by K. A. Linde
“Who is this?” she asked glancing between Ramsey and the woman.
Ramsey cleared his throat. “Lola, I’d like you to meet someone. This is Lexi”
The woman glanced up and smiled sweetly. “Hello, darling,” she drawled. She stood tall nearly six feet and made her way over to them. “What a pleasure to finally meet you.”
Lexi glanced between Ramsey and this Lola woman, her mouth opened slightly in confusion. She had never heard of her before. How was it that Lola had heard about her? Lexi’s mind was swimming with possibilities. Everything she had just heard from Brandon and Kace filtered through her mind. Was it impossible for her to be his girlfriend, because in fact he was with someone else? She didn’t want to even fathom that.
Her heart was pounding in her chest and she tried to swallow but was unsuccessful. Her mind went to the worst possible place causing her to cough and sputter in horror. How could he do this to her? She had thought he was a nice guy and all along he had been playing her the fool. She felt like an idiot.
“Lexi, please calm down,” Ramsey said sliding a hand through his hair.
“How can I calm down? Look at her,” she muttered unable to control herself.
Ramsey sighed heavily. “Lola, I need to handle this. Can I meet you later to finish discussing the details?”
“Of course, darling. Anything for you, love,” Lola purred before stepping over the threshold and exiting the office.
“This isn’t what it looks like,” Ramsey said immediately.
“No?” she asked taking a deep breath to steady herself. She owed him at least the chance to explain himself. Her past had jaded her against this very scenario. “How come I’ve never heard about her before? Yet, she seems to have heard about me.”
“Uh…it’s hard to explain,” he told her scratching his head again thoughtfully.
“Well, try,” she commanded plopping down into one of the chairs.
“To put it plainly, Lola is my business partner.”
“Oh yes, and what type of business do you run exactly, Ramsey? You still haven’t told me. We’ve known each other for six months, and yet, I still have yet to find out what it is exactly that you do. Where do you spend all your time? How do you have all this free time to do nothing? Are you just living off of your trust fund?” she muttered the last question in frustration and immediately regretted it. She hadn’t meant to ask that, but deep down she had always wondered if it was true.
“Wow,” he breathed. “I’m going to assume you’re a bit distraught.” Lexi lowered her eyes to the ground feeling kind of terrible that she had blurted out all those questions at once. “I do not live off of my trust fund. In fact, I’ve barely touched that money. Sure, for special occasions I tap into it, but I try to live on my own.”
“Is your Maserati a special occasion?” she asked bitterly.
He smiled despite himself. “The Maserati was a birthday present, which is precisely why you have never seen me drive it.”
“Oh,” she said her mouth popping open again.
“You know what?” he asked. “I think it might be better if I just show you what I do. You might not understand if I explained it.”
Lexi gulped unprepared for this. “You sure she’s just your business partner?”
Ramsey’s smile lit up her insides. He was so magnetic. Something about him turned her body to mush when she looked at him. Not only was he incredibly handsome, but he had a certain charm, a certain charisma that she couldn’t get over. And when he looked at her then, she knew that she had acted impulsively out of fear. Too long had she become accustomed to a life of secrecy that she assumed anything suspect was just that…because it always had turned out that way in the past. When she looked at him, she knew that he was hers and no one else’s.
“All right, where are we going?” she asked a cautious smile forming on her face.
“That’s more like it,” he said drawing her to her feet and kissing her tender lips. She leaned into the kiss letting her hands twine through his short blond hair. His arms wrapped around her slim waist pulling her body against his own
Someone clearing their throat in the doorway made them jump apart in surprise. “Don’t let me interrupt anything,” Bekah cooed leaning against the doorframe. Her shoulder length hair was perfectly styled with choppy bangs covering her forehead. She wore a black skirt suit over a yellow blouse with matching black-heeled boots.
“Hey, Bek, what can I do for you?” Ramsey asked pulling Lexi closer to him.
Bekah strolled in the office, putting one foot in front of the other as she walked. The smile she wore was devilish, and Lexi could see the wheels turning in her mind. She looked as if she was ready to pounce. “Well, I came over to ask you about some paperwork on my desk.”
“Why would I help with that?” he asked coolly.
“I was hoping that you would reconsider your position in the company. I could always use your expertise,” she said taunting him.
“Right. Well, I’m not reconsidering,” he told her flatly.
“Yes, I figured as much. When I got over here, I couldn’t help overhearing,” she said still walking slowly toward them.
“Is there a point, Bekah?”
“Of course. I was just surprised to hear that Lexi is now your girlfriend,” she said crossing her arms and stopping a few feet from Ramsey. “Why haven’t I heard about this? Why haven’t any of us heard about this?”
“Really, it’s none of your business,” Lexi spoke up for the first time not needing the support Ramsey was offering, though she did appreciate the gesture.
“Everything that happens here is my business.”
“It’s a good thing I’m not here, isn’t it?” Ramsey told her.
Bekah smiled cheerfully. “Right, that brings me back to my other point. Thank you for reminding me. I was surprised to find out that you still hadn’t told Lexi about your whores.”
