13. Travis

“How many times have I told you, never mention her name!” my dad shouts at me, and I scream when the pole hits my back. I can feel blood dripping down my back, the bastard isn’t going soft on me today. All I fucking did was say Happy Birthday to my mom, and I fucking whispered it too.

“I—” my words cut off when the pole hits my back again, and this time I can’t stop the tears escaping my eyes. No matter how much I try to fight this, to be strong enough to fight the asshole, the pain is too much.

I’ve tried to fight him, I’ve tried to push him away, but I’m still too weak to fight him. But the day will come, and I’ll make him pay.

“Travis—” Blake passes the puck to me, and I quickly shoot at the goal, but Logan saves it. “When are you getting this piercing?” He points his hockey stick at my dick. “I asked the guy who did August’s and he said it can take anywhere from four to twelve weeks to heal, but you can have sex in two if you’re safe.” Blake passes the puck again, and I shoot with a lot more power this time so he can’t save it.

“Two fucking weeks? What the fuck, two days is pushing it.” I skate off the ice and sit on the bench to take my skates off. My body is fucking tired, I knew getting Bea in my bed was going to be the best thing I’ve ever done in my life. God, she was everything.

She was open for me to do anything, but the one thing I enjoyed the most, was being able to choke her while I fucked her. Just thinking about it has my dick getting harder for more, so how the hell does she think I’m going to last two weeks without sex?

“Well, the guy said it’s the best sex he ever had, and the women always orgasm fast the first two times, might not be the worst thing to get done.” Blake puts his stick to the side then sits on the small bench next to me.

“Two weeks, I’m sure you’ll think of something,” Logan joins in on the conversation. “I’m sure she’ll enjoy it.”

Oh, I know she will enjoy it, there was a part last night where I was choking her, and I could see it was pushing her, but she wasn’t stopping me, she didn’t slap my hand, telling me it was too much. Once I let go, she smiled and told me to choke her harder next time. I’ve found a woman who loves sex as much as I do, and if she thinks I’m letting her walk away, she’s wrong.

“When can your guy fit me in? If it’s the best sex, then I’m open to it.” I’ve heard women say they’ve had sex with a guy with a piercing, and it was one of the best nights they’ve had.

“I’ll call him later.” Blake answers, as we head upstairs for the day. “Has she asked you about your back?”

“No.” It’s one of the questions I’m waiting for, and I’m not going to lie to her about it. If she asks, I’ll tell her the truth. If she asks about my sister I’ll tell her, but I’m not going to open up about myself if no one asks. “When do you want to make a move on the hotel?” I ask.

We’ve been talking a lot about what will happen to the hotel once we get rid of the three of them. When all this first started we wanted to keep it, it was going to be our playground, but since then a lot has changed for us. Blake is one hundred percent on the fight club, Logan and I were going to take over the hotel, but the two of us have been talking about wanting to get rid of the hotel and build our own business. Logan is going to talk to his Granddad and see if he’s happy with what we have planned. If he is, then we will go ahead with it. Logan didn’t want to do something to the hotel, knowing it was built by our granddads, and Aaron is the only one left, it’s only right to make sure he would be happy.

“I’m going to talk to Granddad tonight, then we can go from there,” Logan replies, I look over at Meadow and August coming down the stairs laughing about something. I don’t know what is up with Bea not wanting to hang out with them, she’s not even open to the idea of it.

“Well, let us know then we can come up with a plan on what to do.” I check my phone when it rings, but it’s only one ring then stops, and has no caller ID either. Ignoring it, I look over at Bea coming down the stairs on the phone looking all showered, and wearing my jersey, which I didn’t give her, but it’s taking everything in me not to get off my stool and take her upstairs to fuck her while she’s wearing it.

“I’ll be back in an hour,” she ends the call, and stands next to me, taking my glass of milk from me. “Can you drop me off at my dorm, I need some clothes.” She rubs her neck, and I smile remembering my hands around it last night.

“You look nice in my clothes.” I give her a kiss, and she turns to face me.

“My neck hurts, you must have gone a little harder than I thought.” She walks away and starts opening the cupboards behind me, and I roll my eyes, while both Meadow and August stare at me.

“What did you do?” Meadow whispers, well she hisses at me.

“Nothing,” I reply, making both Logan and Blake laugh.

“Yeah, like they did nothing to us.” She snaps at me, which does make me laugh.

My dad is up to something, and if he thinks I’m letting him get close to Bea, he’s crazy, so I did what I needed too, they might not agree, and neither will Bea, but I don’t care. I’m going to know her every move, if she says she’s meant to be somewhere and isn’t, I will know about it.

“Where is the coffee?” Bea snaps behind me, she isn’t a morning person I see, even though her room-mate says she’s out of the dorm early.

