Page 9 of Resurrecting the Enemy
Once we entered his study, he shut the door, and that’s when I knew we were getting serious. I also knew whatever we were in here for, Mom already knew about it.
Dad leaned up against the edge of his desk, his arms crossing over his chest, as I pulled out one of the barstools and sat down. “So, is there anything you’d like to tell me about Ashton Childress?”
I told you.
The man knew fucking everything.
I cocked my head. “Is there anythingyou’dlike to tell me about Ashton Childress?” I volleyed.
The man arched a brow, but I knew my dad well. He wasn’t mad. If he were, you’d be able to feel the arctic freeze of his wrath a mile away.
Except when it came to Mom.
The man was all fire and brimstone when Mom was mad at him.
“Your Uncle Ace showed up at my office this morning, and he wanted me to find out all I could on the kid,” he said, telling me what I already suspected. “I guess Delaney was acting odd, and when Ava questioned her, she came clean about a party she attended in Sands Cove Saturday night.”
“What else did she tell them?” It wasn’t that I was planning on keeping secrets, but D.J. had been attacked. I wasn’t going to pretend to understand what that might do to a girl, so I didn’t want to spill her emotional secrets. I also knew our parents respected the loyalty us kids had between us.
His lips lifted in a proud smile. “That she kicked his ass,” he said. “She also assured them that she was okay. The boy hadn’t had a chance to do much damage. But I guess D.J. was still pissed enough to be acting cagey, therefore, making Ava suspicious.”
“What else did Uncle Ace say?”
“He wanted everything on the kid, so he could kill him,” Dad replied, all calm and casual, as if murder was something fathers and sons discussed all the time. Dad’s arms fell to his side and gestured towards my knuckles. “However, it was quite the surprise when I discovered he was already in the hospital with a number of injuries.”
“Surprised? Really?” I mean, the man did raise me after all.
“Surprised that you hadn’t said anything,” he clarified.
I laughed. “Tell Uncle Ace and Aunt Ava that Ashton Childress has been taken care of, thoroughly.” I shrugged a shoulder. “But if they still want him dead, that can happen.”
Dad eyed me. “Is italltaken care of?”
I knew what he meant. He wanted to make sure we had covered our asses. “Yeah, it is,” I assured him. “Mad took care of any cameras.” Then that word brought me up short, and Dad must have seen it on my face.
“Ram?” Mom and Dad were the only ones who called me Ramsey or Ram, while the rest of the family called me R.J., sometimes Ram. Everyone else who didn’t matter called me Reed.
I stared at my dad and asked, “How did you know Mom was the one for you?”
His brows furrowed with the change of subject. “What?”
“How did you know she was the one for you?” I asked again. “How were you so certain?” Thoughts of Lake Warren have been assaulting me all day, and it was more than thoughts about what she might have seen last night. I had this swirling feeling in my gut, and it was directly tied to her.
When I had come across those pictures on her camera and thought she had lied about having a boyfriend, I had felt sincere jealousy for the first time in all my life, and it had left me a bit unhinged. Blackmailing her for those pictures had been low, but I justified it by knowing that I’d never share those pictures with someone else.
The plain fact of it all was that, the second I had put my hands on Lake Warren, something had changed. And the desire to own her was growing with each passing minute of each passing day. And since my parents’ love was legendary, I needed some input.
“The second I saw her, I felt her,” he finally answered. “We were at a party, in a house full of people, but there was only her.”
I knew it was the truth, but I still asked. “You’re really telling me it was love at first sight?” There have always been jokes, and looking at the both of them, you’d believe it. But still.
“For me, it was,” he clarified. “Your mother…uh, she had different feelings about it.”
I laughed. “Made you work for it, did she?”
His face softened, and there was so much pride in his expression, it felt like I was intruding on something very personal. “Your mother made mefightfor it, Ram,” he corrected. “She was the most magnificent thing I’d ever fucking seen. She still is.”
I felt what he was saying, and that was scary. “There was a witness,” I admitted.
