Travis.
Earlier that same day, before the supplier meeting.
"Did you get it?" I asked Finn from the backseat of Annabeth's hotwheel sized car. My attention was on my bag in my hand and making sure I had everything I needed.
We were stopped outside the place Jay was crashing after the Casey house got ransacked and Annabeth ran in to get some last minute stuff, taking the keys with her because she didn't trust us.
Finn was opening and closing the door to try to get some air flowing into the car and slammed it suddenly so hard that the car rocked at my question. He flipped around almost completely in the passenger seat to face me.
His face was panicked.
"No?" I guessed.
"Yes," he answered.
"Yes, you didn't get it?"
"No, I did get it," he shook his head.
"You didn't," I argued, not believing him as I put my bag of guns down on the seat next to me to study Finn.
"I just said I did, were you not listening to a word that was coming out of my mouth?" His voice got louder with every word. He pointed to his face, "Look at my lips as I'm speaking to you."
I stuck my hand out, "Let me see it."
Finn reared back. "You think I just carry that on me?"
"Yes."
"Yeah, you're right," he laughed and stuck his hand in his pocket.
I wrapped my hands around the back of his headrest to get closer and glanced out the window at Jay's place. Finn's hands went in and out of various pockets on his black cargo pants.
"You have too many pockets," I said. "It's not something you want to lose."
He laughed like I'd told the best joke ever. "Yeah, right? I'd be a dead man."
"How much can you fit in there?" I asked, as he searched the third pocket.
"It's in one of these, I was in a hurry this morning...Umm," he pulled out boxes of matches and lighters and handed them to me, "I can fit a sandwich in one of the pockets."
"Do you have a sandwich?" I asked because maybe that's what was causing the complications with finding what he bought. And a food pocket wasn't a bad idea.
"Not today. Ah! See! Told you, sucker," Finn gloated, pulling out the tiny velvet box.
He held the box out to me like it was an active grenade and popped the lid, revealing a small diamond ring. Finn had been eyeing a ring in a shop over in Lake Grove for a few weeks now, which was practically forever for him. He told me he peeked at it again when he was out getting stuff with Carlos right before the fiasco with Dylan happened. So yesterday when I was out with Annabeth, Lacey, and Ben, he went to get it.
"You think she's going to say yes?" I asked as I dumped the lighters and matches on his lap and took the ring in my hand to examine it.
"Fuck if I know," Finn blew out a breath.
I laughed and handed it back to him and he looked over every inch of it.
"You gonna ask Scully for his blessing?" I joked.
"Yeah, right after he flays me alive."
"Lacey said he got a boner just thinking about your Irish last name," I pointed out. She hadn't exactly used those words but I was summarizing.
Finn laughed and put the ring back in his pocket on the side of his calf. "Nah. I asked Cam for his blessing. Like, four years ago."
"What'd he say?" I asked, because Finn and Annabeth were volatile but constant. Four years ago wasn't much different. Still, I wouldn't have guessed that Cam would've taken it seriously. Lacey and I never even fight but any mention of us even dating around him and he's rolling his eyes like it's his full-time job like excuse me, was I the one that supposedly proposed to Hannah? No, he was.
Well, technically he denied it.
But the point was Lacey and I never even fought like Annabeth and Finn, who half the time were like mortal enemies.
"To not let anything touch her. She's the last family he has left. Well, that he likes."
I watched as Finn took a match out of one of the boxes scattered in his lap and lit it, letting it burn for a moment before waving it out. He opened the door and dropped the match on the ground.
Was there a certain point in your life-or-death-journey that you were supposed to propose to your girlfriend that I was apparently missing? Did Finn (and Cameron) not realize that they might die at any given moment and that might be a bad thing for their fiancée?
"I told him I'd rather Sudoku myself than let something hurt her," Finn added, moving the door back and forth to get air flowing in and out of the car.
I tilted my head. "Sudoku?"
"Isn't it that suicide knife to the gut thing?" Finn asked.
"No idea," I admitted.
"Annabeth would know."
And as if she knew she was needed, she came out of Jay's door with a bag in her hand and a glare on her face but that wasn't any indication of whether or not she was pissed off. Her glare was just always there. She stomped down the stairs and Finn slammed the car door and rushed to cram things back in his pockets.
