The Broken_A gripping thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat

by Casey Kelleher

  Jenson was at her side then, wrapping his arms around her, as he led the girl down the steps. Catching her as she slipped.

  ‘Whoa! Slow down, you’ll end up doing yourself an injury,’ Jenson said, hooking his arm around the girl to hold her upright as he carried on guiding her through the throngs of people standing around in the corridor down below them.

  Seeing the long queue of girls standing outside the main toilet doors, Jenson led Megan down towards the staff ones instead. Behind him, Reece and Amber were following.

  Reece mirrored Jenson’s body language, his arms wrapped around Amber as they both laughed and joked together. Reece’s girl looked a damn sight better than Jenson’s bird did though.

  Opening the door, Jenson walked in first. Letting Megan go into a cubicle on her own so she could take a few moments to sort herself out, he splashed some water on his face as he watched Reece and Amber making out in the other cubicle next door. The girl was too out of it to realise that Jenson was watching. Though Reece was doing it on purpose, winking at his mate as he lifted Amber’s top over her head. Jenson started to feel turned on.

  ‘You all right in there, Olivia?’

  No answer.

  Jenson knocked on the door.

  ‘Olivia? Are you okay in there?’

  Shit! Her fake name? Megan had forgotten about that. ‘Yeah, I’m fine. Hang on.’ Taking a deep breath, Megan was starting to feel queasy now. Her heart hammering inside her chest. Her skin was burning hot; the kind of heat you felt just before you threw up. Only she wasn’t going to be sick, she told herself firmly. Not now.

  Unlocking the door to let Jenson in, Megan Harris was anything but okay, only, she wasn’t about to admit that to Jenson Reed any time soon.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Pouring the tea into the china teapot, Colleen Byrne placed the cup and saucer neatly on the tray.

  Just so.

  Nothing too much trouble for her dear old mother-in-law Joanie, she thought with a smile, glad to have finally found her purpose in this household. She hummed to herself as she looked for a pretty little teaspoon to complement the bone china. She could hear the television set blaring in the lounge, and she’d seen from the fridge that Michael was already on at least his fourth beer of the evening. Half-cut, Colleen supposed. He hadn’t even bothered to check on how his wife was doing. Probably because he knew he didn’t have to. Colleen would take care of it, just as she had been doing for the past week now. Cooking and cleaning, looking after Joanie; nothing was too much for her.

  And to be fair it wasn’t. Colleen was glad that she could be of service to her in-laws. In fact, it was an actual pleasure. She was still saddened by Joanie’s admission of regret yesterday at how she’d treated her daughter-in-law for all those years. The raw emotion in her voice had caught her off guard. Like a punch to her stomach. Colleen had never expected to hear Joanie confess to her bullying ways. For all the times that her mother-in-law had meddled in her and Jimmy’s marriage. For the way she’d treated her for the past twenty years.

  It was abuse. Mental abuse. Manipulating, belittling. Bullying. Turning her own children against her.

  Joanie apologising for her behaviour had been an admission that she’d been aware all along of what she’d been doing.

  If Colleen was honest, it was something she never would have expected in her wildest dreams. She’d chosen to let it go. She wasn’t about grudges, she decided. Forgive and forget, that’s what Joanie had asked of her, but Colleen wouldn’t even know where to start.

  The damage had already been done.

  Two decades Colleen had spent on the receiving end of her oppressive mother-in-law’s torrent of abuse and torment, to the point where she had even started questioning her own sanity.

  Until Colleen had been brought down so low that she’d even contemplated taking her own life.

  That’s how far Joanie Byrne had pushed her. Oh, Joanie had been smart about it. There was no denying that. Smart, just like Jimmy had been. Discreet in her ways, her abuse had been carried out under the surface, so subtle that there had been days when even Colleen had trouble distinguishing between what had been real and what hadn’t. All those mind games that Joanie had played with her. All those lies the woman had told.

  When Joanie had first started her hate campaign towards her, in the early stages of Colleen and Jimmy’s relationship, Colleen had thought that she was just being paranoid, over-sensitive even, but she’d soon learned that Joanie had a game plan all along and the woman had executed her strategy well.

