All The Pieces (Pieces of Lies 3)

by Angela Richardson

  A song I had been waiting for came through the player, and I stilled, waiting to see her reaction. Norah stopped moving and began to giggle, shaking her head back and forth. She then leapt off the canvas and ran towards me. I had to blink twice because I was having the weird sensation of déjà vu.

  “Oh no you didn’t,” she grinned, still shaking her head at me as she got closer.

  I nodded. “Yeah, it’s happening.” I laughed. “You know you love it.”

  Britney Spears’ Baby One More Time was in the room and it was all around us. I thought for sure she was running towards the player to stop the song from hurting her ears, but I was wrong. She stopped in front of me, rolled her shoulders in a dance move I had never seen her perform, and then started mouthing the lyrics. The most I had hoped for was a laugh about the song, but this was better. Far better. This was completely unexpected and I embraced it by hopping onto the fun train with her. Now I didn’t have Timberlake dance style, but I busted out a few boy band moves whilst mouthing the lyrics along with her. Her smile just grew wider, her eyes more excited. The song ended and she threw her paint-covered body and arms around my waist, hugging tightly, her face brushing up against mine. “Thank you Clint. Thank you so much. I really needed this.” She pulled away and laughed some more. God she had a beautiful laugh.

  I watched her eyes dart to all corners of my face. “What?” I questioned.

  “I got paint all over your clothes and your face. It looks...” And she tried to smother her laugh with one of her hands while the other pointed to my face.

  My mouth cringed, my hands wiping at my cheeks and my forehead. “Is it really bad? Do I look stupid?”

  “No, it’s not bad. It’s an improvement,” she giggled, backing away slowly like I was about to pin her down for making fun of me.

  “Oh, they’re fighting words.”

  Like a childish boy, I ran towards the paint table and grabbed a small can of the non-toxic paint and pointed it at Norah as she backed up towards a wall.

  “You wouldn’t,” she dared me.

  I gave her a look like she should have known better. “Yes. I would.”

  At the same time I threw the small can of paint at Norah, she launched herself towards me, trying to twist her body to shield herself from the worst of the splatter. The paint ended up exploding in between us as our bodies collided. All she did was laugh, with every inch of her limbs. It was magic. It made me feel electric. I laughed too, unable to stop, unable to let go of this perfectly happy moment. Norah threw her arms around me again, and I melted into her, never wanting to leave their embrace. “Thanks again Clint. Tonight was amazing. I had such a fun time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I love y...”

  She froze and immediately stepped away. My body froze too. Heart stopping. My mind finishing the three-word phrase I remembered she used to say to me with such conviction and resolve. Did I just hear correctly? Was she just about to say, “I love you?”

  She turned her back to me and started walking quickly to the other side of the room, where her completed canvas sat on the ground. My feet began to run towards her, pounding on the hardwood floor. I couldn’t reach her fast enough. She halted her steps, turning to face me, knowing that I was right behind her.

  “It was just a slip of the tongue Clint. That’s all. It didn’t mean anything.” She looked at me as seriously as she could manage. Her tone curt.

  “Yes it did. It meant everything.”

  “No, it didn’t,” she refuted, walking backwards, making sure there was space between us.

  “Yes, it did.”

  Norah continued to walk backwards, until her back was up against the wall and I was only inches in front of her face.

  “Can you please back away?” she stammered.

  “You had no problem being near me before.”

  “Yeah...well I have a problem now.” She held up both her hands, pushing them against my chest, trying to get me to step back. “You need to take me back to the house this instant,” she demanded.

  I inched even closer, pushing up against her hands. She was strong but not strong enough to stop me from closing the space between us.

  “What are you doing Clint?”

  “I’m fighting for you. Like Sam did. Like Josh. Except I don’t need to use the Lappell, or hit men, or games. I only need your heart to remember. I need your eyes to open. I need you to feel what I know you still feel. We knew it from the first moment we met Norah. Stop denying it.”

  Slip of the tongue? No, I think not. She can’t run away that easily. She can’t pretend it meant nothing. There was no hiding. I see her. I can see right into that breathtaking soul of hers.

  “I see you,” I said out loud, slamming both my hands next to the wall near her face. Her back froze, like my words had pinned her in one spot. She lifted her face. Her vulnerable expression made her looked like a scared animal. “I see you Norah. I have always been able to see inside you. I feel you when you aren’t around. You act like we don’t have this deep, once in a lifetime connection, but you are fooling yourself.”

  She stared coldly at me, still resisting me, and my words, and everything I was pushing her to do. My eyes remained locked on hers. There was nothing holding me back except the possibility that I would regret anything I did not do right now. “You hear me.” I used one hand to grab her around the waist. “I. See. You.” I pulled her close, “And I will never let you go.”

  “Clint,” she began, not trying to pull away, but trying to get me to back down with the softness in her tone. If this were six months ago I would have backed down. I would have stepped back until she was ready to come to me. But not this time. Not now.

