Picking Up The Pieces: Book 1 of the Broken Series Page 2

  “It’s okay, don’t worry it’s got a lid on… luckily” and smirks at me… how rude. He puts his cup on a table nearby so he can take both my arms in his grasp.

  As I look up at him, I get lost in the sight before me. Dark short hair almost entirely cropped. Dark blue coloured eyes, straight nose, very kissable lips and a strong jaw line with an overnight stubble.

  Hey, don’t judge me, I can still appreciate a good looking man.

  “Are you okay?” The good looking stranger asks me.

  I shake myself out of my stupor and answer him so I don’t look like I’m completely dense. I suddenly remember Grady is in his pram asleep and I need to get back. I look back at him as his eyes trace my face, he looks sullen all of a sudden, which I take as my cue to leave.

  “Hmm, I have to go, sorry again,” making my way back towards the counter. As I look back, the gorgeous piece of man is still looking at me. I smile a small, reserved smile at him and turn back to the counter.

  By the time I’ve got our coffees Becka has arrived and is talking to Grady and the man, candy has sadly gone. Man Candy, who am I kidding, it’s not like anyone would want me anyway, I’m damaged goods.

  I make my way back towards the table where Becka and Grady are waiting and take a seat after putting the tray on the table.

  “Hi. Who was that you were talking to when I came in,” asks Becka. I smile at her, “who?” I reply.

  “That man in the suit, he was fit!” Becka says with a wink and appreciation in her voice. I smile back at her.

  “No-one, I don’t know him. I walked into him on the way to the counter, not looking where I was going, as usual. You know how clumsy I am.” I say smirking.

  “Hmmm, I suppose it was clumsiness that caused the bruise on your face that you’ve tried to hide…I can see it you know,” she says quietly, but I can hear the worry in her voice, she scared for me.

  “Please, don’t nag me. I will leave him, I promise. I just need to find the right time.” I say sadly.

  “When will that be? When Grady gets hurt in the crossfire, or when you’re in a box and the option has been taken away from you? Where does that leave Grady then Lex? Look we can help you. We know someone that owns a couple of flats and rents them out, I’m sure Mason could speak to him and ask how much they are. He might even get a discount on the price, especially with your situation,” Becka looks down at the table as she says it so I can’t see how sad she really is, but I also know how angry she is too. I cover her hand with mine,

  “Becka, thanks, I really appreciate it. I know you’re worried about us but I can’t yet, I know what I have to do, but I have to do it in my own time. I need more money first so I can get by for when I do leave. I’ll need to find a job so I can support Grady and me,” I reply, somewhat more determined than I have been. I sigh, I know she worries and wants to help me.

  Becka looks at me with sadness in her eyes, and I just can’t take it, I don’t want her pity.

  “Don’t look at me like that.” I snap angrily at her. I don’t mean to be angry, but I hate the look she’s giving me.

  I hate pity.

  “Like what?” she says in a high-pitched voice. I smirk at her and say, “Let’s change the subject. Tell me about the girls, I haven’t spoken to you for a while.” Pasting on a happy face, we get lost in conversation. Just like that, we’re on steadier ground, and we spend the next 2 hours chatting and laughing while she dotes on Grady.

  Becka and Mason have been together forever. They’ve had their ups and downs but always got through them - I’d love a relationship like theirs. But I don’t think that’s in the cards for me, and while I’d love to be held and told that I’m loved, I can’t see that in my future again or at least I doubt it anyway. A victim of domestic violence and a single mother…yep, statistic #101, please step forward.

  I arrive home a while later. As I walk towards the house, I see our car sitting on the drive.

  “Great, that’s all I need,” I say to myself as I approach the front door. I take Grady out of his pram and leave it in the porch. Putting Grady on my hip, I walk into the sitting room and see him sitting in front of the telly, like the slob he is.

  “You’re home early,” I say nervously. I put Grady on the floor to play so I can go get him his dinner and put the supplies away that I just bought.

  “Where have you been?” he replies sternly, expecting me to answer his question when I notice he hasn’t answered mine; tosser.

