Page 14 of Securing His Family

“He’s not going to beat me,” she said out loud.

“No, he won’t.”

“Right, let’s open this report and find out what deep dark secrets Patrick has and then we can fight.”

“That’s my girl.”

The pride in Reed’s voice warmed her. She didn’t need it, but it was nice to have it.

Ignoring the emails that Patrick had sent, she opened the one from Reed, the one with Wilt’s report attached. She was aware that Reed had pulled the chair around from the other side of the table and was now next to her, his leg brushing hers. Despite everything that was going on, her body heated at the touch. She wanted to lean into it. Lean into him. Have more than his leg resting against her. She wanted to feel his lips against hers. To know what it would be like to be kissed by him. But now wasn’t the time to have those thoughts.

“This can’t be right. There has to be something,” Reed murmured, pulling her from her wild musings and back to the here and now, and the report on the screen.

“What?”

“Patrick is clean apart from a parking ticket three years ago and a speeding ticket six months ago. He’s had the same job for three years. There’s no reports of him harassing anyone.”

Disappointment flowed through Lauren. “Is it wrong to have wanted there to be something we could use?”

“Not at all. I was hoping for the same thing.”

“Could Wilt have missed something?” Now she knew she was clutching at straws but after everything he’d done to her, the fact there were no red flags didn’t make sense to her.

“Wilt is thorough. If there was something to be dug up he would’ve dug it up.”

“I suppose it’s too much to hope that there are numerous Patrick Stringer’s in the world and the one Wilt found wasn’t the same one.”

Reed chuckled. “If it was someone who wasn’t good at their job, then I’d say that’s possible, but Wilt is excellent at what he does. His computer skills are legendary. If there were multiple ones he would’ve narrowed it down to the one who turned up today.”

Lauren slumped in the chair. “What do we do now?”

There didn’t seem anything she could do to stop Patrick from getting close to her and Charlee. Were the emails and footage from the café enough to get some sort of restraining order against him? Not that they were effective, she’d read a few instances where people had been attacked even with a restraining order against them. Maybe moving was her only option. She could move to another state where he couldn’t find her.

But Lauren didn’t want to move. Didn’t want Patrick to be the one pulling the strings of her life.

Nope, she was going to stay and fight. No way was Patrick going to take everything she’d worked hard for away from her. And he especially wasn’t going to get his hands on Charlee. She would do whatever she had to do to ensure that never happened.

ChapterSeven

The sound of Reed’s neck cracking filled the car. It was satisfying and painful at the same time, but the discomfort was worth it.

This was the second night he’d camped out in his car opposite to where Lauren and Charlee lived.

Ideally, what he’d like to do was take her and Charlee to his place. He had cameras and a good security system. They would be safe there, but it was way too soon to ask Lauren to consider it.

His phone beeped, and he looked down, smiling when he saw his brother’s name on the screen. “Ben, how’s it going?”

There was a beat of silence before he spoke. “It’s going.”

Reed sat a little straighter. It was only him and his brother now; their parents had passed a few years ago. When he’d been in the Army, the lion’s share of looking after their parents had fallen on Ben’s shoulders. He’d taken the burden, but the guilt that he hadn’t been around much sat heavily on Reed. “What’s going on? Do you need me? I can be there in fifteen.”

Considering he had no idea where Ben was, the timeframe was a bit pie-in-the-sky, but he wanted his brother to know all he had to do was ask and he would drop everything to be at his side.

“I’m fine. I don’t need you, though I appreciate the offer. It’s just wedding stuff. Fern’s driving me a little crazy with everything she wants. It feels like we’re putting on a damn extravagant show instead of a wedding. I’m ready to elope but if I even utter the word Fern is looking daggers at me.”

Reed hadn’t ever warmed to his brother’s fiancée, she was more about the material things, than emotional connection. After he’d expressed some concerns to Ben, his brother had then ignored him for three months, Reed had swallowed his misgivings and apologized to Ben. He didn’t want to be estranged from his only remaining family member. Besides he and Ben had been close growing up until he’d gone and joined the Army and had been posted in another state before he’d become a SAS soldier and had been stationed back in Perth.

“I’m sure once the wedding is done and dusted, Fern will return to the woman she was before the planning started.”

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