She got in the driver's seat and looked at both of us, "Who lit a match in my car?"
"No one," Finn answered.
"What's Sudoku?" I asked at the same time.
Annabeth drummed two fingers against her forehead before starting the car. I braced for the speed, to stop myself from getting thrown back.
"Why are you talking about that?" she asked.
"No reason," Finn said casually as he looked out the window.
"That's not an answer," I pointed out to her.
"Finn thinks it's suicide but it's a game," she said.
"That's a bad game," I frowned a little.
Annabeth sighed, "No. It's math puzzle game. Like word searches or crossword puzzles. It's a number game."
I scrunched up my face at that.
When we came to a stop sign that she normally would've blown through, she actually stopped and turned around to face me.
"Are you okay?" Annabeth asked but it came out like an order for me to answer.
I paused, trying to work out what she was talking about and when it clicked, I threw my hand up in the air. "I'm not going to Sudoku myself, fuck."
I heard Finn laughing and caught his glance in the mirror in his side of the car. I gave him the finger.
Annabeth, not one for sentiments, took that as enough of a reason to keep moving forward and pressed her foot down on the gas.
"Dick," I muttered under my breath when he was still laughing.
Annabeth must have heard me because she slammed on the brakes and I went flying into the back of Finn's seat, before she started accelerating again.
As soon as I recovered, I reached forward and shoved the side of her head. We swerved but barely. We weren't going fast enough and the roads were too empty for it to be an issue.
"Don't push me," she argued.
"Don't kill me, I had a concussion and Hannah said I couldn't hit my head for a few days," I whined as if I had every intention of listening to her.
"Then buckle up, kid," Finn said, turning back halfway in his seat to look at me. "We can wait."
Annabeth started to slow down to a crawl, looking at me now and then expectantly. I sighed loudly a few times, making sure they heard just how much I didn't want to do this but I couldn't go five miles an hour the rest of the way or I'd never get to the building I was supposed to be in on time. Hell, if Annabeth drove the speed limit we wouldn't even be there on time. We planned according to how fast she drove.
I buckled my seat and kicked the back of both of their seats once. "Your car needs more leg room."
"My car needs less bitching in the back," she said, speeding up.
I groaned louder but went back to preparing everything in my bag. When I finished my hands slowed as I zipped my bag up.
"Do you know who they're meeting with?" I asked.
"No, but I'll give you two hundo if you get him in the arm," Finn said.
Annabeth shot Finn a glare.
"Do not shoot any of them," she snapped, finding my eyes in the rearview mirror.
I looked away. "I know."
"Travis, don't," she began.
"I'm not dumb," I cut her off with an edge.
I drummed my fingers on my leg and looked out the window as we got closer and I wondered if Ben and Lacey had already arrived with Cameron and Carlos or if they were still in the car.
The suppliers were a nasty bunch of people that operated all over in our area. They were the main reason Cameron had taken so long to execute his plan for leaving the town. If we left, there was no guarantee the suppliers wouldn't hunt us down or that they wouldn't pick off the remaining Casey members that were left in Melkin. And by now, all of the bad ones had been pushed out. All of the good ones ones - no, all of the acceptable ones - remained and Cameron didn't feel right leaving them to deal with the suppliers for him bailing. I didn't really feel right with that either. The Dacostas were bad news but they stuck to their territory and rules. The suppliers didn't.
And I was on my way to watch Lacey and Ben walk onto their turf and I had to trust that they were going to come back to me without any harm done. I wasn't stupid. If I got trigger happy for no reason, I could lose the two most important things in my life.
I stopped tapping my fingers when we pulled up to the building we'd picked out for me to occupy. Annabeth reached to the floor of Finn's seat where she had put the bag she got from Jay's and threw it into the backseat at me.
I caught it and kept the sarcastic remark about how a warning out an incoming item flying at my face would be nice because I had more important things to do now. I double checked I had the radio that would transmit from the piece Ben put on Lacey, hoping the signal would reach all the way out to where I was. Annabeth and Finn would be moving so there was a chance the signal on their side would go out but they had the option of going closer once that happened. I had to say put and not shoot. Unless there was blood. Cameron only told me that three before he left with Ben and Lacey.
And I had to just nod and say yes and pretend that it didn't feel like there was a gun already pointed at my head as he took my girlfriend and best friend off with him.
