The Ramseys Boxed Set

by Altonya Washington

  He nodded. “Fern had to tell her.”

  “And she couldn’t tell me?” Mick didn’t really expect a response and let her hand fall from his clothes.

  “I asked them not to.”

  The rage funneled back up in a wave and Mick slapped him hard.

  “Liar! You told them not to! Quest Ramsey who tells and orders and expects his will to be done. Who the hell gave you the right? Don’t answer that.” She raised her hands and smiled. “I already know- your family. Everyone always running to you to handle things.” Feeling her palm ache with the need to strike him again, she moved away. “Let me clarify a few things Q, I was cleaning up my own shitty life long before I ever knew you were gracing the world with your presence. You had no right!” Her chest felt as though it were filled with too much air. “No right,” she began to cry and her breathing increased at a frantic pace. Tears pressured her eyes and soon spilled to her cheeks. “You had no right,” she whispered then.

  His heart broke at the sight of her weeping. He reached out to console her, but she moved away. On the verge of tears himself, his fist clenched and fell loosely to his side.

  “Mick this thing has eaten away at you for years. How the hell was I supposed to tell you that bitch left you to go raise a monster’s child?”

  “Nile isn’t a monster.” Mick wiped tears with the back of her hand.

  Quest smiled amidst his grief. “No, she’s an incredible woman in spite of the parents she had. You’re an incredible woman in spite of the fact that you didn’t have any.” He shook his head. “All I could think of was telling you and watching it destroy you. I couldn’t live with that.”

  “You couldn’t live with it?” Mick looked as though she wanted to laugh and scream at once. “What about what I’ve lived with Quest? Did you even stop to think of that? ‘Course you didn’t.” She answered before he could response. “You didn’t because it’s always about Quest Ramsey and what he deems necessary.”

  Quest felt his chest tightening. His pulse churned with fear and uncertainty at what he saw in her eyes.

  “I told you…I told you that you would lose me if you couldn’t see what this way of yours was doing to me- that it was smothering me.”

  “Mick-” Quest stopped himself as he could only watch her just then with terrified expectancy lurking in his gray eyes. “Mick,” He tried again, reaching out that time for what he felt was slipping away.

  She stepped back, evading his grasp. “I can’t. I can’t do this.” She whispered, suddenly unable to breathe as she continued to back out of the room.

  “Mick?” Urgency now mingled with the uncertainty in his rich voice. He moved to block the conference room entrance and only shook his head when she tried to brush past. He stepped forward, forcing her back until he’d crowded her between the credenza and the wall.

  “No Quest.” She read the determination in his haunting stare. “Stop,” she tried again more firmly feeling the power of his lean frame when he eased closer.

  Again, he only shook his head even when she began to pit her fists against him. Quest captured her wrists in one deft move and imprisoned them against his chest. His other hand caught her neck and held her still for his kiss.

  Michaela couldn’t stifle her moan and the sweet intensity of the kiss made her want to slide down the length of the wall and take him with her. The act quickly became a heated testament to all the hurt and frustration they’d endured amidst the consuming love that pulsed between them like a live being.

  Mick stood on her toes and kissed him desperately. Her tongue thrust shamelessly against the bold lunges of his. She drank him in, whimpering needy sounds that were mirrored in the force of her kiss.

  Quest groaned into her mouth, brows drawn close as he absorbed all that she offered. He released her wrists and pressed his fists to either side of her head against the wall. The kiss took a slow, delicious turn and Mick curled her fingers weakly into his shirt while becoming lost in what she most wanted. Tears streamed from the corners of her eyes as she summoned strength to do the last thing she wanted.

  Quest stumbled a bit when she suddenly pressed against his chest and maneuvered out of his embrace.

  “Michaela please,” His breath had almost completely deserted him.

  “Quincee’s with your parents.” She grabbed her jacket from the floor.

  “Michaela please.”

  “I dropped her off before I…” she trailed off, her heart shredding at the desperation in his eyes. But she needed just a little time to put her thoughts together and wrap her head around all that she’d learned- all there was still to learn.

