It was a sort of déjà vu when I woke up a few hours later. Much like the night before, Travis sprung awake. His whole body jerked as he sat up and it was the initial movement that caused me to jump.
His chest was heaving, like he was wrestling with someone for each breath he was trying to pull into his lungs. I gently touched his shoulder to try to calm him down and he was drenched in cold sweat.
"Travis?"
The jagged breathing stopped and he looked at me for a second. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and his hands on his head as he took in slow, deep breaths.
I felt where he was previously lying with my hand only to feel the sheets were wet with sweat. I kept my other hand on his shoulder until he started to get his breathing under control a bit more.
He didn't say anything, but just fell back onto the bed so he was lying down again, taking me with him.
"Travis?" I prodded.
"I don't want to talk about it right now," he said, trailing his hand up my bare spine. Most of my clothes were on the floor. When he said he could think of other positions we could be in earlier, he wasn't kidding. I put my underwear back on afterwards, not wanting to be completely naked because the whole thing was still fairly new to me and just in case someone walked in.
Travis said no one would come in but still. I had to practically fight him to get him to put his boxers on. I don't think he understood that if he didn't have boxers on, there was no way I was getting to sleep the rest of the night. Eventually, he gave in and we fell asleep together.
His hand was calloused against my back but I didn't care. It felt right. I relaxed into it.
"I have your phone, by the way," he said, his voice thick with sleep.
I didn't know if he was talking about my current one or the one from years ago that I'd accidentally found earlier. "Oh?"
"Yeah, I got it from Jay earlier."
So it was the current one. "He shouldn't have taken it."
Travis' fingers trailed along my skin and I felt a blush creep up to my cheeks as my mind strayed to what we were up to a few hours ago, his hand distracting me. "You shouldn't have been trying to find the house."
I groaned, not saying anything.
"Your little sidekick was trying to find you. He could've followed you. And your phone can be tracked."
"I highly doubt they were trying to track me," I said, thinking of how angry Dylan was when I left.
"I wouldn't put it past them if they think a Casey member might scoop you up."
I scrunched up my face. "What?"
I felt him shrug against my body and my cheeks got hot. "The Caseys kidnapped you before. You were already attacked once and threatened at the hospital. Who's to say someone won't come and get you and lead them right to the Casey house?"
"You did exactly that though," I said, motioning with one of my hands to the room we were currently in.
Travis laughed. "How dare I bring you in from the rain," he paused. "But you didn't have your phone on you."
"If that's how my team's thinking, there's nothing to stop them from assuming that a Casey member isn't going to find me on the street and kill me where I'm walking, either."
Travis nodded his head slowly, "We are a ruthless bunch."
I rolled my eyes.
"I'm serious," Travis said, which got my attention because it was a rare occasion that he ever was. "You said earlier you felt like a pawn. Listen to your gut."
My stomach swirled with worry and my voice came out in a whisper. "You think they're using me?"
"I think you should push for following on Dacosta leads as much as you can. They're not going to listen to you, but you should do all you can."
"What do you mean they're not going to listen?"
"They don't care about the Dacostas. It's the Caseys they're here for."
"How do you know that?" I asked, "We're here because of Cameron and Sterling. They said they want to get in before any new gang leader can take â"
"Take over, I know," Travis interrupted, "But this isn't the first time people like this have come banging on the Caseys' door. Listen, the Casey's have been around for a long time. There's a lot of money. A lot of connections. A lot of outside ties. If someone breaks into the Casey gang they can get their hands on a lot of outside criminals."
"But Sterlingâ"
"Sterling's family used to be Casey's a while ago and they didn't like how things were done so they broke off and did things on their own. They've been fighting to get their own footing but they're not nearly as stable. That's why they're such hotheaded dumbasses and no one trusts them so they steal Casey shit half the time. If the cops bust Dacostas, they're not getting much information."
I shoved his chest but he didn't budge. "Why didn't anyone tell me this?"
"It's what they do. It's what everyone does. You find someone angry and you say, 'I can help you get their head on a platter if you help me'. And then that person will do whatever you tell them to."
His words made my stomach lurch, sounding too close to home for me considering the hospital conversation with Dylan and the kid. "You think that's what the agency does?"
"I don't know. But I wouldn't trust them."
"What should I do?" I asked, more thinking out loud than anything else.
"Quit."
I wasn't expecting that, to say the least and it took me a second to answer. "Yesterday you told me to keep doing what I was doing."
Travis shrugged. "I forgot how you made me feel."
