That’s an understatement.
Ryker was my anchor, keeping me from drifting out and getting lost in the sea of despair that still tried to tow me under constantly.
Once Nori and I finished eating, we paid our bill and left. We both gave each other a hurried hug goodbye as we hailed down taxis, and I promised to keep Nori updated on everything.
As I reluctantly trudged up to my office, I thought about what Nori had said about going to the police. Ryker worked today, so I could head down to the station on my way home without him knowing. I didn’t want him to worry more than he already was.
The rest of the day was uneventful—I got absolutely nothing done at work. My mind was consumed with thoughts of Kamden, the text messages, and, of course, me being pregnant.
You’re not pregnant. It’s just stress.
I told myself that if I kept throwing up over the next few days, that I would take a pregnancy test.
But I’m not pregnant.
Yeah, keep telling yourself that.
I took the elevator to the parking garage, then got in my car and drove to the police station. I was so nervous that they’d laugh in my face and tell me to grow up, but Nori was right—I’d regret not going to them.
Taking a deep breath, I got out of my car and walked to the entrance. Another man was walking up at the same time as me and opened the door. “Thank you,” I said as I hurried inside and to the front desk.
The cop barely acknowledged me, not even glancing up from his computer. “Can I help you?” he asked, the irritation apparent in his tone.
Maybe this isn’t such a good idea.
“Hi, I, um, wanted to speak to someone about some threatening text messages I’ve been getting from a blocked number.”
He looked at me like I was stupid as he handed me a clipboard with a paper. “Fill out this police report, and we’ll look into it.”
I’m sure you’ll get right on it.
“Okay, thank you.”
Even though I doubted that they were going to do anything to help me, I filled out the form. When I finished, I took it back to the desk and handed it to the police officer. He gave me a fake smile as he said, “We’ll be in touch.”
Yeah, sure you will, asshole.
“Thank you so much.” I smiled sweetly, returning his fakeness tenfold.
Dick.
As I drove home, my mind warred as I debated whether or not to tell Ryker. With the police seeming to be of no help like he said, and no other options, I didn’t really see the point in worrying Ryker when nothing could be done.
I’ll just deal with it myself. No sense in both of us stressing out.
When I got home, Kamden was sitting on the couch. He stood and came toward me as he asked, “Hey, can we talk?”
I set my purse down. “Yeah, sure.” I slipped off my heels and padded over to the couch before sitting down. I patted the cushion next to me as I looked up at him.
Kamden sat down and rubbed his hands anxiously on his jeans as he avoided eye contact with me. “Look, I’m… I’m really sorry for last night. I wasn’t thinking straight.”
I placed my hand over his on his thigh and smiled softly. “I know.”
He met my eyes. “I would never hurt you—that’s the last thing I’d want to do. I don’t want to be anything like him.”
That last word was laced with so much disgust. I squeezed his hand. “You’re not, Kam. Nothing like him.”
“How could I do that to you?” he angrily asked. I knew he was more asking himself than me, so I didn’t answer. He looked away. “What’s happened to me?”
I happened. This was all because of me and Kaleb. Kam would have been so much better off without us.
“We’re all having trouble dealing with the shooting, Kam. It’s o—”
He abruptly stood and narrowed his eyes at me. “Don’t tell me it’s okay, Kaiya. You have no idea what I’m feeling. No fucking idea.” He took a deep breath as his eyes watered. “You didn’t pull the trigger—you didn’t take your brother’s life.”
Rising off the couch, I reached my hand out to touch his shoulder. “Kam, I—”
“Don’t,” he growled as he whipped away from me and stalked down the hall toward his room. I heard the door slam a few seconds later.
Damn it.
I flopped back on the couch and clutched my head in my hands.
What the fuck am I going to do?
Kaiya hadn’t been acting like herself since the whole incident with Kamden a couple of weeks ago. She tried to pretend like everything was okay, but I knew her well enough to know when she was putting on her armor.
