Breaking Conviction by Greer Rivers

Chapter Seventeen

“Sweets.”

Dean’s voice was emotionless, but Naomi’s back straightened to the point of pain as she closed the inside garage door. He lounged at the breakfast table in the kitchen directly in front of her. To anyone else, he looked relaxed, but the subtle rage in his eyes was easy for her to see.

“H-Hi Dean. Where’s Thea?” She waited in the tiny laundry room for his answer, afraid to leave the safety of the door and potential escape.

“It’s always about that damn kid.” His fingers paused from their tapping on the table and formed into a fist.

“Dean… where is—”

“Still at day care!” Spit flew from his mouth and he wiped it with the back of his hand. “We have some things to work out. We can pick her up after.”

“D-day care? Really?” She paused a moment before daring to yell. “Thea!”

“Don’t fucking question me.” His scream made her jump and tighten her grip on the handle, but the silence in the house brought her so much relief she almost collapsed.

She’s safe. Oh, thank God.

“Honestly, sweets. She’s the least of your concerns right now.”

She needed to get out of the tiny laundry room. Flee to the day care, grab Thea, and never come back. But her legs were shaky with relief and refused to move, trapping her.

Just as she’d about gotten the strength to leave, Dean suddenly appeared right beside her, slamming his hand just above her head against her exit. His breath reeked of alcohol and his eyes were crazed.

Liquor… not beer … liquor…. The man was a sleepy nuisance on grocery store beer, but a fucking nightmare on bourbon. Not good. Not good. Not good.

Shit.

This was going to be worse than she thought. Dean hardly ever drank. The last time she’d met him drunk in the kitchen, he’d been docile enough, almost sweet. But even then, she’d been scared to death. He didn’t need alcohol to be mean as a snake, but it was almost a given that he’d strike if he had liquor in him.

“Where the fuck have you been, Naomi?” His voice had changed again to light and airy, as if he’d asked her how her day was or to pass the butter. That voice was the soft breeze stilling to a halt before the gusts of a storm tore everything apart. She swallowed and tried her best to hide her tells.

“I-I told you I was volunteering with Sasha Saves.”

He tilted his head like a predator analyzing its attack strategy before forcing her to switch places with him. Now leaning against the door, he crossed his arms with a smile.

“Don’t fuckin’ lie to me, sweets. I know you weren’t there.” Watching her with his dead eyes, he used his thumb to scratch his five o’clock shadow before pointing at her with a wagging finger. “Hell, the cashier said she didn’t even know who you were. You fooled me, Naomi, I’ll give you that. All those times I saw you there, who knew you were such a connivin’ little bitch?”

Naomi’s heart stuttered as she realized Sasha Saves’s secrecy policy to keep everyone safe was about to screw her over.

She tried to casually walk backward into the kitchen, putting the breakfast table between them. If she could entice him away from the laundry room, she’d be able to get what she needed and flee. Hell, at this point, she almost didn’t even care if she didn’t have time to follow through with her emergency plans.

I have to get the fuck outta here.

“I-I don’t know what to tell you, Dean. I was there and then I realized you’d called and messaged and came home. B-But I think I should go get Thea. If we’re both home she doesn’t need to be at day care.”

It was a lame excuse, but maybe he’d buy it and let her leave, not knowing it was for forever.

His short blond lashes outlined narrowed bloodshot eyes, giving him an almost demonic appearance. The reddened whites were proof he’d been drinking a lot. He couldn’t have been home for too long, so he had to have been working on it to get to that level.

Not good.

“No. I think Thea’s exactly where she needs to be. After we’ve talked, we’ve got things we need to take care of. You know, shit you’ve been holdin’ back on.”

As if she couldn’t figure out on her own what he meant, his leering stare up and down her body made her squirm. There was a hungry look in his eyes that she’d been able to stave off for months, but it was looking like her time was up.

Not good. Not good.

“You know… whatever corner you were workin’, you sure as hell dressed the part.”

She looked down at her cream sweater and knee-high boots over brown leggings. The ones Wes’s hands had stroked, making her feel things she’d never felt with the man in front of her. She met Dean’s eyes and swallowed.

“I’ll just change then and go get Thea. When I come back, we can do whatever you want, okay…. sweets?”

A dark chuckle rolled out of him as he grabbed his chair from the table beside her. He collapsed into it just inside the laundry room, blocking her exit and everything she’d hidden for getaways.

