Give Me Love

by Kate McCarthy

  We’d played two shows, one at a place called The Cathouse and one at The Forbes, a shopping trip with Mac and Tim, nothing heard from Gary the Jettison Records scout, and a whole week of having Jared in my bed. It wouldn’t have been half bad, but considering every moment that I wasn’t with Jared I had either Coby, Travis, Henry, or Jake stuck to me like glue, it gave me an idea of how it must feel to be one half of a conjoined twin. I appreciated the sentiment that it was done in the name of keeping me safe, but blankets were less smothering, and the weight of concern surrounding someone following me left me slightly breathless whenever I allowed myself to think on it.

  I felt the air stir as Jared came up behind my chair. He swept my hair over my shoulder and pressed a soft kiss to the back of my neck that sent cool goose bumps travelling along my skin.

  “Morning, baby,” he murmured, yawning as he moved over to sit in the deck chair to the right of me. Hair mussed from sleeping, he smiled at me lazily, and I let out a long, quiet breath. His chest was bare but he’d slipped on the pair of jeans he was wearing last night.

  “What are you doing up so early?”

  I took a sip of my tea and waved my hand at the horizon before I answered. “I wanted to watch the sunrise.”

  He looked out at the brilliant pinks, oranges, and soft blues before raising one eyebrow, looking back at me sceptically.

  “Okay,” I said on a sigh. “I couldn’t sleep.”

  “Come here,” he ordered.

  I shifted and crawled into his lap, breathing in his warm, male scent as I rested my head on his shoulder.

  “Evie, I’m sorry. I’ve loved every minute of you being here, but I feel responsible for what’s happening with Jimmy. It’s been a good idea to lay low until he’s found, but maybe we can relax things a bit.” He rubbed his hands up and down my back in soothing motions. “We still haven’t had that talk yet either.”

  That was ages ago. Damn the man, he had the memory of an elephant.

  “We don’t have to do that now,” he said, sensing my sudden urge to flee, “but you need to know that I want you with me—permanently. I’m happy to wait for you to catch up, but it doesn’t mean I’m not going to do everything I can to make you want to take that jump because I’m right there with you.” He leaned in to kiss my forehead. “I know you’ve been hurt in the past, and I can’t promise that I’m never going to make you angry or upset you, but I wouldn’t ever do it deliberately. Just give us a chance, okay?”

  Without waiting for a response, which was good because I needed a moment to think about what he’d said, he held on to me and stood up. The fact that this amazing, beautiful man wanted me was thrilling, and I knew I wanted him just as much. That was never in doubt. I just wasn’t ready to let those last, final pieces of myself go. That fact he was willing to give me time gave me some measure of peace.

  Carrying me into the bedroom, he tossed on the bed and crawled up and over the top of me to lean down and press a kiss on my lips.

  “I want you every minute of every day. You make me crazy,” he whispered as he nipped and licked his way down my neck before sitting me up to take off my camisole. He pushed me back down and finished his trail down my chest, peppering little kisses across my ribs as his hands ran up and down the length of my thighs. I moaned at the touch, and in response, his tongue traced a hot path along my hip bones.

  He paused and met my eyes. “I think we should go on a date.”

  “A date?” I repeated. My conversational abilities were at a disadvantage while his tongue and hands were caressing my skin.

  “Yeah a proper date, just the two of us. We can go out for dinner, a movie, have some quiet time together away from everyone else. What do you think?”

  He peeled the silk shorts slowly down the length of my legs, my breathing becoming shallow as his mouth moved between my thighs. What did I think? He was asking me to think?

  When he’d finished the long drawn out process of doing wicked things to my body, we had another water conserving shower, and I was now in my wardrobe searching for something to wear. Since we’d signed on with Marcus to a regular, lucrative spot at the White Demon, Henry had decided to buy a car, and Jake, he and I were going car shopping today.

  I pulled on my grey cuffed shorts with the hot pink pinstripes, a pair of silver sandals, and a plain white fitted shirt and trotted down the stairs to find Henry and Jake sitting around drinking coffee and munching toast while Jared was sliding on a pair of shoes.

