Fall To Pieces: Broken #2 (The Broken Series) (24 page)

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Kyle

“Dude, you look like a fucking kangaroo,” Derek sniggered, as I sat Hope, face forward, into the baby sling on my chest.

She fussed a little as I secured the buckles, hating the restraint of the pouch.

“You have a lot of growing up to do, Derek,” I muttered, as I adjusted her sun hat, and picked up her polka dot changing bag.

I had a lot of fucking pink attached to my body right now, and Derek’s smart comments were doing wonders for my masculinity.

“You’re sure that’s the house?” he asked, pointing at the white painted cottage.

I nodded, re-reading the address on the page in my hands. “That’s the one.”

Derek sighed. “You want me to come with you?”

“No,” I said,
and then looked down at Hope. “We’ll do this together, won’t we baby girl?”

I walked up the narrow flowered-filled path, and knocked on the door.

Nothing.

Well, screw that, I wasn’t about to give up now.

I walked around the back of the house, and peered over the garden gate.

“Can I help you?” a short, attractive brunette, in her early forties asked from behind the garden fence.

Here we go
.

“Yeah, I’m looking for someone, Delia Bennett?”

The woman’s face paled as she moved backwards.

“No, no, no, I don’t think so.” She shook her head. “What do you want? Did he send you? Does he know?”

I opened the gate and followed her into the yard.

“My name is Kyle Carter. I’m here about your daughter, I need your help.”

“Im sorry, I don’t have a daughter,” she hissed, as she slipped inside her back door.

I stuck my boot in her door, stopping her from slamming it shut.

“Please,” I begged. “She’s sick. I need your help. I’m desperate.”

The woman’s eyes lowered to Hope, and her hand shot up to her mouth, a startled cry burst from her throat.

“I’d know those curls anywhere,” she whispered, looking up at me. “She is yours?”

I nodded.

“Yes, she is my daughter, and your daughter is her mother.”

“He doesn’t know you’re here?” she asked again, desperation in her voice, and fear.

It didn’t take much of an imagination to guess who she was referring to...

“He has no idea,” I said.

I found myself wanting to reassure the tiny woman in front of me.

“And I promise, Mrs. Bennett, if you help me, he never will.”

She seemed to ponder that for a moment, before shaking her head.

“You better come in. And I go by Tracy Gibbons, now. Never call me that, again.”

*****

“Shot?” Tracy gasped, appalled at what I had told her.

I didn’t know the woman, and she had abandoned Lee as a baby, but there was something about her that made me relax and I’d ended up telling her the whole story, instead of the version I’d rehearsed.

She was harmless.

I’d known that the moment I‘d set eyes on her.

She had a sadness about her, a lot like the air of sadness that had surrounded her daughter, when I first met her.

It didn’t take a wild guess as to who had caused this sadness in them both;
Jimmy Fucking Bennett.

“Yes,” I replied, concentrating on the topic in hand. “And without a kidney donor, then…”

“I’ll do it,” Tracy burst out. “Of course I’ll do it. If I am a match, that is.”

I sighed, the biggest fucking sigh of relief.

I hadn’t expected her to agree so easily. But, Jesus, I was grateful.

“Thank you,” I said, my voice thick with emotion. “Thank you, so much.”

Tracy nodded, and busied herself with making coffee.

She would be okay. Lee would get better. I couldn’t think about Tracy not being a match…She would be and that was that.

So many emotions rushed through me, that I felt a little light-headed.

“I know what you must be thinking,” she said, as she handed me a cup of coffee.

I lowered myself and Hope onto her small beige couch, and watched as Lee’s mother paced the floor.

“You are probably wondering how I could leave her, with
him
.”

I shook my head.

“Actually, no, I’m not. I’ve met the man. Believe me, I get it.”

She seemed surprised with my response.

“I tried,” she choked out. “I tried to take her, but he…” She stopped and covered her mouth with her hand. “He hurt me. He hurt me so badly, that, one day, I broke.”

She wiped her tears with the back of her hand. “When she was three months old, I’d tried to get us out.”

“It’s okay,” I said quietly. “You don’t have to explain.”

“He must have known I was going to leave
him,” she rambled, ignoring what I’d said. “I had all the things I could sneak without him noticing, hidden at Mora’s house.”

She frowned, as she remembered. “But the day I was going to take her
, he told me to go to the store…said he needed more whiskey and I was to go alone.”

“He cut the brakes in my car, I k
now he did,” she said angrily. “My brakes failed, and my car went off Benny’s bridge into the creek.”

Holy Fuck
. 

“I was pulled out
by Ted. And he and Mora…helped me disappear. I knew that if I went back there, he would kill me. Mora and Ted promised they would watch her. I didn’t have a choice.”

Holy fucking shit balls.

I was speechless.

I had no clue, what to say to the woman.

“I must ask you,” Tracy whispered. “Has she been harmed? Did he ever harm her?”

I didn’t know how to respond to that.

If I told her the truth it would obviously kill her. If I didn’t, she’d know I was lying.

“She has a good life now,” I said finally.

“And you, you’re her husband?” she asked, looking from Hope to me.

“I am, or at least I will be, when she eventually decides to say yes. She’s a little stubborn, your daughter. She’s making me work for it.”

Tracy cracked a smile and I could see the longing in her eyes to hold Hope, so I decided to use it to my advantage.

