by Aly Martinez
I smiled and nuzzled his nose. “I’m the only woman you’ve seen in over a decade. I’ll wait a few months before applying for supermodel status.”
“That’s not true. Tiffany was here the other day.”
My mouth fell open, and I gave him a hard shove. “What the hell, Ramsey?”
A loud laugh sprang from his chest as he flipped me to my back. My legs immediately fell open, welcoming him home.
He put his feet to the floor and hooked my thighs to drag me to the edge, his smoldering gaze aimed between my legs. “It’s good to see that jealous streak of yours is still alive and well.”
I watched with rapt attention as he slid his hand up and down his shaft. “She’s practically my sister, and you’re about to—” I let out a hiss, pressing my head into the bed as he filled me, slow and torturous.
“I’m about to do what, Sparrow?”
“This,” I panted.
He planted himself to the hilt, stretching and filling. “And what’s that? What am I doing to you?”
“Ramsey,” I breathed.
“That’s not an answer.” He reached out and caught my hand, bringing it to his mouth, where he swirled his tongue over two of my fingers. Fire blazed a trail straight to my nipples when he guided my wet fingers to my clit. “Show me what you did when you thought about me between your thighs.” He withdrew ever so slowly and then drove back in hard and fast.
“Oh, God!” I cried out.
A sudden knock at the door had us both freezing. “Um, Ramsey?” Nora called. “I am really, really, really sorry to interrupt you guys, but um… Your parole officer is here.” She paused and then nervously finished. “With the cops.”
All the color drained from his face, and in the very next heartbeat, my Ramsey was gone.
Suffocating panic filled the room as he snatched his boxer briefs off the floor. Every muscle in his body strained as he tugged them on. “Get under the covers.”
I pointed to the floor. “My clothes are just—”
“Covers,” he barked, pausing with his hand on the doorknob.
The comforter was still on the floor from when I’d slept with it, so I scrambled under the sheet, my anxiety skyrocketing.
The minute I was fully covered, he yanked the door open. A short, gray-haired man in khaki slacks and a polo shirt was standing next to Nora.
“Hey, Lee. What’s going on?” Ramsey greeted, his voice light and almost chipper.
The man leaned around him, sweeping his gaze through the room. “I’m going to need you to step out front with me.”
Ramsey nodded. “Okay. No prob. My girl’s naked though. Can she have a minute to get dressed?”
Lee, who I assumed was his parole officer, pursed his lips. “One minute. You can get dressed too. Stay out of the bathroom though. Don’t let me hear that toilet flush.”
What. The. Hell?
Lee disappeared down the hall, and Nora bulged her eyes at her brother before following after him.
Keeping the sheet pulled to my chest, I rose to my knees and whispered, “What’s going on?”
Ramsey shut the door and spun on a toe. “I have no fucking clue.” He snagged my clothes off the floor and threw them at me.
“Are you in trouble?”
He yanked his top drawer open. “I don’t know.”
Bile crawled up the back of my throat. “Have you done anything wrong?”
He stepped into a pair of gray sweats and then tugged on a white fitted T-shirt. “I don’t fucking know! Just get dressed.” He threw a black hoodie my way and then marched to the door. “Put that on. You can see your tits through that goddamn tank top.”
Wow. Okay, then. I was too nervous to argue or bitch at him for being crass.
He waited until I was fully dressed and standing next to him before we exited the room.
My apprehension climbed as we walked down the short hallway together. Desperate for reassurance, as much as I wanted to offer him the same, I reached for his hand. He pulled it away.
“Stewart,” Lee called, motioning us over.
My heart stopped as I took in the cops removing the couch cushions and using flashlights to search the cracks. Nora was standing in the kitchen, watching a female officer go through the cabinets. The second our eyes met, she hurried over.
“It’s okay. Just relax,” she soothed, tugging me in for a side hug. She gave Ramsey an arm squeeze. “You’re going to be fine. This isn’t a big deal.”
My back shot straight when he looked at her and smiled. “I know.”