  “Give into the moment Norah. Even if you can’t give me forever, give into this moment. This moment is ours. If you can’t give me forever, then at least allow yourself to feel what you know you do for tonight.” Eyes locking once more with my one true love. “Please, Norah...For me.” Asking for so little would mean so much.

  Norah held my eyes, staying silent, hoping I would give up and walk away, frustrated at her lack of response. Disappointed I looked down, and after a minute I let her go, turning and walking to the other side of the room. I had to. I had just laid everything on the line and had been rejected. I knew she still loved me. I knew she wanted to give in to the moment, but when it came time to grab on, she stalled. I had lost. I now knew I had to try and say good-bye.

  The next thing I heard was the scraping of her feet, the movement squeaking against the wood. I flicked my head around to see her running towards me and into my arms. Her legs wrapping around my waist. My arms went up underneath her shoulders and into her hair, her head resting on mine, her breathing harsh as she tried to speak. “You deserve better than this Clint,” she said against my temple. “You deserve better than me.” Her lips dragged across the edge of my hairline. “You deserve so much more than I can give you.” Her lips were near my ears now. “You deserve...”

  I spun and dipped her, sliding her body around to where I could see her face. “I deserve a chance to be with you Norah. Give that to me. Give in to me.” I pressed my lips up to hers, to see if she would allow me to kiss her. Her mouth opened slightly, and then...

  Then she became free.

  We started kissing so hard and so fast that I lost every ounce of air in my lungs. My head started to spin, lost in a haze like I was in a love drug-induced state. She had her eyes closed so tight, it looked like I was hurting her with my mouth, but she kept going, not able to stop, not holding back, not thinking about anything else except this connection. Our grip on our bodies tightened even more. She grabbed at my T-shirt. Her nails digging in to my chest, the fabric starting to rip. I moaned into her mouth, unable to hide my need to want to be inside her, to feel her around me. Her hands moved to underneath my shirt, pushing it higher until it was over my head and flung across the floor. I moved my hand down her neck, pulling down the straps of her leotard, exposing her shoulders. I felt her body tense
with the knowledge of how far we were taking this and how quickly it had reached the point where we wanted to become one.

  “Don’t stop,” I pleaded through kisses, feeling her body want to pull away. “We will make a life together Norah. Marriage, children, everything...Just please, don’t stop.”

  Suddenly, she stopped, like I said something taboo. She climbed off me, and backed away a lot quicker than before, pulling up her leotard straps. She didn’t hesitate. She ran across the room to find her jeans and pulled them on as I stood, still in a semi-shocked state, trying to understand how it went from hot to cold so fast.

  “What did I say Norah? Why are you pulling away from me when we just experienced something so fucking real? I know you feel it. You can’t keep running from me like this. The moment you gave in to your true feelings, I knew it was me. I knew we could make a life together. I know you don’t want to hurt Josh. I know you are feeling guilty. I know you probably feel obligated to stay with him after what you have been through, but it’s not enough Norah. It’s not enough for you to choose him forever.”

  “Clint you don’t know...everything.”

  “Then tell me Norah. Tell me what is holding you back?”

  Norah backed up some more, scared to go near me. Fear evident all over her face. She grabbed her bag and flung it over her shoulder. “I’m not trying to run away from you Clint. I’m trying to save you. Give you something better...”

  “Why don’t you let me decide what’s best for me Norah? Because in my heart, there is nothing you could say or do that would make me ever change my mind.”

  “But there is Clint. There is so much you don’t know.”

  “Then tell me.”

  She looked around the room, trying to find something. I could see she was planning her escape.

  “TELL ME!” I roared. I must have been crazy to yell at her like that, knowing I would freak her out, but she didn’t look afraid. She only hung her head, still searching the room with her eyes.

  “I can’t tell you Clint. As much as I want to, I can’t.” She swallowed hard. She ran over to where I had dropped my car keys on the floor near the door where we came in. “I haven’t even told Josh yet. I’m sorry. Okay. I’m sorry. I will always be sorry for what I did in New York. I’m sorry that when things got tough between us, I ran from you and to Josh without so much as a second thought. I’m sorry Clint. I’m forever going to be sorry for what I did to you. But I have to do this now...I have to go...with him.” And with that she picked up my keys and sprinted out of the building.

  I was shaking from the adrenaline that had hit me from my body wanting to have a full-on rage attack. I literally had my future’s happiness in my hands and lost her. Our last good-bye was yet another unspoken conversation that I would never have. I was so close to having her, and then like a puff of smoke, it became lost into the unknown. There was something she was not telling me and it was the reason we couldn’t be together. It was the reason she was choosing Josh. I had to find out. I had to know what that one thing was that stopped us the way it did. I would always wonder otherwise. I needed to know.

  So, did I just stand in that room and watch her run away from me for the millionth God damn time?

  No. I did not.

  This time, I ran after her.

  I was sitting in the darkness. Waiting. Just waiting. It was all I could do, and it was where I belonged. I could find comfort there. It was where my sins were not thrown in my face, and where I could hide in my shame.