I took Hope out of her sling and stood up.

Tracy’s eyes widened as I offered her my child. Tears filled her eyes, as she took Hope with trembling hands.

“Hope, say hello to your grandma,” I crooned, stroking her curls.

Yep, I was using my baby as a pawn…as collateral.

I was a shithead.

“Hope,” Tracy whispered. “She is so beautiful. There is so much of you in her. But she has Lia’s curls.”

My head snapped up. “What did you
call her?” I asked.

“Lia,” Tracy confirmed. “He called her Delia, but she was
always Lia to me. My beautiful, little, Lia Rose.”

“She hates to be called Delia,” I murmured. “Her friends call her Lee.”

“And what do you call her?” Tracy asked, as she cooed at Hope.

I smirked to myself. “I call her princess.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

Lee

The world is dark and I am the darkest element. My heart, my soul, my inner being and core… Everything is dark. I can’t break into the light. There is only one thing, one piece of brightness, in this inescapable pit of despair. That light has a name. His name is Kyle Carter.

“Lee, baby, can you hear me? Come on, open your eyes, sweetheart.”

I could, oh, I could hear him.

I’d heard him every day.

His voice kept me company in the darkness. His voice kept me from falling into the darkness.

“Kyle,” I croaked.

My eyelids were
heavy; they felt like they’d been sewn shut.

My entire body ached.

“I’m here, princess.” He sounded excited.

I felt my lips twitch into a smile. Oh good, at least I had some facial function.

For a moment, I’d thought I’d broken my head or something.

A hand clasped mine, and then another stroked my forehead.

I knew both hands belonged to Kyle. I knew his touch. I’d pick it out of thousands.

I tried to open my
eyes again and this time, thankfully, they did.

Strong sunlight blinded me, and I had to blink a few times to focus on the face leaning over me.

“Hey, sleeping beauty,” Kyle said, his voice breaking a little. “Long time, no see.”

He brushed his lips against mine, lightly.

“So, my cocoa sucks, does it?” I croaked.

Kyle jerked back, eyes wide in shock. “Holy shit, you heard all that?”

I nodded. “Bits and pieces…not everything. Some stuff is fuzzy.”

Kyle shook his head.

“Well, shit,” he muttered. “I kinda feel like I need to do a mental recap on all what I said.”

“Where’s Hope? Is she…okay?”

“Yeah, she’s having some one on one time, with her Uncle Derek.”

Kyle smiled funnily and I was instantly suspicious.
I watched his face; he was hiding something.

“What aren’t you telling me?” I asked.

He blushed, and ducked his head for a moment.

“I have some news, baby,” he whispered.

“Okay, shoot,” I said.

Ky
le flinched, causing me in turn, to cringe.

“Do you remember what happened
to you?” he asked.

I nodded.

I remembered being shot, and I remembered Cam passing out…It was blurry after that.

“Well, baby, you got hurt, real bad. They removed one of your kidneys,” he whispered. “But the doctors had to put you in an induced coma, while they waited on a kidney donor for the other.”

“Oh my god,” I whispered.

No wonder every part of my body was aching. I’d been shot twice, and had surgery on my organs
twice.

“Oh, that’s not the best of it,” Kyle muttered. “Lee, I…I’m really not sure there’s any way to tell you this, other than to just come right out and say it…”

“Just tell me,” I snapped.

“Your
mother is alive.”

“No,” I whispered, shaking my head. “She’s dead. Daddy tol
d me she died when I was a baby…when she was giving birth to me. You must be mistaken.”

Kyle sighed heavily.

He ran his hand through his hair. “She’s alive, Lee. She is alive and breathing. I’ve met her. She’s the one who saved you, baby. She gave you a kidney….”

“Stop,” I screamed, needing Kyle to shut the hell up so I could process what he was telling me.

“Just stop a second.” I exhaled harshly, and it hurt. “I can’t…I don’t…What do you mean you’ve met her?”

“She’s nice, baby,” he mumbled. “She’s a real nice lady.”

“No,” I snapped. “I can’t deal with
that
, right now.”

I was no fit state of mind to even humor this crazy, fucked up conversation.

Personally, I didn’t believe it…

“Baby, if you’ll talk to her, you’ll understand everything.
Your father, he’s….Oh, Lee, she’s so fragile…”

“No,” I warned. “No, Kyle.”

Kyle sighed heavily, and nodded in defeat.

“Where is she?” I asked suddenly, as the fear caused my body to shake. “Where’s Rachel?”

Kyle leaned forward and held my face in his hands.

“She’s gone, princess,” Kyle whispered staring straight into my eyes. “She was arrested. She is being charged with a multitude of ch
arges. She won’t be getting out any time soon.

“Are you sure?” I asked weakly, needing to be certain that girl was gone.

“Lee, she is being charged with first degree murder, attempted murder, breaking and entering, to mention a few. That bitch will be rotting in prison until the day she dies.”

Memories
suddenly started to flood through me.

Her lifeless eyes.

The blood…The blood soaking into her beautiful hair

First degree murder…?

Cam…

“She’s dead?” I asked, praying to god, that Kyle would say no.

He didn’t say anything at all, just nodded his head, confirming to me that my best friend, was in fact dead.

I closed my eyes and screamed.