Travis walked out and took in my pathetic huddle, my head on my knees, my hands wrapped around my ankles. I knew his first instinct was likely to slap me into next week for doing whatever he thought I did to his brother, but as he crouched down to eye level, the concern furrowing his brow must have won out over anger. “Come on, Evie. Let’s get you out of here. Go get your bag, okay?”
He gently brushed his hand down the side of my head before he stood back up.
I pushed up off the wall but my limbs struggled to respond. In fact, it felt like I couldn’t breathe, and I slumped uselessly back against the wall, taking shallow breaths as my panicked gaze hit Travis’s.
“What the hell?” he muttered under his breath and crouched back down in front of me. “Show me your eyes,” he ordered and looked into their red dilated depths. “Oh hell no. Fucking hell! Have you taken anything?”
“I, drugs? What? No! The hardest thing I’ve ever taken in my life is a Panadol.”
Well unless you counted the times that Asshole Kellar slipped whatever the hell he did into my drink, but that wasn’t voluntary. Panic over the whole situation must have blinded me to the same symptoms, and adrenaline must have kept me going, because now I was crashing. Hard.
“Coby?” Travis shouted. “Get out here.”
He slipped an arm under my back, one under my knees, and lifted me up. Feeling woozy but safe, I huddled into his chest and gratefully closed my eyes. I wanted to be angry, but my energy levels had reached critical flashy red light status and that image of Jared was still stuck on repeat, ensuring I wouldn’t forget the pain.
“What is it?” I dimly heard Coby ask.
Travis sounded grim as he cradled me gently to his chest. “She’s been drugged.”
I tried to lift my head to speak to Coby and tell him I was okay, that I was sorry, but I couldn’t move.
My eyes were slits as I watched Coby slam his fist against the wall in anger, jaw ticking as he struggled for control. At that moment, I hated myself for what my actions had done to him. Our lives had not been easy: Dad taking off, losing Mum, him taking responsibility for me only to watch me slowly self-destruct. Now it appeared to be happening all over again. He pulled out his phone and began dialling, and I closed my eyes again because the agony in his expression was enough to make me want to howl.
After a moment, he spoke. “Jared’s phone is off. Can you get her to the hospital for me, Travis? She needs to be checked over. I want a blood test so we’ve got the means to lay this f**ker out.”
I heard him whisper something further in Travis’s ear, but I couldn’t make it out. All I knew was that what he said was cause for Travis to grip me tighter in his arms, and I felt a shudder rip through his body.
He rumbled something, feeling the soothing vibrations against his chest, and next thing I knew I was being placed gently in a car.
Travis climbed in the driver’s seat, started the car, and negotiated his way out of the parking lot.
I stared blankly out the car window as I spoke. “I saw Jared last night. At the stadium,” I whispered. “I never felt anything so right in all my life as what I felt when he was there. I love him so much, Travis. You know that, don’t you?”
I turned to face him, and he shot me a sympathetic glance as he drove.
“Sweetheart, everything will work out. I promise you. I don’t know how you managed to slip out last night without one of us noticing you. We all feel responsible, so don’t place the blame on yourself. You were drugged so I would imagine you didn’t even know you’d left. It’s our fault. This is on us because we were supposed to be looking after you.”
I heard my phone ring, interrupting my intended reply, and I reached for my bag while Travis fumbled in his pocket. He pulled out my phone and handed it over with a shrug.
“We found it on the table at the bar. That’s why it took so long for us to find you. We couldn’t track you through your phone.”
I glanced at the display, noting an unknown number.
“Hello?” I mumbled.
The sinister voice that answered left me reeling. “Hello, Evie.”
I let my breath out in a whoosh and when Travis gave me a questioningly glance, I put the phone on speaker.
“Jimmy? Is that you?”
Travis swore under his breath, yanking the steering wheel hard left and pulling off to the side of the road. He put his finger to his lips, and I nodded to indicate I understood he wanted to listen quietly.
“Yes, you remember me? Good. This must be a nice surprise for you.”
Oh yes, a lovely surprise because remember when I thought my day couldn’t get worse? I was ready to tell him to go dip himself in a pot of boiling oil, and then throw my phone out the window, but Travis rolled his hand to indicate I should keep talking.
I nodded back in reply. “I…ahh…” What does one say to a sinister stalker? How are you? What are you up to today? Any murder plans or kidnapping on the cards? Yes? Oh good, let me know how that works out for you. I decided to keep it simple. “What do you want?”
“I’m so glad you asked me that, Evie. I wanted to welcome you home from your tour. I’ve missed seeing you.”
Thoughts of him seeing me literally had me gagging, and Travis reached out and took my hand, squeezing it tightly in support.
“Have I lost you, Evie? Still there?”
I nodded in response even though he couldn’t see me. “Yes, yes I’m here.” My voice trembled and I hated that Jimmy could hear the fear in it.
