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That would have been easier to handle," he said baldly

"All right then, next tile over the ocean," Ty offered as he unconsciously rubbed at his abused fingers He understood what Zane h Ty knew from a previous, ill-advised discussion about their deepest fears that Zane"s was not being there to save the day when the proverbial shit hit the fan Zane had been , of course It was one fear Ty had no idea how to assuage And it was a legitimate one, since it probably happened a lot and Zane just didn"t know it

"No problehtly treer "I didn"t realize I"d be so--" His voice actually broke, and he looked away, out into the rooently He was beginning to worry In all fairness, it really should still be hi apart at the seary that he had to be the one to narrowly escape death or injury and console his partner about it For a brief second, he allowed hiive Ty so to focus on He let that fancy pass when he saw the real emotion in Zane"s eyes

Zane drew a sharp breath and cleared his throat "Sorry," he said

"I think it"s sort of hitting me now What could have happened I don"t knohy It"s not like I wasn"t standing there scared out of my mind"

He offered Ty a smile that didn"t make it to his eyes

"You danantly

"I was," Zane said fervently, taking Ty"s hand up again "I couldn"t do anything"

Ty exhaled sharply and stood "Let"s not linger over it, Garrett,"

he said with forced nonchalance Noabout falling tonight Discussing it in detail ht help ease Zane"s ood

Zane"s hand tightened to keep Ty fro away "You scared me You didn"t cut your own rope, but how could you literally be hanging by your fingertips and still be joking?"

Ty looked down at hiave an insulted huff "Cut my own rope?" he repeated

"Ty Please," Zane said, his voice carrying a hint of that disaze

Ty tilted his head and petted Zane"s hand "One thing I"ve learned is, if you"re too focused on the falling and how horribly it"s going to hurt, you don"t see what"s around you Youthat could stop the fall altogether So if you stay caled It wasn"t a lesson he"d necessarily learned while literally hanging in the air, but it served forin the air

Zane still didn"t look happy "Not one man in a thousand could have done what you did today I couldn"t have"

Ty didn"t disagree He"d had extensive training in order to do exactly what he"d done today Not to mention a healthy dose of pure dumb luck Zane knew that, and Ty didn"t understand why he was so upset He was silent, frowning in confusion as he watched the play of emotions over Zane"s face But none of theh for Ty to really interpret them

"I told you what I think about free fall," Zane finally said "And staying cal it for yourself, were you?" It wasn"t soI find ht You were about to fall thirty feet, and you were more worried about me than you were about yourself" Zane stood and reached to place a hand on each side of Ty"s face, holding hi but stand and watch before, but I could do so to help now"

"Yeah, you can," Tyback and forth as he looked over Zane"s sincere face "You can get entleto be able to move my arms in an hour"

Zane leaned to kiss him, just a soft press of the lips, probably to halt Ty"s litany of deave in to the gentle sentiment, but he closed his eyes and shook his head obstinately "Quit it!" he de his foot in a petulant fit He wanted Zane back to being his nornant self, not this weird quixotic version of his lover and partner "Snap out of it and… I don"t know… yell at ht," Zane said, s hi like that, I" to smack the hell out of you, okay?" He stole one hed, then padded over to the phone In the nextto the butler service "What do you want to drink?" he directed at Ty, his hand over the rie pitcher of iced tea, a shot of their best whiskey, a bucket of ice, some cold sandwiches and chips, and a cookie platter in quick succession before hanging up

"Cookies?" Ty asked with a set beer; I get cookies," Zane explained as he kicked off his cross trainers and walked back over to the bed

Ty watched hi some stress in a more favorable ainst such a tack, considering how distressed Zane seerand sches "So," he said quietly "Do we think soured out we"re not the Porters and they"re trying to killwhich of us would go first"

He watched as Zane studied him silently for a h exposure for our cover to be blown unless there"s a wild card in play who actually knows the Porters We have no reason to think that," Zane said He stopped right in front of Ty, looking down at him "Take off those shoes"

The firhtly, and it took hi shoes supplied by the staff at the rock wall Ty looked down at them in surprise He felt himself flush at the absent them toward the sofa "So why try to hurt one of the Porters?" he posed as he did so "A fall like that wouldn"t necessarily kill Especially since cutting halfway through a rope isn"t exactly a precise method Whoever did it had no idea when it would rip And since I doubt Del or Corbin are better climbers than o"<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>