Travis.
Waking up that morning was difficult. I had to figure out what the hell happened, what the Casey house looked like, where everyone was, and how. But I had Finn and Ben to help with all of that.
What they couldn't help me with was trying to untangle Lacey's limbs from mine without waking her. She was on her side with her head buried into my chest and her legs were wrapped all around mine. Which I didn't exactly mind because I loved her legs. Except I needed to get up.
And that killed me.
I let out a deep sigh, which blew some of her hair across her face as she slept. She buried her head more into my chest and I would have let out another sigh if I wasn't afraid it would make my task even more difficult.
Trying to be as delicate and silent as possible, I started to shimmy myself out of her grasp. I had to keep reminding myself to breathe as I froze every couple of seconds, watching her face for signs of stirring. Eventually, I was standing next to the bed with just one leg still wrapped under her legs. I used one of my hands to gently lift her shin and slowly pulled mine out, careful both not to wake her or fall over in the process.
As soon as I was free I wanted to scream. But she was still asleep and that would defeat the purpose. She needed to sleep, she wasn't sleeping enough over at the hotel with those assholes stressing her out.
I grabbed some clothes and walked out, shutting the door quietly behind me.
"Fuck," I said under my breath as soon as I was in the clear. I ran a hand through my hair and rolled my shoulders a few times, trying to loosen up.
With the current state of things, I'd had to learn how to be a little bit quieter and it sucked. A lot. I hated it with every inch of me but I would have gladly taken quietly having to sneak around Melkin over trying to not wake Lacey.
I walked into the kitchen, tossing the clothes onto the counter. The rest of the guys were up already and Finn was writing on a big whiteboard propped up on the floor.
"Where did you get that?" I asked, slipping on my jeans.
"It was up your ass," Finn said as he continued to write.
I glared at the back of his head before looking at some of what was on there. It had the start of a to-do list and which tasks were already being taken care of, things to investigate, and a supply list.
"Done," Finn said and stepped away from the board.
In the corner of the board, he'd been drawing two stick figures getting it on.
"This is Ben," Finn stated as he pointed with the Expo marker to the stick figure standing up. "And this is office supply sales," he pointed to the stick figure bending over.
"Shut up," Ben said and shoved Finn.
"No," I grabbed an marker, pulling the cap off. I quickly wrote Ben above the one Finn intended and then in smaller writing, I labeled the other as 'phones with their screen protectors still on' as neatly as I could.
Ben saw what I was writing and tried to wipe it off but Finn held him back while laughing.
"He nearly punched me when I took his off one of the phones last year," Finn said.
Ben rolled his eyes, elbowing Finn off him.
I threw my shirt on as Ben pouted at the drawing some more and gave up on trying to erase it.
"Are you actually going to use this?" I asked, writing that we needed to get Jay to start asking around on the list .
"Uh, yeah," Finn said sarcastically and shoved me out of the way to add to the to do list. "Get stick out of ass, how's that? Can you do that?" he asked and looked back at me.
I narrowed my eyes. "I'm fine."
"You're a little on edge," Ben admitted.
"You both know the house got hit yesterday, yeah?" I raised an eyebrow at them.
Finn rolled his eyes. "And what the fuck are you going to do about it? Cam's still asleep. You know you're not touching it until he wakes up."
I didn't really want to tell Cam about the house. "We can still do damage control and make some headway so it doesn't happen again," I said.
"You're just worried he's gonna chew you out."
I gritted my teeth together because it was true. And I didn't want to deal with this crap right now. Things had been running smoothly for a few weeks with no hiccups and Cam was starting to get better. It was only a matter of time until we could get the hell out of here and now this happened. I didn't want whatever it was to get too out of hand and prevent us from leaving. Yet again.
I didn't answer him. Instead, I grabbed Ben's backpack from the ground and slung it over my shoulder. After grabbing some of my hoodies and gear by the door, I walked out towards the SUV, figuring Ben wasn't far behind.
When he unlocked the car, I threw the bag down in the passenger seat and got in, crossing my arms over my chest.
"You could be a little careful with those," he warned, looking at his backpack.
I didn't answer and looked out the window. Before Ben got the chance to say anything else, my phone buzzed and I pulled it out of my pocket to see Noah's name on the screen. The only people who had this number were members of the gang.
"Yeah?" I asked.
"Hey yeah, me, Wyatt, and Isaiah are chilling at Wyatt's," he said.