  Succeeding in making Colleen’s life a living hell.

  The worst thing of all for Colleen was how Joanie had managed to turn Nancy and Daniel against her. Her own two children. That’s how good the woman was!

  Oh, yes. Joanie had pulled out all the stops, hiding bottles of vodka around the house. Concealing them in places that she knew Colleen would find them so that when Colleen had come back from yet another of her numerous stints in whichever nuthouse or rehab clinic Jimmy had shipped her off to, she’d quickly fall off the wagon and fuck up once again.

  Joanie Byrne had wrapped up Colleen’s poison with a bow and served it to her with pleasure, and Colleen, too weak and desperate to know any better, had played right into the woman’s hands.

  Then there had been the pills.

  The doctor had prescribed them, at first, to help with her panic attacks and night terrors, to ease the dark cloud of depression that loomed so constantly above her. Antidepressants. Sleeping tablets, painkillers. A real pick’n’mix for a pillhead. Just like the assorted biscuits that Colleen was piling onto the small china plate now. All different shapes and colours, all neatly displayed. The dainty little jug of milk and a sugar bowl nestled in beside it. Just the way that Joanie had become accustomed to for her nightly pot of tea that Colleen insisted she drank before she went to bed.

  Looking after Joanie, just as she had once looked after her.

  Content with the tea and biscuits all laid out so perfectly, Colleen pulled out the small plastic container of pills from her pocket.

  Joanie always loved her evening pot of tea. She said that Colleen made it for her, ‘just so.’ That always made Colleen smile. Glad that her talents weren’t wasted. That dear old Joanie appreciated the extra efforts Colleen had gone to especially for her.

  Picking up the tray, Colleen smiled to herself as she made her way back upstairs.

  No, she wasn’t one to hold grudges.

  Colleen was better than that.

  How did the saying go? Don’t get mad, get even! Well that’s exactly what Colleen intended to do. The cheek of that woman, asking her to forgive and forget.

  Forgive and forget?

  Colleen was neither Jesus, nor did she have Alzheimer’s. There would be no forgiveness for Joanie, and Colleen would never, ever forget.

  There had been a time when Colleen had been weak and vulnerable, and Joanie had looked after her. Now the tables were turned and it was Colleen’s turn to repay the favour.

  Plastering the biggest smile on her face, she walked into the room and spotted Joanie lying in her bed, her old-fashioned pyjamas buttoned up around her neck, her cheeks flushed from the heat of the bath she’d just soaked in. Colleen placed the tray down beside her.

  ‘Well don’t you look a lot better this evening!’ She beamed, poured the woman a large cup of tea. Extra milk, too, so that the woman could drink it down quickly.

  ‘I feel a bit better, too,’ Joanie said then, still coy from being so open with her daughter-in-law.

  ‘Well, this will soon sort you out. A nice pot of tea, just the way you like it and some of those posh biccys. You’ll feel right as rain again in no time. It’s been a tough few weeks, Joanie, darling,’ Colleen said sweetly as she passed the woman the china cup and watched as Joanie drank it back in one. Just as she always did, before holding the cup out for Colleen to pour her another.

  Which Colleen was only too happy to oblige.


  Strong, tough old Joanie Byrne.

  Only, soon she’d be drugged out of her mind and acting every bit as crazy as she had accused Colleen of acting for all these years.

  Passing Joanie her second mug of tea, Colleen smiled.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  ‘Shit, man, are you okay?’ Jenson asked stepping into the cubicle, eyeing Megan as she pressed herself up against the toilet wall.

  The girl looked awful. Her hair was dripping with sweat, stuck to her forehead. Her cheeks were flushed bright red. Her pupils were dilated to the size of saucers. She looked as if she was buzzing off her tits, but she was doing her utmost to try and hide it.