I opened the bag Annabeth threw at me to find a hand-held dust pan and tiny broom. Sometimes, I didn't care if people knew where I was when I was up in a building shooting. But today of all days, it was necessary that no one knew I was up there. We visited the building yesterday to scope it out and unfortunately, the windows where I would be sitting were intact. So leaving no trace meant making sure no one on the ground saw the glass I'd be breaking. Newly broken glass tended to cause people to look up. And recently, I'd learned a lot of what made people look up at the rooftops. We didn't have enough time to stop at the store and Jay said we could have his.
"Do you have everything you need?" Annabeth asked as Finn hopped out of the car and moved his seat forward so I could climb out.
"Yeah, I checked on the way over," I said, struggling to not fall out of the small car.
As soon as I was out, I stretched my limbs and jumped up and down a few times before settling down.
"I'll pay you if you don't listen to Cam," Finn said with a grin, pointing to his own arm as where I should aim.
"Do not make that deal," Annabeth ordered. "No shooting."
I rolled my eyes, "I know how to do my job, yeah?"
Finn got back into the car and rolled down the window but Annabeth was leaning half over him as she spoke, "Call us if you need anything. We'll pick you up after."
I saluted her as they started to drive off but Finn was half out of the window.
"Make good decisions," he blew me a kiss before they were out of view.
I walked the rest of the way to the building because one of the small rules we had was to avoid parking right outside where we needed to be as often as possible. When I got there, I went up the rickety stairs of the old office building, keeping my eyes on my feet as I told myself to just keep moving up one step after another.
I didn't like stairs in buildings like this.
The last time I could remember not having to coach myself through the steps was when I was with Lacey when I took her up on the rooftops to dance. She was a beautiful distraction. When I was alone, all I could think about was how quickly a building could collapse around someone.
I got up to the floor I was supposed to be on and walked over to the correct window. I carved a few spots out of the windows, trying to keep as much glass as I could inside of the building but some went flying down to the ground. I had a few windows by the time I was done, just in case I needed another angle in an emergency. I grabbed the dustpan Jay had given us because we didn't have a small enough one I could put in my bag and booked it down the stairs like my ass was on fire. I swept up as much as I could without making it look too clean and ran back upstairs. I dumped the bag full of glass out on the office floor because it didn't matter if it was scattered up here and threw the stuff from Jay in my bag so I could get out quickly when this was done.
Once I was set up, I glanced through my scope on my sniper rifle and searched the surroundings. Five minutes later, my gaze zeroed in on a bright red jacket coming into the designated meeting spot. Cam was between her and Ben and my heart calmed a little bit.
I watched with shallow breaths as some of the suppliers came out.
"Gentlemen," a guy said through the small radio I had propped up by my feet. "Lady."
My finger itched.
"Is she yours? I'm surprised you brought her here," the guy kept talking as I looked surveyed the area to make sure no one else was going to pop up.
"We were meeting with Lucky," Cameron's voice came through the static of the radio.
"Yeah, you will," the guy said.
The surroundings didn't look like a trap so I looked back at Lacey, not having to search for long. It was easy to get lost when I was looking in the scope and not knowing how far I'd looked left or right with it and finding where I needed to be centered again sometimes took a moment because everyone looked the same when I was sweeping over them. Not now. Now, I had the red beacon calling me home. I could find here anywhere. I could see she was standing, safe, alive, breathing,-
My phone buzzed, making me jumped. I put the phone up to my ear when AC/DC's TNT started to play.
"What?" I asked.
"Annabeth said to shoot Lucky," Finn said.
"I'm hanging up on you now," I warned.
"Wait!" he screamed before I had a chance to lower the phone.
I cringed, "You fucking bitch shit, that was my ear."
Annabeth groaned, "Would you learn how to swear?"
This was a request she'd put in about five years ago that I ignored. She told me to pick a word, not just throw them all together.
"Am I on speakerphone?" I asked, watching as the Cameron and Ben started to get searched for weapons. Lacey's knives should be good. I checked. A lot.
Still, I rubbed at my face. Maybe I should've checked an extra time.
"Yes, so you can have her confirm she said to shoot him and I'm not talking out of my ass."
"Why?" I asked, cautious now.
Annabeth spoke up, "If you have to shoot someone, pick him. He used to be a Casey."
