He took another step down as his eyes flashed over to an image of Jeff leaning down, his lips on Abbi’s. Ryan took in the sight as he could feel the knife twisting in his gut, he realized at that moment exactly how Abbi had felt seeing Isabelle kiss him. Jealousy began to spread across his skin as his hands began to clench. He saw her break away from the kiss and turn towards the bar, she had only made a few steps when she turned her head towards him. He was so angry with himself; he should have been upfront with Abbi from the beginning. He should have asked her out the day he went to the grocery store. He could feel the anger creeping into his eyes. As she adverted her gaze back towards the bar, he took the last few steps down onto the deck. He had already screwed things up enough. He at least owed her an explanation to what had happened upstairs.
He could see she was already in a defensive stance as he approached her. Desperately he tried to explain to her that Isabelle meant nothing to him, but this frustrating woman wouldn’t let him get a word in edge wise. She sure as hell wasn’t backing down either. Never had he dealt with a more stubborn woman in all his life, and he came from a southern town where a lot of girls are hard-headed. With every word he tried to speak, she immediately protested.
It wasn’t until she began to bring up her social class that he knew there was no getting through to her. He would have to approach it when she was on neutral ground and on a night that she hadn’t been drinking. He wanted to tell her it wasn’t her it was him, but he had seen enough times, that statement only made women angrier. It was hard to admit it to her, but he tried to open himself up, explaining that he had problems that he didn’t want to bring into her life, but she made it clear that those issues had already come between them. He wanted to walk after her as she marched off but he knew it wouldn’t help.
He shook his head and turned toward the bartender as Jace came up in front of him.
“So, did you talk to her or just stand over here like a creep and stare at her?” Jace motioned for two drinks.
“I tried to, but her smart ass mouth wouldn’t let me get a word in edge wise.” Ryan caught the glare in Judy’s eyes as the girls made their way into the parlor.
“Those are the best kind man. A girl who has a little spunk like her little friend there. I might have to get to know her a little better.” Jace elbowed Ryan.
“Yeah, I don’t know much about Judy and Ashley but I believe they are right up your alley my friend.”
“I’m digging the shorter one, she’s feisty.”
“Short, shit she’s what five foot tall, you would look like you were dating your little sister.” Ryan laughed as he took a drink out of his glass.
“Five foot everything my man. And you know what they say, great things come in small packages.”
“Is that what the girls tell you to keep from hurting your feelings?” This time the laugh came from his gut as he saw the look of pain cross Jace’s face.
“Man that was a low blow even for you.” Jace protested as he walked over towards a couple at the edge of the dance floor.
Ryan’s eyes surveyed the party. It had actually turned out to be better than last year’s party. They had used the yacht for the past few years however it had seemed so empty with the sparse number of participants. But as his employees had gotten to know him better they hadn’t been as tense about attending. He watched as Jace made conversation with the couple, it always came so natural to him. He was glad to have Jace, he was loyal and when it came to work he worked just as hard as he played, although he was known for playing a little harder at times. Ryan had worried in the beginning that it might affect the business, but Jace’s natural way of getting people to open up had been a great asset to the company. As he looked out toward the doors leading inside he saw Jeff exchanging with Judy and Ashley who had come back outside. They made their way back out towards Gabe as Jeff went inside. It didn’t seem as though they were looking to shoot him down, so Ryan hoped they had been able to talk Abbi out of her nonsense.
He found himself walking back over toward the railing at the front of the boat. There was something about the water that always relaxed him. This was why people bought boats, to sit out in the salt air listening to the sound of the waves softly breaking against the bow of the ship. Tonight was an exception since the music was so loud, but this was his favorite place to come when he had a lot on his mind. He broke away from his thoughts as he felt his phone vibrating in his pocket. Digging for it he felt Jace come up to his side. Unless there was something wrong at the dock, he shouldn’t be getting any calls tonight. A sinking feeling began to blossom in his stomach.
“I thought we said no personal phone calls tonight; tell grandma we will call her back tomorrow.” Jace joked.