  “Well, I’ve obviously been out shopping for a while, as you can see. Now you answer my question.” I say with more steel in my voice than I’m feeling.

  “No more work to do,” he says gauging my reaction.

  “How do you mean?” I reply

  “I mean, there’s no work so I’ve finished early, now go do me some dinner,” he angrily replies as he picks Grady up off the floor.

  “If you ask me nicely I would, without question. It wouldn’t hurt you to speak to me civilly for once or be nice to me, I’m your wife, not your personal slave.”

  “Do you have to whinge about everything?” he shouts startling Grady and making him cry.

  “For God sake, you’ve scared him, he doesn’t like it when you shout,” I scream back at him while he puts a crying Grady down and angrily stands to face me.

  “Don’t touch me, I mean it,” I say shakily, as we stand nose to nose but he doesn’t listen as he puts his hand around my throat and tightly holds me. Grady is still crying. I want him to let me go so I can pick up my son.

  “What you gonna do if I don’t? You’re useless. Who did you meet in town with all this crap on your face, huh? Tell me!” he says angrily.

  “No-one. I had a coffee with Becka. I had to put makeup on to hide the bruises you bastard. Now let me go! You’re not gonna do this to me no…” he squeezes harder, so I’m wheezing before I can finish my sentence he’s backhanded me around the face, while still holding me by the throat, he’s squeezing tightly so I can’t get another word out. “Don’t tell me what to do you cunt!” As he speaks, his spit hits me in the face. I try to turn my head to hide my disgust, so I don’t have to look at him, but he’s holding me in place.

  With all the determination I have in my body, I bring my leg up and knee him in the balls to get him to loosen his grip around my throat.

  “Aarrgghhh…you bitch!” he shouts as he holds his balls in one hand and shoves me to the floor with the other, all the while Grady is screaming. Paul kicks me in the stomach so I can’t move, and picks up Grady taking him upstairs. I struggle to get up, when I think it’s safe to move, he’s back, and he’s got that look in his eye; the out of control one, that tells me I might not survive this one.

  He puts a foot on me to stop me from moving and says to me, “You are gonna learn your lesson, do you hear me? You will learn to keep your mouth shut. I own you, you do as I say.”

  “What you gonna do; kill me? I HATE YOU! Why don’t you just let me go? You don’t want me, you don’t love me, you haven’t for a long time. But I know your problem, you don’t want anyone else to have me, do ya?” I say sneering.

  “You’re not going anywhere and taking my boy away from me. Anyway, who’s gonna want you with a kid, no one? So I’m afraid you’re stuck with me,” he answers me with hate in his voice. “I’ll never let you go!”

  He cups my face with his hand and squeezes, so I can’t move my head away, he gets right in my face,

  “You – are – not – leaving - me.” I swallow hard, my mouth is dry as he trails one hand down my body and cups me so hard, I squirm to get him off me. As he moves his hand to the button of my jeans, I kick as much as I can to get him off me, I can still hear Grady screaming.

  I need to get to my baby!

  I try to overpower him but I can’t, he’s too heavy. He grabs my t-shirt and rips it in the struggle, leaving my body open for more abuse. He tries to bite me but fails as I’m moving too much. I wriggle from under him and manage to get away. As I run
up the stairs, Paul’s movement is still a little slow from me having kicked him in the balls. Running into the bedroom, I shove a chair under the door knob and go to my baby.

  Picking him up and rock him - we cry together. I sit on the bed as I rock him, talking to him so he knows it’s me and he’s safe.

  “I’m sorry Grady, I’m so, so sorry baby. I promise no more! I’m gonna get us out of here... I promise.”

  BLAKE

  I look at my watch. I’m so ready to get out of here! I’ve been stuck in this fucking meeting for way too long, and they’re not budging on the asking price at all. It’s a damn good price for such a large piece of land.

  “Do we have a deal, Mr Davids?”

  “I’m sorry, I need to think about it, can we meet again tomorrow and you’ll have an answer then?” I reply to the snooty woman refusing to play ball.

  I head towards the nearest hotel to get a room for the night, seeing as I’m stuck here for another day. As I’m driving through the town, I see a coffee shop.

