Page 37 of My Broken Bodyguard 2: Ritchie & Tori

There was a new bed sitting where the old one was previously. I wondered who set up our bedroom and brought our belongings downstairs.

“Tori, you need to come to Jersey with me,” Ritchie stated, as he shut the door behind him.

I sat on the bed and kicked my shoes off. “You know I can’t leave. We talked about this when we first met.”

“Tori, I’m supposed to leave my woman in Chicago while I return to my job in New Jersey. No. Fucking no,” he growled.

“Ritchie, I’m not saying I’ll never come to New Jersey. I can try to visit.”

His brows moved together. “Try?”

He paced the floor in front of me.

“Our relationship isn’t like everyone else’s, Ritchie. I have trauma I’m trying to deal with.”

“A part of that trauma is Daryl. I’m in the process of removing that motherfucker from existence. So there’s no reason you can’t come home with me,” he roared, slamming his index finger into his chest.

“You know, my trauma stems beyond Daryl. Almost every day, I have an attack,” I admitted.

“Tell me you aren’t going to use your demons to pull us apart?” he snarled.

My mouth dropped open at his question and my pulse raced as I tried to think of how to respond, but the words felt stuck in my throat. I could feel the heavy darkness slowly encroaching on me with each passing second.

“That’s not what I’m doing. While you were sedated, I had attacks. This morning I had another before you woke up.”

His face paled slightly as his eyes grew in size and fixated on mine.

“You know what they look like. You know how they paralyze me.” I attempted to distract myself by standing and fanned my hand at my side, trying to shake the impending terror off.

“You have to come back every other week or so to watch out for Lexis. I’ll be here. I can keep an eye on her too,” I offered as I willed the darkness away from me.

“No,” he barked as he moved swiftly toward me, wanting to control the situation before the demons did.

Too late.

My hand flew to my cheek as panic surged through me, and I could no longer push down my demons’ taunting words and dark demonic laughter bubbling in my conscious.

“Look at pretty broken Tori. She wanted the sexy bodyguard. Now she has him and can’t even keep him,” they jeered in a chorus of malevolent voices. “You brought this man into your fucked up world. You’re dirty, Tori. So fucking dirty. You don’t deserve a man like him. Let him go. You dirty little whore.”

The tormenting only intensified when Marlowe’s voice joined in.

“I took that virgin ass. Got what I wanted. You’re damaged goods. He doesn’t really want you. He doesn’t understand you’re nothing more than a pretty face. The poor, stupid mobster fell for the traumatized, weak woman who couldn’t face her fears if she tried.”

Tears flooded my cheeks, and my breathing came out in heavy pants as I begged, “Leave me, Ritchie. Go and never look back,” I cried, watching the many facets of my nightmare of a life play all the horrors on repeat.

I couldn’t hold my friends back. It was time for them to flourish. My father was returning soon. I’d manage in my hell. I’d done so since I was a girl.

“Baby, can you hear me? Tori?” a pained voice struck my eardrums.

Large hands gripped the sides of my face. Standing on his knees, his stormy gray eyes searched mine.

I was sitting on the floor. How did I get here?

My eyes slammed shut again just as my conscious kicked in and threw up the barriers pushing my boyfriend away.

You had no business bringing him into your life. You’re not normal, Tori.

“I’m not normal,” I blurted out. My words came out shaky.

---