A Billion Broken Pieces (Incongruity Series Book 2) Read online

  A

  BILLION BROKEN

  PIECES

  INCONGRUITY SERIES #2

  THANDIWE MPOFU

  Copyright and License

  A BILLION BROKEN PIECES

  Book 2 of the Incongruity Series

  Copyright © 2019

  By Thandiwe Mpofu

  All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations and incidents are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, or things, living or dead, locales or events is entirely coincidental.

  Edited by Jenny Dicks♥

  Line/Copy Editor: Kylie Romney♥

  ~~ Opening Spoken Word

  © by Rupi Kaur

  Adapted from Milk and Honey

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Playlist

  Author’s Note. . .

  A Billion Broken Pieces, Incongruity Series #2

  Previously on | The Billion Dollar Plan | . . . . . . . . .

  Spoken Word

  Chapter 1 | Gideon

  Chapter 2 | Chloe

  Chapter 3 | Gideon

  Chapter 4 | Chloe

  Chapter 5 | Gideon

  Chapter 6 | Caleb

  Chapter 7 | Chloe

  Chapter 8 | Chloe

  Chapter 9 | Chloe

  Chapter 10 | Caleb

  Chapter 11 | Gideon

  Chapter 12 | Chloe

  Chapter 13 | Caleb

  Chapter 14 | Chloe

  Chapter 15 | Chloe

  Chapter 16 | Gideon

  Chapter 17 | Chloe

  Chapter 18 | Chloe

  Chapter 19 | Gideon

  Chapter 20 | Chloe

  Chapter 21 | Chloe

  Chapter 22 | Gideon

  Chapter 23 | Chloe

  Chapter 24 | Gideon

  Chapter 25 | Chloe

  Chapter 26 | Caleb

  Chapter 27 | Gideon

  Chapter 28 | Chloe

  Chapter 29 | Chloe

  Chapter 30 | Gideon

  Chapter 31 | Chloe

  Let’s play a little game.

  Ways to keep in touch

  Acknowledgements.

  About the Author

  Books by Thandie | Incongruity Series

  Dedication

  For anyone suffering from the deepest parts of themselves, you still shine!

  x. Thandie

  Playlist

  “Sandcastles” by Beyoncé

  “Paradise” by Coldplay

  “Runnin’ (Lose It All)” by Naughty Boy feat Beyoncé & Arrow Benjamin

  “Escape” by Kehlani

  “NotBroken” by Goo Goo Dolls

  “Wipe Your Eyes” by Maroon 5

  “Walk Me Home” by Pink

  “Oh My Love” by Chris Brown

  “Long Way Down” by Goo Goo Dolls

  “Hold Me By The Heart” by Kehlani

  “Here Without You” by 3 Doors Down

  “Iris” by Goo Goo Dolls

  “CRZY” by Kehlani

  “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X ft Billy Ray Cyrus

  Author’s Note. . .

  A Billion Broken Pieces is the second installment in the Incongruity Series. This book cannot be read without reading the first book, The Billion Dollar Plan; or else you run the inescapable risk of being confused.

  Please note that this book contains strong language and scenes that can trigger emotional and psychological lapses. The author in no way endorses nor condemns the subject matter.

  A Billion Broken Pieces, Incongruity Series #2

  “How do you fit broken pieces together?”

  Previously on

  The Billion Dollar Plan

  . . . . . . . . .

  “HOW LONG HAVE YOU KNOWN?” I demand, “And what do you know?”

  My voice comes out sounding so . . . foreign and alien to my ears. I don’t know who is speaking right now. Her voice is too soft and trembling slightly, as if she is suddenly under intense scrutiny.

  “I know that your name is Charlotte Chloe Hamilton Smith. That you grew up in Pennsylvania. That your parents died—were murdered—when you were nine.” He corrects himself when I look at him sharply.

  He better tread carefully, this ground we are standing on is highly volatile.

  “I know that Stefan Demetri is the man who ordered the hit on your parents. I know he snatched them away from you. I know how that feels.”

  His eyes grow flat and hard, his tone emotionless but I can still sense the pain he is trying to conceal.

  Now I’m confused. Gideon’s parents are still alive and well, enjoying retirement. He has a big family; a sister he adores and his sister’s kids. Gideon is an uncle. He has everything that someone like me only looks in to see.

  “I know that look. You are thinking that I haven’t lost anything in my life.” He says as he takes another step closer to me, that imaginary rope between us being tugged, pulling us together.

  “That man,” Gideon begins again, his voice still soft and oh so dangerous, this man is capable of evil, I can sense it. “that man took away the one man who has ever believed me. Stefan also took away my grandfather’s twin brother.” he says.

  “So, if you think I don’t know loss,” we are now toe to toe, I’m craning my neck up just to maintain eye contact with him while he looks down at me as if he is starved.

  Hungry and angry. “Then you don’t know me at all.”