He knew? He was smiling and he knew? Funny because, in the bedroom, he was on the verge of jumping out the window and didn’t know a damn thing. Though I really liked the idea that things were going to be fine. And he “knew” it, so I let it slide.
“What’s going on?” Ramsey rumbled when we made it to the front door.
Lee planted a hand on his hip. “I need all of you to step out front with me for a few minutes. Clovert PD got an anonymous tip that you were selling coke out of the back of Joe Hull’s barbershop. They called me. I had to drag my ass out of bed on a Saturday morning, so I’m sure you can imagine how happy this made me.”
“What?” I gasped.
And then, as if I weren’t already shocked enough, Ramsey barked a loud laugh, nearly causing me to have a heart attack. “You gotta be shitting me? I wasn’t even in on a drug charge.”
I peered up at him in wonder.
What the hell was happening? I mean, seriously. What. Was. Happening?
Ramsey knew. He was smiling. And now he was freaking laughing?
I was about to lose my mind or possibly dry-heave—I hadn’t quite decided which—and he was laughing?
Lee walked out front, calling over his shoulder, “Well aware, Stewart. But you’ve been out less than two weeks. We gotta follow up on this. Quick search. We’ll be gone in an hour. Though I am going to need you to hit my office before end of day and piss in a cup.”
“Jesus Christ,” he muttered, but he did it pressing his lips into the top of my hair and then guiding me out the door with his hand on the small of my back, so I decided to postpone my freak-out for a few minutes longer.
Unfortunately, I only got a few seconds.
And that was because none other than Clovert’s finest, Officer Jonathan Caskey, was standing in my driveway, leaning against his police cruiser.
Suddenly, everything and nothing at all made sense.
Nora and I had moved the twenty minutes from Clovert to Thomaston for a reason. And while it wasn’t completely because Josh’s older brother was a decorated officer in the Clovert Police Department, that had made our decision easier. I had no reason to hate Jonathan. He hadn’t raped me. He’d never even spoken to me. But his flat-out refusal to see his brother for the deviant he truly was made my skin crawl.
Each year on the anniversary of Josh’s death, Jonathan would host a stupid fundraiser for victims of bullying. Bullying! Like Josh hadn’t terrorized multiple innocent women. For a week, the whole town would wear green—a nod to Josh’s St. Patrick’s Day birthday—and the local newspaper would write a completely biased, utterly trash article about the Caskeys’ devastating loss.
It was a miracle I hadn’t needed to be institutionalized during that week every year. Nothing lit me on fire like delusional people who were only delusional because they refused to open their eyes. And Jonathan Caskey was the king of all delusional kings.
And there he was, in my driveway, wearing a smug grin and an impenetrable shield in the shape of a badge on his chest, while officers flipped my house searching for nonexistent drugs for no other reason than he had the power to make it happen.
“Get off my property,” I seethed, my body vibrating with an overdose of adrenaline.
He cocked his head to the side and shoved off his car. “You have a problem, Miss Hull?”
I lunged forward, screaming, “Get off my fucking property!”
Ramsey hooked me around the waist,
dragging me against his chest while rumbling in my ear, “Thea, stop. You’re gonna make it worse.”
I couldn’t stop though. We’d been through enough without the Caskeys meddling in our newfound happiness.
He’d been home for a little over a week, but I’d only had Ramsey back for a matter of minutes.
We were fucked up and in love.
We were a we again.
For God’s sake, he’d been making love to me when the cops had shown up.
This asshole did not get to ruin that.
“You are not Thomaston PD.” I looked at Ramsey’s parole officer and repeated, “He is not Thomaston PD. He has no right to be here.” My hands shook as I tried to peel out of Ramsey’s hold on me. “Do you know his brother raped me?” I looked back at Jonathan, my stomach rolling as I stared into his blue eyes, which matched his brother’s. “Your brother was a piece of shit who bit me and hit me and then pinned me down and forced himself on me like I was nothing. He deserved everything he got.”
“Thea. Stop!” Ramsey boomed.
