The beautifulllll image above was made by averyy35 and it gives me a bajillion feels.
Also a special shout out to dagga10 because she's lovely and awesome. And Ticcy_1751 because your comment in the last chapter made me so happy because of what's in store in this chapter and the next few! <33
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"Go straight."
I rolled my eyes because I could bet money that it wouldn't kill Cameron to actually tell me where we were going.
His eyes were still stuck to his phone when I pulled away from the alley and started heading down the road.
"I thought you had a phone already," I pointed out because I definitely called him on it before I went into the jail.
"Correct."
That time, I groaned. I glanced at him and I could see the corner of his mouth twitch up.
"Only you guys at out house have that number," he explained. "This everyone has."
"And do you stash in it a wall of bricks every time you're done using it or...?" I asked.
"I told Ben if anything happened to me, not to get rid of it in case they needed it for something but it's not something I wanted out in the open in case we got attacked or the house got robbed so I told him to hide it."
"Why couldn't you just use your new phone?" I asked, my thumb running over the tip of one of my fingers with a blister forming from the effort of getting the phone out in the first place.
"No one would believe it was me."
I glanced at him again, "Who did you text?"
"Everyone. Turn right."
My foot tapped the breaks a bit harder than necessary, both from the shock of Cameron outing his presence so quickly and from nearly passing the turn. Cameron grunted at the action and a hand went to his leg to steady it.
"Are you okay?" I asked, eyes darting down to his leg for a moment.
He didn't answer. Instead, a finger went up to his lips as he looked out the windshield, looking like he was thinking deeply about something.
"Thank you," I stated quietly. "Josh said Elle was okay. Thank you for helping her."
I wondered if Dylan or Owen knew Josh was out waiting to bump into me. Or what my old team was even doing if Dylan was releasing criminals from prison. Or what Dylan was even thinking in the first place.
Cameron looked to me, slight anger suddenly on his face.
I shrunk in my seat and focused on the road so I wouldn't have to look at him.
"We had to send Jay and his team because you and Travis decided to not come home last night," Cameron said.
My mouth dropped, "I wanted to go!"
I could tell out of the corner of my eye that he was still looking at me.
"I did," I protested. "I didn't even know you guys were doing that last night until Ben called and Travis told him to get lost."
Cameron's attention went back to the window and silence followed. I guess the conversation was over and he was back to thinking. The only thing he said was when to turn. A few of the streets I recognized at first but it wasn't long until I had no idea where we were.
"You need to get rid of that jacket," he said not looking at me.
My heart jumped.
Get rid of this jacket? I'd had it for the last three years after Travis left it with me in the hospital. Before I came back to Melkin, I wore it on days I was sad or not feeling too confident. I would sleep in it on days I missed Travis too much to bare. It was like a safety blanket.
"I can't," I said quickly.
"It's too big and bulky on you," he stated.
"Because it's Tr--"
"Travis', I know," Cameron interrupted. "But how can you sneak around or run past enemies effectively if you've got a jacket double your size on?"
I opened my mouth and paused for a second, fighting the urge to yell no at him. "It hasn't been an issue yet."
Cameron glanced at me, a hard look on his face. "Yet. But someone can grab at it and pull you back to them. Or if you're trying to go somewhere quietly, you account for your own size when walking through something. You might not be able to account for something like a big jacket."
"But I like it," I argued which wasn't my best defense. I could see his point. Far in my mind, I could understand what he was saying. It was like when I was dancing, I knew exactly how much space I would take up. But if I was dancing with a flowy dress on, I couldn't account for where exactly the dress would go while I spun and danced around.
"We can get you one that fits you better," he said with a soft nod.
I suppose if I had Travis, I didn't need his jacket anymore. Maybe I could even give it back to him.
"Is it really that big of a deal?" I asked.
He nodded. "If you're a Casey, I don't want you at a disadvantage. We'll get you some more knives, too."
"Not guns?" I asked because Ben had insisted earlier that I have a gun even if Travis was against it. I kind of thought joining the Caseys meant you would eventually get your own complimentary gun, whether or not you used it.
"You don't fight with guns," Cameron stated.
I smiled. "Thank you."
"Turn in here and park by the door," was all he said in response.
