Free Bought by the Billionaire Brothers 5 by Alexx Andria Page A

“I’m not totally helpless. I don’t need their money. I’d rather sleep in my car than accept another dime from my father.”
    “Didn’t your father buy your car?” Isabel asked tentatively. When Dillon shot her a dark scowl, she continued in a rush. “Baby, listen to me. You’re being rash. You’ve grown up accustomed to living in the lap of luxury; you don’t know how to be on your own. Everything you own belongs to your family. Please don’t make a decision you can’t take back. You don’t know what it’s like to be alone.” She tried to reach out to Dillon but he cut her down with a cold stare. “Please Dillon…I’m on your side. I love you.”
    “You have a funny way of showing it by telling me to suck up to my father for the scraps from his table. I never realized how useless you think I am,” he said caustically.
    “I don’t think that at all! But you don’t know what you’re doing. The world isn’t going to fall at your feet just because you’re a Buchanan unless you have the Buchanan cash to persuade them and your dad is just giving you a chance to make your mark. Why is that so bad?”
    “That just goes to show how much you don’t know about the Buchanans. My father isn’t interested in helping shape my future; he just wants to control me. If I give in to his demands, it will never end!”
    Tears glistened in Isabel’s eyes and he knew she hadn’t heard a word he’d said. All she could see was the gravy train coming to a grinding halt if he got tossed on his ear. Suddenly, instead of seeing the woman he was in love with standing before him, all he saw was a gold-digger and his rage crested the wall of control. “Unbelievable,” he muttered, shaking his head. Isabel’s crestfallen expression pushed his anger sidewise and he lashed out at her, saying, “Go on, get the fuck out of here if you’re so inclined to agree with my family. Chase after the money, Isabel.”
    “Dillon, wait!” She tried to stop him but he flung her hand from his arm with a snarl, too angry to care that he was being reckless and cruel to the one person he loved. He had to get away from the hypocrisy, the lies and most of all from his disillusionment that Isabel hadn’t cared about his money. She was just as petty and shallow as the rest. Fuck her. She cried, “Dillon!”
    But he hadn’t stopped. No, in fact, he’d made the biggest mistake of his life — one that would haunt him for the rest of his life.
    Dillon squeezed his eyes shut as he tried to push the memory farther from his consciousness but Isabel’s stricken expression haunted him. Had she known she was pregnant already when he’d kicked her to the curb along with everyone else in his life? Had she felt scared and alone with no one to turn to? He’d been a bastard but his brothers had taken it to the next level; they’d swooped in on a vulnerable girl during a desperate moment and taken full advantage.
    He drained the scotch. Hating himself for a myriad of reasons — for being a cold, heartless bastard, for not knowing when to quit, for destroying every single good thing in his life — but mostly, God bless it, because his brain kept replaying Penny’s shattered expression at his betrayal. Why did he care so much? Why did it feel as if hot needles had just been shoved into his heart? Forget it…he didn’t want to know the answer.
    #
    The oppressive silence in the cab of the Towncar made Penny want to jump from the moving vehicle if only to escape the judgment in Vince and Nolan’s hurt and angry gaze.
    “Why?” Vince was the first to break the si lence with a terse demand. “Why did you do it?” Penny didn’t have time to answer. Vince’s anger had begun to boil over in a torrent of words that made her flinch and cause tears to spring to her eyes. How could she explain something she didn’t understand herself? She was mortified and humiliated by her own gullibility — and yet, there was a piece of her that desperately