Zane was pretty sure Nick was going to have a stroke if Ty opened his mouth one more time. He and Kelly both moved closer, prepared to break up yet another argument between them.
“Burns may still have you like a puppy on a leash, Ty, but I’m not his fucking golden retriever. National security or not, family or not, we have to get answers from him. We fucking deserve answers from him, everyone on the island does.”
Ty’s nostrils flared and he pointed a finger in Nick’s face. “Don’t even pretend this is about closure for these people, that this isn’t about your beef with Burns,” he snapped.
“I’m not. I’d gladly lock that bastard up and throw away the key. Far as I’m concerned, if it weren’t for him, Eli would still be alive and I wouldn’t have a box of his things sitting on my boat that I’m still afraid to go through!”
Ty took a step toward him. Nick put a hand on his chest, pushing him back. He held up his finger like a parent scolding a small child, daring Ty to come at him again.
“Eli was loyal!” Ty shouted. “If you hadn’t left us, if you’d stuck with us instead of crawling home with your tail between your legs, maybe he’d have had someone watching his back and he’d still be here!”
“Oh,” Kelly said. He grabbed Zane’s sleeve to stop him from moving to interfere. “Nope. He’s going to get what he deserves now.”
Nick grabbed Ty’s jacket and pulled until they were almost nose to nose. “Did you ever stop and think, Ty, if you had listened to what I was saying then, listened to what I was trying to tell you about Burns and his fucking job offers, none of it would have gone down the way it did?”
Ty’s jaw tightened. He began to shake his head, and Nick let him go, shoving him away.
“Of course you didn’t,” Nick snarled. “It’s never on you, Ty.”
Ty still looked furious, but Zane could see something else creeping into his expression: the realization that Nick might be right.
“Eli was loyal. He could have taught you a thing or two about it,” Nick said tiredly.
“Fuck you, O’Flaherty!” Ty shouted. “I know what loyalty is, and that man is like a father to me! If you had a father you gave a shit about, you’d be doing the same thing!”
Nick’s jaw clenched and he took a step back, putting himself out of Ty’s reach. Or perhaps putting Ty out of his reach. His next words were whispered. “I’m tired of risking my life for you, Ty.”
Ty staggered back as if Nick had shoved him. He couldn’t form a response even as Nick turned and stalked out of the room, slamming the door behind him and rattling the ancient glass panes in the windows. They watched him go, all of them stunned into silence.
Kelly shifted his weight, and the floorboard creaked under his boot. Ty tore his eyes away from the doorway to blink at Kelly and then Zane.
“Oh God, did I really just say that?” Ty asked, voice hushed.
Kelly cleared his throat, looking indecisive. He finally took a step for the door. “I’ll go after him.”
“No,” Ty held out a hand. “No, I . . . I’ll go talk to him.”
He stood rooted to the spot for a few more seconds before he seemed to work up the courage to head for the door. He closed it gently behind him, leaving Zane and Kelly in the uncomfortable silence left behind.
Kelly glanced at Zane and smiled weakly. “Good times, huh?”
Zane shook his head. “I hope Nick kicks his ass.”
“Me too.” Kelly frowned. “Maybe we should . . .”
“Follow them?” Zane provided. “Yeah, definitely.”
Ty found Nick sitting on the very edge of the cliff, perched on a rocky outcropping that didn’t threaten to shoot him over the edge like the grassy parts did, his feet dangling over the side. Ty hesitated to move closer, finally fighting past his innate fear of falling in order to edge up to the cliff and sit. He settled down beside Nick, gravity pulling at his legs, the cold rock beneath him threatening to pitch him over the edge to the rocky sea below.
“I don’t guess we could have a heart-to-heart somewhere less likely to end in you pushing me off a cliff, could we?” he asked wryly.
Nick didn’t answer. He was gazing past his own feet at the whitecaps glowing in the moonlight.
Ty was finding it hard to breathe against the tightness in his chest. They’d had their fights over the years, some of them just as nasty as the words they’d exchanged minutes ago. Nick always gave as good as he got, though, so him just walking away scared Ty. Truly scared him. Everything about Nick had felt different since they’re returned home from deployment, and Ty didn’t know what to do about it.