My stubborn Warrior.
Even though she hadn’t gotten any more texts, I wanted to be on the safe side and continue to teach techniques that would be helpful in case something happened. Plus, the phone company had told her that the number couldn’t be traced because it was from one of those disposable burner phones, so there really wasn’t anything they could do. At least I was doing something by teaching her what I could.
“Today, we’re going to work on rear hair pull defense. Having long hair is a disadvantage in a fight scenario since it can be used against you. But there are some easy techniques to turn the tables.”
After explaining the move a few times with Mark and David, everyone split up and got to work. I paired up with Kaiya and turned around as I instructed, “Grab my hair.”
“Where? You barely have any.” She chuckled.
“Run your hand up my head until you can grip something.”
Her fingers went up the back of my head and almost to the top when she finally grabbed a good chunk and tugged lightly. “Good, now pull harder.”
As she jerked my head back, I put my hands on top of hers and secured them in place. “First thing you want to do is grab their hand and trap it on your head—it may seem like the opposite of what you should be doing, but this keeps you from having your neck snapped and makes it harder for them to jerk you around.”
“Next, bring your elbows to shield your face in case your attacker tries to slam you into something.” I pivoted into her. “Then, turn into your attacker and duck under their arm.” I squatted under her arm and went to the outside, forcing Kaiya to bend over as her arm twisted unnaturally. “Now, you have them in an arm lock. If they haven’t let go by now, then you can throw a side kick to the ribs, a roundhouse to the stomach, or if you really want to do damage, throw a sidekick to the knee. I guarantee that’ll put them out.”
I let go of her arm. “Pretty simple, right?”
She rubbed her elbow. “Almost seems too good to be true. I can’t believe it’s that easy.”
I laughed. “Well you just felt how much it hurt. Sometimes it doesn’t take that much effort to inflict pain.” I stepped behind Kaiya as I spoke. “Your turn.”
I grabbed Kaiya’s ponytail and wrapped my hand around it once before tugging. “Bring your hands up.”
She clasped her hands over mine and pushed down against her head. “Now get in a horse stance and pivot inward as you duck under my arm.”
Kaiya wrenched my arm around, bringing it up as my body was forced to bend over. “Good, throw a sidekick into my ribs.”
I let go as she kicked my side. I shrugged the shoulder of the arm that was just twisted and shook it out.
Good thing it wasn’t my other arm—I’d be in some serious pain.
“Great job, Warrior. Let’s practice again, a little faster this time.”
Kaiya turned around, and I gripped her ponytail and pulled. She made a noise that sounded like a gasp and a low moan put together.
My dick twitched.
Holy shit, did she just moan?
I snaked my other hand around her waist and brought her against me, pressing that ass into my growing cock. I leaned next to her ear and murmured, “You like that, baby?”
She nodded and cleared her throat. Her voice was throaty with arousal when she responded, “Yeah, I do. Maybe we can practic
e more at home.”
Fuck me.
I pulled her hair tighter and fought the urge to suck on her earlobe. She moaned again as I rubbed my erection against her. “Ryker.”
Focus—your students are still in here.
I looked around to make sure no one was paying attention to us before yanking her ponytail one more time and growling in her ear. “I want to fuck you so bad right now. Just slip those shorts over and slide into you from behind.”
I could see her biting her lip as she stifled a whimper.
Fuck, so hot… damn it, concentrate! Hair pull defense.
My voice cracked as I put some distance between us and asked, “What are you supposed to do now?”
Kaiya didn’t answer or move. “Ky?”
“Huh? What?” Her voice was still coated with lust.
I chuckled and pulled her hair again. “What do you do now?”
“Oh, um, this?” She brought her hands up to cover mine and secured them in place.
“Good, and then?”
She ducked under my arm and twisted it, forcing me to bend over as she kicked me in the stomach with a roundhouse.
