Page 36 of Hold Me Down

"He still wishes we would."

To be fair, most of them did appreciate having clear directives on the adequate responses for any and all situations—even ifallof them hated the fact that they'd needed to create one for a kidnapping of one of their own after what happened to Eddie.

"No one could ever compete." Ian shook his head. "Unless you're falling for them, too, now that you're going over them with a fine toothcomb?"

Travis chuckled. "I'm not changing that much. That said, while I'm pretty sure Kalei gave me this task as a punishment, the joke may be on him, because I already have pages of notes."

"Or it's a way back into his good graces." Clay sat back in his chair. "Offering to make his beloveds even better."

"We'll see, I guess." Travis didn't have big hopes of making things up to Kalei any time soon, but he still had some. Treating Kalei as the ultimate authority figure had been carved into Travis back in his military days and there was no going back. "Today I'm only here to finish the two reports I have pending. There's no way I want to bring Vic's ire on myself on top of everything else."

"It would have probably worked better if you'd filed them on time in the first place." Vic paused in the kitchen entrance with a frown. "Alas, here we are."

Fuck.

"I'll go do them now."

"Very well. I'll walk you to your office, then, since there's something else I want to discuss with you."

Double fuck. Travis left the kitchen quickly, with Vic on his heels, and he was already sitting down in his chair when he remembered he hadn't actually poured himself any coffee. Which meant he was going to have to push through those reports—and whatever else Vic needed from him—without a caffeine boost.

"Stop looking like that." Vic took a seat on one of the chairs at the side table after turning it to face Travis. "I'm not here to pile any more shit on you."

"That's a relief," Travis admitted. "But I wouldn't blame you if you did."

Vic shrugged. "I'm not a mental health professional, so I wouldn't be able to tell you anything that hasn't already been said. I might have had an urge to go all 'hurt Dave again and they won't find your body', but then I remembered you'd have likely buried yourself alive first before I could get to you if that happened, so. I'm letting it go."

Travis stared at Vic for a long moment.

"You know you're one of the scariest people at this company, right?"

With a flash of teeth, Vic grinned, which made Travis realize that he'd never seen him grin before. Smile, yes. Laugh, yes. But not grin.

"At any other company, I'd be offended not to be considered the scariest, but at this one, I'll take it as the compliment it is."

Chuckling, Travis relaxed back into his chair.

Damn, it was good to be back.

A flash of guilt ran through him at the thought, and he glanced at Dave's empty desk. It wasn't fair that Travis got to be here like this, hanging out with their co-workers and friends, when Dave was stuck back at home.

The only thing Travis could do now, though, was take care of his shit.

"Go on, then." He sat up and turned his computer on. "Lay it on me, what do you need?"

The sooner he was done here, the sooner he could go back home.

There was no place he'd rather be, anyway.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Dave had to pretty much throw Travis out of the house on Sunday morning to make him go to the bi-weekly basketball game with the guys, because Travis was ready to forego any amount of fun for… Dave wasn't even sure what. Travis was either trying to punish himself or resisting leaving Dave alone, and Dave hated both of those options.

Unfortunately, once Travis had finally left, Dave was tired and cranky, and honestly ready to throw in the towel and bury himself in bed until his damn leg healed itself—or until he combusted out of sheer frustration.

The list of all the things he couldn't do—normal, everyday things, not even anything strenuous—seemed to only be growing. He couldn't get to the bottom drawer of the freezer, or drop to the floor and retrieve his favorite pen from under the couch. He couldn't easily change out of his sweatpants after he'd spilled a few blackberries on them, which meant they were probably going to stain for good.

Hell, he couldn't even watch the very last minutes of the Eastern Conference Finals because he badly needed to pee and with how long it took him to get to the bathroom these days, waiting until the end of the game was out of the question.

---