“Whores?” Lexi asked glancing up at Ramsey. She didn’t want to be taken in my Bekah’s tactics, but the look on Ramsey’s face was murderous. What she had said had hit home.
“Thank you, Bekah,” he said her name as if he wanted to spit. “I think you’ve helped enough. You can see yourself out, yes?”
“Wait, you mean she doesn’t know about them?” she asked completely ignoring his request. “I mean since you spend all of your time with them, I thought that she should know. I saw Lola leaving so I figured you had to have told her.”
Lexi gulped not wanting to continue this conversation with Bekah in the room, but she couldn’t help herself. “What is she talking about?”
“Nothing,” he grumbled, glaring at Bekah.
Bekah chuckled to herself seemingly enjoying Ramsey’s discomfort. “Oh, Ramsey, why don’t you just give it up?”
Lexi realized for the first time since Bekah had walked into the room that this wasn’t actually an attack on her. Bekah’s motivations were to hit Ramsey. She didn’t know what she was saying about whores, but she wasn’t going to let Bekah do this. She knew how she worked now, and she was smarter than that. She would find out eventually what Bekah was talking about, but she didn’t need to know what it was about just then. She needed to be there for Ramsey, because it looked like she had been thrust into the middle of some age-old sibling dispute.
“Fuck off, Bek,” Ramsey cried. “Stop trying to ruin everyone’s life.”
“I’m not ruining anyone’s life. You’re doing that all on your own,” Bekah said with a wink.
“Bekah, just get out,” Ramsey bellowed stomping toward the door and wrenching it open.
Bekah directed her attention back toward Lexi. “Well, you’ll find out all of his deep dark secrets soon enough. That will be a great day for me,” she told Lexi before she began to walk out the door.
“And why is that?” Lexi snapped, immediately wishing she hadn’t. Bekah fixed her ice-cold stare upon Lexi.
“Then you’ll be out of everyone’s life.” With that she turned a
nd walked out.
Lexi stormed after her, ready to give her a piece of her mind. She wanted to tell her everything. She wanted to tell her how Jack still wanted her. How that ring on her finger was a goddamn fake. She wanted to tell her about how she had fucked her fiancé right under her nose. She wanted to tell her everything, but as she reached the door, Ramsey slammed it shut.
“I’m sorry,” he said immediately scooping her up in his arms. “She’s wrong. She’s all wrong. I don’t want you to leave my life.”
The desperation in his voice unnerved her, and she hugged him back releasing her pent up anger for the moment. When she stepped back, she looked into his bright green eyes filled with worry. “I’m not going anywhere,” she reassured him.
He blew out the breath he had been holding. “Good.”
“But you have to explain what she was talking about.”
“I will,” he said strength and determination returning to his gaze as he realized he wasn’t losing her. “Come on. I’ll explain once we get there.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the office.
Lexi had a million questions to ask him, but she remained silent. The confrontation with Bekah had given her energy unlike anything she had felt in awhile. She could feel herself beginning to bounce off the walls, but she remained quiet. She needed Ramsey to explain everything to her, and she wouldn’t accomplish that by discussing all of her fears with him. She had too many to even begin to articulate which one came first. Bekah was always somehow able to get into her subconscious and eat away at her inner most fears. She really was the devil!
Numbly, Lexi followed Ramsey back through the lobby, taking the elevator to the parking garage located below the building, and into his waiting Mercedes. Lexi tried to remain calm as they traveled through the city. Her confrontation with Bekah had her on edge. She hadn’t thought she was capable of despising her more…but she was wrong.
Not only had she destroyed what Lexi had had with Jack, she was trying to ruin it for her and Ramsey as well. Bekah was never going to forgive Lexi for being ahead of her in anything, especially not with the most important men in her life. Lexi just hoped that she didn’t have to continually be under crossfire.
They hadn’t been driving for more than ten minutes when Ramsey pulled into a mostly deserted parking lot. There was only one car parked in the far corner facing a tall brick wall. Lexi glanced around apprehensively not liking the secluded nature of their location. Ramsey took the spot directly next to the other car and killed the engine.
“Here we are,” he said smiling hesitantly.
Lexi noticed the sign posted into the ground in front of Ramsey’s car that read ‘reserved.’ The sign didn’t add any legitimacy to the parking lot that they were sitting in, and she could tell her stomach was doing back flips in anticipation. “Where is here exactly?” she managed to ask turning her head to see if perhaps she had missed something.
“Come on. I’ll show you,” he said opening his door.
“Is it safe?” she asked before he got out of the car. His boisterous laugh as he walked around the car was answer enough. Stepping out of the car, Ramsey took her hand for reassurance before walking to the corner of the parking lot. A large, black, metal door that she hadn’t previously noticed was built into the brick wall. Ramsey pulled out a key, unlocked the deadbolt, and swung the door wide for her.
She peered anxiously into the dim light that appeared down a long hallway. He ushered her inside before closing and locking the door behind him. “This way,” he told her motioning down the hallway.
“Is this where you tell me you’re part of the Umbrella Corporation, and I’m a test subject?” she asked a stilted laugh following the comment.