“It’s Abbi.” Ryan looked up at him confused.
“Maybe she’s seen the light and wants to talk. Answer it.” Jace motioned towards the phone.
Ryan pressed the answer button and held the receiver up to his ear, plugging his other with his hand. “Hello?” No response came back through. “Abbi, can you hear me? Hello?” He spoke a little louder. But all he could hear was a static coming back through the other end. “Abbi?” Then he heard it, the words triggering a natural response that exploded from his core.
“Get off me, Jeff, Now!” She shouted as he heard a thud in the receiver.
He threw his phone down as his body began reacting.
“What the hell is going on, Ryan?” Jace shouted as he followed closely behind him.
Ryan was nearly knocking people over as he dashed through the crowd. He found his way towards Judy and Ashley who were standing just outside the door.
“Where is Abbi?” His voice came out in an angry growl.
“Easy there hulk. She’s with Jeff, she’s fine.” Ashley rolled her eyes.
“Listen Ryan, I am on your side, but tonight I think you need to drop it. She has been through enough.” Judy looked sincerely in his eyes. Her look grew more concerned as she looked over at Jace who had run up behind Ryan. “Ryan, what’s going on?”
“I need to know where she is and I need to know now.” Ryan stepped closer to her. “Judy, please tell me.”
“She’s downstairs, Ryan what is going on?” She yelled out to him, he had already started sprinting towards the door leading downstairs.
He motioned people out of his way as he attempted the handle. “The asshole locked it. Y’all need to get out of the way.” He said to people within a few feet, at this point a crowd has started to gather. Ryan’s stomach did flips as he heard the piercing scream faintly coming from the other side of the door.
“Kick that shit in, Ryan.” Jace came up to his side.
Ryan took a few steps back, he extended his leg with force as his heel made contact, and the hinges of the door creaked and snapped off the frame. The wood around the handle splintered and flew off in every direction. Ryan shoved the door out of his way, but nothing could prepared him for what he was about to see. He stepped onto the platform at the top of the spiral stair case as Jace and Judy rushed in behind him. Jeff had Abbi on the floor, pinned down with her hands bound. His body trapping her, forcing her down to the ground, as he fondled her panties down from underneath her skirt. He saw nothing but anger, his head buzzing with rage as he lunged down the staircase leaping over the top of the railing and jumping halfway down to the ground. From above him he could hear Judy scream out as she took in the scene below.
His blood sang out, wanting revenge. He wanted to hurt Jeff, like he was doing to Abbi. He was going to hurt Jeff. One second he was landing on the floor and the next he was bolting across the room towards Jeff. He could see Abbi’s swollen face as he made his way over to them. Before Jeff realized what was happening, Ryan went at him full force, lifting him off of Abbi’s body by his throat. Ryan’s hands gripped the skin around Jeff’s throat, lifting him up before slamming him down onto his back. A deep growl came from within Ryan. He didn’t think. He just reacted. All he could picture in his head was the sigh
t of Abbi’s face moments before. Her eye swollen and red as tears streamed down her face, the sound of her voice in his phone receiver trying to fight off Jeff as he forced himself on her. Within seconds Ryan’s sight went blank. Pitch black nothingness in front of him, as he felt his hand slam down and connect blow after blow, with Jeff’s face.
He wasn’t going to stop. The rage was too strong inside of him for that. Even as he felt the hands gripping at his arms, trying to pull him off and then another pair straining to make him stop the assault. There was no stopping at this point, he was out for blood. He was solid and it would take more than two men to get him to stop at this point. And then through the darkness he heard her voice, pleading him to stop. Slowly he quieted his movement as he leaned back on his heels. Closing his eyes for the briefest moment, when he re-opened them he was transported back into the room.
