Give Me Strength (15 page)

“Enjoying yourselves?”

We all turned as Jared walked in the room. His
lips tipped up as Evie winked at him, and I sighed. Travis and
Mitch came up behind him.

“We have to go out,” Travis said, his eyes on
mine.

I took a sip of my drink to distract myself from
the belly flutters and shuddered.

“Where?” Mac demanded.

“Out,” Mitch said. “We’ll be back later. Don’t
wait up.”

When they left, Henry put some music on while
Mac kept busy refilling everyone’s glass with her evil potion. As
the night wore on, I realised it really
was
evil potion
because it was taking me back to Travis kissing me, his tongue in
my mouth and all over my skin. All I wanted right then was him and
to tell everyone how hot as fuck he was, and with my eyes on Mac, I
blurted out, “I slept with your brother.”

Everyone froze while the music kicked on loudly
in the background.

Lucy giggled.

I closed my eyes, my face flaming wildly at my
drunken admission.

Henry moaned. “Those Valentine brothers don’t
waste time, do they?”

Evie punched him in the arm. “It was years
before Jared and I got together,” she pointed out.

“Yeah but that’s because you had issues.”

Everyone returned their eyes to me; Mac’s were
wide as she asked the all-important question. “Which one?”

“Travis,” Lucy supplied.

Mac’s mind was ticking over. I could see it. It
was just how she looked when in the office scheming over business
documents. Then she asked the all-important second question.
“When?”

I downed the last of my mojito and pressed my
lips together on a giggle. “I’m afraid that’s classi...” I
hiccupped “…classified.”

Mac pointed at Lucy. “You know.”

Lucy pressed her lips together.

“Let’s just ring Travis and ask,” Evie suggested
as she tried to put her glass down on the edge of the coffee table
with exaggerated care and missed completely. She watched it tumble
to the floor, ice and mint splattering the cream rug
carelessly.

Mac started to stand, as though she thought
Evie’s idea was a great one. Despite my mojito loaded status, my
reflexes were like lightning, and I leaped up, tackling her, and
she went crashing down beneath me.

Due to my lightweight status, she rolled me off
with ease and gasped out, “Grab the phone, Sandwich!”

“No!” I howled.

Henry was shaking his head. “And this is the
part where living with girls isn’t so great.”

“Shut up, Henrietta,” Mac retorted.

Evie made a grab for the phone and started
dialling. Her fingers stumbled in their haste, and she squealed as
I made it to my feet and started coming for her. She started
running and dialling and giggling and then the phone was to her
ear. When she started talking to Travis, I wanted to sink well
beneath the floor and into the dirt until I never saw sunlight
again.

Instead, I sank into the couch and covered my
hands with my face and wailed, “I’m never drinking again.”

Lucy snorted and I pointed my finger at her.
“This is all your fault.”

She waved her hand at me. “Not this again.”

Evie’s eyes flattened. “Travis isn’t telling,”
she said with drunken disgust. She tossed the phone at me, and I
caught it by reflex. “You talk to him.”

I held the phone against my chest to muffle the
sound and hissed, “No!”

Evie raised her eyebrows. “He’s waiting to talk
to you, Quinn.”

I put the phone to my ear with a shaky hand.
“Travis?”

“Quinn.” His deep voice washed over me, making
me hot enough to blush. I shushed the girls when they started
squealing and making kissy noises like we were ten years old. Henry
started throwing cushions at their faces while Travis asked, “Are
you okay?”

“All good,” I sing-songed.

“Are you sure?” He didn’t sound convinced.

“Positive,” I replied as a rogue cushion slapped
me up the side of the head. I aimed a glare in the direction it
came from, and Henry laughed. “You just keep doing whatever it is
you’re doing, and I’ll keep doing…whatever it was I was doing, and
we’ll just, you know, umm…”

“Keep doing it?” Travis sounded amused.

I grinned. “Yeah.”

