The Wright Mistake(78)

Julia shut the door behind us once I was in the room. She went and sat down on the bed, but I could tell that sitting next to her would be pushing it.

“How are you feeling?” I asked.

“Tired.”

“Didn’t get much sleep?”

“No.”

“Have you heard anything else about Dillon?”

“No.”

Okay…one-worded answers. I needed a way to draw my Julia out of there. She looked so run-down and bedraggled. I’d be shocked if she’d slept at all. And, still…she was everything I wanted in one package.

“I want to make this right between us. Tell me what to do. What do you want me to do?”

She’d been staring down at her clasped hands. A million thoughts seemed to be running through her mind at once. Finally, she looked back up at me. “Leave.”

“Why do you push me away? Why can’t you accept that someone is going to be here? Because I’m here. I’m not going to just go away,” I said. I wanted her to fight me, to fight back, to show some ounce of life. “You said I wasn’t Dillon, and you’re right. Show me you’re more than that girl who got hurt by him.”

“I don’t have to show you anything,” she said quietly, calmly. “We’re not together.”

“I can’t accept that,” I said, dropping to my knees in front of her. “I’d take that beating a hundred times over if it meant that it didn’t end where we are right now. You’re fire and energy and passion. You’re not…dead inside.”

She turned her face away from me. No emotions clouded her eyes. I wasn’t even sure if she was in pain over my words. She seemed so resigned. As if the night had solidified everything that she’d said to me, as if she’d set cement.

“Your five minutes are up.”

“Julia, you’re not even listening to me.”

She held her hand up. “You’re trying to start an argument with me, Austin, and it’s not going to work. I made my decision last night. I’d appreciate it if you respected it. You told me once that love and hate were powerful emotions. You said that you had to work for indifference. So…that’s where I’m at.”

I stared, slack-jawed, up at her.

I’d always felt like, even when Julia and I had been apart, there was this link between us. That, when I could get her riled up, I knew she still had feelings for me. But, overnight, that had all disappeared. She wanted nothing to do with me, and I didn’t know how to fight for something that wasn’t there.

A vibration from the side table fractured her attention. She immediately lunged for her phone and answered it, “Yes. This is Julia.” She listened on the other end for a few seconds and then gasped. “I’ll…I’ll be right down.”

“What happened?” I asked once she hung up the phone.

She looked sick to her stomach. “The police found Dillon.”





Thirty-Two



Julia


I was going to be sick.

Definitely, definitely sick.

I was standing outside of the police station with Landon, Heidi, and Austin. They’d already called Jensen and Morgan, and Jensen had assured them that he’d have his attorney there as soon as possible. I knew that he’d said I shouldn’t say anything until the attorney got there, but I worried. What if something had happened? What if I was somehow at fault?

I couldn’t shake the feeling. Dillon could charm the cops. Sure, he had a warrant out for his arrest and now had aggravated assault and battery charges from Austin. They wanted to press for kidnapping and domestic violence for me. But is it still kidnapping if I had gone willingly? And would the assault charges hold up if Austin had hit him first?

I wouldn’t put it past Dillon to have already figured a way to get out of all of this.

“Are you ready?” Heidi asked, coming up to my side.

“Yeah. I think so.”

My eyes darted to Austin’s for a split second before I walked through the front door. I could do this. I didn’t need to think about what had happened with Austin last night or the desperation in his voice this morning. I was hurting him. I didn’t want to. But I couldn’t seem to stop.

We spoke with a man at the front desk before he directed us to a detective’s office. I had Heidi, Austin, and Landon wait outside the office.

Heidi squeezed my hand and nodded. “We’ll be right here,” she said, pointing at a group of folding chairs across the hall.

“Thanks, Heidi.”

“Of course. Good luck.”

I nodded and then entered the room. The detective was an athletic woman with frizzy ginger curls and freckles. She had a shrewd appearance about her. I wouldn’t want to fuck with her.