Divide & Conquer (18 page)

“No. I want you with me all the time. But I know us. That wouldn"t work.”

Ty was on the verge of agreeing, because shit
no
, it wouldn"t
work
. They"d be at each other"s throats a day in… although he had begun to miss Zane quite a bit in the last several busy weeks. He looked 112 | Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux

into Zane"s sightless eyes. The impulse to ask was about so much more than being a nursemaid. “Will you give me a chance?” he pleaded.

The ripple of emotion across Zane"s face was indefinable; at first Ty thought he identified surprise, then happiness, then maybe hope.

“Yes,” Zane answered.

“Good,” Ty sighed. He patted Zane"s knee. “I"ll go hunt down a doctor and threaten him until he lets you go home.”

“He"ll probably agree. He"s not too happy with me as it is,” Zane said.

“Why not?”

Zane squeezed his eyes shut and blinked several times after opening them. “Declined pain treatment,” he muttered.

Ty nodded, forgetting for the moment that Zane couldn"t see him do it. He petted Zane"s belly as he stood. He wasn"t going to comment on the drugs, just like he had stopped commenting on anything else that touched on any of Zane"s vices. It wasn"t worth the angst.

“Be right back,” he muttered, and he set off to find an unsuspecting doctor to bully.

“AGENT Garrett, how are you feeling?” a man"s voice asked as someone walked into the room.

Even though he was expecting it, Zane still tensed. He opened his eyes out of habit and sat up. “Pretty good, except….” He waved one hand somewhere beside his head.

“Still no vision?” the same voice asked with an audible frown.

“Well, that"s to be expected. We"ll start your discharge papers going, and you should be able to get out of here,” he said as papers shuffled.

Zane squeezed his eyes shut and gripped the blanket in one fist.

He wasn"t so sure this was a good idea, even if he didn"t want to be here.

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“Unless there"s a new problem?” the doctor asked, voice tinged with concern.

“A problem?” Zane"s voice got a little high and thin there at the end. “I can"t see!”

The doctor cleared his throat. “Agent Garrett, it is a temporary side effect,” he assured him. “Now that we know there"s not a critical injury, there"s no reason for you to remain here. I"m sure you"ll be more comfortable at home.”

Zane swallowed. “At home. Alone.”

“Are you saying you want to remain in the hospital?” the doctor asked him in surprise. “That"s not really an option, Agent Garrett.”

“No, I suppose it"s not,” Zane murmured, dropping his chin.

“It"ll be about an hour,” the doctor told him, sounding relieved that he wouldn"t have to talk Zane down out of the proverbial tree.

“We"ll just get that started for you,” he said. His shoes squeaked as he turned away.

“Hey,” Zane said abruptly. “Is there anything I should be doing while I"m at home?”

He heard the doctor stop and turn around. “Don"t run into things,”

the man advised after a moment of thought.

“Yeah, that"ll be a piece of cake,” Zane muttered.

“Rest. Relax. Let someone take care of you,” the doctor told him seriously. “The nurse will be back soon,” he added. Then slightly squeaky footsteps faded away.

“Relax,” Zane said as if someone were standing there. He wasn"t all too sure someone else wasn"t, actually. “He says relax.” He groaned and rubbed his hands over his face.

With a sigh, Zane pulled one leg up and wrapped an arm around his knee as he sat there wondering what the hell he was going to do.

He"d already made up his mind not to call Annie. He was sure his sister would fly out here if he needed her, but there really wasn"t anything for her to
do
. There wasn"t really anything
anyone
could do. That was what was so goddamn frustrating.

114 | Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux

A few minutes later there was a soft knock on the door frame of his room. “You want Cheetos or a Snickers?” Ty asked in a disgruntled tone.

Zane turned his chin as soon as he heard the knock. “Snickers will be easier,” he said. Although the Cheetos sounded good, Zane knew better than to fight Ty for them.

He could hear Ty unwrapping the candy bar as he moved closer.

“Hold out your hand,” Ty ordered when he got to the side of the bed.

Shifting slightly toward Ty, Zane did so, palm up. Ty placed the Snickers in his hand without a word, and then Zane felt him move away and heard him flop into a chair of some kind. The springs squeaked.

Zane lifted the bar tentatively to his lips, surprised when he found it difficult to hit his mouth. He took a bite and chewed slowly. “Doctor was here,” he said as he savored the chocolate.

“That was faster than I expected. And?” Ty asked eagerly.

“They"re sending me home.”

“That"s good, right?” Ty asked. “When can we leave?”

“He said an hour.” Zane wasn"t sure about answering the first question.

The chair creaked as Ty leaned forward. His voice was closer when he spoke. “We talked about this. You don"t want to go home?”

“Yeah, I want to go home. I hate hospitals. It"s just….” Zane frowned.

“You wish you could see,” Ty provided matter-of-factly.

Zane nodded. He carefully took another bite of the Snickers.

“Don"t know what the hell I"m going to do with myself. It"ll be a whole new level of staring at four walls.”

“Well,” Ty murmured thoughtfully. “Man up, Zane. Shit happens, you know? We"ll get out of here and get some real food.”

Zane sat startled for a long moment and then actually chuckled.

“Welcome back.”

“What?”

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“You sounded a lot more like your normal grumpy asshole self,”

Zane explained. “Rather comforting, actually.” Something about that just made Zane want to laugh. “Yeah, you"re going to make a great valet.”

He was surprised by a thump on the tip of his nose. He hadn"t even heard or felt Ty move. He swiped out with one hand in a belated reaction. “Hey! I"ve seen you use an iron. That is damn impressive.”

“Marines either know how to use an iron or they get married,” Ty advised through a mouthful of Cheetos. “The iron is less dangerous.”