I watched Evie disappear into the walk-in pantry
when he said, “I have to go. Be good, okay?”

“Okay,” I breathed out, watching Evie now dance
her way back out of it with two big bowls of chips. Henry pounced
and she shouted, holding them above her head as she danced out of
his way.

The night wore on and curled on the couch, I
found my eyes drifting shut as chatter continued on around me.
Before I knew it Rick was there collecting Lucy, and Jared was
carrying a sleeping Evie out the door. My eyes fluttered sleepily
as I was lifted and cradled gently against a hard, warm chest. My
body rocked softly as stairs were climbed, and then I was lowered
into cool sheets. I stretched my legs out, moaning as my head spun.
Forcing my eyes open to halt the earth’s wild rotation, they
focused on Travis quietly leaving the room.

“Travis?” I whispered and leaned up on one
elbow.

He paused at the door and turned. “Go to sleep,
Quinn.”

Even exhausted I knew I was in for a sleepless
night, and I wasn’t sure I could bear it. “Will you stay?”

He hesitated.

“Just for a little while?”

Travis nodded and walked back into the room.
Sitting on the other side of the bed, he bent over and slipped his
shoes off. Then came his jacket and when he peeled his shirt off, I
had to close my eyes. I felt the bed depress with his weight as he
stretched out.

“Quinn?”

I opened my eyes. The covers were pulled to his
waist and he was on his side facing me.

“David’s back in custody.”

“Was that you were out doing tonight? Helping
the police find David?”

He nodded.

My eyes burned and I squeezed them shut.

“Come here, sweetheart.” Travis cupped the back
of my neck and pulled me against his chest.

The gesture broke open the fear that had me
bound in knots, and I clutched at his arms. “I just want him to
leave me alone,” I choked out, the words muffled.

“I know, sweetheart.” He pressed a kiss to my
forehead, his arms tightening around me, not letting go.

“I’m sorry.”

Travis buried his face in my neck, breathing
deeply. “Don’t ever be sorry,” he whispered against my skin. “Not
for that.”

He rubbed his hands up and down my back
soothingly and eventually exhaustion had me drifting off into a
deep, even slumber.

The next morning I woke to gritty eyes, a
pounding headache, and an empty bed. My head thumped back into the
pillow as I groaned, remembering last night’s emotional outburst
with embarrassment. Without hesitation, Travis had been there for
me all day, and as a thank you I’d cried all over him.

I rubbed a hand over my eyes, startled when the
door flew open and Travis stormed in the room in his jeans, his
bare chest heaving. His eyes flashed anger.

I sat up. “What is it?”

“This,” he growled and shoved a file of papers
in my face. I barely caught a glimpse of all the photos before he
snatched them away. Seeing those once had been enough. My stomach
lurched. Those photos had sent David to jail—my bruised eyes in a
face so beaten and swollen I could barely be recognised, stitches
through the back of my head, a broken arm, broken ribs, and
bruising all down my obviously pregnant belly.

“You knew I’d been assaulted.”

“Assault?” he shouted. “That’s not assault. It’s
attempted fucking murder! He would have kept beating you and
kicking you until there was nothing left. You lost your baby,” he
whispered. “And three years was all he got.”

“How did you get those?” I whispered, staring at
my hands.

“We requested the records. The police faxed them
through this morning.”

“Uh huh.” I nodded carefully, rolling my
shoulders to relax my body, reminding myself I was an adult who
could control her emotions. “And who’s
we
?”

Travis thrust his arm out wide, his fingers
gripping tight to the folder. “That doesn’t matter. You almost
died!” He threw it against the wall and photos and papers scattered
everywhere.

“It does matter!” I shouted back, all care of
control gone in an instant. “It does. Did you see those? Did you
have a good look? My baby died. My baby!” I shrieked, now up on my
knees on the bed, the sheet clutched in my fingers. “He broke me.
He took every piece of me I had left, and he smashed it apart.
Nothing fits properly anymore. That’s what those photos are, and
that’s what I don’t want anyone seeing.”

