Off Limits Lovers. Reese Ryan

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СКАЧАТЬ know.” Roarke hadn’t realized how much he’d missed his sisters. Surrounded by the trio of willowy blondes who he knew loved him without question, the tired excuses he usually made for not coming home felt lame, even to him. “But I’m here now. And I came bearing gifts. Take a look in the back seat.”

      Esme squealed again and she and Melinda were chattering about Farrah’s pies as Angela approached him and hugged him tight.

      “Thank you so much for coming, Roarke. This means a lot to all of us, including Dad.” Angela’s gaze dropped when he gave her an incredulous frown. “But especially to me.”

      Roarke gathered his bags, and Angela took the leather messenger bag from him as they headed toward the house trailing behind Esme and Melinda, each carrying a pie.

      He draped an arm over Angela’s shoulder and lowered his voice, so only she could hear him. “By tomorrow night, you’ll have a definitive answer. Then everything should be fine between you and Ryder.”

      “I don’t know.” She glanced up at him. “You should’ve seen his face when I confronted him about the rumor.”

      “Was he angry?” Roarke regarded his sister with concern.

      “Worse. He was genuinely hurt that I wouldn’t just accept his assertion that you couldn’t possibly be his son.” Her blue eyes glistened with tears. “I think maybe you were right. It may be impossible for us to recover from this.”

      “Wasn’t the paternity test Ryder’s idea?”

      She nodded, quickly wiping away tears. “He was determined to prove it isn’t true. He insists that he and Mom were only good friends. That he would never have... That they didn’t...”

      Angela hadn’t been able to finish the thought, and Roarke was glad. He didn’t want to contemplate the possibility. Their mother had died in a car crash the year he’d graduated high school. Without her as a buffer between him and his father and with his sisters off on their own, his time with Sterling had been intolerable. They’d both said things they could never take back. And at the end of that awful summer, he hadn’t been able to leave for college fast enough.

      “I understand how unsettling this must be for both of you. Just focus on one objective at a time. First resolve this concern. Then you two can address any issues of trust it may have caused.” He’d said it as if it were the simplest thing in the world, despite knowing otherwise.

      Angela forced a smile and nodded. “I might need to impose on you for one more thing, Roarke. Ryder was supposed to be my date for the American Cancer Society gala this weekend. I have to be there to represent Perry Holdings. I can’t let it seem as if we’re cowering and hiding while this investigation is going on. As if we believe Dad has done something wrong.”

      Roarke sighed and nodded. He’d hoped to get in and out quickly, seeing as few people in this town as necessary. But he wouldn’t leave Angela sullen and alone at what he knew to be one of her favorite society events. “If you and Ryder haven’t patched things up by then, I’ll be your plus-one.”

      “Thanks, little brother.” She slipped an arm around him. “I’m glad you’re home. And one more thing... You need to tell Dad that you’re a big part of the reason he’s at home on house arrest rather than sitting in a jail cell right now.”

      “I’m done trying to make Sterling accept me, Ang. We are what we are.” Roarke set his bag against the wall in the foyer. “I’m here because you asked me to come. That’s it. The work I’ve been doing on his behalf I’ve been doing for you, Melinda and Esme. And for the Perry legacy.”

      “I understand. But wouldn’t it be better to take credit for what you’ve done than to listen to him complain for the next three days about how his only son doesn’t give a damn about him?”

      “He’s not entirely wrong.” Roarke massaged the tension in his neck that intensified with every step he took toward Sterling Perry.

      Angela elbowed his side. “You don’t mean that.”

      He opened his mouth to object, but his sister fixed him with a stare, her arms folded.

      “You don’t mean that,” she repeated.

      He sighed. “Fine. Where is the old man, anyway?”

      “Right here,” his father called from atop the stairs, his voice stern. “Not that you care a single solitary lick.” Sterling Perry descended the stairs. “I footed the bill for that fancy law degree you insist on wasting on small potatoes clients. Yet, you didn’t use a whiff of what you learned to come to my aid.”

      “Hello to you, too, Sterling.” Roarke usually didn’t call his father that to his face, but the man had managed to piss him off within ten seconds of his arrival.

      The older man scowled at the use of his name. “What brings you here, boy?”

      Roarke’s hands instantly curled into fists at his sides. A natural reaction to being raised by an asshole father who everyone else seemed to think walked on water.

      At least they had prior to his father being accused of running a Ponzi scheme. Then there was the body that had been found at the building site of the new Houston chapter of the Texas Cattleman’s Club. A construction site run by Perry Holdings. The victim hadn’t been identified as of yet, and his father hadn’t been formally implicated in the murder. But Roarke feared it was only a matter of time before investigators tried to pin that on Sterling, too.

      “He’s here to see you, of course, Dad.” Melinda kissed her father on the cheek. “Why else would he be here?” She smiled sweetly at Roarke, but her eyes pleaded with him to just go along.

      He’d spent his entire damn life “just going along” with Sterling Perry’s nonsense. First, at the behest of his late mother. Then at the bidding of his sisters. It was the reason he hadn’t been able to get out of there fast enough. And it was the reason he hadn’t moved back.

      Roarke had come to the conclusion that Houston wasn’t big enough for him and Sterling Perry. And that was just fine by him. Dallas was his home now.

      “In fact, Roarke didn’t want you to know it, but he was instrumental in getting you released on house arrest. He’s been working tirelessly behind the scenes to get you exonerated,” Angela added quickly, before he could object.

      “That true, boy?” Sterling walked toward him.

      Roarke shoved his hands in his pockets and nodded. “Yes, sir. It is.”

      “Hmm.” Sterling sniffed, as if weighing the possibility that his “worthless” son had been the one to secure his release.

      “Seems to me that if you were able to get me out on house arrest, if you’d pushed a little harder, I’d be completely exonerated.” Sterling shrugged in response to his daughters’ groans of disapproval at his signature lack of gratitude. “Well, I am innocent, and he’s supposed to be a hotshot champion for the underdog. I’ve done nothing wrong. Yet, I’m being treated like a common criminal.”

      Their father stuck his foot out and lifted his pant leg, revealing his ankle monitor. “This thing itches like the dickens.”

      “For СКАЧАТЬ