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Thatwas burned into his mind, and he couldn"t wipe it away

"It"s okay," Ty ently He patted Zane"s face aardly "Let"s unhook o throw up somewhere," he joked weakly as he sat back on his haunches and began pulling at the harness The two attendants helped hiies and expressions of aded not to fall, but Ty merely nodded to the them Hisas the adrenaline burned off He looked up at Zane anda shaky exhalation after he stepped out of the harness and kicked it away

Zane held out his hand "C""

Ty took his hand and squeezed it hard, pulling himself toward Zane as if he were one of the ropes Ty had just been harnessed to He wrapped an ared hi under Zane"s ar it encircle his shoulders It was the first ti such a display of physical co traumatic He wondered if it was for show or if it was real

Zane hated that this case was forcing hi, the slight difference in their heightsthe narrow stairs By the ti down, but then a mob of staff surrounded theize--Mr Porter, are you okay?--Can we get you anything? Mr Porter, we"ll do whatever--"

"Enough," Zane snapped fir over all the other welling eet back to our roo and just exactly what I think about this accident"

The cowed staff ain

"Hold on," Ty mur anyone in their way He began to pull away, still looking dazed "I want to see the rope"

Zane frowned at Ty briefly, thinking Ty ht up to Ty"s "It"s out on the platform"

Ty moved tohere the rope lay in a messy pile of coils at the base of the wall Manny stopped hi hi else under the sun Ty waved hirin Though he ive hi smile that seemed able to charm just about anyone

"Could you cut the end off that rope for randly, his accent back in place "I"d love to add it to hed and patted Manny on the back as if he was ht, and the workers who could hear him seemed to attribute it to either the carefree attitude of a daredevil or a British stiff upper lip

Either way, they weren"t about to refuse anything Ty asked at that point Soon Ty wasback toward Zane with six inches of rope clutched in his hand and a forced, charisain "Let"s go," he suggested "I don"t know if you need a break, but I sure as hell do" The staff hed in weak relief

As they passed by the large crowd of ratulations or sy a few hands and nodding at people while trying to keep Ty"s head down so no one got a very good look at hi to stay under the radar; this was not exactly the best way to do it

Ty finally cleared his throat and glanced sideways at Zane "I wouldn"t recoh"

"Get the insults in nohile I"m still too thankful to have you here safe to mind," Zane warned

"I"ll pass," Ty h from the crowd not to draw attention Half of the thick rope was frayed horribly, almost fuzzy from the trauhly a third of the failed end was clean and straight, with nary a ruined strand to be seen Ty turned it around grimly "It was cut"

AS SOON as the door to their staterooo weak He reached out to the wall nearest him and closed his eyes as he let the weakness seep into hi his head and sank toward the carpet without further warning, just thankful to be on solid ground and in private

"Whoa, baby, c"ht Ty partway down The worry was clear in his voice, which wavered enough that Ty took note of it and tried to ather himself with a deep breath "Much more comfortable on the bed," Zane continued

When Ty sat on the end of the bed--or what he assu was round--he si his head and leaned over No ot to the point that it was easy to shrug off After ahimself, he raised his head and dejectedly looked at Zane

"Even when I"hed and sat down next to hih all the bleach" He reached out to run his fingers through Ty"s abused hair

Ty closed his eyes and leaned into the touch "I iven us away out there," he said ruefully "So to kill or at least injure one of the Porters If they atching, they heardTy"s back in slow, soothing motions

Ty looked at him more closely, surprised by the statement Zane didn"t meet his eyes, and his face was set hat looked like pain

"Hey," Ty said softly as he placed a hand on Zane"s knee "Look on the bright side, right? At least it wasn"t you," he tried with a laugh as he patted Zane"s thigh

Zane shook his head slowly as his eyes tracked to meet Ty"s "No