by Paige North
I get sick of myself. And I get angry with Travis for making me feel this way about him. No one should have that kind of power over me, not even him.
That’s when I start surfing the laptop computer that Clarice has also provided, and I methodically lose myself in researching available apartments. By the end of the day, I’ve called rental offices, and I luck out when I stumble upon what seems to be a fairly decent property for a reasonable rental fee in Yorkville, Upper Manhattan. It’s modest but has enough space for Mom, Tate, and me, and I make quick arrangements to take a look at it.
By the end of the week, I’m moved in.
I’d planned to build a new life for myself and my family in this city, so why should I let Travis ruin that?
I’m my own woman now, I think, numbing myself to feeling anything more for him. And I’m never going to let someone like Travis ever get to me again. But even as I tell myself that, I cry myself to sleep each night, missing him so much, hurting as if nothing is ever going to heal me.
I’m riding in the elevator up to my apartment, a cloth bag full of groceries hanging from my shoulder when my phone rings.
My heart gives a hopeful leap, just as it always does whenever I get a text or a call. I’ve moved half a city away from Travis, moved into this apartment, and once Tate and Mom arrive, I can finally get on with my life. My heart is still hoping that Travis regrets cutting me off so coldly and suddenly, but my head knows better.
After I dig the phone out of my purse, I see Mom’s number on the screen and pick up. “Good morning.”
“Hi, Sweetheart. Tate and I wanted to call before we left your aunt’s to go to the airport.”
In the background, my teenaged brother’s voice sounds off. “Have the covers on my bed turned down for me with a chocolate on my pillow, Sis!”
“Not your maid, Tate,” I say.
He brings out a smile in me, and it’s a foreign feeling. I haven’t smiled much lately at all. Even if I should be bouncing off the walls at the thought of my mom and brother joining me here so we can finally be free and happy, Travis is still haunting me.
The mere thought of him drags my pathetic heart down as I step out of the elevator. While Mom confirms the information I gave her about the car that’s driving me to pick them up at La Guardia, I make a valiant attempt to pull myself out of this funk once and for all.
Mom finishes speaking just as I unlock my door then step onto the hardwood floor of my apartment. The walls are still bare, the cupboards just beginning to get filled up, but it’s already home.
Maybe I feel that way because Travis is in the very same city, not terribly far away, but I shake the thought of him off. Still, when I talk, there’s a burn in my throat. “I can’t wait to see you guys,” I say, then turn on the speaker for the phone.
“It feels as if it’s been a lifetime.” Mom’s voice echoes in my apartment as I walk to the kitchen. “We have a lot of catching up to do. I want to hear all about this miracle job that changed our lives.”
I slide my bag onto a Formica-topped counter. “You’d be bored by the details.” Right—she’s never going to hear them, even if I could bring myself to tell anyone about the man who broke my heart.
“Honey,” Mom says, “you’d be surprised at all the little things that bring me happiness these days…now that I can feel some happiness.”
I laugh as I take out the ground beef I bought at the market. I turn to put the meat in the fridge and—
When I see a man standing near the stove, I scream. The food thuds to the ground as the sight of the big, raging, hulking bastard who is my father shoots a million arrows of fear straight into my chest.
He lunges forward for my phone, and I finally find my voice.
“He’s here! Don’t get on that plane—”
Gary slaps the phone out of my hand and fists a handful of my T-shirt, hauling me up to him so close that I can smell his sweaty skin and see into the dark pits of his eyes. “Don’t worry, Farrah,” he says to my mom, “I’ll find you next and drive you the fuck back to Harrisburg, too.”
As he pins me to the wall, I kick at him, but he puts me in some kind of martial arts hold that has me clawing for breath. Meanwhile, I hear Mom on the phone yelling my name and telling me that she’s calling the cops.
Gary shouts at her. “We’re not gonna be here long enough for the cops to find us! Besides, if you’re stupid enough to call anyone, I’m going to choke the life out of this bitch. You know I’ll do it.”