I did as he said, turning the car off and looking out the window. I didn't know what I had been expecting but it wasn't a run down, dilapidated warehouse. But we were in Melkin, so I really shouldn't have been surprised. Cameron opened his door and I took it as my cue to do the same. I walked quickly over to his side as he stepped out, this time grabbing his crutches.
"Do you need help?"
Cameron ignored me as he shut the door and started walking forward. He elbowed open the door and slid in with me trailing on his heels.
The windows were all boarded up and the inside was dusty, long forgotten. A few windows had slits in them, allowing sunlight to come through at random angles. The warehouse was one big open room, with nothing of substance in it.
"What are we doing here?" I whispered but the sound echoed to him.
The only noise that came from Cameron was the sound of his crutches each time he took another step. He walked around the room, observing the walls and windows. I didn't know what he was looking for, maybe another phone hidden in the walls that he abandoned long ago. Because hiding things in the walls wasn't creepy at all.
As I followed him, trailing the inside perimeter of the warehouse, I imagined all the places Cameron could hide a broken phone in here. Maybe this time it was a pager. Once he swept the whole place, he went to the middle of the room, took out his phone and started texting on it again. Maybe we were in the wrong place and he was going to lead me to yet another brick wall. My sore fingertips brushed against each other, as if I needed a reminder on why I didn't want to do that.
He looked around. There were some abandoned machines off to the side that once produced whatever this warehouse was for but now they were covered in rust. Crates littered the area but in his perimeter sweep, he hadn't approached them. Now, he hobbled over to them. Instead of following him, I sat on the floor, stretching my legs out on the concrete ground. I rested back on my hands as I watched him. If he wasn't going to talk to me, I wasn't going to follow him around like a shadow for no reason.
My head fell back on my shoulders, looking up. Bits of the roof had given out, more sunlight coming through to the ground. The rays of light looked too peaceful for a place like this.
A loud scraping noise startled me and my eyes snapped to Cameron, my body tensing. He was using one leg to kick a wooden crate while he balanced on his other leg and crutches. He walked closer to where he'd pushed the crate, lifted his foot up to the edge, and kicked it again towards where I was sitting. The sound filled the space, echoing off the concrete floor and walls.
I jumped to my feet, lazily brushing off any dust from my legs and hands.
"Do you want help?" I asked, jogging over to him.
"Get your own."
I walked over to the pile of crates and tried to pick up one with my hands. The wood was old and splintery so I opted to just push it along the ground. I caught up to where Cameron was in now and slowed, looking up to him. He kept his eyes on the box he was kicking, ignoring me instead of asking for help because that apparently would be too much of a blow to his ego.
I sighed and continued with my own crate until I got to where the dust was disturbed where I was sitting before. If he didn't want help, I wasn't going to force it. I sat down on my crate, pulling my legs up and crossing them as I watched Cameron.
After some time, he kicked his box close to mine and sat on it with a sigh before he placed his crutches on the ground.
"Took you long enough," I bit out, hoping it was okay to tease him and I wasn't going to get shanked.
He glanced over at me, "Is that how you want to play this?"
My confidence started to abandon me so I tried to change the subject.
"Can you please tell me what we're doing?" I begged.
"Waiting."
"Oh my gosh," I threw my head back in frustration, "How does anyone put up with you?"
Cameron laughed lightly under his breath, not caring that his vague and cryptic answers were driving me crazy.
I picked at the edge of my leather jacket, the idea of getting a new one pushing into my mind but I didn't want to think about that.
"Were you mad at me?" I asked, looking for a distraction before I let my emotions take over and demand I be buried in this jacket.
Cameron just looked at me, an eyebrow raised.
"That I joined the cops," I finally voiced. I could still picture Finn and Ben's faces the first time I saw them after coming back. I could hear how they pointed out joining the cops wasn't something that Cameron had told me to do, even if at the time they told me this I thought he was gone.
Cameron looked at me for awhile with eyes that looked like they were judging me, scrutinizing everything about me. I brushed some hair behind my ear and sat up straighter, as if something was wrong and he was hating it. Maybe he just secretly hated me for joining.
"When I was younger, my dad used to test me," he said.
Confusion swept over my face. Maybe he didn't want to tell me I made him mad so he was trying to change the topic.
"Twice a year, he would leave me somewhere. He'd blindfold me and we'd drive. Sometimes it was hours away from Melkin, other times it was right in the heart of the Dacosta territory. He'd just leave me."
