Fall To Pieces: Broken #2 (The Broken Series) (18 page)

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Lee

Mike and Cam?

I couldn’t believe it.

I didn’t believe it.

I had come straight
to Mike’s apartment, from the CU campus.

And I couldn’t freaking believe what my eyes were seeing.

“What the hell is going on?” I demanded, as I stood in the doorway of Mike’s apartment.

Cam stood inside the door, wrapped in a towel.

Mike stood behind her, clad in a pair of boxer shorts.

I really didn’t know why I was asking that question.

It was obvious from their guilty faces, and near naked bodies, exactly, what was going on…which stemmed my next question.

“Let me rephrase my question to- how long has this been going on?”

Cam shuddered, tears filled her eyes. “Oh, Lee…”

“How long?” I demanded. “Is this a new thing, or…”

My words trailed off as my brain put the pieces together.

“Oh my
god,” I gasped in disgust, realization dawning on me. “That’s why were so horrible to me for being friends with Mike,” I said, disgusted. “You were jealous.”

“Lee,” Mike said, but I waved a hand at him.

“Tell me one thing,” I asked Cam. “How many months have you been cheating on Derek, and lying to all of us?”

“It wasn’t like that,” Mike added defensively.
“We’re in love. We love each other, Lee...”

“How long, Camryn?” I urged.

“Since January,” she whispered, lowering her eyes. “It just happened. One night, after visiting you, we went to a bar, had too much to drink…and then things just happened. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone, especially Derek. But I fell in love him and I can’t change the way I feel..”

“Well,” I said stiffly. “I guess I know one thing.” I glared at Mike as I spoke. “Kyle was dead right about you.”

*****

Kyle was leaning against my bedroom door when I got home.

“Baby,” he whispered standing up.

“Don’t,” I warned.

Stepping around him, I walked inside and slammed my door.

I started pulling my clothes out
of my wardrobe quickly and packing them in my duffel bag.

When I first escaped my life in Louisiana, I did
n’t think there could be any reason, or force on this earth, that would send me home to my daddy.

I obviously hadn’t added Kyle Carter, into that equation.

My door flew open, and Kyle stormed in.

I ignored him and continued packing.

I was so done. I couldn’t take it anymore. I couldn’t. I’d had enough of Rachel. I’d had enough of it all.

“What are you doing?” h
e asked, reaching out to touch me.

I was having none of it.

“Don’t touch me.”

He balled his fists, his body shuddered. “Why are you doing this to me? You know I love you.”

“Just not enough,” I sneered, grabbing my underwear out of a drawer and tossing it in a bag. “Not enough to walk away from her.”

She was the crux of all our problems. Rachel would always find a way to get in between us.

He lowered his head. “You don’t get it, baby, Rachel is sick. She is having some kind of a breakdown.”

“Oh, I get it
, Kyle,” I screamed. “I get that you have an irrational need to protect that girl. Maybe it’s because you think you owe her, but I can clearly see it’s because you love her. You’re so consumed in her.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” he demanded, grabbing my arms, forcing me to look at him. “I love you, you idiot. I’m in love with YOU.”

“I don’t want to see you again,” I sobbed, delirious with emotional grief. “I am better off without all of you, than just a piece of you. I do not want to be anybody’s second best. I’d rather do this alone.”

He gripped my arm. “Lee, you don’t mean that.”

I pulled away from him. “No, Kyle, I really think I do. I cannot live like this anymore.”

I couldn’t live with the lies, or the constant worrying.

“So, what are you saying?” he demanded, his voice cracking. “You don’t love me anymore? You’re going to let Rachel break us apart again?”

“I’m saying that I am going home.”

Kyle looked at me confused. “What are you talking about? You live here.”

“I’m going home, Kyle, to Louisiana. I’m going home to my daddy.”

“Is that some kind of joke?” he demanded, eyes locked on mine. “Is that some kind of sick, fucking joke?”

