After showering, I took my time getting ready. I put the same clothes back on because I hadn't exactly left the room intending to shower. Not to mention, I doubted Josh would appreciate if I was offered another set of clothes while I'm pretty sure he was still in his old ones. While the clothes were technically mine, it didn't seem exactly fair considering his were still probably slightly damp from the rain. Or, at least his jeans.
There was still steam fogging the mirror and as I pulled my shirt over my head, finishing getting dressed I could make out writing scrawled over it in random spots. Some was illegible due to the temperature and probably old writing.
'HOT' was written high on the mirror in the top corner, higher than it seemed Annabeth could reach.
Random misshapen faces were drawn here and there.
'love you' was written in cursive near the middle of the mirror.
I smiled at the images and secret messages most likely between Annabeth and Finn. It was heartwarming to see things like this, considering Annabeth was almost always glaring at Finn and it was a wonder half the time why he stuck around her. I stared for a bit longer, the mirror started to clear up and had you not noticed it before, the message would've been entirely missed as the mirror returned to its normal state.
I brushed my hair slowly, enjoying the quietness of the bathroom and not having to listen to the neighbors in the hotel room come and go, their doors slamming shut or the people above me walking hard on their feet across the room.
As I did so, I used the quiet as a moment to gather my thoughts on everything I had to do.
I still needed sleep. I had gotten only a few hours and after running to Melkin and fighting with the Dacosta member (or whatever they were calling themselves), my body was protesting and still begging for sleep. The shower helped a little bit.
I needed to find out what happened to Cameron, and Sterling for that matter, so I could find out why the heck Sterling's gang members kept coming for my head.
It wasn't a necessity but a want: I wanted to find out who Martinez was. I needed to sit down for a second on my own and research the property again to find out her first name and look the woman up. Travis mentioned the gang having outside ties. Was she one of them? Were they involved in something more than--no, wait, I didn't even know what they did to make money still. I wanted to figure that out, too.
I needed to figure out why Travis and everyone just hadn't left town. Cameron never wanted to stay and if he was gone, why would Travis step up and take over something he even tried to leave once? They didn't even seem like they were doing anything if they knew where our teams cameras were and the fact that we were here trying to take the gangs out of the picture. It was awfully passive for the gang of people who had a Finn, someone who revelled in causing chaos and a Travis, someone who was a magnet for said chaos.
I needed to figure out what to do with Josh. Oh god. And work. And Dylan. And what if Josh blabbed to Dylan? And what I was out on house arrest again? Would I see the gang again? I just wanted to stay with them but then what would Dylan and Owen do? I doubt they'd just let me go like that.
I started to panic and for my hair's well being, I put the brush down and went to exit the bathroom. This was going to be Josh's ticket to getting a full-time position. He has the motherload of information right now. I clenched my jaw as my stomach twisted and opened the bathroom door, walking back into Annabeth's room.
However, all panic dissipated as I took in the scene before me. Ben was still laying on the floor with his legs extended and crossed at the ankles and his hands behind his head. Annabeth was at a vanity desk next to her bed, organizing some of the items on it. And there, sitting on the bed leaning half against the headboard and half against Finn, was Travis. The two were hunched over and looking at a phone Finn had.
He was dressed finally, with his standard black jeans and a plain black t-shirt. I was pleasantly surprised he wasn't covered head to toe in gear yet but I figured he wasn't hiding from anyone in the Casey house so he could be himself here and that made me want to never walk out the door.
Travis' eyes snapped to me, all amusement from whatever he was looking at gone.
"Where were you?" he asked lowly, like I was in the wrong. Despite his accusing eyes, my stomach flipped at seeing him.
Was he serious? I pointed behind me to the bathroom he just saw me walk out of.
"You said you'd be right back almost an hour and a half ago," he said.
"Oh." I had forgotten Travis was waiting when I left to investigate, all of the commotion from Josh and Finn almost fighting distracted me. I'm surprised he wasn't asleep. "To be fair, I only just used the bathroom."
He rolled his eyes but I could tell he wasn't angry.
"You look a lot better," Annabeth glanced at me in her vanity mirror.
"Thank you." I smiled as I walked closer into the room and stood near her and Ben. I felt better.
"She looked fine before," Travis said offhandedly as he went back to glancing at the phone, with Finn scrolling through it.
"Says you," she shot back.
Travis grabbed the pillow that was under one of his arms and flung it the short distance to hit her face, causing her to let out a curse. When the pillow fell away from her face, Annabeth was glaring daggers at him and he gave her the finger. Annabeth and Travis both seemed to know where the line of "what's acceptable" was. However, they both seemed to like to leap over it and so when she grabbed the pillow and whacked him I'm the face, I don't think anyone was really surprised. Finn just shielded his face.