Zane snorted and almost swallowed the chunk of candy bar in his mouth without chewing it up. “That"s actually pretty funny.”

“I try.”

116 | Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux

ZANE felt the cab come to a stop. He"d lost track of the twists and turns a while back, and he had no idea if they were at his apartment, Ty"s house, or somewhere altogether different. He"d already decided there was no way he"d be saying the words “Are we there yet?”—Ty would go ballistic.

So he sat quietly, face turned toward the window, chin down.

He was wearing scrubs from the hospital; his suit had been trashed. He knew he wasn"t bloody, despite the bruises everywhere, so he figured he didn"t look too bad.

“We"re here,” Ty told him. The door on Ty"s side opened. “Hold on. I"ll come get you,” he said before the door slammed shut.

Zane didn"t move. He knew this was going to be tough, trying to get around, and he certainly wasn"t looking forward to it. He"d barely said a word the whole drive over, just thinking about what he would be facing if he wasn"t able to see again. He knew it was too soon to start worrying and planning, but fuck all, he"d only just gotten a bunch of shit in his head straightened out, and now this?

The door at his side opened up, and Ty took his elbow gently.

“Watch the curb when you step down. It"ll come up fast,” he mumbled, sounding as if he was looking down at the ground as he spoke.

Zane turned in the seat and set one foot down. He could feel the soft decline of the curb and shifted his foot a little farther forward before pushing himself out of the seat to stand. Ty got him onto the sidewalk, gave him a pat on the shoulder, then removed his hand from Zane"s elbow. Zane heard Ty talking briefly to the cabbie.

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Shifting carefully, Zane moved further away from the car and waited. He could tell by the familiar smell of Italian restaurants in Little Italy that they were at his apartment. He also knew which way the front door to the apartment was, but he didn"t know how far away it was.

And there were steps and a railing and a bench and some broken concrete in the sidewalk and what if it was almost garbage day and there was a trash can at the curb? Zane groaned. His battered brain was channeling Ty.

“Here,” Ty said, surprising Zane out of his circling thoughts. Ty took Zane"s hand and pressed something into it. “Use that,” he instructed as he held Zane"s hand around a curved wooden grip.

Zane realized it was the umbrella he kept beside the door to his apartment. He frowned and curled his fingers around the handle, moving it slightly in front of him. It definitely wasn"t a cane, but he figured if he moved it in front of him it would hit something before he did. “Good idea,” he murmured.

“I know,” Ty responded easily, a smile evident in his voice. He took Zane"s elbow and turned him. “Take your time, shuffle your feet when you"re not certain. If you hesitate or anticipate, you"re more liable to trip over nothing,” he advised.

Zane grimaced. “Right,” he murmured as he took a breath and took a couple steps. He could feel the hard surface under his feet, so at least he was on the walk. Although he felt like a complete idiot, he swung the umbrella carefully in front of him, the end down around his knees. When he hit something metal that clanged, he stopped in surprise, trying to remember what it could be.

“Just the railing,” Ty said at his side. “Steps,” he added as his grip tightened on Zane"s elbow.

Zane still paused. “How far? Step up now?”

“Yes,” Ty answered curtly. “Kick out with your toes to find it.”

Zane lifted his foot, kicked, finding the front of the step, and then he put his foot on it, somewhat surprised when it worked. He repeated the motion two more times and stopped. “That"s all, right?”

“Yep,” Ty answered, and he let go of Zane"s arm. The sound of the keys in the door followed, and the door squeaked as it opened. Ty 118 | Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux

took his arm again, but he didn"t pull him. “Come on,” he instructed.

“Don"t drag your feet, there"s a doorjamb.”

“You"ve done this before, haven"t you?” Zane said, following the directions and getting inside without a problem.

“When I was little,” Ty answered in a softer voice. “We"ll use the umbrella until I can find something better.”

Zane frowned again and placed one hand against the wall he knew was to his right side. “No one in your family is blind.”

“My great-grandmother. She died when I was fourteen.”

Zane nodded and started moving, letting his hand skim along the wall. He knew he had several feet until he got to a bookshelf. He was on the main drag through the apartment. It led to the kitchen in front of him. He was in the living room, and after the bookshelves there was a hallway to the right with four doors: two bedrooms, a closet, and a bathroom. He didn"t really have much furniture, so what trouble could he get into?

“At least I know where stuff is in my own house,” he murmured as he walked until his hand met the wood of the shelves.

“That"s kind of the idea, sport,” Ty murmured from somewhere in front of him.

Zane deliberately closed his eyes to visualize the couch and chairs, and then he swept the space in front of him before taking two careful steps to stop right behind the sofa. He trailed his fingers over it as he walked around the side, and with a sigh of relief he sank down onto it.

Ty patted him on the head as soon as he was down, like he would a dog who"d performed a trick correctly. His voice was the only way to tell where he was. He didn"t seem to make any other noise when he moved. No footsteps, no swish of clothing, no cracking bones or creaking joints. Nothing. Eerie. Vintage Ty.

“Want food? It"s not too late yet,” Ty asked as he moved away.

“Yes,” Zane said fervently as he lightly batted after Ty"s hand.

“There was nothing wrong with me and still they wanted to feed me broth and Jell-O.”

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“Jell-O"s good,” Ty argued from the kitchen.

“Not when you"re starving, it"s not,” Zane shot back. He kicked off his shoes, making sure to carefully push them under the old coffee table before he stripped off his socks and propped his legs up. He leaned his head against the back of the couch. With his eyes closed, he could almost imagine it was a Sunday afternoon and he was just being lazy instead of it being Monday night after the day from the third ring of hell.