  ‘I’m fine,’ Megan lied. Not realising that Jenson could see she was anything but. She felt like death warmed up. Her head was pounding and her skin was on fire. She could feel the sweat pouring off her now, trickling down her back. The crop top she’d borrowed earlier that evening from Amber was now stuck to her body, soaked through. A part of her just wanted to go home so she could crawl into her bed and sleep off all the vodka that she’d stupidly drunk.

  In fact, she decided, after tonight she was never drinking again.

  She must have poisoned herself?

  She was burning up. A fever? She felt so sick now that she’d even considered asking Jenson to call her dad. Though she’d quickly come to her senses on ruling out that option. Her dad would murder her if he found out that she was here at the club. Drunk, and making out in the toilets with one of the club’s doormen. He’d never let her out of his sight again, let alone out of the house, and she could kiss goodbye to her friendship with Amber.

  ‘Do you need to sit down?’ Jenson asked, watching as Megan swayed from side to side.

  ‘No, really, I’m fine.’ She felt embarrassed at the state she’d got herself in. She wished that she hadn’t been so keen to make such a point now, downing all those vodkas just to impress Reece and his knobhead mates. So that they’d think that she wasn’t such a bore.

  ‘Honest, I’m fine,’ she said, giving Jenson a small smile as she saw the concern on his face. She should be grateful that Jenson was even bothering to take the time to check on her. That he cared enough to ask her if she was okay. The last thing she wanted to do right now was put him off. Not when he was clearly making a real effort for her, when even Amber couldn’t be arsed to check and see if she was okay, too wrapped up with lover-boy.

  ‘I’m just hot. That’s all…’ she said, as she saw Jenson looking her up and down.

  ‘That you are!’ Jenson said with a laugh, as he leaned in for a kiss, his mouth covering hers, his body pressed up against her.

  Though instead of the feeling of heady excitement at her first kiss, Megan felt as if she might throw up, her skin prickling from the heat that burned right though her. Trying to keep her mind off the thought of the bile that threatened to rise at the back of her throat, she was suddenly distracted, as the thin cubical wall started moving behind her.

  Slow thuds, at first, turning quickly into rapid, rhythmical pounding.

  ‘What the fuck is that?’ Megan said as she heard the loud moans and groans coming from the cubicle next door. The words were out of her mouth before she stupidly realised someone was having sex!

  Great! Now she really did sound like a little kid. As if she didn’t know what sex sounded like.

  Which of course she didn’t, not first-hand anyway.

  Though Jenson didn’t seem to hold that against her.

  ‘It’s just Reece and your mate,’ he said, waving it off as nothing. ‘Having some fun, babe, like we should be doing.’ Running his fingers across Olivia’s forehead, down her nose. Resting on the tip of her thin, delicate-looking lips. Feeling a stir within him, as the young girl gazed back up at him, all wide-eyed and innocent looking.

  Young girls like Olivia always did it for him, especially when they were off their tits like this. That was the funniest part of all of this. The fact that they rarely had any clue that they’d had their drinks spiked. It was a good little system that he and Reece had in place.

  Reece rented out his room in his flat to Jenson, and in return Jenson gave Reece a steady supply of gear for his troubles. A touch, because whenever Reece then used his gear to snare a few birds, he always gave Jenson the heads-up on them.

  Like these two girls tonight.

  So young and naive, they had no idea that from the minute they walked in here they were being royally played. They’d feel stupid tomorrow, stupid and cheap, when they realised they gave it up to two lads that they hardly even knew in some scummy toilet cubicle, but Jenson and Reece would be long gone by then. The girls would be too mortified to show their faces around here again, and Reece and Jenson would do what they did best, and move the fuck on to their next conquests.

  Talk about easy pickings.

  ‘You sure you’re okay?’ Jenson said then, as he looked at this girl and wondered if perhaps Reece had slipped her more than just the half tab of Ecstasy that he’d said he was going to give her. The bloke had other shit on him too. Special K, GBH, and Ecstasy. Though looking at how off her face this girl was, Jenson wouldn’t put it past Reece to have given this girl one of his special concoctions. He did that, sometimes, if a girl wasn’t playing ball. Mixed gear up with shit his mates had got hold of.

  He might come across as a charmer, but Reece was as sly as they fucking came.

