Picking Up The Pieces: Book 1 of the Broken Series Read online

  She cried, I cried, in the end, she was satisfied I was okay, she was pleased I’d left him, but she was upset I didn’t ask for help; I can understand that. She tells me she and dad are going to make the trip up at the weekend to see us. My parents and I don’t have the best relationship since I’d met Paul and I never felt I could confide in them, I didn’t really want to hear I told you so, I have no siblings either so really I was on my own.

  Once Grady is in bed, I finally sit down with a cup of coffee and decide to listen to my voicemail message. I warily put my phone to my ear and listened. Just hearing his voice brings me out in goosebumps all over my body. It’s weird but when I was there and had to face that voice all the time I wasn’t really scared of him, but now I’ve got away, I realise just how dangerous he was.

  “Get a grip Lex,” I steady my hand so I can hear,

  “Listen to me you bitch, you might think you’ve got away from me, but you’ll never be free. You hear me, you’ll never be free.” I drop the phone.

  Shit!

  First thing tomorrow I change my number, it’s the only thing we didn’t have time to do today. I see getting him arrested did a lot to keep me safe, I’m on my own again. Once I get over Paul’s nasty message, I look across at Grady in the bed next to me and speak quietly to him. “Night baby boy. I love you.”

  I snuggle down into the bed and turn off the television. As I’m lying next to Grady my mind starts to wander, I start thinking of my new flat. Somewhere I can call my own and a place where I won’t need to worry about saying the wrong thing. I smile and think about Grady, and I being happy and not have to walk on eggshells around that piece of shit. For the first time, I start to feel something other than hate and fear. I start to feel hope even after that message Paul sent me, I have to feel hope for us. This our time now. We can do this, Grady and me. I’m a survivor, not a victim.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  ALEXIA

  We’ve been here three months now. Grady and I are settled as much as we can be. I have a job working at the restaurant, thanks to Becka. I’m making enough money to pay my rent and the rest of my bills, Grady doesn’t go without and I’m paying my humongous credit card bill off from when I moved in here. I don’t go out much, even though my parents have offered to drive up here and take him back to their house for a couple of days for me, but I said no, I prefer to have him close to me.

  It was Grady’s 1st birthday last week. It was lovely. Becka and Mason came with the girls, my parents made the trip up and stayed in Alice and Philip’s guest house overnight, Alice and Philip came too. It was quiet, but it was nice to have people around me who cared. Grady loved it, being centre of attention. He’s got so many toys now I don’t know where to put them all.

  I have to work tonight, I only do three days at the restaurant, but I work 6 and a half hours each shift. It’s gruelling being on your feet all night but it pays decent, so I can’t grumble. I managed to find a childminder too, her name is Lisa, she’s 17, and she was looking for some part time work while she’s at college, she’s studying childcare too so it works well for me. Grady loves her, and she lives in the same building too so I’m happy to leave him with her.

  I get some cleaning done while Grady has his nap and then sit down with a cup of coffee and my kindle and see if I can grab some reading time before he wakes up. Half an hour passes, and I hear him. I put my kindle down and get up to fetch him.

  “Hello, gorgeous boy.” He looks up at me with those beautiful blue eyes and smiles a big beaming smile at me.

  “Mummmmy,” yep he knows that word, I smile back at him and pick him up. I take him into the front room and get his nappy changed so he’s fresh and put him down to play. He’s walking now too so nowhere is safe anymore.

  Grady has been whiny today ever since he got up from his nap, I’ve tried to entertain him, play with him…nothing works. After a couple of hours of that, I decide to get dinner cooked. Once cooked, we sit, and Grady decides to play with his spaghetti bolognese, rather than eat it.

  I get up with a sigh and start to clean up. Once I’m done with finding spaghetti everywhere, I go off to get ready to go to work. As soon as Lisa turns up, I kiss Grady say bye to him, make sure Lisa’s happy and head out of the door.