“Someone tired?” I ask, finishing the last of my milk, then getting off the stool and pointing to the coffee machine, then I hand her two mugs. “I’ll have three sugars in mine.” kissing her cheek, I look over at the front door when it slams shut. “A bit early for you to piss me off, isn’t it?” I lean on the counter as my dad, and Blake’s dad walk in together. “How can we help you this beautiful morning?”

Bea turns around, leans on the counter next to me, and hands me my coffee. My dad looks at her, and smiles.

“Nothing special, are you sure about it being too early to piss you off?” He finally looks at me, but I drink my coffee, showing him he does not affect me. “Nice to see you all with girls, I didn’t think you’d find anyone.” Dad smirks, and I can’t wait to slap it off his face.

“What do you want?” Blake snaps.

“A fight, someone asked if they could have a fight?—”

“I’m sure it’s not your club anymore,” I cut my dad off. I don’t understand the game he’s playing. What is he doing?

“We don’t. We said we would speak to the owners.” Blake’s dad stares at Blake who smiles.

“Then no fight, now fuck off.” I watch Blake and his dad exchange words, and Bea leans in closer to me, and I don’t blame her. My dad hasn’t taken his eyes off her since he saw her.

“What’s the fight club?” she says.

“If you’re free tomorrow night, I’ll show you.” Tilting my head a little to face her, “it’s a fun place, you’ll like it.”

“I’m free.” Taking a sip of her coffee, before turning back to our dads.

“The fight is for Travis—” dad stops when I laugh. Now I’ve had fights down there, it’s more Blakes world, but even I like a good fight sometimes. “I found this one myself.”

“Is it you? I’m more than happy to fight if it is. Breaking every fucking bone in your body, is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time.” Bea takes a step away from me, as I push myself off the counter. “And I’ll do it with my bare hands, not like you.”

“Pretty sure I used my hands for some of it.” Dad takes a step closer to me, “I can remind you if you want.”

“I’m not that little kid anymore, you want to try me.” I only need one excuse to punch his lights out, but now is not the time, he will get his, then he will be thrown into a grave to rot.

“You want the fight or not.”

“No.” I walk away from him, he’s up to something, and I’m not playing into his game.

“Scared of getting beat up in front of your girl.” The comment makes me laugh, but I don’t even bother turning to face him, and finish my coffee. “I’m sure you won’t get too beat up.” I look over at Blake and Logan, who are watching them both, because I’m not. Logan glances over at Bea, letting me know my dad is staring at her again. “Want to show your girl, you’re a?—”

“Now why would I want Travis to waste his energy on a pointless fight, when he can use that energy on better things.” Bea cuts him off, and I watch her walking over to him, and I turn to watch her. She whispers something to him, but the look on my dad’s face tells me it’s something he didn’t think she would say.

He grabs her arm and pulls her closer to him. “You’re playing with fire, with him.”

“It’s a good thing I like fire.” She pulls her arm away from him, and walks back over to me, wrapping her arms around my neck, and gives me a kiss. “I like fire, it tastes nice.” She licks her lips, and smiles. “I’m sure I’ll get some more before I have to go.” Her voice is low enough for only me to hear.

“Fuck, yes,” I whisper so no one hears me. “Now if you’re finished with the mind games, fuck off.” I look over her shoulder at my dad watching me.

“Not sure who’s playing with fire, you or her.” He blows Bea a kiss as she turns to face him, which makes her chuckle to herself.

I know my dad well enough to know his last comment wasn’t just him talking. It’s got a hidden meaning behind it, for me or her.

What is Bea hiding?

“What game are they playing?” Blake says, turning back to face the group, Bea is still close to me. “Where is your dad?” he says to Logan.

“Have no idea, haven’t seen him. But the three of them are up to something.”

“Well, we all agree they are up to something, just watch your back when we’re not together. Fuck knows when they will make their move.” August slides a plate over to me and I thank her. My phone rings again, but stops, “What the hell is going on?”

“Who is it?” Blake asks.

“No ID, second time this morning.” Is this part of his game? Mind games, he’s always been good at that. “I want someone watching Jasper too.” My dad and him are too friendly, he might be in on it.

“Well, we can’t, they’ll know we are onto them, I can ask the Crawfords?” Blake is the one to speak first, and I agree with him, we can’t do it, but the Crawfords can and will send someone they know.

“They know the end is coming for them, it seems like they have their own end for us. We just have to beat them to it.” I wrap my arm around Bea’s waist, but her body isn’t relaxed, but it’s not tensed up either. “What did you say to my dad?” I ask, and she smiles, as she takes a step to the side to break the touch we have.

“Nothing, I told him he wasn’t going to win against my boyfriend. He didn’t like it.” Wow that lie came so easily to her, she avoided looking at me, and moved away so I couldn’t touch her to see if her body changed. Even now she’s blocking herself from me.

