Page 136 of Almost Ours
Tears streaked down my face. My voice cracked under the weight of my terror. “Please, Reid, just go. Please…”
He didn’t care, though. My pleas were nothing to him. Just noise.
He hauled me upstairs, dragging me like a ragdoll. The drawers were slammed open. Fabric tore. Clothes hit the floor in a chaotic blur. My head swam from the pain, but his words cut through the fog.
“I’m taking you and Connor home.”
Home.
My stomach twisted. That wasn’t home. That was a prison.
Home was Connor’s laughter at the dinner table. Home was the way Ryan’s eyes crinkled when he smiled, the warmth of his arms around me, the way he held me like he could shield me from every bad thing in the world.
Ryan.
A sob stuck in my throat. I pictured him the last time I saw him, the quiet way he looked at me–like I was more than just my past. Like I was worth protecting. Worth loving
He didn’t even know how broken I really was.
Would he still look at me like that if he saw me now? Beaten down. Helpless. A trembling shell of the person he thought I was?
I tried to shove those thoughts away as Reid yanked me back downstairs, shoving me into the armchair. My body slumped, too weak to fight, too battered to resist.
Even as his voice thundered around me, his venomous words blending into a dull roar, a tiny part of me clung to the thought of Ryan.
Then the front door exploded.
Ryan.
He barrelled through, eyes blazing with fury. A storm. A reckoning.
Reid didn’t even have time to react before Ryan was on him.
The force of the impact sent them crashing into the coffee table, splintering wood, scattering papers and shattered glass across the floor. A strangled shout tore from Reid’s throat as Ryan’s fists came down, relentless and unyielding.
For the first time in hours, the fear that had gripped me eased–just slightly.
Ryan was here.
They were a blur of motion, fists swinging, bodies colliding, furniture rattling with every brutal hit. My heart pounded, hammering against my ribs, my breath coming in short, shaky bursts. Blood smeared the floor. Ryan’s brow was split, a crimson streak running down his face, but he didn’t stop. He didn’t slow. He was winning.
Reid thrashed beneath him, his voice hoarse and wild, “She’smine!You think you can just take her from me?”
My stomach lurched. The delusion. The possessiveness.
I wanted to scream, to tell Ryan to be careful, to tell Reid to shut the hell up. My voice wouldn’t come, though. My body was trembling too much to move.
Reid let out a guttural snarl and somehow wrenched free, jabbing his elbow into Ryan’s ribs with a sickening crack.
Ryan grunted, staggering, but before he could recover, Reid’s fist crashed into his jaw. Ryan’s head snapped back. He groaned but didn’t stay down. He pushed himself up, jaw clenched, eyes locked on Reid like a predator about to strike.
But then–Reid disappeared.
My breath caught. “Ryan!” I whispered, voice raw, shaking.
Ryan started to rise, muscles tensed, gaze fixed on the hallway where Reid had vanished.
My blood turned to ice.