“Gary, please don’t—”
“I know where you and Tate are, Farrah, so don’t think your sister’s cop boyfriend is gonna keep you safe for long. I’ll match smarts with that pansy any day. I can outwit him. I mean, I finally tracked this little piece of shit down and easily picked the lock on her door, and I can also snag you and the boy when you’re least expecting it.”
“Don’t hurt her!” This time it’s Tate on the line.
As I gag under Gary’s hold, I look up at the man who calls himself my father: the military cut of his dark hair, the sweat on his ruddy skin, the way his muscle shirt reveals the veins sticking out in his overworked arms. He loosens his hold on me, but that doesn’t make him any less of a thug.
“I’m okay,” I manage to say to Mom and Tate.
“Yeah, Farrah—she’s okay.” Gary gloats above me. “And she’ll keep being okay when I take her back home with me.”
Back…home. With him.
“Never,” I say.
“Check your definition of ‘never,’ dumbass. You’re going straight into the car with me.” He pulls me by the shirt toward my phone. “Pick that up, then hang it up.”
I shake my head, and he seethes.
“Do it or I’m going to really fuck up your mom and brother too. They’ll pay for your bad behavior.”
Good god, he means it, so I pick up my phone. Then I try to get in one last word. “Mom—”
He grabs my phone and disconnects the conversation then hoists me toward the front door. “You got your wallet? Credit, debit cards, all that?”
I still have my purse slung over my chest. I nod.
“Good. You don’t need anything else. Now be a smart girl, Nova. I’m keeping your phone handy so you can’t make any sly calls to the authorities. You wouldn’t want to do that anyway because you know what I’ll do to your Mom and Tate.”
Mom was right about Gary. He’s crazier than ever, even more so than when I left Harrisburg on Travis’s jet.
Travis, I think. I’m truly never going to see him again.
Gary pulls me out of the apartment and slams shut the door behind us. “That’s a good girl, and you’re gonna be just as cooperative when I take all of your money and put it in my account.”
Before I left Harrisburg, I’d opened a different bank account, one that Gary doesn’t have access to. I’d made a few little deposits into the old one though, thinking this might appease Gary. It didn’t.
“And,” he continues as he jams his finger at the elevator button, “you’re gonna start working and giving me your paychecks again. Things are going back to the way they were before you ran away. The only change is that I’m gonna keep a much closer watch over your phone and your whereabouts. You’re not gonna escape a second time, you bitch. Shit, I can’t believe you were a dumb enough twat to think you’d get away with it the first time.”
But I almost did, and as the elevator doors open to an empty car, I leave everything behind me, including the apartment that was filled with such hope…and the bittersweet memories of Travis Star.
“Motherfucker!” Gary screams at the old computer that he keeps on the faded table in the tiny kitchen of the Harrisburg house. He shoves the bowl of cereal and milk that I just gave him off the surface, and the contents splash all over the linoleum floor. “That stupid gash,” he rages to himself. “She thinks she’s outsmarted me. We’ll see about that…”
Without being told to clean up after him, I go for the cloth in the sink. There’ve been a lot o
f messes the past week, a lot of tantrums from Gary as he tries to track down Mom and Tate. My aunt’s cop boyfriend has relocated them, and it seems Gary is always just a step behind. All I can do is watch as the cracks in his sanity get wider and wider.
I think he’s losing it entirely.
I take care to stay quiet and also to keep the smock of my work uniform clean. I got a job at the local grocery store just to make Gary happy, but he’s been on me to get on a night shift somewhere else, too.
I can’t believe I’m back in my old life and it’s worse than before.
Thoughts of Travis still tear me apart. Now, more than ever, I cling to my memories of him. I’m still hopelessly in love with him.
Sometimes I think my memories of those good times are all that’s keeping me going anymore. I need to escape again, but Gary’s been watching me closer than ever before.
I clean up Gary’s mess. There’s a sound outside—a car coming to a skidding halt in our driveway. Before I can look out the window to see what the commotion is, Gary is out of his chair and coming toward me.