When it’s been a long day, and all you want to do is sit and watch the hockey game on TV, but no, here I am walking into the Skyline to talk to Cain. He called Logan, who told him to call me. Cain is trying with Logan, who still isn’t interested in any type of relationship with him. I did tell Logan and Blake they’re coming with me, which they already knew, we don’t go alone, when we know we are about to get information.

I’ve only asked him to look into Bea, I told the guys that I did once we were away from the girls, I didn’t need Meadow and August giving me their opinions or telling me I have a girl who fights and I don’t know how to control her. I control her where it’s important, in the bedroom. Outside of the bedroom I want her to be strong, just not with me. I need her to drop the brick wall she surrounds herself with.

The guys both agreed something had changed in Bea when I asked what she whispered to my dad. She’s hiding something, and I will find out what it is, no matter how long it takes, Bea will talk to me.

“So, I spoke to my piercing guy, he can fit you in at the end of next week or the week after, but you can’t play hockey?—”

“What the fuck? No sex, and no hockey,” I snap, which makes them both laugh.

“Hockey will be longer than sex, so at least you can take out your frustration.” Blakes hasn’t stopped laughing once while finishing his sentence. “It might be worth it.”

“We have the warmup game this weekend, then nothing for about five weeks, so I might only miss the first game if it all goes well. That’s not too bad.” I work out the timeline in my head, who knows I could even play the first game.

“Just get it pierced, fuck her, then let me know if it was worth it.” Logan tells me, as we walk into Cain’s office, who is just finishing fucking someone on his desk. “You heard of locking the door?” Logan snaps at him.

“You heard of fucking knocking?” Cain snaps as he pulls out of the woman on his desk, who’s still laying there naked, not caring that the three of us are in the room. She must be on the top floor, it’s the only VIP floor, where anything goes. “You can leave.” Cain snaps at the woman, who I’ve just noticed is different from the last one we saw in here. Does he just fuck all his staff?

“Or you can fuck in your own bed.” Logan turns the light switch on, to get more light in the room, and within a few seconds Cain turns them off.

I watch him, rubbing his eyes, something is up with him. Last time I was here, he looked off too, Logan says he’s not paying enough attention to know what’s happening with him. But you don’t need to pay attention to see if something is off.

Cain collapses on the chair, opens his drawer, and throws a file on the desk. “I’m still looking, but so far that’s all I have found, she’s a little mystery. Those are usually the wild ones.” He smiles, then looks up at the screens. “Are you idiots checking, ID?” I look up at the screen, knowing he isn’t talking to us, then take the file from the table. “Your girl is in a lot of fucking debt, I can tell you that much. Her mother’s treatments took it out of her, she’s lucky swimming got her into college,” Cain says, swinging his chair around to look at me again, “I can’t find anything on the dad, but he has cancer, and doesn’t have much longer to live. The brothers’ story is interesting. When you find out what happened to him, I’d like to know.” Cain looks over at Logan looking out the window, then back to me. “Everyone has the devil crawling in them, even the angels.”

He rests his head on the chair, and I open the file to read through it. What the hell, the water breath shit all makes sense now, the word accident has a question mark around it, and I glance up at Cain who raises his brow at me. He doesn’t think it was an accident, but why? I continue to read, where it’s saying he had marks around his wrists, which looked like old and new bruising. The next page I see the debt amount, “Fuck,” I whisper to myself seeing the number of her debt from the medical care. One hundred and fifty thousand.

“She’ll be paying that forever,” I hear Logan say, and see he’s standing next to me now.

“Yet the stubborn woman won’t take the money from her dad?—”

“Don’t blame her.” I look up at Cain, joining in the conversation, then back at the file. “I’m still looking, but if what my gut is telling me, I wouldn’t take a cent off him either.”

Her dad got money transferred into his account from an anonymous person, then left Bea and her family the following day. I wonder if the wife Bea kept throwing in his face, did he ask her for money so he could finally leave his family?

Why has this file given me more questions than fucking answers?

I dig in my pocket for my phone, and see the same no ID, three rings and it stops ringing. All fucking day this has been happening, and it’s pissing me off now.

“Thank you for this.” I place the file back on the desk. “If you find anything else, please let me know.” Cain leans forward and pulls the file closer to him and gives me a nod.

I go to leave but see Logan still standing by the desk, Blake and I stand by the doors waiting to see if Logan will say anything to him, but nope, nothing as he turns and walks over to us.

“What’s the plan?” Blakes asks as we exit the club.

“Find out what happened to her brother, but she must have only been three, maybe four. Is she going to remember anything?” She must remember something, she’s in the fucking water all the time.

“You won’t know until you ask.” Logan pats my back as we get to the car.

I try to think about anything I remember at four, I remember little things about my mom, but nothing big. I always tell myself it’s because my dad beat the memories out of me.

Let’s see if my firecracker will finally knock a brick or two out of that wall for me.