Free Her Journey (Her Series Book 2) by Rachael Orman Page A

is. Then he cared what I was doing every second of the day because he knew the men around here wouldn’t put up with his shit.” She sighed again and shook her head, looking down at her hands as she threaded her fingers together. She looked up again at me for a moment. “It’s complicated, complex and emotional, which makes it hard to explain to someone outside the relationship. Emotions, feelings, and memories make you do stupid things that probably won’t make sense to other people, but you don’t think about that. You only think about making the one person you think matters the most in the world happy anyway possible.”
    “I get it. I really do. I had an abusive father. It’s why I grew up with just my mother. She put up with the abuse from him until the first time he laid a hand on me. That was it, she left the next day. It was rough for a while, trying to survive on one income with a child who didn’t understand that Daddy wasn’t a good man and he was looking for us. Somehow, we both got through it, though. I think that’s why I’m not so friendly with men now. I’ve seen how truly evil they can be and how quickly they can turn on the ones they love.” I hadn’t ever told anyone about my father and what had really happened. I always said he left when I was young and was never heard from again, but I felt like Ryan could handle the truth.
    “Then you sort of know what I’m talking about,” Ryan said quietly. “It’s kinda nice to have someone understand it’s not so black and white.”

~Patrick~
     
    Returning from yet another meeting with a potential client that had gone sour, I slammed my office door and yanked off my tie. To say I was frustrated was an understatement. I knew what was causing the clients to change their minds. It was Scrapes. He was scaring off my business contacts. Why? Because he liked to do any and everything he could to make my life hell. It was only a matter of time before it was going to come down to blows between us; I was just trying to put it off. I didn’t want a full-out war between our gangs on my hands. That wasn’t the way I was living my life anymore. I had more important things to take care of than a piece of shit who had nothing better to do with his time but find ways to harass me.
    I had a feeling when we finally went head to head there would be cops, arrests and a lot of blood being exchanged. None of that really bothered me as I’d dealt with cops more times than I could count, been arrested quite a few times and heaven knows how much blood I lost from fights. My issue was my motherfucking sister; again she was at the center of my life and my reason for doing things. The biggest priority in my life was making sure that she would be taken care of no matter what happened to me. Once Dirty finally got around to proposing and those babes were born, I could finally step back from her life. Hopefully. My natural tendencies made me want to control everything around me. With a man to take care of her and babies for her to care for, I wouldn’t be needed in her life as much. I could go back to thinking about my own life. I hadn’t thought solely about myself since I had taken over her custody years ago.
    I doubted much would change even when I didn’t have to constantly worry about my little sister getting into trouble. She was integrated into my lifestyle enough that I didn’t think she’d be going far.
    Sighing, I threw my suit jacket across the room before planting my ass in the desk chair. My hands sank into my hair as I rested my elbows on my desk. Nothing like wasting hours trying to get a new contract only to have it snatched right out of your fingers. I would get back at him for this. I was getting to old for this childish shit. Letting my mind think through the various ways I could get to Scrapes, I turned in my chair to look over the backyard. To my surprise, Ryan and Melia were lying in chairs in tiny bikinis beside the pool. That was another fucking