When he rounded the corner, Zane saw their companions loitering around one of the emergency bays near a closed curtain. His heart sped up, making him dizzy as he neared them.
Digger was pacing in front of the curtain, fingers laced at the back of his head. The other two were sitting, both of them covering their faces with their hands. All three men were bloody. Bloody gauze littered the floors. Even the curtain had a bloody streak on the edge where someone had grabbed it.
Zane was nearly hyperventilating as he approached. Liam’s breaths were harsh and loud behind him.
Nick looked up at the sound of their approach. His shirtfront was soaked red, his eyes gray, his face streaked with blood and tears. He had a butterfly bandage on his cheek.
Zane slowed, dreading what he might find.
“Kelly?” Zane asked hesitantly.
Nick shook his head, then lowered it again and covered his face in both hands.
“They took him into surgery,” Owen managed to say. “We haven’t heard anything.”
Zane breathed a sigh of relief. Surgery at least meant he wasn’t dead when they’d carried him in.
“Lads, I hate to be insensitive,” Liam said, peering over his shoulder at the nurse’s station. “But we have about five seconds to clear our arses out of here.”
“Fuck you, I’m not leaving him,” Digger growled.
“I know—”
“I said I’m not fucking leaving him!” Digger grabbed Liam by his leather jacket, shaking him. “Where the fuck were you when we needed you?”
“Take your hands off the coat,” Liam said, voice calm. His eyes sparked, though, and even Zane recognized that he’d reached a dangerous point. He was no longer amused.
Digger sneered but released him with a final shove.
“I understand your desire to stay, I really do,” Liam continued, his voice low and soothing. “But you’ve done all you can for the doc, you have to look now to the other team member we lost out there.”
Owen stood and shook his head. “He’s not any teammate of yours.”
“Then why am I the only one wondering how long he’ll survive without help?”
Zane swiped a hand over his face. “He got away from them.”
“And you know that how?” Liam asked.
“Because I know Ty. You can’t trap a cockroach.”
Liam snorted. “But you can kill one if you stomp it hard enough.”
“He got away. He’ll go to ground,” Zane insisted. “He won’t let himself hang in the wind too long.”
“Regardless of what Ty is doing or how capable he might be of slipping through the cracks, Liam’s right,” Nick said. “We need to clear out of here before we’re found. All that blood . . . they’ll know one of us was hit, they’ll be here looking soon enough.”
“What about Kelly? We can’t leave him behind. Unprotected?” Owen asked.
“He’s safer here than he was out there.”
Nick stood, and Owen and Digger closed ranks behind him, facing Liam and Zane. Zane couldn’t help but admire the way Sidewinder seemed to come together when they needed to. He had never worked as part of a team before Ty, preferring to go at things solo even when he’d been a child. Even Becky had been more of a confidante, a support system, something to fight for instead of with. She’d been a way to forget life’s troubles rather than an ally to take them on, and Zane had been happy with that arrangement. She had been exactly what he’d needed at that point in his life. But he had changed. Life had changed. And he had never had someone to face the world beside him, not until Ty.
Zane’s stomach lurched at the thought. Ty wasn’t the happy escape Becky had been for him. He might never offer Zane the warmth and light Becky once had, but Zane knew Ty would be there in the dark. In the last twenty-four hours, Zane had lost sight of that, blinded by the anger.
“Where would he go?” Liam asked as he led them through the hallways, looking for a back exit.
“You’re asking us to think like Ty?” Owen snorted. “I don’t think that’s possible; my brain isn’t powered by squirrels on treadmills.”
Nick shook his head, unbuttoning his bloody shirt as he walked. He shrugged out of it and dumped it into a hamper in the hallway. The others followed suit, discarding as much of their bloody clothes as they could in various nooks and crannies they passed on their way out.
“He’d go where they’d least expect,” Nick said.
“Somewhere public?” Digger asked.
“The hotel, maybe. The rooms are still under your name, they can’t be traced to Ty or Garrett,” Owen said to Nick.
“That’s how they found him to start with,” Nick growled. “He’s familiar with this city, there’s no telling what kind of places he knows.”
Zane inhaled sharply. “Ava.”
Nick looked over his shoulder at Zane, eyebrows raised. “Maybe so. If he didn’t go back there for help, maybe she’ll know where he would go.”
“He doesn’t know Ava’s the one who called her father.”
