Give Me Strength (27 page)

***

“Let me get this
straight. I was there. I was right there in the street when that
bastard had a hold of you and you didn’t yell out?”

I nodded from my huddled ball in bed. We were
back in our hotel room down the hall, and after giving Travis all
the answers to his questions, I felt sick for making an absolute
mess of things.

“He said he would shoot you.”

“I don’t care,” he burst out, his knuckles white
from clenching his fists. “I don’t fucking care. Let him have
tried. I would have ripped him apart just for touching you.” Travis
gave me his back, his shoulders moving up and down as he struggled
for control.

After a few beats of silence, he said softly,
“You couldn’t have come to me?”

My chest ached. How could I explain so that he
understood how impossibly hard it was to rip open every horrible
part of you and expose it to someone, and not only that, but to
drag them down into your nightmare with you?

“You don’t understand,” I finally said, the
words sounding empty.

Travis turned around, tucking a strand of loose
hair behind his ear before tugging his hands into his pockets.
“Wow, Quinn. How will I ever understand when you keep everything
tucked so tightly inside that you can’t even talk to your best
friend? I’m tired of asking you to explain it to me rather than
coming to me if you need help or just need me to be there. I feel
like an idiot for being the last one you talk to all the time. For
it having come to this for you to let me in.”

“No one thinks you’re an idiot.”

“I don’t care what anyone else thinks right now,
just you, Quinn. But I can only fight for you for so long before
you have to start fighting for yourself, and for us, and it hurts
that you won’t even try. I know I said I’d be strong for you, and I
always will be whether you want me to or not, but you have to be
strong too because I need you just as much.” He paused and drew in
a deep breath. “Is that such a bad thing—for us to have each
other?”

My mouth was open to speak, but nothing came
out.

Travis stepped back and rubbed a weary hand over
his closed eyes. For the first time he was giving up. I could feel
it. The ties that had somehow bound us together right from the
beginning were being sliced in two. But he couldn’t give up. I
needed him to not give up on me.

“Wait!” I called out to his retreating back.

He stopped.

“Don’t go. I’m sorry. I don’t know how…” I
cleared my throat. “I’m scared.”

Travis turned around, his eyes, direct and
green, held mine. “What are you scared of?”

I licked my lips.

He stood, waiting.

“You.”

“You’re scared of
me
?” Travis shook his
head, looking at the floor before shifting his eyes back to me.
“What have I done to make you scared of me?”

He sounded hurt and tears filled my eyes.

“Already you’re getting dragged into my shitty
world, Travis, and I don’t want any of it touching you. You’re
better than that. Better than me. And maybe not today, maybe not
tomorrow, but one day, you’ll realise that.”

And you’ll leave…

And I won’t ever survive it because I love
you.

Oh my God. I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t survive losing
him.

How could I be so stupid to let myself fall
in love with you?

He’d made it too easy.

As he strode towards me, my eyes ran over his
wide shoulders, the thick veins running the length of his biceps,
the hard edge in his eyes from the strain, and I knew I would do
anything he asked because it was too late now. Too late to let him
go and if I didn’t survive loving him, then so be it.

He crouched in front of me, resting his arms on
my knees. “You wouldn’t believe me if I just told you right now
that’s not true, but I’m saying it anyway—that’s bullshit. It’s not
about who’s better than who. That makes no sense to me. Did you
choose your start in life? Did I? If I was given your life, are you
saying that would make you a better person than me?” He didn’t wait
for me to answer. “I know that shit you’re feeling doesn’t go away
overnight. I just want you to promise to do one thing for me. Just
one thing, okay?”

Leaning forward, I kissed him and took it as a
good sign when he didn’t pull away. “What?”

“Promise me you’ll try.” He breathed against my
mouth.

“I promise.” The words were out of my mouth
before I even realised, and he smiled against my lips.

“Good.”

I nipped his lower lip gently with my teeth as I
slid my hands down his back to the waistband of his pants. “I
should probably talk to Mitch.”

He kissed me. “Let me take care of it. We’ll
deal with this, Quinn. I don’t want you involved anymore. It’s too
dangerous.”

“You can’t just—”

Travis kissed me again. “Yes. I can.”

“You can’t control me by kissing me,” I
lied.

He ran his tongue along my bottom lip and slid
it inside my mouth.

I moaned.

“Should I stop kissing you?”

“No.”

“Good, ‘cause I’m remembering how you kissed me
last night.” He grabbed my hand and put it on the hard bulge in his
pants. “And how I returned the favour, and …” He trailed off,
groaning when I rubbed the straining length of him.

A tap came at the door, and I snatched my hand
away. We both turned, Travis rising to his feet.

Jared stood there, phone in hand. “Mitch wants
to talk to you. He’s been in touch with Melbourne’s AFP and they’re
sending over a fed. They want to know what the fuck is happening
with this assignment—”

“Jared!” Travis cut him off loudly,
frowning.

Jared looked from Travis to me and shook his
head.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

Travis snatched the phone from Jared’s hand,
glowering. He turned to me, his eyes softening for a moment.
“Nothing, Quinn. Get some rest. I’ll be back.”

He waited for my nod before he left the
room.

Jared watched his retreating back for a moment
before turning to me.