  I kept turning the light on and off during my watch, staring at the time. She had been gone all night. The moment she left with him my nerves started to come undone. Sleep was not an option. Every possible scenario imaginable was going through my head. I gave Norah the freedom to leave and choose someone else. I told her to date her ex-boyfriends even after she came after me and agreed to join the Lappell. I was trying to show her I was worthy, but I just felt like I was a coward, not taking real responsibility for my mistakes.

  “Can’t sleep?” A voice popped out of the dark stillness of the room. For a second I thought it was Norah, but it wasn’t. It was a feminine voice I didn’t recognize. The room became illuminated by a small pewter wall lamp near a hallway leading out of the kitchen. There stood a tall blond woman, wearing a short silver cocktail dress, arms folded over her chest. Looking closer at her face through the dim light, I could make out the flecks of blue in her eyes, and that similar, almost identical facial expression. It was a trait all Weston family members seem to have.

  “I guess I should be asking you the same thing,” I countered as she sauntered towards the breakfast bar. “Delia?”

  She made an ‘uhhummm’ sound, stopping at the fridge door. “Yes. I take it, you are Josh, the fiancé?”

  Fiancé? I wasn’t sure. I tried not to let her see my disappointment on my face, but it came out of my mouth anyway. “I was, once upon a time, but I’m not in that fairy tale anymore.”

  She pulled open the fridge, the light from the fridge making her eyes squint as she took inventory of what was inside. She reached in and pulled out an open bottle of champagne, and began chugging from the bottle.

  “Classy,” I boldly said out loud, almost amused at this uncouth display from a Weston-ite.

  She turned, and glared at me while still chugging, purposely taking louder gulps. When she removed the bottle from her lips, I knew she would come back with something equally spiteful, which of course, I deserved. Perhaps I was looking for a fight? Something to take away the feeling of despair. “So...Joshua Hollows...manipulated anymore innocent young women tonight?”

  Ouch.

  She watched me, waiting to see what I would say next. This could easily turn into a verbal sparring match, and as much as she was already looking at me with death stares, I didn’t have it in me to go on the attack. Downplaying and owning it was going to be my best form of defense.

  “Ahhh, the night is young Delia. I may still have time.”

  She smirked at me and closed the fridge door. I thought she was going to walk away, but she took a seat across from me at the breakfast bar, bottle in hand. The dim light from the lamp allowed me to see her features more closely. From a distance she appeared stern, cold and kind of older than how she looked initially. But up close, there was more softness in her face, a beautiful youthfulness, yet her eyes showed a weariness she couldn’t lift, no matter how much alcohol she was trying to consume.

  “It’s almost dawn,” I said glancing again at my watch. “You’ve been out all night.”

  She rubbed the rim of the bottle. “E. L. duties. And not the kind I enjoy,” she said, a hint of pain present in the words. I knew that she was referring to the Elite Lappell. Her eyes were staring off into the dark, probably trying to push down the images she had in her head to somewhere deep inside where she had buried many before. Her membership was also taking its toll. It was written all over her face, in her expression, and in those sad and lonely eyes. Seems I wasn’t the only one who felt at home in our black surroundings.

  She leaned a little closer, swaying ever so slightly as she did. The alcohol having a somewhat trancelike effect on her movements. “I read your file...Joshua Hollows,” she whispered, like it was a secret that no one should know about.

  My back stiffened. “You did?”

  “Yes, I’m E.L after all. And I wanted to see what kind of person my brother was really dealing with. Especially considering you were so good to him.” I could feel her distaste roll off her tongue.

  She had read my file. I knew the Lappell keep files. This was not unknown knowledge within the club. But files for each members held different kinds of information. It wasn’t the standard ‘date of birth, names of parents, schools I attended’ type of file. No, Lappell files held secrets, fears, ambitions, mistakes. Only certain people had access to that type of information. People who had power and influence. Delia must have had a lot more pull than I gave her credit for, but after what I did to Clint, she probably w
ent a bit further to get her hands on my information.

  “I’m curious Josh, does Norah know?” She took another swig of champagne, her gaze not leaving me so she could see how I would react. Observation was a key skill in the Lappell. If you look close enough at people, they can give you everything they are trying to hide without saying a word.

  “Know what?” I asked carefully, trying to figure out where she was going with this line of questioning and maintaining a steady and unreadable expression on my face.

  Delia tried to hold my eyes, trying to come off as fierce but the alcohol was still making her seem off balance. “That you are an Assessor.” She hissed at me, making the Assessor word sound like something that would come out of a snake’s mouth. Delia made the statement like it meant one huge secret I was keeping from everyone. But it wasn’t. My role with the Lappell in New York was known by everyone. It wasn’t something hidden. But in this case, she was of course, referring to its true meaning. Its hidden meaning. Something I did not anticipate her looking into. She was making reference to what happens to Lappell members who do my particular job.

  This was now a dangerous conversation.

  “I do not know what you mean Delia,” I simply said, hoping it was enough for her not to push further down that rabbit hole. Although I could tell by the look in her eyes, she was about to go there and she knew what she was going to find.