to walk and you have to f**king think about it? Just f**k you!”
Ty took a deep breath, but it didn’t help the strength of his words when he tried to speak. “If I told you . . . I’m afraid you’d walk anyway.”
Zane threw his hands out. “What have you got to lose?”
Ty’s jaw tightened. Zane held his breath, waiting, giving him a last chance to come clean, unable to imagine what Ty could have been keeping from him that he was so afraid to admit to.
Ty shook his head, his jaw set.
Zane took a step back. He was devastated to have been backed down, called on his bluff. He had no idea where to go from here.
Only one place came to mind, one place to retreat from the stone wall Ty had just raised. It wasn’t just a wall to protect Ty or his secrets. It was a wall to protect Ty’s secrets from Zane.
He turned on his heel and grabbed up his cigarettes and lighter from the floor. He brushed past Ty as he headed for the door.
“Zane.”
Zane turned.
“There’s a man out there who wants to hurt you. And he’s good. Please don’t go off alone.”
“Go to Hell, Ty,” Zane grunted, and he wrenched the door open and stalked out.
Chapter 6
Nick was waiting when the door opened, but Zane brushed past him when he tried to stop him. He had to jog to catch up with Zane’s angry strides, and he felt like a puppy hopping along with its master as he tried to keep abreast of the man stalking down the hall.
“I know you’re pissed, man, I am too. But Ty keeps secrets, that’s what he does. That’s what he’s trained to do.”
“You don’t have to defend him,” Zane snarled. “Is that what you’ve done for twenty years? Defend Ty? You must be goddamned exhausted.”
“Yeah, pretty much.” Nick reached out and took Zane’s arm. “Would you slow down? Jesus.”
Zane stopped and turned to face him. Nick could tell he had about two seconds to make his case. “Look, I’m not stepping into this, okay? Whatever he said in there, it’s between you and him. But I knew Liam Bell. And if Ty says he’s out to get you, I believe him. Don’t go out there alone just because you’re pissed.”
Zane rolled his eyes and huffed. Nick tightened his grip on Zane’s arm, hard enough that Zane looked down at it pointedly.
“Imagine that you’re out there in this city, and Ty is hunting you down,” Nick said.
Zane’s nostrils flared and his eyes darkened.
“Now imagine him smarter. Faster. Imagine him more ruthless and with less to lose. Now imagine that Ty, and he wants revenge. I don’t know about you, man, but that scares the living hell out of me.”
Zane swallowed hard. He looked mutinous for a moment, but then nodded. “I see your point.”
“Will you let me go with you?”
Zane grumbled and glanced down the hall at the door to their room.
“Let me tail you, then,” Nick tried. “You’ll never know I was there and I’ll watch your six while you do whatever it is you need to do to cool down.”
Zane laughed and finally wrenched his arm out of Nick’s grasp. “Just leave me alone, all right?”
He stalked away before Nick could argue. Nick stood and watched Zane’s retreat for a few seconds, torn. He trusted Ty when he said Zane was the target, but he couldn’t and wouldn’t tag along with the man if Zane refused to let him. Zane would shake him easily, and in the end Zane was responsible for his own safety.
He turned and headed back down the hall to knock on Ty’s door.
Ty opened it almost immediately. Nick shook his head in answer to Ty’s questioning look.
“Goddammit,” Ty spat. He ran his hands through his hair and paced into the room.
Nick held the door open for Kelly and Digger, who’d been standing by, waiting to see what would happen next. Owen was long gone. They filed into Ty’s room, gathering around him.
“What do we do?” Digger asked.
Ty had his hands on his hips and his head lowered. He looked pale and drawn, and Nick could see he wasn’t running on all cylinders yet. But years of training forced them to look to him first.
Ty shook his head. “I . . . I don’t know.”
Nick watched him for a long moment, and when it became obvious Ty wasn’t pulling it together, Nick cleared his throat. “We can leave town. But I got a feeling Bell isn’t here ’cause he can’t find us at home. He’s here because he wants us all together. He wants us here. And he knew we’d be here.”
Kelly shrugged. “I agree, but how?”
“Sanchez,” Digger said. “He knew we’d get together for Sanchez’s birthday.”