“I’ll let Travis explain it to you.”
“I don’t want—” The rest of my words choked in my throat because suddenly Travis was standing in front of me. “How did you know I was here?” My eyes turned to the traitor sitting next to me.
Casey shrugged under the full force of the glare I aimed his way.
“Sorry, Quinn.” He stood up and slammed a hand on Travis’s chest and shaking his head, growled, “You and Jared. Christ. Tired of it. I’ll be across the road getting a coffee.”
Travis sat down in his place.
I didn’t say anything.
He didn’t say anything.
It felt like a bloody standoff, and I started to fidget because I was fighting the urge to curl into him and cry, and that just set off another wave of anger.
“Do I really know you, Travis?”
“If you’re asking me that, then maybe you don’t.” His voice was low and wounded.
“Maybe you should start from the beginning,” I said coldly.
“Okay,” he agreed and rubbed his palms along his thighs. “The AFP approached us the day Mac hired you, and we met with them the next day.”
I remembered back to the day when I’d barricaded myself in the toilet, so utterly embarrassed to find out that Travis was Mac’s brother. When he walked out, talking on the phone, the relief had made me weak, but it was his phone conversation that pinged my memory.
“Can’t today, Tim. Tell the AFP to set the meeting up for tomorrow morning, okay? Did they say what it was about?”
“So that night at the bar—”
“Had nothing to do with anything but you and me.”
My chest loosened a little as I waited for him to continue.
“They’ve been building up a case against this group of traffickers for so long. They have agents so deep undercover with the Zampetti crime group that no one has a clue who they are. Jesus, Quinn, men, women, kids. Kids. They’ve got all their best investigators on this operation, so they had to outsource for every possible lead. The minute they pegged your connection to us was when they approached us. We didn’t know anything about you, about the abuse. They told us David was in for assault, but they didn’t say why. They just told us you were his stepdaughter and they wanted to know your level of involvement. But Quinn, we don’t like to fly blind. We pulled up his records and found out it was you he assaulted, but the release date on the paperwork was wrong. It told us he was due out on early parole three weeks after he was actually released. I don’t know who f**ked up there, but if we had’ve known he was out, he wouldn’t have gotten anywhere near you. It wasn’t until after we told the AFP what happened that they released the photos of the assault and we found out how bad it really was. No one knew he’d been abusing you, but after seeing those photos, I don’t know how anyone could not. Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
I shrugged. “Who was I supposed to tell?”
“Fuck,” Travis muttered and rested his elbows on his knees. “We managed to put some pieces together and found out that David was friends with someone called Angelo. Angelo got him involved in their international trafficking ring. He was helping transport victims, setting them up in housing. Turns out though that David has a bit of a gambling addiction and after borrowing huge amounts of money from some of the bigger players, he couldn’t pay up because he ended up in prison.”
“Oh God.” I pressed my palms against my eyes. “Them coming after me for the money is my fault.”
“Jesus f**king Christ, Quinn. It’s David’s fault. All of this f**king mess,” he growled. “The reason we took the contract was because we knew without any doubt that you knew nothing about it. I’ve told you to trust your gut, and mine was telling me you had no idea about any of it. I didn’t tell you about the assignment because I didn’t want you thinking any of us doubted you for a single second. But also…” He swallowed and looked out at the ocean. “The AFP wanted to find a way to use you. Their information says David was the one that sent the Zampetti crime group your way to either get the money in cash, or get their use from you some other way. They went for the cash option first. Trafficking a local female isn’t as easy for them as getting immigrants who don’t know anyone and can barely speak English. When a local girl goes missing, there’s more press and local police involvement. That’s something they don’t want to attract if they can help it, but the AFP were thinking that maybe if they used you, it might help them rack up more charges. The Zampetti drug and trafficking operation is so slick they’re trying to get them on anything they can, and you were just another option.”
“But no one from the police ever approached me.”
“That’s because I wouldn’t let them. They’re not using you, but that stunt in Melbourne only increased their aim to get you involved.”
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 f**k is happening with this assignment—”
Oh God. How could I not see?
“If I told you what they were asking of you, what would you have said?”
I looked down at my hands and thought hard. Getting David permanently out of my hair? Having a hand in helping save thousands of lives from the hands of traffickers—people suffering worse than what even I could comprehend. “I appreciate you keeping me safe, Travis, but there’s a bigger picture, isn’t there? I think it’s my decision to make, and I would have agreed to do whatever I could to help,” I said softly.
“No.” He spun to face me and grabbed my hands from my lap. “No.”