He stood and made his way over to where Abbi sat on the floor. She was so beautiful, and so caring. How could anyone want to hurt her? Careful to not disturb the wounds on her face he looked over her. Her eye was swollen, along with her busted lip, blood slowly rimming the inside of her lips. The heat of rage flooding back inside of him, he had pushed her straight into the arms of a man who would abuse her. All of this was his fault, he should have known better than to let her walk away. All he could do was apologize and even with the removal of blame from her. He would live with this guilt for the rest of his life. Now he was sure that he would spend the rest of his life trying to make it up to her.
Her body looked so frail, exhaustion settling into her face as the adrenaline began to wear off. He stood and gently picked her body up off of the floor. Jace had already called for the doctor on board to meet them in the lounge on the far end of the hallway and sent a call to the Captain telling him to head back to port. As he made their way down the hallway he could see her eyelids growing heavier. He made his way into a different parlor and placed her down onto one of the oversized lounges. Gently he placed a pillow behind her head as he tucked the edges of the blanket underneath her. Quietly he sat at the edge of the lounge, with all his might he hoped that what she had just experienced wouldn’t break her spirit. He would try for as long as it took to make her feel safe again. He would protect her. This time he wasn’t going anywhere.
Chapter Ten
Abbi awoke in a confused and hazy state of mind. Her head throbbed along with just about every other muscle in her body. She vaguely remembered speaking with the doctor who had come in to check on her. She smiled weakly as she thought of Ryan’s anxiety to leave her alone with him. However with some reassurance, and persuasion from the doctor, he did finally step out of the door. His body was so large that even when he had stood in the doorway she could still see his broad shoulders peeking out from the edge of the door frame. A laugh tried to escape her lips, but the immediate burn from her swollen mouth caused her to stop. She gently felt her face with her hand, her eye was swollen, she could feel scratches down the right side of her face, and her lip was swollen like she had been stung by a bee.
As flashbacks of Jeff’s face on top of her began to leak into her mind, she immediately sat up and glanced around. She was in her bed. And she was in her pajamas, but she didn’t remember much of what had happened after the doctor had left. He had given her some pain medication to help ease the immediate soreness and anxiety, and since he didn’t believe her to have a concussion he had recommended she get as much sleep as possible to help her body heal. It must have been Judy and Ashley that had brought her home and changed her. She slowly moved her legs to dangle off the side of the bed. Her side felt almost as bad as her face, upon inspection she found the large black and purple bruise that took up most of her right side. Damn that asshole had been determined.
Her throat was dry and scratchy as she swallowed. She may as well just take more of that medication and go back to sleep. She wasn’t sure what time it was, but she could see just a hint of sun peeking out from the corner of one of her curtains, so she knew it was daytime. As she rose from the bed she noticed her clothes neatly folded along with her clutch and cell phone on the stool in the corner. She would check her messages when she came back to bed. For now she needed to make the journey downstairs, and as badly as her body hurt, she knew it would feel more like mountain climbing than it would walking down stairs. Her head felt fuzzy still, and considering she never had eaten anything yesterday it would probably be best to put something on her stomach. She made her way down the stairs and as she landed on the floor of the living room she looked up.
Dangling off the end of the couch was a pair of shoes, shoes attached to feet, feet that were attached to a body, a male body that was lying on her couch. The only thought crossing her mind at that moment was that Jeff had somehow made it in into her apartment. As the thought registered into her brain she let out a blood curdling scream as she attempted to scramble back up the stairs. Her feet slipped and she landed hard onto the bottom stair. Suddenly the body sprung to life, jumping from the couch and tossing the throw blanket across the room as he un-holstered a weapon pointing it directly at the door.
She blinked her eyes a few times towards the figure standing in the middle of the living room. Slowly the dark skinned man began to come into view. She stared at him with her mouth open. It was Gabe. How did he end up in her apartment and why on earth was he sleeping on her couch? He placed his gun back into his side holster and took in a deep breath. She had obviously startled him as badly as he had her.
“What the hell are you doing here, Gabe? You just scared the shit out of me.” Her words came slurred from her mouth. Damn her lip hurt.
