“You ought to meet the rest of the family.” He arched his back, listening to the audible pops of his spine as he stretched within the confines of his gun holster. “But they’re good people,” he added, looking at Julian. “Deuce is one of the best.”
Julian merely looked back at him. Finally, he nodded almost imperceptibly. “I decided I liked him the moment he hit Grady with a baseball bat.”
“Deuce doesn’t take shit from anybody, Ty included. Or maybe Ty especially.” He shrugged and leaned over to pick up one of the bags, and his mind moved on to more serious concerns as he looked back at Julian. “We’ll stay here for a day, get some rest and food. Let me know if you and Cameron need anything.”
Julian nodded again, swallowing hard as his eye strayed to the hallway where Cameron had disappeared. It was easy to see that Julian was worried now. Before, he’d either thought he could keep the situation under control or he’d been masking his apprehension well.
“Anywhere we touch down now will be a hot zone,” he said, his voice still soft and barely audible. “Agent Grady’s brother will be in danger as well if we stay too long.”
“Ty is well aware,” Zane said, though he shared Julian’s concern, at least for Deuce.
The low light mostly masked Julian’s reaction, but he seemed tense and reserved, as if he wanted to say something he was keeping himself from saying.
Ty’s voice filtered down the hallway. “How are you going to hit me with a bat I freaking gave you for your birthday? That shit’s commemorative.”
Deuce’s response was muffled by his laughter.
“Do you believe in God, Agent Garrett?” Julian asked suddenly, his eyes on the hallway.
The question caught Zane off guard, but he wasn’t sure that was Julian’s goal. Religion didn’t have much place in Zane’s life anymore, like a lot of other things. But did he believe?
“Yeah,” he said quietly. Zane figured he’d have long ago been in the ground if it wasn’t for some higher power watching out for him.
Julian was nodding. “You should. It’s a bloody miracle your partner has lived this long,” he murmured. He began moving toward the kitchen. “Man’s an idiot,” he muttered under his breath as he passed Zane.
Zane didn’t laugh this time. In years past he had sat uncounted times in the dark of night, smoking, shooting up, drinking, wondering if the coming morning would be the one when he didn’t wake up. Sometimes he’d even prayed for it.
But not since Ty. Yeah, he believed in miracles.
“It’s not like I knew it was you,” he heard Deuce insisting as he came back down the hall.
“That’s what Grandpa said when he broke my nose.”
“Again, you deserved it.” Deuce emerged from the hallway carrying a plastic storage box that probably contained the air mattress he’d mentioned. Ty dropped an armload of bedding on the floor. Deuce set the box on the couch and looked at Zane, then glanced around to see where Julian had gone. He gestured between Ty and Zane, and his voice was pitched low when he asked, “Y’all need separate places to sleep?”
Zane blinked away his preoccupation. He could muse over divine intervention another time. “No, they know everything. And one of us needs to keep watch anyway.”
Deuce inclined his head, looking at Zane carefully before nodding. He turned to look at Ty, but Zane couldn’t see Deuce’s expression when he looked back at his brother.
Ty was ignoring Deuce’s pointed queries, or at least pretending to, taking the lid off the storage box and poking around inside.
“This thing got a pump?” he asked as he pulled the heavy air mattress out.
“No, Ty, you have to blow it up,” Deuce answered in a flat voice. “We’ll take turns, should have it done by August.”
“I love you too,” Ty muttered as Deuce moved past him to head back down the hall, presumably for the pump.
Zane watched as Ty messed with the mattress. “This is where you came, isn’t it?”
Ty looked up as he laid the mattress out and knelt to spread it flat. He nodded before Zane could say more. “He always knows how to talk me off the ledge.”
“I’m glad.” Zane turned in a half circle and then sat on the couch nearby. A part of Zane, a very small, dark part, had been worried that Ty had fled to Boston and Nick O’Flaherty when he ran from Baltimore.
Ty merely nodded as he stretched to flip over the last corner of the air mattress. He stood carefully, obviously sore and stiff, and he rolled his shoulders and neck as he straightened. He turned and jumped when he found Julian standing in the doorway to the kitchen, watching them.
“Jesus Christ!” Ty hissed at him. “Stop doing that!”
Julian’s lips twitched in what might have been a smirk. Zane couldn’t help but feel slightly vindicated. Ty did that to him all the time.
“Tell your brother not to touch the handle of the front door,” Julian said as he stepped over the flattened mattress and moved to sit in a leather club chair close by.
“Great,” Ty muttered.
“How’s Cameron holding up?” Zane asked.
Julian shrugged, looking down the dark hallway. “About as expected. I think he’s still in the washroom.”
“How do you rig a doorknob with kitchen utensils?” Ty asked, still exasperated but also sounding a little too keen to learn a new trick.
“A large percentage of accidental deaths occur in the kitchen. It’s a dangerous place,” Julian drawled, almost seeming to enjoy himself.
Zane turned his attention to Julian. “Will you still be with us in the morning?”
Julian’s eyes cut over to Zane, but nothing else moved. “If I still intended to run, I would have done so already. The time for escaping cleanly has long passed. As far as I’m concerned, the more weapons and people who know how to use them, the better.”
“Including baseball bats.”
“I’m sure we’ve all been in situations where we longed for something as appropriate as a baseball bat.”
Zane nodded as Deuce came back down the hall. He stopped and tilted his head at Julian. “I believe your friend needs you,” he murmured, his voice gentle and soft. He sounded almost like the psychiatrist he really was.
Julian stood immediately and moved toward the hallway. “Good night, gentlemen,” he said as he left the room.
Zane watched him go, feeling confident that he could trust the man to keep his word. He seemed to have reached a decision to stick with them after the Pittsburgh airport, after Ty sacrificed himself to let them escape. Besides, Zane knew Cameron needed downtime, and Julian would probably move heaven and earth to give it to him. Zane turned his gaze to Ty and figured he understood. His partner was exhausted. They all needed time to rest.