  I gave Henry and Jake a dirty look. “You didn’t make me any toast?”

  Henry and Jake had the good grace to look guilty as they munched heartily.

  “Babe.” Jared walked over to me. “You shouldn’t eat that,” he said. “It’s white bread, full of preservatives. Anyway, I gotta make a move.”

  He kissed me gently on the lips, and I closed my eyes to savour the press of his body against mine.

  “Evie?”

  “Yeah?” I sighed as he pressed another kiss on my lips.

  “You’ve parked me in.”

  “Oh right.” I opened my eyes, slightly dazed. “You boys ready to go?”

  Without waiting for an answer, I picked up my handbag and keys off the kitchen counter and waltzed out the door. I could do a drive through breakfast grab on our way to wherever it was one went to buy cars in Sydney. Henry and Jake would get absolutely nothing.

  “Shotgun,” Henry yelled at Jake as they both tried to muscle each other out of the way, literally jamming themselves in the front door as Jared stood impatiently behind them.

  “You bunch of wankers,” I called out as I got in the car and put the window down. “Get in the car before I leave without either of you.”

  Jared and I shared a look of disbelief before he gave them both a shove out the door. He mimed that he would ring me as he folded his long sexy body inside his Porsche, gunning the engine impatiently as Henry and Jake ran back inside to get their wallets and phones. I backed out the drive and idled on the curb so Jared could get going, and he gave the horn a toot as he headed off in the opposite direction.

  We drove along towards the direction of Parramatta Road as my stomach growled menacingly. “You two can suck it for not making me toast. I’m going to Macca’s and neither of you are getting anything.”

  “Why would we? You heard the man. It was white bread. You know you can’t eat that rubbish, Sandwich.”

  All I could manage was an attempted swat at Henry’s head in response because I was trying to drive.

  Ten minutes later we were back on our way with Henry and Jake munching burgers, so I made Henry feed me pancakes dripping in syrup as I drove. My phone buzzed a message and Henry picked it up on instinct, long used to me having him answer my messages while I was driving. He did refuse to the other day, though, when Jared was getting particularly amorous while stuck in Adelaide, and I’d asked Henry to text something about where I wanted to put my tongue. Apparently, that was beyond the call of duty of a male best friend, but he’d refused to believe me when I told him I was only kidding.

  “It’s from Mac,” he said, pre-empting my question. “She wants to know if you did your test this morning. What test?”

  I rolled my eyes. “What test do you think? Tell her to let it go.”

  Henry snorted and dutifully texted back. “Is she still going on about that?”

  I groaned. “Yes and I am so over it. We need to find Mac a hobby. Marcus needs to give her a good―”

  Henry cleared his throat loudly, cutting me off before I could unwisely ruin the rest of our day. We were starting to think that Jake had a slight Mac Crush because of late, whenever we mentioned Mac and another guy, Jake got all tense and went on a rant―not a rant directed at Mac, but about whatever he chose to rant about at the time. It just seemed the correlation between the two, Mac and another guy, rant, Mac and another guy, rant, was starting to become slightly obvious.

  I sent Henry a grateful glance as my phone buzzed again. Henry sucked in a l
oud breath as he read the message.

  “What did she say to that?” I grinned at him.

  “It’s not from her. It says ‘Buckle up bitch.’”

  My mouth fell open in shock and the car jolted as I fumbled gears.

  “Who the fuck sent that?” Jake demanded from the back seat before I had a chance to ask the same question.

  Henry’s brow furrowed in worry. “I don’t know. It’s a blocked number.”

  He passed the phone back to Jake while I drove so he could have a look.

  I glanced in the rear view mirror to see a silver Camry, not unlike the one Coby described was following us a week ago, sitting right on my tail.

  “Uh, guys?”

  They were busy talking amongst themselves and ignored me. Meanwhile the Camry driver was speeding up to ram us, and my breath started to short out in panic. Did the idiot really think ramming a Hilux with a Camry was going to have us coming out worse off?