His words threw me for a loop. It was practically romantic and romantic words weren't something that I heard from Travis very often. Right now in bed with him, with his arms wrapped tightly around me and my hands on his chest, everything felt so normal. Like we were just two normal twenty year olds cuddling after sex. Maybe I was finishing up school. Travis probably would have had to have a job, I doubt he'd sit still enough for college. We could have an apartment together and visit our parents for the holidays.
But I could only enjoy that fantasy for a moment because I knew there was at least two or three weapons stashed somewhere in this room. The entire house was full of gang members. And when I trailed my hand down Travis' bare chest, I could feel scar after scar that reminded me his life was far from perfect.
"Hmm?" he asked when I didn't say anything, like something might be wrong.
"Nothing," I said, "I'm going to use the restroom."
I got up quickly, scrambling for my clothes on the floor. It was the first time I had been intimate with Travis like that and I wasn't confident enough to strut around the room without any clothes on. I pulled up my leggings and the old t-shirt of Travis' that I had worn before I went to bed.
"I'll be right back," I said, quietly. I glanced back at him, seeing him much more relaxed than he had been when he woke up. "Are you okay?"
"Mhm," he said.
I opened the door and immediately heard yelling. With how loud the yelling was, the room we were in must have been sound proof or have incredibly thick walls, or we would have heard it. The quietness of everything now made sense, seeing as I didn't once hear anyone walking around outside of the room throughout the night and Travis didn't seem concerned with anyone hearing us.
I opened the door wider and the light poured in, landing on the bed. I looked back at Travis with wide eyes but he just looked bored and not concerned in the least bit.
"Oh my gosh," I said under my breath at him before quickly walking out of the room, closing the door behind me. I headed in the direction of the noise which wasn't hard to find.
Down the hall, I saw Ben and another guy pushing Finn out of a room. Finn was fighting against them, trying as hard as he could to get into the room. I quickened my pace to get over to them but tried not to get in the way because Finn didn't seem like he was in a talkative mood right now as he cussed at Ben to let him go.
Suddenly, Annabeth appeared in the door he was trying to fight his way into. Half of her body was against the door frame, the other half was still in the room, and a murderous glare was stuck on her face. Finn didn't seem affected by it.
"Leave," she demanded lowly but with force.
"Fuck. That," Finn yelled out, trying to pull his arms out of Ben's hold.
Annabeth clenched her jaw. "You're making it worse. Get out of here. Now."
The two of them had a silent glaring contest before Finn started to calm down and walk away.
"Yeah, bitch," I heard a guy that sounded suspiciously a lot like Josh yell from inside the room. I saw Annabeth struggling to hold someone back with her other hand inside the room.
Finn doubled back, ready to charge into the room again but Ben seemed ready for it this time and pushed him away, getting him to continue down the hallway.
Annabeth's glare shot to me and I wanted to take a step back but couldn't move. "Get in here."
I obliged. As soon as I was in, she slammed the door behind me and I was in a room with her and a now awake Josh, who was clutching his bleeding arm.
"What is going on?" I asked, looking at him.
"Where the hell have you been?" Annabeth asked me, not answering my question. She went over to where some medical supplies were laid out on the ground and sat down. "Sit back down before I make you," she said to Josh.
Josh didn't move but instead looked at me.
"Why was he trying to fight you?" I asked. This was all wrong. He was supposed to be asleep and then they would take him out somewhere before he woke up and he'd never have to see the inside of the Casey house.
"Dipshit over here freaked out, ripped his bandage off which messed up his stitches," Annabeth answered. "I hear he's wandering the hallways and come to fix his stitches. Again. Dipshit starts hitting on me and calls me hot."
"Well she is," Josh defended like that made it all better but he didn't realize what he'd done. Not just by offending Finn but by causing a scene.
"I said, sit down," Annabeth stressed. I could tell her patience was wearing thin.
Josh, thinking he had the upper hand here despite his bleeding arm decided to push his luck. "Or what?"
"I have a needle," Annabeth indicated with it for him to sit.
He rolled his eyes, trying to act macho. "Yeah, so."
I sat down next to Annabeth. "I would listen to her, Josh," I suggested. "She's not someone you want to test."
"You're just going to accept this? We're god knows where with them," Josh said, trying to persuade me.
"You're bleeding, dipshit," Annabeth reminded. "I'm trying to stop it."
Josh looked between the two of us and hesitantly sat down on the ground.
"Plus, you didn't seem to mind who I was when you were hitting on me."
I put a hand up to my mouth to hide my smile.
"I noticed you're not passing out now..." I said to Josh as he watched Annabeth thread the needle.
He looked hesitantly at Annabeth as she came closer to him with the needle and then to her face before glancing at me.
"I don't know. I think I panicked. I'm so sorry."His voice came out in a whisper, like he didn't want Annabeth to overhear.
