Chapter 27
Ramsey~
I was having trouble connecting with Emerson today, and it was grating on my fucking nerves.
During second period, I had started talking to her about just packing up her shit and moving in with me, but she’d ended up cutting me off without giving the discussion any serious thought. She’d told me that just because she let me deflower her-seriously, she’d said the word deflower-it didn’t mean that she was just going to hand over her free will to me.
My jaw had clenched so hard that it’d been a wonder that I hadn’t cracked a molar. I hadn’t been asking her to surrender her free will to me. I just wanted the damn girl to move in with me, so that I could sleep beside her every night. I didn’t see anything wrong with that, and it bothered me that she did.
Never mind the argument that we’d had during sixth period when she had casually mentioned that her birth control should be taking effect now. I’d stood up in class-as if we hadn’t had an audience-and I had yelled at her, asking her what the fuck was she doing getting on birth control. When Mr. Jacobson had jumped in and praised us for practicing safe sex, I’d gone all unhinged alpha male on him and had announced to the entire class that I wanted to get Emerson pregnant.
At this point, I was fairly positive that bets were being placed all over school on the over and under of when I was going to finally lose my shit and burn the school down. Hell, maybe even the entire town.
My day had gotten progressively worse after that. It seemed like the more that I pushed, the more that Emerson pushed back until she had snapped at me, telling me to back the hell off. I’d wanted to fuck her into compliance, but she was too unpredictable to challenge. So, now I was knocking on her front door because she hadn’t been answering my calls.
When the door swung open, Bailey was on the other side, and my mood just plummeted even more. “That didn’t take long,” she sneered.
I was about to brush past her and head to Emerson’s room, but her comment stopped me. “What didn’t take long?”
“Your little love-fest with Emerson,” she taunted. “She’s a fucking whore, Ramsey,” she went on viciously. “You didn’t really think that she would be faithful, did you?”
“What the fuck are you talking about, Bailey?” I had never hit a female before, but I had no problem shaking the shit out of one.
Bailey rolled her eyes as she opened the door wider to let me in. I stepped through the doorway, crossed my arms across my chest, then stared down at her as she explained. “Emerson was in such a hurry to leave the house earlier that she forgot her phone. The stupid thing’s been ringing and pinging nonstop.”
“Yeah, I imagine it has been,” I bit out. “I’ve been trying to get a hold of her all afternoon.”
Suddenly, she looked like the cat that ate the canary. “You’re not the only one,” she smirked, leaving me standing in the foyer as she walked further into the house. She returned a few minutes later with a phone in her hand, handing it to me.
“What’s this?”
“It’s Emerson’s phone,” she answered. “Go ahead. It’s not locked. See for yourself.”
Every nerve in my body was screaming at me not to go through Emerson’s phone. Nothing good would come out of me invading her privacy. However, Bailey’s smug look and my irritation got the better of me, so I swiped the screen lock icon, and her phone came to life.
I scrolled through the call logs, and most of the calls were from me or Roselyn, a couple from her aunt. However, I did notice one unprogrammed number showing up on the list. I kept my calm, but that ended when I got to her text messages. The same unprogrammed number had sent her messages to which she responded, and they were all about how they were meeting up tonight.
Unknown: Hey sexy. Glad u finally decided 2 give me a chance
Me: I sh’ve given u a chance sooner
Unknown: 2night?
Me: 4 sure. I just have 2 manage a couple of things
Unknown: I got sumthin u can manage
Me: Looking 4ward 2 it.
I stopped reading, then immediately hit the phone icon. The call went straight to voicemail, and I saw red. I turned, then grabbed Bailey by her neck, pushing her up against the wall. “Who is he?”
Her eyes widened in fear, and her hands were pulling at my wrists. “I don’t know,” she gasped out.
“Where the fuck is she, Bailey?” I growled in her face.
I could see the panic written across her face. She was terrified, and she should be. “I don’t know! I swear, I don’t!”
Jesus, I wanted nothing more than to kill this fucking bitch, and then go after whoever the fuck was with Emerson.
Then there was Emerson.
Killing would be too good for her.
I had to hand it to her though.
The girl got me.
She motherfucking got me good.
Here, I thought that I was a heartless motherfucker, but she reigned, hands down.
I let go of Bailey’s neck, then walked out of the house with Emerson’s phone. I stormed to my car, ready to call Liam and Deke, to burn this fucking town to the ground. Instead, I called the unknown number again, and this time, the sonofabitch answered on the fourth ring.
“Hey, are you almost here?” he answered. “Because, I’ve got to tell you, my dick’s been hard as steel waiting for you, pretty girl.”
I had no idea how I could form words, but I managed. “Who in the fuck is this?”
“Whoa, wait,” he asked, surprised. “Who is this? Where’s Emerson?”
My rage boiled over at the same exact moment that my heart broke.
Emerson had played me.
She fucking played me.
Then I was consumed with the sickest feeling. No wonder she had let me fuck her like a seasoned whore. Just because her pussy had been virgin, that didn’t mean that her ass had been. We’d hadn’t made it that far for me to find out, but a lot of teenage girls gave up the ass, thinking that it was okay as long as they preserved their real virginity for the man that they loved. I hung up on the no-good cocksucker, then felt paralyzed by the turn of events.
After what felt like an eternity, I finally pulled out of Emerson’s driveway, then had gotten myself over to Liam’s. One look at me, and he had called Deke.
Now we were all sitting in Liam’s father’s den, and we were drinking up the good stuff. “What are you going to do, Ram?”
“Kill her,” I answered, clearly and specifically.
“I don’t know, Ram,” Liam chimed in. “I mean, I’m all for killing her if she really did set you up, but I’m having trouble with this.”
I tossed her phone at him. “See for yourself,” I sneered.
Deke walked over to stand next to Liam, and together, they read the text exchanges. It took them a couple of minutes, as I imagined they were reading all of them, whereas I’d only read those first few.
When they were done, Liam tossed the phone back to me, asking, “Want me to call Roselyn and ask her if she knows where Emerson’s at?”
“Yeah, like she’s going to give up Emerson,” I scoffed.
“So, what do you want to do?” Deke asked again.
I sat there trying to combat all the emotions that were threatening to drown me. People said that there was a thin line between love and hate, and I knew exactly how that saying had come to pass now. This morning, I had loved Emerson more than my own life. I would have killed for her and died for her. I would have forsaken every other motherfucker on the planet for her, even Liam and Deke.
However, now…
Now, I wanted nothing more than to make her suffer so horribly that she took a rope to her neck to end her misery. I wanted her to feel as broken as I did. I wanted her to struggle with the mere effort of existing each morning.
“I’m going to make her pay,” I finally said. “As much as I’d love to kill her, killing her would be too easy. I want that fucking cunt to suffer.”
Liam winced, but asked, “How?”
I looked up at the two closest people to me in the world, then laid out my plan. Deke looked delighted, and Liam looked slightly sick. However, Liam’s reservations didn’t matter. I knew that he’d back me, no matter what, and tomorrow, Emerson Andrews would see that loyalty live and in living color.