Twenty-Seven

Julia

What the hell had I been thinking? I had known what I was walking into. I had known that Austin would relapse. It was only a matter of time.

But the argument, the nonchalance, the entitlement.

I could be there for him. I could bring him back to the light. I could even see him through therapy or rehab. But, right now, he didn’t even care. He immediately defaulted to the douche that I’d sworn I’d never get back together with. The kind of guy I’d never, ever date. Because I knew what it felt like to be used, to be manipulated and abused. I was not going to go through that again.

Maybe, when he sobered up, Austin would feel differently about his drinking and our argument. But how long until it all happened again?

It hurt that I’d trusted him. I’d finally confided in him. He knew the danger I was facing. And, instead of having dinner with Patrick for his birthday, Austin had gotten smashed. There would have been nothing he could do if I’d needed him.

I didn’t deserve that.

That was why I’d put a stipulation on our date in the first place.

Austin was a better person when he was sober. But he was the only person who believed otherwise.

“Jules!” Austin called behind me.

But I kept walking. Straight out the front door of Flips.

I had just made it to my car when a hand clamped around my upper arm.

I screamed and jumped back. But the hand held.

And everything narrowed down to the moment when a body stepped out of the shadows by my car and materialized, fully formed, into a thing of nightmares.

“Dillon?”

“Hey, Jules,” he said with a lethal, manic smile.

My heart rate ratcheted up. My body trembled under his touch. I thought I was going to be sick. I couldn’t get my breathing under control. Everything was panic, panic, and more panic. My brain wasn’t firing on full cylinders.

How? How could this be happening to me?

“Wh-what are you doing here?” I gasped out.

“Came to get you back, baby girl.”

He ran the back of his hand down my cheek in an all-too familiar way. I shuddered at his touch and felt sick to my stomach.

“Dillon, you were in jail.”

He grinned. “Got out on good behavior.”

Of course he had. The bastard could charm a snake. No one had even believed me when I first came forward. Why would anyone believe his girlfriend of six years? And, even then, the sentence had hardly stuck. I’d been happy for anything to give me time to get away. I’d been desperate enough to testify against him.

“You’re shaking like a leaf,” he said. Then, he rubbed his hands up and down my arms. “You have to let me take care of you.”

Fear held me in place. I knew that I should jerk back. That I should be the woman I’d become in his absence. But, staring into his blue eyes and that mask of innocence he wore like a second skin, I became the girl who would never leave him.

“Please,” I whispered.

“Please what?”

“I can’t do this.”

“Do what?” he asked, his voice like a knife.

I swallowed hard. “This.”

Anger flashed in his eyes, but before he could respond, Austin finally reached me. Fear sparked in me.

No! I couldn’t let Austin near Dillon. I couldn’t let this happen. I knew what Dillon was capable of. I knew that the charges against him were the least of what he’d done. I would never forgive myself if Austin got hurt.

“Austin, no,” I said, stepping between him and Dillon.

“Evan?” Austin asked. He was breathing heavy, and he seemed totally disoriented. “I thought you left a while ago.”

“Yeah, I did, but it turned out, my girlfriend was going to show up anyway.”

I stared between Austin and Dillon with my mouth hanging open. A pit opened in the pavement, and I fell into it.

“No,” I whispered. “No, you didn’t.”

My eyes found Dillon’s. He gave me a perfectly blank, perfectly serene look.

“You must be Julia,” he said, holding his hand out to me. “I’ve heard so much about you.”

I swatted his hand away. “Stay away from me.”

“Jules, I know you’re pissed at me, but don’t take it out on Evan,” Austin said.

“This isn’t Evan!” I nearly shrieked. “I don’t even know who the fuck Evan is. This is Dillon.” I choked on my own words. “This is…it’s Dillon.”

The words hung in the air, waiting for someone to crack. For the facade to shatter and everyone to realize that the game was up. Whatever Dillon had been up to while infiltrating my life, making fucking friends with Austin, and otherwise being a psycho, it was over. His stalking of me was over.

“Dillon…like your ex-boyfriend?” Austin asked slowly.

“Yes.”

“What the hell is wrong with you? You made me think that we were friends,” he demanded of Dillon.

“Aren’t we friends?” Dillon asked, as if he didn’t care about any of this.

“We went to the gym together three times a week. You said you moved here for your girlfriend,” Austin said in horror.

My stomach twisted. Oh, fuck!

“I am here for my girlfriend,” Dillon said possessively. “Seems you’ve met my Jules.”

“Julia, get behind me,” Austin said.

“Austin, no. Please, let’s just go. Don’t get into this with him,” I pleaded.

Dillon laughed in Austin’s face. “What do you think you’re going to do? You’re drunk off your ass, man.”

“Don’t fucking talk to me like you know me.”

“I don’t need to know you. I know your type,” Dillon said. “Trust me, I know an addict when I see one. And you’re as bad as any of them. Too bad my girl walked right into your train wreck.”

“Dillon, stop it,” I spat.