"Okay." Three more that were safe. That meant three more that went into the good news pile for Cameron.
"Are we still doing business as usual?"
"Yeah," I said.
"Okay. Oh hey, while I got you on the line," Noah said and I sunk lower in my seat. "Lizzie wants to know when we can swing by the house. She's got some shit there. We told her like a week but you know how girls-"
"I don't know who the fuck that is," I groaned.
"She's with Wyatt, you-"
I hung up the phone, not having the time or patience for that. He could bother someone else.
"Where are we going first?" I asked, leaning forward to flick the air vent from side to side. I didn't really know all of what we even had planned for the day, considering half of the to-do list was a pile of crap. But I figured Ben would have a plan.
"Driving by Hannah's. Then meeting up with some of them. Then business as usual."
I nodded.
"Who was that?" Ben asked.
"Noah."
"You could have told him about the meeting."
I looked at him but he didn't take his eyes off the road. "I don't even know where we're having this meeting so what the hell was I supposed to tell him?"
Even if I did, I wouldn't have told him. Noah didn't need to be there. Noah was a low member who could find his information out through someone else.
"So where should we have it?"
I sighed. "No idea."
We had to talk face to face, Ben and I had figured that much last night before I went to bed. We could only do so much over the phone and in a situation like this it was easier with everyone in one room.
"We don't need all of the newbs there though," I stated.
"They're not newbs, have some respect" Ben said, like the word offended him.
"Have some respect," I copied, making a face as I did so. No, they weren't needed. The less Casey people we had in one place the better right now. Even Ben knew that even if he didn't like the word newbs. I tried to figure out where we could meet that wouldn't be staked out by police or Dacostas. Up until last night, we thought the Casey house was safe. Now, I wasn't sure where was safe.
The drive to Hannah's consisted of way too many phone calls with people checking in but I guess it was better than them not checking in at all. As we got closer to the city, I put my hoodie on and my hood up. Ben's windows were tinted but I still didn't want to risk someone happening to see.
I was tempted to tell him to take a left up the road, which was the direction to the Casey house. I wanted to see what it looked like and what the damage was like. But there was no way we'd be safe driving by there. There was no smoke which mean either the fire put itself out or the fire department showed up and if the fire department showed up, the police were probably there. Maybe Lacey could find out if the police knew anything. That was about the only good thing about her not quitting yet.
We drove passed Hannah's place slowly, looking around for anything out of the ordinary. It was one of the first things Cameron told me when we were going over things when he first woke up and realized he wasn't going to be able to get out of bed soon: Keep Hannah safe. So every once in awhile, we would drive by or have someone drive by her place to make sure nothing was up. It wasn't in Melkin but it didn't hurt to be overly cautious, especially today.
It was still standing and was free of bullet holes and fire so that was good. There didn't seem to be any suspicious cars on the street unless you counted us, so we kept driving and Ben started driving back to Melkin.
"What about that warehouse on Seventh?" I asked when we got close to the city limits. It was abandoned and we could use that to meet up with everyone really quickly.
"No, Finn pulled a camera off around there, the cops might be in the area."
I groaned and started tapping my foot. As soon as we got to Melkin, I unbuckled my seat belt and climbed into the back. I laid down on the seat, with my feet pressing up against the window. The windows back here were tinted more and there was no risk of someone seeing through the windshield. Not to mention, I was lying down.
"There's just going to be a few of us, right?" I asked, trying to think of anywhere that would be safe enough for us to meet up without being seen.
"Probably, they can pass the info on."
I rocked my feet back and forth on the window as I crossed my hands to keep them still. "Do you want some ice cream?"
Ben looked back at me for a second as if to protest but then kept his mouth shut, looking forward again. He took his phone out and started to call the appropriate guys, telling them to head to Joy's Ice Cream Parlor.
Joy knew I was okay, so did my dad. It was one of the first things I did because I didn't want them to worry and Ben had to come up with some stupid lie about the incompetency of the cops to explain why they thought I was dead.
We walked up to her shop, my mask rolled up into a ball in my hoodie pocket just in case. As soon as we entered, she hugged us immediately. I barely had time to register the woman to greet her before I was pulled into a hug with Ben.
"You two don't ever come around here. Would it kill either of you to give this old lady a call now and then?" she scolded.
No, but it could hurt her. Instead of saying that, I smiled sheepishly.