  I’m breathing hard at his nearness, my heart is beating slowly, I don’t know why it does that whenever Gideon is around. Or maybe I just don’t have any bearing over my vitals whenever he is around me.

  We look at each other silently, as if waiting for something. I don’t know what we are waiting for. All I know is, this crazy chemistry and attraction between us has been building and mounting in leaps and bounds since the day we bumped into each other.

  From the time he was stalking me.

  I feel an odd sort of connection to him, like I’ve known him for a long time. Like his pain is mine. Like he knows and understands my burdens and pains.

  His eyes are darting between my eyes and my lips. Lips that are dry and parched and it seems like he is having an internal battle with himself. To keep staring at me or to taste me?

  Then, his sensuous lips form a breath-taking smile that traps my breath in my throat. I can’t help but be affected by every move he makes.

  Suddenly, he leans towards me, lowers his head, and presses his oh so soft lips on mine.

  I think I die. Right there.

  It’s like kissing an angel.

  I’m stunned at his super soft lips and the tender way in which they are exploring mine. I feel his arms going around me and my body feels like it’s been electrocuted by some high voltage and I don’t think I’ll ever be the same again.

  He’s a skilled, excellent kisser. And I’ve never been kissed or have ever kissed anyone in my life.

  This is my first one. And it was stolen.

  The Billion Dollar Plan that we have going on just falls to nothing. Everything falls to nothing.

  Time is irrelevant, nothing matters. Not even Stefan Demetri, not my parents. Absolutely nothing.

 
; It’s just him and his delicious soft lips that keep me rooted to this earth but I just want to float away. I feel like I’m on a cloud. I’ve never in my life felt this amazing.

  Gideon makes love to lips. Right there, in my small apartment. Making me forget about everything.

  I don’t know if it’s my hormones and emotions that are creating a hazy, unreal experience for me, or the simple relief of finally having his arms around me, but I just melt so completely at his kiss.

  I feel my arms rise up to clutch any part of him that I can. His shoulders are too far up so I just settle for his hard, muscled chest.

  I feel a flood of moisture in between my thighs. I swear, a kiss from Gideon can make me come if he kisses me just like this for long enough, I think I’m close as it is.

  He pulls away, allowing me to catch my breath and looks into my eyes again. My real gray eyes.

  He cradles my face in his large, slightly calloused hands. The roughness awakening something else within me.

  He isn’t smiling. He looks very, very hungry, as if he can’t stop himself but before this can turn into something neither of us can stop, his phone vibrates between us. I feel it, making me vibrate along with it jarring me out of the sensual haze around me.

  I know he wants to ignore it but the vibrating brings me back to earth and everything comes back to me in an instant and I step away from him, gesturing for him to take the call or text or whatever it is that he receives on his phone at this time of night.

  The phone vibrates again, louder this time, demanding the attention of its owner, breaking the intensity in the room.

  He takes it out and looks down at it.

  For the second time in my life, I witness him change and alter into this whole other person. I stand there, stiff and unsure.

  The atmosphere around us is now different, the charge of energy in the room is also different.

  His eyes frost over so quickly, gone is the heat that was heating up my cold skin. He looks up at me and I feel, literally feel his body tense up and his expression darkening.

  Something is terribly wrong.

  In that moment, my front door bursts open.

  Open the floodgates of hell.

  Spoken Word

  I don’t know what living a balanced life feels like

  When I am sad

  I don’t cry I pour

  When I am happy

  I don’t smile I glow

  When I am angry

  I don’t yell I burn

  The good thing about feeling in extremes is

  When I love I give them wings

  But perhaps that isn’t

  Such a good thing cause

  They always tend to leave

  And you should see me

  When my heart is broken

  I don’t grieve

  I shatter

  ~~xx Rupi Kaur

  Adapted from Milk & Honey

  Chapter 1

  Gideon

  THERE ARE DAYS WHEN I feel the acuteness of danger; not the kind of danger that we traditionally associate as something that is after us, no.

  I’m talking about the kind of danger where I am the one inflicting untold pain and anguish on other people. A savage need to hurt them, to destroy them as they have been doing to me and my family, without a care in the world.

  It’s in those days that I feel like I’m standing at the edge of some kind of cliff.

  A bottomless pit waiting below.

  My point of no return, where the thin cloak of civilization and humanity threatens to fall away, leaving me with a burning ache and desire to avenge.

  And now as I look down at the message on my phone, I know one thing; that day is here.

  As my vision blurs and spots of red start clouding my vision, I know there is no way I’m going to be the same after tonight. I’m falling and there is nothing anyone can do about it, and for once, I’m not fighting my fate.

  They went after the wrong one. Not her, not on my watch.

  It’s the same proverbial cliff my grandfather had to jump off. But the difference between me and the man I aim to please even now is that, I still have a human conscious within me. There is still humanity in me, whereas for him, it died alongside his twin brother who was murdered right in front of his eyes.