  My feet are killing me. I’m tired, cranky and ready for this day to be over. It’s Friday night, I don’t work weekends because of Grady, that was my compromise, I’d work a Friday but not weekends. Friday’s are one of the busier nights anyway, so it helps Scott. I really hope Grady stays asleep tonight, I need to sleep so much, and I’ve still got another two hours to go yet!

  Fuck my Life.

  I look on the place settings and make my way to table three. Two men are sitting at the table, a meeting of some sorts I guess. I approach the table with my nicest smile, “Hello there, are you ready to order?”

  They nod at me, I notice the one gentleman is looking down into his menu so I turn to the older one of the two, smile and ask, “What can I get for you?”

  “I’ll have the steak please, cooked rare with the new potatoes.” I write that down and turn to the younger one.

  As I look up to ask the same question, I feel his eyes on me. I look at him, and the way he’s looking at me makes me blush. Embarrassed, I look away from him. He looks familiar to me.

  “The same please, cooked medium in a pepper sauce.” He looks at me intensely.

  Jesus, that voice, it’s deep, rich…velvety, a manly voice…oh, my god!

  I look at him again, and he’s still looking at me with that one eyebrow raised, and I haven’t moved. Get a grip, Lex.

  “Thank you.” I smile shyly and walk towards toward the kitchen and put their orders in.

  Forty-five minutes later, their orders are ready. I walk toward the table with their plates as the younger man looks at me with those gorgeous familiar eyes. I put their plates in front of them before I leave I smile at them.

  “Enjoy your meals.” I turn to walk away, and I hear his voice again, “Thank you.” I smile, blush, as it seems to be a regular occurrence at the moment.

  “Can I get you anything else?”

  “No thank you, we’re fine,” the older man winks his eye, and I relax and smile. I shake my head and carry on with my tables.

  I take a quick five-minute break and go to the bathroom. As I’m washing my hands, I look at myself in the mirror and see the scar above my eye. I rub my finger over it, before I allow myself to get lost in my bad memories, I walk out of the bathroom and head back toward the bar. As I’m walking, I look up to see the younger man walking towards me, and I give a timid smile, as he gets nearer to me he slows down.

  “Hi, again,” he says smiling.

  “Hi there,” not looking him fully in the eye. Oh, my god, I think to myself as I recognise him. It’s the man candy from the coffee shop!

  “I’m Blake Davids.” He holds out his hand, waiting for me to shake.

  “I’m Alexia Williams, nice to meet you.” I look down the corridor and then back at him. “I really should be getting back,” I say to the man I now know as Blake, but he still has my hand in his.

  I wriggle my fingers to get him to loosen his hold, and he looks slightly embarrassed, which causes me to snigger softly, I bite my bottom lip to muffle the sound as I take my hand back. I start to walk away when I hear him speak.

  “I don’t think you remember me do you?” he says nervously. I turn around, “Yes, I remember you,” I say smiling timidly.

  God, he’s gorgeous.

  “Good because I’ve never forgotten your beautiful face,” he says smoothly.

  I lift an eyebrow at him. Yeah, right I’m sure you remember a bedraggled woman with bruises on her face and overweight…I’m the furthest from beautiful you can get!

  “I don’t know about that.” I look down so he can’t see me. I take a deep breath, look up again, and Blake is looking at me like I’ve lost my mind. His eyes burn holes into me.

  “It really was nice
to meet you officially, Blake, but I have to go, my shift is finishing soon, and I’ve still got a few tables to finish up.”

  “Okay, I’ll see you soon, Alexia,” nodding, he replies with a smirk, with that damn eyebrow raised at me again. I smile back at him. That little smirk is a killer.

  As I walk away from him, I see him watching me, so I lift a hand up to him and say bye. The rest of the night flies by and by the time eleven thirty comes, I’m totally beat. I grab my bag, say bye to my colleagues and head home to my boy.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  BLAKE

  I need to get out of here. I rub my hands over my face, yet another night stuck working over.

  “Blake, I’m gonna get off mate” Jack calls in from the doorway.

  “Yeah, okay. I’m gonna lock up in a sec, I’m just going over these plans.”