My mouth dropped but I shouldn't have been surprised at anything Cameron's dad used to do to him by now.
Cameron continued, "I had survive for a week and get back to the mansion. I had no money, weapons, phone, food, shelter and none of the other Caseys were allowed to help me or we'd both be punished. It didn't matter how fast I got home, I had to wait out the week - I wasn't allowed in until it was over."
"He made you be homeless for a week to test you?" I half yelled.
He nodded. "My dad wanted me to learn to survive from nothing, in case the situation ever happened for real. Sometimes, if he knew where I was he would send one of his men out to fight me which is difficult when you've been sleeping on the ground and have barely eaten."
"So a Casey could beat you up but not help you? That's psycho, Cameron."
"Yes, but the week long stretch wasn't the point of the test. The point was after that week, I would have to come and fight him and others. That was the worst part because after going through hell, you want nothing more than to shove your face in a pizza and take a shower and sleep for days and spend hours playing video games but I was always taken right to the training room where we'd fight. And if I gave in or was knocked out quickly by my dad's guys, the destination for the next test would be further from Melkin. If I made it past his guys all the way to get to fight my dad, I would get to spend the week close by. That's usually when I'd get dropped off by Dacostas which wasn't so bad once you learned where they would be."
"Cameron," I stressed, still not understanding why he was freely giving me this information, "That's horrible."
"You're not listening," he said.
"No because that's crazy! You could have died."
He gave me a look, "Don't insult me like that."
To that, I only copied his are-you-dumb look he liked to dish out.
Cameron sighed. "The point wasn't the journey home, it was never about that. I could do it quickly or slowly. I could stay in the same alley for the entire week, didn't matter. But I knew something worse was always at the end of the week, the fights. So I would have to bide my time and make sure I had enough stored energy. I would do just enough to survive so I could come back to my home and prove to my dad that he couldn't break me."
He paused and I wondered if this was the end of story time. Cameron needed happier stories.
"I was never mad at you. How you got home doesn't matter. You did what you had to so you could hopefully take out Sterling. What matters is what you do now that you're here. Don't let your guard down because you never know what's coming next and don't ever break because you're someone people should fear."
A shiver ran down spine at his words and the intense stare he was giving me. It was no wonder this man was capable of running a gang full of scary criminals.
"Thank you," I said quietly, rubbing my arms to get the goosebumps to go away.
We sat in silence after that and I welcomed it. I wasn't sure I could do with another of his speeches right now, the previous one was still running through my ears. Cameron, the guy who could scare me just by looking at me, thought I was someone people should be afraid of.
I felt like a child earning praise. Like Cameron took my barely distinguishable drawing and stuck it to the fridge to proudly display.
During my years of training, my supervisors always made sure to put us down. They didn't like to praise people but instead set up competition. It was 'That was good but not as good as the person. Do better.' It was Josh thinking he was superior. It was Dylan telling me again and again that I wasn't special, that I was a nobody who needed to be kept in my hotel room because I would just ruin things.
The door to the warehouse snapped me out of my thoughts and I went on high alert. Cameron didn't move but glanced up.
"What the fuck!" Jay yelled as he ran into the room, eyes glued to Cameron. "Dead come back to life like it's a fucking Casper movie up in here."
Others trailed in after him but Jay made it to Cameron before anyone even had the chance. Cameron stood up, balancing mainly on one leg and Jay's eyes drifted down to the crutches before he looked back at Cameron. He gripped him by the shoulders.
"You motherfucker," Jay continued to cuss. Cameron just laughed and the two embraced in a quick hug.
I wondered how long they knew each other. Scully knew Jay but not Travis or Ben. Cameron also trusted Jay enough to collect all of the Casey money and apparently he was allowed to hug Cameron.
More people crowded around Cameron in a circle, almost cutting off my view of him as they all chatted and hugged him. Cameron wasn't kidding when he said he was going to tell people he was very much alive. From the sounds of it, none of the other Caseys had known. More kept filing in and immediately flocked to Cameron.
Finn walked in, stopping to talk to someone animatedly. Then the rest of Jay's crew, Max and Q, came in and headed over to us.
Jay eventually shoved his way out of the crowd and sat on the half of my crate that I wasn't occupying. Except he was a mammoth and so I scooted over to give him a bit more room that he greedily took.
