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Travis smiled at her so sadly and said, "I know But you’re scaring me"

Weakly, she took hold of his wrist and forced a s I ate"

Then she passed out onto his lap

Di carried She heard Nerit and Ralph’s voices Another voice- the police

"I’m afraid," Travis said at some point

They put her into a very cold bath, so her head above water She tried to talk, but felt too weak

"She wasn’t bit That’s not a bite," Ralph’s voice said firuts all over that truck," Travis said and she heard a catch in his voice "What if…"

Katie’s head swam and her body felt so hot

"Katie," a voice insisted

She opened her eyes to see Lydia kneeling next to the tub, her gaze very concerned

"Lydia," she whispered

"It’ll be okay I’ her, kissing her brow and holding her up in the cold bath

Katie s to be okay" She sank back down into unconsciousness

Travis knelt beside the tub, holding her up, tears in his eyes

Chapter 11

1 Other Voices

Juan sat in a chair in the Mayor’s office, slu his thu Jenni a few times Yeah, she was hot Way hotter than the blond chick, but she had been a fucking annoyance ever since Travis and the blond had rode into the sunset together

It had only gotten worse when Jenni heard that Katie was very sick and Travis orried the zo the periht hysterical at that news

"I have to go to her! I have to! I’m her best friend, don’t you see! We’re sisters now!"

Juan had to pry Jenni’s fingers off the Mayor’s shirt and had helped Jason carry her out of the communication center so that they could actually hear what Travis was saying over the CB Jenni had fallen apart completely as soon as they laid her down on her cot As far as he knew, she was still there with her son watching over her

He studied his thumb for a moment He had accidentally chopped the tip off on another construction site years ago Every once and awhile it would start throbbing He often looked at its narled skin when he was nervous He was a nail biter by nature, and that deformed, bizarre half nail called to hier in his mouth, he was delivered a deft smack across the back of his head

"Don’t do that You look like a baby" His mother, Rosario, Rosie for short, stood in the doorway next to hiray hair and very pale amber eyes They were very sad eyes, the eyes of a woman who had lost her husband just recently to cancer

"Sorry, Mom"

"Where’s the Mayor? I have that list for hihed and held the clipboard tightly to her chest Juan had lived in the small town all his life Well, except for the two years he had lived in Houston with his "big, black, beautiful" wife, Candace But that e had failed when he had moved back home to be with his dad in his final years of life Candace couldn’t take the s and he couldn’t blame her

They parted friends and he still talked to her every other day

Candace…where was she? Was she okay?

He took off his cowboy hat and ran a hand over his hair to s terribly He shoved the hat back on and frowned

"I have the list of all the people in the fort just like the Mayor asked,"