My body shakes—trembling, twitching, completely out of my control. I can’t breathe. The thought of him touching me, of him doing everything he’s hinting at, makes me want to tear my own skin off just to escape it.
There are things worse than death. And right now, I know exactly what they are.
A tear slips down my cheek before I can stop it. He catches it with his thumb, and I flinch away, repulsed.
He grins. “It kind of turns me on, seeing you cry. Not so tough now, huh?”
He stands, and for a second, my body loosens just enough to breathe.
“Don’t you want to be fucked by a real man?” he adds with a twisted smile.
I don’t answer. I can’t. One wrong word, one twitch, and I don’t know what he’ll do. He’s not stable—he’s a match already lit, ready to burn.
His fingertip traces my collarbone, causing bile to rise in my throat, before wrapping around my necklace. He yanks at it, hard, and I scream from the pain. “You won’t be needing that anymore.” He tosses it aside, and it lands somewhere in the darkness.
The back of my neck burns, and my body is throbbingfrom the fear and tension coursing through it. Every second that passes, my hope dies a little more.
I just need to keep him talking. If he’s talking, maybe it’ll stall him. Maybe it’ll stall him long enough so he doesn’t?—
No. I cut the thought off before it finishes.
“Why me?” I ask, voice trembling. “You could have anyone. Why me?”
His smile falters, just barely.
“Because you were the one I couldn’t have. You were always out of reach. You never saw me—really saw me.” His voice rises, his pacing turning erratic. “I watched you, protected you. Scared off the string of losers you tried to date. And I waited. I waited so long for you to realize I was the one who could give you everything you needed.”
“You’re married,” I whisper. “We’ve been friends. Why now?”
He crouches again, hands on my thighs. My entire body goes cold.
“I thought I could let you go,” he murmurs. “But I can’t. I lost Victoria. Then Claire. I wasn’t going to lose you, too.”
I can barely hear over the sound of blood rushing in my ears.
“What about the note? The flower? All the other weird shit?” My voice breaks. “Why?”
He stands again, and I suck in a breath the second his hands are gone.
“Dom,” he says simply. “I needed him distracted. The man has impeccable timing, moving back just as my life crumbles to pieces. I put him on Victoria’s case because I wanted him busy. And once I started messing with you, I knew he’d spiral. He couldn’t help himself. When people are overworked, emotional, desperate, they make mistakes.”
He steps closer again, and I press myself back against the chair, wishing it could swallow me whole.
He leans down until he’s close enough that I can smell his cologne—my stomach sours.
“With Victoria and Claire out of the picture, it was finally time for me to have you. The plan was perfect. If he hadn’t moved back, we’d finally be together. He ruined everything.”
He’s delusional. There isn’t any scenario in which I’d ever be with him.
“You know what the best part is?” he whispers. “He’s never going to touch you again. I bet he’ll kill himself knowing he lost you for good. He’s weak like that.”
“He’s not weak,” I grit out, before I realize the mistake I’ve made.
The veins at Ryker’s temples start to bulge, popping one by one. “Stop fucking defending him!”
His hand rises above me, casting a shadow across my cheek, before snapping down like a whip crack.
And then it all goes black.