  “Well, it's past 9 o’clock now, go home, you work enough. Amelia just called and asked if I’d stop off and get some ginger biscuits for her,” Jack tells me.

  “She still getting sickness?” I ask concerned.

  “Yeah, she’ll be okay; she’s got me!” Jack replies smugly. Shaking my head, I reply laughing, “Fucker, get out of here.”

  I start to tidy my desk up, lock away the blueprints in the filing cabinet and lock up the office. I head towards my car, a black BMW 5 series, top of the range, yeah, it’s my baby. As I get in the car, I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket. I take it out and see dad’s name flashing at me.

  “Hey, dad, how are you doing?”

  “I’m good son thanks. How are you? Fancy dinner with your old man tomorrow night?”

  “Yeah sure, the usual one?” I ask knowingly.

  “Yeah son, will 8:30 do ya?” he asks.

  “Yeah, that’s great dad. Meet you there.”

  “Okay son, I’ll let you go. See you tomorrow.”

  “Bye, dad.” I put my phone in the holder and set off for home.

  My dad and I meet at the same restaurant every Friday night. He loves that restaurant, he used to take my mum there a lot. My mum passed a couple of years ago, she died of a heart attack. It was a complete shock. It was hard at first, but we got through it. Dad’s strong, and he’s got me. My sister didn’t take it so well, though, she’s off seeing the world at the moment. She always wanted to travel, so our Dad paid for her to go and told her to live her life, it’s what mum would’ve wanted.

  I don’t see her much, but we speak on the phone when we can, and there’s Facebook and Instagram of course, so I’m happy with what I can get.

  I pull myself from my thoughts as I arrive home and park the car in the garage. I let myself in, put my keys on the entry table and walk towards the kitchen. I can hear movement behind the door, so I slowly open the door, and before I know it, he’s jumped on me. He knocks me to the floor and starts slobbering all over me, Max is a Rottweiler, so he’s big and heavy, he’s black and tan and weighs what feels like a tonne, but is as soft as a teddy bear and just likes to play. I laugh and shout, “Max, get off me, you, big lump. Come on let’s go and feed you, boy.”

  He looks at me and gets off of me and sits while I get off the floor. I pat his head and give him some fuss. I put some food in his dish, change his water and head for the back door.

  “Come on boy, out you go.” Max bounds past me and goes out to do his business. I decide to upstairs and shower before settling down.

  After showering, I let the dog back in, grab a can of beer from the fridge and order a pizza, and I sit on the sofa flicking through the telly. Max lies on the floor at my feet and hear the text tone on my phone go off. I look at it and see that it’s Cara - again!

  What the fuck does she want now?!

  I open up the message and read it:

  Cara- Hi, Blake, just a quick text to see how you are, and to say I’m sorry how things turned out between us, but I’d still like to be friends. What d’ya say? Let me know.

  Five months it’s been since she fucked me over. Can she not take a hint? Obviously not.

  * DELETE! *

  I hear the door knock. So I throw my phone on the other side of the sofa, get up and pay the delivery lad, I sit back on the sofa with another beer and my pizza.

  I wake up the next morning on the sofa, I don’t even remember going to sleep. I look at my watch it’s 7 am, fuck it! I’m gonna be late now. I run upstairs, have a wash, clean my teeth, get dressed and rush down the stairs. I quickly let Max out and feed him and give him fresh water, then lock up and head to work.

  I get into work just after 8 am. I walk into the office, and Jack calls out, “Morning sunshine.” I lift up my middle finger behind my head as I open my office door. I grab some coffee and retrieve the blueprints that I was working on last night, sit at my desk and get to work.

  At lunchtime, Jack pops his head. “Hey, you okay?” Jack asks me.

  “Yeah, I didn’t get this finished last night. I went home just after you left, how’s Amelia?” Jack takes a seat in front of me and puts his feet up on the corner of my desk.

  “Comfortable?” I look at with a raise of my eyebrow.

