Fall To Pieces: Broken #2 (The Broken Series) (15 page)

*****

Lee

Mike’s penthouse apartment was situated on the top floor of a swanky apartment complex, twenty minutes from the hill.

I sat on his couch
, in the open plan kitchen/living area and gazed out the large window.

I briefly wondered how Mike paid for this place on his wages, when he answered my thoughts aloud.

“This was my grandfather’s place,” he said, passing me a glass or orange juice. “Kyle inherited the bulk of his estate, but grandpa left me this apartment.” 

“Thanks for this
, Mike,” I said gratefully, taking the glass.

I’d walked to his apartmen
t building, and was exhausted. I took a sip of my juice, swallowing quickly, quenching my thirst. “And you really don’t have to explain about your family, to me; it’s really none of my business.”

Mike nodded, and released a deep breath, sitting down next to me. “Hey, that’s my niece or nephew in that belly of
yours; you’re family now, too. You got that?”

I nodded, smiling.

Mike returned my smile.

“Good,” he said, poking my shoulder with his. “So, how’s my infamous brother treating you?”

“Uh,” I groaned. “The little that is said about Kyle and me, the better.”

I hadn’t seen Kyle since his drunken marriage proposal. He probably wouldn’t even remember asking me. He’d been wasted.

“I came here to get away from all the drama for an hour. Tell me something juicy.”

Mike chuckled and brushed his blonde curls back off his forehead. “You know the girl I’m seeing, well, I think I’m really starting to fall for her.”

My eyes bugged, and I twisted round to face him. “Spill the beans, Romeo.”

“There’s not
much, that I can say,” he muttered, not making eye contact. His cheeks actually blushed. “She’s very private about our relationship, but I care about her, Lee. She’s…amazing.”

I searched his face
, for the secrets I knew his voice was hiding.

He squirmed under my scrutiny.

“Stop looking at me like that,” he said, clearly uncomfortable.

“What aren’t you telling me, Mike?”

Mike didn’t have a chance to respond, as a key turned in the front door of his apartment, and in walked a glamorous middle aged woman, in a tailored, soft pink, trouser suit, with the shiniest blonde bob, I’d ever seen.

The
man, who stepped inside after her, caused my heart to drop into my butt.

Holy crap. They’re so alike.

“Mom, dad, what are you doing here?” Mike asked with a puzzled expression on his face, as he stood up quickly.

“Michael, I was worried about you. You haven’t stopped by to see me in weeks,” his mother crooned in a soft British accent, as she placed her clutch purse on the island, before closing the distance between herself and her son.

“What has you so busy, that you couldn’t call your mother?” she asked, kissing both of Mike’s cheeks, before her curious gaze landed on me.

“Mom, this is my friend, Lee. Lee, this is my mother, Anna,” Mike mumbled, waving his hand back and forth between us.

“Hi,” I muttered, waving awkwardly, as I pulled myself up to a stance. “It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Henderson.”

I held my hand out towards Mike’s mother, who, after a heartbeat, shook it.

“Yes, you too, dear,” she said, smiling kindly at me. “Michael has told me so much about you.”

I was baffled for a moment, unsure of what to think.

I had imagined Kyle’s father’s wife to be, well, to phrase it bluntly, a bitch.

But Anna Henderson had kind eyes, and a warm smile.

“David, come here and meet Lee,” Anna said, waving her husband over.

I watched Kyle’s father watch me, as he slowly prowled towards us.

David Henderson was every inch the spitting image of Kyle, with the exception of slightly less muscles and a few gray hairs sprinkled on his dark head.

His sharp blue eyes- identical to his eldest son-scrutinized every inch of me
, before resting on my swollen belly.

He raised his brow at Mike in disgust, and tutted.

“Please, tell me that’s not yours?” he asked, his voice laced with contempt.

I immediately stiffened and stepped away f
rom the tall, intimidating man. I wrapped my arms around myself, protectively.

“David,” Anna chided, clearly shocked at her husband’s lack of subtlety.

“Shut up, dad,” Mike said defensively, coming to stand beside me. “It’s none of your business.”

David gazed at me with a look of disdain in his eyes.

“What’s your game, little girl?” he asked me, as he pulled out his wallet. “How much will it cost me, to make you disappear?”

I gaped at Mike and Kyle’s father
, as he held several hundred dollar bills out for me.

“Oh, my god,” I gasped, appalled, and quite frankly, dazed.

“Jesus Christ, dad, put it away. It’s Kyle’s baby,” Mike shouted.

Anna was gone speechless.

So was I.

“That fucking idiot,” David muttered, shoving his money back into his wallet. “He has his own money to get shot of her.”

I grabbed my coat off the back of the couch, and hurried towards the door.

“Lee, wait, I’m sorry about him,” Mike apologized
, rushing after me.

I held my hand out, warn
ing him off. “It’s okay, Mike, honestly. I’m going to go. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

I didn’t wait for his response, before closing out the door of his apartment, in a state of complete and utter disgust.

*****

Kyle

I paced the length and breadth of my office, holding my phone away from my ear, while Linda sat in a chair with an amused expression.

“Rachel.”

I spoke in a firm voice, as I tried to get her to shut the fuck up for a second, so I could speak. “Just listen to me, will you?”

“No, you don’t understand
, Kyle. I love you, I do. I need to be with you. We need to be together,” she wailed, continuing with her incessant bullshit.

