Page 142 of Wicked Brutal

“I’m having an extremely productive homicidal spiral.”

I squeeze his hand. “Stay in bed.”

“Doing my fucking best.”

I breathe in slowly. “Then Tobias came up.”

Ryan’s whole expression changes again.

“He asked why I spend so much time with Tobias. I said because I like him.” Ryan looks at me like I’ve said something obvious. “He said the fact that I care for Tobias without resenting him for needing me tells him something.”

Ryan’s hand goes still. “About what?” I don’t answer quickly enough. His eyes narrow. “Ally.”

“Motherhood.” The word lands heavily. “He said I’ll make a wonderful mother.”

Ryan’s face empties. “He said that to you. With my baby inside you.”

I put my hand over his. “Yeah.”

His jaw clenches.

“What else?”

“He said the way I talk about Tobias tells him everything he needs to know. That I’m patient. That I listen to him. That I make him feel important.”

Ryan looks away. He stands. Gray shorts. No shirt. Bare feet. Absolutely fucking murderous. Under literally any other circumstances, it might be funny. Tonight it isn’t. He drags both hands through his hair.

“I’m just trying to understand how I’m supposed to hear that Victor Tremblay sat beside my pregnant girlfriend with his fucking hand on her leg while discussing how many babies she’s going to give him and remain a person who participates in society.”

“Poorly?”

His head snaps toward me. “Ally.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. Fuck.” He turns away, takes two steps, then turns back. “I’m not mad at you. Not one fucking molecule of this is aimed at you.”

“I know, Ryan.”

“Good. Because I need you to know that while I say some extremely homicidal shit.”

Victor gave me a wedding date…”

Ryan turns his head very slowly. “He did what?”

“Last Saturday in June.”

“He set a fucking date.”

“He said there was no reason to wait after graduation. He agreed to hire a wedding planner and let mom help me. Then the conversation moved away from me.”

“To what you texted.”

“Yeah.”

Ryan reaches toward the nightstand, grabs his phone, and unlocks it. “Arthur has everything. What happened with Roman?"

“I made it maybe three steps out of the bathroom before Dad grabbed me.” Ryan’s eyes flick briefly toward the bruises he already saw downstairs. “Dad thought I was showing off.”