Travis jumped off the bed as soon as he was hit and I moved out of the way as the two fell to the ground fighting. I'm pretty sure this was where I should've been jealous a girl was technically having a pillow fight with Travis. However, this was more classified as trying to smother each other until the other tapped out and surrendered their pride.
I got on the bed and climbed next to Finn.
"What are you," I began to ask as I observed what he was so invested in but stopped as I realized. "Is this Josh's phone?"
Finn giggled and nodded.
"Stop, you're not supposed to do that."
"Maybe you're not," Finn laughed. "We don't need a warrant."
I didn't mean legally. I meant morally but he didn't seem to notice the difference.
"This guy is one of the most organized dudes I've ever met," Finn said laughing. "I'm surprised he doesn't have an alarm for when to use the bathroom."
"Don't make fun of him, he's my friend," I said. Josh was a very determined individual. While he was a pain in the butt nine times out of ten, if you needed something done, he would come through. He was a bit of a perfectionist. Hated being late. Hated letting people down. Hated being number two.
Finn gave me a look. "Please," he said, not buying that we were friends.
"How did you even get into his phone? Isn't it password protected?"
Finn repeated the look. "Please," he said, more exaggerated this time. Ben chuckled from the floor. Of course.
Commotion from the floor grabbed my attention. Annabeth had Travis on his back as she straddled him, shoving the pillow down onto his face. I could hear muffled swearing from him, so I doubted he was in much danger if he could manage breath for that.
Finn noticed my gaze. "Go easy on him," he said to Annabeth.
She rolled her eyes. I thought it was a wasted suggestion as well, considering who he was talking to.
"He spent all night fucking Lacey, I'm sure he's tired," Finn added casually. Ben started chuckling again.
"How do you all know about that?" I shot out, eyes wide as embarrassment washed over me.
Finn pointed to the nightstand on my side of the bed. I glanced over at it to find the top drawer only half closed and inside there was a visible box of condoms that matched the ones Travis had brought into the room.
I groaned loudly, burying my face in my hands.
"Hey," Finn called out but I didn't remove my hands to see who he was talking to. "You owe me for the ones you took. That shit ain't free, son."
Travis' reply was muffled by the pillow. Annabeth must have removed it because the end of his statement was much clearer.
"-Fucking live," Travis said. "Get off me."
I lowered my hand to see Annabeth now off of Travis and moving to sit back at her vanity, a bit more amusement in her eyes than earlier. Travis hopped up and over to the bed.
"You're in my spot," he told me and squeezed his way in between Finn and I, until I was forced to scoot over. Travis relaxed, snuggling in for effect.
Finn handed him the phone and Travis pulled up the text messages.
"What does he text you?" he asked as he pulled up 'Carson' on Josh's message list.
They started scrolling through the messages, but it was nothing important. Mainly asking if I wanted coffee, or times of practice sessions, or help on questions for exams we've had to take.
"How did you guys know where we were?" I asked, thinking back to how Finn and Ben pulled up to exactly where Josh and I were.
"Jay," Finn and Travis answered at the same time.
I scrunched up my face in frustration. "He told on me?" I know I said I wanted to see them, but I highly doubted Jay phrased it like that. More like I was doing something stupid.
"He was telling on himself," Travis said as he became bored with the message string he was reading and moved to Josh texting someone else.
"What?"
"He wasn't supposed to leave you alone. It's part of his job but someone wouldn't listen to him," Travis shot me a pointed look, "So he told us where he left you."
"You were there after Jay left?" I asked, originally figuring that maybe Travis was just meeting up with Finn and Ben where they stopped because it was convenient.
"Who do you think shot that guy in the leg? Not this dumbass," Travis said, speaking of Josh as he motioned with the phone in his hand.
"Oh," I said, staring at Travis with admiration. So that's what happened to the guy and why he was bleeding randomly. I had no idea we were even being watched, which explained why Travis knew what happened to cause my knuckles to turn raw. He said he'd have my back before and that he was watching when Josh and I were in the Dacosta territory but I guess I never really thought he was right there.
"Please don't fuck again while I'm on the bed," Finn said, leaning over Travis to direct his comment at both of us.
Travis gave him the finger.
"The king and queen of impulse control, ladies and gentlemen," Ben said sarcastically.
"Oh my God," I said but it was interrupted halfway through with a yawn. I had impulse control. At least more than Travis.
"You should sleep," Travis commented.
