Now that was the type of girl I could see Dino spending time with. Raven black hair that fell in clouds around her shoulders and curled down to her waist in the back. Snapping black eyes and curves for days – I don’t know what he did to piss her off, but I could guess, and I really didn’t want to be around to hear while she reamed his ass about it. I had no illusions about my relationship with Dino, but it still stung a bit to have an angry ex-conquest standing right in front of me. I didn't have an interest in him anyway, not beyond a basic curiosity, so I don't know why it made me feel good to have him stand up for me the way that he did. It had probably just been too long since I had gotten laid, that's what it was. It was just that I was not the kind of person who could just go and have casual sex with someone, and I certainly wasn't in any position to be dating anyone, so that left me with several years of sexual drought that I tried not to let turn into a chip on my shoulder. It could have been part of the reason why I was so salty with Dino all the time though. It wasn't fair that he got to be so flagrant with his women, while I pretty much lived the hermit life.

Who was I kidding? I didn't get to be a bitter bitch, this was a life I chose.

In my hurry to get away from what looked to be a rip-roaring lover's spat I went to the only place a person goes into a room full of people they don't know – the bar. I don't drink though, so I didn't even know what I was going to order when I got up there. But I stood in the winding line anyway, sandwiched in front of and behind a myriad of other people in the same predicament. I don't have a problem with alcohol, as a matter of fact, I love a good strong margarita, straight up, no salt on the rim. But alcohol clouds judgment, and I had to be careful at all times, at least when I was out. I was just getting to the point where I could relax and have a glass of wine or two in my apartment, but out in public, no way. I couldn't surrender control of myself like that to another person. Not anymore. Not after what I had been through.

I had just made the snap decision to order a diet soda, about as plain and boring as a person can get, when I felt a hand on my arm. I was caught off guard when I turned and came nose to nose with a vaguely familiar face.

"Gabriella? Are you kidding me? It's really you isn't it?"

Terror. That was what I felt. Absolute terror.

Calm breaths. Face of stone. No one sees your fear.

"I'm sorry, you must have me confused with someone else. That's not my name, I don't know you," I said it as gently as I could while extricating my arm from his. Keep your face blank. No recognition. No expression. No fear. Thank God it was just a guy from the precinct. It wasn't David or any of David's closest friends. I could get out of this. I could. I had seen this man before, but I didn't know him, and it had been years, surgery and about fifty pounds since then even. Gabriella doesn't exist anymore, and Jeanette doesn't know this man. I could still save myself.

I gave him a confused look, like I was tolerating the babbling of a crazy person, and he seemed to understand and took his hand from my arm. "I'm sorry, I mistook you for someone else. I don't know why I thought you would be her, I don't know what I was thinking." He paused to stare at me hard again. I wanted to crawl out of my skin under his scrutiny, and it took every ounce of self-control I had to stay in character. "But man, you sure do look a lot like her, well like half of her anyway," and then he laughed, turned to leave and ran face first into Dino's chest.

Dino, who was a full two heads taller than the guy who had stopped me just stood there, unmoving, a slightly amused look on his handsome face. "What's going on? Anything I can help with?"

I was frozen. Couldn't speak. I couldn't even take a breath or the careful mask of the persona I had created for myself would shatter and I would be exposed. I had already said I wasn't this person he thought I was, why wouldn't the man just leave?

"I'm afraid I disturbed this beautiful young lady thinking she was someone else. I'm really sorry about that, but it's probably for the best. You really didn't want to be her." The eager looking young blonde man that had no business being halfway across the country from where I had seen him last looked Dino up and down, as men have a habit of doing when near one another, and then excused himself as he walked away.

Dino didn't move, just looked at me silently as I stood there frozen, the people who had been behind me in the bar line simply moving around me when they figured out I had no intention of moving forward. What did he see, as he casually perused my face with those solemn brown eyes of his? What kind of picture did I paint, a woman playing dress up, wearing a name and a life that didn't belong to her? Could he see? Could he see my truth? Why wasn't he talking? Why wasn't he saying anything?

Dino seemed to have come to some sort of conclusion as he squared his shoulders and opened his mouth, "Jeanette..."

"Dino, I have to go. I'm sorry, I have to go right now."

And I left him standing there with no other explanation. It didn't matter what I would have said to him, because I could only tell him lies, and for some reason, I couldn't bring myself to say them. I would rather say nothing at all.

* * *

Most people are scared of bad guys, but not me. Bad guys have their own skeletons in their closets, so they mind their damn business. It’s the good guys that I have learned to watch out for. Forget a hero, they had shit to prove.

I fell in love with a good guy once. The kind that wears a shiny gold badge and looks smoking hot in that blue uniform. The town hero, the one whose name brought a smile to everyone’s face when they heard it. “David Ashley,” they would say, “he’s good people.”

Yeah, good people. I thought so too. A girl raised in the foster system without a family, I fell hard for that good guy that paid attention to me. Me, Gabriella Hensley, working two jobs and living in a shitty studio apartment so I could get my degree, and be something other than a system statistic. I almost married that asshole too, he was the perfect man – until he wasn’t.

