Broken Glass

by Pavan Kaur

  Jackson tells Leo, “I’ll order a pizza. She’s still in shock about it all.” I slowly stand on trembling legs as Jackson talks to Leo. I know they both want to know where I was, what happened after I ran, but I want to shower then I want to lie down and sleep.

  As I make my way up the stairs, I feel Leo’s hand on my lower back. As I make my way to my room, I look down at my hands which are shaking so badly now.

  “You need to take your pills.” Leo walks over to my medication and takes out what I need. “Here, then take a warm shower, sit in front of the fireplace and have some food. You have to eat.” He walks me over to the bathroom the moment I have taken my pills.

  I hear the water and lean on the counter for a moment as I start to feel light headed again. “Come here.” Leo helps me undress as I don’t have the energy to do it. “Do these hurt?” I look down at where he’s pointing.

  "I didn't even know they were there," I tell him, as I look at the bruise.

  Moving my hair out of the way, he kisses my forehead. "I would have looked all night for you, I'm sorry." Pulling away from me, he continues to undress me and the moment all my clothes are off, I watch Leo undress. "Come on, let's get in."

  I close my eyes as the water runs over my body, and as Leo wraps his arms around me, I start crying all the tears I’ve been holding in for so long.

  “You’re safe.”

  “Please don’t let him take me again.”

  “Not going to happen, the next time I see him, I’ll be putting a bullet between his eyes.”

  Leo's touch leaves my body, and I already feel lost without it. Opening my eyes, I watch Leo with the body wash. "Turn around." I do as he asks and I feel him softly washing my body but then he moves in front of me and I flinch as he reaches my stomach. "I'll be gentle," he whispers.

  Nodding, I look at the bruises covering my body. There’s one part of me that Leo hasn’t said anything about, my face. Uncle Jack hit me twice. I know my lip is cut and I know that there’s bound to be a bruise too.

  Taking a step back under the water, Leo joins me, his hand on my back as the water washes the soap away. I gaze up at Leo, as his fingers move away some of my hair and his thumb moves over my lip.

  Taking his hand in mine, I stop him moving his thumb. "I know tried to look for me. I know that you would have never stopped looking."

  “Never.”

  Chapter 28

  Leo

  Joining Jackson in the sitting room, I flip open the pizza box and take a slice and go sit on the couch. I thought this night was never going to end. I thought I wouldn't see Hope again and that was causing more heartache for me than I ever imagined possible.

  I know that she's a survivor. I mean after everything she's been through she's still standing, and that just shows she has a lot more willpower than anyone else I know.

  "You can ask it," I say without looking at him. I know that Jackson has wanted to say something to me the moment we couldn't find Hope. I already know what the question is, but I've been too scared to say it out loud. I know that I can treat Hope better than anyone else out there; I know that I can look after her, so why am I so scared to admit it?

  “Are you falling in love with Hope?”

  Leaning back into the couch, I sigh, “Past falling.” I turn to look at him. “I’m in love with her.” Then I move my focus to the blank TV screen waiting for him to say something.

  “I thought being in love was meant to make a man feel happy, you don’t look happy.” He joins me on the couch and hands me a beer.

  “Don’t think that I will be—”

  “I’m going to stop you there.” He leans forward tilting his head toward me. “Don’t think that you can’t be good enough for her, okay? Don’t think that you can’t make her happy. We both know that you’ll be the best thing to happen to her and she’ll be the same for you. So how about we finish what we started, so you and Hope can finally be happy and forget the past?”

  "I don't think either one of us will ever forget the past. That shit is burned into us." The memories are burned into every cell of my body; no amount of time will ever take that shit out of my head.

  “I agree, it is, but you need to start looking at the life you can have with her if you just let it happen.” Jackson stops talking when Hope walks into the room and sits in front of the fireplace.

  Maybe Jackson is right. If I stop overthinking everything, I can have some sort of normal life. All I know is I can’t think about my life unless Hope is in it.

  “Can I take a look at your arm?” I ask sitting in front of her as Jackson goes to the kitchen to get the first aid box for me. Hope pushes the sleeve of her sweater up and puts out her arm for me. “It’s not deep at all, just needs a clean and that’s it.” Moving my hands down her arms to her hands, I frown. We had finally got them to look healthy and one night in the cold and they looked fucked up again. “Did you put some lotion on?”

  “Yeah,” she sounds broken and exhausted. Just listening to her cry in the shower brought the biggest lump to my throat.

  Taking the first aid box from Jackson, I get out antiseptic wipes and clean the cut on Hope's arm as Jackson hands her a plate of food. She takes it but just stares at it.

  “You’ll feel better once you eat something.”

  “Can I go to sleep? I just want to sleep.”

  I wish she'd eat, but I understand that food is the last thing on her mind right now. "Yeah, get some sleep. You'll feel better in the morning." I smile reassuringly and take the plate from her. Without another word, she leaves. Have I just gone back to step one with her? I hope not. I was finally getting her to smile, and I want to see that smile every damn day.

