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lot, he walked her toward his truck and the street lamp that was next to it. In the dim light, he stopped, turned, and raised his hands. Zoey didn’t fight him as he took off her sunglasses.
    The bruise was pretty dark and Dalton judged it to be a few hours old.
    “Where is he?”
    “Home. I... left.”
    “You left,” he repeated.
    She didn’t elaborate.
    “And you didn't bring anything with you,” he surmised.
    She shook her head. “There wasn’t time. I was going home. To mom and dad's, but...” She gestured to her face as a tear slid down her cheek. She shivered again and wrapped her arms around herself.
    "I'll take you to my place," he told her.
    “Dalton-”
    "Just until you calm down, maybe fix your face." Dalton knew he'd like to fix the asshole's face, but there was a time for that as well and it wasn’t right now. Zoey needed him more, but she hesitated at his offer.
    He sighed. "You don't have anywhere else to go, Z."
    D and Z. Adam used to tease them all the time about it. For a while Dalton pretended to be irritated by it, but he’d grown to like it. Hearing it now, she took a deep breath and seemed to relax just a little. She finally nodded and he surprised her by reaching for the door handle of the truck. He helped her climb inside.
    "Give me your keys. Ava can drive your car to my place. Which one’s yours?"
    She pointed out a Mercedes near the door and handed him the keys. He shut the passenger door, sealing her off from the cold. Ava and Sienna came out with a plastic sack and his change. He took the makeup, but left the cash with Ava.
    "Take her car," he said passing her the keys. "Fill it up and bring it to my place, okay?"
    Ava nodded.
    "I thought I saw her in the parking lot," Ava told him. "We came in to say hi." She glanced at Zoey sitting in his front seat. "What happened?"
    "I don't know, but I intend to find out. Take your time filling the tank, okay? And have Sienna take Pop’s car."
    Ava nodded and he knew she understood. "Okay."
    He watched Ava get into Zoey’s Mercedes and waited for her to start the car before he turned back to the truck. As he rounded the front and headed for the driver’s seat, he fumed silently. He’d been wrong, he thought bitterly. There was another, even worse way, to drive a woman out of your life, though Dalton couldn’t understand it at all. How could a man raise a hand to his woman? To Zoey? It was unbelievable.
    As he reached for the door handle to his own truck, he knew two things for certain: that he would find out exactly how something like this had happened and that he would do whatever it took to make sure it never happened again. He slammed the door, harder than he meant to, causing Zoey to jump.
    “Sorry,” he muttered as he stuck the key in the ignition, but only because it was a thing you said. Zoey wasn’t afraid of him. She’d never had to be. He wanted to reach out and touch her now, to comfort her, but he couldn’t and that only made him more pissed off. With his left hand he patted the pocket of his jeans and reassured himself with the coin. He needed it all right now: Serenity, Wisdom, and Courage. Everything but Acceptance. This, he would never accept.

Chapter Six
     
    As they drove, Zoey looked around, confused. “What happened to the Ford?” she asked.
    “I don’t have it anymore,” he replied curtly. He really didn’t want to get into how Adam had been forced to sell it over the summer to pay for Dalton’s stint in rehab and Pop’s day program at the nursing home. Once Dalton had gotten out, he’d bought the Toyota outright because it was cheap and he could pay cash for it. Every dime he made now went to his modest rent and to pay back Adam who’d been forced to sell his own Harley, too, when a marker had been called in on a debt Dalton owed. Dalton had borrowed a considerable sum of money from some bad people, the kind of people you didn’t want to piss off by not being able to pay it back in a timely