  Quest didn’t know that. All he saw was her leaving and all he felt was powerless to stop it.

  “Mick,” he barely whispered, clutching the doorjamb as his strength abandoned him. When she disappeared into the elevator, he blinked at the realization that she was gone. He wiped at the moisture outlining his eyes. His chest ached, taking his mind from the ache in his arm. Massaging the area only increased the pain; yet in the midst of hurt, anger eased in cold and heavy.

  Yvonne Wilson was at the front of his thoughts. She’d discarded the woman he loved like she was garbage- left Mick to fend for herself amongst the slime of the world. Now she was there once more to pull Mick into despair and pain. Damn her.

  The solid ache in his chest grew more pronounced until the rage fueling it became just as unbearable.

  ~CHAPTER THIRTEEN~

  Quest pushed off the doorjamb and returned to the conference room. The chair he brushed past proved to be his undoing. Seconds later, that chair joined the broken vase and shattered glass frame against the wall. Other chairs followed in rapid succession as he heaved one after another across the room. Next, he went to work on the table- turning the massive piece of furniture on its side and trying to break off the legs with punishing blows from his boots.

  The room was quickly and efficiently demolished but Quest wasn’t done. Furious over what he couldn’t control, he moved on in search of other targets to wreck. The living room of the penthouse office was next. In seconds, the stuffing inside sofa cushions filled the air with looming puffs.

  ~~~

  Mick was halfway to her car before she realized she had to go back to him. She wanted to go back to him.

  God, what a mess, she thought pressing a hand to her face and feeling it moist with the tears that streamed it. There was no way she’d make it through this without Quest to lean on. In spite of it all, he was her rock. He was the man who’d made her believe love was something real and not just a word spoken in moments of desperation and fear.

  Hissing a curse, she turned on her heel and raced back toward the building.

  Broken glass, wood and other debris crunched under Quest’s shoes as he savaged the office. The elegant dwelling now resembled a war zone with nothing but destruction left. Nothing was spared- not even the elaborate models of various Ramsey projects. The large mounted booths that showcased the recreations were overturned and destroyed.

  During the vicious spree, Quest’s emotions moved from anger to despair and back again. The demolishing of the office was a poor substitute for the pain he wanted to inflict on Yvonne Wilson for the hurt she’d cause- the pain he wanted to inflict on himself for helping her do it.

  “Damn her,” he muttered reaching for a heavy plaque and doing his best to break it in two.

  ~~~

  Michaela stepped off the elevator and immediately spotted the wreckage. Heart racing double time, she went to find Quest. A thunderous crash sent her whirling round and she moved toward the sound whispering his name as she ran. Finding him in the middle of the destructive scene, sent her hand to her mouth and stretched her eyes wide.

  On silent steps, she ventured just a wee bit further into the living room area. She was riveted on the set, menacing line of his profile. His eyes were surely black as crude oil by then and anger kept his broad shoulders captive in a rigid line. Mick’s stunned, defeated expression had li
ttle to do with the horrific state of the office or the fact that her husband was responsible for its appearance.

  Instead, it was the words ‘damn her’ that he uttered as though they were some part of a sadistic chant while he slammed one heavy plank of wood across another. Mick felt as if every part of her were trembling. But she managed to back out of the room without ever making a sound that would alert him to her presence. When the elevator doors closed before her once again, she slid to the floor of the car and hugged herself to ward off the shivers that froze her body.

  ***

  Quay couldn’t remember the last time he’d settled down to read a book. Since he was fairly certain that the stories he read to the twins didn’t count, he figured the answer was probably-years.

  Just then however, reading was the only thing that kept him from going back up to the penthouse office. He thought there had to be some sort of irony in the fact that he was reading the book his sister-in-law and brother were fighting over. Still…Royal Ramsey was an engrossing read and Quay finally understood what Quest meant when he’d once said Mick’s work was nonfiction that read like a novel. He was hooked. Moreover, he was impressed. In almost 1½ hours he’d gotten almost halfway through the story.

