Better (Stark Ink Book 2) (6 page)

Dalton ducked two calls from Adam while he worked. Apparently, whatever the man had to say wouldn’t fit in a text and that meant Dalton didn’t have time to hear it. He finished up on time and ducked the foreman’s gaze as he clocked out with everyone else. There would be no staying late today. He jumped in the truck and sped off from the job site. He pulled up in front of the apartment to see both Zoey’s car and Pop’s still parked outside. It was a good sign. Neither had run the other off, at least. Even more surprising, both Zoey and Jonah were in the living room watching a movie. Zoey was smiling for the first time since Dalton had seen her.

“Hey,” said the younger Stark as Dalton closed the front door.

Dalton lifted his chin.

Zoey wrestled herself up off the couch and grimaced.

Dalton darted forward. “Are you okay?”

She held up a hand. “Fine. Fine.”

Jonah snorted. “She probably has to pee again.”

Zoey shot him a sharp look.

He smirked at her. “She’s been going all day,” he told Dalton. “Your water bill tripled in twenty-four hours.”

“Shut up,” Zoey cried, but she didn’t stay to argue. “Be right back,” she told Dalton as she hurried past him.

When she was safely ensconced behind the bathroom door, Dalton turned to his younger brother. “Everything go okay?”

Jonah made a face as he paused the movie. “Well, he called. But she didn’t pick up the phone.”

Dalton’s jaw tightened. “I suppose I’m not allowed to just break her damn phone.”

Jonah wrinkled his nose. “Probably not.”

“Did he leave a message?”

Jonah shrugged. “If he did, she didn’t listen to it.”

With that thought, Zoey’s phone rang. Dalton eyed it sitting on the kitchen counter. “Asshole,” he muttered. The urge to smash it was strong, but it wasn’t his phone or his place.

Jonah shook his head. “That’s not him. Or at least, it’s not the same ring tone.”

Dalton took a step forward, but Zoey burst out of the bathroom. “That’s my mom,” she declared, frantically wiping her wet hands on her jeans. She snatched her cell phone off the counter and answered it. “Mom. Mom! Calm down. I’m alright. Everything’s fine.”

Dalton glowered. Obviously Zoey had a different definition of ‘alright.’

“I’m not missing,” Zoey sighed. “Clearly. I’m staying… with a friend.”

Dalton suppressed a grunt. Obviously they had a different definition of ‘friend,’ as well.

“Well…” Zoey drawled as her eyes darted from Dalton to Jonah. “He shouldn’t have called you. I’m sorry. It’s— I mean, it wasn’t just an argument, Mom. I know couples argue. This wasn’t that.” She turned and ducked out of the kitchen.

Dalton watched her walk down the hall to the second bedroom.

“Yes, I’m coming home,” was the last thing he heard her say before she quietly shut the door.

Jonah stood up and tossed the remote on the couch. “That’s it for me,” he declared. “I’m going to grab a burger before I start my shift.”

Dalton straightened his shoulders and looked at him. “Thanks. Thanks for coming over.”

Jonah grabbed his leather jacket off the chair and shrugged. “Eh. He didn’t show. Probably too scared. Probably a good thing.”

Dalton let his brother out and locked the door behind him. He frowned down the empty hallway. For lack of anything better to do, he wandered into the living room, picked up Zoey’s empty teacup and rinsed it out in the sink. Without really deciding to, he refilled the saucepan and set it on the stove.

It wasn’t always smooth sailing between Zoey and her mom. A fresh hot cup of tea might be in order after this. He carried the cup, bag and all, to the kitchen table intending to let it cool. Zoey’s voice, though, wafted down the hall. Dalton turned toward it.

“Well, why did you call?” Her voice was shrill, angry.

Dalton frowned. As long as he’d known her, things had never been this bad.

“You had no right… Concerned?… Well, you weren’t all that concerned when you hit me.”

Dalton’s hand flexed on the fragile cup and he quickly set it down before he broke the damn thing. He took off down the hall, in toward the guest room.

“I don’t want to hear you’re sorry! You’re always sorry… It’s always the last time.”

Dalton’s hand reflexively reached for the knob.