I rolled my eyes, and shrugged off my tie.

“Listen to me,” I ordered, putting the phone to my ear. “You need to get it into your head, we are
not
together.”

I heard her sobbing on the other line, and shuddered.

“Please Kyle; I’m sorry for lying to you about the baby. I am. It was wrong, but I love you, let me fix this. I will do anything to be with you. Anything.”

Jesus Christ. I was losing my patience, fast.

“There is nothing to fix, Rachel, I think you need to see someone. Seriously, I’m starting to worry.”

“See,” she sniffed. “You’re worried
about me; that has to show you that you still care about me.”

I shook my head.

“I’m worried about Lee. I care about the fact, that I think you’re having a breakdown, and your behavior is affecting the mother of my child. All of this craziness isn’t good for her. You need to back off.”

“Ah,” she screamed, and I had to pull the phone back from my ear.

“Her. It’s always about your
little princess
,” she spat. “If she wasn’t pregnant, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

“Rachel,” I growled. “I am not having this conversation anymore. It is over. I do not want to be with you. Do you understand me? I do not want you.”

“How do know the baby is even yours?” she shot back angrily. “That hick, is awfully friendly with your brother, you know?”

“It’s my baby,” I seethed, running out of patience. “Lee is not a whore, like some people I know.”

“She doesn’t want you,” Rachel urged. “She told me herself, she can’t stand you, she hates your guts.”

“Get help, Rachel. Go and get yourself some treatment, and keep away from Lee.”

I hung up and threw my phone at the wall.

Dropping into my chair, I propped my elbows on my desk and ran my hand through my hair roughly.

“She’s fucking crazy,” I said to Linda, who was sitting across from me. “Insane.”

“Do you think you should phone the police?” Linda asked, patting my arm.

I scrunched my brow in disgust.

“And say what, my big
, bad, ex-girlfriend is scaring me?” I shook my head. “They’d laugh their asses off.”

“I don’t know, Kyle,” Linda said as she leaned back in her chair. “I feel this has gone too far. She needs to be dealt with.”

“I’m handling it,” I muttered.

There was a knock on my office door, and I threw my hands up in frustration.

“Oh, fucking great,” I hissed. “What next?”

The door opened
, and in walked the other pain in my ass.

“What the hell do you want
?” I demanded, as I glared at the tall, dark haired man in front of me, whose blue eyes were boring into mine.

“I’ll leave you two at it,” Linda muttered, as she excused herself from the room.

“You looked a little stressed out, son,” David Henderson said, as he sat in the chair Linda had vacated. “Care to offload?”

“Don’t call me ‘son,’” I growled. “And no, there isn’t a damn thing in my life
, that I’d care to share with you.”

David smiled stiffly, unbuttoning his suit jacket.

“I figured you’d say that,” he mused, crossing his legs at the knee. “But, bearing in mind the pregnant teenager I just met at Michael’s apartment, it would be fair to assume that you’ve offloaded more than just your problems, into her.”

I stiffened. “What did you say?”

What the fuck was she doing at Mike’s place?

David straightened in his seat.

“Look, Kyle, I know we haven’t seen eye to eye, over the years…”

“Damn straight, we haven’t. Whose fucking fault is that, I wonder?” I demanded.

I was angry and fucking hurt that he was trying to play the daddy card on me. He had never been any type of a father to me.

In my twenty three years on this earth, David Henderson had been n
othing but a disappointment to me.

And backtra
cking to his previous statement; why the hell, was Lee at Mike’s place?

“Just hear me out
before you jump in, all guns blazing, will you?”

I nodded stiffly, holding my tongue, as my father continued.

“I may not have been the world’s best father to you.”

I snorted, causing David to raise his brow.

Sighing heavily, I nodded my head, indicating for him to continue.

“I made a lot of mistakes with you, and for that, I’m sorry.”

There must have been some peculiar, fucking funny-dust, zapping around the airwaves. First Rachel, now my father…What the hell was happening around here?

I had never heard David Henderson utter the word ‘sorry,’ in the eleven years I’d known him.

“But?”  I urged, knowing full well he was up to something.

I knew he had a motive for this spurious heart to heart.

David sighed deeply, his expression sympathetic.

“Michael told me about your situation, and son, if I was to give you any advice in your life, it would be this...”

Leaning forward, he splayed his hands on my desk and looked me dead in the eye.

“Take the girl to a clinic, or send her home to her family. Let them deal with her. One error of judgment shouldn’t determine your future.

“You might think you love the girl, and maybe you do, she is an attractive little thing. I can imagine that’s why you’re so caught up with her. But you are young; you have your entire future ahead of you. What you feel now, you won’t always. Kyle, do not let, some adolescent infatuation with that girl, destroy your life.”  

*****

Lee

My shock had turned into pure outrage
, by the time I made it home.

I was freezing cold, and my coat was damp from a combination of the shower of rain I’d gotten caught in, and sweat.

Slamming the front door, I stormed into the kitchen and threw my coat at the table. It slid onto the floor, and I didn’t bother to pick it up.

I was hopping mad.

Opening the refrigerator, I grabbed the milk and drank straight from the carton, totally backwashing in the process.

My mind was fixated on Kyle’s despicable father and the wad of money he’d held out for me
, at Mike’s apartment.