17. Travis
TRAVIS
I had a hell of a time trying to concentrate on work that morning. Between constantly looking behind me to see who was entering the garage, worrying that someone else here would get caught in the crossfire, and then thinking of Dax and what he was doing, I hadn’t completed a single fucking task.
Every time I saw Beau, I asked if he’d heard anything from Lance or Dax. Finally, he asked me if I wanted to take a break or take the rest of the day off.
I shook my head. “I know I’m doing shit work today, but I need something to focus on.”
About an hour later, Dax returned. When I saw him step into the garage, I couldn’t help myself. I ran to him, and he opened his arms and pulled me to him. Thank God I was the only one around. If Beau had seen my reaction, he would have known.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean… I know you don’t want anyone to know.”
Dax kissed my forehead gently. “I don’t like hiding what’s between us, but I don’t want Beau to find out like this. We’ll figure out how and when to break the news, and we’ll tell him soon.”
“He’s going to freak out.”
“Then he’ll just have to work through it.”
Dax’s words warmed me. “He wouldn’t say that if he wasn’t truly committed to me. “How did things go?”
“I learned part of what I needed to, and it’s over now.”
“Are you okay?”
Dax tilted his head as if considering my words, and a terrible thought hit me. “Has anyone ever asked you that, or does everyone just assume this kind of work is just what you do and that you’re always fine with it?”
“Ambrose asks. Sometimes. It wasn’t like I interviewed for the job or anything. As I got old enough to be part of the business, everyone could see where my skills lay.”
“That doesn’t mean you’re not affected by all that evil.”
A look of horror crossed Dax’s face, and he took a step back.
“No.” I reached for his arm. “I think that came out wrong. I don’t mean that it rubs off on you. I meant that you having to be the one who pushes back the hardest, the one who has to talk to all these evil people, has to take a toll on you.”
“Do you really think I’m not as bad as them when I do things that are equally gruesome if not more so?”
“You do what is necessary.” I placed a hand over his heart. “You’re a good man.”
He laid a hand over mine. “Are you ready to go see my brother?”
“The night I shot Guidry is the only time I’ve seen him since… since he came back from the military.”
“It fucked him up real bad.”
“I know. Beau’s in touch with him, but it sounds like they only see each other occasionally.”
“Since he came back, Ambrose prefers to keep to himself. Beau and I are pretty much the only people who can hope for a good reception if we show up at his place. Hell, we might be the only two people who could find his place.”
“What’s he going to think about you bringing me there?”
“He’ll get over it once I explain. I might not even have to. As soon as he sees me, he’ll know.”
“Know what?”
“That you’re mine now.” He said the words so low I could barely hear them because Leland had come into our part of the garage to start work on a GTO we’d just acquired.
“We can talk more in the car.” Dax motioned for me to follow him.
“Hold on. I’ve got to clean up. Beau will kill me if I leave tools out.”
“I’ll take over,” Sam said as she entered the garage. “You’re going with Dax, right?”
“Yeah, we need to go talk to his brother.”
She smiled. “Take the rest of the day. I’m sure an afternoon with Ambrose will be enough excitement. We’ll keep things moving here.”
Once we were in Dax’s truck heading out of town, I asked what Sam meant about excitement. “I thought Ambrose just kept to himself and didn’t talk or…”
“If he hears anyone approaching his property, he shoots first and asks questions later.”
“But you said it was fine if you visited.”
“That’s if he’s had warning. I called him, but he didn’t answer. Sometimes he goes on hunting expeditions and doesn’t take his phone, and reception is shit out there at the best of times.”
“So you’re saying he might shoot us?”
“As soon as he realizes who we are, it will be fine, and who knows, he might check his messages before we get there.”
“That’s—”
“Just keep your head down when I tell you to, and it’ll be fine.”
How was he so casual about this? “How will he know?”
“That it’s us? He’ll recognize my car, but honestly, twins just know sometimes.”
I shook my head. “I mean how will he know you and I… That we…”
Dax chuckled at my inability to get words out. “I know that at times you and Beau have been really close. Brothers often have a special bond, unless one of them is a total asshole.”
“Sometimes Beau is an asshole.”
Dax laughed. “I mean really an asshole. You know, like if Jean-Charles was your brother.”
I thought about what Rob had wanted me to do to get Jean-Charles off his back. That definitely wasn’t brotherly.
Dax frowned. “Travis, what’s wrong?”