“I’m so sorry, Abbi. Ryan had to leave this morning and he thought he would be back before you woke up. He didn’t feel comfortable with having you here alone, so he asked if I would come and hang out. I didn’t mean to fall asleep. I was just exhausted from everything that happened last night.”
His words cut deep into her gut, Ryan had been here the whole time. And he also didn’t want her alone. He cared enough about her that he had one of his agents come and stay. She tried to fight the tears that were threatening to fall down her cheeks. Her head throbbed enough as it was. The last thing she needed was to start crying and make it worse. It was as though in that moment, all of the emotions that she had felt over the past twenty four hours were beginning to catch up to her. She was exhausted and in pain. It was times like these that she always relied on her mom, but now it was just her. She blinked back the tears not wanting to make herself hurt worse than she already was.
“Abbi, are you ok?” Gabe approached her slowly helping her up off the floor.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I didn’t fall very hard.” She brushed off her bottom as if she had just fallen in the dirt.
“No, I am asking if you’re ok. From last night, I don’t want to over cross any boundaries or anything, but that was a pretty shitty situation.” Gabe trailed off his sentence as he eyed her cautiously.
“I don’t think I would go with ok. But you don’t have to worry about hiding the sharp pointed objects.” She tried to laugh but her face hurt too badly. She study his face, he seemed more concerned than humored. “I’m going to survive Gabe, really.”
“Ok, and just so you know. You have some pretty great friends.” He laughed as he helped her to one of the small chairs in the living room. “Ashley and Judy both wanted to stay last night once we got you home, but Ryan urged them to go home and get some sleep. He practically had to carry them downstairs and shove them into the car.”
“Yeah they are pretty great. I am glad they came with me last night. I have a feeling things may have turned out a lot differently if they hadn’t.” She stared down at her hands twisting in her lap.
“Hey, don’t worry about it right now ok. How about I get you something to eat? I know of a little deli a block or two down that delivers. What would you like? My treat.” He smiled at her. She hadn’t really had a chance to take in his features the night before. He was actually very h
andsome, and he could carry on an easy conversation. She didn’t quite understand why, especially given the circumstances from the night before, but she felt very comfortable with Gabe. She could see where Ashley would find him attractive.
“Um, probably the easiest thing for me right now would be soup.” Her stomach rumbled at the thought. “And maybe a grilled cheese sandwich.”
“Ok soup of the day with a grilled cheese. I’ll call them now.” Gabe pushed off of the couch and walked towards the kitchen.
After retrieving his phone from the counter he placed a call into the deli. She could over hear him talking to the person on the other end of the receiver. It sounded as though he were ordering enough food for an army. Just as he was giving her address to the deli employee she heard the door handle to her apartment open. Gabe was standing with his back to the door and she wasn’t sure if he had noticed and the thought immediately made her jump up. As she got in a few steps towards the stairs, her hair stood on end, electricity coursing throughout the room. Glancing nervously towards the door she saw Ryan’s large figure come into her apartment. Damn she was jumpy if she kept this up she would be asking the doctor for a horse tranquilizer instead of a muscle relaxer.
As he took in the sight of Abbi, Ryan immediately stilled a few steps in from the door.
“Abbi, it’s just me. I’m sorry, I should have knocked.” He held his hands out as if to claim his innocence.
“It’s ok, I have just been a little jumpy. Gabe scared the ever loving shit out of me earlier when I came downstairs.” She breathed a sigh of relief as she made her way slowly back over towards the chair. “I had no idea what happened after the boat, how I had gotten home. I definitely didn’t expect to see a large man on my couch when I came down stairs.”
Ryan cleared the living room in almost three strides as he came up in front of her. Either her apartment was really small, or he had really long legs. The sight of his dark eyes coming towards her caught her off guard. She felt her body sway underneath her, if she fell at least there was a chair to catch her this time. He steadied her as his hand gently tucked the stray hair from her pony tail back behind her ear. She reached up and placed both hands on his biceps, his muscles felt like granite. She wondered if the rest of his body were this strong.
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