Chapter 24
Emerson~
I was sitting in the living room, thinking about all that Ramsey had said earlier, the television on for the sake of background noise only. I’d always known that Ramsey had an unhealthy fixation on me, but I hadn’t ever imagined that his level of madness had grown that much. This was no longer about love, and I could see that now. While I loved Ramsey with every part of my soul, Ramsey had turned me into the reason that he lives, and I didn’t even want to think about what he’d do if anything ever happened to me.
It was also a lot of responsibility to bear. Though Ramsey hadn’t asked me to bear the burden of his feelings for me, it was kind of hard not to. All these years later, it never occurred to me that Ramsey might really actually be scared of losing me, but he was.
“Mom?”
I snapped out of my thoughts as I heard the front door shut, Maddox’s voice echoing through the empty rooms of the house. Now, normally, the kids always texted or called before just stopping by, but since both Maddox and Ram worked at RMM, they probably knew that Ramsey was still at work, so it was ‘safe’ to stop by unexpectedly.
“I’m in here,” I called out, and five seconds later, both my sons were making their way into the living room. “Shouldn’t you two be at work?”
They both took turns leaning down to kiss me on my cheek before Maddox took a seat next to me, Ram making himself comfortable sitting on top of the coffee table. While it was on the tip of my tongue to point out the cost of the furniture, I decided against it. I was never going to get used to our wealth, but that was my problem, not theirs.
“You need to quit fighting with Dad,” Maddox announced.
I slid a look over towards my youngest son. “Your dad and I aren’t fighting,” I semi-lied. “We’re just…in a disagreement about something.”
“Which is the very definition of fighting, Mom,” Ram drawled out.
“We’re not fighting,” I repeated, doing my best to limit the casualties. “Besides, even if we were, it’s not your business what happens between me and your father.”
“Since when?” Maddox scoffed. “Our entire family dynamic is based on us all being in each other’s business. It’s like we’ve got a damn phone tree for gossip, lectures, and advice.”
“He’s not wrong,” Ram added. “But even if he was, Dad going off the rails is our business. After all, he’s our father.”
Eyeing them both, I asked, “What do you know so far?”
“That your boss is trying to steal you away from Dad, and that’s not exactly sitting well with him,” Maddox replied, the smartass just asking for me to pop him one.
“What is it with you Reed men?” I sighed. “No one can steal me away from your father.”
“That’s not the point,” Ram replied.
“Then what is, old wise one,” I deadpanned.
“Not sure if you’ve noticed over the years or not, but Dad is completely off his nut when it comes to you, Mom,” Ram stated, countering my sarcasm with some of his own. “You’re also taking this personally, like he doesn’t trust you or something, and that’s not the case at all.”
“This is about someone thinking that they can go up against Ramsey Reed,” Maddox added. “In all fairness, according to the stories of long ago, Dad was like this before he even met you.”
“If you ask Aunt Delaney, she’d say that no one ever had the balls to stand up to Dad before you came along, so Dad’s just reacting like he would to anyone thinking that they can win against him,” Ram went on.
“Only it’s a little more serious this time because you’re involved,” Maddox said. “But for the most part, Dad is just being Dad.”
“Did he tell you that he confronted my supervisor at work and actually hit him?” I asked, looking between my sons.
Ramsey and Maddox shared a look, and all I could do was shake my head. While they were my sons, and I’d done my best to have a positive influence on them, they were also Ramsey’s sons and were a product of his influence also. Plus, Ava had been the stay-at-home-mom to all of them, and if anyone was a violent spitfire, it was Ava McIntire. If you asked her, she’d probably side with Ramsey in a heartbeat. While we didn’t advocate violence, Ava was very about popping out and having to show people that she wasn’t playing when the occasion called for it.
“Honestly, if Lake came home and told me that her boss was hitting on her, I’d probably get my own court date, Mom,” Ram admitted. “With the way that Dad feels about you, if he did something to risk you losing your job, I’d have to assume that it was warranted.”
“I have to agree,” Maddox chimed in. “If someone hit on Cassidy while she was wearing my rings, I’d lose my goddamn mind.”
I eyed my sons. “Your wives are both very beautiful. You can’t honestly believe that they don’t get hit on.”
A dark look crossed Ram’s face at the very idea, and he really was his father’s son. “Mom, there’s a difference between some random man hitting on Lake and her boss trying to break up our marriage.”
“What your boss is doing is more diabolical than just hitting on you, Mom,” Maddox said, and the tone of his voice had a million different light bulbs going off.
“What did you do, Maddox Reed?”
Ram’s eyes began darting around, acting innocent, stepping out of the line of fire. Had I not been so wrapped up in Ramsey’s emotional tsunami and our fighting, then the truth of the situation would have hit me sooner. Even though I’d already known that Ramsey would dig up what he could on Adrian, I’d forgotten about Maddox.
“Does it matter?” he hedged.
“Do you want me to lose my shit?” I threatened.
“Might as well tell her,” Ram muttered. “It’s not like she’s not going to find out anyway.”
“When Dad told us why you two were fighting, I decided to check some things out for myself,” he finally confessed.
“Jesus Christ, Maddox,” I said as I let out a deep sigh. “You know how I feel about that stuff now that you have a family that you’re responsible for.”
“Mom, I’m hardly an amateur,” he replied dryly.
Not wanting to know, but needing to, I asked, “And did you find anything?”
“I gave Dad everything that I found after Dash called us to tell us that you emptied a business meeting earlier,” he answered. “I figured that if it’s gotten to the point that you’re willing to cause a scene at the RMM offices…well, then it was time to do something, though I could dig deeper with more time.”
That meant that Adrian Cossacks had secrets worthy of a Ramsey Reed revenge, and I wasn’t exactly sure how I felt about that. While it was true that we all had parts of ourselves that we weren’t exactly proud of, Maddox wouldn’t have turned anything over to Ramsey if it’d been anything less than worth Ramsey’s time.
“Maddox-”
“He doesn’t hurt children, Mom,” he said, immediately calming my worst fear. “At least, not in the way that you’re worried about.”
“Look, we really don’t care about your boss, Mom,” Ram said, jumping in. “I mean, we do because this involves you, but since we know that Dad can take care of him, this isn’t about him. We’re here because you and Dad cannot keep going on like this. While it’s only been a few days, it’s a few days too many. You need to do whatever it takes to make Dad manageable again.”
Now, while it might hurt another mother’s feelings to see her sons siding with their father, I understood where my sons were coming from. Having screwed up themselves, it made sense that they were identifying with Ramsey in this case. When the Reed men loved, they loved hard, and I still didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
Even without them bugging me to make things right, it was time for me and Ramsey to hash this shit out, and I knew it. We couldn’t go on like this, and quite frankly, I didn’t want to. Ramsey was my peace at the end of each day, and I missed that. I needed more from him than just his ability to pleasure my body every night. I needed him to quiet my mind and soothe my soul, and only he could do that. In fact, Ramsey was the reason that I’d been able to do my job for as long as I’d had. He was my good in a world full of evil, and I missed that from him.
“I promise to talk to him tonight,” I told them. “Despite what you might think, I don’t enjoy fighting with your father.”
“I thought you guys weren’t fighting,” Maddox deadpanned.
“Yeah, thought you were just in a disagreement about something?” Ram added.
“I will call your wives and tell them that you hurt my feelings, I swear to God,” I threatened.
You ever seen two grown men beg for mercy?