I shook my head, as Kyle stared at me, seemingly frozen.

Finally, he moved, shaking his head. “No, you’re fucking not.”

“Oh, yes, I am. Now leave me alone.”

“There is no fucking way, you are going back there so he can use you as a punching bag,” he snarled, unzipping my bags and tipping my clothes out on the floor.

“You can’t stop me,” I screamed, as I rushed out of the room.

Screw my clothes. I was getting the hell out of here.

I bounded down the stairs and reached the front door, when he pulled me back, hard.

“You’re not taking my kid away from me. You’re not taking
you
away from me. Don’t even think about it. It’s not happening.”

“Well, I’m going,” I growled, opening the door. “And considering our baby is still growing inside of me, I most definitely am, taking him with me.”

He pulled me harder. “Lee, I’m warning you…”

“Don’t you dare threaten me, Kyle Carter. You have no right.
Go find your crazy bitch of a girlfriend. I’m going.”

I pulled from his grasp and ran.

He shouted at me as he chased me down the street. “Lee, Get your ass back here.”

“Let me go,” I screamed, when he caught up with me.

Kyle wrapped his arms around my back and held me. “No, I love you too much, to let you go. You need to calm down. I’m fucking innocent. The only thing I’m guilty of, is showing compassion to a sick woman, phoning an ambulance for her and waiting for it arrive. That’s it.”

“
She killed Bruno…Your wallet…Uh, I don’t want to go through this anymore,” I screamed. “I don’t want this life with you.”

I heard him gasp, and he released me.

“Take it,” I heard him cry and I turned around.

Kyle
was on his knees in front of me, tears flooding down his face as he dropped his shirt at my feet.

“Take everything I have,” he cried, as he emptied his pockets. “That’s what will happen to me if you leave me, you’ll take away everything.”

“Kyle,” I choked. “Please, stop.”

“Take it, Lee,” he shouted, before a fit of crying enveloped him. “I don’t want it without you,” he cried, his chest heaving. “You are all I have.”

He covered his face with his hands as he cried. His body was shaking, every piece of him trembled. “I haven’t done anything. I didn’t touch her.”

I lost all resolve and dropped to my knees in front of him as the truth of his words blew through me with the force of a hurricane. I was wrong.

I’d been so terribly wrong…

“I believe you,” I sobbed, scrambling on my knees towards him. “Kyle, please, I’m sorry,” I whispered, as I cradled his head to my chest.

“I can’t do this anymore, Lee,” he whispered. “I won’t.”

Lifting his head, his rested his forehe
ad against mine. “This is it.”

He shuddered, as tears poured down his cheeks. “You need to trust that I will never hurt you again. You need to have faith in us.
I can’t keep going through this with you.”

“I do,” I cried. “I will.
I’m sorry.”

*****

Kyle

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” I muttered to my two idiotic fucking friends and my hot idiotic girlfriend.

They were all sitting in my kitchen, trying to plot a road trip.

I had no fucking clue how Derek was sitting so calmly.

Cam was fucking Mike-
had been for months.
Lee had told me, the other night, when we had both calmed down enough to speak.

Thank god, she’d believed me
. I knew Lee had trust issues, and god knows, I’d put them there, but I’d been all but fucking crushed, when she said she was leaving me.

Seriously, I’d never
felt so afraid and helpless in my life.

Thankfully, we were back on track and moving on from Rachel.

Yep, there would be no more drama.

Drama could kiss my ass.

But the whole Cam, Mike, Derek love triangle? Well, I was disgusted to say the least.

But
I was more pissed with Mike, than Cam.

He was a sly fucker, always had been, and I’d thought better of Cam than to fall in with
the likes of him.

But Lee said
that Cam told her, that she was in love with him…

But hey, fuck it, as long as he wasn’t sniffing around Lee, I was happy.

Lee had been upset with Cam over the lying, but they’d made up, like they always did.

