“Goddammit, Zane!” Ty shouted as he continued to pace like a caged animal. As he ranted he waved one hand in the air, pointing accusingly at Zane and Julian and even Cameron as he did so. “What are the f**king odds of him knowing me? I worked that job for eighteen months without so much as a hint of trouble, and now of all people it’s that f**king Irishman that’s going to get that cover blown. Why couldn’t you have just let me shoot him like I wanted to in the first place?”
Zane’s brows rose higher the longer Ty ranted, and that rigid ball in his chest relaxed. If Ty could yell, it would be okay. It always was. What he was saying didn’t help Zane feel any better, though. “Nothing’s blown.”
“Everything is blown! Forget whatever Burns wants with him, Zane! He knows me from Paris, and he just made me as a Fed!”
“Who is he going to tell? Who’ll believe him?”
“Hey!” Julian said, affronted.
“Don’t borrow trouble. We have enough as it is,” Zane continued as he waved a hand at Julian.
Ty was silent; Zane couldn’t even hear him breathing.
“Don’t consider a year and a half of work thrown away before you know for sure,” Zane said. “You’re too f**king good at… whatever the hell it is you’ve been doing… to just chuck it because of one ass**le with a bad accent.”
“Hey!” Julian repeated.
Zane turned to face him as Julian took a step toward him. He realized their mistake too late. They had let themselves get pulled into an argument and dropped their guard before Julian was fully secured.
He attacked without further warning, launching himself at Zane and knocking them both to the ground. Zane heard Cameron cry out. Julian’s body was solid and heavy on his as Zane hit the ground hard. Zane rolled as soon as his back hit the floor, flipping them over and kicking Julian over his head. He barely had time to gain his knees before Julian hit him from behind. They rolled across the floor.
Zane landed on his back again, Julian pinning him. He managed a jab to Zane’s ribs, and he pulled his fist back again, aiming for a blow to Zane’s temple that was sure to knock out the lights.
Zane flicked a wrist and a knife shot from its sheath. He palmed it, prepared to do real damage to Julian’s midsection.
Ty stepped into his vision, catching Julian’s fist in one palm before it could land against Zane’s face. He twisted Julian’s arm, and Julian arched his back and shouted in pain and anger. Ty turned gracefully until he was kneeling behind Julian with one arm wrapped around his neck, the other twisting Julian’s hand back and up.
“Stop! Please!” Cameron cried as he stood up and stepped forward.
Zane pushed himself off the floor and grabbed Cameron, holding him back as they both watched Julian struggle against Ty’s arms.
Ty clasped his hands together over Julian’s shoulder, closing the choke hold as Julian tried to reach his face to find something tender to jab his thumb into. Ty closed his eyes and lowered his head, hiding his face against Julian’s neck, making it almost seem intimate. They were too close for Julian to hurt Ty enough to loosen his grip. His elbows landed uselessly on hard muscle, his fists hit Ty’s hips instead of his groin. Ty was too heavy and too low for Julian to flip over his shoulder.
Zane realized that Ty was whispering to Julian as he tightened the chokehold. “It’s okay, you’ll be okay,” he was repeating to Julian even as he rendered him unconscious.
“He’s killing him!”
“No,” Zane said in a hoarse voice.
There was something fascinating and morbidly beautiful about watching it, though. Ty held tight to the larger man, wrapping him up, head bowed and expression calm when he opened his eyes again. It was perhaps the first time Zane had ever seen Ty’s eyes go blank like that; he seemed almost meditative. Zen-like.
Julian tried to duck his head, attempting to open his airway, but Ty had closed the hold too quickly. After a few more seconds of struggling, Julian’s body went limp. Ty continued to hold him for another few breaths, and then he released him and let him thump to the ground. When he stood he looked up at them, meeting Zane’s eyes. Everything about Ty, from his body to the look in his eyes, felt calm and still.
It was like seeing a new person.
“Oh God,” Cameron whispered. Zane let him go. He fell on Julian, taking his face between his hands and calling to him.
“He’ll be fine,” Ty muttered. He stood stock-still, staring at Zane. The stillness was unnerving; Ty was never still. He fidgeted and paced and vibrated and bounced and twitched and rocked when there was no other outlet for all the nervous energy he stored up. But now he was so still it was like looking at a statue.
Zane closed his eyes and counted heartbeats, just breathing, trying to hold onto composure that was cracking. Ty was scaring him, and Zane had no idea what to do about it.
“You’re right,” Ty said, the words stirring the tension in the air and cutting through it.
Zane blinked his eyes open and raised his head to look at Ty. He was still standing motionless, hands at his sides. He was looking down and his lips were parted, tongue pushing against the corner of his mouth as if he was deep in thought. Zane had seen the expression before, right before copiers started blowing up. He statistically had a very small percentage of heading that off, but Zane didn’t know if he was up to it with so much uncertainty suddenly flowing between them.
“Well,” Zane said with forced lightness, “the extent of my French is voulez-vous coucher avec moi and ménage à trois, so I hope you won’t consider me a threat.”
Ty looked up at him, his expression one of clear calculation. It passed and his shoulders slumped. “Don’t be like that, Zane, come on. You had to know the kind of stuff I was up to on some level. And I haven’t worked a job since we got assigned together.”
Zane sighed. “Of course I did, Ty.” He was sure Ty had no idea how much Zane knew about that kind of stuff. He shifted his weight back and forth, trying to shake off the discomfort this entire week had caused.
“Will someone please tell me what just happened?” Cameron shouted, his voice high and wavering.
Ty shook his head, looking down at Cameron and Julian’s limp form. “He’ll be awake in five minutes.”
“What the hell did you do to him?”
“Blood choke. Cut off blood flow to his brain. He’ll be fine.”
“Ty,” Zane said in a whisper.