The Wright Mistake(69)

“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.