“Great job, baby,” I praised when she let go. We practiced one more time before I dismissed class.
After everyone left, I asked Kaiya if she wanted to stay and practice sparring. Those text messages were still in the back of my mind, and the thought of her being attacked made me sick to my stomach. I needed to do whatever I could since I wasn’t able to prevent another text or track down whoever was sending them.
I wanted her to be as prepared as possible for any attack, and that meant conditioning her body and developing her muscle memory. Doing combos on the bag helped with that, but sparring was the best way to get comfortable with fighting and defending yourself.
I locked up the gym before meeting back up with Kaiya in the kickboxing room. She had already started putting on her gear when I walked in. “Ready, Warrior?”
“Born ready, baby,” she said, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet.
I chuckled as I grabbed a helmet from the equipment bin and strapped it on. I stood across from Kaiya on the mat and got in my defensive stance. “I’m going to go a little hard on you because I want you to be ready for anything.”
She brought her gloves up in front of her face. “Let’s do this.”
I smiled—Kaiya loved sparring, and had gotten really good over the past few months. She was becoming more natural and fluid when she fought and executed more combos than in the beginning.
She was a better defensive fighter than offensive, so I advanced toward her and threw a jab, which she easily blocked.
That’s my girl.
She countered with a ridge hand, one of her favorite moves, but I knocked her hand away. She followed up with a roundhouse to my thigh. “Good leg check, babe.”
We exchanged several hits and kicks before I decided to up the ante. Grabbing Kaiya by the arms, I backed her into the padded wall and pinned her against it.
She tried to wriggle out of my grasp, forgetting her basic defense maneuvers she should’ve been using, like knees and elbows. Most people tended to forget their training when put in a high stress situation like the one I was subjecting Kaiya to. Mix that with adrenaline, and panic resulted. That was why it was so important to train your body to automatically react. And the only way to do that was to practice those specific scenarios.
Kaiya was breathing heavily, and her tits quickly rose and fell against my chest. Feeling her sweaty skin and body on mine combined with our sexual tension leftover from class made my cock harden.
Adrenaline rushed through my veins from sparring, making my heart rate increase. I forgot about the exercise. All I could think about was being inside Kaiya and filling her with my cock. I ripped my gloves and helmet off before trailing my hands down her arms to her hips. Leaning into her, I gruffly spoke, “I know I should be concentrating on training you, but feeling you against me like this makes me fucking crazy, baby.”
I pressed my dick against her and was rewarded with a moan from that sexy mouth.
Fuck, I have to have her. Now.
She rushed to take her gloves off as I slipped her helmet off. Hooking my arm under Kaiya’s thigh, I lifted her leg up as I pulled my dick out with my other hand. After moving her shorts and panties over, I rubbed my cock against her wet clit and sucked on her bottom lip.
I roughly thrust into her pussy, making her gasp in pleasure. Then, I lifted her other leg and picked her up. She wrapped her legs around me as I pressed her against the wall and slammed myself deeper into her.
Grasping her wrists with my hands, I brought her arms up and pinned them above her head. My mouth greedily claimed hers as I drove harder into her.
I loved the sounds Kaiya made when I fucked her. Those needy whimpers and moans were like the perfect soundtrack when we had sex—a masterpiece only I was capable of creating with her. Just for us.
Slowing my pace, I dragged my cock out of her before inching myself back in, stretching her pussy as I filled her. Her walls perfectly hugged my dick as I continued to stroke in and out of her.
Kaiya’s head fell back against the padding as she cried out it pleasure. Her legs quivered around me as I sped up, hammering my cock further inside her.
My grip tightened on Kaiya’s wrists when I came, filling her sweet pussy with my cum. Letting go, I wrapped my arms around her and held her to me as we caught our breath.
Kaiya’s lips curved up when I set her down. “So, is that the proper technique for how to escape being pinned against a wall? Because I don’t think it’s very effective.”
