A Promise To Protect - 15. Complicated Relationships

“So this is where you work? So depressing, no wonder you have to pop pills to get through the day.” Wyatt smiles at Zeke.

“I can honestly say I didn’t see this coming.” Zeke admits and steps forward closer to his betrayer, looking into his eyes curiously. Tyler felt awful for Zeke, he knew that Wyatt meant more to him than just a mission and this would undoubtedly be killing him inside, despite his strong façade. Corey wasn’t looking at Wyatt at all, he seemed to be completely disassociated with the scene beside him, his eyes on the floor in a daze. Standing back with his arms crossed, G’s eyes were on Zeke like he was the one that couldn’t be trusted.

“So what do you think? Is seeing me in chains all you thought it’d be?” Wyatt teases then arches his body as much as the chains would allow and smirks at Zeke. “I believe it was your fantasy?”

“Wyatt, you’re way in over your head. These guys, they aren’t fucking around. I don’t think you’re suicidal enough to confess to setting me up, for petty revenge. What are you getting out of this?” Zeke asks. Wyatt laughs and shakes his head.

“You know what, I’ve been so looking forward to seeing that look on your face. Dumbfounded. You walk around so sure of yourself, that you just can’t quite accept anyone would possibly be able to outsmart you.” Wyatt sneers. Zeke starts pacing in front of him, trying to separate his feelings from the way he knew he needed to act now.

“You’re very pleased with yourself, well done. You got me. Why did it take you so long to tell them where they could find me?” Zeke asks and stops then looks up at Wyatt again, watching for any hint in his body language as to what the true motive was behind this.

“I wanted you to be completely broken so I gave you time to get attached to me.” The chained man answers. Zeke shrugs and looks away from Wyatt, his eyes moving to the floor as he continues pacing in front of his betrayer.

“Why?” Zeke asks.

“Because you’re so damn sensitive and you’re at your weakest when you’re emotional. Makes you an easy target.”

“So he’s still afraid of me then?” Zeke smiles at Wyatt and stops in front of him, crossing his arms.

“He doesn’t want to waste his men on you if it’s easier to take you down with one.”

“How many bodies did they find?” Zeke turns to G who hadn’t taken his eyes of Zeke the whole confrontation.

“7.” G answers.

“So much for one person. If he didn’t want to waste his men on me, he wouldn’t send men that are so easy to kill. It’s almost insulting being faced with such inadequecies.” Zeke stops again and looks up at Wyatt, his arms crossed as he takes him in, every detail from his expression to his breathing. Wyatt was completely calm, not a single sign that he was afraid of where he was and the lack of power he had. That Corey was beside him with equipment to torture him with, that G had no reason to keep him alive.

“He wanted me to do it and I was going to but then the plans changed.” Wyatt sighs as though disappointed.

“You didn’t just back out because you were too scared?” Zeke asks.

“I’m not scared of you, I could walk all over you, in fact I did for, what would it be now? About 8 months is that right?” Wyatt looks at Zeke with a smug smile again.

“Yeah you’re right, you weren’t scared of me.” Zeke takes a step closer, placing his hand on Wyatt’s chest and feeling the beat of his heart. “I bet you hate yourself for letting your guard down and falling in love with me though.” Zeke says quieter, after a moment he steps back and turns away from Wyatt. “You made a big mistake by betraying me Wyatt.” Zeke tells him as he walks away, back towards the door.

“You made a big mistake trusting me. I played you so well. I had to act so pathetic, so needy. Your saviour complex knows no bounds. The more broken the person, the more superior you feel to them. I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out he was playing you too.” Wyatt states. Tyler feels the attention of everyone in the room shift to him, Zeke looks at him for only a passing moment but Tyler could feel the distrust in his eyes even in just that moment. Though Zeke looked back to the floor as he walks, Corey was now staring quizzically at Tyler and G was glaring from across the room.

“I’m...” Tyler gulps and he feels the blood drain from his face, leaving him pale and clammy as he pictures himself being put up in chains and questioned, with Corey using his array of torture equipment on him. If Wyatt managed to convince anyone that Tyler was capable of double crossing them, he didn't trust for a second that he would be able to convince them he wasn't going to tell anyone what he knew. He looks at Zeke for defense but he also knew Zeke's judgement would have no impact on these people. The evidence was right before them, that Zeke could be wrong, that his judgement of character was skewed by his personal feelings.

“Why don’t you do the smart thing...” Zeke turns back to Wyatt but his sentence is cut off.

“Speaking of doing the smart thing, if I was your boss.” Wyatt looks pointedly at G. “I would get rid of the burden in the team that doesn’t play by the rules and jeopardizes the safety of everyone else here.”

