Page 14 of Hold Me Down

"I know that, and he knows that, too. Hell, everyone knows." Kalei clasped Travis's shoulder and gripped it tight. "Thing is, nobody has to die. It was a training exercise, and there wasn't even a dangerous scenario to go with it. And that tells me—"

"That I fucked up."

"—that you lost the ability to level down. You're always pumped up these days, and you know how dangerous that is."

Travis let out a shaky breath. "I'm not spiraling."

Fuck, how he wished he sounded more certain about it.

"You just told me you'll go mad if I bench you."

"Well, what would I even do?" Travis sat up, causing Kalei to withdraw his hand. "We don't have that much paperwork, and I'll stick out like a sore thumb."

"You'll be happy to know that you may work remotely for a bit. It will give you a chance to take care of Dave for a week or two, since you'll be there to intervene as needed. After that, we'll see. I'll find you something to do at the HQ, don't worry."

"Low blow, using him against me like this," Travis said, even though he did feel better at the idea of being there for Dave. If leaving for an hour or two to come here tonight was this hard, leaving for an entire working day would be excruciating.

"Against you or for you?"

Travis sat back, lowering himself in the chair and pretending it was a rhetorical question.

"Also, I'm serious about the therapy part," Kalei continued. "No matter how Dave's recovery goes, you're not going out into the field until you get a note from your therapist saying that you can."

That made Travis straighten in his seat again. "Oh, come on!"

"The faster you start, the quicker you'll get it, so I wouldn't stall if I were you. I sent you an email at your work address with a list of recommended specialists. You may, of course, pick someone else for the therapy itself, but then you'll have to be evaluated by one of those recommended."

"I don't need therapy."

"Said most veterans I've ever spoken to." Kalei shook his head again. "The fact is, we all need it."

"And areyougoing or are you sending others in your place instead?"

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Travis regretted them, but it was too late, and,fuck, there went his last chance of convincing Kalei of anything.

Still, he owed the man an apology.

"I'm sorry, that was… I shouldn't have said that."

"You keep proving my point, over and over, so I hope it's becoming clearer for you, too." Kalei stared ahead into the trees, now completely black against the dark sky. "But for your information, I am. I started going three months after I buried my husband and I've been going ever since."

Well,damn.

CHAPTER SIX

Dave clenched his teeth as he hoisted himself out of bed using the nightstand that hit the wall after wobbling under his weight.

He also wobbled as he tried to balance on one leg, and he glared at the crutches resting against the wall.

Travis had been right last night when he'd wanted to put them closer to the bed, but Dave had been frustrated and in pain, and he'd argued against it, so here he was now, frustrated, in pain, andwobbling.

What a start to the day.

There was no way he would survive two or three months of this. He was going to scale a wall—or even a building, if his frustration levels skyrocket as he suspected they might.

On the other hand, trying to climb up a wall was exactly what had landed him in his current predicament, so maybe he should come up with something else.

His sister would say he needed to pick up another hobby—or a hobby in general, because anything a person was doing or had ever considered doing as a career shouldn't count as a hobby in Alicia's book, which disqualified both gym training and playing basketball, his main after-work activities.

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