I shook my head, trying to push the memory away. “Nothing. I’m fine.”
I didn’t think he believed me, but he didn’t push any harder. “With twins, the bond is much stronger. It probably sounds crazy, but we can sense what the other is feeling… or at least we could until Ambrose shut me out.”
I laid a hand on his thigh. “I’m sorry.”
He sighed. “It’s okay. Things are slowly getting better. I hope eventually our bond will feel like it used to, but I’m not sure how much further his recovery can go unless he’s willing to step out of the bayou for something other than planning an attack with the family.”
“Maybe something will change that.”
Dax sighed. “I wish I knew what.”
We were silent for a few moments, then he squeezed my hand. “Tell me what made you looked so scared when I mentioned Jean-Charles.”
“I don’t know if I can talk about it.”
“Okay, but if you want to, I’m here to listen.”
If he’d pushed me, I would have protested, but his acceptance of me moving at whatever pace I wanted made me feel safe.
“I never intended to tell anyone this, but when Rob couldn’t meet the quotas LePlatt demanded, LePlatt sent Jean-Charles to shake him up.
Jean-Charles made it very clear what would happen to Rob if he didn’t come up with the money in the next twenty-four hours.
I hid during the whole encounter, but I heard every word.
Rob came looking for me when Jean-Charles left.
He told me there was no way he could get the money, so he was going to offer Jean-Charles the use of my body as payment. ”
“That motherfucking bastard. I can’t believe?—”
“I’m here with you now. It’s okay.”
“Nothing about this is okay.”
“I told Rob no. It was the first time I’d ever had the courage to do that.
He told me I would do exactly as I was told, then he locked me in a closet and refused to give me food or water.
He left me there until just before Jean-Charles returned the next day.
” As I talked, I fell deeper and deeper into the past until it was like I was there, watching the whole scene play out again…
Rob jerked me out of the closet and forced me to shower and fix myself up. When Jean-Charles demanded his money, Rob said, “I need a little more time, but you can have him until I’ve got the money.”
Jean-Charles stared at him like he was crazy. “You think I’m fucking gay? What do you want me to do with him?”
“He sucks dick like nobody’s business. Just close your eyes and you won’t even notice the difference.”
“LePlatt wants the money you owe him, and we’re not in the business of waiting around to take payment.”
“I can give you some of the product back.”
Jean-Charles shook his head. “You take the product. You buy it. That’s how this works.”
Rob had gone white as a sheet. I had tried to shrink into myself and disappear. Thankfully, Jean-Charles never looked at me after his initial assessment.
Rob cleared his throat and managed to speak again. “If you don’t want the boy to fuck, you could hurt him. I hear you like to cut people. You’d enjoy messing up his pretty little face.”
Jean-Charles shook his head. “It’s your pretty face I want to mess up.” He glanced at me again. “My boss might want him.” The thought of that made my stomach turn. I’d never met LePlatt, but I’d heard rumors that when he was done with men or women, they disappeared, and no one ever saw them again.
I blinked, and reality seemed to return. I wasn’t trapped back there. I was in Dax’s truck. I realized he’d pulled off the road. I hadn’t even felt the truck stop.
Dax’s hands were shaking where he still clutched the steering wheel.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“I wish I could kill Rob. I wish I could hurt him. I wish I could do every goddamn torturous thing I’ve ever done to anyone to him.”
“It’s okay. It’s over.”
“When Jean-Charles said he wanted to take you back, he… I’m going to find LePlatt, and I am going to end him, and everyone associated with him, and everyone who’s even thought about touching you or harming you or?—”
“Dax, really, it’s okay. I just want to be with you.”
He started to speak and then stopped. A moment passed, and he took a slow, steady breath. “What happened next?”
“Jean-Charles shot Rob and left him to die. After he was gone, I ran. Rob begged me to save him. I should’ve shot him again and made sure he was dead, but all I could think about was getting away.
He found me a few weeks later. He hadn’t died after all.
Somehow he’d managed to drag himself to his phone and get some help from some of the other fools he’d manipulated. I thought he was going to kill me.”
“And that was when he dropped you off in the bayou and told you he never wanted to see you again?”
I nodded.
“Is that the worst of it, or is there more?”
“There are plenty of other ugly things, plenty of times he hurt me, but that one scared me the most. I didn’t think I was going to come out of that alive.”
“Jesus, baby, I wish I’d been there.”
I’d tried to hold back, but I started to cry. “I wish you had too.”