“Except if that were true, you’d have organized an attack on this place, not on my house. And if this were business and not personal, a proper risk to everyone here, then you wouldn’t have had people trying to kill me. You would have wanted me alive, to question me. You didn’t, those men were there to kill me. And frankly I find it very hard to believe you would hand yourself in, this isn’t an ambush, there’s no one looking for you. You’re the dead end of the mission and you’ve been told to hand yourself in in the hopes we get rid of you. You’re taunting me, because you want me mad enough to give that order. I won’t. You think I'm not perceptive enough to see what's happening here? That I don't know you well enough? I've pieced it together, and I'm really sorry for what has happened to you, and what will happen to you.” Zeke tells him, unable to look at Wyatt now but Tyler could feel the pain in Zeke's words.

“Is this the part where we start insulting each other’s sexual abilities, or lack thereof?” Wyatt asks, that smugness hadn't faultered and Zeke was done having to face it.

“If it will make you feel better about yourself. No one’s going to be here to listen to you anyway.” Zeke sighs and turns away, he walks over the curtain, holding it open for Tyler who is the first to leave the room. It’s not until he steps outside that he feels as though he can finally breathe again, the tension in there felt like it had drained the air of oxygen. Zeke leads Tyler into an office across the room, G and Corey both walk into the office before Tyler gets a chance to even speak to Zeke alone.

“Am I to understand, you and Wyatt continued some kind of relationship after we told you to terminate it?” G asks Zeke, furiously as he walks past him and to behind the desk, he places his hands on the desk and stares down at it enraged.

“Yes.” Zeke answers and looks down at the ground ashamed, not even bothering to argue his reasoning because he knew it was stupid. He’d let himself get emotionally involved and it had caused problems for everyone to have to face. Tyler stands beside him awkwardly and looks around the large office, other than a line of filing cabinets, there was nothing to set his eyes on. Not a single thing to give him any information about who they were and what they were doing.

“Well that’s just bloody marvellous. Glad to know you kept that from me. You’re off the case.” G snaps, glaring up into Zeke’s eyes.

“You’re kidding. I’m the whole reason the case still going. I have put all of my work into this. Dedicated years...” Zeke starts arguing but G was having none of it.

“You put all your work into it for your own agenda. You put lives at risk for your own agenda. You disobeyed instructions, regulations and I don’t think you know what you are doing. I thought you were smarter than this, I expected much better but you have proven that you cannot handle a simple mission. You are lucky that all I am doing is taking off the case. As for your ‘companion’ he needs to be under police supervision. What the hell were you thinking taking a victim into your own home?” G yells, Tyler cowers back as Zeke steps forward again to continue the argument.

“Oh because everyone else we’ve let go into police supervision has been so safe. Come on G, you know he’d be dead already if we’d left it up to them. They stopped looking for the killer within a week of his parents’ murder. I know it’s against regulations, but I am sick of people being killed and us not doing anything about it. I didn’t come into this, to let people die when I can protect them.”

“Amazed you found any time to protect someone else while you’ve been fucking the enemy.” G scoffs. “You need to learn your place. And it’s not telling other people what they’re meant to do. You’re dismissed. Get out of my office before I change my mind and put you in there with him.” G demands and pulls the chair out behind his desk, taking a seat.

“Come on.” Zeke turns to Tyler and starts walking out.

“Not him. He’s staying here.” G states. Zeke stops at the door and looks over his shoulder at G, then glances at Corey who finally steps forward and starts speaking again.

“With respect, G. We cannot safely remove Tyler from this building while he’s recovering from his injury.” Corey states calmly. “The use of memory serum on his while he’s on other medications and recovering from the blood loss, it’s too high of a risk that it’d be a deadly combination and I cannot administer it knowing that risk.”

“We are not a hotel. He recovers, and then he’s gone.” G shakes his head, looking down at his desk. Zeke mouths a ‘thank you’ to Corey and gestures for Tyler to leave the office. Tyler follows him silently, so confused about the whole night to think of anything to say. Zeke walks over to the lifts, pressing the button and waiting only a moment for the lift doors to open. He gets in and Tyler joins him. Zeke presses his thumb on a scanner and the lift moves down automatically. Zeke leans against the back wall and stares at the roof, shaking his head and breathing heavily.

“Zeke, I’m really sorry about your ex. I can’t believe he’d do that to you, it’s so cruel and…”

“Tyler.” Zeke cuts him off.

“Yes?”