  “Ahhh, coffee, just what I need.” I park up and enter the café. I head towards the counter there’s no queue so I order my large Americano with an extra shot; the stronger, the better after today.

  I pay for my coffee and turn to walk away, and I head back towards the door. I see a woman heading my way but she doesn’t see me, she’s looking back at a baby in his pushchair….

  “UGH, shit.” I use my free hand to steady her as she carries on talking and I look into the deepest brown eyes I’ve ever seen. Shit, she’s gorgeous.

  “I’m so sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going.”

  “It’s okay, It’s got a lid on…luckily,” I say to her smirking, I put my coffee on to a table, I use both hands to grip her shoulders because I really don’t want to loosen my hold of her yet. I trace her face with my eyes and take in her features, deep brown eyes with full luscious lips and a spattering of freckles across her nose. She has the most stunning eyes …what the fucking hell is that?

  She has a huge bruise on her face, obviously, she’s tried to cover it up but I can see it for what it is, and she notices the change in my eyes, and I immediately feel like a dick. She looks at me with a defeated look on her face and says, “Hmmm, I have to go. Sorry again.”

  She turns to look back at me, with a sad smile as she heads toward the table her friend is sitting at with the little boy. I stand there for a few moments just staring. I shake myself out of my trance and head out of the shop.

  Once I’m in my car, I sit there for a few minutes, thinking about the woman with the stunning eyes I just came across, and I can’t get her out of my head. I’d love to know who hurt her. I’d make that fucker pay.

  I rest my forehead on the steering wheel. I didn’t think a woman could have this effect on me again after that bitch Cara. After what she did they shouldn’t, but I’d give anything to look into those sad eyes again. I wouldn’t say I don’t believe in love anymore, but maybe I’ll be a bit more aware the next time around.

  What kind of woman lives a double life, then tries to trap you with a pregnancy? A callous bitch that’s who. I gave her two fucking years of my life before I found out she’d been screwing her boss for the last six months of our relationship. It’s been 2 months since she fucked me over and there’s been no-one since her, well, not a relationship anyway, a quick fuck that’ll do me. There’s not been many of those either to be honest, I’m almost thirty, and I run my own construction company; I’m not into the playboy lifestyle anymore.

  I place my coffee in the cup holder and make my way towards the hotel.

  Once I’ve checked in and gone to my room, I drop my bag, and head towards the shower, ready to wash the day away. I stand under

  the shower, the spray raining over my head and face as I think about the girl that hasn’t left my thoughts all day.

  I’m refreshed from my shower, and I work for a little to pass the time away. It’s only a little after 2 p.m I go over some accounts so I can email them to Jack so he can go over the finances, and I look at some blueprints of some jobs that have come in over the last week, ones I haven’t had a chance to get to. I take a look at my notes from the meeting today to see what I can do to seal the deal tomorrow with the fucking pit bull that I’m meeting with. Once I’m all caught up, I put everything back in my messenger bag, by the time I’ve done all that it’s just after 4 p.m. I lie back on the bed to a take a nap until dinner.

  Once I’ve slept for a while, I order service, slip into some shorts from my bag, luckily I always keep a clean pair in the car in case I go to the gym after work. I call my buddy and business partner Jack to fill him in on how the meeting went and the plan of action I intend to use while I wait for my dinner to arrive. My stomach rumbles because I’m so hungry. I didn’t realise that I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. Once I’m full, I put the tray outside of the door and get into bed. I have an early start in the morning, but as I’m falling under, all I can see are those gorgeous big brown eyes… haunting me.

  CHAPTER THREE

  ALEXIA

  “ALEXIA!” he booms, banging on the bedroom door. The door is shaking he’s banging it so hard. I think he might knock it off its hinges. Grady has cried himself to sleep in my arms. I put him in his bed so he’s safe and sit on the bed, waiting to see if he’ll go back downstairs, though I doubt he will.

  “ALEXIA, I’m talking to you!”

  No, you don’t say, I think, but I don’t say it out loud. I think my mouth has gotten me into enough trouble today.