“No, Patrick. Just no. Don’t call my parents anymore. They have nothing to do with this. And don’t act surprised. I told you. I said if it happened again that was it.” Her voice lowered, cracked. Dalton had to strain to hear it. He knew he shouldn’t, but he couldn’t help it. Too much of this was his fault, too much of the blame was on his shoulders. “I won’t bring a baby into that,” Zoey hissed fiercely.

He heard a thump, like she threw the phone. For Dalton, it was the last straw. He twisted the knob and pushed open the door.

Zoey was on the bed, face in her hands.

His own hands tightened into fists and he forgot the precise mechanics of breathing. “Again? He’s hit you before?”

“Zoey?”

Instead of answering him, she got up off the bed and crossed the room to open her overnight bag. As she started filling it with her things, he sighed.

“Don’t do this,” he said. “Talk to me. How long has this been going on? How many times? How bad was it?”

Her hand hovered over her hairbrush, but she didn’t pick it up. She refused to meet his gaze. “Once,” she said quietly. “One other time.”

“Just once?”

She bit her lip and nodded. “Right… right after we found out I was pregnant. He was angry. He said we couldn’t have a baby. We couldn’t afford one, which I didn’t understand because he’d just bought a new car. How could we not have enough money? He told me I had to get rid of it. That’s what he said, ‘Get rid of it,’ like it wasn’t a person growing inside me, like it wasn’t
our baby
, like it didn’t even mean anything. He didn’t go with me. He said he had to work. When I got there, I couldn’t do it. I came home and had to tell him the truth.” Zoey shuddered and balled her hands into small fists. “He was livid. He hit me. That was the first time.”

Dalton himself was furious but held it in. Yelling would only upset her, even if, technically, it was directed at someone else.

Zoey fiddled with the zipper on the bag. “He seemed to realize right away that he’d gone too far. He freaked out and left the house. When he came back he said he was sorry. He said he was just so stressed out from work that he lost it for a second. He said it was okay, that we’d find a way to keep the baby, but things were never really the same.”

“Jesus Fucking Christ,” Dalton muttered.

She finally looked up at him. Her lower lip trembled, but she didn’t cry. “When things happen slowly, you just don’t notice them. Or don’t want to.” She laughed, tense and brittle. “Like a frog boiling. By the time you realize the person you loved— or thought you loved— is gone, you’ve lost so much.” Silent tears ran down her cheeks. “My friends were gone. I barely talked to my parents. I guess I didn’t realize how alone I was until I had no one to call for help. I just grabbed my wallet, my keys, and the hospital bag I packed for when the baby comes… and I ran.”

She perched on the edge of the bed and smoothed a wrinkled t-shirt on her lap. “None of this is the way it was supposed to be. He was supposed to be kind, thoughtful. I mean, he was at first. And… I’d needed it for so long.” She looked at him guiltily before turning away.

Dalton moved further into the room. He didn’t go to her, even though he wanted to so badly. Instead he leaned against the wall. “It’s okay. You can say it. You can tell the truth, Zoey.”

She chewed her lower lip. “He didn’t need to be perfect. I never asked for that. He just… he just wasn’t…”

“Wasn’t supposed to turn out like me.”

Zoey’s breath caught in her throat.

For a moment, Dalton thought she was going to cry again, but she held it together.

Her voice came out breathy and quiet. “I don’t know how I let this happen.”

Dalton snorted. “Don’t you? You ignored everything about me for so long. You just kept turning a blind eye.”

She looked up at him with a pained expression. “I was hoping you’d get better.”

“I taught you to hide the truth, or at least living with me did.” He sighed and turned his gaze to the bedroom ceiling. “I drove you to him and I fucked you up so badly that you went through hell all over again.”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

Dalton’s head jerked back down. “Why? Why are you sorry? Zoey, I just said it was me. It was my fault.”

She shook her head. “But I shouldn’t have come here. And I definitely shouldn’t have stayed. You don’t need my mess and I—” She looked away and stood up.

You don’t need mine,
thought Dalton. He nodded. The last thing he wanted was to complicate her life. If she didn’t feel like she needed him, he wouldn’t push her. Some people were the people, but it was never the right time. He watched as she finished gathering her things and re-packed her bag. His chest ached, but he made no move to stop her.

“I should go to my parents’ house. I have to face them sometime.”

Dalton pushed off the wall. “I’ll drive you. We’ll take your car. I’ll get a cab back.”

