Page 73 of Resurrecting the Enemy
“I’m not here for my brother,” he stated, and I felt like the biggest fool on the planet. My feelings were actually hurt, and I felt disappointed that he wasn’t.
I needed to just fucking shoot myself.
“Then why are you here?” I asked, ignoring the hurt and disappointment.
“I’m here on behalf of the entire fucking town, Lake,” he bit out. “If not the goddamn state.”
My entire face scrunched up. “What are you talking about?”
“My brother is not the self-destructive type, Lake,” he drawled out sardonically. “He’s the kill-everyone-who-stands-in-my-way type.”
“And?”
“And you need to fucking forgive him before he ruins and destroys everyone in this fucking town,” he said, shocking me.
“What are you talking about?” I shook my head. “Ramsey-”
“I’m talking about the fact that R.J. is one minor inconvenience away from burning down everything around him, Lake,” he snapped, interrupting me. “My brother is losing his mind, and you need to find a way to get over what he did and pull him back from the fucking edge.”
“Get over it?”I hissed. “He humiliated me and fucked another girl!” My rant finished on a scream.
His hand batted away my anger, and he didn’t look the least bit concerned. “He didn’t fuck anyone,” he rushed out, sounding frustrated. “That was D.J.”
My brows shot up. “Who in the hell is D.J.?” I mean, I knew she was the girl whose party they’d all gone to, but I still didn’t know who she was to them.
“Delaney McIntire,” he answered, and mystery solved.
Delaney and Maggie McIntire were two other Sands Cove legends, like Dash Marlow. Their parents, Ace and Ava McIntire, were just as legendary as The Reeds, The McCellans, and The Marlows. Just because they lived an hour away didn’t mean their power, status, and wealth didn’t reach all the way back here to Sands Cove.
Thinking out loud, I whispered, “He made me think he was sleeping with her.”
“Of course, he did,” Maddox snapped. “He thought you cheated on him with Metcalf.”
I chose to let that go. Even without the Delaney McIntire situation, he’d been willing to pass me around to the students at Windsor. There was no forgiving that.
“It doesn’t matter,” I told him. “Even if he wasn’t screwing other girls, he offered me up to be shared by whoever was interested, and you want me to forgive that?”
He waved that concern away, too, and I wanted to slap his perfect face for it. “No, he didn’t,” he argued. “That guy who was fucking with you that night is Crew Marlow.”Jesus Christ.It was like Ramsey had recruited an entire cast of villains.
I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter, Maddox,” I insisted. “There are hundreds of videos of that night floating around. That’s a humiliation I’ll never get away from, and fuck your brother for not trusting me, when I never gave him a reason not to.”
His head reared back, and those dark whiskey-colored eyes of his did not look friendly at all. After a few tense seconds, he leaned down until he was crowding me enough that I had to step back. When my body met the brick of the science building, Maddox’s voice hit me with a snarl. “Never gave him a reason not to,” he repeated. He cocked his head and his eyes narrowed threateningly. “Now, let’s examine that for a moment, shall we?” Blood started rushing through my ears, but I could still make out the menacing tone in his voice. “Can you tell me of one time-just one time-when you haven’t fought him on this thing between the two of you?” My mouth went dry. “Just one time when you were happy to see him and told him so? Can you?”
“Mad-”
“Tell me one thing you’ve done or said to my brother that would have given him the security of knowing you’d never go back to your ex-boyfriend,” he challenged.“Just one.”
“That’s not fair,” I replied, not knowing what else to say.
Maddox didn’t comment for a bit, but when he finally did, it was clear he was done going easy on me. “Curt Metcalf is in the hospital with two broken legs, internal bleeding, and an unrecognizable face,” he whispered ominously. “He’s confessed to the police about drugging you, and you should be hearing from them probably later today.” My entire body started to tremble. “Erica Chambers is next.”
“Maddox, I-”
“And after she’s taken care of, you want to know who’s next?” I shook my head because I really didn’t want to know. “Anyone stupid enough to get in his way, Lake.”
“In his way of what?” I suspected what, but I wanted to hear Maddox say the words.
“Lake, I’m doing you a favor here, I swear to God,” he said, his voice softening. “Trust me when I tell you that you need to forgive R.J., because if you don’t, a whole lot of people are going to suffer for it.” He stepped back and let out a deep sigh. “He’ll never let you go, Lake. He’s not wired like that. R.J. loves you, and if you think he’s going to just let you walk away from him, you’re wrong.”