David Ashley was the type of guy who really cared about appearances. Not just what he looked like, but what other people thought of him. He had big plans for his life, or what he would call our life. He had the golden boy looks, fit body, square jaw, and really took care of his physique. “It is important as a police officer," he had said, “to be in top physical condition at all times.” He was in very good shape, and very strong. I knew this from experience.

When we were first dating it was bliss. He wanted to take care of me, he said, but I was adamant about finishing school. I didn’t want to rely on anyone else to achieve my goals, but he was sweet to me, and seemed to need me, so I moved in with him.

It was like reading a Disney fairy tale story and then finding out that I was getting the Hans Christian Anderson ending. My romantic movie relationship turned into a nightmare. At first it was just getting me to quit my second job. That wasn’t a huge deal. Between school and my full-time job as an administrative assistant for a property management company I was busy as it was. He wanted to be able to spend more time with me, and with his schedule changing on a whim at the force something needed to give. It was a small sacrifice, right? To be able to spend more time together?

I didn’t have to afford the apartment on my own anymore, I moved into David’s small house and we got a joint bank account. I made less money than David did so we didn’t exactly split things fifty-fifty, but that was okay. My paychecks were direct deposited into the joint account and David took care of all the bills. I was free to focus on studying and getting my degree in accounting. I was good with numbers, and even though David wasn’t really interested in my goals for the future, I actually enjoyed what I did.

“I don’t need you to be a rocket scientist, Gabriella. I just need you to be my girl.” Looking back now, those words sounded ominous as shit, but I was young and in love, and I thought he was just really devoted.

Really, really devoted.

Before I knew it, he had control of every aspect of my life, from my schedule, where I went, who I spoke to, and every dollar I made. I still didn’t get the kind of danger I was in, because he had never put his hands on me in anger before.

Until he did.

We had been living together for a full year before the violence started peeking out from behind his expressive blue eyes. Usually I went home for lunch every day, living fairly close to the office, I liked the break in the middle of the day. I liked coming home and having a meal in solitude before going back for the second half. One day though, our office decided to go out to lunch. There were only four of us, my boss Carol, our facilities manager Jones, my work bestie Amy, and myself. It was just a small group having a lunch meeting at the Mexican place down the street. Then we went back to the office, finished our work day, and at five o’clock we all went to our separate homes. I didn’t even have a lunch margarita. If I had known the shitstorm that was coming my way, I definitely would have had the margarita.

He was sitting ramrod straight in one of the wooden chairs at the kitchen table, with the lights off. Scared the living shit out of me when I walked in the door. Sitting with his arms crossed, staring down the hallway at the front door, he never even blinked when I walked into the house. He was supposed to be at work – by the look of him I thought something terrible had happened. I thought that somebody had died.

“Gabriella, why didn’t you come home for lunch?” The words dripped into icicles, his tone was so cold, but I still didn’t understand. I still didn’t get what was happening.

“We had a work meeting. We had nachos and discussed past due rentals. It was really boring, but the food was good. You are never home when I come home for lunch, how did you even know? Is everything okay? What’s wrong?” His line of questioning was bothering me, if he needed to get ahold of me all he had to do was call my phone. I pretty much always had my cell phone on me.

“Who all was there?” He continued with his questions, still sitting with his arms crossed in front of him. It was starting to feel like the third degree, and I still had no idea where he was going with this.

“The office, I just said that. It was Carol, Jones, Amy and me. What is this about?”

“Are you sleeping with him, is that what you are doing?” His expression didn’t change one bit, his eyes hard and mouth set in a grim line. “Are you fucking around on me? Don’t lie. I will know if you lie.”

“Yes, David. I had incredibly loud sex with my sixty-five-year-old facilities manager. Right there on the table in the middle of the restaurant. I got refried beans in my crack and everything, we even got a standing ovation from the servers for effort and enthusiasm.”

I’ve always had a mouth on me. I’ve always let it run away with me. I’ve never before had someone move so fast in response to anything I have ever said before though. David was away from the table and standing in front of me before I could blink, and I was already swallowing the coppery blood as it exploded from my split lip and into my mouth before I realized that he had open hand slapped me full force across the face.

If it had been anyone else in the world I would have been able to move. I would have been able to defend myself somehow, I would have gotten away. But this was David. I loved him, and he loved me. What was even happening? I was frozen, completely unable to process the situation.

“You just hit me. You actually hit me. You seriously think that I am screwing around, and you fucking put your hands on me. What the fuck is wrong with you?” I wasn’t screaming, I was actually whispering because his hands were pressing my shoulders into the wall and his face was entirely too close to mine for me to feel safe. Wide and electric blue, his eyes bore into mine –I didn’t recognize anything that I saw there.

“Gabriella. Words have consequences. Actions have consequences.” Crazy talk. That was what was coming out of his mouth. Crazy talk. “If you loved me, Gabriella, you wouldn’t lie. I love you so much. It’s really . . . painful.”

What was painful was the way his fingers were digging into my shoulder blades. What was painful was the dull ache of my busted lip as it swelled from the blow. What was painful was knowing that the man I had lived with for a year, my Prince Charming, was really the evil wizard and I did not know how to wake up from this crazy, messed-up fairy tale.

That had been the first time he had hit me. Just the first time. I had been so stunned that I didn't know what was happening. I didn't know how bad it could get, but I would learn. I would have plenty of time to find out just how twisted my fresh-faced prince could be.