“She’s all you care about, isn’t she? This whole time...” He chuckled before punctuating each word by banging his fist on the washing machine. “This. Whole. Damn. Time.” A livid glare seared into her before he spat at her feet, hitting her boot. He scrubbed his face again while shaking his head. “This whole... fuckin’ time. It was only ever about Thea. Never about us... was it?”

The pain in his eyes almost made her feel sorry for him, but the clenched fist hovering over the fresh dent in the metal appliance reminded her what he was capable of. What was at stake.

“She’s the most important person in our lives, Dean…” she reasoned carefully. Her purse was in the crook of her arm and she covertly positioned it behind her back to dig for her phone to call Wes. “Of course everything we both do is for her.”

He waved his hand at her and scoffed. “That’s not what I mean, bitch, and you fuckin’ know it.”

Naomi looked up to the heavens and blinked before swallowing. “I-I’m sorry Dean. We’ll talk. Let’s talk. Just let me go pick up Thea, ‘kay?”

“No.” He shook his head. “No. You’ve been holdin’ out on me for months, Naomi. Maybe you have some other dick on the side, I don’t know. But I’m gonna make sure I get what’s mine before that brat comes home and lets you make another excuse. Hell, she can stay at that fuckin’ day care for all I care.”

Cold worry iced down her back. Dean was a lot of things. A lot of terrible things. But they’d only ever been directed at her. Never their daughter. She’d get on his nerves occasionally, but he’d never been mean or acted like he didn’t want her. At least not out loud…

It had to be the booze, but in any case, this was new territory and she had no clue how to navigate it. All she knew was she wanted to finally abandon ship.

“Dean, we need to talk—”

He stood so fast it made his chair fall back. “Talk about what, sweets? Your lies? Where the hell you go all the time? For sure, ain’t that stupid-ass store, but I wanna hear you say it!”

A shock sparked through her as his words registered in her mind. What exactly did he know? She thought she’d been careful, but she’d known deep down her lies would catch up with her eventually.

“Answer me!” He grabbed her arm and slung her against the wall near the laundry room door before getting so close that his red eyes were all she could see.

Using both hands, he squeezed the sides of her face, shaking her until she was dizzy. “I already know what you’re gonna say, so fuckin’ say it!” On the last word, he shoved her away and slapped his palms against the wall, so dangerously close that his hands tugged at flyaway strands of her hair. “Say it! Go ahead!”

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. This might be the nail in her coffin, but she couldn’t spend one more second of her life with this monster.

“Dean, I’m leavin’ yo—”

The swift punches into her stomach were so quick, she didn’t even have time to double over to protect herself from the second one. As she tried to capture her breath again, she resisted the urge to slap and scratch him.

Give in, just give in.

It was a mantra she told herself when things got heated. But no matter how many times she repeated it to herself, it took at least a few hits before she stopped fighting back, always realizing too slowly that he would stop if she just played dead.

But this time she had the eye on the prize, a game plan. If she fought back, it would only delay her freedom.

“You just had to be faithful, you ungrateful bitch, and I woulda done anything for you. But you had to go fuck with the enemy. You think they’re gonna be able to protect you when you’re found out?”

She closed her eyes, willing her ears to stop listening to his screaming nonsense. Protect her? Hell, the only person she needed protecting from was him.

He struck her again on her side, making her collapse to her knees. She clutched her stomach and curled into a ball on the floor to protect herself. Dean bent low and snatched her chin in his fingers, forcing her to stare into his dead winter eyes.

“Go ahead and leave, bitch. See how well you’ll do without me. I don’t know where you’re thinkin’ you’ll go. You have no one who’ll put up with your shit. Your own momma turned you out for gettin’ pregnant. No one wants you.”

He gave her a cruel smile before shoving her head back down to the ground, causing her temple to bounce off the linoleum.

“You’ll come crawlin’ back. You always do.” He walked over her and opened the door to the garage before appraising her with disgust.

“And if you don’t come back, don’t think I won’t find you, sweets. Wherever you are, wherever you hide. I’ll find you. God help you when I do.” He spat on the floor beside her and slammed the door behind him. His Corolla fired up soon after and she listened in silence as he left, relaxing as he took her tense fear and panic with him.

She breathed deeply through the pain in her stomach, but she’d felt those blows before. He hadn’t hit anything major.

