Here Comes Trouble (Trouble, Tennessee 0.50)

“Shh.” Bradley hushed them. “She might ask about the rest of us.”

That was all Ryan cared about at the moment, too.

“Draegan? He is all right. Isn’t he?” She seemed frantic then.

Draegan slowly faced her. His chiseled jaw tightened, flexed. He quickened his pace and walked to the table. “Why do you ask?’

“It’s important to me. I’d like to know.” Her lips trembled. She searched his face. “I need to know he’s all right.”

Draegan was apparently reading her appropriately. “Why?” He narrowed his dark eyes. “Why do you need to know, Ellie?”

“Just tell me he’s okay and we’ll move on!” She jumped from her chair and ran to the door. “I need to get out of here.”

“It’s not happening,” Draegan said, waving his fingers at her vacated seat. “Not until I finish my story.”

“And I won’t listen until you tell me Allister is alive and well!”

Allister stood and went to the glass.

“Don’t do it, man,” Harley warned. “Draegan is better suited for this one. Let him do his job.”

Allister clenched his fists. “Damn Denny. That bastard hurt her in a way she can’t even explain. Look at her. She probably doesn’t weigh a hundred and ten pounds soaking wet and now she has to deal with Draegan? He’s toying with her emotions.”

“Hold on a minute.” Ryan put his hand up in the air. “What’d he just say?” Ryan had missed some of Draegan’s storytelling once again.

Markie was too busy smacking his lips and consuming one donut after another. He’d recap after his belly was full, but until then, it was safe to assume Markie wasn’t summarizing at the moment.

By the time Ryan returned his attention to the enclosed room, Draegan was saying, “Here’s what I think happened. Folks in the community knew you and Denny Marshall had been an item, more or less, while you were in high school. Hell, I even remember overhearing Allister and Ryan saying you’d probably marry the jerk.” Draegan paced behind her chair. “When that rumor mill started churning and spitting out gossip, poor old Denny was probably laid up in some whore’s bed, drinking vodka and smoking weed. Wherever he was, he wasn’t coherent. Want me to tell you why I know?”

“I don’t see why it matters.”

“I’m getting there.” Draegan swung his gaze to the glass and back at Ellie once more. “If Denny had been on the receiving end of that gossip-fumed pipeline of information, I personally don’t think he would’ve gone through with the wedding. He did. You did. And just as rumors were true about you, my brother, Ryan Thomas, Derek Swinney, and Bradley Powers, they were also true about the timing when you and Denny no longer seemed to –how should I put this—be living in the throes of fidelity.”

Draegan turned again and continued walking, occasionally sticking his index finger in the air as if to make a specific point. “I’m guessing that around the six month mark, Denny finally heard the belated news about you. He may have even heard it from more than one source. I’ll guess that’s when he first heard of your affairs during your relationship break and probably the first time he struck you. Am I right?”

Ryan leaned forward. He was aware of the others shifting their body weight, too. They were all waiting for the first confirmation of what had often been a topic of conversation.

“Yes,” she finally responded in a barely audible voice. “He said he’d never forgive me and he wanted a divorce, but when I gave him that, it wasn’t good enough.”

Draegan went to the small refrigerator against the far wall and retrieved a box of tissues from the shelf above it. “He wanted you to suffer for embarrassing him?” Draegan set the tissues in front of her. “Was that it?”

“No,” she replied, half-laughing, half-crying. “That’s the absurdity in all this. He once said he was ‘sick the quick’ just thinking about others touching me and then as time wore on, he would come by the house and make these foolish demands. He wanted me to sleep with him and another woman. Then he wanted me to fuck him and a few of his friends.”

Ryan swallowed. His cock twitched in his slacks. He’d always been such a sucker for Ellie, but when a dirty word fell from her lips, she might as well have given his cock a stout pull.

“And did you?”

“He did not just ask her that.” Bradley fell against the back of his chair. “That’s none of his business.”

“It’s important,” Harley said. “If she’s doing what she can to please him now, she can’t stay here. If she does, her time will be short lived. If she makes contact with him, he’ll use whatever he can as leverage and she’ll walk out of here.”

“He knows all that,” Allister said, seemingly more tense than before.

“That’s none of your business,” Ellie said.

“Actually it is, Ellie.” Draegan pulled free a few tissues and handed them over. “See, if you’re still trying to please the shithead, we need to know. We want to protect you and we can, but we have to know what we’re facing before we accept residents here. I hope you understand. It’s for your protection. We need to know which side you’re on so when Denny comes looking for you, we know where you stand.”

“Are you saying I’m not even safe here?” She rose from her chair. “Is that what you’re saying?”