I shrieked because apparently bringing up Rule was the wrong thing to say. Gabe moved faster than I would have thought he was able to. He chased me as I peddled backward trying to keep as much space between us as I could. Unfortunately he caught me in the living room and even though I fought he was just bigger and stronger so he grabbed me by the throat and we struggled all the way to the floor. I kicked an end table over which made a huge racket and earned me a back hand across the cheek that split the side of my lip open. He sat all the way across my middle, pinning my arms to my sides and wrapped a hand around my throat. My eyes were watering from the tears of fear and the struggle I was now having breathing. I clawed at his squeezing hands and flailed my legs but he just bent over me and continued to tighten 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 to me? He’s nothing. I told you all along that he wouldn’t stick around, now look at you. All alone and finally doing things my way, I told you I would get my way, I always do.”

I needed to get away from him, he was going to kill me, seriously kill me. My vision was starting to blur in and out and my lungs were on fire, but he just kept squeezing and sitting on me while telling me all about how we were getting back together and how I was going to call my mother and have her reconsider her actions about his internship now that we were a couple. I shook my head back and forth trying to gasp for any air and managed to get my hands between us enough that I jabbed my nails hard into the underside of his biceps making him wince and reel up enough that I could crawl a little bit away from him. I sliced my hand open on a piece of the broken lamp as I scrambled to get my feet under me only to be dragged back down by a cruel hand in my hair. I grunted as his weight landed squarely on my back and had to blink away a steady flow of blood as the side of my head made contact with the leg of 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 barrier my work uniform offered in the way of deterring him but he bent his face low to mine not seeming to mind in the slightest that blood was getting everywhere.

“Who cares? You’re my girlfriend Shaw, you belong to me. If your roommate comes home you’re just going to tell her things got out of hand while we were making up.”

He put so much of his weight on my back that the way he had my hand wrenched up behind my back couldn’t take the torque and with a sickening pop 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 my throat as I struggled knowing that I had to get to my purse for the mace or the kitchen for some kind of weapon to use against him. He let go of my hands now that one was totally useless and put one on the back of my neck to keep me bent over the couch while he used the other to start tugging and pulling at the bottom half of my uniform. He was muttering all kinds of broken sentences and talking about how he was going to make sure that I understood we were a couple. He was rambling about getting married and making our families one and I was starting to seriously cry because there was no way I was going to let him violate me in that way.

Fortunately part of the lamp I had kicked over landed close enough to the couch that a piece was imbedded in one of the cushions. While Gabe was busy tugging and pulling at my clothes I wrapped the fingers of my good hand around it. I could feel the little ruffly shorts I wore under the uniform start to rip and that was enough to spurn me into action. The only thing I could reach from my prone position was the meaty part of his thigh and I wasn’t sure that I had enough strength to do any real damaged but I swung the glass shard as hard as I could and heard him swear as he suddenly jerked back. I slumped to my hands and screamed bloody murder as my weight landed on my injured arm. I crawled across the floor while he struggled to get the glass out and managed to get to my purse. I was just struggling back to my feet as he was thundering towards me but I got the mace out and the nozzle turned toward him and gave him a full dose right in the face while he bellowed like an injured bear. I squeezed the mace in my good hand and bolted out the door. I was sure I looked like an escapee from an insane asylum, I was crying hysterically, had blood all over my face and could barely talk because of the damage to my throat, but none of that mattered because as soon as I made it to the security door I ran smack dab into Ayden and collapsed into a blubbering mess as she caught me.

She was screaming my name, demanding to know what 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 over my face and was aware dimly of a crowd coming out of some of the other apartments but it was just too much and everything faded to black. I was pretty sure she caught me before I hit the ground but the next time I was cognizant of anything I was strapped to a stretcher and getting loaded into the back of an ambulance. The lights from all the sirens were making my head throb and the young paramedic was firing a million and one questions at Ayden as she scrambled up into the back with me. She immediately grabbed my hand and squeezed and I noticed she was crying just as hard as I was.

“Gabe?” My throat was on fire, talking made it feel like I was speaking through 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 him. His dad showed up as they were putting 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 apartment. How did he get in through the security gate?”

I flinched as the paramedic prodded at my shoulder. He turned sympathetic eyes to me. “You’re going to 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 him it was okay because I was alive and at least Gabe hadn’t gotten away with the ultimate violation but talking hurt too much so when asked about needing a sexual assault exam I shook my head no and squeezed Ayden’s had as she started crying again.

“My mom.” The words were broken and not just because of my throat. “She gave him the code because he told her we were getting back together.”

Ayden let loose with a string of swear words 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 fifteen minutes it was clear I wasn’t going to keep up my end of the conversation with my vocal cords being as 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 my statement let me know there was a good chance his family would post his bail in the morning so he would be out but there was now a mandatory restraining order in place and there wasn’t a thing his dad could do about it. Not that it mattered, they were keeping me at least a night in the hospital to see how bad the damage to my throat really was and I needed super strong pain killers to dull the migraine I was battling on top of the pain of having my 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 them which of course caused a huge scene but when my mom started screaming that it was probably one of the thugs I had met while I was dating Rule Ayden totally lost her cool and informed all of them that if it hadn’t been for my mother giving Gabe the code to the security door of the apartment this would have never happened it shut everyone right up. My dad forced his way in using his medical connections anyway and I spent a solid hour ignoring him and glaring at him while he apologized profusely over and over again. When he went to kiss my cheek I turned my head away and made sure he could see the absolute disgust in my eyes. Part of Gabe’s obsession had to do with all the things these people encompassed and I just couldn’t abide having it around me right 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 as morning rolled around. I would only doze on and off needing more 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 had managed to get him out on bail but there was no arguing how bad he had hurt me and the police were looking at charging him with attempted murder. They made me tell my story over and over again 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 someone else. Feeling entitled enough to own another person despite their feelings in the matter was beyond mentally unstable.

Ayden came back in with yogurt and some granola looking sheepish. “I called Cora to let her know what was 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 my friend.

“Apparently Rule through a major hissy fit when he heard what happened and needless to say he’ll be here in like five minutes. Sorry, but I figured you should know. I guess I can ask the hospital staff to keep him out if you want, though I have a feeling stopping him when he gets all worked up might be a chore and that’s another ex you might be sending to the slammer for the night.”

I wasn’t sure how I felt about him coming here. On the one hand all I had wanted for the last month was to see him, to have him acknowledge me, but on the other it shouldn’t take a vicious and violent wake up call to make that happen. I sighed and rocked my head back and forth, she was right anyway, keeping him out if he had made his mind up to storm the castle was going to more of a hassle than I needed right now.

“It’s fine I can handle him.” My voice was still raw and scratchy but at least it hurt marginally 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 arm was in a sling, I had a three inch gash glued shut and wrapped in a white bandage on my forehead matching the 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 of my throat and to top it all off I was sporting a dandy set of black eyes from being shoved face first into both the door and the floor.

“It’ll be fine. He can come see that I’m alright then go about his day which is all I’m sure he wants to do.”

She gave 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’m going to run and find someplace that has coffee that doesn’t taste like tar and I’ll be back.”