However, Lee wasn’t speaking to Mike, over her loyalty to Derek, which made me fucking delighted.

Rachel was tucked away in some facility
, getting treatment, and Mike was out of the picture.

I could
finally breathe again…

“Come on, Kyle,” Lee urged pulling herself out of her chair and waddling over to me.

Yeah, she waddled now, and it was so fucking sexy.

“Derek said that you guys had planned to take a road trip after graduation. That you’ve had it planned since freshman year.”

That was true,
Cam, Derek, and I had always said we’d get the fuck out of this place and hit the road for a few days, but given the circumstances, I thought it was a stupid as hell idea.

“Well,” Lee rambled. “You three graduated last week, I think we should celebrate.”

“There are two very big problems with this trip, princess,” I said, agitated, but trying to rein it in. “The first being the fact, that those two, are barely speaking to each other.”

I stopped to point at Cam and Derek, who were keeping a respective berth between each other. “And the
second, and most important fact, is that you have less than two weeks until your due date.”

“Pssh,” Lee dismissed. “Cam and Derek want to go, don’t you guys?”

They both nodded, half-heartedly, obviously agreeing to this, for fear of upsetting the pregnant woman.

“Please, Kyle,” she begged. “Please?”

I groaned. “Fine, pack your shit, we can go.”

I need
ed to grow a pair of fucking balls.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Lee

The cramping in my stomach was definitely contractions.

I was trying to keep calm, and not worry the others to the fact that I thought I could be going into labor, in a car, in the back ass of nowhere.

Kyle was sitting in the driver’s seat of his Mercedes, humming along to the radio and tapping his fingers against the wheel, as the merc ate up the miles, on this back road to nowhere.

Cam and Derek were dozing in the back and I was about to scream my head off in pain.

I was so uncomfortable, that sitting in one spot, became impossible.

I twisted in my seat, leaning back, before turning sideways, to see if that helped.

It didn’t.

The tightening started again, and I checked the clock on the dashboard.

The contractions were coming quick now; two minutes apart.

“Kyle?” I muttered through clenched teeth
, and I tried to concentrate on breathing slow and deep.

When he didn’t answer
, I snapped, “Kyle. Will you shut the hell up for a sec?”

“Hmm? You don’t like my singing
, princess?” Kyle asked, grinning at me.

His smile slipped the minute our eyes met
, changing into a worried frown.

“Jesus
, you’re sweating like crazy,” he muttered, pressing a button on his door that wound my window down. “Does that help?”

Even though hot, sticky air hit me in the face like an oven door opening, it was a relief from the stuffiness inside of the car.

It was so goddamn hot and all I wanted to do was strip my sundress off.

I could feel sweat trickling from my brow, as my stomach hardened to a rock.

I grunted in relief as the pain passed, and sagged back in my seat.

I wasn’t due for another two weeks
, so I wasn’t entirely sure how this would pan out.

I’d read so many articles in the past few months about first time labors. They were usually long and slow.

The tightening pains had started at home, during breakfast this morning, but I’d been so excited about going on this road trip, that I’d just put it down to the usual twinges, or maybe some Braxton hicks. I also hadn’t wanted to give Kyle the satisfaction of being right,
again.

Since then
, the pains had gone from mild, to crippling, and I was struggling to stay quiet and not squirm.

“Yeah
, it’s good, it helps with the pains,” I sighed, wiping the beads of sweat from my brow.

Kyle jerked in his seat, turning his head to look at me.

“Watch the road,” I growled, as another sharp swell of pain attacked my body.

I panted, tugging on the hem of my dress so tightly
, I felt the fabric rip beneath my fingers.

The pain smothered me, and I moaned, spreading my legs apart in a bid to relieve myself from the burning pressure in my vagina.

The pain in my back was so bad I thought I would die.

“Oh shit, they’re getting worse,
” I hissed, grinding my teeth together.

“Worse?” Kyle croaked in a high pitched tone.