“Please shut up.” Zeke grumbles. The lift stops and Zeke and Tyler get out, Zeke leads the way to a set of doors. He stands before a door and types in a code then the screen lights up and scans Zeke’s face. They hear a click and Zeke turns the handle and pushes the door in then practically pushes Tyler inside before following him in and locking the door from the inside.

Tyler stands there in the dark room nervously, before Zeke puts him out of his misery and flicks on a light. Despite G’s comment about this place not being a hotel, it was the first thing that came to Tyler’s mind as he saw the room they were in. It looked like a regular apartment in a hotel, from the door you could see the double bed, opposite it was a TV mounted on the wall. Zeke looked at home as he took off his shoes and walks further into the apartment, turning on another light behind the wall that the TV was on.

“Kitchen is around there.” Zeke points to where he’d just turned the lights on. “In here is the bathroom.” Zeke walks past the bed and opens a door. “You just walk through the wardrobe into the bathroom. There’s some stuff in here that should fit you, because as I said I did suspect this might happen and have been storing things here, just in case.” Zeke shrugs.

“This place is. Amazing.” Tyler sighs as he walks around and looks at the apartment. “Is this underground?”

“Yeah, this is basically my second home, if I ever need to stay here for a few days in a row or if I needed to relocate I’d come here.” Zeke replies, in a monotone. Not at all interested in conversation. He takes his shirt and the bullet proof vest off then walks through to the bathroom. Tyler hears the running water of the shower and takes the opportunity to quickly snoop through drawers and cupboards for any information he could find but again there was nothing. “My god that feels better.” Zeke’s voice makes Tyler jump. “You should have a shower too, Corey will be down to check on you soon and the pain killers will be starting to wear off.” Zeke suggests, going to the pantry and taking out a plastic bag. “For your arm.” He states.

“Zeke I am terrified.” Tyler admits with a gulp.

“Of the shower?” Zeke asks with a smile.

“No. Of you, of Corey. Of this whole place. I mean you do realize I’m not only somewhere I don’t know the location of but I cannot leave on my own, can I? The door was unlocked by your face, the lift operates by your thumb print. I cannot leave, I am completely trapped here and I’ve still only got your word to go on, that you are the trustworthy ones.” Tyler looks at Zeke nervously. He hoped that Zeke’s slight weakness towards him could be an advantage, that just maybe if Zeke was one of the bad guys he would admit that to Tyler and they could plot to leave together.

“I don’t blame you.” Zeke sighs, watching as Tyler struggles to undo his own bulletproof vest. “Here.” Zeke goes over to Tyler to undo the back of the vest. “I’m really sorry about all this. I put you in so much danger tonight and I’m so sorry.”

“I think you’ve been the one who’s had the crap night.” Tyler replies.

“Yeah but you’re in the middle of something that you hardly understand. I’m sorry Wyatt had a go at you as well and I’m sorry for snapping at you before.” Zeke says and gently massages Tyler’s shoulders, Tyler shrugs him off quickly and takes the bag from him then walks away to have a shower. The shower was luxuriously hot and for the few minutes Tyler allowed himself to stand in it, he felt like he could forget about everything else going on. He closes his eyes for a moment to relax then feels his body become heavy. He tries to brace himself with his hands but the searing pain in his arm forces him to pull back and open his eyes, he looks through hazy eyes at the dark red blood seeping through the bandage on his arm.

“Zeke.” Tyler yells out as he falls against the back of the shower weakly, shaking and holding his arm. He slides down the wall and falls into a slump at the bottom of the shower, unconscious.

As Tyler comes to for the second time that night, he opens his eyes to see the concerned look on Zeke's face, looking down at him. Tyler groans and lifts his head a little, looking down at his waist that was covered by a towel. If he wasn't so groggy he might have cared that Zeke had to have gotten him out of the shower and onto the bed naked.

“I fainted again didn’t I?” He asks.

"You tore some of the stitches, Corey's already been down to re-do them. No internal bleeding thankfully but you've got to be more careful. I'm going to have to keep a closer eye on you." Zeke warns. Tyler realizes he's only got the towel covering himself and feels his cheeks burning at Zeke's comment of keeping a closer eye on him. Zeke didn't seem to notice at all though, his attention was on Tyler's scar covered arms, his fingers run along his upper arm softly. “What have you been cutting yourself with and how long has this been going on for?” Zeke asks. Tyler grabs his arms and looks away from Zeke. “It’s too late to hide the scars Tyler. I noticed them earlier when Corey was sewing up this one.” Zeke tells him sadly. “I just want to understand.” Zeke’s voice was nothing but patient and empathetic, so Tyler lets himself relax as Zeke’s fingers start gently tracing the scars on his arms again.