  A quick knock rapped the door of the executive lounge just before Jasmine stuck her head inside.

  “Hey? Ty’s on the phone. You wanna take it in here?”

  “Thanks Jazz.” Quay set down the book and reached for the phone. “Tyke,” His voice was a lazy rumble that matched the relaxed picture he made reclining on the leather sofa.

  “Hey um…is everything okay? I got your message.”

  Quay grinned and massaged his jaw. “I don’t know if everything’s okay since Mick just came here to kill Q.”

  “What?”

  “Mmm…He told me to leave so…as mad as she was, I’m betting she succeeded.”

  “Mick…” Tykira’s sigh was a mix of relief and unease. “So that’s where she is.”

  Quay shifted a bit higher on the sofa. “What’s up?”

  “Nile called looking for her- said she tried to get through to you guys in the office.”

  “We were in conference-always send any calls directly to voice mail during those meetings. I doubt Q thought about unlocking the phones.”

  “Well Nile said Mick left her place in a daze and she was worried. Quay what’s going on?”

  “What isn’t?” He slanted a gaze toward the book. “Royal Ramsey’s about to hit the shelves, but all this is about a damn bit more than this book being published.”

  “So he knows about the book…”

  It was no surprise that Ty’s words piqued her husband’s curiosity.

  “County told me, Mel and Johari that Quest was sent a preview copy of the book by mistake. She tried to call Mick while they were away but…”

  “Jesus…”

  “You said they were fighting over more than the book? What’d you mean?”

  Quay leaned forward, tapping his fingers to the coffee table as he spoke. “Mick knows about her mother.”

  “Her mother?”

  “Long story.”

  “Well what’s happening now?”

  “I don’t know.” Quay cast his dark stare toward the lounge’s tiled ceiling. “I haven’t been up there since they started.”

  “And how long ago was that?”

  “Too long.”

  “Quay…”

  “Yeah, I know.” He pushed off the comforting sofa. “Talk to you later. I love you.”

  ~~~

  Quay seriously considered staying safely inside the elevator once the doors opened on the top floor. Having been on the receiving end of his brother’s anger more times than he could count, Quay wasn’t too sure he wanted to check in on Quest and Mick once he glimpsed the state of the office. He couldn’t help but wonder if it was his twin or his sister-in-law who was responsible for the damage.

  Rolling the cuffs of his shirt above his forearms, he took his courage by the throat and moved off the elevator. Carefully, he took the corridor to the left, wincing at the wreckage he observed. He stopped in Quest’s office and found him sitting on the edge of his desk. Quay watched him there-arms folded while he massaged the aching brand and looked out over the view of the city they had helped to build.

  Quay pressed his lips together and continued onward to take a seat next to his twin. “You survived.” He clapped a hand to Quest’s shoulder.

  “She left me. She-she’s gone.”

  “She didn’t leave you, Q.” Quay shook his head and gave his brother’s shoulder a quick squeeze. “She wouldn’t. She couldn’t. For some reason the girl’s in love with you.”

  It was Quest’s turn to shake his head then. “You didn’t hear what she said. You didn’t see her.” He looked out over the Seattle view but only saw his wife’s face. “I knew it was wrong to keep what I knew about Yvonne Wilson from her and when I was finally ready to tell her, I saw that.” He glanced toward the book Quay held.

  “Go find her, man. Talk to her.”

  Quest smirked off his brother’s advice. “She doesn’t want to hear what I have to say.”

  “And since when has that stopped you from tellin’ anyone anything?”

  Quest’s withering look only earned him a grin from Quay.

  “Why don’t you check out this infamous book while you’re making up your mind?” Quay squeezed Quest’s neck and stood. “It’s damn good.” He left the hardback on the desk and walked out of the room.

  ***

  Quay felt it was grossly unfair to have worked at soothing Quest’s temper only to arrive at his own home later that evening and have his temper unexpectedly rattled.

  “It’s Vegas,” he complained, twisting at the edge of the pillow he’s snatched from the headboard when he’d flopped down to the bed. He arrived home from the office to find his wife packing for a trip to Sin City. His temper was unexpectedly rattled over the fact that he wasn’t being invited along.

  Tykira was unfazed. “It’s for Mick.” She spoke in a cool matter-of-fact way as she changed her mind about one frock and chose another. She selected another outfit and was carrying the items to the bed when she noticed her husband’s fixed stare. “Baby please, Sabra says Mick got there an hour ago barely holding it together so…we’ll just go and see what’s up.”

  “And no men allowed?”

  “That’s right and you’ll have the place to yourself since your folks decided to take the twins. They’re gonna have their hands full with them and Quincee but they say they’re looking forward to it.”

  Quay bristled over the way she coolly went about her packing. “It’s Vegas.” He reiterated and moved off the bed.

  Ty finished with the suitcase she’d packed and sauntered across the room to link her arms about Quay’s neck. “What is this? Are you uneasy?” She murmured into his skin.

  Quay leaned against the doorjamb and kept her close.

  “I promise to be a good girl,” she cooed and nibbled his earlobe. “I promise to be a very good girl.” She trailed her nose along his jaw.

  The promise did nothing to soothe Quay. “Plenty of ways to be a good girl.”

  “Mmm…but those ways are all for you.”

  “They better be,” Yohan finished. He’d given his wife a speech similar to his cousin’s and received a similar response.

  Melina savored the feel of his hard frame against her for just a moment longer. She looked way up and brushed the back of her hand across the flawless dark of his beautiful face then went to resume her packing.

  Yohan’s pitch stare took on a more probing intensity as he watched her. In spite of the cool she exuded, he sensed her mood as easily as he ever had.

  “There’s more to this.”

  Mel only hesitated a second at the sound of his voice, but it was a telling hesitation. She didn’t bother to deny it and turned to fix him with a resigned smile. “Yeah…yeah there is and you’ll find out soon enough.”


