Rule (Marked Men #1)(86)

“I’m sorry you’re having a hard time with things Gabe but you shouldn’t have messed with my car. It pushed Rule over the edge. I told you to leave me alone or you wouldn’t like what he was going to do.”

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 f**k 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.