Blue and red lights began to flash in the distance, and the sound of a siren could be heard as it drew near. She looked up at him just as the door burst open and then she heard Natalie’s angry voice, “Fuck, Roxy! You couldn’t have told me you were coming outside? I’ve been looking for you for like ten minutes! Oh! Uhh… hey, Travis…”
Natalie stumbled as she rushed forward, and when Roxy turned to look at her friend as she approached, Natalie’s eyes widened in alarm when she saw the angry mark on her face, the mess she was sure her hair was. Glaring up at Travis, she snapped, “What the fuck did you do?”
Roxy shook her head slightly, wincing. “It wasn’t Travis, Nat. It was… it was Neal.”
“Neal?” Natalie gasped, her mouth dropping open in shock. Roxy nodded. “I thought you said he was gone?!”
Roxy hung her head in shame and shook it slightly. “I don’t want to talk about it right now—”
“Is he back?You didn’t tell me he was back!” Natalie screeched, her arms ramrod straight at her sides. Travis’s hands settled on Roxy’s back and shoulder as she swayed slightly, clutching her head tighter. “How long has he been back, Roxy?”
Roxy swallowed and mumbled, “Since I got home from Colorado.”
“Since January?” Natalie seethed. “What has he done?”
She didn’t want to do this, not in front of Travis. She was already embarrassed to all hell; he’d been giving her kickboxing lessons for months and what good had any of it done? She’d been as helpless as before. “Natalie, I don’t want to talk about it—”
“Oh no, you don’t get to get out of this,” Natalie fumed, crossing her arms over her chest as the sirens cut off as they got closer. Two squad cars pulled into the parking lot, coming to a halt in front of the doors. “What haven’t you told me? Is it the flowers again? And all that stuff you keep finding going missing?”
Roxy sighed heavily as four uniformed officers stepped out of the two police cars. Travis waved at them and they started their way over toward them. Roxy was spared having to say anything more to Natalie in front of Travis, as he shook all four of their hands and then led two of the officers away, toward where they’d left Neal laying in the dirt over by the cars. The other two officers remained with her and Natalie. She answered their questions, denied the suggestion of going to the ER, and then they waited. She shivered, despite the warmth of the evening.
Travis and the other two officers returned, but Neal wasn’t with them. Travis shook his head as they approached, and Roxy’s panic came back. He had managed to sneak away before the police showed up. Which meant he was out there. She hung her head when the realization hit of just what she would have to do.
Tomorrow she would have to make a phone call to Freeman… and tell him she was coming north, for good.
Nineteen
Travis kept his eyes on Roxy as she spoke with the officers. She looked as though she had folded in on herself, her arms wrapped tightly around her middle as if to shrink into her own body. Her head remained down, staring listlessly at the ground as the officers spoke to her. She looked scared and defeated in a way that he hated. She was always so fiery… and now it seemed that all that fire had been snuffed out.
He flexed his hand, the knuckles aching in the best way possible. It had felt so damn good to lay that bastard out. The fury that had coursed through him at finding Roxy in the clutches of that animal… he’d seen red. Only by pure willpower had he stopped at one solid punch. He wanted to keep hitting him, over and over again, until he was a bloody mess on the ground. Until he was physically incapable of hurting Roxy ever again.
Roxy shivered and he moved on instinct, stepping around her. He settled his hands on her bare shoulders and then smoothed them down her arms, the skimpy bandana top doing nothing against the evening chill. She sighed and leaned her back against his chest and he felt her body shudder withanother shiver. This damn top was little more than a fucking handkerchief. He turned to Blondie. “Did she bring a jacket?”
Blondie snapped her eyes up to his and nodded dazedly. “It’s inside. I can go get it.”
He nodded once and shifted his gaze back to the officers standing in front of him and Roxy. “Are we almost done here?”
“Yes,” one officer said, his hands settling on his utility belt. He looked down at Roxy. “You really should go to the ER. Have them check you out.”
“I don’t want to,” she whispered. “I just want to go home.”
“We’ll have an officer do periodic drive throughs, since Mr. Johnson has disappeared. You’ll need someone to drive you, or we can give you a ride home,” the other officer said.
“I’ll take her,” Travis said, his hands spanning wide across her biceps. He expected some kind of reaction from her, but there was none. Which worried him even more. Leaning down, he spoke quietly in her ear, “I’m going to take you home, okay, Red?”
Blondie returned and held out Roxy’s jacket, which he took and draped over her shoulders. He could feel the blonde’s stare drilling into the side of his head, but didn’t bother to acknowledge it, instead stepping back several paces. She stepped in front of Roxy and took her hands in her own. “Roxy. Do you want me to come over?”
Roxy shook her head, and he saw her squeeze her friends’ hands gently. “No, Nat. It’s okay. I’ll be fine, I promise.”
“I can take you home,” she said quietly.
“I’ll get her home,” he said gruffly. Blondie’s eyes widened and she stared at him.
“Oh…I didn’t realize you two were…” her friend whispered, shooting a glance over Roxy’s shoulder toward him. He leaned to one side and shook both the officer’s hands as they said theirgood-byes, but kept his body angled toward Roxy, as if she had some gravitational pull that he couldn’t break free of.
“We’re not,” Roxy said dully. “He stopped Neal. That’s all. I just want to go home.”
Her friend nodded and squeezed Roxy’s hands once more. “Call me tomorrow, okay?”
