A Billion Broken Pieces (Incongruity Series Book 2)

by Thandiwe Mpofu

  “So, you want me to what? Thank you? Well, thank you Mr. I’m Always Right, for making sure that I don’t make a move without you knowing about it!” I fire back.

  God, he infuriates me like no other human being in this world.

  We stare at each other, heatedly. Neither one of us backs down. I’m so engaged with him that I don’t notice when the car comes to a stop in the familiar underground parking lot that house Gideon’s cars, until he breaks his heated gaze with me and opens his door and gets out, slamming the door shut after him.

  He comes around and opens my door, dismissing Fred who was about to do that. Both Fred and John wisely step away, giving the steaming Gideon Black a wide berth as he extends his hand out to me.

  My mind is clouded with confusion. Not only about what is happening right now, but about the enigma that is this man, standing there with a murderous expression, yet still being an ever-loving gentleman.

  Well fuck that, chivalry is dead anyway. I can get my damn self out of a bloody car.

  I look at his outstretched hand, his long deft figures curled towards me, awakening wicked thoughts within me, evoking some steamy images in my mind.

  The same hands that brought me pleasure not so long ago, have also held information to my life that I thought was only privileged to me and me alone.

  I don’t take the hand of a liar.

  Because that’s who he is. He chose to withhold important information from me, kept me under lock and key, then has the audacity to extend his hand out for me to take? I don’t think so!

  From now on, as it has always been, I stand on my own two feet. I rely on myself. I have the world at my feet. Gideon Black and his breathtaking, gorgeous features be damned.

  So, I ignore his outstretched hand and get out of the car myself. A small act of defiance that I know ticks him off even further.

  I guess you can say, Gideon isn’t used to being denied anything or to be called out on his bullshit, as I notice his face cloud with anger. An emotion I can’t name flashes across his features. It comes and goes so fast I have no time to actually place it.

  He steps back and looks at me. In his icy gaze, there is a message. I just know there is no way I’ll get away with mouthing off to him.

  When I read the warning, he turns on his heel and walks swiftly, with an economic grace about him that I liken to a sleek panther, a beautiful, dark predator that knows exactly what it is and most importantly, what it can do.

  I follow him to the elevators, the air between us crackling and shifting with tense chemistry and unresolved anger. Explosive anger that I know can do damage.

  As I cross the lot, walking slowly towards the open elevator doors, I’m hit with a kind of déjà vu. Transported back to a time I thought I was making a huge, wrong decision. Going up to see a man that I wasn’t sure of.

  And now the irony is that, I was right.

  “Are you coming?” Comes his voice like thunder encased in the finest silk.

  He stands there, in the middle of the elevator where I once stood, once when I was on my way to sign a deal with the unknown. Naivety was my friend then, now I think I know better but I’m still walking towards him anyway.

  He stands there, like a god. Irritated, annoyed, angry but still looking at me like he wants to devour me. Like he wants to finish what he started. This, more than anything that has happened tonight, is what scares me the most.

  It makes my blood rush all over my body, heat pooling towards the south of me.

  “Yes.” I manage to mumble out, and I know he heard me as he inclines his head to the left, his eyes just as cold as his hard voice.

  Without thinking, I quickly enter the elevator and turn around to face the doors as they softly slide closed.

  I make sure not to stand anywhere near him, but his body is so large and intimidating that he seems to be taking up all the space around me, around us.

  I can literally feel his body heat at my back, yet I made it a point to stand as far left as I can, almost leaning on the mirrored wall of the lift.

  But, as I’m learning about Gideon’s magnetism and appeal, my self-preservation doesn’t help matters. In fact, it seems to heighten the complexity of the situation. Giving him a challenge, if you will.

  As the lift gets in motion, he pounces.

  Uncoiling his strong, tense body like the restless predator he is; Gideon grabs me by my wrist, spins me around to face him so fast, I think I get slightly dizzy.

  He frames my face roughly bringing me closer to him; there is nothing sweet and delicate about his movements. He is angry and he is angry with me.

  “Gideon. . .” I start, stammering to get the one breathlessly whispered noun out as the pounding in my chest threatens to drown it.

  “That damn mouth of yours.” He grits out, effectively silencing me when I hear just how hoarse his voice is.

  He leans over and this time he doesn’t take a dramatic, torturous moment to look me in the eyes, no.

  This time his hungry lips land on mine and I’m once again surprised at their softness, yet the kiss itself is not soft.

  He kisses me like he was contemplating on doing so the whole time we have been together, and even past that. He kisses me like I’m his last breath. He devours my mouth, angrily, launching all the pent-up emotions swirling within me, between us, into this very kiss that I soon forget everything.

  He bites my lower lip, hard, and for some reason, that makes me even more wild. Wild for him and his touch that makes my heart beat much slower, as if to enjoy this moment right here.

  This is different and I find myself responding differently too, as if this has graduated to another spectrum of reckless and volatile. There is no way that I can’t not respond.

  He uses his lips to not only coax my mind, but to coax my heart and my soul.