  “Yes, thanks.” He answers smartly. Fucker.

  “She’s okay, she was up at 6:30 this morning throwing up again, I only gave her a kiss!” He answers looking bemused.

  “I’d throw up if you kissed me too,” I reply with a one-sided smirk.

  “Fuck you, you’d be lost without me.” Jack answers.

  “Yeah right. What d’ya want?”

  “I thought I’d tear you away and we could grab something to eat and a drink, you got time?”

  “Yeah, why not. I can give my eyes a break!” I grab my coat and my car keys, and we leave to find somewhere to have lunch.

  Jack and I have lunch and have a good chat. He tells me about Amelia’s pregnancy, and I tell him about the bitch Cara texting me again last night. We talk over some work issues and proposals, all in all, it was a good lunch and I managed to shake off my late morning. The rest of the day flies by, and I manage to get out of work by 6 pm. When I arrive home, I watched a bit of television and sat with Max for a while before going upstairs and showering. I shower my day away and get ready to meet Dad for dinner.

  I arrive at the restaurant and see that dad is already sitting down. I go to the hostess desk and tell her my name. I can see she is undressing me with her eyes, so, I look, give her a one-sided smile, she’s cute. I tell her my table guest is already seated. I walk away, and I can feel her eyes on me, but I don’t look back, I’m not that interested!

  I take the opposite seat to dad and take a sip of my iced water. “Hey dad, how are you?”

  “I’m good son, you?”

  “Yeah not bad. Have you ordered too?”

  “No, I wanted to wait for you. The waitress said she’ll be back soon, pretty little thing she is too,” he says with his eyebrows jumping up and down.

  “Stop it, dad,” I reply shaking my head at him and smiling. He’s dying to get me married off I swear.

  Dad and I are deep in conversation about work when I see a cute brown haired woman step up to the table. She’s not looking at me she’s turned toward my dad, and then she speaks.

  “Hello there, are you ready to order?” She’s got a soft sweet sounding voice, kind of melodic, you could listen to all day. She’s looking at my dad, but I can’t take my eyes off of her. She turns to look at me, and I see her swallow and then she blushes. I realise she wants my order so I tell her.

  “The same please but cooked medium in a pepper sauce.”

  While I’m looking at her, I know I’ve seen her before. She’s the girl from the coffee shop that day after the meeting. I realise I’m staring and she blushes some more, I raise an eyebrow and before she turns she says thank you to us both and walks away.

  Dad looks at me in bewilderment. I look back at in question before I say, “What?”

  “You! I don’t think I’ve ever seen you like that before, not even with Cara.”

  “Don’t ment
ion her name, I’m in a good mood,” I state. I look at dad again and see he’s still waiting for an explanation.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?”

  “Who’s the girl. Do you know her?” dad asks.

  “Kind of,” I reply. He’s not stopping there, though.

  “Tell me.” I go on to tell him about the day in the coffee shop and tell him about the bruises I saw on her face and how I reacted to her in that instance, and I couldn’t forget about her for a while after but I never saw her again while I was in Liverpool. But she doesn’t have any now.

  I take a sip of my iced water, and I see her making her way toward us with our dinner. She places them both down and tells us to enjoy our meals. I look at her again and smile my winner smile, I can tell I’ve made her nervous but takes a breath.

  “Can I get you anything else?” When dad sees I’m not about to talk and sees her drop her chin again, he answers her and says no thank you to her. I smile again, she looks down and scurries away.

  Why does she look down so much? I wanna look into those stunning eyes again I remember so vividly.

  We eat our dinner in a comfortable silence, just as I’m finishing my meal I see her walking towards the bathrooms. I take a sip of my water and wipe my mouth on my serviette and get up out of my chair.

  “I’ll be right back,” I tell my dad and walk toward the bathrooms.

  As I’m walking, I see the waitress walking my way so stop in front of her. “Hi, again,” I smile lightly, and she looks at me apprehensively.

  “Hi there.” As she speaks to me, I can see the flicker of recognition in her eyes, so I carry on.