The Ramseys Boxed Set

by Altonya Washington

  Frowning, Ty left her office to hunt down the source of the elation and found that her sons and husband were at the root of it all. Tykira smiled and wasn’t a bit surprised. Quaysar Ramsey drew attention wherever he went but with two beautiful three year old twins in tow, his mystique was amplified.

  Of course, her mostly female staff thought so and fawned over Dinari and Dakari while covertly admiring the sinful appeal of their father.

  Quay saw his wife leaning against the lobby entrance and wasted no time heading right toward her. He smoothed his hands around the waistband of her black boot cut slacks and gave her bottom a proprietary pat. He urged her back in the direction she’d come, nibbling on her neck as they returned to her office. By the time the door closed behind them, they were kissing as if starved for one another.

  “Mmm Quay, Quay wait…” Ty urged, feeling his fingers on the buttons of her blouse. “We can’t.”

  “Hush,” he ordered, thumb-stroking the nipples outlined against the fabric of her lavender striped cuff shirt.

  “The guys are-”

  “Being spoiled by your staff who will probably try to keep them out there all day.”

  “Yeah…” Tykira happily agreed and gave in to her husband’s persistence.

  She was halfway stripped of the blouse when the phone began to ring. As her assistant was probably preoccupied with the twins as well, Ty knew the job as operator was now in her corner. Quay was still gnawing at her neck, his hands cupping and fondling her breasts when she laughingly answered the call.

  “Good Lord,” Sabra Ramsey groaned, “Will you please tell your husband to get off you for a minute so we can talk?”

  “Hey girl!” Ty laughed even more when she heard the voice on the line. “Quay stop, it’s Sabra.”

  “Uh-huh, can she call back?” He murmured, intensifying his bites upon her neck.

  Ty turned in his arms. “Stop, she wants to talk.”

  “About?”

  “Girl stuff, come on.”

  “Actually Ty,” Sabra called, having overheard her cousin. “It’s probably good he’s there. Can you put me on speaker?”

  “I didn’t know you liked to listen Sabra.” Quay teased when Ty hit the button.

  “Poor Quay the older you get, the worse your jokes become. Sad thing is you don’t realize it.”

  “Forget you. My girl likes my jokes, don’t you Tyke?”

  Sabra laughed. “Honey don’t even bother to answer that. I know he’s doing his best to um persuade a favorable reply.”

  “Damn right,” Quay growled into his wife’s neck.

  Tykira laughed and pressed her hands against the front of Quay’s red brick fleece hoody. “Y’all are too much. Come on stop and let’s get serious.”

  “Ty’s right and I don’t wanna hold you guys,” Sabra’s voice lost some of its playfulness. “I called because I um-I’m thinking it’s time to expand again and I want Ty on board for the project.”

  “Expansion!” Quay bellowed with laughter following. “Hell girl, you’ve already got too damn much on that property: casino, hotel, spa, club. What else could you want?”

  “I’ll think of something. I got lots more land that could stand developing.” She sent a heavy sigh through the speaker then. “Besides, there’re those who feel my property could use their personal touch and I’m not havin’ it.”

  “Neighboring casinos?” Ty guessed.

  “Hmph, I wish.”

  Ty fixed her husband with a concerned look.

  “Alright exactly what is goin’ on out there?” Quay asked.

  Sabra waited a full five seconds before answering. “The folks sniffing around my property have Tesano connections.”

  Again, Quay and Ty exchanged looks. Anyone who watched the news had heard of the family whose interests involved everything from congressional seats and movie studio holdings to illegal weapons manufacture and organized crime connections.

  “How do you know this?” Quay asked.

  “A friend whose specialty is investigative troubleshooting, she uncovered the link.”

  “Have you um…spoken to anyone in the Tesano family?” Ty probed.

  Sabra laughed. “I know what you’re asking and the answer is no. I wouldn’t call that son of a bitch if my life depended on it.”