I glanced around and no one was here. It was still early in the day so no one was lining up for ice cream. And this was outside of Melkin so we didn't have to worry about police or Dacostas roaming the street. In fact, we were probably about five to ten minutes away from the hotel Lacey's little asshole friends were camping out at. Sucks to be them right now.
"We invited some friends over if that was okay?" I asked.
"Is this for that fighting you two are involved in?" she scolded. After the "death" and seeing me covered in bruises, we'd told her and my dad that I was involved in some underground fighting to make money and live on my own and that was why the cops were always after me.
"Old training friends," Ben said with his hundred dollar smile and she caved.
"Just let me know if you guys need anything. Don't make a mess and I swear, if you're getting into trouble again..." she wagged her finger.
I grinned, "I wouldn't."
She walked to the back room with Ben following her so he could ask for privacy. We didn't exactly need her popping out to say hi to everyone who walked through the door.I scooped myself some ice cream in a cup before sitting down at a booth.
Shortly after, we had two booths full of guys. I was sitting on the inside of one of the booths, eating my ice cream with Jay on my other side also eating. He was a big guy and kept elbowing me and it was taking everything in me not to shove him on his ass out of the booth.
Ben and Finn were talking about everyone who had checked in and making sure there were no casualties.
"Hey man," Carlos said from across from me.
I glanced up at him. He looked like a shady guy and he pretty much was. He met with a lot of the suppliers we had when they needed something distributed. Guns, usually. Most of the time. Sometimes drugs but we had been trying to get out of that. But Carlos could talk you out of your last dime and you thought you were getting a good deal from it somehow. He made us a lot of money.
"How's Lacey?" he asked quietly, not wanting to interrupt Ben.
"What the fuck does it matter to you?" I asked.
"Yeah, man." Nick said from next to him and I thought he was talking to Carlos at first because it wasn't any of Carlos' business. But then I saw that Nick was looking expectantly at me for an answer.
I felt Jay shrug next to me because the guy wouldn't scoot over. "She made some friends."
Apparently.
Carlos leaned in closer, still waiting for my answer and I narrowed my eyes. She'd gotten in enough trouble last time she was here because too many people knew about her. Dacosta people, but still, she was my business not his.
"She's really nice," Carlos said.
"Yeah, I like her," Nick said. "She could replace you. We'd get a thank you every now and then."
I leaned in closer to my ice cream. "Both of you can fuck off."
Ben, Finn and I went over what to do and not to do with everyone: don't engage the cops or Dacostas, keep out of their sights, keep to business as usual, don't go to the Casey house. We went over possible leads and who to look at. Ben wrote down the list of everything so we could follow up on it later. No one really had anything. It was a really short list. How and who broke into the Casey house was a big fat question mark hanging above everyone's head.
"Maybe it was those cops," Tom suggested.
God, I hated when he spoke.
"Which cops?" I asked lowly from my seat. I hadn't talked much. I didn't usually at these things. Ben advised earlier on it was probably best if I let him do a lot of the talking because I tended to just snap at the guys.
"The new ones in town," he said quickly. "Not Lacey."
"I saw the Dacostas there," Jay added.
"Yeah, well..." Tom added like it was a defense.
"Yeah well, what? Shit for brains," Jay asked and I groaned. The two were friends but constantly bickering.
"I think we should hit them back," Tom said.
Eli, who was at Tom's table and quiet for most of the meeting finally spoke up. "That's going to make more coffins."
"They attacked our home," Carlos said.
"Hey can I get some more ice cream?" Nick asked.
Finn waved him off to say he didn't care. I looked up and Finn's gaze met mine for just a second. I'm pretty sure he wanted Cameron back just as much as I did at that moment. It was a sticky situation. It wasn't our house that got attacked and it wasn't our plan to move out of town. It was his house and his plan that we would be following as soon as he got better.
It was a frustrating give and take of how much do we push back and how much do we let pass, just to stay out of harm's way but not get walked all over.
The bell signalling someone had walked in tolled, silencing everyone and we saw Max who was keeping watch outside the front door. Q was outside the back.
He walked innocently up to the front counter where Tom and Nick were getting theirselves ice cream behind the counter.
"Can I have a scoop of chocolate, please?" he asked. He was the lookout. Something was wrong.
The guys in the booth closest to the back door quickly jumped up and scattered over themselves to get out of the back door.
However, Jay was a fucking giant and took way too long to get out of the booth. Tom hopped over the counter and Nick started to scoop ice cream for Max, as he stood there innocently.