  I knew in that moment that he made a decision. It was a fight or flight knee jerk reaction for him, and since my family and I are all standing in the promise and hard toils of that moment, it’s obvious to see that he chose to fight.

  Now, it’s my turn.

  My last shred of humanity that I have been trying to keep, desperately trying to cling on to; trying to fight for even as my life has been crumbling and breaking at the seams at the hands of one man who is begging to unleash the fury that both my parents fear will show up; falls away.

  It all falls away as if it was destined to do so. Like a million—a billion—broken pieces of nothingness.

  MAX: Unidentified hostiles en route. GET OUT OF THERE!!

  THE RED ALERT MESSAGE from Max stares back at me prompting me into action.

  In this moment, I know that every movement we make counts just as much as every second of every breath we take. We need to move accordingly.

  My body is tense and coiled with the need and thirst for blood. Demetri’s blood, because I know in my gut that he is responsible for the squadron of thugs coming our way.

  But I’m ready for anything.

  “Gideon. . .” I hear as if from a distance.

  It almost feels as if time has slowed down. As if I’m seeing things from an out of body experience. But I have never been more alive than in this moment. My senses perfectly in sync, all with the savage need to protect. To protect her.

  I look up and I seek her out. She stands there, paralyzed by confusion and uncertainty. Who can blame her?

  I see her beautiful grey eyes widening as we both hear the noise of several feet stampeding down the corridor right outside Chloe’s apartment.

  Her slightly bruised lips from our kiss parted as if to accommodate deep breathes. It’s that little, but significant act of life that prompts me into action.

  Damn, I can still taste her sweetness even in the middle of impending doom.

  I see her, as her eyes track towards the bursting of the door. Her body frozen and fear making its way onto her face. I know she can feel it too, the raw smell of an impending threat.

  I see the color in her previously colorful cheeks drain as if life is being sucked right out of her. Almost as if she is seeing her life flash right in front of her eyes as the door bursts all the way through, bringing in all the unwanted trouble and never ending turbulence.

  It’s that face, her breathtaking, beautiful face, riddled with worry and fear that brings me back to reality. Brings me back to the now and what needs to be done.

  It’s not an expression I have ever seen her wear before. Fear is not in Chloe’s repertoire and I will damn well make sure to keep it that way.

  For her sanity, if nothing else. She has been through enough already.

  “Mr. Black, we have to move now!” I hear Tom instruct as he leads my security detail into Chloe’s apartment.

  My men are highly trained for any and every situation. Many of them being handpicked with the guidance of Max of course.

  Ex- Navy Seals and counterintelligence of the highest ranks making up a lethal and focused detail that I see as invaluable. These men have managed to not only earn my respect, but they have come to also understand that the times we are in are not pretty.

  We are at war.

  The fact that all of them are on high alert, their only objective is to get Chloe out of here, just goes to show that they are fully aware that failure is not an option.

  Not tonight, or any night for that matter.

  That knowledge is fully engraved within, and I know they are more than aware of what’s at stake. They are more than capable of dealing with any and every threat that may come her way.

&n
bsp; It’s almost an unspoken law.

  At Tom’s words, I don’t hesitate, I’m not confused. There is a crystal clear kind of clarity in my mind.

  “Be precise. Be alert. Don’t lose your guard, ever!”

  I hear the distinct voice of my grandfather from years back. It’s that voice that is the backbone of who I am.

  All I know is I have to get Chloe out of here, to safety. I don’t need to know what’s coming our way, or who is after Chloe right now. We’ll focus on that later.

  I grab Chloe’s hand, tugging her in the direction of her room, prompting her to move along with me even as confusion clouds her coordination. She hesitates a bit, but at my insistence, she follows.

  She seems to be in shock as my men fill up the small living room, going every which way with clarity and focus on their faces.

  I bet she isn’t used to seeing large men, with various stern and fear evoking expressions on their faces, storming into her sanctuary. Obviously.

  Fred and John bear assault rifles, wearing bullet proof vests, ready for anything. Ready for the dangers that lie in the shadows. I see Chloe’s eyes widen as she notices them and their battle gear.

  “Gideon, what’s all this? What’s going on?” she questions.

  Her sweet melodic voice reaches my ears as we enter her bedroom. I ignore her and go straight for her wardrobe after closing the door behind us.

  No way do I want my men to hear the fear in her voice. Fear that I don’t like hearing. Much less to see her vulnerability.

  “Not now Chloe.” I respond curtly as I move around her small but organized room.

  I search for comfortable shoes and spot a black pair of running shoes. I open a drawer where I think she might keep her stockings and take out a pair of black ankle socks.

  Chloe is neat and organized, the whole space has her signature on it. I have no doubt that she has been on this revenge path for a long time now, meticulously planning her retaliation on an unsuspecting fool.