Broken #3 (The Broken Series - Book #3)

BROKEN
#3

Book
3

By
Claire Adams

This
book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are
products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not
to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual
events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Copyright
© 2014 Claire Adams

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Chapter One

Natalie

An excavation crew was mining in
my brain as I opened my eyes that morning. The sun was filtering through the
windows, and poking my eyes with knives. I quickly closed them and tried again
but the same thing happened. I may never be able to open my eyes again.
Oh,
God, this was a bad one
. I closed my eyes again, willing the headache to go
away. It was far worse than a headache; it felt like someone was trying to
remove my brain without making an opening to do so first. It really was a bad
one, and my head hurt so much that I thought I may throw up, and that was
definitely not good for anyone. I didn't know what to do, so it was probably
best to just keep my eyes closed and try to get more sleep. If I had to sleep
the entire day to get rid of it, then it was a far better idea than staying
awake and feeling the headache. Painkillers would probably be a good idea,
however, before I went back into sleep land.

I thought about calling Julie to
get me some water and serious painkillers, she would know what to do to make
the miners stop. She was a true veteran of hangovers, and she always had a
cure. I was about to shout for her when I heard a grunt come from beside me. It
was then that the night before flashed before my eyes in an angry red.
Oh
no. Oh, God, no.
I was not in my own bed; I was in Jet's bed. That grunt
came from him. I was sure of it, and dread filled me completely. Slowly the
memories of the night before came flooding back―the wine tasting,
Brenda's angry face, coming here in the cab, and the sex. Oh yes, the sex. Wow,
we had a lot of sex the night before. I couldn't remember how many times we had
done it, but considering how sore I felt, it must have been one hell of a
night. Jet had a knack for being able to get me out of my clothes on a regular
basis, and remembering the things we did made me want to propel myself out of
his bed.

I opened my eyes slowly again,
hoping that it was all a bad dream ... or a good dream, however you want to
look at it. I turned my head, and there was Jet, handsome as always, but
currently snoring away beside me. There was no denying it, last night had
happened just as I remembered it. I groaned inwardly and cursed myself. What on
earth had I been thinking? Why hadn't I gone home to my own apartment? Why
hadn't I left with Brenda? Instead, I went home once again with a guy that I
had been trying to keep in the “friend” category for so long.
I really need
to stop drinking
. Isn't that what everyone said after a disastrous night of
drinking? They always woke up with regrets, and then vowed that it would never
happen again, only to go out again the next night. Well that wasn't happening
to me. I was on that brink of not being sure whether I could vomit or not, and
there was no way I was going to have Jet hold my hair back while I threw up.

I had to get out of there, and I
needed to do it before either Jet or Kyle woke up. My clutch was on the
nightstand, and I reached over and fumbled in it for my phone. It was 9:00
a.m., which would explain part of the headache I had. Why couldn't I have slept
till noon? If I had, though, I would have had to experience one of those
mornings that I always considered too awkward, meaning I would have to deal
with Jet and/or Kyle. It was unlikely that Kyle would be alive at this hour, so
I stood a good chance of getting out of there unscathed if I moved quickly. I
had a ton of messages on my phone from Brenda and Julie, and they had plenty of
exclamation points after them. Lots of people were unimpressed with me at the
present time. Their messages had begun the night before and carried through
till the morning. I would deal with them once I found myself a cab. After that
happened, I could reply to the messages while I was on my way home. But I
needed to get out of that apartment first; that was the main goal of the
morning.

My clothes were scattered all
over the place, and it took me awhile to find them all. The last thing I needed
was for Kyle to walk in and see me naked again, though I supposed that was
unlikely, since he actually knew I was there that time. I wanted to die at the
memory of him coming out into the living room and seeing Jet and I rolling on
the couch together. He had been just as impressed with us as everyone else was.
I silently slipped into my panties and clothing, and wished that I had brought
a brush with me. My hair must have looked a mess, and I had nothing to apply
fresh makeup with.

My head was pounding and I did
not want to have to rush out. I wanted water, drugs and sleep, not in that
particular order, but I was certain that I did not want to be there when Jet
woke up. I wished I could sleep for the entire day, but I needed to find my way
back to my own bed first. Every time I was around Jet I behaved like an
idiot―well, when alcohol was involved, anyway. I was not impressed with
my behavior the night before. I never did stuff like that, and I was starting
to think that maybe Jet was a bad influence. Sometimes that was a good thing if
someone could bring you out of your shell, but waking up hung over and sore
probably wasn't the best result of that.

I quickly took a peek at myself
in his bathroom mirror and groaned. I looked exactly as bad as I felt. My hair
was a mess and I had bags under my eyes from no sleep. In fact, I could go as
far as saying I could use a complete spa day to start looking normal again. As
I was tiptoeing to his bedroom door, my phone buzzed. I looked up quickly, but
Jet had not moved at all. It was possible that the guy was in a coma. If it
wasn't for his intense snoring, I might have checked to see if he was still
breathing.

I looked at my phone, thinking
that it must be Julie trying to track my whereabouts again. She was worried
that I hadn't returned home the night before, but I was sure that she must have
talked to Brenda and assumed where I had ended up. She was just mad that I
ended up here; the question and exclamation marks told me all I needed to know
about her mood.