“Travis you can’t—”
“No!” he shouted hoarsely. “Quinn, this isn’t just about drugs. It’s exploitation of the worst kind. Women forced into prostitution against their will. How could I let them get you caught up in that? I’m not seeing you suffer anymore. No more,” he shouted.
“At the least I need to hear what they might have in mind, don’t you think?”
“No, I don’t think. No. Dammit.” Travis tightened his grip as though scared of letting me go.
I focused my gaze on the waves, the dark blue of the ocean. The sun was bright, but not warm against the chill. The last time I’d been here with Travis was probably one of the best days I could ever remember living.
“When I was young I used to think I deserved it. The suffering. The pain David inflicted. These women, kids, taken by the traffickers...they’re suffering too. Are they sold into this? Stolen? Putting up with the suffering because it’s the only roof over their head they think they’re going to get? I can relate to that. Remember when you told me that night that if you weren’t there to help those kids, who would? How can I turn my back if I’m able to help in any way?”
Travis ran his eyes over my face and reached out to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. The gesture was soft and loving. “Do you remember what you said back to me?”
“Dammit, Travis.”
“Tell me what you said back.”
I looked down at our linked hands. “You can’t save everyone.”
Travis nodded.
“But does that mean you stop trying?”
I took in the rigid line of his shoulders and the tension in his jaw and cleared my throat. “Can I...I need to think, Travis. I need to be alone.”
He went to speak and I held up my hand. “Please.”
Travis let go and stood, looking down at me, his eyes dark and wounded. I shielded my eyes from the glare of the sun behind him. “I know you’re still angry, Quinn, and you can be for as long as you want, but it won’t change what I feel for you. That was never a lie and because of that, I won’t let you do this.” He paused. “Two minutes, okay? Then I’m taking you home.”
With that he was gone.
God.
What a f**king mess.
I pulled the car keys from my pocket.
Running again, Quinn?
I pushed up off the seat and started for the car.
Yeah, that figures. No backbone in you at all. It’s pathetic that you can’t face your fears.
My body froze in the act of opening the car door.
What do you fear the most?
Losing everything all over again, I answered the voice in my head.
And what are you losing by running away?
I closed my eyes.
Everything.
My chest ached with how much I loved Travis and the knowledge of how much he loved me. It was clear in his eyes yet I had doubted it. That must have hurt. How could I blame him for wanting to keep me safe? I had done the exact same thing.
I shut the car door and put the keys back in my pocket just as my arm was grabbed in a vice.
“You f**king bitch.”
I turned, breathless. David was right in my face. He grabbed both my biceps with his hands and shook me hard. I winced, knowing it would leave bruises.
“We put a roof over your goddamn head and now you’ve got yourself a job and friends in high places, you can’t repay what we gave you.” David shoved me backwards, and I went down hard on the pavement.
“David. These people aren’t good,” I said, scrambling backwards and trying to regain my feet. “You can go to the police. Talk—”
He gripped my biceps again and yanked me to my feet, backhanding me with a loud crack. My vision dotted and I swallowed down the familiar nausea and bitter tang of blood. “Don’t be stupid. If you can’t give them the money, I’ll just hand you over.”
I turned, searching frantically for Travis and saw him across the road. Before I could call out, David kicked my feet out from underneath me and unable to brace myself in time, I went down hard on my stomach. My head slammed into the pavement with force. Dizzy, I lifted a hand to my head, feeling blood streaming down my face. I blinked and it pooled in my eye as my hand came away, red dripping from my fingers.
“You’re stupid,” I whispered without turning around. I licked the blood from my lips. “The police are only moments from taking down the entire Zampetti crime group. You’re not immune. You’ll go down too.”
I forced a chuckle and grunted when David jammed his knee in my back, pinning me to the ground. I turned my head from the blurred vision of waves and faced the street.
“Travis,” I whispered.
The click of a gun loading was loud in my ears and the cold press of metal in my neck sent chills twisting down my body.
Casey stepped out of the coffee shop door at the same time Travis turned to search for me.
I met his gaze, swallowing blood as fear swept across his face. He yelled my name as they both started to run.
I tried to push up off my hands, but my arms were pulled behind my body, and I cried out when something tore in my shoulder.
“Stay back,” David screamed as they got closer. “I’ll f**king shoot her, I swear it.”
The cold metal pushed harder into my neck but Travis didn’t stop running. He was fast. So fast he was on David before I could even blink. The crack of his fist in David’s face was louder than the waves crashing in the ocean.