Hellfire, Texas (Hellfire #1) Read Free Page A

Kinsey bit her lip to keep it from trembling. “I think part of the reason he stopped me from driving was that I’d go to visit my parents. Like he was jealous of how much I loved them, and liked spending time at home. By taking away my car, he left me with no way of getting there. Mom and Dad came up to visit me in Dallas when they could, but after they left, Dillon would stomp around the house, sullen and angry. He’d accuse me of being a mama’s girl. If I defended myself, he hit me.”
    “Your parents were good people,” Becket said. “I was sorry to hear of the accident.”
    Tears slipped from Kinsey’s eyes. “They were on their way to visit me, since I couldn’t go to them. I think they knew I was in trouble.”
    “Why didn’t you tell them what was going on?”
    “I was embarrassed, ashamed, and scared. By then, Dillon was my world. I didn’t think I had any other alternatives. And he swore he loved me.”
    “He had a lousy way of showing it,” Becket said through tight lips.
    She agreed. Along with the physical abuse, Dillon heaped enough mental and verbal abuse on Kinsey, she’d started to believe him.
    You’re not smart enough to be a nurse. You’ll kill a kid with your carelessness , he’d say.
    When her parents died, she’d stumbled around in a fog of grief. Dillon coerced her into signing a power of attorney, allowing him to settle their estate. Before she knew what he’d done, he’d sold her parents’ property, lock, stock and barrel, without letting her go through any of their things. He’d put the money in his own account, telling her it was a joint account. She never saw any of the money—never had access to the bank.
    Several times over the past few months, she had considered leaving him. But with her parents gone, no money to start over, and no one to turn to, she’d hesitated.
    Then, a month ago, he’d beaten her so badly she’d been knocked unconscious. When she came to, she knew she had to get out before he killed her. She stole change out of Dillon’s drawer, only a little at a time so he wouldn’t notice. After a couple weeks, she had enough for a tank of gas.
    Dillon settled into a pattern of drinking, beating her, and passing out. She used the hours he was unconscious to scour the house in search of her keys. She’d begun to despair, thinking he’d thrown them away. Until last night. He’d gone out drinking with his teammates. When he’d arrived home, he’d gone straight to the refrigerator for another beer. He’d forgotten he’d finished off the last bottle the night before and blamed her for drinking the beer. With no beer left in the house, he reached for the whiskey.
    With a sickening sense of the inevitable, Kinsey braced herself, but she was never prepared when he started hitting. This time, when he passed out, she’d raided his pockets and the keychain he guarded carefully. On it was the key to her car.
    Grabbing the handful of change she’d hoarded, she didn’t bother packing clothes, afraid if she took too long, he’d wake before she got her car started and out of the shed.
    Heart in her throat, she’d pried open the shed door and climbed into her dusty old vehicle. She’d stuck the key in the ignition, praying it would start. Dillon had charged the battery and started the car the week before, saying it was time to sell it. Hopefully, the battery had retained its charge.
    On her second attempt, she pumped the gas pedal and held her breath. The engine groaned, and by some miracle it caught, coughed, and sputtered to life.
    Before she could chicken out, before Dillon could stagger through the door and drag her out of the vehicle, she’d shoved the gear shift into reverse and backed out of the shed, scraping her car along the side of Dillon’s pristine four-wheel drive pickup, and bounced over the curb onto the street.
    She’d made it out, and she wasn’t going back.

Chapter Two
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    B ecket drove around behind the house and parked close to the