Free (Sequel to Through The Dark) Complete

Chapter 55

Harry taped up his hands in his personal gym in his home.  He had come home early the next afternoon, leaving Julie in Amanda's perfectly capable hands.  He even decided to skip the gloves instead just using his taped-up hands to start hitting the heavy bag hanging from the ceiling.  He had to work out some of the pent-up aggression that was seething inside him.  The rest of the night and that morning had been difficult for him.  He started punching the bag slowly while he thought back over the memories since Marcus dropped Julie off.

He had fallen asleep next to her after he had gotten through what seemed like the entirety of the internet.  Finding more and more bullshit the longer he read.  He wasn't sure how long he was asleep but it didn't seem to be all that long before he'd been woken up by Julie screaming and jumping up to a sitting position.  Her cry of terror scared him completely, and he sat up next to her as he watched her grab her head.  He figured she would have quite the hangover, but he wasn't sure what he was in for.  He gently laid his hand on her back.  He talked to her quietly urging her to lie back down as he got up and got her some water and aspirin.  When he walked back into the room, she was in the bathroom throwing up no doubt from the excess whiskey flowing through her system. She seemed haunted and confused, but was still half asleep. It took some coaxing, but he had gotten her out of the bathroom, some water and aspirin in her and back into bed.  She passed back out pretty quickly.

He had fallen back to sleep next to her when he woke to her screaming again.  He reached up and pulled her back down to him as he comforted her.  He felt like she must be experiencing the worst the dreams since her first run in with Johnny in Vegas.  He figured everything brought back up while reading the articles and all the lies Johnny had told were running rampant in her mind.  He held her and rubbed her back as she fell asleep, trembling, one more time.  The next time he woke was about three hours later, and she wasn't in bed with him.  He had sat up and saw her sitting on the floor against the far wall with her head in her hands.  That sight had killed him.

Harry got her up and out into the living room and onto the couch.  She still hadn't said a word to him, but he wasn't going to push.  He knew what the issue was.  There was no need to ask.  He brought her some coffee and sat down next to her.  It took her a little while longer, but she did eventually open up a little bit about how she was feeling.  She basically was in shock and couldn't quite process everything.  Julie had told him she didn't understand how Johnny had gone away so quickly and not caused any more trouble at all after she'd stood up to him.

As he was thinking back on the whole night and morning, Harry started hitting the heavy bag harder and faster.  He seriously couldn't believe this had all came back to bite her.  He had tried really hard to keep her away from all this pain, approving the NDA and paying to keep that asshole away from her and his mouth out of the press.  He hadn't told her.  He'd just made it happen.  After this, he had to tell her.  He was a bit concerned about how she would take that news.  Everyone knew how stubborn she was, how against she was him spending his money on her.  But this was something that needed to be done.  He didn't want to see Johnny keep coming back and harassing her more, just when she was starting to get stronger, starting to heal.

Julie had taken it better than he had thought she would.  When he first told her, she just stared into her coffee cup for a while.  Harry didn't interrupt her thoughts, instead preparing for a tongue lashing for getting involved in her business and taking control of the situation.  But he didn't get one.  Instead she thanked him.  She did say she wished he would have told her.  Let her understand why Johnny had backed away so suddenly knowing where she was.  Julie told him that she wanted it to be her that had convinced him to leave.  And that it would have just been better to know what Harry had done to keep Johnny quiet.  Harry felt guilty for not telling her, but he would never regret doing what he could to make sure Johnny stayed out of the picture.