“What is it? What’s wrong?”
Isabella swallowed. His concern warmed her, though she knew he probably didn’t care.
He touched her cheek and tilted her chin up, so she had to look at him. The gentle stroke of his thumb along her cheek eased a bit of the ache in her chest and allowed her to breathe again. For a moment, she could believe that Dillon wanted her.
It was a dangerous daydream. If she allowed herself to believe in it, then she would only find herself with a broken heart when the bubble finally burst.
“I can’t pay this,” she whispered. She pulled away from Dillon’s touch and wiped at her cheeks with the back of her hand. “I can’t pay it right now. This is going to take forever to pay off. The interest is going to kill me.”
“I don’t mind helping you cover necessities.”
She shook her head. “I didn’t…” Tears choked her again. She probably looked like a mess. Her cheeks had to be red again. “I didn’t buy anything.”
Dillon immediately straightened. His eyes narrowed. Her heart lurched, terrified.
“I d-d-don’t know how this happened! I promise! T-t-this isn’t my fault.” Hiccups interrupted her tears now.
She never meant to make Dillon angry. Incompetence seemed to be sewn into her very being. She couldn’t avoid it, no matter how hard she tried to make her life better. He probably thought less of her for getting knocked-up, too.
A growl left Dillon’s throat. She flinched.
“I’m scaring you,” Dillon said, his voice filled with regret. “I should leave.”
Isabella’s head snapped up, but Dillon was already gone. She never imagined a man as large as him could move so fast. Confusion left her head feeling hollow. She couldn’t figure out what just happened.
Her immediate reaction had been to blame herself when Dillon’s anger had surfaced. Years of loving the wrong men had left her with janky instincts. Without Dillon standing over her, her pulse slowed, and things started to make sense.
“He’s not angry at me,” she said as she came to the realization.
She wiped away the last of her tears, shook herself, and got to her feet. Dusting off her knees, she came up with a plan. She would have liked Dillon to accompany her, but he’d already vanished, and she wasn’t sure if hunting him down was a good idea.
She didn’t know anything about the dragon men. If she found Dillon, she might interrupt something he needed to do. Not that she knew what he would need to do. That was his business, not hers.
This bill was her business. She snatched it off the floor and marched out to her car. It wasn’t much, just an old sedan she’d bought off a neighbor for a grand. It got her back and forth, and that was all that mattered. With the keys in the ignition and the bill on the passenger seat, she called her ex.
She got him to agree to meet at a neutral place. Never again would she step foot in his trailer. The idea of being alone with Tommy sent a shiver through her core. He’d never hit her, but the threat had always been there. Every time he moved, she’d flinched, waiting for the punch that never came. The stress of not knowing when he would finally snap had left her feeling fragile.
Inside, she claimed a table in the far corner and adjusted her sweater even though she wasn’t even showing yet. If Tommy found out that she was pregnant, she would never get rid of him. He would haunt her until she terminated it. He never wanted her to have anything that made her happy.
He wanted her weak and scared.
That wasn’t who she was anymore. She wasn’t afraid, wasn’t quaking.
Yet, the sight of him at the bar made her pulse race. He strolled in, his chin high and his blonde hair perfectly styled. He winked at the bartender as he passed the bar. Then, his cold, black eyes landed on Isabella.
Isabella shrank into her seat, rethinking every decision she’d ever made. Though her pulse surged with cold adrenaline, she began to wonder what she’d ever seen in him. Sure, Tommy had dimples when he smirked, but the smirk now made her stomach turn. She waited for a forked tongue to slip out from between his lips.
Tommy slid into the bench seat across from her. She swallowed and pushed the bill toward him.
“W-when did you take my card?” Her determination wavered when he pinned her with that cold glare.
“Your card? I thought it was our card?” The corner of his mouth quirked with confidence.
He thought he had this won, that she would back down and run back to whatever hole she’d been hiding in. The longer she stared at him, the more she realized she’d never seen these clothes before. There was a new diamond in his ear, too.
Isabella sat up straighter. “That card has my name on it. Not yours.”
“You weren’t even using it,” he said with a shrug.
“I use that card for my business, Tom.”
He sneered, clearly confused. “What business? Being a whore?”
Her jaw dropped.
“I heard you’re shacking up in that cabin with a bunch of out-of-towners. Your girlfriend introduced you to them so you could be passed around, too?”
“Tom!” Isabella’s face burned with unimaginable heat.
“I shouldn’t be surprised, but I am. All this time, I thought you were a little prude. Guess all I had to do was throw a little bit of money at you to turn you into a freak? Would that have opened the backdoor for me? Or would you still have kept me from having fun?”
Bile reached the back of her throat. If she didn’t run for the bathroom now, she would definitely throw up on Tommy. While he deserved it, she didn’t want him to even suspect she was pregnant.
Swallowing her bile, she tried to pull her gaze up from the table, but she couldn’t manage it. “I’m not sleeping with anyone. They’re letting me live there while I save a little more money.”
“That’s a fucking lie. No man would let you mooch off him without getting a little in return. Which one are you fucking? Is it the weirdo with the sunglasses? The slow one? All of them?” Tommy reached across the table and snatched her wrist.
She swallowed her whimper as his fingers dug into her skin and bone. He held her in place. She couldn’t escape.
Of course, he knew just how to keep her under his control. Whenever she’d been mad at him before, he’d always hugged her and forced her to stay and listen to his empty apologies until she accepted them. If she disagreed with him, he blocked her path until she had no other choice than to lie and say she understood.
Once more, he threw up walls around her. She had no other direction to turn in. He was the only one who could allow her to get through. Tommy had always held the keys to her cage.
***
Dillon couldn’t stand to listen to this conversation any longer. He’d tried to give Isabella her space. She didn’t even know Dillon had followed her. He’d stayed back, keeping an eye out just to make sure she stayed safe, but this man hadn’t even given her the chance to bring up the bill.
Dillon stalked toward the table. He stepped lightly until he stood behind the human man. Isabella blinked up at Dillon, clearly surprised by his presence. Dillon offered her a wink that he worried might have given the wrong impression, but her shoulders slowly eased away from her ears.
Her relief warmed him, but he didn’t have the time to be soft just then. He wanted to throw the human man outside and make sure he never came near Isabella again. But first, the bill needed to be paid, and Isabella wasn’t going to be the one to pay it.