Page 174 of Straight to Me

Travis puts his hand on my arm. “You think some Sodom Saviour cunt will stop him from coming home?” He waits for me to answer, raising his eyebrows when I don’t for a moment.

“No.”

“No. Nobody will stop him coming home to you,” he reassures me.

I try my best to smile.

Travis’s eyes look past me. “Rocco?”

My head swings round and Rocco’s looking at me. “Did you find your friend?” He raises his eyebrows at me as if it’s a joke. I turn back round, picking up my glass of water.Prick.

“Where we at?” Travis asks, standing as the man I don’t recognise walks past the table, leaving quietly out the door.

“We need everyone else here now,” Rocco orders.

“Right.” Travis pulls out his phone, tapping the screen quickly.

“What’s going on?” I ask, but neither of them answers me.

“I need your friend to wake up,” Rocco says instead. “I need to speak to her.”

“About Dean?” I stand, my chair practically flying backwards. “If you’re going after him, I’m coming too.”

“You’re staying here,” Rocco bites.

“The fuck I am...”

His eyes bore into me, but this time I’m not scared of him. “If you or Lauren, knows where he is, then I’m coming with you.” I try my hardest to keep my voice strong and purposeful.

“Go wake her,” Rocco tells Travis, nodding for him to go.

Travis obeys, leaving me and Rocco alone. I glare at the man, trying to figure him out. “You can’t come with us, because that’s exactly what they’ll expect,” he says. My eyes scrunch, turning my head slightly to one side in confusion. One corner of Rocco’s mouth lifts.

“They want you to show up.”

“Why?”

“Because that will hurt him the most. Watching someone he loves die. Dean’s tough, they know this. So, they’ll need to be creative if they want him to suffer. They’ve done it before and they’ll do it again. It’s what they do.” As he says it, I can feel his memories pouring into his mind. Linda’s death weighs heavy on him.

“I can act as a distraction; you can use me to get him out of there?”

“You’re not fucking listening are you!” he snaps, and I can’t help but answer back straight away.

“But I need to save him.”

“You’re not coming!” he booms, angrier this time.

The more I test him, the more irritated he’s becoming. Some twisted part of me won’t dial it down though, I can’t help myself but push, to test him and see if he cracks.

Travis walks back over and stops behind Rocco at his outburst, waiting silently.

“Surely that suits you. Swap me for him?” I’m goading him, I know I am. Travis’s eyes narrow. “You threatened me before, telling me to leave, thinking I’d get him killed because I’m such a big distraction. But it didn’t work.” Travis looks at Rocco. “This is your big chance to prove I’m the distraction you think I am and maybe get rid of me for good. Isn’t that what you wanted from the beginning?”

“Mads?”

Rocco turns and sees Travis move from where he stood, to my side. This small act gives me the strength to stand my ground. “Either way, I’m coming with you.”

The way Rocco glares at me makes me swallow a hard lump. I ignore the shake in my hand at my side as I continue, “I need to get to him. I need to tell him…"

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