Jonathan’s eyes narrowed. “You sure it was Josh who did all that to you? Judging by that bruise on your neck, it could have easily been your loverboy there.”
My body jolted like I’d been shot, and Ramsey turned to stone.
However, it was Nora who exploded first.
“You son of a bitch!” she roared, charging forward.
Ramsey let me go and dove after her, catching her arm before she got her hands on Caskey—an act that would have no doubt landed her behind bars.
Like a hellcat, she kicked and fought against her brother, cussing and screaming incoherently. As pissed off and angry as I was, it was so painful to watch her melt down that it momentarily quelled the storm brewing within me.
Nora was nothing if not loyal.
Ramsey put a hand over her mouth and dragged her away, pleading, “Lee, come on. You know this is fucked up. He shouldn’t be here. I’m cooperating. We’re all fucking cooperating. But this is harassment.”
I glanced around, finding several of the Thomaston cops decorating my front porch. At least three of them had their hands resting on their guns. Their eyes were locked on my entire life as he dragged my best friend away from the brother of the dead boy who had wrecked us all.
How was this my life?
“Officer Caskey,” Lee started. “I thought I told you we’d handle this.”
Jonathan smirked, never tearing his eyes off of Ramsey. “You did. I just happened to be in the neighborhood. Figured I’d swing by in case you needed an extra hand.”
Lee tucked his clipboard under his arm and shot him an unimpressed glare. “I think we got it covered.”
“You sure about that?”
Lee’s lips thinned as he looked at Ramsey. He was juggling Nora into a hug with her feet dangling off the ground. He didn’t appear completely convinced, but he still answered, “Yeah. All good.”
Jonathan sucked his teeth and backed toward his cruiser. “You find anything, I want to be the first to know, yeah?”
“No,” Lee bit back. “But if you don’t get out of here and forget this address, your captain will be.” He arched a furry, gray eyebrow and mocked. “Yeah?”
My shoulders fell, thankful beyond all reason that the Caskeys didn’t own everyone in our area.
Jonathan chuffed, and I held my breath as he folded into his car. His arrogance never wavered as he backed out of my driveway. The bastard had the balls to wink at me before he finally drove away.
“I’m sorry about that, Miss Hull,” Lee said with genuine regret.
“Thank you,” I mumbled, adrenaline-fueled tears burning the backs of my lids.
He scratched the back of his head. “He knows better than to show up like that. I’ll have a word with his captain. It won’t happen again.”
Like a moth to a flame, my eyes found Ramsey’s only a few feet away. Nora had relaxed in his arms, but a hurricane raged in his gaze as he stared at me.
“That would be much appreciated, Lee,” I said absently.
Walking to the door, he jerked his chin at Ramsey. “Let me hurry these guys along. It’s too early for this shit.”
Ramsey, with Nora in tow, was at my side immediately. “You okay?”
“I think so. Neither of you two are in cuffs. I’ll chalk it up as a win.” I tried to joke, but my voice cracked, revealing my true emotion.
He caught me at the back of my neck and pulled me face-first into his chest while Nora occupied his other side.
We didn’t say anything for a long time. I listened to Ramsey’s heart and Nora’s sniffles while we waited for the cops to finish up and allow us back inside. Ramsey’s hand never stopped soothing up and down my back, and as messed up as everything was, it felt like I finally belonged somewhere again.
Going toe-to-toe with Jonathan Caskey wasn’t how any of us had wanted to start our day, but for the first time in what felt like forever, the three of us were a family. Ramsey wasn’t angry. Nora wasn’t the middleman. I wasn’t the elephant in the room.
We were all emotionally drained and fighting our demons, but we were a family nonetheless.
“Thanks for dealing with that.” Ramsey smiled and shook Lee’s hand.
“No problem. Thanks for not having any drugs. That is a mountain of paperwork I did not feel like filling out.”
“You sure I can’t get you some coffee for the road?” I asked from the kitchen while I put away the stacks of dishes.
