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Ball & Chain(57)

By:Abigail Roux


Kelly stopped walking and peered through the glass doors of the back patio, where Ty and Nick were both sitting on a bench in the garden. Nick had his head down, holding it in both hands. Ty sat with his hand on Nick’s back, rocking to and fro.

“I have no idea,” Kelly answered. He stared at them for a few moments longer. Then he squared his shoulders, and his lips moved like he was giving himself a silent pep talk. Then he nodded and marched toward the patio doors.

Zane took a deep breath to bolster himself, then followed. They made their way to the bench in the garden where Ty and Nick were sitting. Zane wasn’t sure how to handle this, because he knew Ty always seemed embarrassed after he panicked. He covered it with jokes, making fun of himself and hoping anyone who’d witnessed it would simply pretend it had never happened. Zane had a feeling Nick would handle it a bit differently.

Ty and Nick raised their heads at their approach. Ty looked grim, the lines around his mouth tight and his brow furrowed. Nick, on the other hand, struck Zane as simply being humiliated. He returned his gaze to the ground. Kelly sat on his other side, their shoulders brushing. He waited a beat before gently resting his hand on Nick’s back. Ty removed his hand, letting Kelly take over. When Nick didn’t protest, Kelly slid his arm around him and hugged him.

“You okay?” Kelly asked.

“Caught me off guard, is all,” Nick whispered.

“I want to give you something to knock you out for the rest of the night,” Kelly said to Nick. “You’ve pushed yourself too far with all this.”

“Give him something?” Zane asked. He winced, remembering the one time he’d tried that tactic with Ty. It hadn’t gone well, but then Nick and Kelly had a lot more history and trust behind them than Zane and Ty’d had at that point. And Kelly was asking first instead of just slipping it into Nick’s drink.

Kelly glanced up at him. “Yeah, I have my kit with me. And I bet Deacon has something with him if I don’t. Whatever he used on the butler, if he has enough to put Nick out. I kind of doubt he does.” He looked back to Nick, who was watching him. They sat staring at each other in silence for a few seconds before Nick nodded.

Kelly patted Nick’s knee and stood. “I’m going to go see what I can find.”

The rest of them remained where they were as Kelly jogged off into the house. Zane turned his attention back to Ty and Nick.

“What now?”

Nick sat back, taking a deep breath. “Everyone has a shaky alibi. The couple you two saw on the beach are the only anomaly, and I can’t figure out who the fuck they could be.”

“No one fits?”

“A lot of people fit. That’s the problem. Then there’s the broken watch, which is wrong every way we look at it. Whoever came back and cut him open, they took that watch, so it’s got to be important for some reason.”

“Do you have the pictures you took?” Zane asked.

Nick nodded and pulled his iPad out of a pocket inside his jacket. He handed it over.

Zane looked at the iPad with a frown, brushing his fingers along the edge of it. Nick had been carrying it with him since this morning, but the screen was spotless. Maybe Nick cleaned obsessively like Ty did when he was bothered by something. Zane glanced at the two of them again, sitting side by side like two little boys who’d been sent out of class for misbehaving. Nick’s head was down, his shoulders slumped. Ty was staring off into the horizon, watching the last rays of the sun disappear.

“I think we should call it a night. Let you two recover,” Zane said.

Ty nodded in agreement. He absently raised his hand to Nick’s back again. Zane didn’t know if Ty did it to comfort Nick or himself.

“These islands have a reputation for being hit with rogue waves,” Nick said without raising his head.

Ty and Zane locked eyes, both of them frowning in confusion. They both looked back to Nick, waiting for him to connect rogue waves to anything that had happened today. Nick raised his head, glancing at them both. Then his eyes fixed on the cliff not far off.

“Ships would dock at these remote islands where nothing but lighthouses stood and find them completely deserted. Food still on the plates. Fires nothing but embers. Clocks not wound for weeks. Everyone on the island vanished. They called them the Ghost Isles, no one would go near them because they were cursed.”

Ty began to run his hand over Nick’s back in slow circles. “Nick,” he whispered.

“The theory of anyone who didn’t believe in curses was rogue waves. Ninety, sometimes a hundred-feet high or more, just sweeping in out of the blue and taking everything on the island with it.”