“Go play with your LEGOs.” She placed Zak down. “Over there, by the TV, watch some cartoons too.”
“Spiderman?” His eyes were wide. Gary was scaring him.
I hate him so much.
“Yes, Spiderman.” Her heart was thudding, her skin hypersensitive. Her body was on high alert. Any moment now, Gary would lose it. The switch would flick and he’d start throwing punches and kicking and shouting.
“How’d you find me?” She reached for a loaf of bread. Perhaps if she could keep him talking, she could figure out what to do.
“Called your dad, didn’t I? He reckoned you’d go to your uncle. Even told me Hudson lives in St. Clemente with his biker buddies. Didn’t take me long to find out he owned a property on The Strand, and hey fucking presto, here you are, living the life of goddamn Riley by the beach.”
“My father? He told you?” She shook her head. Never, forthe rest of her life would she speak to her father. He was so self-absorbed, so gullible, so damn disloyal he wasn’t worth having in her life, ever. “What an asshole.”
“I’ll tell him you said that.”
“I don’t doubt that for a minute.” She reached for the peanut butter and banged it onto the counter. “What do you want, Gary? Why are you here?”
“What do I want?” He smashed his fist onto the counter next to the peanut butter.
She jumped.
“I want my fucking wife and son at home, with me, and doing what you’re fucking told, that’s what I want. Is it too much to goddamn ask?”
She sucked in a deep breath. Anger boiled inside of her. Her father had given her up. Gary thought he could march in here and take her back.
Well, that isn’t going to happen.
“I don’t want to be your wife anymore, Gary, that’s why I left you.”
Anger was bristling from him, and his cheeks flushed. “You’re a fucking loser, you know that? First sign of trouble and you run away like a little crybaby.”
“It wasn’t the first sign of trouble and you know it.” She reached for the jelly and a knife. “I couldn’t take any more of your drunken, bad-tempered beatings.”
“Oh, a few slaps. Boo-hoo. I said I was sorry.”
“Slaps.” She spun to him, knife in hand. “You broke my wrist, my ribs, I had more split lips and black eyes than I can count. Sometimes I couldn’t go outdoors for days because I could hardly walk.”
“You always did fucking exaggerate.” He laughed, a nasty, malicious sound. “Right from the day I met you.”
She stared at him, hardly believing her ears. At one time,she would’ve been cowering from him, trying to please him, placate him. But not now. Now she was stronger inside. “You need to leave.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“This is my home, Gary, not yours. You need to leave. Get out.”
“What’s yours is mine.” He stepped closer. “I ain’t going nowhere.”
Despite herself, she retreated until she was cornered by the counter. A shiver of fear tapped up her spine. She knew what the Barbarians were capable of, sure, but she also knew what Gary was capable of. And this time, today, she’d pissed him off more than ever before.
She’d done what he’d always falsely accused her of.
Slept with another man.
“Not that I want to stay here.” Spittle had gathered in the corners of his mouth. “Not when you’ve been spreading your legs for that asshole under this roof.” He sneered. “My wife, the cheating whore, and you wonder why I slap you around. It’s all you know. It’s the only way to keep a cunt of a woman like you under control.”
He was so close now she was wrapped in his stale sweat. The coffee on his breath made her want to gag.
“You need to leave.” Bravery was slipping away, but still, she tried. “Before Jayden gets here.”