Ransom (Courting Chaos Book 2)

by Heather Young-Nichols

  “That’s the plan,” I said back, which surprised them, but might’ve surprised me even more.

  Clearly, I was aware of my feelings for her already but had remained blissfully in the dark that everyone else knew as well.

  “Come on, Ransom,” Booker said. “If that was meant to be secret, it’s the worst kept one I’ve ever known.”

  “True,” Dixon agreed. “I knew you were going to fall for her the day she showed up.”

  “You two just wait,” Cross said. “Wait till it happens to you.”

  “Pfh, never,” Dixon countered, yet Booker remained quiet.

  “Oh, shit,” Cross said suddenly, jumping up from the chair. “Indie just sent me a text saying the girls need a ride.”

  “From where?” I jumped up just like he had. “Is something wrong?”

  “She said there are some people getting in Bellamy’s face, so they want to leave but would appreciate a ride. They took a taxi, apparently.”

  “Why didn’t Dean go with them?” I asked.

  “I have no idea, specifically, but Indie tries to get away without him all the time. It’s not usually a problem,” he said.

  “Let’s go borrow a car,” I said, already to the door.

  “Borrow a car?” Dixon called after us. “Is that code for stealing?”

  It wasn’t code for stealing, but if it came down to that, I wasn’t morally opposed. All I knew was that whatever was happening with Indie and Bellamy, it was enough for Indie to ask for a rescue and damn it, I wasn’t going to let either of them down.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Bellamy

  For the first time since joining the tour, Indie and I went out that night alone. No boyfriend with us. No Dean following behind us. Just her and me. We were so far from home, I assumed that when Lawson told us Chris wasn’t pressing charges that he went back home and we wouldn’t have to worry about him again. Though with Chris, not pressing charges was probably more for him than for me or Ransom. He’d already been warned to stay away from me by campus police.

  It was a great feeling stepping out of the car we’d called into the night air. We dressed for comfort and were going to see where the night took us. Skirts, tank tops. We looked hot and were ready for our girls’ night.

  After dinner, which included some of the most decadent desserts I’d ever eaten in my life, we walked around, taking in the nightlife of Miami. When we passed this cute martini bar, we decided to check it out. I’d never been to one.

  Two martinis in and we were on the dance floor. We moved and shook and didn’t care who was watching. This was the kind of freedom I’d been yearning for all those months since breaking up with Chris. This was what I needed.

  “Aren’t you that girl?” A young woman stopped at our table. “I told my friends it was you, but they don’t believe me.”

  “That depends on who you think I am,” I said back before taking another sip of my drink.

  “The homewrecker.”

  My stomach clenched.

  “The whore trying to break up Ransom Drake’s family. That’s you, right?”

  I locked gazes with Indie and had the urge to bolt. But I didn’t want to give people like her the satisfaction.

  “Do you really think someone can break a family that doesn’t want to break?” Indie said to her. We were practically yelling because of the music in the bar.

  “Um… fuck you very much,” the girl said. “Wait… ” She focused on Indie and I didn’t think that would turn out well. She had far more experience at this than I did. “Didn’t your mom break your dad’s heart?”

  Indie’s jaw clenched.

  “No wonder you two are friends,” she finished.

  “Why don’t you run along?” I said.

  I thought she was just going to do it until she pulled her phone out of her pocket and snapped a picture of me. I went to follow her, but Indie stopped me and said she wasn’t worth it. I already knew that, but damn, it was hard to let go.

  Indie and I continued on our night and tried to put the bitch behind us. Unfortunately, something like that happened two more times and the number of flashes I saw multiplied.

  When it became a regular thing, we had to go.

  I grabbed Indie by the wrist and pulled her behind me as I pushed through the crowd of people dancing as if nothing was out of order. I slammed through the entrance and into a large man but ignored him to frantically search for a taxi. I should’ve known better than to come out in public that way. Kicking my own ass would have to wait.

  When I looked back at Indie, her eyes widened and her mouth fell open.

  Shit. The man I’d slammed into was the last man on Earth I ever wanted to see.

  “Bellamy,” Chris called as I paced the sidewalk, still holding on to Indie for dear life. “Stop right there.”

  “What’re you doing here? Did you learn nothing the last time?” Indie asked while trying to keep up with me.

  “Did you follow us down here?” I asked. “How did you know we were here?”

  “I’m not talking to you,” he said to Indie. There was a hint of a bruise under his eye but in the streetlights it was hard to tell.

  “Thank god,” she muttered back.

  I stopped. This had to end. I couldn’t go my entire life living in hiding on the off chance that Chris Harrison would pop out of whatever hole he’d been in. If he was there, I had to assume the girl who’d taken the first picture not long after we’d arrived, posted it everywhere. It wasn’t hard to follow a hashtag and sightings were reported all the time.

  “Stop it,” I snapped at him. “What are you doing here? Why are you doing this?” I said, a lot louder than I needed to. “You know what?” I help my hand up when he started to answer. “I don’t even want to know. I want you out of my life.”

  “Is it the rock star guy?” Chris countered. “Look at his lifestyle. You’re fine for him now. An easy piece of ass, but that’s not going to last. You’ll be back at school in a month without him, so let’s fix this now. You’re mine.”

