Thanks to your kind reviews I was inspired to write more! Ha ha. I hope this makes up for the long wait for Chapter Eight. Sarahofearth – Love hearing from you, girl! Thanks. To everyone else who reviewed, thanks so much, it makes me feel real happy people like this story and now I have an idea how it will end, so that will make me write faster! XP

Chapter Nine – Thicker Than Blood

I woke up as my hip thudded off something hard. My head was thumping so much, I thought it would burst. The pain was making it hard for me to concentrate. I was being thrown around in the back of a jeep it seemed. I made a move to catch myself and quickly realised my hands were bound behind my back. My wrists were raw and bloody where the plastic restraints rubbed at the skin. My shoes were gone and only dirty white socks covered my feet. I felt something warm trickle down past my ear and knew it was blood. So, that's where the pain came from. The car sped over a bump and my whole body lifted off the trunk floor and slammed back down, painfully. I gritted my teeth and tried to recall what had happened. I remember talking to Beck and then he went to see Marianna and then…..nothing. Maybe one of the men I had knocked out wasn't as unconscious as I thought. My arms were sore from the angle they were tied at. Beck? Where are you?

After five minutes or so, the car halted and I slid up to the top of the trunk, my cheek smacking against the car. I could feel another bruise surfacing. Ouch. Since when I had awoken up, I had been in a daze – probably from being hit in the head, but it had felt like I had been in a dream. A dream, with painful joints and cuts, but I had convinced myself Beck was on his way, there was no need to be frightened. The door opened and the moonlight streamed in the jeep. That was when I decided to snap out of my dream. My teeth began chattering. My legs felt weak and right then I knew I had a heart, because it rattled against my rib cage in a violent temper.

"Got him. Need backup." The man's low voice panted and I took some victory at the fact that he was injured. Even in my injured, terrified state, I knew my only means of escape was to take my chance now, before the others arrived. I bit my bottom lip to stop my teeth from rattling and with a flip to my feet I threw myself into the man at the back jeep doors. We both hit the ground, with a yelp from me. I heard him curse beneath me and before my brain could catch up with reality; my legs were carrying me towards some trees. Stones and stray pebbles cut at the soft skin of my feet and only when I tasted blood in my mouth did I quit biting my lip. With a quick look over my shoulder and a rushed intake of breath, I saw the man just get to his feet. I turned to look back, when I crashed completely into something…..someone.

I feel on my ass and looked up with mad panic in my eyes. He towered over me, he must have been at least seven foot tall and build like a tank. He made Beck look like a terrier. This man was like the Great Dane of the dog world. I crawled backwards and nearly made it to my feet, before one of his great paws grabbed around my throat and lifted me clean off my feet. I dangled there for second, until his cruel, malicious laugh reached my ears and the idea of death looming so close made me lose control. I thrashed about in his hold until he shook me, making my head snap against my back. Sickness formed in my stomach and rose to my throat.

"Daddy wants to see you and I expect a spanking." Taunted the giant and he laughed again, leaving it echoing into the night. I dry sob left Travis, but he refused to break down in front of this moron and so submitted into the darkness of his mind as the man slung him over his shoulder and marched towards the building, deep in the trees. Travis squeezed his eyes shut as the pain in his arms rocketed, but with one last glint of hope he looked up to the moon and prayed for his friend. Beck, help me….

I rested my head against the window and stared up at the moon. Where the hell would he take him? I felt useless and worthless and I knew Travis needed me. The hairs on my arms stood up and I felt a wave of cold dread wash over me. I've failed him, I thought miserably.

"Beck!" Marianna jogged in through the door, wisps of hair curling round her face. We had both agreed that it would be safer for Marianna to ask around town if anyone had seen where a bunch of jeeps had driven off to, as she was well known, than some stranger which might arouse some suspicion in the locals.

"They headed towards the trees just outside town and one of the men in town said he saw a young man unconscious tied up in one jeep. It must be Travis."

"It is." I stood up and picked up yet another gun lying on the bar counter. "You stay here. I'm going alone. I'm not risking anyone else."

"No."

"No!" I was not in the mood for negotiation.

"I know this place better than you do. I can drive you. I know of an old factory 'Atcher used to keep equipment for mining. They might have taken Travis there."

I licked my lips and shook my head. "Ok, ok, but Marianna first sign of trouble and you get out of there, no questions asked. I mean it, I don't know what I'd do if…." My voice shut off as emotion clutched round my vocals. Moisture built up behind my eyes. Marianna ran over to me and kissed me softly.

"We can get him back, Beck. You can." She smiled slightly and hugged me fiercely. I held her tightly and inhaled her sweet, vanilla scent. I drew strength and hope from her and with a renowned sense of purpose pulled away, ready to face whatever horrors awaited us. I would save him.

Travis was dropped to the floor, his tail bone cracking off the cold ground.

"Oh man." He groaned. The coldness seeped in through his feet and through his dusty, ripped jeans. Goose pimples spread up his arms and he shuddered involuntarily. The giant pulled him to his feet by his t-shirt and pushed him through a door. It was dark inside and he squinted to make out the figure at the back of the room. His heart stopped dead in his chest and he suddenly felt like he had just stepped out of his body and time was frozen and he was watching this like it was on television. Travis' teeth started chattering again. Out of the shadows stepped two large men, their arms folded over their bulging pecs, trying to look even more menacing. It wasn't the wrestler-wannabes that Travis feared it was the man in the middle, who sauntered into view.

"How's my little boy?" Billy drawled and it took all Travis had to stay on his feet. "Not feel like talking? That's not like you." Billy chuckled and the two men that flanked him stepped towards Travis, grabbing a shoulder each and forcing him to his knees.

Billy grinned as he approached his son. "Look at the bother you've put me through, you and your new friend. I just wanted to have a chat with you, close the distance between father and son, but no, you had to make even that difficult." He backhanded Travis and the young man could feel blood in his mouth. He glared up at his father with dark eyes.

"Don't give me that look, now. You know it gets you nowhere." One of the men whacked his elbow between Travis shoulder blades.

"You either come home with me right now and stop all this nonsense, or we beat you into a bloody pulp and drag your sorry ass back to LA. I know which one I would prefer."

Travis laughed softly and shook his head. "Scary dad, real scary. It's not like I'm not used to being beaten up now is it?"

Billy bared his teeth and Travis was punched square on the jaw by one of the bodyguards. He moved his jaw around and ran his tongue over all his teeth, checking they were all still in place.

"Travis, Travis. Why do you always complicate things? That mouth of yours has got you into trouble before and I expect it won't do you much good right now."

"I wonder who I got that bad habit off of?"

"I wonder indeed. Take him down stairs and see if you can change his mind." Billy disappeared back into the darkness as Travis was dragged away.

"You're supposed to be my father, you sick son of a bitch!" He yelled angrily, but with a kick to the abdomen, he was silenced and left winded. He shut his eyes and let himself be dragged down. It was just a dream, just a really bad nightmare and any minute now he'd wake up and find Marianna smiling down at him and Beck eating his breakfast. He opened his eyes and felt them fill up as his little vision was shattered by the growing darkness and mist outside the windows and the painful grip on his arms. No one was coming to save him. He was alone once more, just like all those years ago with nothing but the bullying and beatings of his father to look forward too. A little tear trickled down Travis' cheek as the boy was thrown off a wall and lay like a broken soldier on the remains of a battlefield. He just lay motionless as the first attack came and the familiar feeling of pain welcomed him with open, malevolent arms.