I could see someone's silhouette outside the window. I wouldn't make it outside if I left now.
"Carlos, if you don't get over to this booth right now and cover for me, I'll shoot your dick off," I promised, as he was the closest one to me and only a few steps out of our booth.
The door chimed just as Carlos slid back in. I looked up to see Jay slipping out the back door. I was right, I wouldn't have made it. I pulled my hoodie over my head and cross my arms over each other on the table. I put my head down on my arms so my face was completely out of sight but I felt like I couldn't breathe. I couldn't exactly wear a mask in an ice cream shop and I hadn't suspected anyone to come get ice cream just yet. It was even gloomy today.
A group of people came in.
"Three of them," Carlos whispered from across the table. "Cops."
I focused on my breathing, getting it to steady out. I didn't want to look like I was hyperventilating in an ice cream booth. I could go running straight into a gun fight no problem. But right now, sitting in this booth with my ice cream melting in its cup and my eyes closed, I was scared. I had come too far just to get blown like this, I didn't want everything to be for nothing. I couldn't go to jail right now. I had other things I needed to do.
Like Lacey. Again.
"Ay, only be a minute," Nick said as he tried to make it seem like he was a valid employee scooping Max ice cream.
"Thank you," some guy said.
I was suddenly very, very glad we worked in smaller crews and the cops didn't know any of the smaller crews. According to their notes, they seemed to think the entire operations of the gang were carried out only by Finn, Ben, Cam, Annabeth, and I which wasn't exactly true. We had crews that handled a lot of specific areas. Like distributing, clean up, interrogations, and the cops didn't seem to know much about those players yet. Or, not enough to recognize them.
"Brain freeze?" the same guy said, chuckling.
"No." Carlos said. "He's nursing a hangover. Poor guy can't hold his alcohol." I felt him pat the top of my hoodie lightly. "I told him ice cream wouldn't be a good choice but who listens to me?"
Breathe in. Breathe out.
"Damn, that sucks. We've all been there," another guy said and if I wasn't already frozen, I would've then because I knew that voice. Lacey's dipshit excuse of a wannabe partner, Josh.
I tensed my fists. It must have been her asshole cop friends. So maybe they were luckier than I gave them credit for.
"Thanks, man," Max said and sat down at our table and him and Carlos started talking about sports casually.
Nick started getting the orders for the group.
"Are you talking about that time Lacey and I had to carry you out of the bar?" a girl asked.
"Yes," Josh groaned. "The hangover the next morning was hell. And my face hurt from Carson's slap."
The girl laughed, "You deserved the slap."
"I was drunk," Josh said. "I wouldn't have tried to kiss her otherwise."
My muscles tensed.
"What can I get you, sir?" Nick asked politely.
"Vanilla," Josh ordered. Bitch.
"Did you guys get that text from Dylan?" the first guy asked.
"Yeah," the girl said.
"No," Josh answered.
"Is he still shutting you and Lacey out? What did you even do?" the girl asked.
"Nothing," Josh answered. Talk, spill your guts. Just give me a reason, dickwad. "Mouthed off to him."
They started talking about people I didn't know after that. The bad thing about being someone the cops wanted was that we couldn't exactly get up and leave. If we went through the back 'employees only' door, they would probably be confused. And we couldn't turn and go out the front or they'd see my face. So we had to wait for them all to get their ice cream and it felt like it had taken an hour.
Thankfully, they decided to take the ice cream to go and after waiting a few more minutes just to be safe, I finally lifted my head. I saw spots for a second before we exited out the back with a glare plastered on my face. Most of the cars had cleared out from here but Ben's remained and I quickly got in the backseat, lying back down.
"What happened?"
"Just Josh and his friends."
"You could've gotten arrested, Travis," Ben said.
I narrowed my eyes, clenching and unclenching my fists a few times. He drove away and about ten minutes later, we came to a stop on the side of the road. I threw my mask on and Ben put his backpack on. We wasted no time in hopping out of the car and making our way through the alleys and over fences. Eventually, we ended up at the hotel Lacey's stupid co-workers were at. I got on the ground, crawling under cars and between where the cars were parked and the wall, trying to be as invisible as possible. Ben snuck in between the cars as well until we got to the ones we were looking for.
I pulled myself underneath the first one and Ben dropped his backpack for me to pull under with me. It was full of GPS trackers.