  ~~~

  “That doesn’t make me feel any better.” Moses said to Johari as he watched her select toiletries for her trip. “Besides, it doesn’t look good for you to leave me so soon after we got married. People will talk.” He added when Jo turned to gawk at him.

  Those words coming from someone who cared little-if anything, about the opinions of others-roused heavy laughter from Johari.

  “Would you feel better if I told you it was for Mick?” She stopped with an arm full of shower gels, lotions and shampoo to press a quick kiss to his jaw.

  Moses leaned against the bathroom doorway. His gaze was alive with curiosity. “He told her, didn’t he?”

  ~~~

  “I don’t know.” County was telling Fernando. “Your cousin Sabra told Ty that Mick was hysterical, saying Quest hated her. I don’t know if it’s about Yvonne Wilson or-”

  “That damned book.” Fernando moved to block the suitcase before she could add more items. “We asked you to leave it alone.”

  “You didn’t exactly ask, Ramsey.” County tugged at his FUBU sweatshirt in an attempt to move him aside. He wouldn’t budge. Nonplussed, she stepped around him and tugged the case to the other side of the bed. “Look, it’s too late to do anything to change it now.” She slammed the case shut and propped fists to her hips. “So kiss me, will you? I got a plane to catch.”

  ***

  “I got steak and eggs, hash browns, biscuits…Having breakfast for dinner is sooo comforting. Let’s give it a try, huh?”

  Mick only turned her face into the pillow when Sabra came closer to the bed.

  “Honey, please?” Sabra sighed smoothing the flaring violet rose material of her dress beneath her as she sat on the edge of the bed. “You need to eat something and it’ll help you think more clearly.”

  “I am thinking clearly.” Mick’s voice was muffled beneath the pillow.

  Sabra’s smile was a mix of humor and distress. “Honey, Quest doesn’t hate you. I know what it looks like when a man hates a woman. Quest doesn’t have that look.”

  Slowly, Mick raised her head and studied Sabra. “You’re talking about Smoak?” She watched her nod. “What happened there?”