Page 140 of The Restoration Program

“Shut your fucking mouth,” Ryan hissed. He nodded at Cora. “Go. Just go, both of you.”

Cora rammed her shoulder against Darlene’s on her way to the door. Ryan ignored the slam of the door. He only had eyes for Nicole as he started tentatively closer.

“Please, you have to believe me. I still want you,” he said. “I want us to work. I need you, Nicki.”

Nicole couldn’t find words. She stared, dead-eyed, only flinching when he raised a hand toward her face.

“No!” Darlene shifted her hold on Nicole and dug the pepper spray out of her purse. She held the can at arm’s length. “You stay the hell away from her. You’re done. We’re leaving.”

Something cold and terrifying replaced Ryan’s pleading expression. “Mind your own business, you nosy fucking bitch.”

Darlene’s lips twitched into a grim smile. Her finger went down on the can’s toggle.

Ryan charged, seizing Darlene’s arm and twisting it. Pepper spray discharged on the carpet. Coughing and gagging, Darlene staggered away from the acrid air. Nicole’s eyes blurred with stinging tears as Ryan’s body filled her view like an incoming wall. He positioned himself between them and the door.

“Ryan, stop—” Nicole gasped.

With certainty, like he had practiced in his head, he wrapped one hand around Nicole’s waist, and the other around Darlene’s unburdened wrist.

“Let go,” he hissed. He squeezed hard enough to make Darlene cry out in pain. Nicole’s ears rang, barely registering Ryan’s voice. “You shouldn’t be here. She belongs to me.”

Nicole scarcely dared to breathe—not that she could draw much into her lungs while two giant hands clamped around her. Darlene held desperately at her legs, and Ryan gripped her from her waist up to her shoulders. They tugged in opposite directions, threatening to rip her in half.

Darlene kneed him in the groin. Ryan wheezed, but managed to stay on the offensive. He slammed her hand against the wall—so hard, the knock of bone against plaster, Nicole thought Darlene’s knuckles might shatter. Her friend gave a soft, agonized gasp. Ryan’s hold around Nicole tightened with finality, tearing her free of Darlene’s trembling fingers.

“No!” Nicole shrieked. Darlene. He was going tohurt Darlene.

But she couldn’t move. Ryan crushed Nicole to his chest to placate her squirming. His skin was still hot from fucking.

“Get your hands off—let her go!” Darlene shrieked. With how madly gravity was rocking, he must’ve been forcing her towards the door.

When Nicole fought against the hand coiled around her, he squeezed her hard—a warning. The knife’s handle nearly slipped out of her hand when she sought to recover stolen breaths.

The knife.

Baring her teeth, she forced her arm up and stabbed Ryan in the chest.

He shouted in pain, his grip on both women faltering. For a brief moment, Nicole felt the terrifying sensation of dropping through the air. Ryan caught her. He looked at her like she was a monster as he dropped her onto the NüPrint walkway and rounded on Darlene.

It wasn’t a fair fight, and guilt surged through Nicole along with a wave of primal, ugly tears. Ryan had been an athlete in college, while Darlene had been attending poetry slams. Darlene connected an elbow to his stomach before Ryan twisted her arms behind her back and marched her out the door like she weighed nothing.

“Nicole!” Darlene pounded on the door. “Stay away from her! Nicole!”

She didn’t let up when Ryan locked and bolted the door. He stood there, hands against the painted wood, breathing heavily. He turned around, reaching for the tiny knife still protruding under his collarbone. He plucked it out and wiped at the blood that dribbled out.

“You stabbed me,” he murmured, frowning.

When he moved towards her, she was a mouse cornered by a predator. Nicole crawled backwards on hands and feet. He picked her up.

She whimpered. “N-No…”

“Don’t look at me like that. I’m not going to hurt you.”

She was shaking too hard to fight back properly—as though she had a chance in the first place. No weapons to aid her. There was little choice but to lift her chin and look her monster in the eye.

“Let me go. Let me go, Ryan.”

“Not until you calm down,” he said, an attempt of desperate, earnest patience injected over the rage. His hold became more of a protective cradle. His thumb rubbed between her shoulders, but she flinched from the contact like it burned. He hushed her again. “Take a deep breath, babe. Can you do that?”