The cold floor soothed her aching temple as she gained strength to get up. She had to get to Thea before Dean, but she seriously doubted he’d go pick her up in his state. Besides, there was no way in hell the church day care would give up her daughter to a man who smelled like the inside of a whiskey barrel. At least she hoped not. It was that last fear that made her pick herself up with a groan.

The door behind her swung open and she cowered at the shadow there, flinching at the pain in her stomach and in fear of receiving more blows. How long had she lain there? Was Dean back so quickly?

“Fuck! I knew we took too fucking long.” At Wes’s soothing baritone, Naomi relaxed. When his hands flowed over her, checking for injuries, the juxtaposition of his light touch versus Dean’s made her choke back a dry sob. “Shit, did that hurt? I’m so sorry, Naomi.”

That word. She didn’t hate it when he said it. Maybe because he always meant it. Maybe because he was apologizing for things that weren’t his atonement to bear. God, the difference between the two men in her life was stark and it made her wonder what the hell she’d been thinking all these years.

And now it’s over.

The sob slowly turned into laughs and she lifted her eyes to see concern in Wes’s blue eyes turn into confusion which only made her laugh even harder.

“Naomi... love… are you okay?”

“Snake, that asshole might come back—shit.” Hawk, the guy who’d driven Wes home last time, filled the light in the doorway.

“Hawk, call Devil... I think she’s in shock or something.”

She wanted to reassure them, but hell, was she in shock? Maybe. But she didn’t care.

“I don’t know. I don’t know. All I know is… I’m free, Wes.” Her laughter grew manic and understanding mixed with the concern on his brow.

Slowly sitting up, she hissed at the throbbing in her side, but that ache was nowhere near the amount of relief she felt from the weight lifted off her chest.

He’d crossed her line. She was listening to her instincts and soaking in the new cleansing breaths of oxygen in her lungs. Done, she was fucking done.

It was going to be hard, she knew that. With Thea… old feelings… saying goodbye to a dream that’d never be a reality. But no matter what, she’d remember this feeling. The one when she’d finally broken free of her monster’s chains. They were finally gone and she’d never felt lighter.

“I’m free, Wes,” she gasped the words again, still unable to fully grasp them. “He tried to break me again. But this time... this time I’m gone and I’m never comin’ back here. I’m gonna get Thea and we’re gonna go…”

Like an anchor dropping on her chest in slow motion, she felt the words drift out of her mouth as the haze of relief lifted from her eyes.

Dean was right. She had nowhere else to go. After having a child out of wedlock, her momma cut ties with her, something she was sure as hell her daddy never would’ve allowed if he were alive. On top of that, she’d lost all contact with her friends from college.

Maybe she could call Sophie? No, that’d be so shitty to use her after only just reconnecting. And Sophie was dealing with her own shit. There was no way Naomi could bring their drama to her doorstep.

Sasha Saves had safe homes… but she knew for a fact they were all in use at the moment. Plus, Dean had his ways. He worked security, for God’s sake. He’d be able to find her with no problem. The weight of her reality collapsed back on her, making her chest tighten.

“No... no, no, no, no. This can’t be happening.” Why hadn’t she thought of all that before? Every avenue for survival flew through her mind quicker than she could understand. None of them worked. She hadn’t thought this through. She hadn’t—

“What, Naomi? What’s wrong? Talk to me.”

Wes’s voice snapped her out of the terror now consuming her. She whipped her gaze back up at him, knowing she wasn’t hiding her emotions anymore. Not that she could if she tried.

His jaw was set, like he was biting back a million questions, but she only had one thought on her mind.

“I don’t have anywhere to go.” The words wheezed from her, like her lungs were trying to hold on to their last chance for oxygen. She scoffed and massaged her temples, hoping the answer would appear. “I don’t have… anyone. Safe homes are all booked. Dean could— Oh, God, Wes, I don’t have anywhere to go! What have I done?” Hot tears burned her eyes, but she widened them to keep from breaking down completely.

“Stay at BlackStone.”

Wes’s words were like a floodgate to her tension, letting it flow out but unsure where it was going to go or if the release would ruin the world as she knew it.

“Wh-what do you mean?”

He darted his glance at Hawk, who nodded once. “Come home with me.”

Naomi jerked back and groaned from the movement.

“Shit, I mean, no, it’s not like that.” He wiped at his face. “We have a guest room—or studio apartment. It’s certainly big enough for you and Thea to stay in, at least for a little while until we find a place for you guys.”

