Page 112 of Ramsey & Emerson

“I gave Dad everything that I found after Dash called us to tell us that you emptied a business meeting earlier,” he answered. “I figured that if it’s gotten to the point that you’re willing to cause a scene at the RMM offices…well, then it was time to do something, though I could dig deeper with more time.”

That meant that Adrian Cossacks had secrets worthy of a Ramsey Reed revenge, and I wasn’t exactly sure how I felt about that. While it was true that we all had parts of ourselves that we weren’t exactly proud of, Maddox wouldn’t have turned anything over to Ramsey if it’d been anything less than worth Ramsey’s time.

“Maddox-”

“He doesn’t hurt children, Mom,” he said, immediately calming my worst fear. “At least, not in the way that you’re worried about.”

“Look, we really don’t care about your boss, Mom,” Ram said, jumping in. “I mean, we do because this involves you, but since we know that Dad can take care of him, this isn’t about him. We’re here because you and Dad cannot keep going on like this. While it’s only been a few days, it’s a few days too many. You need to do whatever it takes to make Dad manageable again.”

Now, while it might hurt another mother’s feelings to see her sons siding with their father, I understood where my sons were coming from. Having screwed up themselves, it made sense that they were identifying with Ramsey in this case. When the Reed men loved, they loved hard, and I still didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Even without them bugging me to make things right, it was time for me and Ramsey to hash this shit out, and I knew it. We couldn’t go on like this, and quite frankly, I didn’t want to. Ramsey was my peace at the end of each day, and I missed that. I needed more from him than just his ability to pleasure my body every night. I needed him to quiet my mind and soothe my soul, and only he could do that. In fact, Ramsey was the reason that I’d been able to do my job for as long as I’d had. He was my good in a world full of evil, and I missed that from him.

“I promise to talk to him tonight,” I told them. “Despite what you might think, I don’t enjoy fighting with your father.”

“I thought you guys weren’t fighting,” Maddox deadpanned.

“Yeah, thought you were just in adisagreementabout something?” Ram added.

“I will call your wives and tell them that you hurt my feelings, I swear to God,” I threatened.

You ever seen two grown men beg for mercy?

Chapter 25

Ramsey~

When Maddox had hacked into the prison system to transfer Emerson’s father into general population, getting him killed, he’d only been sixteen-years-old, and she’d gotten him a Lotus Evija. That’d been the first and only time that I’d ever seen Emerson spend that kind of money on something so frivolous, and Maddox had driven the car until he’d had no choice but to buy a new one.

Well, with what I had in the envelope in my hands, Maddox definitely deserved another car. However, since he could easily afford an expensive vehicle of his own, a jet might be warranted this time around. Even though he’d never collect, I owed my son big time. What he had managed to get for me, I never would have found on my own.

Maddox had also been able to get me the code to Adrian Cossacks’ home security system, and that was the downfall of advanced technology. With people like Maddox walking the planet, a good old-fashioned deadbolt was a lot safer than a simple electronic keypad. Cossacks’ fancy alarm system was tied in with the doorknobs of his home, and five seconds of convenience really wasn’t worth it.

So, thanks to my youngest son, I was currently sitting in Adrian Cossacks’ living room after having taken a tour of his home, the place rather nondescript, which I’d been expecting. As soon as Maddox had given me the goods on Cossacks, I’d gone over everything a million times, finally texting Emerson that I’d be home late tonight. Used to my crazy hours, she hadn’t asked me why, and while that shouldn’t have upset me, it’d had because we were still fighting.

I snapped out of my musings when I heard the familiar beeps of a keypad being pressed, and it was utterly immature how giddy I felt right now. I was about to fillet this motherfucker alive, and I couldn’t remember the last time that I’d felt this excited about doing something like this.

Leaning back in the armchair that Cossacks had next to his fireplace, I waited for him to turn on the lights to notice me. When he finally did, his entire body froze, and there was nothing quite like having clueless prey in your crosshairs.

“What…how did you get in here?”

“How I got in here is the least of your worries, Cossacks,” I told him as I tossed the manilla envelope that I’d been holding in my hands onto the coffee table. “If I were you, I’d be more worried about whether or not I can afford a good attorney.”

His head jerked back a bit in angry surprise. “What are you talking about?”

I stood up from the chair, then refastened my suit jacket. “I warned you that I’d expose all your secrets if you didn’t stay away from my wife,” I replied coolly. “You should have listened, Cossacks.”

He started shaking his head frantically. “You can’t possibly know-”

“That you’ve embezzled a combined three-million dollars from your two previous jobs?” His face paled drastically, and it really was a euphoric feeling to play with your enemies before you crushed them under your power. “I gotta tell you, not many people are forgiving when it comes to someone stealing from children, Cossacks.”

“There’s no way that you can know that,” he replied insistently.

“Oh, but that’s where you’re wrong,” I chuckled darkly.

He started shaking his head again. “Even if you…even if you did find something, you can’t prove it. You can’t prove anything.”

I jerked my head towards the envelope. “What do you think is in there? My resumé?”

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