  Jackson pats my back. “I think we all need to get some sleep. I’ll be over in the morning. We will find him." I nod and smile weakly as he leaves. Once I'm alone, I sit staring at the fireplace.

  Jack knows I'm looking for him. He practically challenged me to find him. And even though he's in New York, I know it might be as hard to see him again as it was before. Tomorrow every hotel will be looked at, every pimp house, I want this man dead.

  Once upstairs, I stand in the doorway and I watch Hope lying on the floor looking out of the window, no cover, no pillow. Taking a deep breath, I walk over to her and lie in front of her. “What happened to sleeping with a pillow?”

  “I like sleeping like this.”

  “Hope, by the end of this week I promise that Jack will be dead. And you can finally be free.” I push her hair over her shoulder so that I can see her face. “This is just a bump in the road to freedom. You’ll smile every day. I miss your smile.”

  “Will you hold me?”

  “Yes.” Pulling her closer to me, I place my arm under her head. Feeling her breath on my chest, I wait until it becomes steady and I know that she’s sleeping before I pull the blanket on top of us.

  By the end of the week, I'm going to get her to sleep in my bed too. I know she doesn't like beds, but the winter is coming, and I know that my room will be a lot better for her than this one. I'll show her why tomorrow.

  ***

  "I don't think he'll be in a high-end hotel. Wouldn't he want to stay low key?" I say as I pour coffee for myself and Jackson. "So, what about some of the cheap hotels? Have a look into them." Leaving him in the kitchen, I walk to the stairs as I see Hope coming down. "Morning beautiful."

  “Morning.”

  “Feeling better?”

  "A little, thank you." She goes to walk downstairs, but I stop her.

  "I want to show you something. If you won't sleep in a bed or with a cover, I want you to start sleeping in my room." Taking her hand in mine, I walk her to my bedroom.

  “But—”

  "But nothing," I stop her before she can tell me some stupid reason to why she can't. "Trust me, you'll find it better in here, and the view is still really nice. I promise." Opening the door to my room, I walk in with her.

  I watch her as she goes over to the window. S
he doesn’t look at anything else.

  "At night it's really nice," I say as I stand next to her. "So, the reason I want you to sleep in here tonight is that of this." I point behind her and wait for her to turn around.

  I see the smile on her lips, and that makes me so happy right now. "Tonight we can sleep in front of the fireplace. I thought this way you won't be uncomfortable with a blanket on you, but you'll still be warm at night."

  Placing my hand on her lower back, she leans back a little, making me move my whole body behind her to that she can lean on me. “Thank you.”

  “Anytime.”

  I kiss her cheek and she turns around and wraps her arms around me. I just hold her for a moment; a moment that feels perfect.

  Later, sitting at the dining table, I watch Hope eating a little of her breakfast as Jackson works at looking for Jack. We also have that big meeting today with We are Loved which I can't cancel. My dad keeps asking why I've been missing work, and if I cancel this, then he'll be asking again. The other reason I need to be there is that the doctor is also coming after I called her about the plan too.

  "Right, I'm in court this morning; soon as I'm out, I'll be over at the office for the meeting." Jackson closes the laptop and gets his things together. "Right beautiful, I'll see you this afternoon." He gives me a nod too and leaves.

  “What’s happening this afternoon?”

  "Well, you're coming to work with me today. I'm not leaving you alone at home." Her body tenses up, but I don't care what fight she's going to have with me, she's coming, and I'm not changing my mind about it either.

  “Okay.”

  Finishing our breakfast, I told Hope to go up and get dressed. She did ask a few times what she should wear as she doesn’t want to embarrass me in front of my employees. That did make me laugh, I think it’s the first time I’ve laughed like that in a while. I think today she will see that everyone at work fears me and won’t even think about saying anything about her.

  “Ready?” I walk into her room. She’s putting on her lotion.

  “Yeah, I suppose.”

  “Let’s go then.”

  ***

  “Morning John.”

  “Morning Mr. Masters, morning Hope.”

  Getting in the car, Hope moves close to me and I take her hand in mine to relax her. Nodding her head, she looks out of the window as I reply to work emails on my phone. It doesn't take us long to get to work, and the moment the car stops Hope's hand tightens on my thigh. John opens the door for her and, taking a deep breath, she gets out of the car.

  "You'll be fine, head up high," I whisper to her as we make our way into the building. I nod my head to everyone that says morning to me. As I get to the office, I look over at Katie, and her attention moves behind me to Hope. "Get me a coffee and then let me know when they arrive," I say walking into the office.

  Placing my jacket on the chair, I watch Hope as she walks around the office looking at everything. I never thought I would want a girl in here, but it does feel nice having her here, walking around proud to be my girlfriend. I've never asked Hope to be my girlfriend, but I don't think we need to really have that conversation; we both know that it's more than a casual boyfriend/girlfriend relationship. This is so deep I think it touches the soul.

  “You have a lot of degrees,” Hope points to the wall as she looks back at me.

  “Yeah. When I got away from them, I thought I'd take my second chance and do something with my life. Make the most of it, you know?"

  She smiles. ‘Yes, I get that.’ She continues to take in the certificates and pictures on my walls.