Our house was a wreck. Everything from my bedroom to the garage had been flipped on end. If we were lucky, we could get the place put back together before the end of the weekend. When the police had finished, Nora had gone straight to her room, muttering something about going back to bed. She’d been up late—as we all had—so I couldn’t blame her. I also didn’t try to stop her in hopes of buying myself some time before she launched her what’s-going-on-with-you-and-my-brother inquisition.
Ramsey walked Lee to the door. “Do I need any kind of paperwork for the drug test today?”
“Nah. I called it in. Bring your ID and they’ll have everything else you need when you get there. Don’t bullshit me. Is that thing going to bounce back hot?”
Ramsey’s grin stretched and he rubbed his stomach. “I’ve never touched a drug in my life. As long as you aren’t testing for cheeseburgers, I’m pretty sure I’m clean.”
“Good to know. Eat a vegetable, Stewart.”
Ramsey laughed and opened the door. “Will do.” Then he stood at the door, smiling with his hands shoved inside the pockets of his sweats.
I had to give it to him. For a man who had looked like he was on the verge of imploding when the cops had shown up, he was dealing with everything a hell of a lot better than I was.
Or so I thought.
No sooner than he shut the front door, Ramsey’s entire handsome face turned green. He bent over and then all at once collapsed to his knees.
“Ramsey,” I called, dropping a stack of plates on the counter and rushing toward him.
He lifted a hand to stop me and put his chin to his shoulder, his chest rising and falling at a marathon pace.
I threw on the brakes and allowed him the space, despite my hands aching to comfort him the way I’d been denied for too many years. “It’s over, honey. Everything’s fine now.”
With his hands on the carpet, his muscular back rounded with a gag. “It’s not,” he choked. “I’m always just one misstep from getting sent back.”
The broken shards of my heart clattered at my feet. “You’re not going back.”
“You don’t fucking know that.”
I inched closer. “Yeah. I do. You’re not going to do anything to break parole. You have nothing to worry about.”
His head snapped up, incredulous bewilderment carved into his features. “You think I really have to do something to get sent back? With Caskey roaming around, waiting for his moment to fuck me over, we’ll be lucky if I make it another six mon
ths.”
Panic pooled in my stomach, but I shook my head vehemently. “No. I won’t let that happen.”
He settled on his ass, propping his back against the entryway wall, his knees bent and his hands hanging between them. “If I’ve learned anything over the years, Thea, it’s that anything is possible. And after today, it’s not just possible, it’s likely.” And then Ramsey tried to break my heart all over again. His eyes sparked like the boy I’d once known. “I never wanted you to be a part of this, Sparrow. I tried to let you go so I didn’t drag this kind of filth into your life. But you just wouldn’t listen. Fuck. Why won’t you ever listen to me?”
“I do listen, but sometimes I just don’t care.”
He barked a humorless laugh. “Now that’s the damn truth.”
I lowered myself to the carpet within arm’s reach, but I was careful not to touch him. “Ramsey, you aren’t dragging filth into my life. You aren’t filth.”
He thrust a hand into the top of his hair. “No. But I’m not the man you deserve, either. You should be sitting on a porch swing, carefree with your hair blowing in the wind right now, not cleaning up your house after the cops stormed in and tore the place apart searching for drugs. You deserve better than this, but from the day I took that plea bargain, I knew trouble and disgrace was all I’d ever be able to give you. And let me tell you, that is a hard fucking pill to swallow when you’re in love with a woman. But it’s the truth. You deserve better than me. I knew it then. I know it even more after today. You gotta let me go, Thea. You just have to.”
A mixture of panic and anger rolled through me like a chill. “Don’t start this shit again. It didn’t work out for you when you got locked up and it’s sure as hell not going to work out after what we did this morning.”
“I can’t take care of you. If you stay with me, you’ll always be one step away from going back to that prison too. Whether I do three more years and finish my sentence or if Caskey manages to pin something on me and I go back for another decade, either way you’ll be alone all over again. I can’t be responsible for that.” He pounded the spot over his heart. “You gotta help me out here. I barely lived through it the first time. I need you to hate me. I need you to leave and never look back.”