  “Guys!” I yelled impatiently.

  The Hilux gave a lurch which suddenly had their complete attention.

  “What the fuck?” Jake yelled.

  Both Henry and Jake swivelled around to look out the back window.

  My panicked glance into the mirror showed the Camry had backed off and my towball had added some nice damage to its front fender.

  “We just got rammed by a tossbag in a Camry,” I said in disbelief.

  “Goddammit! It’s that Camry cocksucker that was tailing you a week ago.” Henry shook his fist angrily out the window.

  “Henry! Jesus, you’re not helping.”

  “Shut up, Sandwich. He’s coming back again. Speed up.”

  My glance confirmed Henry’s words. I pushed my foot hard on the accelerator, my knuckles white on the steering wheel at seeing the car pick up speed right along with us. Jake snatched the phone back off Henry and began dialling.

  “He’s getting close, Evie. Plant your fucking foot,” Jake shouted at me as he glared out the back window, phone firmly to his ear.

  “I’m trying to plant my foot, but I’m hitting traffic dammit,” I yelled, feeling another lurch as we shot forward. “I can only go so fast.”

  At that moment, I was busy regretting those pancakes. I could feel them rolling around in my stomach, and I swallowed frantically as I changed gears.

  “Turn here,” Henry shouted.

  Barely slowing down, the tyres squealed as I made the left turn where Henry indicated and sped down the road, the Camry still hot on our tail.

  Jake was talking rapidly. He moved the phone away from his mouth and spoke, “The guys said to turn around and head straight for the police centre. It’s only ten minutes in the other direction. They’ve got your phone on GPS, Evie, so they’re on their way.”

  I did what Jake said, and the Camry didn’t deviate from our tail the entire time while he stayed on the phone.

  “Turn here,” Henry shouted again, and I hooked a right turn and shot out onto a dual lane road. The Camry followed our turn and sped into the lane beside us, trying to push us off the road.

  I risked a proper glance at the driver. “Oh hell no.”

  “Oh hell no what?” Henry threw out.

  I interrupted Jakes blow by blow phone account of our situation. “Who do you have on the phone, Jake?”

  “Jared,” he replied.

  “Tell him it’s definitely Jimmy in that car. I recognise him from the photos they showed us a week ago.” I shouted the last part because the idiot pushed us up and over the curb as we sped down the road. I heard someone behind us honking their horn.

  Henry grabbed hold of the dashboard at the reckless jolt. “Fuck.”

  “Oh my God, Henry, this bastard thinks he can ram us in that piece of shit he calls a car?” I yelled.

  I’d somehow managed to tightly lock all the panic, disbelief, and shock away as I fought to keep the car under control, but the anger had overwhelmed me and spewed out in a sudden fiery burst.

  Almost on autopilot, I felt myself jerk the steering wheel to the right, tyres squealing as I rammed my car back into his. Jimmy wobbled a bit and backed off in order to gain control. Adrenaline pumped through me from my driving manoeuvre until I felt light-headed.

  “Jesus Christ, Evie, that was fucking awesome!” Jake shouted from the backseat.

  “I know, right?” I yelled, contemplating my future career as a rally car driver, kicking serious ass as I spun gravel around tight mountain corners.

  Unfortunately, my reckless driving didn’t appear to deter Jimmy because the Camry was gaining ground, even with some serious dents to the left side of his car.

  Muffled shouting came from the back seat. “What the hell is that?”

  Jake held up my phone and put it on speaker “….. and tell her to stop playing car games and head towards the fucking police centre. Right the fuck now!”

  It sounded like Jared wasn’t as impressed by my driving as Jake and Henry were. In fact, he sounded downright pissed off, and maybe even a little scared.

  I didn’t have time to think about my actions as we flew down the road. Coming the other way, we passed a police patrol car with lights flashing, sirens wailing, followed by Coby and Travis in Coby’s own Hilux, then Jared’s Porsche. My mirrors showed them executing squealing u-turns over the cement median strip in the middle of the road. Random cars lurched out of the way and came to a dead stop in a giant pileup while they took up procession behind the Camry.

