Ball & Chain(19)

Ty and Zane both gave worried nods.

“Thanks for bringing your friends,” Deuce added. He sounded weary.

“Always.” Ty glanced up and around the study, like he was sensing something off. He visibly shivered. “This place gives me the creeps, man.”

Deuce laughed.

“No, seriously, I feel eyes on me in here.”

Kelly snorted. Nick quickly clapped a hand over his mouth and nose, biting his own lip so he wouldn’t laugh as well.

Ty’s head whipped around and his eyes darted back and forth over the section of wall they were behind. His sharp hearing had picked up on them, and the display of his predatory senses made the hairs on the back of Nick’s neck stand up. He gripped Kelly tighter, and they both held their breath.

“Did you hear that?” Ty asked.

Deuce laughed harder.

“Yeah, Ty, the walls are talking to you,” Zane teased.

“I heard something.”

“You two go get some rest before dinner,” Deuce urged, still snickering. “Before Ty opens up some sort of paranormal investigation.”

“That’s not funny,” Ty insisted as his piercing eyes raked over their hiding spot one last time. Nick wondered how in the hell the peepholes were concealed if Ty couldn’t spot it. Ty turned to follow Deuce and Zane out, but Nick could tell he was on the alert now just by the way he carried himself. His voice trailed off as they left the room. “This place is creepy, Deacon.”

Nick and Kelly barely held in their laughter.

Kelly grinned widely. “This could be fun. Want to see where else it leads?”

Nick was grinning and nodding. “Want to go get naked first?”

“Yeah.” He took Nick’s hand and tugged him toward the stone steps.



Ty could hear Nick and Kelly arguing as he and Zane approached their room. Nick and Kelly were in the next room over from them, with a cute little wooden placard with their names carved on it. Ty laughed and pointed it out to Zane. Though the way Nick and Kelly were, it was likely neither of them cared. They’d probably be fighting over who’d get to take it home by the end of the week.

He stood at their door and cocked his head to listen, but he couldn’t make out the words of the argument. They were interspersed with laughter, though, so Ty wasn’t all too concerned about it being a real fight. He gave the door a knock, then tested the knob to see if it was unlocked and shoved it open.

He stopped short when he encountered Nick and Kelly on the queen-sized bed they were sharing. Nick was reclining against the headboard in nothing but his boxers and a worn-out Red Sox T-shirt, and Kelly was kneeling beside him holding a small tube of something.

“Was that really fucking necessary?” Nick demanded as he wiped a runny white substance off his calf.

Kelly was laughing hard. “I’m sorry, it just shot out!”

Both men glanced up when they noticed Ty and Zane in the doorway.

“Hey,” Nick said.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Ty asked in horror.

Kelly held up the tube. “First aid.”

“He’s making a goddamn mess is what he’s doing,” Nick corrected. He scratched at his calf.

“He’s scratching himself bloody, I was trying to put this hydrocortisone cream on him while I had him immobile,” Kelly explained. “But the plane ride must have made it separate or something, ’cause . . . I’ve never seen this shit do that.”

Nick laughed.

Kelly shoved at his knee to make him turn onto his side, and then he put the tip of the tube at his calf where the skin had been scratched red. When he squeezed it, though, another thin stream of opaque liquid shot out instead of the thick cream it was supposed to be.

“That’s obscene,” Zane muttered.

Kelly laughed harder and wiped at Nick’s leg before it could drip to the sheets.

“Oh my God!” Nick shouted. “What kind of janky fucking medic are you?”

“I’m sorry!”

“It’s a tube of cream, how hard is this exactly?”

“It’s separated!”

“You’re sleeping in the wet spot tonight!”

“No, it’s not my fault!”

Zane finally lost it at that. Laughing, he strolled into the room and sat on the end of the bed.

“Jesus Christ,” Ty said, moving closer. “You don’t want to know what I thought was going on in here.”

Nick glanced up, scowling as he scratched at his calf.

“I don’t understand why you’re still itching, there’s no bite or anything there,” Kelly grumbled.

“You’re not even allergic to anything,” Ty added. “Where have you been?”

“I don’t know, but I’m itchy,” Nick grumbled. “I think this place knows I’m Irish.”