We were planting trackers on anyone we could find to keep tabs on them and make sure we were safe. That was all fine and dandy but that didn't seem to stop us from getting attacked yesterday. None of the Dacosta cars we had trackers on so far went to the Casey house yesterday which was bad. On the plus side, we'd identified a lot of Lacey's cop friend's cars by now so we could plant trackers on them now.
I grabbed a tracker from his backpack and lifted up my mask so I could see easier, working to get it set up. Ben stayed out by the car to keep watch. It was easy enough and I was working on the second car when he finally spoke up.
"We could get someone else to do this with me," he suggested.
"No."
"You were pretty content hanging out on the roofs up until about a few weeks ago," he pointed out.
I squinted, trying to position the tracker in just the right spot under the car so it wouldn't be seen but it was hard without a flashlight.
"Yeah, so," I said.
"So, do you really think that's smart?"
"Dunno." I wasn't going to hang out on the rooftops for my entire life if Cam never got better. That was unrealistic. It just so happened that I was choosing right when Lacey was showing up to make this change and he was blaming it on that. Whatever.
Did he honestly expect me to just sit and do nothing while she was here, roaming the streets? That was even more unrealistic.
"I get why you're upset," he said.
I finally managed to secure the tracker onto the spot we'd picked out so it wouldn't be seen. Now it just needed to turn on and we'd be done.
"Mmm," I groaned out to acknowledge I heard him.
But I didn't think he actually knew. He just hated internal conflict within the group. Ben just wanted to play peacekeeper yet he practically jizzed in his pants when I shot the guy responsible for killing his parents.
"You're upset he's apparently kept Hannah safe this whole time and Lacey got caught up in the crossfire."
I paused.
"Mmm," I said, narrowing my eyes as I watched the light blink on the tracker.
Maybe he did know why I was angry.
I reached in the bag to grab the electrical tape. I ripped off a piece and taped it over the light so it wouldn't draw attention to itself.
"Lacey didn't get caught in the crossfire," I said sarcastically. "Cameron had her kidnapped."
"She chose to stay and help out, if you recall," he said.
"I don't." I might.
Using my legs, I pushed myself out from underneath the car.
He groaned. "You know, we didn't even know Hannah existed until we absolutely needed help. I doubt they see each other often if that's the case...If they're even together still. Would you honestly be able to stay away from Lacey like that to keep her safe?"
"Maybe." No.
My phone started to buzz in my pocket and I wanted to throw it. I was tired of getting calls and tired of having to worry about who wasn't calling me because that meant they might not be okay. I was perfectly happy with my previous level of responsibility before Cameron decided to not get up. He was the one who had trained for this type of thing, not me. I was tired of everything. I just wanted to be back in bed.
"What?" I snapped into the phone.
"We're good," one of the guys said. I'm pretty sure half of the members were accustomed to my mood by now so I didn't see why Finn and Ben even cared. I pulled back the phone to see who I was talking to. John.
"Great," I said, probably a bit too sarcastic.
"Yo man, is Lacey good?" he asked and I narrowed my eyes.
"Why?"
"I didn't see her leave."
"She's fine, thanks," I said before hanging up.
After I finished the last one, this time not getting interrupted by the house getting raided, we headed back to the car. When we were outside of it, Ben got a phone call but I ignored it. If members weren't calling me to check in, they were calling either him or Finn. I noticed him glance at me and drop his backpack before walking away.
I narrowed my eyes and stepped to the side.
He turned so that his back was towards me and hunched over slightly, like he was trying to cradle his words and keep them from me.
This was not a check in call.
Crossing my legs, one over the other, I tried to slink over to him a bit until I could hear what he was saying.
"Lacey didn't," Ben whispered, like he was shocked at whatever it was. I didn't mind, it meant his voice wasn't as low as he wanted it to be. "What do you-" he groaned as he pulled the phone away from his ear in frustration.
He turned around to see and he stepped back when he saw me looking at him curiously.
"Lacey didn't do what?" I asked calmly, trying to rid my voice of any of the anger from earlier but I was doing a horrible job of it because he was just on the phone whispering about Lacey and he didn't want me to know about it.
Ben looked at me with confusion, pocketing his phone before going back over to his backpack. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Who were you just on the phone with?" I asked him, stepping on the strap of the backpack before he got the chance to lift it. He was terrible at keeping things from me.
"I can't tell you," he said, standing up without the bag.
With my foot pressing hard on the strap so he couldn't grab it, I pulled out my phone and dialed Finn's number.
