Page 116 of Ramsey & Emerson

“What? No begging today?”

Dash grinned at her. “Uncle Ramsey assured me that he can handle you just fine on his own.”

“I never said that,” I clarified, lest the little bastard get me in even more trouble. “In fact, I’m fairly certain that no man in this family haseversaid that in reference to his wife.”

“No shit,” he muttered before hurrying along.

Once Dash shut and locked the door behind him, I stood up from behind my desk for another showdown with my wife. “So, what brings you by?”

Emerson shot me a scathing look before saying, “I know that you have a meeting in half an hour, so I’ll make this quick.”

I held up a finger, stopping her. Reaching over to grab the handset from my desk phone, I picked it up, then dialed my secretary. “Mariah, cancel my meeting with Sawyer Arlington. Reschedule at his earliest convenience, and if he cannot reschedule, then make my apologies.”

When I hung up the phone, Emerson was shaking her head at me, and I wondered if it was for theatrical reasons only or if I really did exhaust her. Nonetheless, I wasn’t the onlypassionateone in this marriage, and Emerson could get dramatic all on her own sometimes.

“That wasn’t necessary,” she said, making me shrug.

“I disagree,” I replied evenly. “You’re not one to interrupt me at work unless it’s important.”

“That’s not true,” she said, no doubt recalling all of the times that she’d come to my office unannounced.

“Baby, if you think that you showing up here to ride my dick isn’t important, then I really must have fucked up in this marriage,” I told her honestly.

Ignoring that, Emerson got to the reason that she was here. “So…working late, huh?”

“I paid Cossacks a little visit before contacting a friend of a friend of a friend that’s very friendly with Action News 40,” I replied, willing to give her the details if she wanted them.

“What do you plan on doing with the rest of what you have on him?” she asked, knowing me well enough to know how I operated.

“I don’t have anything more on him,” I admitted, and her head reared back in surprise. “Maddox gave me what he had to hurry this thing along. However, our youngest son is still digging up more stuff on him as we speak.”

“Because of his dedicated work ethic?” she deadpanned.

That got a smirk out of me. “Because Maddox took this personally, and you know how this family gets when shit gets personal.”

“What’s the plan when he gives you the rest of what he uncovers?”

I shrugged. “It depends on what deal he cuts with the DA. If I’m satisfied with it, I’ll sit on it until he’s a free man again. If I’m not happy with it, I’ll feed them enough to make the judge reject the plea.”

She didn’t say anything for a few seconds, but when she finally did, she just pissed me off all over again. “Is this the part where you say that you told me so?”

I slid my hands in my pockets because they were itching to do something destructive. “No,” I bit out. “There’s nothing wrong with thinking that people are good until they show you otherwise.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better,” she replied earnestly. “I defended a person that steals from children and exploits troubled young women. I thought that he was someone that kids could and should look up to.”

“Baby-”

“Ramsey, I work in a field where I can’t afford to be wrong about someone,” she went on, torturing herself. “I got duped, and we’ve been fighting for days because I hadn’t seen him for what he really is. Even when he finally showed his cards, I still hadn’t seen him as a danger to children. I’d just seen him as a sleaze that wanted to get his dick wet.”

“Emerson, you can’t blame yourself for not seeing signs that he hadn’t shown you,” I said, hating that she was torn up about this. Honestly, if Cossacks wasn’t arrested by the end of the day today, I was going to pay him another visit, then really kick his ass for what Emerson was going through right now.

“Maybe,” she conceded reluctantly. “But I can blame myself for not siding with you completely when you told me how you felt about him.”

Now, a good husband would make an effort to ease her regret about that, but I wasn’t a good husband. After all, it was hard to be a good husband when you weren’t necessarily a good person. Now, did I have some good qualities? Yes. However, I had more bad ones than good, and I knew that about myself. Yeah, good and bad weren’t always so black and white, but they should be. Black and white prevented people from being able to rationalize their sins, something that happened way too often.

As for me? I didn’t try to rationalize my sins. However, I also didn’t go after anyone that was minding their own business, and my only hard limit was the people that I loved. I had no conscience when it came to someone going after my family, and my actions would always be just in my eyes when it came to every single member of the Reed clan, which included every McCellan, Marlow, McIntire, and our little mouse, Posey.

“So, you don’t do it again,” I replied, setting new rules when I hadn’t ever thought that they’d be needed. For fuck’s sakes, with twenty-five years ofmarriage under our belts, you’d think that we’d be professionals at this shit by now.

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