She paused with her fingers on the zipper of her bag. “You don’t have to. I can— ”

His eyes narrowed. “It’s not about what you can do, Zoey. I can do that much. I owe you that, at least.” He moved forward, finished zipping her overnight bag, and slung it onto his shoulder. She was ready to go, so she had to go and there was no point or use in trying to stop her. He held the front door for her and then placed her bag in the back seat of her car. He took his time adjusting the driver’s seat to fit his large frame, though. Pathetic, but just a few more minutes was better than nothing.

He turned the mirrors, played with the heat, checked to make sure she was warm enough. He told himself he was getting used to the idea of her leaving, sitting with it a while until it was no longer a pain but just another errand. Finally, when he couldn’t stall any longer, he pulled away from the curb.

For all his pep talks and posturing, the closer they got to her parents’ place the more uneasy he felt. It seemed that letting Zoey go this time would be a bit harder to do than he wanted to admit. He told himself he was concerned for her, which was mostly true, but surely her parents, for all their faults, could keep her safe.

He pulled up to their large, two-story house and parked out front. Despite the circumstances, he chuckled to himself as he walked around the front of the Mercedes to get Zoey. He shouldn’t stay long. Not that the Connors would want him to. He helped Zoey to the door and carried her backpack for her. She knocked and her long-suffering mother finally answered. Dalton knew she was long-suffering not because she looked it, but because if you spent any amount of time with the woman she’d tell you all about it. He knew more than he wanted to know about Home Owners’ Associations and shady landscaping services.

Elaine’s relief at seeing her daughter was tempered in no small part by the fact that Dalton was standing next to her. She seemed so bewildered by his presence that she didn’t even immediately invite Zoey in, finally opening the door wide and stepping back when the initial shock wore off.

Dalton followed her inside, cautiously. Elaine was too polite to actually slam the door in his face, but he steered clear of the swinging barrier all the same. She obviously wasn’t happy about his presence. Dalton didn’t bother to acknowledge this, having years ago resigned himself to it.

It was no secret how the Connors felt about Dalton. They may have tolerated the Starks on the whole, seeing as how they went to the same church, but Elaine and Lyle had made it clear to Zoey that Dalton was out of his league. They hadn’t really laid it on thick at first, a comment here, a snide remark there. So long as they had only been casually dating, and not very often at that, Dalton suspected that the Connors were chalking him up to Zoey’s little walk on the wild side before she settled down.

When she ended up moving in with him, though, they changed their tactics and began an all-out full-court press to get rid of him. In the end, only Dalton had been able to get rid of Zoey and though the Connors were probably very, very happy about that, Dalton had a feeling that they were both more than a little miffed that they hadn’t been the ones to make her see the light.

“Zoey, honey. Patrick’s been calling and calling. He’s just worried sick. And here you are... with him!”

“More like he’s worried he’s going to jail,” Dalton replied.

Elaine narrowed her eyes at him. “What do you mean? And why are you here? Isn’t it enough that you ruined your own relationship with Zoey? You have to break up her marriage, too? Honestly,” Elaine said as she shook her head. “What would Miriam say?”

Zoey gasped. “Mom!”

Dalton probably would have managed to keep his cool if Zoey’s mother hadn’t taken such a cheap shot. “What would she
say
? I don’t know, Elaine. I think she’d want to know where you were when Zoey’s husband was smacking her around!”

Elaine’s jaw dropped. “Well… that’s just an awful thing to say. And you can’t just go around making accusations like that about-”

“It’s true, Mom,” Zoey replied.

Elaine turned from Dalton to Zoey. “Well… maybe… maybe it was a mistake.”

“A mistake?” Dalton asked. “Like he took a swing and Zoey accidentally ran into his fist?”

She glared at him. “There’s probably an explanation.” She turned to Zoey. “It can’t be as serious as you’re making it. It’s
him
,” she ground out. “
He’s
putting ideas in your head.”

Dalton sighed heavily. It was true Zoey had done a hell of a job with the makeup, which may not have turned out to be a good thing. This coupled with her reluctance to tell them how her marriage had
really
been going all this time was leaving Zoey in a tough situation. He couldn’t help but feel that keeping her parents in the dark about the reality of her situation was directly contributing to their inability to grasp the seriousness of it now. Unfair, but there it was. Zoey’s choice to try and save them the pain had only heaped more of it onto herself. She hadn’t sought the help she needed and now that she wanted it, it wasn’t there.