  “Evie!” Henry shouted. “Lights! Red ones.”

  My focus back on the road showed a set of orange lights a hundred metres ahead had changed to red. A panicked glance told me no turns were available before we'd reach the huge four way intersection. My new driving style was rally car and tight turns, not fucking red lights.

  “Jared?” I shouted at the phone, having no idea what to do.

  “Evie, fuck,” I heard shouted and then a fumble. “Hang on, Mitch is going to try and shoot out the Camry’s tires.”

  “Jesus!” Henry yelled. “Can that even be done? What if he hits us?”

  “He won’t,” I heard Jared yell. “Just make sure you all have your seat belts on.”

  I started slowing down as I reached the red light, my heart pounding in my chest, my hands shaking as I downshifted gears. I was trying to keep a grip on the dread forming a tight ball in my stomach, but I felt it unravel and tears climb my throat. There were no cars in front of me, and as I slowed to a stop, I noticed the Camry behind me was not slowing down.

  “He’s not slowing down!” I yelled.

  To my left another car, already ahead of me, was stopped at the lights so there was no room to move. I couldn’t attempt a red light run because cars were flying through the intersection at a deadly pace.

  “Christ, does this guy have a fucking death wish?” Jake shouted.

  Panicked, I shouted at the phone. “Jared, why isn’t Mitch shooting out the tyres?”

  His voice bellowed out from the phone in a frantic, pain-filled burst. “He can’t, Evie. It’s not safe anymore, and it’s far too late. FUCK! Brace yourselves,” he shouted desperately.

  We all swivelled to the back window to see the Camry much too close.

  “Henry,” I whispered, meeting his eyes.

  His hand reached out to grasp mine and squeezed tight. Jimmy finally hit his brakes. I saw the back end fishtail slightly as though he finally realised the outcome of him slamming in to the back of my big ass Hilux would not go in his favour. Our car took a massive hit as it heaved forward, the Camry crumpling into the tailgate.

  The violent lurch had my phone flying out of Jakes hand and hitting the front windshield, causing a small crack before landing on the dashboard. For a brief moment, I felt okay, shaky, but okay, until Jared’s wild scream could be heard from the speaker. “Evie, get the fuck OUT OF THE CAR!”

  The impact from the Camry had pushed us a full car length into the busy intersection. Cars flew by dangerously. Out of my peripheral vision, I saw the cavalr
y screech to a stop behind us, descending out of their cars, running for us. I was making a fumbled frantic move for the door handle when I saw a truck bearing down towards us with nowhere else to go, honking his horn loudly, then everything went black.

  * * *

  I woke in a room I immediately noted was not my own. My blurry eyes couldn’t focus as the sound of beeping pinged through my head like an out of control ice pick.

  I turned my head left and found Jared sitting in a chair, fast asleep. He looked rumpled, worn out, and slightly vulnerable in a way that made me want to reach out and run my fingertips tenderly down the side of his face.

  I shifted to sit up and do just that, but the pounding in my head began escalating, leaving me to wonder how much I’d had to drink last night, where I ended up, and what type of hangover it was that I was suffering from. I’d never experienced anything of the like before, and I here I thought I’d categorised every type of hangover that ever existed.

  “Jared,” I croaked out.

  He didn’t move. I cleared my throat.

  “Jared,” I managed a bit louder.

  The effort overwhelmed me, and I closed my eyes. I thought that maybe I just needed to eat, but when my stomach rolled over feebly, I began to worry.

  “Baby?”

  My eyes blinked open. Jared was standing over the bed and he took my hand in his.

  Looking around the strange room, I asked, “What’s going on?”

  Why was the room so bright and where were my sunglasses?

  “Baby, you’re awake,” he whispered and without letting go of my hand, he weakly sank down into the chair.

  “Yay me,” I muttered feebly. “My head is splitting open. What did we drink last night?”

  I felt myself drift away before I could catch his answer. When I stirred again, the afternoon sun was still shining brightly, and Jared was sitting on the bed drinking a coffee.