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I shrieked because apparently bringing up Rule was the wrong thing to say Gabe ht he was able to He chasedto keep as ht ger and stronger so he grabbed led all the way to the floor I kicked an end table over which e racket and earned me a back hand across the cheek that split the side ofmy arms to my sides and wrapped a hand aroundfro breathing I clawed at his squeezing hands and flailed hten his hands around my neck

"You think I care what that loser thinks? You think I give a single fuck what that degenerate wants to do tothat he wouldn’t stick around, now look at you All alone and finally doing things et et away fro to killto blur in and out andon ether and hoas going to call my mother and have her reconsider her actions about his internship now that ere a couple I shook ed to get h that I jabbedhih that I could crawl a little bit away from him I sliced et ed back down by a cruel hand in ht landed squarely on my back and had to blink away a steady flow of blood as the side ofof the overturned table

"Ayden is going to be home any minute" My voice was thready and thin from the pressure he had put on my neck but it wasn’t like it mattered anyway he simply jerked me back to my feet and pressed me so that I was folded in half over the back of the couch I was trying desperately not to think about how little of a barrierhi toeverywhere

"Who cares? You’retoto tell her things got out of hand while ere ht on my back that the way he had my hand wrenched up behindpop that made both of us jerk my shoulder found its way out of the socket I screeched in pain and went limp on that side Fear and panic rose up hard and fast in et to my purse for the ainst hio of my hands now that one was totally useless and put one on the back of my neck to keep ing and pulling at the botto all kinds of broken sentences and talking about hoas going toabout gettingto seriously cry because there was no way I was going to let him violate me in that way

Fortunately part of the lah to the couch that a piece was i and pulling at ood hand around it I could feel the little ruffly shorts I wore under the uniforh to spurnI could reach froh and I wasn’t sure that I had enough strength to do any real dalass shard as hard as I could and heard him swear as he suddenly jerked back I sluht landed on led to get the glass out andback to ot the ave hiht in the face while he bellowed like an injured bear I squeezed the ood hand and bolted out the door I was sure I looked like an escapee fro hysterically, had blood all over e to my throat, but none of that mattered because as soon as I made it to the security door I ran sto knohat happened and I heard her dialing 911 on the phone but between the shock and pain I just shut down I blinked up at her through the blood trailing down overout of some of the other apart faded to black I was pretty sure she caught nizant of anything I was strapped to a stretcher and getting loaded into the back of an aa million and one questions at Ayden as she scrarabbedjust as hard as I was

"Gabe?" My throat was on fire, talking h a forest of razor blades

Ayden brushed away her tears with shaking hands and I winced as the paramedic turned all his questions to me

"The cops have hi him in the back of the police car but the mace you used on him was hard to miss so he couldn’t really deny he was in our apartate?"

I flinched as the paramedic prodded atto have to get it reset It’s dislocated and I think the cut on your forehead is going to be deep enough that it’s going to need to be glued or sewed shut Sorry"

I wanted to tell hiotten aith the ulti hurt tooa sexual assault exam I shook ain

"My mom" The words were broken and not just because of ave hiether"

Ayden let loose with a string of sords that would have made Rule proud and we spent the rest of the short ride just clinging to one another The next two hours was a blur of doctors and police officers After the first fifteento keep upas abused up as they wore so I had to resort to writing everything down for everyone Gabe was in lock up at least for the night and there wasn’t anything his dad could do to get him out The detective that took ood chance his fa so he would be out but there was now ahis dad could do about it Not that it ht in the hospital to see how bad the da pain killers to dull themy shoulder placed back in the socket

My mom and Jack showed up sometime near dawn and my dad came as well I told Ayden I didn’t want to see any of thee scene but when s I hadRule Ayden totally lost her cool and infor Gabe the code to the security door of the apartht up My dad forced his way in using hishiized profusely over and over again When he went to kiss my cheek I turned ust in s these people encoht now They all left after a nurse threatened to call security if they didn’t stop disturbing me

Ayden pulled up a chair and propped her feet on the edge of the bed and we both fell into a fitful sleep asmore pain meds as my shoulder started to ache and various other parts of me that had been abused made themselves known Ayden vanished somewhere around noon which was fine because it was another round of doctors and detectives Gabe’s dad hadhow bad he had hurthim with atteain and I never wavered from the brutal facts Gabe was sick, he needed help, but more than that he needed to be somewhere where he wasn’t able to do this to soh to own another person despite their feelings in the matter was beyond urt and so sheepish "I called Cora to let her knoas going on I didn’t even think about the fact that she would freak out while she was at work"

I went completely still and turned wide eyes to h a major hissy fit when he heard what happened and needless to say he’ll be here in like five uess I can ask the hospital staff to keep hi hiht be a chore and that’s another ex you ht"

I wasn’t sure how I felt about hi here On the one hand all I had wanted for the last e me, but on the other it shouldn’t take a vicious and violent wake up call to hed and rockedhi to ht now

"It’s fine I can handle him" My voice was still raw and scratchy but at least it hurt inally less to use it now

"You don’t look like you’re in any kind of shape to handle anything" She wasn’t wrong My arlued shut and wrapped in a white bandage onthe set up on my hand, my lip was split open and crusted with blood, I had a wicked ring of black and blue bruises circling the pale skin ofa dandy set of black eyes fro shoved face first into both the door and the floor

"It’ll be fine He can coo about his day which is all I’ave me a skeptical look and patted my feet where they were stacked up under the itchy hospital blanket "Alright then if you swear you’re going to be okay then I’ to run and find someplace that has coffee that doesn’t taste like tar and I’ll be back"