Ramsey cocked his head to the side, the smirk on his face telling her that he was amused. “Precisely. I hope you’re immune.”
“My name isn’t Alice.”
“Alexa. Alice. Close enough,” he said stopping abruptly in front of a door with a brass sign on the front that read ‘Employees Only.’ Passing through that door, they walked to the end of the barren hallway and into what appeared to be, at first glance, a security room for the entire building. Dozens of monitors lined the walls each showing varying angles of what appeared to be a darkened warehouse. A few showed the lighted hallways they had just entered through along with other locales that Lexi had no knowledge of.
“Okay, Ramsey, fill me in. Where the fuck are we?” she asked. Her feelings of apprehension had only heightened.
“This is where I work,” he said flipping several switches on a board. Instantly hundreds of lights began to flicker on all around her. But she realized that despite the number of computer screens filtering light into the room, the majority was coming from straight ahead. Lexi’s attention returned to the back of the room. She had originally thought it was just a black wall, but in fact, it was an enormous window. She stepped forward to look through the panel of glass in front of her, and saw what appeared to be an empty warehouse in the blackness, come to life.
“Is this...a bar?” she asked mystified. Black granite-topped counters lined the walls on the bottom floor with hundreds of glass bottles atop intricate shelving. High-backed black chairs were tucked into tables in one corner. A dance floor with a stage against the far wall took up nearly half of the room. Carpeted stairs led up to a more secluded area, what she would have guessed to be a VIP section, with posh leather booths and a bar stocked solely with top shelf liquor.
“Yes, well, a club.” He came up beside her staring out across the establishment.
“You work at a club?” she asked confused.
“Uh no,” he said scratching the back of his head.
“Do you…run security?” she questioned him, trying to put the pieces together. Why would he have waited so long to show her this? It hardly seemed like it was something to be ashamed of. Sure he could be a vice president within Bridges Enterprise, but if he liked this then she couldn’t say anything about it. It sure would explain why his family utterly detested his job though.
“No, Lexi, I own the club.”
“You own this place?” she gasped despite herself. Suddenly so many things fell into place. Memories of a distant past began to fill her mind. Lexi and Ramsey meeting at a club in New York, and him claiming to prefer to do business there. The fact that his entire apartment had been filled to the brim with people partying on a Sunday night, because they couldn’t on the weekends. Employees of the various clubs he owned, which also explained the stocked bar he constantly kept on hand. A strange conversation with a bartender at the 755 Club at Turner Field about his new employment; he must have worked for Ramsey at some point. The way Ramsey had edged out of conversations about his employment, and claimed that it was his job to know people. He obviously had to know people to be successful in this town, and everyone likely wanted to know him.
“Among others,” he said nodding.
“How many others?” she breathed.
“A dozen or so.”
Lexi’s mouth dropped open as her eyes took in the scene below her. Everything in that room he owned. The building itself was massive and must have cost a fortune. Not to mention the location directly downtown along with property taxes and a sea of other concerns. The lawyer side of her brain was taking over, and she was quickly measuring up the building from a different perspective.
“About what Bekah said,” he murmured reluctantly.
Stopping her endless calculations, Lexi was transported back to reality. She had completely forgotten Bekah. Yet, there must be something else to the story. Bekah had mentioned whores, and Lexi wasn’t putting two and two together. Was this how he had met women previously? Was this why everyone had been so surprised that he had a girlfriend? Was he really just a player and all his employees his whores? So many more questions floated through her subconscious as she waited for him to further explain.
“It’s just…not all of them are this type of club,” he managed to get out.
�
��What do you mean? What type of club are they?” she asked turning away from the window to face him.
He looked at her expectantly as if she was magically going to come up with the answer on her own. When she stared at him blankly, he reluctantly continued, “What other kind of clubs exist?”
Lexi stared at him for a minute longer before realization dawned on her. Her cheeks flared red. “Do you mean strip clubs? You own strip clubs?”
“Yeah, see this is why I never have a girlfriend,” he said miserably.
After taking a second to let the concept sink in, Lexi reached out and touched his arm. “Ramsey, I don’t care. I still like you. I mean, I’ll be honest, I don’t like that you spend your time with strippers,” she said unable to keep the angst out of her voice. “Especially because I’ve been oblivious to the fact the whole time.”
The thing she hated most about the entire situation was that he had kept it from her. He had hid a huge part of himself from her for nearly six months. She had no idea the entire time what he did or who he spent his time with. The fact that he worked with women who were paid to take their clothes off was pretty shitty, but she couldn’t change that, and she didn’t want to change him. What was infuriating was his deception. He had so easily hid something so endemic in his life from her, and apparently only her.
All of his friends knew where he worked. Bekah and the rest of his family knew where he worked. Jack even probably knew what he did for a living. After all, he had been one of the first to warn her off of Ramsey. It had to have been for good reason—or at least for some reason. With all this in consideration, all she could wonder about was what else he was hiding from her.
PRESENT
Jack had cold feet.
And as much as Lexi wanted to follow Ramsey’s advice, and not think about that fact, it was damn near impossible. Why was he unsure about this wedding? He had made his choice. He had chosen Bekah. It was that simple.