"Shouldn't everyone?" I asked, looking around to notice no one seemed particularly tired.
"Nah," Travis said. "The city wakes up at night. Are these from the files you guys have?" he asked, angling the phone in my direction.
He was in Josh's photo gallery and there was a picture of one of the first page in Travis' file on display, with all of his personal information.
"Yeah."
"They wrote my age wrong," he said as he flipped through the pictures.
"I told you I didn't give them any information about you guys...or corrections." I noticed Josh had a picture for almost every person's file as reference.
"Do they have a lot of other files?" he asked.
I shrugged.
"I bet a lot is wrong," Travis said and I watched as he hesitated to flick to the next picture like he was concentrating. "Do you think you could get us copies of them?"
My eyebrows raised and I noticed Annabeth stopped organizing her makeup. "Copies?"
"Yeah, pictures. Ben could hook you up with something so you're not having to use your phone and it's safer. Just to see what they think they know."
Could I do that? I bit my lip as I thought about the conference room everything we had was located in and how often people probably frequented it. "I think so."
Ben got up from the ground and stretched his arms high above his head before heading toward the door. He nodded his head to me.
"Oh, right now?" I asked.
When no one said anything, I scrambled off the bed. I guess I wasn't getting sleep any time soon. I could make due with it, I'd rather sleep when I wasn't around these guys anyway. Travis and Finn kept scrolling through my the phone and Annabeth got and went to her restroom as I followed Ben.
"I'll be back," I said over my shoulder.
"See you in a few hours," Travis joked.
Ben chuckled as he held the door open for me and we walked out. Immediately, I felt anxious and nervous seeing as Ben made it obvious I wasn't exactly his favorite person lately.
"Do you guys have any coffee here?" I asked hesitantly, playing with the hem of my shirt.
He raised an eyebrow at me. "Isn't it a little late for coffee?"
"Yeah, but..." I started and shrugged because here I was, getting led down a hallway with him despite whatever time it was.
He was silent for a little bit and I figured it just meant that he had dismissed my question. However, he turned down the hallway and not expecting it, I had to backtrack to keep up with him.
"I can get you some tea. That's probably better and won't keep you up for the next eight hours so you can get some sleep in a little bit," he reasoned, glancing at me for approval. "Do you like tea?"
It wasn't coffee, which I had become accustomed to thanks to Josh basically pouring it into my bloodstream over the last few years during our training and study sessions but the fact that it was weaker was appreciated.
"I do," I said with a small smile.
He nodded and held open one of the doors in front of us for me, which lead us to the main foyer where the stairs were. I was more familiar with this area of the house, heading down the stairs with him on my heels. We entered the kitchen and not knowing where anything was, I went to sit on one of the stools.
Ben moved around in the kitchen, getting the tea ready as I watched silently. He put the mug in the microwave and set it for a few minutes so the water would get hot, which I was much more appreciative of rather than having to wait for a tea kettle to boil water. The awkward silence loomed over us, eating away at me. He leaned on the counter I was seated at, looking down at his hands.
"Do you hate me?" I spit out, eyes locked on him as I held my breath.
He looked at me with confusion. "No. Why would I hate you?"
I released my breath and widened my eyes at his answer. Why?
He shrugged his shoulders a bit defeated, like he knew the what was causing me to think he hated me before I said anything. When he opened his mouth to talk, the microwave beeped, signalling the water was done.
Ben was quick to take the mug out and put the tea bag in, pushing it towards me.
"Let's go get a camera for you," he suggested, not waiting for me to answer before he started out of the kitchen. I walked after him as fast as I could, considering I was holding a hot mug and trying not to spill it. We went back up the stairs and down some random halls until he held the door open and we were in a very small room lined with tech gear.
There was a desk off to the side and I was quick to walk over and place my mug down on it. Ben was busy looking through some of the items he had.
"I don't hate you," he repeated, now that we were in a room with the door closed. "I've actually missed you quite a lot. There should be a coaster somewhere around there for your mug," he said, not looking in my direction.
I rolled my eyes as I found the coaster and placed my mug underneath it.
He came over near me and placed a box of equipment down on the edge of the desk. I peeked inside of it but there was too much cluttered in it to make sense of what was actually in it. He didn't make an attempt to move anything around and when I looked up at him, I found his eyes were stuck to me in an intent gaze.
"You concern me," he said and then lowered his voice to continue. "Including the night we dropped you off at the hospital, I have had to watch my best friend nearly die six times. Six. I'm not talking about him getting shot in the arm and having to stitch him up," he scrunched up his face, making it clear that he assumed that was no big deal. "I mean I've sat next to his bed not knowing if he was going to wake up. I've had to help him walk in the house because he wasn't able to stand. I've had to drag his unconscious body out of the car, not knowing if he stopped breathing on the drive home because he took too much damage or lost too much blood."