I frowned. "I don't know him."
"No, he left when Cam took over," Annabeth supplied.
I watched as the guy that had been searching Cam move onto Lacey..
"Cam made him leave?" I asked but my attention was elsewhere.
"No, he left. He doesn't like Cam and refused to work under him. He was close with my uncle...and sometimes with my dad."
I was about to ask for more info but my tongue caught in my throat when I heard Lacey's voice over the radio for the first time.
"I don't recall you asking if you could do that," she said in a voice that sounded too harsh, too stern, too vicious to accompany how soft she could be.
I hung up on Finn and Annabeth, not bothering to say goodbye. They could hear the radio just as well and I didn't want to talk in case something else was said and I spoke over it. I scanned Lacey, hating how far away I was.
The guy was too close to her but he'd stopped searching her. Lacey had her neck tilted back to get out of his space and I wondered if he'd tried to kiss her.
But then I saw his hand had stopped near her abdomen. Was it on her arm or on her chest? The transmitter was on her chest and he shouldn't be anywhere near that.
I could feel my anger start to wake up, tapping on my door.
"I twitched," the guy answered her.
And what the motherfucking hell was that supposed to mean?
"I hope I don't," Lacey sent a chill down my arm when she spoke. I needed to shake it out but couldn't risk letting go of the gun right now. Why wasn't he moving? I could make him move.
I flexed my hands, my knuckles cracking from the stress.
"Did you pay for her?" the guy violating Lacey's personal space asked. I practiced lining up my aim. Breathe in, breathe out, just like my dad taught me.
"She's a Casey," Cameron said and I started to relax. He could take watch out for her. Right?
"She's got spunk. How much will you take for her?" one of them said but I wasn't sure who. I had my sights set on Lacey and the guy and my vision was limited.
"We know a few ways to break that little attitude problem of yours." the guy in her face said and anger broke through, filtering into my veins like a river.
"Does your lack of hygiene have anything to do with it?" Lacey might have whispered it but she had a transmitter taped to her fucking chest and I was going to fucking kill her. I was going to come back as a ghost and murder my girlfriend because she sure as shit gave me a heart attack.
I didn't have time to contemplate just how I was going to haunt her ass because the guy pulled his hand back to back hand her. I lined up my sights on where I thought his arm would be but right as I twitched my finger, Cam moved and caught his hand.
"We're talking to Lucky now. Before someone loses a limb," Cam said and the guy moved away.
My eyes were still glued to Lacey though so I saw her flick her knife back under her sleeve. One of the guys went to their trailer and I fell backwards, away from the gun until my back was flat against the concrete floor.
"Holy motherfu-shit, fuck me," I exhaled.
My hands went up and rubbed at my eyes. I tried to push out my anxiety, taking a few deep breaths. When I sat back up, all that remained was the anger pulsing through me at the fact that they wanted to buy my girlfriend, almost hit her, and I was up here being about as useful as a knitting grandma.
I didn't like this. My insides were ansty, eager for action. If someone touched my friends, I acted. I didn't sit by and just watch. I took a few more breaths.
Lucky was talking to Cam when I finally looked back through the scope. I found Lacey first and looked to the side to find the others. I could easily shoot him right now. In the arm, leg, anywhere and he'd have no idea.
I let go of the gun and clenched my fists until my knuckles were white, trying to relieve some of my anger. Once it started, it was hard to get rid of. When I felt like this, it felt like everything important became sharpened. I could think clearer, distractions weren't a thing. It was what kept me alive. Anger and adrenaline.
Lucky started talking to Ben on the radio and so I sucked it up and looked through the scope again, finding them. I kept my urges to hurt him at bay. In the end, it wouldn't do much other than make things harder for them to get out of there. Lucky would no doubt be wailing on the ground while clutching his bloody leg and the other three would turn on my friends. Then Lucky would spend a few weeks limping around like Cameron and be all better. Maybe it would hurt now and then like Lacey, but otherwise, he'd be fine.
"Acker," Ben told him his last name.
"That sounds familiar, I don't know why," Lucky said.
Not worth it, I told myself.
Then he went to Lacey and grabbed her arm.
Not worth it.
But I still had my eyes glued to him. I felt like a lion pacing around his family when an intruder comes in. Only, I wasn't able to actually be there. I still wanted to tear Lucky apart just the same.