  Quay and Ty exchanged looks for a third time since the conversation began. Neither bothered to mention that if Sabra had Tesanos sniffing around-her life could very well depend on it. Of course they understood her reluctance to speak with her former lover Smoak Tesano. Things between them had ended disastrously and both sides had been devastated.

  “Quay? Will you talk to Quest? See if his frat brother’s family is making any moves in Vegas?”

  Even more drama lay in that simple request but Quay promised.

  “I’ll be in touch,” Ty was saying once Quay had strolled off a distance from her desk. “I’ll probably take a trip out there to talk and see the property myself.”

  Sabra almost squealed she was so delighted. “We’ll make it a girl getaway and everything.”

  Quay stopped pacing the office and frowned toward the phone. “What the hell is that?”

  “Uh uh uh Quay,” Sabra scolded. “What happens in Vegas…”

  Sabra let the provocative statement hang in the air and seconds later the dial tone signaled the break in the connection. The serious air still hung in Tykira’s office.

  “What are you thinking?” She asked.

  “Could be nothing,” He said though the set of his profile said otherwise.

  “Are you gonna talk to Quest?”

  “Yeah…though I don’t think Q’s talked to Pike Tesano in a while.”

  Ty smoothed her hands over her arms as a quick chill shimmied through her. “You think he’ll even contact Pike considering all that’s happened between he and…”

  Quay shrugged, not needing his wife to complete the question. “Q never held Pike responsible and he’d never tell me why.” He pushed both hands into the pockets of his sagging jeans to hide clenched fists. “Guess I better go see my brother.” He crossed the office with intentions of kissing his wife goodbye.

  After the kiss, Ty caught his sleeve. “There’s something else.” She swallowed her unease before it could change her mind. “These plans I’m going over,” she hitched a thumb over her shoulder, “for a scientific research facility-location not specified. But the man bankrolling it all is Smoak Tesano.”

  ***

  Nile accepted the last of the hotel receipts and turned from the desk with all intentions of making a brisk walk across the elaborate lobby and out into the courtesy limo that waited to carry her and Darby to the airport. She only got about as far as turning away from the front desk. She just managed to stop herself from bringing a hand to her mouth when she turned to find Taurus Ramsey right behind her.

  “Running?” He asked, slipping a hand into his brownstone trouser pocket and watching her coolly.

  Nile tried to be just as cool, but realized he probably already knew the answer to the question. “Why would you think that?” she asked anyway.

  “Probably because I saw you tip the guy that put all those cases in the back of that car.”

  Nile bowed her head, folding her arms over the vintage yellow cardigan she wore.

  “Are you afraid of me?”

  She looked up again quickly. “I’m not. But a lot of us don’t have scores of employees to keep a business running while we’re away Mr. Ramsey.”

  Taurus smiled, his light eyes narrowing as they raked the jeans encasing her figure. “Going back to L.A. then?”

  Nile grimaced, realizing any hope of hiding out there was ruined.

  Taurus didn’t mention it further. Instead, he moved close to run his index finger down her cheek. Nile bit on her bottom lip when he replaced the finger with his thumb.

  “Stop,” she willed her legs to remain firm beneath her.

  “You’re not afraid of me,” he repeated and remained c
lose. “What are you afraid of?”

  She pulled away then and fixed him with accusing eyes.

  “Don’t lie, not when it’s written all over your face.” Losing another tether on his temper, he stepped closer and clutched her arm. “I don’t like this.”

  Nile didn’t respond, but she couldn’t dispute the fact that she was afraid. Strangely, what she’d discovered earlier that day wasn’t at the root of her fear. Her connection to Dena Ramsey was simply the cherry on top. In Taurus Ramsey’s eyes, she saw more than physical attraction. She saw tenderness and adoration. Love? She wouldn’t speculate especially when that sweet emotion had no chance in hell of surviving once he discovered how her father had shattered-she suspected-a valuable portion of his own sister’s life.

  Nothing would matter then. It would mean nothing that while living in France, she’d spent years begging the authorities to believe her about what was going on inside her father’s home in Nice. It would mean nothing that once she’d gone to the States, she tried for better luck with the authorities there and was unsuccessful. She’d been well into her twenties when she realized they’d all been bought. None of her best intentions had mattered then. They certainly wouldn’t matter to this man who stood watching her with such intense emotion in his incredible eyes.