  ‘I’m fine… really,’ Megan said, suddenly panicking that if she told Jenson that she was feeling ill then he might lose interest in her. Or leave her here alone, and Megan didn’t want to be on her own. She was starting to feel scared.

  Watching the girl’s panicked expression, and the way her eyes darted around the cubicle at every noise, Jenson wasn’t convinced. Though, she was adamant that she was okay. She wouldn’t keep saying it if she wasn’t, and Jenson still had twenty minutes to kill. They were both alone in the booth, so he might as well make the most out of it while he still could.

  ‘You’re so pretty, Olivia,’ he said, sliding his hand up the girl’s top, smiling to himself when the girl didn’t stop him. That’s how easy these girls were. Tell them what they want to hear and most of them were up for anything, he thought as he ran his hands over her small, barely there breasts.

  ‘It’s Megan,’ Megan said, her voice small as she squirmed her way from where she was pinned between him and the wall. Trying to get some air. To breathe. To get Jenson discreetly off her. ‘My ID. We changed my name so that my dad wouldn’t find out… He’d go mad…’

  Jenson shrugged, no longer listening. Olivia, Megan. Whatever. It was all the same to him. His hands were roaming her body now. All over her. Touching and grabbing.

  And Megan wanted to tell him to stop, only she didn’t know how to say it. She’d thought that she wanted this, but now that it was happening, or going to happen, Megan wasn’t so sure. As nice as Jenson seemed and as much as she fancied him, she wasn’t ready.

  She could hear Amber and Reece laughing in the cubicle next door, the wall still moving in jolts as her friend and her boyfriend continued to have sex up against it.

  This was her all over, wasn’t it?

  Typical, boring Megan.

  Always so sensible, always so scared of everything.

  The rate she was going, she’d probably never lose her virginity. Closing her eyes, she forced herself to allow Jenson to touch her, to let his hands roam across her body.

  His hands slid down her thigh, his fingers gently tracing their way back up inside her skirt.

  ‘You want this, don’t you?’ He smiled now, before kissing Megan’s neck.

  She made a noise.

  A grunt.

  A ‘yes’, he figured, as he felt her give in to him. Weakening in his arms. No longer resisting his advances.

  He was pressing against her now with all of his weight, keeping her upright against the wall as he unbuttoned his jeans.

  If Reece was right about this girl being prissy and uptight tonight,
then he reckoned that he was right about the fact that she was probably a virgin too.

  Talk about a right touch.

  But she certainly seemed to have come around to the idea of having a bit of fun now, holding onto him, gripping the back of his neck tightly.

  ‘I don’t feel so well,’ Megan whispered, as she buried her head in Jenson’s neck, the overpowering scent of his musky aftershave almost choking her. She felt suddenly strange now. As if she was losing control. She could barely stand. Her legs had gone to jelly. Her body tingling everywhere.

  Something was wrong. Really wrong.

  Only, now she couldn’t find her voice to say it, and Jenson was lifting her skirt up. There was a sharp searing pain as he pushed himself inside of her. One that should probably make her scream with agony. At least tell him to stop.

  But she couldn’t tell him. She couldn’t do anything.

  Convulsing wildly, Megan spasmed out of control as her body tried to reject the drugs that were inside her.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Jenson felt Megan getting into it now, pushing herself against him, but her body was jerking all over the place as if she had never had sex before and didn’t know what the hell she was doing. Jenson was losing his stride.

  ‘Hey, slow the fuck down, babe,’ he said, trying to steady the girl against the wall so that he could get his rhythm back. He could hear Reece pounding away in the next cubicle again too. That gobby girl, Amber, was clearly a goer. Re-enacting some kind of porno commentary with all her exaggerated moans and groans. Totally fake, just like she was. There was no way that Reece was giving the girl that much pleasure.

  Still, it didn’t stop Jenson getting off on the sound of it though.

  As he built up his momentum, he knew it wasn’t going to take him long to get there either. About to explode inside of the girl, he leant down, his tongue searching for hers. Just the way that he liked to come.