"I take it you knew?" Jay asked me, turning to face me as Finn came up behind me.
My eyes widened, distracted by his face. "Why do you have a black eye?"
Jay narrowed his eyes. "Your friend's idea of a 'thank you for saving me'."
"Elle did that?" I questioned, fighting to keep the grin off my face. Jay was practically three of Elle put together.
He shrugged, brushing it off.
"Why didn't you duck?" I asked.
"I didn't expect her to punch me!" he snapped.
Finn laughed, "Never underestimate a mad woman."
Jay shook his head at Finn's advice, "Don't I know it. Besides, it's not like your face is pristine, Lacey. Do I need to go hurt someone?"
All joking went from his voice and he reminded me of the guy that followed me around in the streets of Melkin.
I kept forgetting about my face. "I already took care of it."
That, and I didn't want to send people right to Dylan if I could help it.
I watched members find crates of their own to sit on or just plopped down on the floor. Cameron kept telling everyone he would explain everything all at once. Jay stood up to talk go with Max and Q, and I had to brace my feet on the ground as the crate nearly tipped with his weight gone and from me sitting on the very edge.
"Where's the others?" I asked Finn quietly.
"With our doctor," Finn said barely audible. It was then I remembered they didn't broadcast Hannah's involvement so I dropped the subject. Though it was reassuring to know that Hannah was looking after Travis. I wondered how shaken up Annabeth still was from seeing her father. It must have been a lot if she didn't come with Finn here.
Shortly after, Cameron started addressing everyone as a group and explaining what happened which they all lapped up and I didn't blame them. Up until this point, they'd all thought the leader of their gang was dead. And today he decided to just say 'lol jk' to that. I knew most of the details he was going over though, so I took out my knife and started playing with it.
"I knew Finn's dumb ass couldn't plan for shit. Now it makes sense," a man said that I didn't know the name of but he was standing with a few others in the back. He motioned towards Cameron like he was the only one capable of planning.
"I don't need a plan to burn your precious new car," Finn retorted.
"Not to mention Travis," a girl said, ignoring Finn's jab.
"Where is he anyway?" Tom asked.
"Nursing a concussion from Sullivan Taylor," Cameron said.
It was the first time he mentioned his uncle's name in the meeting and I watched the varied levels of shock and awareness spread over the crowd. Some didn't seem very phased. Others looked like they knew exactly who Scully was and I wondered if they worked with him before he was put in jail.
"No shit?" a guy exclaimed, standing up and looking across the room. "That's within six months. You owe me."
"Hell no," Max from Jay's crew said, perching up on the crate he was sharing with Q. "That wasn't the bet."
Were they betting on Scully getting released? Or maybe just how quickly things would go crazy?
"Yes it was!" the first guy said.
"No," Max argued. "You said a concussion from falling off the building trying to be a parkour dipshit."
"Technically, Max is right. I wrote it down," someone else spoke up looking at their phone.
Max sat down triumphantly and I started laughing along with a few others. Did Travis know they were betting on him?
"Scully's locked up," a man said, going back to the original point right when the guy who bet Max looked like he was about to argue some more.
"The leader of the special unit team sent here made a deal with him and agreed to let him out. He's on a leash," I piped up, worried for a moment that they weren't going to listen to me but all eyes snapped to me casually. I heard a laugh at the last part of my statement. My eyes found Carlos. "But he's still out and helping Dylan track the Casey's down. He doesn't seem interested in the Dacostas at all."
"Who would be?" a girl said, earning a laugh from those near her.
"So what now?" another asked.
"We're still going through with the demolition," Cameron said. "The suppliers still think the Dacostas hit them the other day."
The demolition must have been about Cameron trying to leave Melkin. I hadn't thought everyone was on board with it.
"We just have a few pests to get rid of in the meantime but I'm working on it," Cameron said. "Tell anyone you know that I'm back. I plan to make sure everyone knows. Scully needs to go back in jail. I've got a few jobs for some of you to help with that. I need you guys to make sure the Dacostas aren't getting anything from the cops that can help them in any way," Cameron looked pointedly to a group in the back and they nodded. "I want the cops, the Dacostas, and Scully to know this town is ours. We've been quiet up until now and they've been getting cocky. I want you all to wreak havoc."
