No One But You (Silver Springs #2)(76)

He rocked back. “Whoa! What are you talking about? You’re leaving?”

“I have no choice. I realized it when Sly almost pulled his gun on you. Something terrible is going to happen if I stay.”

Angela couldn’t get one of the beads on her thread and brought it to Dawson. He paused to help her before returning to their conversation. “But...where will you go?”

“Out of state,” she replied. “Maybe the east coast. As far away as I can. I can’t take him breathing down my neck anymore. He could’ve killed me and Jayden when he set that fire.”

“I agree he’s out of control, but...when are you planning to leave?”

She felt bad telling him this, since he’d been kind enough to help her, but she’d never dreamed Sly would set fire to her house when she accepted the job Dawson offered. “As soon as I can save enough to make it feasible.”

Dawson watched his sister play with Jayden, but Sadie could tell his mind wasn’t on what he was seeing. “So this is all about the fire? Nothing’s happened since then?” he asked at length. “Maybe when you went in to pick up your stuff at the station?”

She didn’t want to tell Dawson about the scene at the restaurant. She was afraid to draw him into her problems any further for fear he’d get hurt. “Not really.”

He gave her an “I’m not buying it” expression. “What happened?”

She began digging at her cuticles, something she often did when she was anxious or upset.

“Sadie...”

“Fine,” she responded with an exasperated sigh. “I’m sure you’ll hear about it anyway, since I filed a police report.”

He stiffened. “You filed a police report? Today?”

She nodded.

“Why?”

“I had no choice.” She’d tried so hard to get away from Sly peaceably, had turned herself inside out trying to respect his needs and wishes—had even given him sex long after she wanted to allow him that kind of intimacy. But none of that had done any good. He wouldn’t let her go. And since their relationship had deteriorated so far, she had nothing left to save, no reason not to go to the police. Maybe it wouldn’t help, but she had to try. “Sly came to the restaurant this morning. He was angry, knew that you’d bought me—” she checked to make sure neither Angela nor Jayden were cluing in to their conversation ”—some underwear.”

“Because you didn’t have any—thanks to him!”

“That’s not the direction his mind went, of course. He accused me of—” unable to maintain eye contact, she looked down at the damage she was causing her fingers “—of doing what we did last night.”

“And what did you say?”

“I told him he was right—and that I enjoyed it.”

Dawson laughed at her unexpected response. “Are you joking?”

“No.”

He sobered. “What did he do?”

“He went crazy, caused a scene. If Pete—his friend on the force—hadn’t been with him and interceded...” She let her voice trail off.

Dawson leaned closer. “What? Don’t tell me he would’ve hit you.”

“He wanted to. When he raised his fist, I could see the hatred in his eyes, knew he wasn’t in his right mind.”

Dawson’s muscles bunched. “That son of a bitch doesn’t know when to quit.”

“There’s something seriously wrong with him,” she agreed. “But the situation is what it is. I need to accept reality and do what I can to protect myself and my child.”

Dawson got up and began to pace the short distance between Angela’s bed and her walk-in closet.

“You can’t let it upset you,” she told him. “Like I said, it is what it is.”

He pivoted to face her. “Can I ask you something?”

The gravity in his voice made her uneasy. “That depends...”

“Last night, when you told me you were on the pill...”

Apparently, the oddness of her response in that moment hadn’t slipped past him, after all.

She put up a hand. “No. Don’t ask.”

He stopped in front of her. “It’s because you’ve still been sleeping with him, right?”

Damn it. He’d asked anyway. And she couldn’t blame him. If she were him, she would’ve guessed the same, would also have wondered why. “No! I mean...not recently and not like you probably assume. It’s just...since I left him, he’s come by the house a lot, insisting we have some family time with Jayden—for Jayden’s sake so that we keep things as normal as possible.”

“And then he’d turn it into something more.”

“Yes. After I put Jayden to bed. Whenever I’d refuse, it would start a fight. So there were a few times—three, to be exact—when...when I gave in to avoid the upset and abuse I’d get otherwise. I was looking for a way to get rid of him without having my son wake up to another blistering argument.” She rubbed her face. “Sometimes I think I’d do anything to avoid another fight. At least I thought that until the last time. He came over just before Thanksgiving, drunk and belligerent, and he wouldn’t leave until...well, until, and that was such an awful experience I knew I could never do it again, not even to stave off a fight.” She closed her eyes as she remembered how rough and demanding he’d been.