My breath caught in my throat as a chill seemed to surround me, causing me to shiver.
"Why?" I asked.
Ben put both hands on the table and leaned closer to me. "You."
"What?" I raised a hand to my throat when I heard how weak my voice came out.
"He was bound and determined to get Sterling back for what he did and he didn't care how far he had to go. It's Travis. He's reckless."
My eyes widened at the realization and I could feel myself starting to get emotional. "And did he?"
Ben took in a deep breath and leaned back. "He says he shot Sterling when the building came down. I think that's the one that caused your team to come in, right?"
I nodded quickly, images of Sterling, Cameron, and Travis all going into the large, old building playing through my head from the surveillance tape. The building coming down. Only, none of them came out and everyone thought all three of them were dead. So what did Travis do?
"How? How is he here, alive? Everyone thinks they died. How do you know Sterling isn't alive somewhere either?" I asked frantically, standing up in my chair.
"This is the calmest he's been for awhile. I don't think that would be the case unless he was sure he'd killed Sterling," Ben said.
I thought back to earlier in the night when I was selfishly oogling over Travis' body. How bruise free it had been, how clean it seemed. He'd clearly had time to heal and had been staying relatively out of trouble or it would've shown on his body, knowing him.
"When you first popped back up, I suggested we let you do your job. He didn't like it, but I didn't think it was smart for Travis to get involved with you again, not because I hated you but because of what his life has been like for the last three years. If something were to happen again, well, he can only get lucky so many times," Ben said, eyes cast downward.
I understood where he was coming from. He didn't want Travis to go down the rabbit hole of putting himself so close to death again because of me. I knew how close the two were, it would be like losing a brother for Ben.
"Is that why he has nightmares?" I asked quietly.
Ben shrugged. "Probably. He's been in some compromising situations over the years. Nothing to write home about."
My chest tightened at the information. None of which Travis had mentioned in any of our time we'd had together and I doubted that he had any intention of telling me. Not that we had loads of time to catch up, but still. His summary of the past three years was more along the lines of "not good" when I felt like a more accurate description was "oh, I almost died multiple times and can't sleep through the nights and the entire population thinks I'm dead" and that was just based off two days worth of information I'd gotten on him.
Ben started digging through the box and I used a shaking hand to raise the tea to my lips. However, I wasn't tired at all anymore, not after Ben's bombshell of information. What if one of those times he hadn't been so lucky? What if he pushed his limits just a bit too much? My stomach lurched and I clenched my jaw at the thought of losing him for real.
My mind thankfully didn't get time to wander too far as Ben placed a very small camera on the table. "This is a camera."
I gave him a deadpan look. I wasn't stupid.
He chuckled as he picked up the camera small enough to fit in the palm of his hand. "There's an memory card in it right here," he said, demonstrating how to get it out as he talked. "If at any time you're worried or think you might be found out, take the memory card out. It's tiny, easier to conceal. Trash the camera, smash it to bits. I don't care. Honestly, Lacey. I don't care what happens to the camera. Just get rid of it to save your ass, okay?"
I nodded.
"Even if you can't save the memory card, we'll live. But it's teeny tiny, it can fit anywhere and it's the only thing I need back," he said as he handed me the camera. "But if you have to ditch the memory card, make sure to break it so they don't track you back to taking the pictures. Got it?"
"Yes, thank you," I said, examining the camera. It was simple enough and I didn't want to admit it, but the amount of times he reassured me that my safety was more important than the evidence was making me question Dylan's priorities.
"Thank you for coming back," Ben said, surprising me.
I didn't know what to say at first and just stared at him with an open mouth. After everything he told me, his feelings made sense.
"Sorry we were a bit hard on you when Finn and I first ran into you. But Josh was there and we didn't know what your deal was," he admitted.
"No, I would've done the same thing," I admitted. "But I love you guys."
Ben smiled as he lifted the box and went to put it back where it belonged. "I know you said you're what, a trainee? Something like that at your agency or whatever. But you'll always be a real Casey if that makes you feel any better."
I took a few quick steps to Ben as he reached up to put the box back on one of the shelves and hugged him from behind. "Thank you."
It probably shouldn't have made me feel like I was on the verge of crying when he said that, but it did and I bit back my feelings as I pushed my face into his back, squeezing him. He wrapped his arms around mine, tapping on my hands and laughing.
The door opened and Travis squinted his face up at us as he entered. "Weird."