  I soon find my own hands rising up and I feel them go up his muscled, delicious, suit clad body and straight to his inky, glossy strands.

  And I tug. Hard. Trying to inflict the same torment that he has subjected me to whenever I’m near him.

  I use this moment to not only lose myself, but to let him know.

  Let him know every emotion I feel deep within. The betrayal, the fractured trust; the uncertainty of the present and of the future, the fear, all of it. I put it all into that kiss until I realize that he is responding to me in kind.

  I don’t know what happens, but a certain part of me unlocks. I feel a kind of connection to this man, with this man that I would swear only happens in movies and novels. And maybe not even then.

  It goes beyond the skill of the kiss, transcends even my own pent up emotions and inexperience; it all ventures into unchartered territory.

  In this moment, I feel like I’m anchored to him, by him, as if he is the reason for my state of being.

  It’s crazy, but I feel him tapping into my emotions, into the core of my very being. And it all happens through an angry kiss.

  As soon as I realize this, it also seems that he also feels something too because, like a flash of lightning and the rolling of thunder, we pull apart so fast I get more than a little dizzy.

  I take several steps backwards, dazed and confused, until I feel my back pressed up against the cold, slippery mirrored wall of the elevator.

  I watch, as if drunk and dazed as Gideon takes one big step backwards too, then he is directly in the opposite corner, facing me. Staring at me.

  We are both breathing hard, staring at each other with a mix of disbelief and wildness, kind of like we haven’t seen each other before.

  I can’t believe what just happened. It almost feels like an electric current, like major vaults of electricity passed between us and the residual after-effects are still in motion.

  It’s surreal really, and unnerving the hell out of me.

  I can’t even describe it, let alone understand it. All I know is that something strange just happened.

  Something that has never happened to me before. And we haven’t ev
en said a word to each other but I feel as if I know what he is thinking in this moment.

  But really, what do you say in a moment like this? “Yeah, how did you just do that?” I don’t think that’s the best course of action, sometimes silence is golden.

  But really, what the hell was that?

  It was like a cataclysm effect, like the striking of lightning.

  And the after effects are just as devastating.

  Now, we are no longer the same. I can feel it in this moment as I notice how synchronized our breathing pattern is. I’m that attuned to his every movement it’s crazy. It almost feels as if that one, delicious kiss awakened my senses and linked me to a man who I can’t have, for all intents and purposes. Senses that I didn’t know I possessed until tonight.

  A complex man who is not just an enigma, but a major problem to both my intellect and my libido.

  I can’t help but stare at him, despite everything I know and suspect about him.

  Dressed in one of his expensive, and slightly creased, tailor-made silk suits that hugs his tall, large and powerful frame to perfection, I can’t help but be enthralled by him.

  But then again, danger wears the sexiest mask.

  I try unsuccessfully, to ignore the heat that is rushing within my veins like a flood. I desperately want to get out of this situation.

  To change the narrative and direction of my thoughts.

  At this moment, I want him just as much as I distrust him. My mind is at war with my body and the fact that I want to jump his bones and slap the lies out of him, bothers me to an extent that I can’t examine at the moment.

  “What. . .”

  “Did you. . .”

  We both start at the same time and then fall silent. Like a kind of broken record that so desperately wants to play, but it’s broken and out of sorts.

  This is more than a little strange and slightly awkward, but even now, I want more. More of him.

  I can feel the change within me and so can he, because he begins moving again, this time towards me, as if he can read me and knows what I want. He moves towards me like he wants the same thing.

  But before he can reach me, the doors to the elevator slide open.

  Gideon Black, with his slightly bruised but utterly kissable lips, freezes.

  That isn’t good. Whatever it is that can make a man like him stop in his tracks, is definitely bad news for me.

  Refusing to stay in suspense I whirl around and I freeze as I face a room full of people that are gaping at Gideon and I, taking in our frazzled appearances and Gideon’s messy hair and my hoodie that has ridden up from the ravaging I enjoyed while in the arms of the delicious man besides me.

  Oh well, whatever.

  This day has been confusing to no small degree and I’ve just about had it for today.

  Chapter 3

  Gideon

  “WELL, GLAD YOU FINALLY made it.” Max remarks with a stupid, knowing smirk on his face that I do my best to ignore.

  Through the corner of my eye, I see her slightly red cheeks as well as her bruised lips and I want her all over again. That wasn’t supposed to happen.

  Hell, none of the events that have happened tonight were supposed to happen.

  It doesn’t really help that all the concentration and focus that I do so well to exert in all areas of my life goes to shit whenever she is around me.

  “Tell me you found something.” I demand as I mentally shake away the drunk like stupor that surrounds me, clogging my senses, as a result of her, and straighten my neck. There is no time to have my head in the clouds. There is work to be done.

  “I do, and you are definitely not going to like any of it.” Max grimaces, his hard gaze says more than I want to know.

  “Hey there Chloe. Sorry about your rudely disrupted evening.”

  I hear Max talk to Chloe as my men in the command room start to leave, they know I need my privacy.

  This is my command center. The room where security surveillance happens, a lot of information, research and data is gathered here. Invaluable pieces of information, including the movements of the people that want to end the Black legacy.