Josh was always apologizing to me.
"It's fine. You helped with one of the guys," I said, not really upset that he passed out because I wasn't sure if Travis would've come out from wherever he was if Josh was conscious.
"I didn't do anything to anyone. I froze. All I could think about was what happened last time until that guy cut me and then all I could think about was what it was and if it was metal and when my last tetanus shot was and then I was on the ground."
I was pretty sure he had messed up one of the guys' legs, right? Or had I imagined that? No, he was definitely limping before he even cut Josh. And when he fell to the ground when Ben and Finn pulled up, I could see that he was clearly bleeding in his leg. So what was that about?
"Probably locked your knees," Annabeth said absentmindedly, beginning to stitch up his arm again.
"I didn't lock my knees," he said like it was the most offensive thing he could have done.
"But you did pass out," she said, leaning in to get closer to his arm. "Stop looking at me like that," she added as Josh observed her face this close to him.
I turned my head to the ground to try to hide my smile again.
"I'm so sorry," Josh said, bringing his attention back to me. He leaned closer to me to say it but winced when he realized it tugged on his arm to do so.
"Dipshit," Annabeth whispered under her breath.
"Are you sure you're certified to do this?" he asked her.
She raised an eyebrow at him and that time I couldn't hold in the small, single laugh that escaped me. She let go of the needle, letting it hang from his arm and shrugged. Like it wasn't her problem anymore, Annabeth raised her arms int he air.
Josh's face paled before she smirked and went back to stitching him up, effectively pleased with shutting him up about it.
He looked between me and Annabeth. "How did we get here?" he whispered.
I didn't know how to answer that and I didn't talk about that with Travis because Josh waking up ahead of time wasn't exactly something I had anticipated.
"Do you know where you are?" Annabeth challenged.
He glanced at her. "I know who you are. I can take a guess."
Annabeth smiled mischievously and leaned in but this time so she was closer to his face instead of his arm. "Who am I?"
It was like his brain shut off the second she looked at him like that.
"Finn's going to kill him. Stop it," I scolded her.
Annabeth leaned back and went back to his arm. "We're only playing. Right, Josh?" she asked flirtatiously.
He didn't answer, he just continued to watch as she stitched up his arm. I think he was disoriented the second he woke up and this wasn't helping at all. Not to mention any blood loss from his arm or head trauma from Travis dropping him when they were carrying him up the stairs.
After she finished up with the stitches, she sat up straight again and started pulling out medical tape to put over his stitches. He pulled his eyes away from her and looked again to me.
"Are you okay? You look, uh..." he began.
Annabeth stopped what she was doing and looked to me. One of her hands reached out and she started brushing it through my hair and my eyes widened as I felt her tugging on knots that I didn't know were there. I didn't even look in a mirror before coming in here.
"Lacey slept with the dog." Her tone was nice and not accusing in any way but I felt like I was in trouble. My eyes widened at the truth of it and I started straightening out my hair myself as I felt my cheeks flush red as she used her pet name for Travis. I tried to keep as much of a composure for her calling me out for sleeping with Travis as I could in front of Josh.
"They put you with dogs?" Josh asked like he was offended at the audacity.
Annabeth smirked knowingly at me. It was nice to see you too, Annabeth. Missed you so much.
"Just the one. She probably stinks of him by now."
Josh glared at me like this was my fault. "The dog room? Some fucking cellar or something? You should've gotten me. Or yelled for me. We could've tried to get out."
"A lot of these rooms are practically soundproof. Keeps the screams in. Right, Lacey?" Annabeth asked as she cut some medical tape. "I didn't even hear anything."
Josh moved away from her. "Screams? Were they torturing you? Did you torture her?" he asked, turning his attention to Annabeth.
Annabeth shot an amused grin at me.
I looked up at the ceiling, letting out a long groan. I bit my lip as I debated whether or not I would prefer actual torture to this. Probably the torture. "Can we please stop talking about this? No one was hurt. I was sleeping in a room. In a bed. I'm fine."
I couldn't remember the last time I was this embarrassed and Josh just thought we were talking about a pet dog.
With Josh's wound out of reach, Annabeth yanked his hand to pull him closer to her to wrap the tape around his arm so he wouldn't mess his stitches up again. Josh looked hesitantly at me. I offered him a small smile and tried to calm my cheeks down.
"I think your dog has nightmares," I said quietly, only slightly enjoying the fact that Annabeth called Travis dog so often that it was easy to have a conversation about him without others knowing. Especially considering the fact that he was supposed to be dead.
"Yeah," was all Annabeth offered at first. "He does that."