"Dude, where are you?" Finn asked, laughing.
"Why?"
"No reason."
"Were you just on the phone with Ben?" I asked, eyeing him as he tried to grab the backpack from under my foot.
"Negative, I have to go," he answered and the line went dead.
I tried to call Annabeth and after one ring it got sent to voicemail. Three times.
"Are you going to tell me who called you?" I asked Ben.
"No," he said like he had a fucking death with.
I groaned lowly, staring at him.
"I can't tell you," he defended.
"Why not?" Why was no one answering my question?
"Because I was told not to. I don't think she wants you to know."
My anger dissolved from my face as I looked at him but it was still boiling on the inside. "Who doesn't want me to know?"
"Lacey, now get the fuck off," he pushed at my chest and I took a few steps back. Ben threw the backpack over his shoulder, looking proud of himself.
"Tell me anyways," I stepped closer to him, getting in his face. "Or I swear to god, Ben."
He took a step back. "She may have gotten something done, according to a source. And I'm assuming she wants you to be surprised so just let it go."
I glared at him as he walked around the car and got in. I did the same but I wasn't happy about it. This was the last time I was going to let Annabeth stay with her. Annabeth always meant trouble and the two of them couldn't be trusted together. The last time they were together, she broke into the Casey house and stole a fucking table and just lit up the light bulb in Cameron's head to use her as a member.
I think Ben was purposefully driving slower than usual on his way home and it was taking everything in me not to punch him. When we finally got home, I heard him chuckle as I jumped out of the car. I let him walk in front of me, stepping on the heels of his feet as made his way to the house. It kept me from yelling or hitting him and still got some of my anger out as Ben turned around to look at me with an annoyed face right before he opened the door.
He hated scuffing up his shoes.
I walked straight over to Lacey to see her and Annabeth redoing the crappy to-do list Finn had put together this morning. I narrowed my eyes at Annabeth before looking at Lacey. She looked fine, at least.
No scratches, no new bruises. She looked better than fine. I clenched my jaw and tried to focus on what it was that she was apparently hiding from me and not how much I wanted to take her back to my bedroom.
Instead of having to search for any sort of reason to be nice to someone like I had been all day, it was like I was suddenly trying to search for a reason to be mean. I was having to force the glare on my face when all I wanted to do was kiss her as she stared up at me like that.
"Yes?" she asked and I swear I almost smiled.
"What were you doing today?" I looked to the whiteboard to stop myself from caving and keep the glare on my face.
"Just hung out. Had breakfast. This."
She did not just hang out. I wouldn't have had Ben and Finn react like that if that was the truth. I narrowed my eyes at her. "Mhmm."
"What did you do today?"
I clenched my fists. She asked it innocently enough but I wasn't stupid and I couldn't keep her and everyone else safe if she was off doing god knows what without telling me. I took a few deep breaths as I tried to remind myself that she could have been off doing something dangerous and then I looked back at her, scanning her.
It didn't help because the more I looked at her body, the more I wanted to take her back to my room again and that defeated this whole angry, 'tell me' thing.
"I know you did something," I threatened.
Lacey smiled and I looked to the side. "Yeah, because I just told you what I did."
I heard Annabeth laughing to herself and I glared at her again. "You helped," I accused because she was a terrible influence. Always.
"Hannah," I turned on my heel.
The girl looked like she wanted to be anywhere but in the house as I rested my hands against the back of the couch and stared down at her.
"What did they do today?"
"Went out for breakfast," she said, focusing intently on the television and I could tell she didn't want to get involved.
I looked over and saw Annabeth and Lacey, who were leaned in close to each other and whispering to each other. As soon as they noticed me looking, they quickly separated. Annabeth gave me the finger.
"Mind your own business," Annabeth snapped.
"You can't lie to me and then expect me to tell you the truth," I accused, walking back over to Lacey.
That seemed to break some of Lacey's walls as she looked down at her fingers, biting her lip.
"She didn't do anything, butt out," Annabeth said.
Lacey's confidence went back up and she nodded. I narrowed my eyes at the pair. I was going to get nowhere with Annabeth egging Lacey on. Today was getting on my last nerve and I couldn't handle this on top of it. I had enough to worry about, not what Lacey got up to now.
"Let's go," I said and grabbed Lacey's hand, tugging her up.
"What? No!" she protested but I threw her over my shoulder as I walked out of the room with her.
She smacked my back, "You're hurting me."