  The tears stream down my face as I sit and wait, and wait. I curl up on the bed in the foetal position and cry. God, I never cry this much. I need to get out of here before it’s too late. Becka was right; he’s going to kill me if I don’t get out soon!

  The banging stops. I hope he’s given up, but I doubt it. I know he’s probably waiting for me to go downstairs again. I’ll stay and wait until Grady wakes up. I start thinking of a plan to get us away from here. I find a bag in the bottom of the wardrobe and start putting some essentials into it. Underwear, socks, a pair of dolly shoes, two or three changes of clothes for me that I won’t miss and some for Grady that I can get away with putting in there that he won’t need, it’s not like Paul will notice some clothes have gone missing.

  I put some toiletries in the bag, luckily we have an en-suite bathroom so I don’t have to leave the safety of my room yet. God, I hope I can pull this off. I’ll wait until tomorrow when he goes to work and then we’re out of here.

  I pull up google on my phone and start looking to see where I could go. I need to go as far as I can so he won’t find us. I’ll miss my parents, but I know it’s how it has to be, for our safety, and so that me and Grady can have a chance of living a normal life. I begin with looking for a bed and breakfasts in London to start off with, luckily I’ve got some savings. I also look for furnished apartments, if I can pay three month’s rent down that will give me some time to find a part time job, I hope.

  While I’m looking through a list of apartments, my phone starts vibrating in my hand, I look at the screen, it’s my mum. I can’t talk to her now not while I’m upset, she’ll know straight away. I let it go to voicemail and return to my search. I’ll send her a quick text and tell her I’m seeing to Grady. I find an apartment I like the look of in Romford, it’s not as pricey as the others, but it sounds ok, I send the landlord an email and ask for more details, so now I sit and wait.

  I see Grady start getting restless, and as he opens his big blue eyes, I take the time to study him. With his sandy coloured hair and his cute little button nose, with his chubby cheeks, he’s so beautiful, he has Pauls' eyes but my mouth, he’s the perfect mix of both of us.

  “Hey gorgeous boy,” I say happily so he doesn’t sense I’m still upset. In return, he starts flapping his arms and starts saying ‘mumomum’. I smile at him and say, “Yeah you know it, don’t you, baby boy, I’m all you need.” I stand and lift him out of his cot and sit with h
im on the bed with me and we play for a while.

  When I can’t hear anything downstairs, I look out of the window and see our car has gone, so I know Paul’s gone out.

  “Thank fuck for that,” I say quietly.

  Picking Grady up off the bed, I remove the chair, open the door and head downstairs. Going straight into the kitchen I get Grady some juice and a jar of food since its past his feeding time. I sit him in his highchair while I go preparing his bedtime bottle for later and put his food into a dish and make myself a cup of coffee.

  While I’m feeding him, I ponder on my thoughts, what am I going to do, what if I can’t settle on my own? I don’t mind being a single mum anyway, I’m practically one already.

  I get to thinking I’m a little overweight with excess baby fat, I’ve got long dark hair that could do with re-styling, big brown eyes, full lips and a few freckles dotted across my nose with a square shaped face.

  “Ugh! Oh well, Grady it looks like it’s just me and you kid.” I say to him shrugging.

  After he’s had his dinner, I bathe him and get him ready for bed so we have some bonding time on the sofa while he drinks a bottle of milk. Paul still hasn’t got back yet, but I’m hoping I’ll be in bed by the time he gets back so I don’t have to speak to him. As Grady is dropping to sleep I hear my text sound on my phone, I wait until Grady is properly settled and take him up to bed. Once he’s in bed, I cover him up, kiss him goodnight and go back downstairs to tidy up Grady’s toys and clean up the kitchen from dinner time. I don’t want to give Paul anything else to criticise me for.

  Once everything’s done, I grab a can of coke, lock up and head upstairs. It’s almost 9:30 pm and Paul’s still not home, Well, screw him, It’s not like I care.

  I get some more things packed, though I have to be careful how much I take, or I’m not going to be able to pick up the bag! I sit down on the bed and get out my phone to check the text I got and see that it’s from Becka.