  Indie snorted in disgust behind me. “If you knew anything about Bellamy, it’s that there are way easier pieces of ass than her.”

  What the hell? I had to turn and look at her. She smiled and held her hands up. “What? It’s true.”

  “Chris, that guy doesn’t matter. What he and I are doesn’t matter. What matters here is that I don’t want you and you don’t really want me. This whole thing has been more trouble for you than I’m worth. It doesn’t matter if I’m with him or I’m alone. I still am not interested in being with you. We aren’t a good match.” I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly, hoping to calm the adrenaline coursing through my veins. “Just leave me alone and get on with your life.”

  Then we waited. Indie and I stood so closely together that her chest bumped my back as it rose and fell with every single breath she took. We waited to see what he was going to do. In true Chris fashion he did the one thing I didn’t think he ever would. He walked away.

  I almost peed my pants with relief even though I knew this probably meant bad things later.

  “Our ride is here,” Indie said, bringing me back to reality.

  This time she nudged me away from the door and toward… Ransom and Cross both standing at the corner of the building with their arms crossed over their chests, making them large and imposing. Or larger and more imposing than they already were.

  “What the… ?” I said. Were they the reason Chris walked away? Probably. If Chris saw them, he’d leave. He might’ve been controlling and aggressive with me but with the two of them, being out numbered, that was a different story.

  “Indie messaged that you needed a ride,” Cross explained as he grabbed her hand and Ransom mine. “Let’s go.” They led us to this black sedan I’d never seen before. Cross opened the front passenger door, then guided Indie inside before going around to the driver’s side.

  Ransom opened the back door, nudged me in, and followed.

>   “Whose car is this?” Indie asked.

  “No idea,” Cross answered as he maneuvered out of his parking spot and out onto the street.

  “Stolen?” I asked.

  He snorted. “Borrowed from someone who works at the hotel.”

  We made the rest of the drive in silence. Ransom’s jaw was clenched so tightly that I didn’t think he could speak even if he’d wanted to. He didn’t look mad exactly, but he sure as hell didn’t look happy. It continued into the hotel and onto the elevator. No one said a word until we were on our floor.

  “I guess this is goodnight,” Indie said as Cross dragged her down the hall toward her room.

  I still stood just outside the elevator with Ransom next to me and waved so she’d know I’d heard her. Then I looked back to Ransom, but he raised his eyebrows at me and I didn’t want to talk about anything out there in the open. If tonight had taught me one thing, it was that I could never let my guard down when other people might be around.

  Once we were both inside my room, though, I didn’t need to break the ice.

  He shut the door quietly behind us, then leaned his back against it and said, “That was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.”

  I turned to face him but had no idea what he meant. “Picking us up?”

  “Not funny.” He pushed off the door and walked toward me.

  “I’m not trying to be funny. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “We were already there when you two came out of the building. I had to stand by and watch that asshole be an arm’s length away from you and there wasn’t a fucking thing I could do about it.”

  “Why?”

  “Why what?”

  “Why couldn’t you do anything about it?”

  “Because you were handling the whole thing yourself.”

  Well, that just confused me even more.

  “You were handling that asshole. Standing up for yourself. You didn’t need me to step in and that’s hard to watch when I’d love nothing more than to put my fist through his face. Again.”

  “Oh,” I said cocking my head to one side. “So you’re mad because I’m a badass.”

  He snorted. “Not mad. Not mad at all. I love that you don’t need to be rescued, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to put myself between you and anything that might hurt you.”

  “Aww… ” I stepped into his space. “You like me,” I sang. “You want to kiss me.”

  His arm shot out and wrapped around my waist. “Well, that part is fucking true.”

  So he did. He kissed me with everything he’d been feeling since I’d seen him out on the street. Without any words between us, Ransom slid his hands up my sides, pushing my shirt up with him until he pulled back to yank it over my head. He kissed me hard and fast and didn’t stop until we were naked on my bed.

  One day we’d take our time and I’d show him some of my talents, but for now… for now we’d have this. Him claiming me as his and me doing the same to him. He rolled a condom he’d pulled out from his pocket on, then pushed inside me and that was something I’d never tire of—him being inside me. His skin against mine, our hips moving in a desperate need to make the other feel the things we felt ourselves. Climbing for that relief and satisfaction. My hands explored wherever they could reach, lightly trailing across his body, making him groan.

  “Damn, Bellamy,” he whispered. His breath on my neck pushed me over the edge and followed right behind.

  It took a while until we caught our breaths so he could pull out and clean up. When he was back beside me, I decided I could be content to lie there with him forever.

  “We’re going to have to figure things out when you decide to leave the tour,” he said quietly into the darkness. With only one small lamp on by the door, we might as well have had no light.

  “Didn’t I tell you?” I asked. “I’ve decided to stay until Indie and I have to go back to school.” Which meant we’d still have a couple of months left.

  “Fantastic.” He squeezed me a little tighter. “That’s what? Eight weeks?”