“No, Mom,” Zoey argued. “None of this is Dalton’s fault. He didn’t even know. I… we ran into each other last night and I told him.
He’s
the one worried about me.”

Elaine scoffed. “Well, this is all just ridiculous, but no surprise now that we know who’s behind it all. You’ll stay here tonight, Zoey. We’ll call Patrick and in the morning he’ll come and get you and the two of you can sort all this out.”

Zoey shook her head. “No. Absolutely not, Mom.”

“He’s your husband, Zoey. You have to deal with this.”

“I am dealing with it.”

“By staying with
him
?” Elaine demanded. “Honestly, Zoey. What on Earth are you
thinking
?! That’s unacceptable!”

Elaine glared at Dalton again, but he didn’t care. He was just as furious. The time to try and spare Zoey the drama was long past. He glared right back at her mother.

“You’re
married!
” Elaine hissed at Zoey.

“It didn’t feel like it when he hit me,” Zoey replied quietly. “In fact, I haven’t felt married for a long time, Mom.”

“That’s no excuse. You just need some space and some time to think about things.”

Zoey opened her mouth to argue, but Dalton cut her off. “Are you
hearing
her? Are you even
listening
? Patrick hit her last night and it wasn’t the first time. There’s no excuse for
that
, Elaine!”

Zoey’s mother smirked at him. “You’re no better.”

“Mom!” Zoey cried.

Dalton shook his head. “I made mistakes, but I never,
ever,
laid a hand on her. Come on, Zoey. We’re leaving.”

“She can stay here,” Elaine insisted.

Dalton scoffed. “So you can work on her some more? Tell her she needs to go back to him? Tell her she has to choose between one Hell and another? No. No way.”

“You are not a member of this family, Dalton Stark, and I thank God every day that you never were! You don’t speak for my daughter and I think you’ve overstayed your welcome in my home.”

“Like I was ever welcome,” he muttered. To Zoey, he said, “You can’t stay here. You know you don’t want to hear this bullshit.” He paused. As much as he hated to admit it, Elaine was right about one thing. He didn’t speak for Zoey and he couldn’t force her to make the choice he wanted. “If you want to go somewhere else, I’ll take you,” he conceded quietly. “A friend, a hotel. Wherever. But you shouldn’t stay here. This is not what you need, Zoey.”

He closed his mouth firmly because it was so tempting to keep talking, keep trying to convince her. For the first time Dalton desperately wanted to be what she needed, the
only
thing she needed, but that wasn’t fair to either of them.

Zoey picked up her coat and her borrowed backpack. “You’re right,” she declared. “I can’t deal with this.” To her parents she said, “I’ll call you later. Maybe in a few days to check in. Maybe… things will be different.”

“You can’t go,” Elaine cried. “Not… now. Not
with him
.”

Zoey ignored her mother, heading past her toward the front door.

“Zoey,” said Elaine, stepping in front of her. “I told you once before that he wasn’t good enough for you and I was right, wasn’t I? If you walk out this door with him, you are going to
ruin
your life.”

Zoey sighed heavily. “Mother-”

“It’s a
sin,
Zoey!
A mortal sin
! Think of the baby.”

That seemed to cut Zoey to bone, worse than anything else they’d said up to this point. “I am thinking of the baby, Mom. Patrick… Patrick doesn’t want the baby.”

Elaine rolled her eyes. “You’re exaggerating. New babies are stressful, especially first babies. I remember when your father-”

“Demanded you get an abortion?” Zoey interrupted. “You remember when Daddy stood over your while you made the appointment to make sure it was done? And when you couldn’t go through with it, you remember when he kicked you in the belly?”

Elaine’s face turned white and for the first time since they’d arrived she seemed to be struck speechless. She looked from Zoey to Dalton and back again and Dalton could practically hear all the gears in her head grinding to a standstill. For the first time in probably her entire life, Elaine Cooper realized that there was someone on this Earth who was worse for Zoey than he was, someone they’d pushed her to marry without really getting to know, someone they might now have a lot of trouble trying to untangle themselves from.