Evil grins washed over the crown and I wondered what their version of havoc was.
Cameron started calling out more tasks for people to do but I didn't know who many of them were. Some of the faces were familiar but I didn't know many of their jobs. Some people were ordered to follow Dylan and Scully. A lot were ordered to interact with the Dacostas and scare them. Carlos was asked to help Finn with a shopping list which I doubted could end in anything good.
Bored with his lecturing, I started carving into the wooden crate I was sitting on, in the space between my legs. A few scrapes and it started forming into a heart. It was good to feel on the inside of the loop for once. I doubted the moment would ever come again.
When I finished with the outline of the heart, I debated chipping out the inside of it too. But that seemed like it would take too long and I didn't know how long this makeshift meeting was going to drone on for. I didn't want to leave it unfinished. So instead, I started chipping away at something inside of the heart.
Each chip was small, not making much noise because I didn't want to distract everyone from Cameron. I might be bored but I wasn't going to cause a scene about it.
"From this point on, you guys are free to leave if you want. You know the endgame. I'm not going to ask you to stay any longer than you want to," Cameron said which caught my attention but I held in my surprise as I finished up the last part of my carving.
"Hell no," someone said. "I've still got bets I'm riding. I'm not leaving until I see those out."
A few laughed.
I scrunched up my face in confusion.
"How many bets do you guys have?" I asked.
Cameron glanced down at me. His eyes scrunched up for a moment as he took in my wooden shavings littering the top of my box and the marking I had done. He took a deep breath in, his eyes widening ever so slightly like he was trying to hold in the urge to audibly sigh at my work.
I held up one of my hands slightly as if to say, what?!
He didn't say anything back but just shook his head. I could tell he wasn't angry though. I knew his angry face and his 'what the hell were you thinking, are you dumb?' face.
The guy who said he had written the bet down in his phone sat up a little straighter in his seat.
"What don't we have bets on?" he asked, as he took his phone out again and started scrolling through it. "How soon Tom gets punched by Travis, how soon the Dacostas will fall apart, whether or not Reggie can eat a footlong sub in under a minute which we can test any time you're ready, Reggie," he paused, looking to the guy I didn't know.
Reggie just gave the other guy a middle finger.
The man continued with a small laugh, "When Finn will lose a hand from a firework, when Annabeth will smarten up and leave Finn's dumbass, when the stair banister will give out - oh I guess that one doesn't apply anymore..."
"No! The banister is still intact, I checked when we were evacuating the house!" someone yelled.
"How many phones Dani will break before the year's over," the guy continued.
"I've been on the same phone for the last month, you jerks," a girl named Dani said.
"Maybe it should be how many drinks Dani can handle before she's drunk," a guy teased.
Dani stood up. "I hadn't had anything to eat all day!"
"I sense you're angry, do you want to throw your phone, lightweight?" the guy baited and a few others laughed.
Dani sat down but crossed her arms like she was holding in saying anything else.
"Do you keep track of all of them?" I asked.
The guy nodded. "Otherwise people will cheat. Let's see, we've got how soon-"
"Lacey gets it," Cameron interrupted and stood up. "Bets aside, you all know you're not tied here but I appreciate it. If I have anything else for you guys, I'll be in touch now that you know I'm very much alive again."
I finished my carving and then watched as a handful of members came up to talk to Cameron before saying goodbye. After he had finished and most of the people had left, he turned to me with an eyebrow raised.
"Why?" was his only question as he pointed at my carving.
"What?" I asked, this time audibly, "What's wrong with it?"
I brushed off the wood shavings that had collected, letting them fall to the ground. It wasn't like anyone could trace it back to me. It was an innocent carving that people did all the time.
"How is that keeping our cover under wraps?" he asked but he still didn't look angry. He looked amused.
"Are they going to trace my knife point back to me?" I asked sarcastically.
Cameron rolled his eyes but there was a hint of a smile on his lips. "Focus more on not dying instead of that."
If it was an issue, I had no doubt Cameron would've made me remove it. It wasn't exactly a park bench or tree, or whatever else people used but those things weren't really available.
I glanced down at the heart I had drawn. A "T" was in the top corner of part of the heart and an "L" was diagonally below it. I smiled warmly down at it.
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Have a great rest of your day and don't forget to smile! <3