Page 52 of Resist

She lifted one shoulder. “He was really pissed. Probably because he was out of work at the time and I was paying the rent, buying the groceries, taking care of everything.”

“What happened after he hit you?”

Ainsley chewed on her lower lip. “You heard my brother’s comment about hiding scissors.”

Coulton nodded. “I thought he was stoned and talking nonsense.”

“Oh, he was stoned, but…” She looked away from him, and Coulton could tell they were reaching what she considered the make-or-break part of the story. “We really should have had this conversation onshore. You’re trapped with me.” She gave him a weak laugh, trying to pass her words off as a joke, but he could see she meant what she said. She expected him to walk.

“Tell me about the scissors.”

“Jagger wasn’t going to stop with just one smack. He was enraged, and I needed to get the hell out of that apartment or he would’ve seriously hurt me. We were in the kitchen and I was backed against a counter, too far away from the knives, which were in a drawer on the opposite side of the room. But there was a pair of scissors on the counter behind me. So when he came at me again, I grabbed them and stabbed him in the shoulder. I guess the pain was bad enough that he sobered up. He called the cops and had me arrested.”

Coulton scowled. “You were arrested?!”

She scooted back a bit, mistaking his anger. He halted her, reaching for her upper arms.

“No. No. I’m sorry,” he said, quieter, hating that she was skittish as a newborn kitten. “It was self-defense, Ainsley.”

She blinked a couple of times, as if trying to decide if she’d heard him correctly.

“Hewas the one who should have been arrested,” Coulton stressed.

“I…I know. But I wasn’t really thinking clearly because…Ihadstabbed him. He lost a lot of blood, and I panicked, thinking maybe I’d hit a major artery or something. The ambulance took him to the hospital and the cops took me in, booked me. I spent the night in jail. Next morning, my court-appointed attorney showed up. He said the same thing you did. It was self-defense.”

“Did they let you out?”

She shook her head. “Not right away. It took my lawyer a few days to convince the judge to let me out on my own recognizance because it was my first offense. It was lucky he did, because there was no way Mick was coughing up bail money.”

Yet another reason for Coulton to hate Mick.

“The day of my trial,” she continued, “I showed up at the courthouse, only to discover that the prosecuting attorney had decided to drop the charges at the last minute. While I didn’t have a record, Jagger did. He’d been arrested four times for assault, drunken bar brawls, shit like that. I guess the prosecutor decided I reallyhadacted in self-defense. So…I was free to go.”

“Good for the prosecutor. Even though I don’t think you should have been arrested and charged in the first place.”

Ainsley shrugged, but he caught the slight smile on her face. “Thanks.”

He scooted toward her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close, and giving her a quick kiss on the top of her head. No more distance, he decided, pleased that she’d opened up and shared what was clearly a difficult time in her life. “Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m still here.”

She laughed. “Yeah, well, it’s that or diving into the river, so…”

“Tell me about guy number three.” Coulton caught the quick flash of pain in her eyes before she shuttered it away, and he began to suspect that this was the guy who’d hurt her the most. Which, when he considered the first had cheated on her and the second had hit her, didn’t bode well for what he was about to hear.

“Montgomery,” she said, lacing the name with a healthy bit of disdain.

“Is that a first or last name?”

“First. He was part of the prosecuting attorney’s team that dropped the charges against me. A junior prosecutor. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, rich, refined, clean-cut, handsome. He caught up to me as I was leaving the courthouse.”

“Why?” he asked.

“He said he was impressed by me. Called me a badass for fighting back against Jagger. I was flattered and shocked that he was flirting with me. Guys like him,” she paused, her gaze resting on his face, as Coulton heard the unspokenand you, “don’t usually look at girls like me. Montgomery was a smooth talker, very good with words.”

“Most lawyers are,” Coulton observed.

“Yeah. I guess they are. Anyway, he invited me out for coffee, and I accepted. We went out, and by the end of the afternoon, we were back at his condo.” She gave him a rueful grin. “Like I said, he was good with words.”

“You started dating?”

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