Vince came home at two in the morning with his boots loud on the linoleum and his jaw set wrong.
I had my hands in dishwater and my back to the door, which was my first mistake of the night.
Vince: Turn around and look at me when I'm talking, you lying fucking whore.
Dahlia: I'm looking.
Vince: I went by your sister's place tonight. That shithole trailer with the yellow door.
My whole body went cold from the scalp down. Poppy.
Vince: You told me where she lives. Remember that, sweetheart? Because I do.
He had my hair before I could get a word out. He pulled until my back bent and my knees had to follow.
Vince: What did I tell you about keeping shit from me?
The backhand caught me across the mouth. My head snapped sideways and my ear started ringing like a bad phone.
The boot came down on my face. I felt two teeth give way on the left side like wet chalk, and then the blood filled my mouth hot and thick.
Vince: Say it. Say you're a stupid cunt who can't keep her mouth shut.
Then he kicked me in the side, and I heard the bones make a sound I'd never heard before.
It hurt so much I couldn't scream. I just lay there and tasted copper and waited for the next one.
Vince: You think she's gonna help you now? After what you brought to her door?
I didn't say anything. I knew better. I had known better for a year and I stayed anyway, and that was the part I couldn't get past.
He went to the fridge for another beer, and that was the whole gift. Three seconds with his back to me.
My keys were in my jacket pocket on the chair. I got the jacket, I got the door, and I did not look behind me once.
I drove with one hand on the wheel and the other pressed to my ribs, and every bump in the road made me bite down on a broken tooth.
I didn't cry until the third hour. Then I couldn't stop.
Halden came up out of the dark around five, a bar and a laundry and a garage with one light on.
My gas needle was under the red. My phone was dead in the passenger seat. My cash was eleven dollars and some change.
I walked in because I had nowhere else, and the door chime made every head turn.
Greta: Oh, shit. Hey. Hey, you okay?
Greta: Drink this. Don't talk yet, just drink.
The water was cold and my mouth was so full of blood I could taste it in the water. I drank the whole thing in one go.
Greta: I'm not gonna touch you. I just want to know if you need a doctor.
Dahlia: No doctor. No cops. I need a job and a room and I'll work for both.
Opal: Greta, get her another water and some of that bread from last night.
Opal: And you. Whatever man did that to you, he's not in my bar, is he.
Opal: Take it. It's not charity, it's an advance. You'll earn it back by Friday.
Dahlia: I didn't ask you for anything.
Opal: No, you didn't. That's how I know you're not gonna run off with my till.
Opal: What's your name, honey?
Dahlia: Dana.
It came out easy. I'd been practicing it in my head since the county line, and it still felt like somebody else's name in my mouth.
I put the money in my pocket and I felt the debt land on me, heavy as a hand on my neck.
Everything I'd ever been given, somebody came to collect. I just didn't know yet what Opal's price would be.
A motorcycle pulled into the lot outside, engine cutting off hard.
Greta: That's Riggs. Don't worry, he's not a cop. He's just the worst thing that could happen to a cop.
His eyes moved over my face and stopped on the blood like he was reading a bill.
Riggs: Somebody want to tell me who did that.