Nick stopped short, and Zane almost barreled into him. “Wait, she what?”
Zane huffed. “She’s the one who called her father. She hoped Ty would go up against him and take him out.”
“That chick’s all wrong, man,” Digger whispered.
The change that came over Nick O’Flaherty was almost frightening. His face hardened, his eyes going a deep, striking green when he lowered his head. He glanced at Owen and Digger, and both men nodded at some unspoken communication.
Nick headed off toward the exit, Owen and Digger on his heels.
“Oh dear,” Liam said with a sigh.
“What the hell just happened?” Zane asked.
“You flipped the wrong switch in that one. I think we’ve just landed the job of white knight,” Liam grumbled. He started after them at a jog. “Let’s go save the girl from the rabid Yank Marines.”
They double-timed it from the hospital, skirting the edges of the confusion and panic that was now the French Quarter, and headed for Marigny and Frenchmen Street. Nick kept looking down each street as they ran by, both hoping to see signs of Ty’s passing and praying he didn’t. The chaos meant the pursuit had been hard and fast, and it seemed to have encompassed two or three blocks.
Ty had made a worthy chase of it, at least.
Nick hoped the calm of the latter regions meant that Ty had gotten away and blended into the scenery, rather than getting caught.
“What’s the reach on these ear buds?” Zane asked. He refused to slow down, and for once Nick was glad for the man’s stubbornness.
“You got to be in a mile range of the hand unit,” Digger answered. “If Ty’s got his unit on him, we should be able to hear him and he should be able to hear us.”
“So we can’t hear him, that means he dropped his radio?” Owen asked.
“Or his ear bud. Or he went into the drink. Or he’s underground. Or he’s behind lots of concrete. Or somewhere the signal’s getting jacked.”
“Digger!”
“What? They ain’t military grade. Damn.”
“Have any of you actually tried contacting him?” Liam asked.
They had to stop at Esplanade to wait for the heavy traffic. Nick put a finger to his ear and pulled the hand unit out, holding it up for the best reception he could give it. “Grady?”
They all waited, breathing shallowly to better hear.
All Nick received was the buzzing of radio silence in his ear.
“Maybe he’s hiding,” Zane said. “Maybe he can’t talk.”
“Yes, we’ll go with that,” Liam said, sarcasm dripping from his words.
Nick stared at him for a long moment, and when Liam met his eyes, Nick hit him. Liam tumbled to the sidewalk as everyone else watched impassively.
Digger patted Nick’s shoulder. “Me too, brother.”
Liam sat up and wiped a hand over his mouth. “Do you feel better?”
“A little,” Nick said. The signal changed and they hustled across the street after Zane helped Liam to his feet.
When they reached La Fée Verte, the bar was closed down. Zane banged on the door and shouted for Ava to open it, but they got no response.
“The fucking place has no ground floor windows,” Owen said as they all examined the façade of the building for any point of entry.
“It’s all right, lads, daddy’s here,” Liam drawled. He stepped up to the door, digging in the backpack he was carrying.
“What are you doing?” Nick asked.
“Blowing your mind, love.” Liam pulled out two small squares of off-white clay.
“Is that C4?” Zane asked.
“PE4, thank you very much.” Liam molded the plastic explosive against the hinges of the door.
“You don’t really understand going under the radar, do you?” Nick grumbled.
“You Recon boys sneak under the radar,” Liam said as he set the charges. “The Special Air Service gets shit done.”
Owen raised an eyebrow at Nick. “If you want to hit him again, I’ll hold him down.”
“Maybe later,” Nick said. They all moved away and threw themselves against the wall.
Liam lit the charges and then hustled down the wall, flattening himself at Zane’s side. The blast was small, and the sound was almost entirely covered by the racket of the Easter festivities and the live bands warming up nearby.
Zane was at the door before the smoke even cleared, kicking it off its destroyed hinges.
“You’re welcome!” Liam called after him. “Good lord, to watch him you’d think Ty gave reward blowjobs for being rescued.”
They streamed into the bar one after the other, clearing the room. Zane had already found Ava by the time Nick entered, grabbing her before she could barricade herself in the office. Zane held her around the waist as she struggled.
Nick stalked up to her and grabbed her chin, forcing her to look at him.
“Where are they?”
She was breathing hard, gritting her teeth. “I don’t know.”
“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?”