I pulled away and walked over to the table, where Travis was. Without asking whose it was, Travis grabbed my tea and took a sip of it, making a gross face afterwards. He stuck out his tongue as he placed it back on the coaster.
"Nasty," he said as he used his two pointer fingers and started tapping out a rhythm on the edge of the desk. "She set?" he asked Ben.
Ben nodded and they started talking about which camera he gave me and what to do with the information but I wasn't listening to a word. It was like their voices were muffled, coming from the next room over as I stared at Travis.
My eyes scanned over his face. He seemed calm despite the bags under his eyes from lack of sleep and his eyes lacked the joy and excitement they usually did. His hair was pointed in different directions like he needed to comb it badly. His body was much more muscular than it used to be and as my eyes roamed down his arm, I tried to picture it black and blue from bruises. Or bleeding. All because he was trying to get revenge on something that happened to me.
I looked at his stomach. I couldn't see it but I remembered how bad it was when I was here years ago. It was terribly and I could only imagine it ten times worse now, if Ben said he was near death.
Six times he'd put his life in danger.
It was difficult to picture, only because it was making my stomach turn.
Travis looked slowly to me with curious eyes. "What?" he asked, stopping the movement of his hands.
"Why didn't you tell me you almost died so many times?"
It was like air was pushed out of his chest as some of his confidence deflated and his shoulders slumped. His eyes narrowed to Ben.
"Lacey," Ben hissed but I ignored him.
"We're not talking about this right now," Travis said in his more business, less carefree tone as he turned on his heel and headed out of the room.
I grabbed my mug and camera, following him out. "I'd like to talk about it before your seventh near death experience."
He stopped walking and turned to face me. I had to quickly stop walking, making sure to not spill the tea. His eyes bore into mine with enough intensity that I almost wanted to step back just to get away as he advanced closer to me, but I stayed my ground.
"Every single time I walk out that door," he said, pointing to where the front door must have been as he came closer, "I have Ben behind me reciting all of the ways to stay safe and out of danger like I'm in some fucking awareness class. Every time I close my eyes to try to sleep, I see shit all over again. Sometimes I'm getting stabbed, shot, stuck in a fire and wake up and can't breathe." Travis said. The only thing between us was the tea, which I held with one hand against my body. "But I can forget all of it with you because you weren't there. So please don't make me remember it." His voice was low, pleading almost but his eyes were hard and made me regret ever bringing it up in the first place.
I nodded weakly as I looked at the ground. I had to remind myself that he wasn't the same person that I knew three years ago. He'd gone through terrible things and I couldn't expect him to be as easy going as before.
"I just don't want to lose you," I admitted.
He placed a finger on my chin and lifted my head to look back at him. I clenched my jaw to keep my emotions under control. His phone started buzzing but he made no attempt to get it.
"I won't go anywhere if you don't," he said.
A smile formed on my lips as I shook my head, no. I wasn't planning on going anywhere.
Happy with my answer, he grabbed the phone out of is back pocket and started talking to whoever was on the other line. It was still odd to think that Travis was technically the leader of the Casey's right now. It wasn't that I thought he was a bad fit, because I knew he had more heart than anything. But it was like Ben said earlier - he was the king of decisions based purely on impulse and that maybe wasn't the best.
A few guys walked by us in the hallway as he spoke on the phone, none of them familiar to me but all of them making sure to nod and tell me hello. Maybe politeness was some new requirement requested by Ben. I waved awkwardly at them at Travis looked at me like I was wasting my time.
"Okay," he told me after he got off the phone. "We're going to drop you and your little partner off shortly. I want to talk to him to make sure he's not going to rat you or anyone else out."
"You can't talk to anyone. Newsflash, you're dead!" I reminded, trying to ignore the pain in my heart at the thought of being dropped back off at the hotel.
Travis rolled his eyes, letting his hands brush over my arm before pulling me down the hallway. "I'll have my masks and shit on," he said like it was no big deal.
"No," I was quick to protest.
Travis raised an eyebrow. "No?"
"I don't like that stuff."
He looked confused for a second but quickly let it pass. "'Kay, well I make the decisions here."
"He's my partner and he might rat me out, I want to make this decision."
"No. I've already made the decision," he said stubbornly, not willing to give in.
I crossed my arms over my chest, with much difficulty considering my hands were full, and stopped walking. If Josh was going to rat anyone out, I didn't want to give him any reason to take anyone here down with me. Plus, he would listen to me more than some masked stranger. Travis turned back to look at me, almost challenging me to say something else.
"I can wait for you to change your mind," I argued.
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