Free Broken by Martina Cole

home, he was as sure of that as he was of his own name.
    She was decent.
    She had swallowed what had happened with his daughter.
    She had known that he had tried to arrange the murder of George Markham. But she had understood his anger, his feelings of fear and loathing because he had not been able to protect his only child. She had seen first-hand how the death of his beloved Mandy had affected him. He had needed to relieve his feelings of inadequacy and hurt, and he had done it in the only way he knew how. He had made sure that George Markham would pay.
    However, by a cruel twist of fate, Markham had died at the hands of a prostitute. A fitting end for him.
    But Patrick would have had him murdered, and would have slept better at nights knowing he’d done it. He had paid a serious amount of money to see that man dead; it was money he would never have regretted, and even though Markham died a vicious death, an agonising death, Patrick still felt deep inside that he had lost out.
    He would do it all over again. Kate knew that; and he thought she could accept it.
    But that was the other thing he loved about her: she could see two sides to everything, and unlike most people could admit when she was wrong. If only he shared those attributes, life would have been a lot easier over the years.
    He took some deep breaths and concentrated his mind on what he was doing. The list was growing longer, but held out little hope. It occurred to him then that he was clutching at straws. What he needed was one good kick and he was on his way. If he could tell Kate what was going down before she heard the official version, he would be halfway home. But just the simple fact he owned the lap-dancing club was going to cause him aggravation of the highest calibre.
    He wished now he had confided in her about it sooner. She wouldn’t have liked it but it was legal and above board, and she might have accepted it. Now it looked as if he’d been trying to get one over on her. That was what would cause the real hag.
    The coffee had given him indigestion and he rubbed at his chest. This was all he needed on top of everything else. He glanced at the clock and saw it was getting late. Normally Kate had rung by now. A prickle of fear touched the back of his neck and he shivered. He shrugged off the feeling by reminding himself that she was working on a difficult case that was also very emotive, so he could not expect the usual banter and chatter two or three times a day. But that icy hand still seemed to be gripping his heart.
    Hoping to lose himself in the news, he opened the paper. There was an article on the Internet and it depressed him. He had already been offered an in on over six different porn sites. Kate came into his mind again and he sighed. There was real money to be made on the net and he knew that if he got in now, he would coin in a fortune at some point. But for Kate, always Kate, sitting on his shoulder whispering reproaches in his ear.
    He smiled. She was a good woman, none better, and since being with her he had not had a moment’s inclination to stray, which was strange in as much as Patrick Kelly could have anyone he wanted. Most women he dealt with were there for the taking by the highest bidder. And therein lay the crux of his problem: he didn’t want to buy sex, not even with presents and trips abroad as opposed to good hard cash. He wanted sex with someone he loved. Someone he cared about. Though he knew that most men of his acquaintance would have had him committed if he’d said that out loud.
    But he would miss Kate so much if she weren’t there. He could talk to her about anything. A little voice inside was saying: Yeah, except your lap-dancing club and the other businesses she knows nothing about . He forced the voice from his mind and concentrated on the newspaper article.
    When the phone rang at last, it wasn’t Kate. It was more trouble.
    Taking a deep breath, Pat listened to a high-pitched female voice telling him that