“Did you order something to be delivered here, dumbass? Because I’ve told you not to do that. It’s a waste of money.”
“I didn’t order anything.”
Gary doesn’t actually have friends, so now I’m curious—and a bit desperate—to see who would dare come to visit the scariest house on the lane.
There’s a knock on the front door, and I glance at Gary. He’s hulking over the sink, looking out the window with a scowl.
“You called the feds on me,” he says.
His level of delusion shocks even me. “I haven’t called anyone.”
“Then why is a suit at our door?”
Whoever is at the door knocks again.
I’m getting bolder and bolder. “I’m answering it.”
Adrenaline pushes me forward, toward the door. This is your chance, Nova. Keep going!
Then fingers wind into my hair, yanking on it. I scream, my scalp on fire as Gary hauls me back to him. He looks down at me, his eyes unfocused with madness.
Gary starts to pull me out of the room, but just then the door crashes open.
My screams stop, a stunned sob taking its place when I see Travis standing in the doorway, fury burning in his eyes.
Chapter 23
I don’t know what Travis is doing here or how he found me, but it’s as if the world has picked up speed and slowed down at the same time. My pulse zooms even as it crawls to a near stop.
He’s here. Actually here.
His hands are fisted at his sides, his gaze just as full of rage as Gary’s, and he doesn’t hesitate for even a second as he surges inside the house.
My blood blasts through me, animating me with the first joy I’ve felt since I last saw him.
Somehow, some way, he found me…
Gary shoves me away, and I hit the floor, my hair over my face. But I can still see him taking up a fighter’s stance, his fists in front of him as he bounces on his feet. There’s a terrible smile on his face, and just before Travis reaches him, I yell a warning.
“Travis, he knows how to fight!”
Gary starts winding up in one of his karate moves, but Travis is still moving fast, and when Gary turns around, whipping out his leg, I shrink back at the expected impact.
But Travis coolly grabs Gary’s leg with both hands and yanks him off balance, sending him crashing to the floor.
As Gary huffs out a shocked breath, it’s as if time has split open at the seams. No one moves. Gary only seems to be processing that he just got his ass partially handed to him by a suave man in a suit who’s as cool as a snow drift.
Travis is stalking around Gary, surveying him. Then he breaks the silence.
“Just what did you have in mind to do with her?” he says in a voice so even that it sends chills down my spine.
Or maybe they’re thrills, because this isn’t a dream. Travis is here protecting me.
My Travis…
Gary’s already getting back on his feet. “She’s my daughter, and you’re in my house, dickhead. Who the fuck are you to—?”
Travis slams a fist into Gary’s jaw, sending him hurtling back against the wall. Travis follows up with another punch, and Gary shakes out his head, holding up his fists again.
“I’m waiting,” Travis taunts. He isn’t even breaking a sweat. “You can fight back whenever you feel the urge.”
“I’m getting my black belt soon.” Gary’s so angry that his eyes are pure darkness. “I’m lethal, so you’d better get out of here while you can.”
“I’m not leaving Nova here with you.”
Gary sends me an unfocused, befuddled look; it’s as if he’s wondering how it’s possible that I might be worth this much to anyone. At the same time, Travis gazes at me, and there’s worry in those dark green eyes. There’s even more than that, but my pulse is thundering, my breath packed into my lungs so that I can’t breathe. I can’t think.
All I know is that he really did come here for me.
As Travis keeps looking at me with that depth of emotion in his gaze, I faintly see Gary recovering. He braces his hands back against the wall, and I realize that he’s getting leverage so he can attack Travis. But Travis is still focused on me as if I’m the only person in the room.
I think he’s about to say something to me, but a yell rises up my throat. Dammit, it won’t come out, so I point to Gary.
He’s launched himself at Travis, and just in time, Travis snaps out of it, scooping one of Gary’s arms up before firmly turning him around. He jams my father against the wall, the side of his face smacking it with a sick clap. Gary grunts as Travis pushes up his arm.