“Good. You know, with you being surrounded by your goon squad and the tour and all, I haven’t been able to give you the Christmas gift I promised you.”
“I don’t want anything from you, Jimmy.” I wanted to kick the dash of the car as anger overtook the fear and I glared at the phone.
He let out a shout of laughter. “Well, I’m afraid it’s too late for that.”
I glanced at Travis in panic and his hand gripped mine tighter.
“What do you mean?”
Jimmy gave a loud, dramatic sigh. “Are you saying you don’t remember last night? I’m not surprised.” He chuckled. “I must say, having the drugs slipped into your drinks I was hoping you’d slip out all on your lonesome, and I’d finally get my hands on you, but no,” he snarled, starting to sound angry, “you had to stumble your way out with that pierced, tattooed loser. Tell me, have you moved on from Jared so quickly?”
I sat there in blank shock. “That was you?”
“Of course it was me. Thought it was a nice touch after I read about what happened between you and that James Kellar all those years ago. What would have been nicer was if there was a nice high balcony where you could have had your second chance and finally got it right.”
“James Kellar?” Travis mouthed at me with a questioning glance.
I shook my head at him in reply, and my body, though completely worn down, still managed to shake in anger.
“You stupid a**hole,” I shouted. “If you think―”
“Now, now,” he interrupted. “No need to be an ungrateful bitch. I only wanted to make sure you were happy with your present. Now that I know, I can tell you you’ll get the rest of it tonight. I can’t wait, can you?”
He hung up and I threw my phone at the dash, wishing for a quick, effective teleportation to the fluffy white cloud that was my bed. I had a serious urge to bunker down until my next life was upon me.
My phone once again began a mad buzz, and I picked it back up to see it was simply notification of a flood of messages and missed calls which right now seemed like a mountain I was unable to climb. I threw the phone back at the dash and glanced at Travis.
His jaw was clenched and if I had to determine the expression on his face, I would liken it to really f**king unhappy. I placed a gentle hand on his arm as he gripped the steering wheel tightly. “Hey.”
He jolted, as though a million miles away. “Sick of this shit,” he muttered. He pulled out his phone, dialled, and held it to his ear. “Coby,” he said after a moment. “No, we’re not there yet. You need to get Matt down to the hospital too because the drugs were from Jimmy. Yeah, I know, could be he got dosed too.” He paused for a long moment. “No shit? Well he’s promised something else for tonight, so we need to meet with security. No, he didn’t, but it’s their last show of the tour so you’d think he’d―” Another long pause. “Roger that.”
Travis hung up and carelessly tossed his phone to the dash, meeting mine in a joint huddle of rejection. Pulling back out into traffic, he spoke as he concentrated on the road. “Are you okay?”
“Not really.”
“Coby said Matt told him that a tray of shots were the only drinks you two shared so―”
“Ethan!” I blurted out. “He bought the tray of shots.”
Was he somehow in on the whole thing? That didn’t make sense.
“So Matt spoke to Ethan and Ethan told him that a man by the bar handed him the tray of shots, telling him it was your drink order and could he take them over to you.”
“Do you think it was Jimmy that gave him the actual tray?”
Travis nodded as pulled up at a set of red lights, indicating to turn left. “Either him or someone he’s paid off. We’ve got someone heading over there to see about getting footage from the bar’s security cameras.”
We were both quiet for the rest of the drive to the hospital, and twenty minutes later, I was sitting on the edge of a hospital bed in the emergency department. Travis sat in the corner murmuring quietly into the phone that now appeared to have become surgically attached to his ear since we vacated the car.
When the privacy curtain flung open and Matt stalked in, Travis quickly ended his call and stood, slowly unfolding his glowering, six foot four inch intimidating frame out of the chair.
Matt ignored him, instead, focusing on me by looking me over carefully. “I want to talk to, Evie. In private,” he said to Travis without taking his eyes from mine.
Travis didn’t budge and I took a brief moment to appreciate his glaring stance because the take charge Valentine men were always a sight to behold.
“It’s okay, Travis.”
He nodded and slowly closed the distance between himself and Matt. “I’ll be right outside, Evie.” He trained his eyes on Matt in silent warning as he left.
“You okay?” Matt asked.
I cringed at his reddened jaw. “Am I?” I huffed out a brief laugh. “What about you? You’ll be glad to see the back of me. I keep getting you into situations where you come out of it with a punch to the face. Unless, uh, violence is your kinda thing? I mean you don’t seem to possess the natural, inherent capacity for fear like most people do. Fear can be a good thing, you know,” I joked. “Keeps you alive.”
He snickered quietly. “Sorry. I can’t help it. Jared reminds me of someone I used to know.”
“And that makes you antagonistic because?”
Matt did his whole scratch the back of his neck, nervous habit thing and let out a big sigh. “Because the someone I used to know is…was someone I loved and he…” Matt stopped and I saw actual tears form in his eyes. “He…”