Veering the car off towards the side of road, he killed the engine and turned to me with an anxious expression.

“Do you think you’re in labor, baby?” 

I nodded, as another stab of pain washed over me. I groaned, tried to hold my breath, but that just made it worse. 

“Fuck,” he hissed, as he unclipped his belt and pulled his phone from his pocket.

“Damn it, there’s no signal on this motherfucking thing,” he roared, throwing the phone at the dashboard violently.

The phone shattered into pieces, the battery falling out and landing under his feet.

Oh great, Kyle, really freaking smart.

“Stop shouting at me
, asshat,” I yelled, clawing at my stomach as the rawest form of agony I’d ever felt washed over me.

Holy shit, I was going to die.

I was going to die on the side of the road, cursing like a sailor, while my boyfriend had a freaking panic attack.

“I’m not shouting, baby. It’s okay. It’s totally fine,” he coaxed pulling my damp hair back from my face. “We’re what, an hour away from the city max? That gives us plenty of time, I’m sure. We’ll keep driving
, until we can get a signal or a hospital.”

Muttering to himself, Kyle started the engine, tearing off with a speed that on any other day I would have complained
about.

But now,
right now
, all I wanted was a doctor, a clean bed and a truck load of drugs.

*****

Kyle

I watched Lee pour the entire contents of a bottle of water over her face. Her face was so red, that I wasn’t sure what she
needed to be treated for, first; labor or dehydration.

“Don’t waste this one, baby, drink it up,” I ordered, passing her another bottle of water.

I’d been driving an hour since she told me was in labor and fuck, if I knew where I was.

I must have taken the wrong turn off somewhere back along the interstate, because the only thing around us now, was wide grassy fields.

“Don’t tell me what to do, you son of a bitch,” she growled, as she panted breathlessly. “This is your entire, freaking fault.”

I knew that, and right now
, I was a little afraid of her temper.

She was scaring the shit of me
, if I was being honest.

“I’m sorry, baby. I’m just trying to help you. You’re burning up.”

I patted her knee, which, turned out to be a bad move on my part.

Lee grabbed my hand, squeezing it with a strength she’d never had before. Her finger nails dug into my palm.

“Of course I’m burning up. There’s a human being trying to crawl its way out of my VAGINA, Kyle Carter, and you put him there.”

I tried to pull my hand
back, but she held onto it, with a vice like grip.

Holy fuck.

I concentrated on the road ahead, as I silently practiced my own breathing techniques, to cope with the pain she was inflicting on me.

“Shut the hell up
, guys, I’m trying to nap here,” Derek grumbled from the back seat, which was a dangerous move for him.

Lee swung around faster than I’d seen her move in months
, and lunged for his shirt.  

Dragging him into the space between our two seats, she glared at him.

“Don’t you dare fuck with me, Derek Porter.”

I slipped my hand away quickly
, while her focus was elsewhere.

Jesus Christ, I couldn’t feel my fingers.

Lee whimpered and released Derek’s shirt, as she began to pant again.

“It hurts, Kyle. It really hurts,” she cried, clutching her bum
p with one hand, and holding her other hand up for me.

I braced myself for the pain and held her hand through another contraction.

They were coming so fast now, I’d lost track of the time in between them.

“Dude, is she having the kid now?” Derek shouted, shaking Cam awake.

“Where the hell are we?” he continued, swinging his head around to look out the car window. “Oh great, we’re lost. Nice one, Kyle. We’re fucking miles away from civilization.”

“Not helping, dude,” I growled, trying to concentrate on driving with one hand.

It should have been easy, but Lee was yanking on my hand so hard I was struggling to keep the car straight.

Derek was right though. We were lost. “Check your phone
, Derek, see if you have a signal.”

“Shit, man,” Derek muttered from behind me. “I must have forgotten it at home.”

Oh, that was just fucking marvelous.

I went to pass him mine, but the battery was under my feet, and the fucking screen was cracked.

