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I shake my head. “What are you talking about?”
The way he huffs his annoyance almost sends me over the edge, ready to lash out at him for having the audacity to show up here like this. “Ryan? You can stop.”
“No one is messing with you,” I say calmly, even though I’m seething inside for him bringing Ryan into this.
His eyes narrow, then he’s pushing the door to my shared apartment open and walking through uninvited. That’s the last straw. “Get the hell out of here!”
He whirls around on me, eyes darkened with the anger burning through them, and raises a hand at me. On instinct, I flinch my head back and his eyes widen at the action. “Jesus, Ava, I’m not going to hurt you!”
His screaming is loud enough that I’m sure the neighbors will be calling in a complaint, just what Millie and I need right now.
Alex starts pacing around the kitchen, not able to sit still, and it takes me a moment of studying him to realize what’s going on. “Are you… high right now?”
The pacing stops, but he doesn’t deny anything and instead goes back to pacing the room. I can handle this, the last thing Ryan needs me to do is bother him while he’s working.Ifhe’s actually working.
Fuck this.
“You need to leave.”
The moment the words come out his face turns bright red, most likely with anger, and he starts walking toward me. I try to turn away from him to hold the door open while he leaves, but he grabs my wrist tightly and pulls me against him.
“You don’t want that,” he snaps.
The veins in his neck are popping out, his grip only getting tighter the more I try to remove myself from his hold, and I’m sweating profusely from fear of what he will do to me. Instead of backing down though, I only nod furiously. “I do.”
That simple statement causes him to push me against the wall hard enough to knock my head against it. Pain shoots through my skull, and I clench my teeth together to keep myself from crying out. He doesn’t deserve the satisfaction of hurting me.
“Get. Out.”
He gives me a sinister smile, making me wonder what happened to the man I fell in love with, before pushing away from me. “You’ll come around, it’s just a matter of time.” Then he’s walking out of the apartment.
It takes longer than I’d like for my shaking hands to fumble with the locks on the door, then I’m dropping to the floor and bringing my knees to my chest. I don’t know how long I sit there, only that I’m there long enough for Millie to come through the door and stop in front of me.
“Ava, what’s wrong?”
I don’t answer her. The words want to come out, but my mouth opens only to close again. She doesn’t badger me anymore and instead grabs one of my hands to help me into my room.
I’m still shaking, but not nearly as bad. There’s no way I’ll put Millie in danger and part of me thinks Ryan knew that, which is why he offered his place. It’s not about his concern for me, but more about me not being annoying.
“What do you need?” Millie asks.
Still, nothing comes out. I can’t speak. I’m scared that if I do I’ll break down and she doesn’t need to see me like that. She must make a decision on her own because she moves away from me, walking out of my room, before coming back in a few minutes later with my phone pressed to her ear.
I try to hear what she’s saying, but the ringing in my ears is getting louder and I just want to go to sleep.
Alex is dangerous. I thought that he was done with me, getting over what happened, but it’s only just beginning. He’s not going to stop, he’ll come here again and I don’t want Millie to be involved next time.
Guess I’m moving in with Ryan after all.
Chapter12
Ryan
It takes a lot for someone to make me move as fast as I did when Millie called. It didn’t take much to hear the anguish in her voice, then she mentioned that Ava was shaken up and didn’t know how to help her. She thought that I might be able to help, and that’s how I find myself weaving through traffic within two minutes of getting the call.
She’s not really mine. But, I can’t help but feel drawn to her. When she’s upset, I’m simply upset with her and want to do anything in my power to help her through it. My tires screech to a stop in front of Millie’s apartment building, not bothering to glance if I parked in a non-parking zone or not. That’s not important right now.
The receptionist eyes me warily but makes no comments and instead angles her head back down to her phone. It feels like forever by the time the elevator opens its doors for me, and even longer for it to open up to Millie’s floor. As if sensing me, she flings open the door and ushers me inside.