“He doesn’t like to hear the truth? I’ve spent the last couple of weeks watching you. Wanted to find out if these Wrights were everything everyone had made them out to be. Every one of them is fucked up. This one, worst of all.” Dillon shook his head, like he was disgusted with the sight of Austin. He was a good actor. Always had been. “You think he’s been sober? He’s been drinking. Check his house. Check his car. Check his fucking gym bag. You think you’re his only girl? He spent the night at Maggie’s place. You think he cares about you? Just take a good look at him, Jules.”

I didn’t want to listen to Dillon. I knew what he was doing. I knew he was manipulating me and trying to turn me away from Austin. I was pretty sure I was the only person on the face of the planet who knew the real Dillon Jenkins. He never showed the insanity behind his bravado. Only to me.

Still, I couldn’t stop myself from turning hurt, questioning eyes to Austin. Had Dillon been following him? Had he seen things that I hadn’t wanted to see? He might be using them to hurt us, but they could only hurt us if they were true.

“Is that true?” I asked. I clenched my hands into fists and waited.

“I…I, uh,” Austin said, stumbling over his words. “It’s not like he said it.”

“But…it’s true?”

“It’s more complicated than that.”

“Did you stay at Maggie’s place?” I asked.

“Yes.”

I breathed out in a rush. “Fuck you, Austin.”

“It wasn’t like that! We weren’t together.”

“And that makes it better?” I shrieked.

“No. No, that’s not what I meant. Maggie wasn’t even there! Just Mindi.”

I shook my head. “God, Austin, are you hooking up with crazy butcher-knife Mindi now?”

“No! God, can’t you see what he’s trying to do? He’s trying to turn you against me.”

“I’m not against you, Austin! I just wanted the truth. I wanted honesty. I thought we were doing all of this together. I know he’s not reliable, but we wouldn’t be fighting about this if you’d told me. Have you been hiding your drinking?”

He opened and then closed his mouth. “You knew I was weaning off of alcohol.”

“Yeah. It sure looks like it.”

“What do you want me to say, Jules?”

I closed my eyes against the frustrations and tried to clear my thoughts. I could feel Dillon infecting us, seeping his poisonous words and toxic personality into my life again. He was Loki, the trickster god. Preying on our fears and using the weeks he’d spent watching us to sow that seed of doubt. To splinter the fragile relationship we had been building into solid stone.

“This is all your doing!” Austin cried.

He turned his undivided, drunk attention to Dillon. And then, before I could do a single thing, Austin threw himself at Dillon. He swung wildly, sliding his fist against Dillon’s cheekbone.

“Austin, no!” I shouted.

But he wasn’t listening to me. There was nothing I could do.

I knew Dillon had let Austin take that first swing. He’d been waiting for it. Knowing that anything that came next would be self-defense. He’d used the excuse before.

Dillon had been boxing since he could walk. It was the only thing his deadbeat dad had ever given him. He was quick on his feet and could throw a punch that I knew all too well hurt like a motherfucker.

Dillon’s eyes analyzed Austin’s drunk form before striking with the precision of someone who had been doing this for a very long time. I screamed as he battered Austin’s face, jabbed into his ribs, and knocked him off his feet. Austin stood no chance. Maybe, if he’d been sober, he would have had a weight advantage. Austin was solidly built, but Dillon had years of experience. It wasn’t a fair fight.

“No, no, no,” I said. I grabbed on to Dillon’s shoulder and tried to pull him off of Austin.

He shoved me backward with one hand, throwing me into the gravel. I skidded across the blacktop and felt the top layer of my forearm take the brunt of the hit. My hip connected next, and gravel buried like shrapnel into my knee.

I winced as I tried to stand, but I had to. I had to stop this fucking nightmare. Dillon could not do this.

He’d kill Austin.

Fuck, he’d kill him.

Blood spewed from Austin’s face. He was curled in on himself. The alcohol in his system must at least be keeping him from the majority of the pain. God, I hoped so.

“Dillon, baby,” I whispered hoarsely, “I’ll go with you. I’ll…I’ll go with you.”

He stopped assaulting Austin and turned to look at me. “What’d you say?”

“You heard me. I’ll go. We…we can be together again. That’s what you want, right?”

“What’s the catch, Jules?”

“No catch. I left Austin anyway. He was trying to change my mind, but he can’t. Let’s just…let’s just go,” I said, my voice shaky. I needed an ounce of his bravado.

Austin groaned. I thought I heard him say no, but I had to do this. I wouldn’t let Austin die because Dillon had found me again.

Dillon seemed to take in the situation and then nodded. He’d won. He was done. If Austin was a threat again, he’d kill him. I saw the knowledge of that flash in his eyes.

He reached a hand out to me. “Got to get you cleaned up.”

I nodded. No mention that he was the one who had done this to me.

“I’m ready to get back to the way things should be.”

“Me, too,” I lied.

Then, I followed him, trembling, as I tried hard not to look at Austin. As I followed the man I’d sworn I’d never let rule me again. As I entered my own personal hell and prayed I’d be able to come out on the other side.