“Ha ha, very funny.” I smacked her ass. “I can’t help myself with you sometimes.”
Grabbing me by the straps on my muscle shirt, she pulled me to her. She stood on her tiptoes to kiss me. “Maybe we should practice it again. I don’t think I have all the steps down right.”
I smirked as I gripped the undersides of her thighs and lifted her. She wrapped her legs around my waist again as I pinned her against the wall. “Sure, baby, I can show you again. I can show you over and over again until you get it.” I guided my dick to her pussy and rubbed the tip against her wetness.
She tugged on my bottom lip with her teeth before making a sound between a growl and a moan. “Yes, show me again.”
And I did. I sank my cock inside her and showed her over and over again.
I stared down at the sink of my office’s restroom while I brushed my teeth. I had been consistently throwing up in the mornings at work, so much so that I had to bring a toothbrush to combat my vomit mouth.
I was still getting texts from the unknown number¸ and things with Kamden were rocky at best, so I continued to contribute my nausea to that. But it was getting harder and harder to deny what Nori had suggested at lunch two weeks ago.
I rinsed my mouth before staring at myself in the mirror.
Maybe you’re pregnant.
Shit.
I decided I would pick up a pregnancy test from the store on my way home from work, just to be safe. If I was pregnant, I wanted to get the proper medical care, and if I wasn’t, I needed to get back on the shot.
Begrudgingly, I dragged myself back to my office and slumped in my chair. I was so exhausted lately, and still had to suffer through constant headaches on top of everything else.
My office phone beeped. I groaned before picking up the receiver and putting it up to my ear. “Yes?”
Our receptionist, Amanda, answered, “Miss Marlow, there’s someone on the phone for you.”
Great.
I was definitely not in the talking mood. “Can you take a message, please? I’m not feeling well.”
“Sure, Miss Marlow. I’ll leave it in your box.”
“Thank you, Amanda.” I hung up and sighed, then directed my attention to my computer screen. Opening a spreadsheet from my files, I began inputting numbers, trying to take my mind off everything hanging over me.
A few minutes later, my cell phone vibrated on the desk.
Unknown: Too busy to take my call?
My heart felt like it stopped beating as fear hooked itself deep in my stomach.
They know where I work? Holy shit.
Darting my hand out to grab my office phone, I knocked it off the receiver, then scrambled to pick it up. I pushed the button for the receptionist’s desk and Amanda answered, “Yes, Miss Marlow?”
I tried to keep my voice steady. “Amanda, who just called for me?”
“I don’t know, ma’am. When I tried to take a message, they said that they’d call back and hung up.”
Fuck.
“Was it a man or a woman?”
“It was a man. Why? Is something wrong?”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “No, everything’s fine, Amanda. Thank you.”
I hung up before she could respond. Panic clawed at me, constricting my chest like it used to when I thought about Kaleb. My head throbbed, and I struggled to breathe. Clenching my eyes shut, I tried to pull myself free of the demons inside me.
Breathe, breathe, breathe.
Inhaling and exhaling deeply, I blanked my mind, then refilled it with thoughts of Ryker—my light in all the darkness that always tried to smother me.
I played his voice in my head.
I love you, Warrior. I’ll never let anything happen to you.
The tightness in my chest faded.
Ryker will keep you safe.
Opening my eyes, I stared at my phone.
Maybe I should get a new number.
That would stop the texts, but the person knew where I worked and could call my office incessantly to harass me that way.
Fuck.
I decided I was going to tell Ryker everything—this phone call took things to a more serious level that I wasn’t capable of handling by myself. I needed him.
I sent him a text asking to meet me on my lunch break at the police station so that we could follow up on my report. He didn’t see the point until I’d told him about the strange call I’d just received.
Ryker was there when I pulled into the lot of the station. When I parked next to his truck, he got out and came around to my driver’s side to meet me. “Hey.” He leaned down and kissed me.
Mending Scars Page 6