“So... I haven’t been able to talk to you
without big mouth or big ears around. How goes the party
planning?”

Of course I’d agreed to help him plan Evie’s
party after my plans to leave fell by the wayside. Thankfully he’d
put me on to Carol, the office administrator at Jamieson and
Valentine Consulting. Between the two of us, we’d managed to put
everything together in under a week.

“All done.”

He raised his brows. “Already?”

I shrugged, a little bit smug at my efficiency.
“Just waiting on numbers to get back to us.”

“So the Florence Bar is booked?”

“Uh huh, as are the caterers, the cake, and
music. We’ve organised a photo booth, a stylist—”

“Stylist?”

“Yeah, to pull the look together.”

“The look?”

“Carol and I thought it might be nice to go with
a vintage glamour look.”

“What the hell is vintage glamour? Wait,” he
said and held up a hand, “I don’t want to know. As long as we don’t
have to dress up, like in fancy dress.”

I was about to tell him he’d need to at least
wear a suit, when his eyes went wide with warning and he mouthed,
“Big ears,” at me just before I heard Evie say, “What’s fancy
dress?”

I smothered a laugh, watching Jared lean
casually against the door frame as though we’d just been discussing
the weather.

“Um…just the Christmas in July party that
Jettison Records is having soon,” I answered.

Jared gave me a discreet thumbs up in relief at
my response. It soon turned to one of horror when she whooped with
glee. “Yes! I love fancy dress,” she said, not even considering it
odd that after what happened earlier, Jared would be standing in my
hotel room discussing fancy dress parties with me. “We could do a
cutesy couple thing, Jared.”

Jared folded his arms. “No way, baby.”

I didn’t have the heart at that moment to tell
either of them that Jettison Records hadn’t mentioned anything at
all about their party being fancy dress. Evie was looking too
excited, and it was just a little bit funny watching Jared
squirm.

She arched a brow at him and said huskily, “I’ll
make it worth your while.”

Not even I could miss the heat that had his eyes
turning lazy. “Oh yeah?”

I cleared my throat and Evie shifted her
attention to me. “Quinn, way to go. Mac said you were the one that
threw the chair.”

I shrugged modestly. “Well, I remembered Travis
saying to be resourceful.” I didn’t mention that it hadn’t hit
anything besides the wall.

Three weeks of being permanently attached to
mostly Travis and Casey came and went. On the minus side, I didn’t
really know what was going on. Travis said it was in the hands of
the “proper authorities.” On the plus side, Evie’s party was
keeping my mind occupied, and Travis and Casey were busy making
sure I was safe at all times. It felt rude to complain about the
lack of privacy. In fact, they were spending so much time shadowing
me everywhere, I wasn’t sure how to repay the gesture.

When I made that particular announcement to
Travis and Casey last night in the loft, Casey choked on his drink.
When I’d spun around from rummaging through the bottom shelving on
the fridge, I caught two sets of eyes swivel quickly from my ass to
my eyes. Mine narrowed as I watched Travis bite down on a
smirk.

After several slurs towards men and their levels
of maturity, I finished putting together my late night sandwich and
stole the remote. Satisfied with my win, I flicked until I could
find the girliest, most romantic love fest on television that ever
existed and revelled in Casey’s groans of “that guy’s a total wimp”
and Travis huffing whenever the hero did something “unrealistic.” I
admit to also revelling a little in sitting between the two of
them. Both in worn faded jeans, Travis was bare chested and Casey
wore a stretchy shirt that had seen better days.

Jared rang midway through the movie in a panic
because Evie’s birthday party was looming the next day. Sworn to
secrecy, I had to abandon the couch reluctantly.

“I’ll be back,” I warned the pair of them with
narrowed eyes and a waggle of the remote which I took with me while
Jared spoke in my ear.

I giggled when I turned and saw I was getting
chased. My heart thumped as I darted for the kitchen. Glancing
behind, I saw Travis closing in on one side, Casey on the other. At
the last minute I opted for the dining area and shrieked when
Travis lunged for me and missed by a millimetre.

I gasped into the phone that I was still there
when Jared called my name in irritation, but the last minute
indecision cost me. I squealed when a pair of strong, tanned arms
circled me from behind and grabbed for the remote. I tried to hold
it aloft, but was no match for the strength that had me locked
down.

“Shortie.” Casey laughed in my ear as he
snatched the remote easily from my hand. Breathless, I spun around
and found myself only centimetres from his bright, blue eyes.

Casey jerked back. “Got it!” he whooped at
Travis and took a running dive for the couch in victory.

“Dammit, Jared,” I complained down the phone
breathlessly. “You just cost me the remote.”

No sooner had air filled my lungs when Travis
slammed my body hard into the wall and planted his lips on
mine.

“Travis, I’m on the phone,” I breathed.

“I don’t care.” He groaned into my neck. “You’re
being cute. I like you this way. It gets me hot.” Travis grabbed
the phone from my ear. “She’ll call you back,” he announced and
tossed my phone away.

“That was rude,” I muttered.

His grin was devious as his hand slid swiftly
underneath my shirt and trekked upwards. “I’ll show you rude.”

“Guys,” Casey called out as Travis found my
mouth again, gripping my thigh and tugging it around his hip as he
ground his body against me. “That’s not fair.”