Page 119 of Ramsey & Emerson

“Everything okay?”

“That depends,” he automatically answered. “Are you and Dad still fighting?”

“Your Dad and I are fine, Maddox,” I replied, feeling like it was the absolute truth this time.

“Well…then everything’s great, Mom,” he grinned, making me laugh, and it felt good.

Chapter 29

Ramsey~

When I had pulled up to the house, I hadn’t expected to see Maddox’s car parked out in front, but I wasn’t actually surprised to know that he was here. I’d known that he was going to continue digging up as much as he could on Adrian Cossacks, so if he was here, then it was because he had uncovered more stuff and was ready to share.

Walking into the house, I headed straight to the kitchen because Emerson liked to believe that her grown sons still didn’t know how to feed themselves. While it didn’t take a genius to understand why it was important to her to make sure that her children were fed, they were grown at this point. Plus, there’d never been a shortage of food in our house while the boys had been growing up.

As predicted, Maddox was sitting at the kitchen island, a variety fruit plate right in front of him, Emerson leaning up against the counter on the opposite side. She was also a fanatic about healthy snacks, and so I wasn’t surprised to see her force-feeding Maddox some fruit.

“What did I miss?” I asked as I set my briefcase on the counter before walking over to kiss Emerson on her cheek.”

“Want some fruit?” Maddox asked, ignoring my question.

I chuckled. “No, thank you.”

“You guys act like I’m serving you poisoned apples or something,” Emerson muttered

“No offense, Mom,” Maddox snorted. “But I’ve eaten enough fruit during my childhood for it to give me issues as a grown man.”

“Then don’t eat it,” she grumbled, a bit embarrassed by her smothering.

“Whoa, let’s not get too crazy now,” Maddox quickly said, pulling the plate closer to him. “I came right over here after work, and I’m starving.”

Ignoring my youngest son, I walked over to the refrigerator for some cold water, wanting him to hurry up and get to the point, so that Emerson and I could finally put this thing to rest. While I loved my sons, I hadn’t been lying when I’d told my wife that I’d be perfectly content in life with just an occasional phone call from them every now and again.

Turning back towards my family, I said, “Do you want to get to the reason that you’re here or what?”

Maddox’s brows shot upward. “Rude.”

I shot him a look. “I assure you, I can get ruder.”

My son rolled his eyes before reaching into his back pocket, then depositing a silver thumb drive on the countertop. “I come bearing gifts, so be nice.”

“What’s on it?” Emerson asked, even though she already had a good idea of the answer.

I walked over to stand next to her, my hand automatically running over her hip and ass. “More stuff on Cossacks?”

Mad nodded. “Yep, and I gotta tell you, the man was a real sleaze.”

“What did you find?” I asked, even though I knew that this was hard on my wife.

“There’s a total of eight young girls that he exploited throughout the years,” he answered, and though the subject was a distasteful one, Maddox sounded like he was in the middle of a board meeting, sticking to the facts. “You’ve got the three that we already know of, but he’s been doing this for years.”

“Ages?” Emerson asked, her voice a bit hesitant.

“The youngest was fifteen at the time of Cossacks’ interest in her,” Maddox answered truthfully. “He was thirty-five at the time, and his entire work history is with organizations that work with troubled youth.”

“What about his personal life? No red flags?” I asked.

“Only one, but you had to be paying attention to notice,” Mad replied. “While he hadn’t ever married, he did date, but only women with young daughters. During his younger years, he dated indiscriminately, but it was during his mid-thirties that he started targeting women with teenaged daughters.”

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