I watched as he took her knife from her and she didn't seem to notice and every part of me that was fueled by my anger right now wanted to scream and shoot. I felt like I was having a war inside my head with the urge to do it and not worth it.
He started talking to Cameron again but my attention was on his hands and everywhere he waved them. I couldn't see the knife anymore so he must have had it stashed on him somewhere.
"Where is your dog?" Lucky asked at the end of his sentence and I remembered he was a Casey and familiar with Scully and his dad, Callum. He'd know how Cam was raised to operate.
The corner of my scope showed someone moving so I looked around. The three guys from earlier started moving and I evened out my breathing, surveying all of them as they stood behind my team. They weren't going to play nice.
Lucky attacked Cam, holding the knife he'd swiped from Lacey up to his neck. Cam's voice was on repeat in my head, telling me to only shoot if there was blood.
"Where is your dog, Cammie? You think if I press a little bit harder right here I'll find your dog, coming to get me?" Lucky taunted him.
Lucky had his arm out to the side of him as he held it up to Cam's throat instead of securing it between their two bodies which left his elbow out in the open and I lined up a shot and took a deep breath.
Only if there's blood. Not worth it.
"No," Cam said firmly, as if he could hear my struggle.
But they were going to bust his kneecaps and who knows what they were going to do to the others once Cam was down. Like hell was I going to watch that. They held Ben back when he tried to reach Cam and I wanted to scream at him to punch the guy but he didn't. Cam told him to be level-headed so that's what he was going to do. He was listening. I could listen. But if he got hurt, we'd be stuck here for another year.
My thoughts were interrupted when Lacey got in Lucky's face with another knife pointed at him.
"Tell your man to back off," she said.
I got ready to shoot, aiming at Lucky. He was the one in charge here and things were too tense. He was going to hurt Cam or Lacey, I could feel it in my gut.
Cam grabbed the knife Lucky had and pushed him away, causing my heart to unclench a little but I was too focused to notice it. He turned and punched the guy that was poised to destroy his knees. I saw nothing but red as Cam's fist came in contact with the guy's face.
Blood.
Cam went to hit him again but I didn't stick around to watch. I aimed and with an exhale, pulled the trigger.
The relief didn't come when the gunshot went off but instead, when I watched the fear that fell across Lucky's face those first few seconds after his hat was shot off his head. Fear was more powerful than sore leg and I wanted Lucky to worry about it being his head next time.
I found my red and she was beautiful and gorgeous and breathing and not bleeding.
Lucky announced he'd stop the shipments to Melkin if we got him Scully which didn't feel like a good idea but maybe it was just my recently bruised next making me a little biased to anything Scully related. I kept my sights set on Lacey and watched her the whole time they walked back until they were out of my sight.
I packed up quickly, knowing Annabeth would be here soon. I was throwing the last of my stuff in my bag as I walked down the stairs. The radio was in my hand and I was about to turn it off and toss it in when I heard her voice, the angelic tone returning.
"Thank you," Lacey's voice crackled through the speaker and I nearly tripped.
A grin came on my face for a moment before I turned the radio off and walked to meet Annabeth at where she dropped me off.
I didn't know what she was thanking me for. I should be the one thanking her for helping Cameron and holding her own against the scumbags and not dying and not quite killing me just yet.
A car slowed next to me.
"Hey, how was your day, champ?" Finn said like he was talking to a child.
I gave him the middle finger as the car stopped. He got out and I climbed into the backseat, tucking my legs in closer to me than they should be.
"How'd it go?" Annabeth asked and I filled them in on the parts they couldn't see.
"Can you drop me off at Cam's car?" I asked afterward.
"Seriously?" Annabeth asked.
I didn't answer, I just looked down at my knees as I rubbed my hands across them. My arms were still tense from earlier and I was trying to work out as much as I could so Lacey couldn't tell. The smart thing would be to go home with Annabeth and Finn to give me more time to get rid of my anger and guarantee I wasn't shaking from it but I was pretty sure I'd start shaking more if I didn't get to see her soon.
We beat the others back to the cars which wasn't really a question because Carlos had been driving and Annabeth was faster than he was. They dropped me off and I was still stiff so I jumped straight up and down for about a minute, trying to burn off the energy. I sat on the hood of the car after that for a few minutes before getting up to jump again and did that for a bit until I saw Carlos' car.
