Page 29 of Say it Ain’t So

I never should have let him convince me that I loved him. That I needed him. That it was my fault his hand hit my face. That he was sorry he stuck his foot out and tripped me. That he didn’t mean to punch me in the gut.

I never should have stayed with him. Moved in with him. Let him seclude me from my friends and family until the only one I had left was Cheyenne because she was too hardheaded to listen to Peter’s threats and leave me alone.

With Dakota’s dark gaze glaring down at me, all the tears I’d abandoned on the side of the highway came back, welling in my eyes and threatening to fall.

“I thought I told you not to come in here on your own.” The calm of his words felt menacing, and it made my eyes burn and my lungs clench. He nudged his sister out of the way and snatched my hand out of hers.

On my left hand, on my ring finger, was a thin, white-gold band. It was the same ring Cheyenne had squealed over when she ran inside Peter’s house and found me. It was the same ring I’d been staring at all day.

It was the same ring I hadn’t been able to bring myself to part with when I left my diamond engagement ring on the hotel’s bedside table this morning.

“She was telling the truth?” Dakota’s eyes met mine as his sister scoffed. I could barely muster a nod, but when I did, the corner of his mouth twitched up. “Congratulations on your nuptials, Joslyn. Next time you better listen to me, or you might not make it back to your husband.”

“Dakota! Don’t threaten Joss!” Cheyenne squealed, snatching my hand away from her brother.

“It’s not me she needs to be worried about, Cheyenne.” Those cold, hard words would have frozen me in my place had his eyes not already accomplished it. “Peter isn’t the kind of man who will let you go willingly. This ring on your finger will only make it worse. I told you not to come in here alone because it puts your life at risk.”

Sucking in my bottom lip, I nodded as much as I could. “I’m sorry, Dakota. I won’t do it again.”

“You will listen to me while we’re here. I don’t want you on your own, not until we’re far away from that man.”

“I understand.”

Dakota swept his gaze across the living room, to all the bags and boxes I’d already packed up. I didn’t have much—Peter never allowed me to have too many things cluttering his space. The boxes were still packed from when I moved in years ago. The bags were what I was able to throw together before Cheyenne and Dakota showed up.

“What else do you have left to pack?”

I gestured over my shoulder to the bedroom. “Just the clothes in my closet and a few things under the bed.”

He gave a nod. “Cheyenne, start taking her things to your car. We’ll get everything we can and get out of here before Peter gets home from the bar.”

A shiver raced up my spine. Peter at the bar was never a good thing. He was a mean drunk and often took his anger at the world out on me.

Cheyenne glared at her brother, cocking her hip to one side. “You really gonna make me carry all this shit myself?”

“Did you come here to help, or did you come here to pout?”

My friend scoffed, then rolled her eyes. She spun to grab one of my boxes while she muttered under her breath. “Lotta good it did calling you. Just stand there and watch while the women do all the work.”

It wasn’t until she’d barged out of the house and the screen door slammed shut behind her that Dakota turned back to me. He blinked, almost as if in slow motion, then shook his head.

“I don’t like to leave you alone in here, but if I don’t help my sister, neither of us will ever hear the end of it.”

I laughed at his candor. “You’re right, we won’t.”

“I have a friend watching Peter. He’ll let me know if the asshole moves from his bar stool. That’s the only reason I’m comfortable letting you out of my sight.” He turned to pick up a box, but I stopped him with a hand on his forearm.

“Dakota?”

He turned his dark eyes on mine but didn’t respond.

“Thank you. For coming here. For helping me.”

“You are as good as family, Joslyn. We take care of our own.”

With the deep timber of his voice reverberating through the room, Dakota picked up a stack of boxes and exited, quiet as a mouse.

Even though the night wasn’t cool, I clutched my arms around me to try to warm up. Looking around, I took in what was left of the house I’d lived in with the man who had once meant something to me.