Page 45 of Breaking Conviction
I have to get the fuck outta here.
“I-I don’t know what to tell you, Dean. I was there and then I realized you’d called and messaged and came home. B-But I think I should go get Thea. If we’re both home she doesn’t need to be at day care.”
It was a lame excuse, but maybe he’d buy it and let her leave, not knowing it was for forever.
His short blond lashes outlined narrowed bloodshot eyes, giving him an almost demonic appearance. The reddened whites were proof he’d been drinkinga lot. He couldn’t have been home for too long, so he had to have been working on it to get to that level.
Not good.
“No. I think Thea’s exactly where she needs to be. After we’ve talked, we’ve got things we need to take care of. You know, shit you’ve been holdin’ back on.”
As if she couldn’t figure out on her own what he meant, his leering stare up and down her body made her squirm. There was a hungry look in his eyes that she’d been able to stave off for months, but it was looking like her time was up.
Not good. Not good.
“You know… whatever corner you were workin’, you sure as hell dressed the part.”
She looked down at her cream sweater and knee-high boots over brown leggings. The ones Wes’s hands had stroked, making her feel things she’d never felt with the man in front of her. She met Dean’s eyes and swallowed.
“I’ll just change then and go get Thea. When I come back, we can do whatever you want, okay…. sweets?”
A dark chuckle rolled out of him as he grabbed his chair from the table beside her. He collapsed into it just inside the laundry room, blocking her exit and everything she’d hidden for getaways.
“She’s all you care about, isn’t she? This whole time...” He chuckled before punctuating each word by banging his fist on the washing machine. “This. Whole. Damn. Time.” A livid glare seared into her before he spat at her feet, hitting her boot. He scrubbed his face again while shaking his head. “This whole...fuckin’time. It was only ever about Thea. Never about us... was it?”
The pain in his eyes almost made her feel sorry for him, but the clenched fist hovering over the fresh dent in the metal appliance reminded her what he was capable of. What was at stake.
“She’s the most important person in our lives, Dean…” she reasoned carefully. Her purse was in the crook of her arm and she covertly positioned it behind her back to dig for her phone to call Wes. “Of course everything we both do is for her.”
He waved his hand at her and scoffed. “That’s not what I mean, bitch, and you fuckin’ know it.”
Naomi looked up to the heavens and blinked before swallowing. “I-I’m sorry Dean. We’ll talk. Let’s talk. Just let me go pick up Thea, ‘kay?”
“No.” He shook his head. “No. You’ve been holdin’ out on me for months, Naomi. Maybe you have some other dick on the side, I don’t know. But I’m gonna make sure I get what’s mine before that brat comes home and lets you make another excuse. Hell, she can stay at that fuckin’ day care for all I care.”
Cold worry iced down her back. Dean was a lot of things. A lot ofterriblethings. But they’d only ever been directed at her. Never their daughter. She’d get on his nerves occasionally, but he’d never beenmeanor acted like he didn’t want her. At least not out loud…
It had to be the booze, but in any case, this was new territory and she had no clue how to navigate it. All she knew was she wanted to finally abandon ship.
“Dean, we need to talk—”
He stood so fast it made his chair fall back. “Talk about what,sweets? Your lies? Where thehellyou go all the time? For sure, ain’t that stupid-ass store, but I wanna hear you say it!”
A shock sparked through her as his words registered in her mind. What exactly did he know? She thought she’d been careful, but she’d known deep down her lies would catch up with her eventually.
“Answer me!” He grabbed her arm and slung her against the wall near the laundry room door before getting so close that his red eyes were all she could see.
Using both hands, he squeezed the sides of her face, shaking her until she was dizzy. “I already know what you’re gonna say, so fuckin’ say it!” On the last word, he shoved her away and slapped his palms against the wall, so dangerously close that his hands tugged at flyaway strands of her hair. “Say it! Go ahead!”
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. This might be the nail in her coffin, but she couldn’t spend one more second of her life with this monster.
“Dean, I’m leavin’ yo—”
The swift punches into her stomach were so quick, she didn’t even have time to double over to protect herself from the second one. As she tried to capture her breath again, she resisted the urge to slap and scratch him.
Give in, just give in.
It was a mantra she told herself when things got heated. But no matter how many times she repeated it to herself, it took at least a few hits before she stopped fighting back, always realizing too slowly that he would stop if she just played dead.