I was sitting on the hood of the SUV and as soon as Lacey came into view, I wanted to wrap her up and carry her away. I wanted to keep her somewhere no one else could put their dirty hands on her. Her no bullshit tone from earlier came to mind and I just wanted to take her to my bedroom instead. No one would touch her except me there. She was safe. We could stay there forever.
I hopped off the hood of the car and started towards her, intent on kissing her and running away with her to my bed before Cam's crippled ass ruined the moment.
"Great job listening today," he said.
Cameron Cockblock Casey.
"I did listen," I snapped, annoyed with him.
He kept talking, "That's what I said."
"I waited until I saw blood," I told him.
I squeezed in between him and Lacey to support him instead of her having to because she shouldn't have to and it gave me something to do other than think about shoving Lacey in the car and leaving Cam and Ben here while we found a remote place to make out at.
"I know you did," Cameron said but I couldn't tell if he was being serious or not.
"You're the one that caused the blood. I didn't even shoot the guy," I reminded him because I knew how to do my job even if he was going to try to tell me what I did wrong.
"I'm complimenting you, I'm not being sarcastic," he said.
Seriously, what was his deal?
It didn't matter. We were close to the car so I let go of Cam when we got close enough and turned to find Lacey. I picked her up and twirled her because if I was moving, she might not be able to feel any leftover tense muscles. I stopped and buried my face in her hair and inhaled the scent of her like it was a drug.
"I missed you, gorgeous."
"I love you," she said and any anger that I had left bled out of me as I kissed her. I should ask her how she did that.
Cameron honked the horn.
"Holy fuck," I groaned as I walked Lacey to the driver's side door because he only let her drive lately because Princess Cameron's leg was too sore, "Can you imagine what a grump he's going to be like when he's old?"
He threw a flashlight at me, causing the bottom to snap off as it hit the ground and the batteries to spill out. God. What was it with these cousins and throwing shit at me today?
I picked up the flashlight, put the batteries back in, and screwed the top back on.
"We're not even going to know when he starts losing it," I said as I hopped in the car. I'm pretty sure the same went for Annabeth but I was only with one of the cousins with throwing issues at the moment.
"Be nice," Lacey said, "Besides, we have more important things to worry about other than Cameron's old age."
"Kiss up," Ben whispered.
I laughed because it was true. Lacey was usually polite, even when she was telling someone they smelled like today. Except apparently, for the few moments she wasn't. I tried not to think about her rude tone again while I was in the car with Ben and Cameron because it'd just make me want to kiss her crazy.
I wanted to get home as fast as possible so I could go to my room with her. Or even go back out to the fields last the other morning with her, where we were far away from everyone. But I knew once we got home, everyone would have to go over what to do about the suppliers and Scully and that would take up time and I would just be staring at Lacey's lips thinking about how badly I wanted to kiss them.
"Can we wait to talk about this when we get back? I'm tired," I lied.
"You don't have to be there," Cam said.
But I knew that if we were having a discussion in the house about what was going to happen, especially based off what she said just a few moments ago, Lacey would want to be present.
I sighed.
"So, does that mean we're going to debrief?" Lacey asked as she started driving.
Ben hid his laugh in his arm. Cameron shot Lacey a glare.
"I told you we're not calling it that," Cam said.
Lacey looked at him like she wasn't impressed, "We discussed briefing. Not debriefing."
"I like both of those," Ben said.
"Would you stop giving your opinion?" Cam snapped. Ben and Lacey started cracking up.
"I'm confused," I announced.
Lacey sent me a smile that felt like a bullet aimed straight at my chest, "I'll tell you later at home."
Every piece of that sentence sent my heart into a thundering mess.
I'll tell you. I could listen to her talk for hours.
Later. I wanted all of my laters to be with her.
Home. My home was her.
God fucking shit, I loved her.
I think I said that last part but I wasn't sure.
__________
I hope you guys liked it! <333 Are any of you guys participating in Nanowrimo? I was supposed to finish Stung's update because I had a teeny bit left in both Trained One and Stung and I went with Trained One because I was in that mindset so wooooo here you go (:Â Have a great rest of your day/night! I'm off to bed because it's 1:25 a.m. and I'm wiped.