Josh looked like he had more he wanted to say, but didn't know how to with Annabeth right there. At the moment, I was perfectly okay with him having to bite his tongue, seeing as I didn't exactly have answers to the questions I suspected he was going to ask.
"We should probably go after this," I said, nodding towards Josh.
"Wait. We just get to go?" he asked. "We're not being held here or whatever you do to people?"
"It's raining," Annabeth said as she finished up his arm. She turned to look at me. "Do you want to go out in the rain?" she asked slowly like she was trying to ask me something else.
"What?" Josh asked, louder this time.
Annabeth rolled her eyes. "You passed out because you're not cut out for big boy games." Josh went to deny this but she shot him a glare and continued talking. "We could have left you there on the ground, bleeding out in the pouring rain to die. Would you have liked that, dipshit?" she asked, speaking to him like he was a child.
"No..."
"Then I think you'd better be thankful Lacey is good in our books or they would've driven right by you two on the street leaving you to die and we wouldn't be having this pointless conversation right now."
I guess that wasn't exactly a lie.
"Lacey, do you want to go out in the rain?"
"Um, no?"
Annabeth started cleaning up the medical supplies. "Good. You can stay a bit longer. We have a dog you can see. You don't have a dog," she said, shooting a look at Josh as she spoke the last sentence. I clenched my jaw to stop myself from smiling as she gave me an excuse, even if it was just rain, to see Travis more. "See how that works? You can clean up, use my shower, wash the smell off."
I sniffed my arm. "I don't smell like dog. Stop saying that."
She shook her head like she was pitying me. "You look terrible."
I groaned at her honesty. She stood up and took the supplies with her, walking to the door and stood outside of it, yelling to someone down the hall.
I got up and Josh did the same, coming over to me.
"What happened?" he asked, eyeing Annabeth.
"She told you," I said, "You passed out and some Casey members came up and took care of the guys again and took us here to fix you up." I shrugged, hoping he would believe me. Technically that happened. Sort of. If you ignored the part where the Casey members wanted to leave him and I had to argue with them to do something about Josh.
"Where are we?" he asked.
I looked at him as sternly as I could. "Don't ask questions like that right now, Josh."
"You look like them. Your clothes," he said.
"Well," I started, slowly, trying to be polite, "I was out in the rain and wasn't exactly passed out like you...so they offered me spare ones."
Josh looked down at his feet. "Sorry."
"Come on," Annabeth said to me before looking at Josh. "Stay here. The door's being watched. You make me stitch you up a third time and I'll kill you myself," she threatened before leaving the room.
"I don't want to anger her," I said quickly to Josh before following her, trying to make it seem like I was following Annabeth only because of that and not because I was actually friends with her.
Some guys were waiting outside of the door and closed it after I walked out, guarding it like she said. Annabeth was down the hall and I ran to catch up with her.
"Do I really look that bad?" I asked, trying to smooth out more of my hair.
"You've been showering in a hotel. Do you want to use a regular shower or not?" she snapped at me. She made it sound like it was a chore to speak but I knew enough about her to know she just didn't do well with pleasant emotions. The fact that she was offering was nice enough.
I smiled at her as she opened the door and I saw the room I'd only been in once before and assumed it was Annabeth's. Finn was on the bed talking with Ben, who was on the floor. As soon as we entered, their heads turned.
"Did you stab him?" Finn asked eagerly, like it was Annabeth's duty and anything short of stabbing was a let down.
Annabeth rolled her eyes.
"I told you she wouldn't," Ben said.
She didn't say anything and led me into a bathroom that was connected to her room. I glanced around the marble counter tops. It had a shower in one corner and a giant tub in another.
"I've got my own bathroom because I'm not sharing with a bunch of guys so you can use anything in here," she said in the tone that always came out of Annabeth's mouth: slightly put off. But she was taking out towels and wash rags for me.
"There's a bunch of stuff in the shower but if you don't want those, there's more soap and scents and shit under the sink. Just pick whatever, I don't care," she said before leaving me be.
I didn't want to open anything new so I just used the shampoo and body wash that was already in there. I didn't realize it until I was in the shower but she was right â I'd been taking a shower in a hotel this whole time and I almost audibly sighed as soon as the water hit me. It was a relief to not feel like the water was practically drying out my skin like it did in the hotel. Even more so when I used the hotel-provided soap that just made my skin feel worse than the water did.
I wouldn't admit it to her but I owed Annabeth so much after that.
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Note: I can't wait for these next few chapters woooo.
I talked to my sister today on the phone and she was like "Cameron had better be alive. I will be so mad. Ben's life has been hard enough. You can't do that." And I laughed.
I hope you guys have a great rest of your day! Like, comment, tell your friends, and don't forget to smile! <33
Twitter: BreakawayJS
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