  Imagining that adoring look in his eyes glossing over with a hate-filled sheen…that was what instilled true fear inside her.

  Taurus released Nile’s arm, massaging away any discomfort his hold might have caused. “Have a good trip.” He said while brushing an airy kiss across her temple. He watched as she all but ran from the lobby and settled into the waiting limo. Then, pulling out his cell, he scrolled down the number list and made the connection.

  “Taurus Ramsey for Perry Finch.”

  ***

  “So you’re not going to kill him?” Yvonne Wilson asked, her voice mirroring the disbelief on her face.

  The gentleman relaxing behind the other side of Yvonne’s desk smiled as though he were placating a small child and amused by its ignorance.

  “Killing Marc Ramsey is the obvious choice,” he said, “and an end that will soon visit him but unfortunately he’s still got a few dues to pay.”

  Yvonne shook her shoulder length curls away from her face. She decided not to ask what that meant. “Is Cufi behind this?” She asked instead.

  The gentleman smirked. “No.”

  Yvonne lost her temper then. “Dammit!” She raged and pounded a fist to her cluttered desk. “I have to know why I was asked to do this.” Until then, she’d tried to accept the fact that her estranged husband was pulling all the strings and going mad because it didn’t add up.

  Still, she swallowed down her unease when her outburst filled the room. One didn’t yell and one certainly never demanded anything of Brogue Tesano. For Yvonne however, this was all a bit too agitating. Realizing some nameless mystery man was pulling the strings to help Marc Ramsey meet a fatal end was more unnerving than believing her husband was behind it. After all, she and her people had been responsible for delivering the hated Ramsey elder, right?

  Brogue Tesano continued to smile and appeared to be in the mood for sharing info. “Marc Ramsey is indeed suffering most horribly I can assure you of that. When we’re done, he’ll pray to die because his life is about to be cast into a deeper abyss than he could ever imagine.” He almost purred while tugging on the cuff of the black shirt that peeked out from beneath his jacket. “This is what I do and yet I’m experiencing a certain joy in this particular job.”

  “Because it’s Marcus Ramsey,” Yvonne guessed.

  Brogue’s hard features tightened for the first time. “Because I have an intense aversion to people who use little girls-children at all for that matter-as objects to meet their own sick twisted needs.”

  Yvonne felt her hands grow slicker with a guilty sweat.

  “I’m brutal when it’s just a job.” Brogue continued his blue stare frighteningly provocative. “I’m downright terrifying when I take pleasure in it. But you didn’t call me here to celebrate the trials of Marc Ramsey, did you?” He leaned forward to brace his elbows on his knees. “I believe your real interests lie in a box of card keys.”

  Yvonne gasped, fear coursing through her then like thick slow syrup.

  “Your husband has instructions to supply us with them ASAP. He knows his life is hanging by the amount of time it takes him.”

  “And mine?” Yvonne had to know.

  Brogue nodded. “Houston and Daphne Ramseys murders were our guarantees that his life would be next.” He stood. “As for you, we know you believe the keys were to protect- I use the term lightly- those girls. That’s what Cufi told you. Truth is, his only plan for those cards was blackmail. Money, favors, it didn’t matter. If Cufi Muhammad had a need, it was met…or else.” He laughed softly, watching the woman absorb the information. “Think about it Yvonne. How do you think he managed to get those girls off that damn ship when the Ramseys were hot on his ass? It takes the intervention of various authoritative figures to do that, you know?” Leaning down, Brogue tapped his hand to the desk. “I’ve given you enough to chew on. I’ll let you get back to your work and I’ll get back to mine.”

  Yvonne waited until the man strolled from her office and then allowed her terror to take root.

