Fuck.
It was going to be one of those days.
“Hey, Hudson.”
“The fuck are you doing home, London?” His words were slurred, and the sound of the door slamming behind me made me tense.
I was used to him being angry with me… impatient… but shit…
I hadn’t even done anything yet.
“I called in.” I spoke carefully as I tried to make my way around him. He stalked after me, swaying as he did, his gaze narrowed, his blond hair falling into his eyes.
“You don’t look sick.”
I had to tell him. Hehadto understand that it wasn’t safe. ThatIwasn’t safe—fuck, he was myboyfriend. Maybe our relationship wasn’t the best, but I had to think at leastsomepart of him cared about me. “That guy was at my job, and I—”
The first hit took me by surprise. Usually, when he was angry or drunk, I could get away from him—he was clumsy enough that he didn’t catch me off guard, and by the time he sobered up, he wasn’t even sure what happened.
Something about tonight was different, though.
I wasn’t sure if it was because I’d mentioned the man again, or because he couldseeI wasn’t going to let it go.
Whatever it was, the feel of his fist slamming into my stomach sent me doubling over, and his hand tangling in my hair and jerking my head up left me gasping in pain.
“God damn it, London. I don’t know if fucking you is worth listening to this shit over and over. What do you want? Do I need to come watch you act like some fucking cheap whore every night on the stage so you feel safe?”
“I…”
I’d never ask Hudson for that. I was with him because I didn’t have anywhere else to go, and because once upon a time I’d thought I loved him. I was with him because he’d convinced me a long time ago that I wasn’t worthy of being with anyone else.
And now…
Well, now I was wondering if I’d spent so long worrying about the man who was watching me that I’d missed seeing the one I was sleeping with slowly turning into a monster while I’d been distracted. He’d always been dangerous, but this…
This was different.
“He came looking for you, you know. Do you think I’m stupid, London? Do you think I can’t see it when you’re sleeping around?”
My eyes widened again.
“I’m not—”
The backhand would have sent me flying if he hadn’t been holding me by my hair, but the strength of it cut my words off.
“I couldseeit in his eyes. Hewantedyou. He said your name like he knows what you taste like.”
But I didn’t know him. I was afraid of him. I just wanted to feel safe.
The explanations stayed stuck to the roof of my mouth, washed down the back of my throat with the blood that spilledonto my tongue from my split lip. I could have told Hudson everything I was thinking, but his glassy eyes and the fury on his face spelled it out.
He wasn’t going to listen. I was in danger here the same way I was out there. I wasn’t protected.
I was prey.
I was always going to be prey, and it seemed like I was incapable of doing anything but surrounding myself with predators that wanted to watch me bleed.
I jerked away from him, crying out at the feel of his fingers ripping at my hair. It was enough, though. Hudson was bigger than my five feet, six inches by nearly half a foot, butIwasn’t drunk. Instinct drove me to dart past him when he barreled at me with outstretched arms.