Mac stormed in, Henry hot on her heels. “What
the fuck is going on in here?”

Travis pointed at the door. “Out, Mac.”

She folded her arms as Henry came to stand next
to her. Both sets of eyes dropped to the photos scattered on the
floor. Henry paled and Mac drew a hand to her mouth. Then she
looked at me, horror filling her expression.

I turned dull eyes on Travis. “Are you happy
now?”

“Out!” Travis yelled.

Mac flinched. She took Henry’s hand in hers, and
they left the room, the door closing with a soft click.

The silence felt too still as Travis sank to the
edge of the bed, running his hands through his hair as he hunched
over.

“Travis?”

He shook his head as though he couldn’t speak. I
swallowed the lump in my throat and climbed off the bed to stand
between his legs. He wrapped his hands around the backs of my bare
thighs, tugging me closer, running his hands up and down the smooth
skin as he fought to find the words. He pressed his head into my
belly, and I felt him shudder.

“I’m sorry, Quinn.” His voice was muffled
against my shirt. “I’m so angry this happened to you.”

“I’m angry too.” Travis looked up at me from
beneath his lashes. “But I don’t want to be angry anymore.” I
looked away, tired enough to not want to be anything. He let go of
me, and I backed away, hating that I was letting everything David
had done dictate my life. “That’s about the only thing I know,
apart from the fact that I can’t be anything to anyone right now. I
don’t know if I ever can.”

Travis stood, his eyes red and tired, and he
nodded as though he understood what it was I was trying to say.
“You’ll need to go down to the station today. I’ll get Mitch to
take you.” He inhaled deeply as he looked away. “I’ll see you,
Quinn.”

***

A week later I was in
the basement, curled into the couch with the laptop as Jamieson
worked through new material.

Wanting to upload some photos to their Facebook
page, I lifted the camera in my hands and aimed it at Cooper.

“What a minute, Quinn. I’ll take my shirt
off.”

“You do that, Coop, they’ll shut our Facebook
page down from the fan backlash,” Evie piped up.

I took the photo just as Cooper was giving Evie
the finger.

She smirked at him. “Good comeback.”

Uploading the photo to the laptop—Cooper was
snarling from his perch on the amplifier and Evie, guitar slung
over her back, was hunched over laughing at him—I fiddled with the
lighting and colour until a vintage look was achieved. I hit upload
on Facebook with a grin and waited for the comments to roll in.

Monday had passed by with Mitch taking me to the
police centre to formalise the incident report. Now it was a
waiting game to hear the outcome. Tuesday was spent off work
packing and moving, breaking my lease with the real estate agent,
and formally changing my address. The rest of the week was immersed
in work, and I wouldn’t have had that any other way. I
loved
my job and now that I lived where I worked, I could sleep in more.
Lucy’s plan was to stop by two early mornings a week for us to
exercise together. Early morning jogs in Coogee were different.
People jogged along beach pathways. They smiled or gave you the
“joggers club” nod. On Monday morning Mac and Evie had come with
us. Lucy was thrilled because on Friday a paparazzi snapshot of us
appeared in a national women’s magazine with the caption: Evie
moving on.

“How’d your night go last night with that
whatshername chick?” I heard Henry ask Frog.

“Waste of time,” Frog announced.

“Well that’s it.” Evie threw up her hands.
“You’ve been through all the women in Sydney. There are none
left.”

Cooper pointed at me. “We still have Quinn.”

Hearing my name, I glanced up and he gave me a
wink.

Henry shook his head. “That ship has
sailed.”

Cooper and Frog turned wounded eyes on me. “You
hooked up with someone and didn’t tell us, Quinn?”

I glared at Henry. “No, I’m not ‘hooked up’ with
anyone.”

“Quinn!” Mac shouted down the stairs. “Where’s
that run sheet for next Friday?”