  ***

  Quest finished dropping the last of the file folders into his briefcase. His left-dimpled smile made a slight appearance when he once again took note of the silence in his wife’s home office. He’d worked there intentionally the night before and realized Michaela was doing her best to ignore him. She did a damn good job. Her mood hadn’t improved when he’d come down to the office for his files and found her already there.

  “How long will you give me the silent treatment?” He asked without looking her way.

  No response.

  Shaking his head, he eased his cell phone into his trouser pocket and turned to face her. Coolly, Mick relaxed in her desk chair with her small bare feet crossed and propped atop the desk. Massaging his neck, Quest rounded the desk and leaned down to kiss her. Mick turned her head and roused another smile from her husband.

  Undeterred, he dropped kisses to her neck. He trailed several more progressively lower until his gorgeous dark face was buried in the valley between her breasts that heaved rapidly in unwilling response.

  Mick pressed her lips together, but couldn’t control the fluttering of her lashes when Quest tugged the zipper of her clover green hoody. Once a nipple was bared, he captured it between his lips. Mick clenched her hands into fists and passively delighted in the feel of him suckling and manipulating the ever-firming nipple.

  Quest finished a while later and even took the time to pull the zipper back into place. “Forgive me,” he whispered and kissed her earlobe before leaving the room.

  Alone then, Mick let her head fall back on the chair and willed the fierce tingles at her core to stop…tingling. Frustrated sexually and emotionally, she threw a pen toward the door. She’d planned to extend the ‘silent treatment’ for another week but…well that wasn’t such an easy thing to do where Quest Ramsey was concerned.

  The phone rang then, sending a shriek past her lips as she jumped in her chair. Slowly, she answered.

  “Yes um…Michaela Sellars-Ramsey please.”

  “This-this is she.” Mick vaguely recognized the male voice on the other end of the line.

  The man responded with a laugh. “Kayla? Ha! I couldn’t believe it when my manager gave me the message.”

  Mick was laughing as well. “And I can’t believe you’ve got managers Mr. Jazz Club Owner.”

  Reagan Crawford chuckled. “Guess it’s in my blood,” he sighed.

  “And how is Mr. C?” Mick asked, referring to Reagan’s father Avery Crawford who’d once owned several clubs in the Chicago area.

  “So to what do I owe the honor of receiving a call from one of the Ramsey Queens?” He teased once they’d caught up for a while.

&nb
sp; Mick laughed again. “What’s this? Following the society pages now Ray? Or these days it could easily be the front pages.” She noted her tone sobering.

  “Well you’re always where the action is.”

  “Yeah…” Mick sighed, pulling her feet off the desk to sit straight in her chair. “Anyway about why I called…there’s something I need to ask.”

  “Anything Kayla. Just tell me what.”

  “Not a what-a who.”

  “Who.”

  Mick hesitated then, tapping her nails to her chin as she debated. “I need a name. The name of a man who knew someone who used to work for your father.”

  Ray put the pieces together easily from there. “What are you steppin’ into girl?”

  “My own business and something I should’ve stepped into a long time ago.”

  “Some things are best left forgotten.” Ray warned. “I told you that when you asked about this before.”

  “And I told you-” Mick stopped herself and bristled. “Look Ray you have to know before you can forget. Now please don’t argue with me Ray-not again. Not this time. With or without your help I’ll find what I need. Without your help it’ll be much harder.”

  Ray groaned after several seconds of silence. “Alright Kayla. Alright.”

  ***

  Los Angeles, California~

  “I’ve never seen you in such a hurry to talk to Perry Finch.” Nile said in the midst of a deep yawn.

  Darby shrugged easily switching lanes and gears on her mustang. “Something’s up. I’ve never seen Perry not return a call that mentioned money being offered.”

  “What are you thinking?” Nile asked.

  “Probably nothing. I don’t know…maybe I’m just anxious to get the money into the slime bucket’s hands and the deed to the studio into ours.”

  Nile rested back against the butter suede seat and hugged herself. “Maybe old Finchie is rolling between the sheets with a beautiful woman and can’t be bothered with calls.”

  Darby smiled and exchanged a glance with Nile. Moments later, hearty laughter filled the car.