Goddammit
.

Cam, who was now wide awake, leaned forward and started rubbing Lee’s shoulders. “It’s okay
, Lee, you’re doing great, babe. How far apart are the contractions?”

“I don’t know any more,” Lee sobbed. “Less than a minute, I think.”

Lee grunted again, and hissed.

“Oh god,” she cried, squeezing my hand tighter.

“What?” we all shouted at the same time.

I glanced over at her red, puffy face. She was biting on her lip, her brows furrowed.

“I think my water just broke. That, or I’ve just peed my pants,” she panted.

I glanced down at her crotch, grateful for the empty road; if it was busy
, I’d have crashed into something by now.

Lee’s
dress, and the seat, was drenched in a pool of clear fluid.

Jesus fucking Christ.

This was really happening, right here on a country road, in the middle of no man’s land.

I’m gonna have to deliver my own kid.

The thought fucking terrified me, the images flashing in my head were much worse.

We shouldn’t have gone this far out of Boulder, not with two weeks to her due date.

I’d known it was a bad idea.

Shit, I should have put my foot down.

I’d been so careful, and now, here we were.

Lee was about to give birth, and all sh
e had instead of a medical team; was me, Cam and fucking Derek.

“Kyle, pull over the car,” Cam instructed in a quiet, but assertive tone.

I pulled over to the side of the road, praying to god that Cam had some clue about delivering babies.

I mean, she was a girl; she had to know more about this stuff than me.

Jumping out of the car, Cam started barking orders. “Kyle, help Lee into the back of the car and make her comfortable. Derek, go and get some towels from my case in the trunk. Oh, and I saw a first aid kit strapped under Kyle’s seat earlier, get that as well. We’re gonna need scissors.”

Following Cam’s orders, Derek jumped out of the car and started rooting around in the trunk for towels.

I walked around to Lee’s door and crouched down in front of her.

“I’m scared
, Kyle,” she confessed, her gray eyes wide in her face.

I stroked her cheeks, pushed her damp curls back off her face.

“There’s nothing to be scared of, princess. I won’t let anything bad happen to you, I swear.”

She nodded, and I eased her out of the seat.

“Oh, fuck,” she groaned, when I got her standing.

She bent forward, leaning into my body.

“Kyle, I need to…I need to poo.”

I froze.

Fucking stunned to silence.

I didn’t know
, whether to laugh, or fucking cry.

Was this normal?

“Okay, okay, that’s no problem,” I said, trying to stay calm.

I was freaking the fuck out, inside. I’d read something about that
, in an article in one of those pregnancy magazines at the hospital.

It meant she was ready to push.

“She’s bearing down,” Cam shouted from somewhere close by, confirming my worst nightmares.

I couldn’t see where Cam was. I couldn’t see anything.

I guessed this was what blind panic, felt like.

“Get her in the backseat
now, Kyle.”

Lee whimpered again, clutching at her stomach. I pulled her tighter to my side, stroking her back.

“Come on, sweetheart,” Derek crooned, coming over to the other side of Lee. “Dude, let’s get her in the fucking car before the kid pops out,” he hissed over Lee’s head.

I nodded, and tried to move her towards the back seat, but Lee wouldn’t budge.

“Kyle, I’m serious. I really need to go to the toilet,” she groaned, staring up at me.

I shook my head, at a complete loss.

There wasn’t a fucking signpost around for miles, let alone a bathroom.

I scanned the area, my eyes focusing in on a tree.

I was just about to take Lee over there, when Cam barged forward.

“Oh for god’s sake, you guys are pathetic,” Cam growled. “She needs to push
, not poop, and I’d prefer her to do it in the damn car than the side of a road.”

Coming up to Lee’s front she grabbed her arms and pulled her away from me and Derek, towards the car.

Lee crawled onto the back seat, trembling.

Her whole body was shaking violently, and the noises coming from her mouth were fucking terrifying.