  You know the stuff that could send me to jail for a really long time if ever it was found out? It’s all in here.

  The command floor takes up two stories of the building, actually three, but I don’t want to acknowledge the third.

  “Yeah, it would help if I knew what exactly is going on.” She responds to Max, meanwhile, I feel the daggers being thrown my way courtesy of Chloe. She is still pissed no doubt.

  “What is this place? Another lair to monitor my movements?” Her voice is dripping with sarcasm and irritation which makes Max pause for a beat, then he looks between the two of us and as perceptive as ever, decides to keep his thoughts to himself.

  She is talking to me anyway. Her beautiful, stormy eyes wide open, taking in the space around her. But don’t let that curiosity fool you, she is beyond livid at me.

  If that kiss didn’t reveal her thoughts and feelings concerning our current predicament, I don’t doubt that she will find another way to let me know.

  “This is a research room, a command center of sorts if you will. A lot of important work happens in here.” Max answers Chloe’s question after he realizes I wasn’t going to.

  I’m too wound up for that and I know if I say something, it’s only going to burn the place down.

  “Okay, I gathered that” She says as she gestures towards the several monitors mounted on the walls, the desks with large plans and papers scattered every which way. “But what am I doing here?” she inquires again.

  “What, he didn’t tell you?” Max gasps, dramatically.

  “Why would he? He doesn’t see me as important enough to know about anything concerning my own life.” She responds with sarcasm, folding her arms in the process.

  Max turns to me, “Dude, do you not know anything about women? Don’t you know that strong-arming them isn’t sexy now? Haven’t you heard of the ‘#METOO’ movement? You embarrass me man.” he says as he mock shakes his head, being a smart mouth.

  But then, there is something about his joking that doesn’t make sense. It’s misplaced in this situation.

  I study him closely. Max’s smile is too wide, his body language is tense and coiled, as if there something he wants to say but can’t. I realize immediately what it is but I know doing so won’t be easy. Especially not after what happened at her apartment and in the elevator just now.

  “Well, since you are so clearly in touch with your feminine side,” I joke, pointing out to Max and he chuckles lightly, “why don’t you explain to Miss. Smith here about what happened tonight and why she is here.”

  Looking him directly in the eye so he knows to leave out the racy bits.

  “Of course.” he nods in agreement, all amusement falling away.

  I know he gets the message as soon as I notice him shift back into the trained, lethal and highly intelligent weapon that he is. It’s almost like it’s his default setting.

  He goes over to the middle of the room where there is a setup of computers and high tech gadgets designed to fulfill every fantasy that a tech geek might have and more.

  There is something about this room that grounds me, makes me much more aware of the dangers that lurk in the dark. All of them after one thing, me.

  “So, I did what you said, I was looking at Stefan’s movements. The old bastard is sleek and he knows how to cover his tracks well. It seems like his trip to Chicago was no coincidence after all.” He starts.

  “It was definitely not just about his wet dream for political office either.” he explains as he brings up manifestos and pictures of different areas, people and documents that I know he shouldn’t have access to but, I really don’t care.

  “What does his trip to Chicago have anything to do with tonight?” Chloe questions as she steps closer to where Max is furiously typing on his computer, still looking a bit shaken and bewildered.


  “Because he went to see Miami.” Max explains, to which Chloe gets even more confused, judging by the expression on her beautiful face.

  “Okay, is that supposed to mean something. Because I’m sure a man such as yourself knows that Chicago and Miami are two different geographical locations.” Chloe says exasperatedly.

  And with good reason; all of this makes even my head spin slightly.

  “Of course, but what we are talking about is not a city, Chloe, it is a thing. Or rather, an organization.” Max explains as he types furiously on his keyboard, keeping up with the conversation in spite of the serious conversation at hand.

  We already know most of this, but I hadn’t had the chance to fill her in on it all. No doubt adding to the pile of lies that is growing between us. And possibly around us.

  But who am I kidding? I didn’t want her to know any of it in the first place.

  I thought her ignorance would serve her well but tonight proved me wrong. I’m not sure how to feel about that yet. There is no safety in ignorance anymore. Not when we don’t know what’s happening or have a secure handle on the situation.

  “What?” she throws a confused look my way and I choose this moment to step in.

  “MIAMI.” I start, “It’s an underbelly kind of organization. A syndicate if you will. They deal with all sorts and all kinds of messed up things. From running drugs and ammunition in the country, to behind closed doors deal with dirty politicians that allow them access to the highest offices in the land.” I explain, looking at her dead on. I continue when I know I have her full attention.

  “Prostitution rings, human trafficking, all the horrors you might think humans are capable of and then some. If you want to organize an untraceable hit on someone influential, in any society, they have the means. If you want power and wealth, they also have the resources.”

  At a price.

  The last part is an unspoken thought but we all know, everything in life has a price, a cost. The question always comes down to how desperate one is willing to pay it.

  I explain all of this to her, my voice low but strong, hoping she understands the magnitude and gravity of the situation we are in.