Chapter 45 Tierney
Despite everything between us still up in the air, I wanted to jump Ramsay. Spy mode Ramsay was hot. Hot Ramsay distracted me from the utter avalanche of information I’d had to process between London’s devastating revelations and Ramsay’s intense ones.
The only thing that stopped me from getting into bed to let the last twenty-four hours wash over me was London. My determination to help my friend. I was profoundly moved by her trust in me—that she knew I wouldn’t share her story with just anyone. That if I trusted Ramsay she knew she could too.
I could see his instinctive fury over the idea of any man hurting the woman they were supposed to protect. Yet he’d put that aside and gone straight into problem-solving mode.
He’d explained to London he’d been in the military.
That seemed to assuage her questions. Better yet, his confidence that we’d get her back to Scotland with us, his air of capability, seemed to reignite the flame of determination in London’s eyes too.
I was worried with everything Nick had put her through she wouldn’t want to return to the apartment.
Ramsay had even given her the option not to.
It would be harder without her, but he’d get her damn passport back.
London had shaken her head, tilting her chin in that stubborn familiar way. “I’m doing this. I need to do this.”
We understood. As much as we could understand.
She needed to feel like she’d taken back control of her destiny.
My gut knotted unpleasantly as we approached the apartment on foot. I resisted the urge to reach for London’s hand because it would be to comfort me and not her. London had her game face on behind those huge dark sunglasses.
“You ready?” Ramsay asked her.
London nodded. “I want it over with.”
The doormen eyed Ramsay as he ushered us in ahead of him, but London said, “They’re with me.”
Ramsay strode at our backs like a bodyguard as we walked through the marbled entrance toward the penthouse elevator.
“Uh, Ms. Wetherspoon!” the guy at reception called out but London ignored him, fumbling to get her key card out of her pocket. She swiped it over the keypad, but it bleeped red. She cursed and tried again.
“Ms. Wetherspoon.” We all turned to stare stonily at the receptionist. He was a tall, broad-shouldered young man wearing a light gray suit and the shiniest shoes I’d ever seen.
“Andrew?” London gestured to the elevator. “Why isn’t my key card working?”
She sounded impressively calm and “normal.”
He glanced at me and Ramsay before giving London an apologetic grimace.
“Mr. Huston asked us to deactivate your key card. The penthouse system has been updated with a different code, so you’d need the new key card to access it.
I, uh …” He lowered his voice. “I’m under strict orders not to give you a new key card. ”
That piece of shit!
He knew after she’d tried to leave last night that she’d try again. As soon as she left the apartment, he made it so she couldn’t access it again without him. What an absolute psychotic bastard.
A flush stained London’s cheeks and I could see the telltale signs of her fuse readying to blow, but Ramsay placed a calming hand on her shoulder. “That’s no problem, Andrew. I’m sure it’s a misunderstanding. London will give Nick a call.” He nodded politely and guided us back toward the exit.
Trusting he had a plan, we followed.
As soon as we were outside, I cursed. “What now?”
Ramsay held up a finger, telling me to wait before he again pulled out his phone.
I smirked. Him calling in resources was becoming almost comical.
As if he saw the thought in my eyes, his gleamed with warm amusement.
I almost melted right there on the sidewalk.
This version of Ramsay, this not hiding how he felt about me Ramsay, was going to be my undoing.
“Key cards use either a magnetic strip, NFC, or RFID technology,” he said, as if I knew what any of that meant.
“Jay can find out what system this building uses, but it doesn’t really matter if the code is transmitted via radio waves or not.
We need access to the building’s digital database.
Jay can hack it, switch it back to the old code, and we can get into the penthouse with London’s original key. ”
Grinning as he hit the call button on his phone, I mused, “I hope you pay this Jay very well.”
“Oh, I do.”
Then something occurred to me. “You two didn’t … you know?”
“Really?” London nudged me. “Can you be a jealous girlfriend later?”
“I’m not his girlfriend,” I replied without thinking, my eyes darting to Ramsay.
He scowled. “Jay’s just a friend. And no, you’re nothing as simple as my girlfriend. But when this is all over, I hope you’ll consider being my woman again.”
The way he said “my woman” in that growly, deep accented voice … I was inappropriately turned on. “Why is that hot?” I asked London as Ramsay started to talk with Jay. “That shouldn’t be hot, right?”
London gave me a sad shrug. “It was hot.”
Oh God, what a serious idiot I was being. I reached for her hand and squeezed. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be.” She tightened her fingers around mine. “After everything you’ve been through, I want nothing but the best for you.”
“We all okay?” Ramsay asked as he snapped his phone shut, eyes darting between us. And I knew he saw everything. He always had.
“We’re good. What’s next?” London demanded.
“We walk out of sight of the building for the next fifteen minutes, giving Jay time to do what she needs to do.” He gestured with a nod down the street and we followed.
Two young women in exercise gear walked toward us and one of them spotted Ramsay and nudged her friend.
Their mouths parted as they stared at him like he was a big ol’ water bottle after an intense workout.
Eyeing his tight ass in his dark jeans, his broad shoulders in his navy T-shirt, I was equally thirsty for him.
Ogling him continued to keep my mind off the shittiness of London’s situation.
“Hey.” One of the women nodded at Ramsay as she passed, her lips curling in invitation.
To my delight, he didn’t acknowledge her, not even to be polite.
“I’d climb that man like a tree,” her friend groaned as they passed me and London.
“He’s not exactly inconspicuous, is he?” London whispered, threading her arm through mine.
“Nope.” It made me wonder how he managed to be invisible as a spy. I guess, for him, that wasn’t part of his skill set. Or maybe it was. I couldn’t imagine ever not noticing him when he was in the room.
“Are the women on your island as thirsty for him?”
“No one who’s been obvious about it,” I murmured back. “It’s more tourists and visitors who flirt with him. But we don’t have to talk about me and him right now.”
“I need to talk about something or I might scream. Nick blocked me from getting into an apartment I naively thought was ours, not his, and somehow, it’s almost as bad as him punching me in the face. Anyway, distract me. Are you two back together?”
I wanted to press her about her feelings, but I granted her wish and didn’t. “I don’t know. We had a lot to talk about this morning and then this … so … I don’t know.”
“Does he want you back?”
Nervous excitement fizzed through me. “He does.”
“Do you love him?” she whispered.
Emotion clogged my throat and I nodded. “So much it kind of terrifies me.”
“I guess that’s your answer.” London leaned in closer. “I never loved Nick. He excited me at first and I guess I was caught up in the great sex … but I never loved him, which somehow makes me feel worse that I got into this situation.”
“You never loved him because some part of you knew he wasn’t right for you. That shouldn’t make you feel worse, Spoon.”
“My point is … I think, before I knew what he was really like, I was going to settle for him because I didn’t really believe in love.
Not the kind they talk about in books and movies.
But this is love.” She gestured to Ramsay, who was much farther ahead than us now on the sidewalk.
“The way he looks at you. Him doing all of this. He’s only kind of doing it for me.
This is mostly for you. He looks at you like he’d do anything for you. ”
I gripped her tighter, forcing back my tears as a wave of confusing emotions flooded me.
Hope, happiness, surreal disbelief that I’d found the one and he felt the same way about me.
Guilt that I might have this while London was going through hell.
Rage at Nick for putting her through hell.
Ramsay suddenly glanced back at us and waited for us to catch up. “Let’s wait around the corner here.” His gaze sharpened on my face. “What is it?”
“Nothing.” I shook my head.
His expression said he didn’t believe me, but he let it go, though I felt him watching me as we waited for Jay to do her thing.