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“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.”
I wasn’t going to ever really be okay again, I didn’t think anyone that had been through what I had in the last few months would, but I wasn’t scared of Rule and almost being raped by a lunatic had given me a whole new perspective on what was missing from my life and what I was going to do differently from this point on. I wanted to fidget with my hair, but it was snaggled together with dried blood and who knew what else and it wasn’t like there was going to be any fixing my face. Rule was just going to have to face the horror show full on and deal with it.
I was messing around on my phone, returning texts from Cora and surprisingly most of Rule’s boys, letting them know I was fine when the door opened and he came in. I looked up and watched him so I saw the initial anger that was stamped all across his handsome face quickly bleed into horror at the sight of me all battered and bruised. I saw his chest inflate and deflate as he sucked in an audible breath and moved to the end of the bed. We stared at each other in silence and I noticed absently that his hair was still normal and unruly as well as it’s natural dark brown color. I still hated it because it made him look like a stranger. His eyes looked wild and too big for his face; a full blown blizzard was sweeping out of the cold depths. He was messing with his lip ring like he did when he was nervous and I realized if I didn’t say anything there was a good chance we would spend the rest of the afternoon watching each other warily.