  “What did you want to do when you were a kid?” She never got to go to high school or college or follow the dreams that she once had.

  "I don't know, never really thought about it. Any hope of anything was tortured out of me." She stops at a picture of Jackson and me after a baseball game at school. She's gone quiet, and I don't blame her, she's looking at a life that she could have had.

  “Did you bring your e-reader?” I ask her changing the subject.

  “Yep.”

  Waiting for my computer to load up, I look up at the door as Katie walks in with my coffee. “Is there anything else you’ll need, Mr. Masters?”

  “No.”

  “You have a few messages which I’ve put on your desk and the woman that you had a pitch with last week has been waiting here all morning to talk to you.”

  Now that has my attention. “How long?”

  "She says she's been here since six this morning."

  “What was her pitch again?”

  “The fitness app.”

  “Send her in.” She must be one of two things. One, she has a better pitch that I won’t find boring, or two, she just wants me to bring her back down from the high that she thinks she is on, by having a new idea.

  I look at Hope sitting down on the small couch that I have to the side of the office. The door opens, and I hold my finger up before she can say anything to me. "What was your name again?"

  “Mr. Masters my name is Amber. I came last week about the fitness app.”

  "Yes, I remember, and before you bore me about that again, the reason I said no was because there's nothing different about your app and the million already out there."

  “Sir, if I could just—”

  “You have one minute to make me change my mind.”

  “If I can have one more meeting with you in one month, I can come back with a new app, new idea, everything. I know that you don’t take interviews easily and I had to wait a year for my last one, but if you can give me a month—”

  “Stop. I didn’t tell you to beg for an interview with me. I told you to tell me what the app is.” I cut her off. If everyone found out that I was letting people just sit outside my office and wait for me to see them, there will be hundreds of people out there.

  “I’m working on a safety app for girls, an app that, if they are in danger a signal will go to the police. I don’t know how yet, but I’ll work hard for a month if you agree to see me.”

  “What’s in the folder?”

  “The very first rough draft of the app.”

  "Leave that here and go," I tell her. She stares, wide-eyed at me for a moment; a moment longer than anyone else has.

  "My number and email are in here. Thank you." Placing the folder on the table, she doesn't say another word and leaves the office.

  Picking up the file, I add it to the pile of things that I have to read today.

  “I can feel you watching me.” I look over at Hope then back down at the papers. “They need to know that they have to work hard to get the money.”

  “Didn’t say anything.”

  "I know, but you're looking at me." I look through my eyelashes at her as she looks back at her reader. I do wonder what she's thinking, and I don't want her to fear me. This side of me is just the business side of me, not the man she is at home with.

  ***

  Hope sat in with us on the meeting with We Are Loved. She took her reader with her and sat at the table as we met. Jackson was happy to join the group and the team was pleased to have Jackson on board. I told them about the building and how the doctor was going to take part as well. The team was a little taken back by it, saying that it was going to be a lot bigger than they had planned and that they weren't prepared for all of this. Jackson and I informed them that they will be working with a few members that we have hand-picked to help them, so now they will have to add everything together and make a new plan. We'll be looking for someone to make the building safe for this charity to work.

  Sitting in the office, Jackson tells me about some of the hotels that look good for where Jack might be staying. We’ll go tonight. I glance at Hope as she keeps glancing over at me.

  “Can I read through this please?” She points to the We Are Loved file.

  "Sure." I turn back to Jackson. "I'm taking my shot the second I see him, and I don't care who's around me."

  "About t
hat, as your friend, I agree, but as your lawyer, I think we do have to play this right. You kill him in front of people, and you'll be in prison for life. Life Leo.” He glances over his shoulder at Hope. “Do you really want that?”

  “Then what other option do we have?” I’m not leaving Hope, I have a plan set for us after all this is done and me being behind bars is not one of them.

  “You’re not going to like it—”

  “Spit it out.”

  "If Hope is around, you can shoot him in public, and I can fight that her Uncle abused her and was trying to kidnap her and you were protecting yourself and your girlfriend. With all the doctor's notes, the court will see the trauma that she's been through. You'll be fine, and nothing will happen."

  Throwing my files on the desk, I lean back in the chair and look at Hope.

  “I agree with Jackson,” she says without even looking up from the file.

  So, they both want me to use Hope as bait? Now I don't think that's the best idea and I would prefer to do this without using her. "No." My tone must have been firm as they both stay quiet. My eyes lock with Jackson, and I shake my head, telling him that will never happen, ever.

  He shakes his head and hands me a paper with the list of hotels on it. I close my eyes for a moment as just the thought of last night still has me on edge. To make things worse, I didn’t sleep at all.

  Without opening my eyes, I already know who is walking through the door. "I've told you enough times, when this dick is in the office you're not allowed in here, Katie," I tell her. She flirts with him way too much for my liking, and he's just as bad, as he teases her. I won't let him fuck her as she's good at her job, but I'm at that point that if they do—because I know him well enough to be sure he won't call her or even look at her again—I'm going to let them.

  “You can be a dick,” I hear Jackson say.