"You're the one hitting me," I reminded.
"Put me down!"
I set her down but didn't let go of her hand as I pulled her in my room. She didn't fight me on anything once I put her down, but she held her ribs and I wondered if I did hurt her.
I shut my door behind me once we were inside and eyed her. She dropped her hand from her side as soon as I looked at it.
"Did I hurt you?" I stepped closer to her, concerned.
"No," she took a step away from me.
"Did someone else hurt you?"
She bit her lip.
"You should probably head back to the hotel soon to check in," I said, watching her reaction.
She nodded, pushing some of her hair behind her ear.
"I overheard that Dylan sent a text out about something."
Her eyes bugged out at this. "You overheard? What were you doing that close? What exactly were you doing today? Who told you that?" She poured out, almost too fast for her mouth to keep up as she stepped towards me.
"Maybe you should tell me what you did today," I raised an eyebrow. "An eye for an eye."
She pursed her lips to the side and I wanted to reach out and touch them but I didn't because I was supposed to be getting info out of her right now and that would just distract me.
Lacey scratched the side of her head and it only made me want to run my hands through her hair myself.
"I might have done something," she said as quietly as she could. "Please don't be mad."
I crossed my arms, just waiting.
"I may have gotten a tattoo."
My eyes widened. "You got a what now?"
Maybe the poor girl had a concussion. She probably tripped. I thought she was more capable than that but I guess not.
"Yeah..." she looked hesitantly at me, shifting her weight from leg to leg. "The Casey tattoo."
I felt like someone had punched me in the face as I stared at her.
"Are you fucking with me?" I shot out, running my hands through my hair. I didn't need this to worry about now. "You work for the police, Lacey. I shouldn't have to tell you," I slowed down my speech so she wouldn't miss what I was saying, "They don't like that stuff."
She quickly shook her head. "No one will see it unless I show it to them."
I scanned her body, trying to see where it could be, eyes hovering over where her pant zipper was.
"Where did you get it?" I wasn't sure I wanted to know.
Thankfully, Lacey lifted up only her shirt and there was a patch of medical tape stuck to her ribcage. She pulled some of the tape back to reveal the fresh tattoo inked into her skin and it was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen.
My hand went through my hair again and I walked closer, bending down to look at it.
I ran a finger over her side but not anywhere close to the tattoo, so I wouldn't irritate it. Her skin was always soft and it was one of my favorite things. Apart from Sterling's little mark, her skin was practically free of any type of scar. And now, the only other thing she had on her was the Casey tattoo.
"Chad did this?"
Lacey nodded.
"This doesn't erase."
"I know, silly," she said and put the tape back over it.
"So no one will see it?" I asked raising an eyebrow.
"Just you."
I furrowed my forehead. "Why did you get this?"
"Because you're stuck with me," she started, looking down at her feet before looking back up at me. "And this is important to you and I care about these people. And you. And I feel at home when I'm here and I don't want to be anywhere else except wherever you are because I love you."
I replayed her words multiple times over in my head and not one of those times did they fully register. Maybe this whole thing was a prank, tattoo included.
"Are you mad? I mean, Ben mentioned I was a Casey and I asked Annabeth and she didn't seem to mind but I don't know if that matters any."
I snapped out of it at the mention of Ben and Annabeth. It was like thinking of someone's grandma when you were turned on.
"Annabeth and Cam have the final say," I said quickly, focusing on the facts that I knew.
"Oh, well. There you go," she tilted her head to the side and smiled. "But if you're mad..."
"No," I said and grabbed one of her hands, pulling her closer to me. The contact helped, at least I didn't think I was dreaming. But I definitely felt like I was going into fucking cardiac arrest.
"I can't believe you." I said. I put my hands on either side of her face and tilted her head up to kiss her because my brain didn't seem to be functioning properly at the moment. She smiled against my lips. I couldn't remember the last time I'd heard those words from someone. I got a lot of I hate yous. Or I don't care about you. Or you've fucked that up. I deepened the kiss with my tongue and all I could think was this girl loved me. She fucking loved me, of all people. So maybe I wasn't as much of a fuck up as I thought.
"Are you serious?" I asked, pulling away. Because that would just take the cake.
Lacey shook her head yes and I was quick to start kissing her again, down her jaw, neck, and back up to her lips again as she laughed.
All of the shit from today disappeared and suddenly today was the best day in a terribly long time. I wanted it to last forever and maybe if she was able to stick around, it could.