Naomi felt her eyes blink rapidly as she tried to follow what he was saying. “You mean... T and I come stay with y’all? Wait… is that the apartment Ellie is staying in?”

“Stayed,” Hawk’s deep voice answered. “She and Devil are moving her back to her dorm as we speak.” He checked his watch and lifted his brows. “They might even be done by now.”

Naomi swiveled her head from Hawk to Wes. “Really? Come stay with y’all? Just like that?”

“Yeah, I think you should. It’s the safest place you both could be.”

The idea was crazy but also... “That sounds perfect.”

Wes’s shy smile widened. “Yeah? Great... um... do you, uh, need help packing?”

Naomi shook her head. “No… uh, just help up please.”

“Oh, right.” He lent her a hand, being so ginger with her that it almost brought even more tears to her eyes.

God, I’m a mess.

“I’m gonna go pack a few things. If y’all could just... I don’t know, make sure he doesn’t come back without me knowin’?”

The two men scowled before nodding.

Wes turned to Hawk while pressing the button for the garage door, closing it. “You get the front door—”

“—and you take the back. We’ll both keep an ear out for the garage door.”

“Copy.”

As they walked away, Naomi waited until she could hear their long strides farther in the house.

“I’ll be just a sec,” she called out before walking around the house, double-checking that she hadn’t missed anything. She eventually grabbed dress-up clothes, Thea’s teddy bear, Angus, and another small bag from Thea’s closet before heading back into the laundry room.

She was embarrassed to admit that she and Thea had already packed go-bags full of everything they could need for a quick getaway. T had assumed the overnight bags were for sleepovers with friends. Naomi went with that explanation, hoping if she ever talked about it around Dean, it’d work in her favor. The duffels included essential paperwork, clothing, travel-sized necessities, toys, and some extra dash cash, all thanks to Sasha Saves's tips for victims…

No.

Survivors.

She smiled to herself before reaching the laundry room and digging into the extra hamper. To anyone else, it looked filled to the brim with unmatched socks. Bending to dig through the tall wicker hamper, she sucked in a pained breath. Pushing through her fresh injuries, she dodged the mismatched socks she’d planted in the hamper until she found the go-bags. Once she had their straps secured around her shoulder, she returned the socks that had spilled out.

The shelf above her head had the detergent she needed, but reaching up for it made her moan. Suddenly, cedar and citrus filled her nostrils as Wes reached from behind her.

“This what you need?” He grabbed the laundry detergent box and Naomi had no choice but to nod. When he set it down, she felt the heat from his cobalt gaze as she unlatched the top. She sifted her hand through the white powdery detergent until her fingers found the small plastic bag of rolled cash at the bottom of the container.

She tucked the Ziploc in a hidden pocket she’d sewn in her purse, just in case. Her first plan had been to have the money on her at all times, but carrying the large sum had made her nervous. Using the laundry room for her escape had been an excellent tip from a survivor. Lord knows Dean didn’t know his bleach from his fabric softener.

After the cash was safely hidden, she crossed her arms and met Wes’s eyes, daring him to say something. But when his only reply was a furrowed brow and silence, she did the job for him.

“Go ahead. Chastise me for stayin’ with a man I had to plan to run away from. But know I’m already thinkin’ it enough for the both of us.”

“No, it’s not that—”

“Then what? I know you’re thinkin’ somethin’ so let’s hear it.”

“I just… I just wish my mom had had a plan.”

A breath escaped her and all her anger dissipated with it. “Oh.” She didn’t know what Wes had grown up with, but if the shadows that darkened his face every time he spoke about his mother were any indication, then it had to have been bad. Damn her temper and her insistence on keeping him at arm’s length. This man wasn’t the enemy and it was high time she stopped treating him that way. “Let’s go, um… let’s go. I gotta get T from day care before Dean tries to.”

Hawk met back up with them and when they reached outside, Naomi turned to them with her car keys in her hand as a thought crossed her mind.

“Um… do you mind followin’ behind? Just in case?”

“Of course, love. You don’t even have to ask.”

Relief coursed through her even as her heart pounded in her chest. She stared at the empty house for a moment. It wasn’t the last time she’d set foot inside, but she’d never stay under that roof with that monster again. Her hands shook from the mixed emotions swelling in her, unable to fully believe she was actually leaving him.

After five on and off tumultuous years of being a victim, she was finally taking her life into her own hands.

She was a survivor.