Page 12 of Hold Me Down

CHAPTER FIVE

Walking out of the house later that night felt weird—like he shouldn't be leaving Dave alone, despite the fact that Dave would kill him for even thinking that.

The whole "I'm not a child" speech would likely be a recurring theme in the next however-long, and Travis needed to make sure not to give Dave too much ammunition for it.

Independence might as well be Dave's second name, and Travis was usually right there with him, but after today…Fuck, after today he was honestly itching to cover Dave in blankets and not let him out of his sight.

And yet, he had to leave, because he had unfinished business to take care of.

He'd texted Kalei earlier to ask whether he was at home or at the office—half genuine question, half Travis being an asshole—so he now headed straight to Kalei's place.

On one hand, he wanted to have this conversation over with, and on the other, he itched to turn around and never get into it.

If only today had gone differently…

It hadn't, though. It hadn't, and while Dave had told him he wasn't to blame, Travis couldn't shake the feeling that Kalei was right. The fall might have been an accident, sure, but there wouldn't have been one if Travis hadn't pushed.

Even now, he didn't know why he'd told Dave he should be the one going up. Travis was both lighter and taller, and it would have been easier for him.

Or they could have skipped the wall altogether. Their time was good, so they might have made it to the top even without that last part… but Travis wanted it all.

He wanted to push as hard as he could—and the consequences came to bite them in the ass.

Dave was going to be laid out for months, and who knew how long it would take him to get back to the fitness level their job required.

Travis didn't even want to think about not having his partner with him on the job.

One of them did join a different op without the other from time to time when he was needed, but it only happened once or twice a year, maybe. Everyone knew Dave and Travis were a package deal, and while many other partnerships at KRK were built on solid, deep friendships as well, no other pair had history like they did.

After all, the two of them had met in basic training and had been inseparable ever since. Nobody at their company could say the same—and most people outside of it couldn't, either.

Still, there was no way Travis was going to survive being inactive. No way. He was full of hectic energy on a good day, and on a bad day it bordered on manic instead. When he channeled it into work, he was fine—he could focus on the task at hand, on the person they were protecting, and on the frankly predictable rhythm of these things after so many years. Going without it meant he would have no outlet for all that energy, and if Kalei thought Travis was trouble now…

Fuck.

Travis spent the rest of the ride coming up with things to say, to convince Kalei not to take him out of the field completely, but the closer he got, the less he believed it would work. Kalei was stubborn and once he'd made up his mind, there was no coming back from it, especially if someone had pushed him too far.

Like Travis had.

Because they'd had those talks. He'd gotten warnings. And then he had done what he'd done, anyway.

After he parked outside of Kalei's place now, he needed a minute to center himself, so he inhaled and exhaled slowly as he stared at the simple house. Kalei and Maleko had bought it a long time ago, but they'd never lived here together, renting it out while they stayed in a small apartment between deployments and saved up to open a security company one day.

Unfortunately, Maleko had died on a mission before KRK could open—and before the two of them could finally move in here.

On the other hand, if they had, Kalei would have probably needed to switch places, after, because he'd barely lasted a week living alone in their old apartment.

As it were, the inside of the house looked like he'd barely moved in, even though it had been years. Only the ground level was fully furnished and it didn't seem like Kalei was itching to do anything more.

Which Travis totally understood. He hadn't had to go through anything even remotely as traumatic as losing a husband to know he would be a complete mess, if left to his own devices. Travis had lived with his parents, then he lived wherever the Marine Corps had sent him, and then he moved in with Dave—and they'd been living together ever since, with no end in sight.

Granted, there was a brief period a while ago when Dave had decided to give dating a real try and started going out, and Travis had wondered what it could mean for their living situation in the long-term. Thankfully, the dating experiment hadn't lasted long, and things had gone back to how they should be.

The front door opening pulled Travis out of his head, and he exited the car as soon as he saw Kalei standing in the doorway.

Damn the man for his situational awareness. Of course he had to clock Travis sitting outside of his house. Of course.

Then again, Kalei had probably clocked him the moment he arrived, so maybe Travis should be grateful to have been given a few minutes to gather himself.

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