  “A little more than,” I said back because I’d push that to the very last day that I could. “And even then, I agreed to move in with Bellamy, so when Cross comes to see her… ”

  “Even better,” he said, then he gave me another kiss before we both drifted off to sleep.

  Chapter Thirty

  Ransom

  The last thing I wanted to do after waking up with Bellamy in my arms was leave her. In a perfect world, we’d be able to lie there all morning, making love again, until we decided to get up. In the real world, I was being forced out of this warm cocoon by the scourge on my life named Hope. The anger I felt toward her was only kept under control because of Bellamy. If I believed in falling in love with someone in the blink of an eye, I’d say she was it for me. My feelings for Bellamy were already so strong that it had to be love. It just had to be.

  Instead, I checked my phone and discovered we’d already slept past ten thirty and there wasn’t a choice. If I wanted to shower before meeting Hope, I had to get moving. The shower was for me. Not for her.

  So, going against everything my body told me to do, I began gently moving her off of me and hoped she’d stay asleep. All of my movements were slow and methodical. Yet with all my effort, she still woke up.

  “Where are you going?” Her tired voice muffled against the pillow.

  “It’s almost eleven. I have to go take a shower.”

  She reached a hand out and held my wrist. “I could shower with you here.”

  I chuckled low in my chest and leaned over to kiss her. When I pulled back, I said, “Then I’d never leave.”

  “All part of my evil plan.” Finally, she cracked an eyelid to look at me and even in her groggy state, I could see the playfulness in her eyes. When she rolled over the sheet slipped a little and I wanted to rip it off her, but again, I’d never leave if I did. “You have plans today?” she asked while stretching.

  The woman was actually trying to kill me. I’d leave her room as expected, but I’d be doing it with a massive hard-on.

  “For a little while. I’ll have some time before the show if you’re available.”

  “Maybe Cross and Indie will want to get some dinner before you guys have to get ready for the show. Like we’re normal people. Or rather like you’re normal people because I’m completely normal.”

  I laughed again because I still felt normal. Yeah, we hear our songs on the radio and did press and were touring with one of the biggest bands in the world—if not the biggest. But I was still the guy whose mom would chew him out when he saw her in Atlanta tomorrow. If that wasn’t normal, I didn’t know what was.

  “All right. Go back to sleep.” I kissed her forehead. Telling Bellamy what I had planned today did cross my mind, but she looked so happy and comfortable in that bed that I didn’t want to disturb her. “I’ll see you later.”

  Bellamy closed her eyes again and waved as I left her alone in her room.

  In the shower I let the water beat against me until it ran cold. I knew I had to let this whole thing with Hope play out the right way, but damn, waiting for her to hang herself with her lies would be hard as hell. I’d do it because the guys were right. Better to let her out herself than have me do it and look like the asshole.

  I put on jeans and a black T-shirt. This was just a normal day, I told myself. I tossed my towel under the sink, then went out into the main room, where Dixon and Booker were. They’d mostly been asleep when I’d arrived, but now were both awake.

  “I did some research,” Booker said as soon as he saw me. “I picked Ritchie’s because it doesn’t sound like it, but apparently, it’s one of the best sushi places around.”

  I nodded. I loved sushi but didn’t know why it mattered.

  Not until he said, “I read that pregnant women aren’t supposed to eat sushi. So, hopefully, she will, which will help expose her. I also made an anonymous tip to one of the tabloids that y
ou’re going to be there with her. If anything happens, they’ll be there to document it.”

  “How are you even talking?” I asked him. “When I came through here you were dead to the world.”

  “When I wake up, I’m awake. I don’t need time for my brain to kick in.”

  “I do,” Dixon mumbled against his pillow. “But now that I’m awake, we should go eat breakfast. I’m so hungry.”

  “I have to eat in like an hour,” I reminded him.

  “You don’t have to actually eat at the sushi place, dumbass.”

  I chuckled. “Fair point. Let’s go. I don’t have all day.”

  While waiting for Booker and Dixon to get dressed, I sent off a couple of texts to Cross telling him we were getting breakfast in the restaurant downstairs and he should come if he could tear himself away from his girlfriend. We were in the elevator when he said he’d be there. And we were ordering when he dropped into the only empty chair at the table. He ordered something quickly and drained half his glass of water.

  “Did you tell Bellamy what you’re doing today?” Cross asked once the waitress had walked away.

  “No. She was sleeping when I left this morning,” I explained, then shrugged.

  “Oh, really?” Dixon sat back and folded his arms over his chest but had this shitty little grin on his face that I wanted to slap off. I raised an eyebrow at him. “You said this morning. That makes it sound like you spent the night. I’m scandalized.”

  “I’m pretty sure nothing could scandalize you,” Booker said, making us all chuckle. He wasn’t wrong.

  We then talked about soundcheck, which I would be missing. It wasn’t a huge deal. Yes, all of us there was the best way to go, but missing it once wouldn’t hurt anything. Worst case scenario, Lawson would have an aneurism, but that would probably happen one day anyway. As much as I hated it, I had to leave them before they finished to go face the lying she-beast.

  I grabbed a taxi to the restaurant. Since I was ten minutes early and she’d probably be ten minutes late, I grabbed a table and ordered a drink, then waited.