Page 91 of Dominate Me

“I loved you, too.” And I had. With all of my heart. All of my being. “Sometimes that isn’t enough though, Timothy. And we went over this.”

Repeatedly.I didn’t say it.

I took a step toward him, keeping my steps calm and slow. “Please, honey,” I said, sweetening my voice at the same time lowering it. “Let’s just talk. We’ll talk about whatever you want. But you’re scaring me.”

He’d never done anything like this before, never looked as wild as he did in that moment. He blinked again and ran his free hand through his blond surfer locks. They used to look curly and soft. Like he spent too much time in the sun even though he really spent too much time playing video games and watchingThe Walking Dead.

Now, as I took another step closer, there was a drastic change in his appearance. Bloodshot eyes with dark circles beneath them. His face was thinner, and his clothes didn’t hang as perfectly on his body as they used to.

“You left me,” he whispered harshly, narrowing drunken eyes on me. “You weren’t supposed to leave me.”

“We made a lot of promises to each other we didn’t keep. I couldn’t live like that anymore, always taking care of everything and both of us and the finances and the apartment. It was too much. We fought too much.”

“This wasn’t my fault.” He shook his head, stepping back until he hit the back of my couch. His eyes never left mine and while he didn’t lower the gun, his arm didn’t follow me as I stepped out of the trajectory he was aiming for. “You were mine. The only woman I ever cared about, the only thing I cared about. We were supposed to be happy and follow our dreams and when you left, they all burned.”

“You were supposed to help me with those dreams, and you didn’t.”

“Do you know what I felt like tonight, hanging out with my friends from school? Seeing all they had, seeing the women they had who supported them? And then to hear you’d already moved on? They looked at me with pity, Hales. Like I was the fucking loser. And I wasn’t. And now you won’t even give me what you owe me.”

My anger grew as his voice rose. He had some facts right, but mostly his were all wrong.

They all showed him as the victim. He was too prideful, too lost inside his own fantasies to see that tonight, he had probably seen the truth but was too much of coward to admit it.

“Can we sit please? And talk? Like we used to?” I tried to smile, but my lips wobbled. I was never good at faking and I hoped he didn’t see how much I didn’t want to be anywhere near him. “Maybe work something out?”

“I need that money, Hales.”

I fought another cringe. He was the only person I ever allowed to call me that. Even then, I’d hated it. It wasn’t even a real name. He was just too lazy to throw in another syllable.

“Suing me isn’t the answer.”

“It’s the only one I had.”

“Shooting me won’t get you the money.” My voice wavered. It wouldn’t would it? Unless he got away with it? But even then, he wasn’t listed as a beneficiary on any of my paperwork or insurance. I took another step away from the door and the gun and toward the kitchen. Perhaps if I distracted him, I could make a run through the back door.

“No, but if I get you back, then it can all be ours. Think about it, Haley,” he said, his voice taking on that soft lilt I used to love. The one that could make me do anything. He flashed that lopsided smile and rested his hip against the couch, the position casual enough to hopefully make him forget he was holding on to a gun. “Stop walking away from me, first.”

His eyes glinted and he lifted the gun. “Come over here so we can do this talking you wanted.”

I practically saw cogs turning inside his head. Planning. Plotting. Dreaming.

Always dreaming.

I listened, too afraid of what he would do if I didn’t. “Timothy—”

“All the way here, Hales. I want to hold you.”

My steps faltered. “What do you want?”

He reached for me with his other hand and lowered the gun to his side.

“We were good together, weren’t we?” His hand slid to my back and pulled me against him.

It wasn’t all faked. I looked down to see his grip strong and firm on my gun. The safety was still engaged. Knowing the gun wouldn’t go off if he tried to pull the trigger calmed me.

“I love you. I always have. We can do better this time, honey. I promise you. I’ll help you out around here, we’ll build this together. Travel the world.”

Tears burned the backs of my eyes but I refused to let him see them. It was all I had wanted ever since I was a little girl—a family like my parents, working this resort side-by-side. I had been swept away in all of Timothy’s big dreams and desires and now he was once again offering what I’d wanted.

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