Momentary relief washed through Zane when he heard the words. That meant Ty was still free. They still had a chance.
Earl swallowed hard but remained silent. He looked sideways at Deuce, who was watching him with wide eyes. Earl shook his head and looked back at Redjacket. Earflaps mumbled in annoyance and nudged at Zane’s shoulder with the end of his shotgun. Zane jerked and groaned, rocking more to one side and curling up. If they thought he was hurt enough, they wouldn’t consider him any more of a threat, and they might not tie him up.
He peered up at Redjacket, whose face was surprisingly composed as he and Earl stared at each other. Zane wondered what was going through his mind. He suspected whatever it was wouldn’t be good for them.
“One more time, old timer,” Redjacket threatened Earl.
“I don’t know,” Earl answered defiantly. “He ain’t one of ours,” he claimed steadily.
Earflaps kicked Zane in the hip again. “Maybe this ’un’ll talk now that he’s hurtin’.” A choked groan escaped Zane as he rolled away from the man’s foot.
Redjacket raised an eyebrow at Earl, waiting for him to say more. Earl’s jaw tightened as he nodded at Zane, who was fully sprawled on his side now. “He’s my oldest son,” he told Redjacket calmly. “The other man, we came across him on the mountain this morning. Crazy son of a bitch. We don’t know him,” he claimed firmly. Redjacket turned to look down at Zane with narrowed eyes.
Zane very slowly raised a hand to his face and covered his cheekbone carefully. He glanced up at Earflaps. He was burly and solid, but Zane figured he could take him down if he had to. He was still aware of Redjacket’s eyes on him. If Redjacket figured out that Ty was invested in any of them, he could use them to force him out of the woods. Ty wouldn’t just sit out there and let any of them be shot. Despite Ty’s little game in Hogan’s Alley, he wouldn’t use any of them for cover, not willingly.
Redjacket looked from Zane to Earl and shook his head, obviously seeing something in one or both of them that didn’t sit right. “Don’t like to be lied to, old man,” he said finally. He nodded at Earflaps and stepped away, holding his gun up and ready.
Earflaps grinned slowly and stepped closer to Zane, pumping the action of his shotgun and then pressing the barrel to Zane’s forehead. Zane felt himself go cold all over. Cold with fear, sure, because this guy looked like he might just enjoy pulling the trigger. But also cold with anger.
“Don’t do this.” Zane’s voice was low and level and not at all shaky. “You won’t like the result.”
“Neither will you, hot shot,” Earflaps muttered to him with a smirk.
“Show yourself, friend!” Redjacket shouted into the woods where Ty had disappeared. “And we won’t blow this man’s brains all over the woods!”
“You pull that trigger, and you won’t live to regret it,” Zane told them quietly. “That’s a promise.”
He was aware of Earl’s attention focusing on him, and Deuce’s, too, but Zane didn’t care what they thought. If Earflaps shot him, Zane had no doubt Ty would kill him. Ty would kill him, and the others, too, in front of his father and brother. It would be messy. And Ty would regret it later, if only because Earl and Deuce had to watch.
“You got to the count a three!” Redjacket called out to Ty. “You ain’t a good enough shot to hit all of us before he dies!”
Zane kept his eyes on Earflaps, willing Ty to make something happen. He wouldn’t take that bet against Ty, not when his family was involved.
“One!” Redjacket started as Earflaps began laughing softly.
“That’s one stupid ass**le out there,” Swizzlestick observed in a detached voice. “Gonna get his friend killed.”
“Two!”
Zane was vaguely aware of Earl trying to reason with them, telling them that if they shot Zane there’d be no reason for the man in the woods to hold his fire, but Zane and the men with the weapons all ignored him. Zane was keeping his attention on Earflaps. Although it wasn’t his personal choice in the way to die, he would stare it down. Ty would be pleased with the method, anyway; it would be quick. He hadn’t liked Zane’s preference to die slow.
Redjacket took in a deep breath to shout again, but then Ty stepped into the clearing suddenly, almost ninety degrees from where Redjacket was looking, drawing everyone’s eyes with the movement. Swizzlestick jerked his shotgun around and cocked it at Ty, who stood with his hands above his head obediently. In one hand he held his gun, hanging by the trigger guard off one finger. He dropped the gun as soon as they turned on him and then moved his hand to join the other, which was behind his head already. What he’d been planning to do was anyone’s guess. He obviously hadn’t had enough time or ammo to do anything but surrender.
Zane shifted back onto his elbows from his side to better see Ty. “Quit yer movin’,” Earflaps snarled to him.
Ty stood stock still, watching them all impassively. Zane couldn’t decide if he was glad to see him or disappointed that their last chance at escape might have just evaporated. But he knew better. There was no one better to get them out of this than Ty, even if he was unarmed now. And possibly in the midst of a mental breakdown. He didn’t look like himself, nor had he been behaving like the man Zane knew for some time. Even now, he stood staring at them all sedately, no hint of anger or a challenge in his expression.
“What’re we gonna do now?” Swizzlestick asked as he looked over their four prisoners critically.
Redjacket looked to Earflaps and nodded at Ty, as if giving him an order to go take care of him.
Ty’s eyes slid from Earflaps back to Redjacket. He didn’t appear too worried about the prospect as the big, burly man walked over and hauled off to punch Ty in the gut.
Reflexively, Zane sat up in a shot. Seeing Ty being attacked made something inside him clench, something that made him feel possessive and scared and angry as hell all at once. But the shotgun at his chest stopped him from moving further to help.
Ty didn’t even try to defend himself. He kept his arms over his head. His entire body tensed, and Zane heard him breathe out hard as Earflaps grabbed him by the shoulder and rammed his fist into his stomach. Ty merely turned slightly, letting the punch hit him in his oblique muscles, along the side of his torso. He did everything Zane knew he could to lessen the impact of the direct blow to his torso.