Page 29 of If You Fight

From there, the two beasts that had been holding me down went to town on me. One would slam his fist into my face while the other one focused on my gut and chest, pummeling me so fucking hard I couldn’t breathe.

The metallic taste of blood filled my mouth after a few shots, and I couldn’t see out of either eye once the guy on my left began to shove his fist into them repeatedly.

All the while the two of them beat the hell out of me, I heard Robert say over and over, “Only I can order you to kill someone! Only me! No one else. Not even Serena!”

He was like a man possessed, and he watched his two goons fuck me up, smiling every so often when they got a good shot in and I cried out in pain. By the time they finished with me, I couldn’t even sit up straight from the searing pain of broken ribs and my face hurt like someone had hit me with a fucking sledgehammer.

At some point they must have stopped, but by then I’d slipped into unconsciousness. I think it was after the guy beating my face began slamming my head off the back of the chair.

I opened myeyes and felt a rush of unbearable pain tear through me. They’d dumped me on the floor just inside my apartment and left me there, unconscious and for all they knew, dead.

Not that I wouldn’t have done the same thing. I had done exactly that many times for the very man who’d had me beaten within an inch of my life.

As I lay there with the hard floor pressing into my aching body, a terrible thought settled into my brain. What had Robert done to Serena for her part in Oliver’s death?

I lifted my head to begin getting up and got my shoulders about two inches off the floor before the pain became too much. Stupidly, I tried to take a breath, but that was cut off by the stab of agony from my broken ribs. Crying out, I gritted my teeth and prayed to God it would go away or kill me, but whatever happened, I just wanted the pain to end.

Tonight I was supposed to take Serena away from this terrible place, but once again, her father had made sure that didn’t happen. I didn’t know if he’d caught wind of our plans or just found out that I’d gotten rid of Oliver, but the end result was still the same.

We were stuck here, and as I lay on the floor hating everything about Robert Erickson and his fucking world, I couldn’t see us ever getting out.

Pain ebbed and flowed over me in waves, sometimes starting at my eyes and other times in my ribs. It didn’t matter where it started because once it did, it immediately became unbearable. I faded in and out of consciousness so many times I lost count. When I first opened my eyes, the sun still streamed through the window, but at some point I must have passed out because when I opened my eyes again, everything was dark around me.

My phone vibrated against my hip, but no matter how much I wanted to see if Serena needed me, I couldn’t move to grab it. Over and over, it signaled someone wanted to contact me, but all I could do was wait until the vibration stopped and hope to God she was okay.

As I lay there, I knew I should be angry enough to kill Robert when I could walk again, but that thought never stayed long in my head. Every time it popped up, another thought joined it, reminding me of all that he’d given me since bringing me to this place two years ago. I should have wanted to make him pay for what he’d done to me and Serena, but somehow my brain couldn’t get past the fatherly feelings I harbored for him, as ridiculous as that sounded.

How could I ever forgive him for having me beaten within an inch of my life for killing a man he likely would have ordered me to kill eventually anyway? What kind of fucked up person was I? He’d never truly treated me as his son. I’d always been a pawn he liked to parade in front of people when it served him and his thug when he needed to make a point to people who thought they could cross him.

I’d never been anything more to him, but now as I lay there in agony because of him, I still couldn’t bring myself to want to kill him. Leave this place? Fuck, yeah. Never look back. Yep. But not kill him.

Someone else he fucked over would take care of him. I’d always believed that. Some part of me hated him for what he did to Serena by sending her away and then forcing her to marry Oliver even when he knew she’d rather die than do that. For her, I’d never doubted I could kill him or anyone else.

But not for me. Not even now as I lay there broken in pieces by his command.

A noise outside my door roused me from the misery of my pain and my thoughts, and I struggled to turn my head to hear who it was. For a long moment, I heard nothing and became convinced my mind was beginning to play tricks on me, but then the sound of a faint knock filtered down to where I lay.

I groaned out the word hello but far too low for whoever was outside to hear. I tried to speak again, louder this time, but still I doubted they’d hear me.

Another knock sent my spirits soaring. I had to find a way to let them know someone was in here.

With all the strength I could muster, I slammed my hand down on the floor next to me. Not as loud as I’d wanted, but I hoped the person on the other side of the door could hear it.

“I’m here!” I croaked out far too quietly. “Come in!”

The person knocked once more, and then I heard the sound of them jiggling the doorknob. I just hoped to God it was Serena and not Robert or his bruisers.

“Ryder?”

Happier than I thought I could be feeling like a team of horses were pulling me apart, I breathed a shallow sigh of relief at the sight of Serena poking her head in through the door.

“Ryder, are you here?”

“Serena, I’m here,” I said with all the volume I could give my voice.

She looked down and saw me, and instantly I knew how bad I looked by the horrified expression on her face. Throwing the door open, she rushed in and knelt at my side.

“What happened to you? Who did this?” she asked as her gaze ran up and down my battered body.

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