Cut & Run (Cut & Run #1)(113)
Author: Abigail Roux

Ty glanced at him and then quietly shook his head. “There’ll be more on it when we’re done,” he said in a low, soft voice.

Ross and Sears glanced at each other. “Don’t hesitate to call in backup,” Sears reminded disapprovingly.

Henninger nodded, turned to grab a small bag, and led the way out the door and to the elevator.

Neither man spoke as they headed out of the apartment. They rode down in the elevator in silence, Henninger glancing at Ty every few seconds as if wishing to say something. Finally, as the elevator came to a jolting stop at the parking deck floor, he cleared his throat and said, “Before we start this, I just want you to know, Special Agent Grady, it’s been a real pleasure working with you. Both of you.”

Ty glanced at him as the doors whooshed quietly open. “Likewise,”

he said softly to the kid.

He stepped out of the elevator as Henninger gave him an almost shy smile. He looked out into the dark parking deck and stepped forward, but his progress was halted as a hand suddenly covered the lower part of his face. He struggled as he breathed in the sickly sweet scent that covered the handkerchief, but he had already inhaled too much of the chloroform, and he sank helplessly to his knees, not able to reach his gun or even strike out at his attacker.

The last sound he heard was a shout and struggle that seemed to be miles away and a distant thunk as his limp body hit the concrete floor.

Zane laid on Henninger’s bed for a while, dozing, until he started hurting too much to rest. Dragging his eyes open, he spent a long Z minute looking at the bottle of pills Ty had left him. There was nothing more tempting than a bottle of painkillers when you had a legitimate reason to take them, but he didn’t pick them up. Instead, he lurched out of the bed and walked out to the main room to find Ross pacing and Sears sitting and watching her partner calmly.

“Hey,” he rasped.

They both looked at him as if they hadn’t expected to see him at all.

“You shouldn’t be up,” Sears admonished as she stood and made her way over to him. “What do you need?”

“A stiff drink,” Zane muttered, moving to sit in an armchair.

“I would be more comfortable if you returned to the bed,” Sears said to him soothingly, looking over at her partner pointedly.

“Let him sit there if he wants,” Ross replied with a wave of his hand.

“Can I have a drink? Please?” Zane asked pitifully. “I don’t care what. Tap water, anything.”

Sears sighed, accepting the fact that Zane wasn’t planning on listening, and she headed to Henninger’s kitchen as her heels rapped on the wooden floors and echoed to the open ceilings. She began rummaging in the refrigerator as Ross came closer to Zane.

“So, the Bureau sent you in under the radar,” he said to Zane with obvious disdain. “Because they thought we couldn’t handle it on our own?”

Zane rolled his head around carefully. “Because six Bureau personnel had already been killed or injured,” he corrected. “You didn’t happen to work in Baltimore in 2001, did you?”

Ross snorted unhappily but shook his head in answer as he moved away again, pacing restlessly in much the same manner Ty always did. Zane watched him with a frown until Sears came out with a glass of sparkling liquid. “This was all I could find besides water,” she said. “It’s pomegranate juice. Figured some sugar might do you good.”

“Thanks,” Zane murmured, taking the glass and a long drink. “So, you two get to babysit me.”

“We’re on the shelf right now, anyway,” Sears answered loudly before Ross could respond. “If we weren’t here,” she went on more gently as she sat on the coffee table opposite Zane and crossed her legs daintily, “we would be drowning in paperwork.”

Zane glanced between the two with a growing smile. Ross grimaced and started pacing again. “Gotta love paperwork,” he commented, eyes actually brightening a little. “Lately, I wish I’d had more of it and less death and destruction.”

Sears reached out and put a hand on his knee gently. “Are you sure you don’t want to be in the hospital?” she asked quietly. “It’s all over the wire, what happened. We could set up a guard there. You’ve got to be in a lot of pain.”

“Christ, Marian, leave the man alone,” Ross huffed. “And stop batting your eyelashes at him,” he added grumpily.

“I am doing no such thing,” Sears responded calmly as she maintained eye contact with Zane. “Did they give you painkillers?” she asked.

Zane looked at her steadily and lied through his teeth without giving anything away. “Yeah, I took some already. And I’m fine. Just worn out.”

Sears narrowed her eyes but then nodded as she accepted what he said for truth. She seemed out of ideas, and she looked up at her partner for help.

Ross, who was still pacing behind Zane restlessly, just shrugged and gestured at him in agitation.

“You should be resting,” Sears insisted as she sat and observed Zane.

She wasn’t just watching him. She was observing. It reminded Zane of the way Ty watched people sometimes. Everything seemed to remind him of Ty lately. Ross came around to flop gracelessly into a nearby chair.

Aware of Sears’ interest, Zane let his injured shoulder sag a little and the exhaustion show. No need for them to know exactly how bad of shape he was in … just in case. He wasn’t all that sure about Ross. “You trust Henninger enough to hop to and come running when he calls like that?” he asked. “I barely know the kid.”

“Henninger’s a better agent than he’s given credit for,” Sears answered neutrally. “If he says he needs help, then he needs help.”

“You barely know the kid and yet he’s your inside contact?” Ross asked dubiously.

“He’s who we got tagged with by the New York office when we got here,” Zane allowed. “When we came back, we used him ’cause he’d helped us before. We needed someone who could get us information fast and dirty.”

“No wonder he’s been so jumpy lately,” Ross laughed softly.

“Poor kid,” Sears added with a fond smile.

“What? He getting flack at the office?” Zane asked.

“Every time there was a loud noise somewhere, he would hit the ceiling,” Sears told him with a smirk she tried to hide. “Apparently, he had a guilty conscience.”