As much as it annoyed me that he’d text me, I still had to call Eden. While I had texted Ramsey that everything was fine, I hadn’t called Eden yet. I was biding my time, trying to figure out what to tell her when I wasn’t even sure what was going on, but I knew my time was up.
She answered on the first ring, and I felt like crap. Eden had been waiting by the phone, and I had been hiding out like a coward.
“Oh, thank God,” she exhaled dramatically, and I chuckled. “I thought I was going to have to gather the villagers and storm the castle.”
“Watching Game of Thrones again?”
Eden snorted. “Tell me my analogy is wrong?” she challenged.
“It’s not,” I admitted dryly. “He is a prince, after all.”
“The crown prince,” she corrected.
“The crown prince,” I agreed.
“So,” she said, her voice serious, “are you going to tell me what’s going on?”
“I’m not sure I know,” I replied. “But I can tell you what’s happened.”
“Hit me with it,” she said, and I could totally see her straightening her back and shoulders and preparing herself for what was to come. Eden was loyal like that.
“Soooooooooooo…” I went on to tell her everything that’s happened from Sunday night until when Ramsey had dropped me off earlier. I left out witnessing Ramsey beating up Ashton Childress, and the only reason I had known it was Ashton Childress was because rumors had spread like wildfire that he was in the hospital because he’d been ‘mugged’. Apparently, Ramsey had beaten him so badly, the story had been easily believed. No one could believe that just one person could have done that much damage, but I guess not many people have been on the receiving end of Ramsey Reed Jr.’s angry hands.
I told her about the photos. I told her about his claims. I told her about the threats. And I even told her about how I found myself attracted to him.
Her reaction was no less than I had expected. “Holy crap, Lake,” she whispered, stunned.
“Yep,” I agreed. “Holy crap.”
“What…what are you going to do?”
Now, there was a question. One I’ve been asking myself since Sunday night. All I wanted to do was live a normal life and get lost in my photography. I wanted to get through high school, graduate, and get into a photography program, even if it wasn’t college. While my parents had saved for college, I still applied for scholarships and knew I’d have to work while going to school if college was what I chose.
And that was another thing, who in their right mind got into a serious relationship their senior year of school? That made no sense. Lives were going to change after graduation and long-distant relationships were very rarely successful. So, did that mean Ramsey just wanted a casual hookup? Was he just looking for something challenging, yet temporary? And like hell I would ask him. I didn’t need him knowing I was tempted. Talk about giving your enemy the edge.
“Stay away from him?” I suggested because I didn’t have a plan.
Eden snorted. “Yeah, I can see how well that’s working for you.”
“What can I do, Eden?” I asked. “Call the cops? File a restraining order? Never mind Ramsey Jr., could you imagine what that family would do to me if I went after their precious son? We’d have to leave the country.”
Eden let out sad sigh. “I want to accuse you of over-exaggerating, but I don’t think you are,” she said. “Rumor has it that his father would light a match in a heartbeat if his mother asked him to burn the entire world down. And if you went after her baby boy, I could see Momma Reed not taking too kindly to that.”
Of course, we didn’t know any of them personally, and this was just all rumor, but why gamble with that kind of power. Sure, they could be lovely people, but something told me you didn’t get the reputations they had because you were lovely.
“Maybe he just sees me as a challenge,” I reasoned. “Maybe if I…I don’t know. Maybe if I just sleep with him, he’ll let me be.”
Eden laughed. “Are you sure that’s a sound plan, or is that just your hormones talking?”
“Eden, c’mon…”
“What?” she asked.
“Cut me some slack.”
“All I’m saying is that, if you’re going to get broken in, who better than Reed Jr.?” she remarked. “Sure, he’s a rumored psychopath, and you’ll probably be left an emotional and mental mess, but, Lake, you can’t tell me it wouldn’t be worth it.”
“Uh, excuse me, my mental and emotional health are more important than sex,” I argued.
“How would you know?” she countered. “You’ve never had sex before.”
“Well, neither have you,” I pointed out.
“Yeah, well, I’m not being chased by Satan 2.0 with a six-pack,” she replied, picking up on how I had referred to Ramsey as Satan 2.0 during my recount of events.
I let out a deep breath, and I swear I wanted to bang my head up against something. “Do you think he’ll leave me alone if I just give him what he wants?”
Eden’s voice went from teasing to serious. “Lake, by your own recollection, he said he didn’t want sex from you. He said he wanted you,” she reminded me. “I don’t think it’ll be that simple, whether you sleep with him or not.”
“I don’t know what to do,” I admitted. “I just know I refuse to be some toy to amuse himself with.”
“And it’s never occurred to you that he might be serious about you?” Eden asked.
I had to laugh at that. “That guy can have any girl on the planet he wants, Eden,” I pointed out. “Every girl at Windsor is probably lined up to ride his dick, as he so eloquently informed me earlier. What could he possibly want with me, besides toy with me because he thinks I saw something I didn’t?”
“You’re beautiful, Lake,” she quickly rushed out. “You are every bit as beautiful as any of those girls who go to Windsor.”
“I’m not, but thank you,” I replied. “The point is, this is not about looks, Eden. This is about everything else, and none of it makes any sense.”
She didn’t say anything for a bit, and it was depressing. Finally, she said, “So, we go to Keri’s party Friday and forget Reed Jr. for a night, yeah?”
“Yeah, okay,” I agreed, but I wasn’t sure Keri’s party was going to have enough alcohol for that.
Chapter 11
Ramsey~
“So, want to know what else I found out?” I looked up from my laptop to find Maddox leaning against the door frame of my bedroom door.
I swiveled in my desk chair to face him completely. “What?”
He pushed off the door frame and walked in until he planted his ass on my bed. “Erica Chambers.”
“What about her?” When Mad had researched Curt Metcalf, Erica had made a small appearance during the research, and while I knew what she looked like, that’s all that had been added into Metcalf’s file. I had needed details about Lake, her parents, her best friend, and her ex-boyfriend. I hadn’t needed details about anyone else.