Shock hit my body when I saw that
it wasn't a message at all, but that my ex-boyfriend Tom was calling me.
Actually calling me on the phone at 9:00 a.m.
I couldn't
imagine what that asshole would want after all that time, but I wasn't about to
find out while I was standing alarmed in Jet's bedroom. I turned the phone off
so that I wouldn't wake Jet, and I slipped out his bedroom door, closing it
behind me. Kyle's door was also closed, and I sighed with relief. As I was
walking down the hallway I found pieces of Jet's clothing, marking our trail to
the bedroom last night.
Shirt, jeans, and oh, God, underwear.
Mortified, I hurried to the front door, thankful that I was lucky enough to get
out of there without either of the guys seeing me. I would hardly have been a
sight for sore eyes for Jet when he awoke that morning.

I made a slow progression down
the stairs, and Tom came to mind again. I couldn't figure out at all why he
would be calling me. He was off in paradise with my ex-best friend; why did he
feel the need to call me now? Was he feeling guilty? Did he want to offer his
apologies to me again? He couldn't think that he would get a good response out
of me, so I had to give him credit for having the balls to call me after so
much time had passed. I didn't want to hear any more apologies, though, and I
had no interest in hearing him tell me again that he was meant to be with my
friend. It sickened me that I had wasted years with a man, only to have him
tell me he found his soul mate in my best friend.

I pushed open the front door of
the building and stepped outside. As I stepped out into the bright morning
sunshine, I shielded my eyes, and made a quick call for a cab to meet me a few
streets down from Jet's place. I wasn't sure how long the cab would take to get
there, but I didn't want to be caught by Jet outside waiting for one. I told
the cab company where I would be, and was told it would be a 20- minute wait,
which really wasn't that bad. It would probably take me that long to get to the
street.

I disconnected the call, and
started walking towards my destination. As I made my way down the street, a
group of college kids were walking toward me, and the closer they got, a few of
them started giggling. They whispered as they looked me up and down, a few of
them shaking their heads. They knew exactly what I looked like, and why I
looked that way at 9:00 a.m.
Anyone
who was doing what
I was doing at 9:00 a.m. was doing the walk of shame.

I took the hit, walked with my
head down, and avoided eye contact with the rest of them. I quickly passed them
and made my way down the street. I turned to look behind me, and a few of the
girls turned as well, and laughed at the sight of me. It was one of those
moments when you wished you had travelled with an overnight kit, but again I
should have ended up at my own place, not at Jet's. In fact, it made no sense
for me to have been at Jet's, because his car was at my place. But maybe that
was his plan―to come see me in the morning, just in case I sneaked out on
him again. Maybe he knew me better than I thought. I didn't care what he did; I
would not be answering the buzzer to let him in to see me today. I was taking
the day off from spending any time with Jet. It was all about relaxation and
removing the pain from my body and mind.

I sighed gratefully as I saw the
cab pull up to the curb. I got in, gave the cabbie my address, and closed my
eyes for the entire trip home.

Chapter Two

Jet

When I woke up that morning, I
thought I would find a beautiful redhead beside me, one who was shy about the
night before, but happy about it, too. Instead, I found myself alone, trying to
figure out how that little vixen sneaked out on me once again. I was starting
to think she was a ninja, as she was able to get out of the bed and get
dressed, leaving me behind without me hearing a thing. I didn't know what I was
going to do with her, but I was not happy at all that she had left. A note
would have been
nice,
or even sending a text message
that said, “You snore too loud.”
Something, anything, to not
make me think that I was totally and completely wasting my time hanging out
with her.
Because one think was becoming shockingly clear to me, and
that was that I had no idea what was going on in that redhead’s brain. Just
when I thought that I was starting to figure her out, she left me alone in my
own bed, feeling like I was the one-night stand that got ditched.

I checked my phone, realizing
that I had slept later than I wanted to. I had to train that day with Coach and
I was already feeling quite ill. I would have to grab a Gatorade out of the
fridge and try to replenish what the alcohol had taken away from me that night.
Pre-workout was something that I used occasionally. It wasn't part of my
regular workout routine but I made note to make some for this workout because I
would need all the energy I could get my hands on.

Rolling out of bed, I quickly
dressed in training gear and went to find Kyle. He was up finishing off his
breakfast when he saw me walking down the hall.

He smirked and shook his head,
and I remembered how he had found Natalie and
I
the
night before. I wasn't about to get in that conversation with him at that point.

“Is she in there?” Kyle motioned
towards my bedroom.

“No, she left before I got up.”

Kyle chuckled. “Man you are a
glutton for punishment. That girl must have a golden pussy for you to chase her
like you do.”

I bristled. “I don't chase
anyone, Kyle.”

“Sure you don't. She would just
rather do the walk of shame in the a.m. rather than hang out with you for the
day.”

“Shut the fuck up, Kyle, you have
no idea what you're talking about. I had to train today, I couldn't hang out.”

Kyle just nodded as he mopped up
the rest of his egg yolk with his toast.

“I need you to give me a ride to
Natalie's, though, so I can get my car.”

Kyle looked up and grinned. “Sure
man, whatever you want.”

I shook my head and laughed.
“Seriously, shut up, man.”