Fleetingly, I remember how Travis told me he goes to the gym. I think it wasn’t just to lift weights.
“Nova said you want to be a war hero or a cop,” Travis says. “Let me tell you something—heroes don’t pick on their daughters. They don’t send their wives and children running from them because they’re fanatical creeps who can’t get into the military or get hired by law enforcement.”
“Fuck off.”
“No, Gary Summers, you fuck off.” Travis is putting more pressure on Gary’s arm, turning my father’s face red. “You see, I employ a security team, and they gave me the resources to trace Nova’s whereabouts first to her new apartment, then here.”
Happy tears threaten me, but I’m also afraid that Gary’s going to get his shit together and rebound, hurting Travis.
But Travis doesn’t seem worried in the least. He’s still got my dad well in hand. “Of course, I wanted to be prepared for you, Summers, so I did some checking into your past. I didn’t know whether to laugh or feel sorry for a clown who’s pathetic enough to take his frustrations out on his family like you do.”
With a muffled roar, Gary pushes Travis back, but Travis seems to have predicted this. He crooks an elbow and, with a decisive swing, clocks Gary in the jaw once again. He follows up with a fisted blow to the gut that brings my dad to his knees.
Then Gary gets vicious, swiping at Travis’s legs, baring his teeth as if he’s going to tear off his trousers and bite into his flesh like a rabid dog.
Travis merely backhands my dad, and Gary holds a palm to his face.
“Stop humiliating yourself,” Travis says.
Gary doesn’t quit. “I’m going to hurt her so bad that you won’t recognize her.”
And that does it. Travis lets loose with a barrage of punches that lays my dad out on the floor, his face bloodied. After Travis is done, he backs away, his chest rising and falling. My father is clawing at the carpet with one hand, and he’s moaning, almost as if he’s trying not to…
And then the pathetic sobs rattle from his throat.
My god, Travis has revealed what I’ve always known to be true about Gary Summers—he’s an absolute coward at heart and doesn’t have any real courage. He’s a bully, and it’s only when he’s come up against a real deal like Travis that he’
s fully exposed.
Travis hunkers down, one arm resting on his thigh as he lowers his voice to a dangerous edge. “I have ways of ruining people that you can’t even conceive of. If you ever come within even a mile of Nova, her brother, or their mom again, you’ll see what I’m talking about. In fact, I sort of hope you try because it will give me great pleasure to make every second of the rest of your life a living hell.”
Gary tries to say something, but Travis merely gets to his feet and looms over him.
“You threatened the woman I love, you sorry sack of shit. You’re lucky I didn’t break every bone in your body.”
My head is ringing. The woman I love.
As Gary cowers on the floor, Travis comes to me. He reaches a hand out, and after I look up at him to see the true affection blazing in his eyes, I grab him and the warmth of his touch flows through me.
The woman I love.
So why did he treat me the way he did?
Hurt consumes me, still fresh, still sharp, and I let go of his hand. His gaze seems wounded, and this time…
This time he doesn’t seem able to hide it.
“Can you get your things, Nova?” he asks quietly.
I nod, and as I leave the room to gather what little I need, I realize that, for the first time, Travis Star didn’t command me to do something.
On the ride to the same private airport where Travis flew in on the first night we met, we don’t say much to each other. As he drives the car, I’m still in shock, and he seems to know that. He’s giving me space, and I even get the feeling that he’s letting me set the pace for what needs to happen next.
I keep remembering his confession of love, rolling it over and over in my mind until we reach the airport and he brings me to his waiting jet.
We’re as wary of one another as I was the first time I climbed on this plane, and he buckles me into my seat. As we taxi down the runway, he sits in the chair across from me.
“I got word from Clarice this morning,” he says, watching the landscape go by out the window. “My security team found your mom and brother. They’re fine, and they’re on their way to the Plaza Hotel.” The muscle in his jaw tenses, then he adds, “I’m going to make sure they’re safe and kept out of your father’s clutches from now on.”