Money Guy spun around, catching Sean with an elbow before scrambling for the gun.
“No!” I shrieked and dived for it. He landed on top of me and my jaw cracked on the floor. “Arrghhhh!”
I rolled and started scratching at his face when his weight disappeared off my body and he was thrown across the room. Sean started after him, but he got up on shaky feet.
“Two days, Quinn.” He pointed at me. “Or you’re f**king dead.” He pushed off the wall and disappeared out the door. Sean took off after him as I struggled to my feet, trying to catch my breath.
“Is everyone okay?” I choked out, my legs trembling. I stared at Mac. Mac stared at me, then we both turned to Lucy who rushed over, grabbing my forearms.
“Ouch,” I muttered when her nails dug in.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“I’m fine. Absolutely fine,” I assured her as my legs kept trembling beneath me.
We paused a moment to survey the hotel room: bullet holes, smashed chairs, and glassware littered the floor. A picture was hanging crooked and the bar was strewn with empty bottles of alcohol. Lucy looked reasonably neat, but Mac’s hair was a little wild, and her gun was hanging by her side. She caught me eyeing it dubiously and shrugged. “It’s not loaded.”
Lucy gaped at her. “You were playing chicken?”
Mac raised a brow as she smoothed her hair.
“You were asking Travis for pepper spray when you have that?” I added.
“Well. I did warn him about shooting first.”
Mac was picking her phone up off the floor, examining the shattered screen, when Sean returned. He ran his eyes over each of us before surveying the scene silently.
“Fuck,” he muttered.
“Damn straight fuck,” Mac replied.
“The boss’s sister and girlfriend shot at, a trashed hotel room, and a gunman on the loose on my first real assignment. I think I can pretty much consider myself fired before I’ve barely started.”
Lucy shrugged, trying to remain positive for her friend. “Well, they’re not dead, so that’s good for you, right?”
“It’s not your fault, Sean,” I told him, tears clogging my throat and burning my eyes. “It’s mine.”
We stood around like survivors in the middle of a war zone, watching Mac as she tucked her gun away carefully and picked her way through the mess to the hotel phone. She picked it up, pressed a single button, and when her call was answered, she said, “This is Mackenzie Valentine in room four-two-oh-six. Can you send someone up with a bottle of vodka and some shot glasses please.” After a pause, she said, “Thank you,” and hung up.
“Maybe you should’ve have asked for housekeeping while you were there?” Lucy asked.
“First things first, Lucy.”
“I’m thinking that I really like you right now, Mac.”
She nodded. “Ditto.”
Sean, hands on his hips, eyed them both. “Are we finished with the love fest ladies? Because I need to ring Travis.”
Mac sighed heavily. “Just let us get a vodka shot in to brace for the next round of hell first, Sean, okay?”
Leaning down, my shaky hands grabbed hold of the Pringles, and I popped open the lid. “Chip, anyone?”
That was how Jules, the room service guy, found us when he came bearing our alcohol—standing around in the mess, munching on chips, trying to process our shock.
“Um…” Jules glanced about the room in disbelief. I thought that was a bit rich. I mean, the entire hotel was chock to the brim with rockers here for the festival. Surely we weren’t the only ones with a bit of damage?
Mac casually shifted her body so it covered the bullet hole in the wall. “So, maybe we should get housekeeping in, huh?”
He sat his tray down on the dining table and said faintly, “I’ll have someone sent up. I’d arrange another room for you but with the festival, the hotel is fully booked.”
Jules left and Lucy started pouring shots and handing them out. Sean declined and got on his phone. The three of us eyed each other silently and then downed one shot each. It stung the inside of my mouth, and I realised I must have bitten down on my cheek when my jaw cracked on the floor. I wiped at my mouth and my hand came away smeared with blood.
“Well, good news and bad news,” Sean told us as Lucy started pouring another round.
“Good news first,” said Mac.
“I got hold of Travis.”
I reached out and held tight to the chair. “That’s the good news?”
“I’m afraid so. The bad news is that they’ve arrived back at the hotel and are already on their way up.”
“Oh shit,” Lucy muttered.
“Do you think we’ve got time to do a quick clean up?” I asked and downed the next shot. When my skin grew cold and my body started to sway, I remembered I hadn’t eaten all day. Putting down the shot glass, I watched everyone come alive, racing about the room throwing bottles in bins and trying to right fallen chairs.
My teeth started to chatter. “Umm, guys?”
Suddenly they all seemed really far away as my vision narrowed.
“Shit,” I heard faintly. “I think she’s going into shock.”
“No I’m not,” I announced, both hands now gripping the chair. “I’m just peachy. I think.”
“What the hell is going on in here?” Travis yelled from the doorway.
“Maybe I’m not so good,” I mumbled.
“Quinn?” Travis called from far away.
I turned slowly. “Sorry, Travis. I think that—”
“Is that a f**king bullet hole in the goddamn wall?” came Jared’s yell.
“What?” replied Travis as Jared went for a closer inspection.
He strode towards me. “You’re bleeding.” His voice sounded panicked.
I wiped at the corner of my mouth, but he smacked my hand away. Cupping my face, he wiped at the blood. “Did someone hit you?”
“Oh, that. It’s nothing.”
He ran his eyes over me, and when the world tilted I realised that Travis was holding me and I was being carried into the bedroom.
“Does anywhere else hurt?” His voice was controlled as he laid me out on the bed, but his hands were frantic as they ran over me, examining my body for injuries. “Quinn?”
“I’m fine,” I told him, struggling to sit up.
Travis put a hand on my chest.
“It’s just…I cracked my jaw on the floor, that’s all, when I dived for the gun.”
“When you dived for the gun?” He sank to the edge of the bed and rubbed a hand over his forehead. “Jesus fuck.”
“Travis?” My teeth started chattering again as I sat up.
He turned sideways and pulled me onto his lap. “Let me just hold you for a minute, then we need to talk.”
***
Chapter Eighteen
“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 f**king 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?”