The Masseuse (21 page)

Ramsey shook his head. “You saw what they wanted you to see. I am not a monster.” He sighed. “I’m the man who loves you.”

“Oh come on!” Anger made her step around her desk to confront him. “You act like those two things are mutually exclusive! Like murdering gangsters don’t have wives and children they love.”

“I’m not a gangster.”

“Yes, you are!” She was getting frantic now. He was looking her directly in the eye and lying. Had he lied to her all this time? Did he even love her? How was she to know when the man lied so effortlessly? “You’re the Dragon!” Fury made her grip his arm where she knew the tattoo lay hidden under the summer suit. “Deny it, Ramsey! Lie to my face and tell me you’re not the Dragon.”

He didn’t pull away, and when he spoke, his voice was still the same even tone he’d used from the beginning, “I am not a gangster, Jezebel.”

Jezebel noted he hadn’t corrected her on being the Dragon though. Stepping away from him, she nodded. “Of course you’re not a gangster, Ramsey. You’re a law abiding citizen.”

“I am.” For every step she took away, he took a step forward.

“—and the FBI is just running around on a goose chase.”

“They are.”

She shook her head. “Of course they are. Clearly, you’re living in Ramsey’s world where Ramsey gets to whore out little girls, and kill people, but there’s nothing wrong with that because in Ramsey’s world, Ramsey’s king.”

Before she knew what was happening, he pinned her to the wall. His arm wrapped around her waist, tight enough to secure her there, but not tight enough to cause discomfort. He’d come into her office looking calm and a bit defeated, but the man who stared down at her right now was definitely…angry. A sliver of fear ran down her spine, but she faced him bravely. Was the real Ramsey about to make an appearance? Though she feared him, she wanted him to. Maybe this way, she’d be able to forget the character he’d created, the character she loved.

“I’m not a perfect man,” Ramsey began in a low voice, leaning down until he was close enough to her ear to whisper. “I’m no saint, but I do not have blood on my hands—not the blood of innocent children or anyone else.”

“I saw pictures,” she whispered, remembering the images. Would she ever forget them?

“They’d show you anything to turn you against me.” He released an angry breath.

“Ramsey.”’

“I’m sorry they raided your house and treated you like they did,” he continued, a muscle in his jaw twitching. “That should have never happened. They have nothing on me. They’ve been trying to find something for years, but they have nothing. This is a goose chase…just like the last time.”

“The last time?”

“In 2007, they raided my old apartment and charged me with similar crimes. They ended up dropping all of the charges and I won my countersuit for harassment.”

She blinked. “Why would they harass you?”

He stared at her long and hard, as if trying to decide whether he should tell her the next bit. Jezebel glared at him. With a sigh, Ramsey said, “Because of my grandfather.”

What?

“My grandfather was a gangster.”

She remembered the pictures of the girls, and the bodies. Had that been under his grandfather? Was he even telling the truth? She was a pathetic. Look how quickly she’d jumped to believe him. She wanted so very badly to believe him.

There was a knock on her door, and Jezebel tried to look over Ramsey’s shoulder.

“Ms. Carter, is everything okay in there?”

“Is it?” she asked him carefully. Ramsey nodded once. “Good. Release me.” Ramsey stepped away, placing a hand in pocket as he waited for her to make the next move. Stepping past, she walked to the door and opened it.

Two burly officers stood next to Marlo, and they were all looking her over for injuries. “Is everything okay, Ms. Carter?”

“Yes. Mr. Stone was just leaving.”

It didn’t matter what he told her. Ramsey Stone wasn’t who she’d initially thought. She’d thought he was a masseuse, and had found out that he was the owner of a spa. She’d fallen in love with that man, the confident, fun-loving, masseuse-owner of
The Osiris
. If she’d known he was affiliated with some international Mafioso, she would have kept her distance.

As Ramsey walked past her, he gave her a tired, but understanding look. He walked ahead of the two security guards and swallowed loudly.

“Ms. Carter…is everything okay?” Marlo asked softly.

Forcing a smile for her secretary, Jezebel nodded. “Yes, everything’s fine.”

“So, if Mr. Stone comes back, should I call security?” Marlo looked confused, which she had every right to be. Before, she hadn’t even had to announce him and now, she was asking about whether security was needed.

Jezebel thought about it. She doubted Ramsey Stone would be coming back to her office after this. “I don’t think it’ll come to that, Marlo. Thank you.”

Stepping back into her office, she closed the door and leaned against it. Yes, she’d fallen in love with the owner of
The Osiris
, but the tall, dark-haired man, gangster or not, who’d just walked into her office looked, sounded like, and made her feel, an awful lot like him. Her heart began to thud. She missed him, but someone was lying. Ramsey implied that the FBI was lying, but she’d seen the tattoo on his upper-arm, remembered his talk of his ‘specific’ family, and those things scared her. Maybe he wasn’t a gangster, but Ramsey Stone had some type of affiliation to the Double Dragon, and any association to a gang was dangerous.

No matter how much she loved him, she wouldn’t endanger herself or her family that way. She couldn’t.

Chapter 14

“Uncle Ramsey?”

Ramsey allowed his niece’s soft voice to pull him from his dark thoughts. It had been a week and some days since his arrest, and he still didn’t know who the mole was. Vince was on it, and he’d brought on a few of his “buddies” to help, but the FBI had hackers as well, and they were putting up blocks and firewalls that were slowing them down. They’d obviously gotten smarter, but Vince was good. In the next days, Ramsey expected a name.

“Yes, Li?” He looked up from his laptop to find the girl perched between his office doorframe, staring curiously at him. Whenever she was visiting, he kept the door ajar to give her the sense that she wasn’t intruding.

“Did something happen between you and Aunt Jezebel?”

“Huh?”

Lily gave him a little smile as she made her way into his office and took a seat in the first chair facing his desk. She looked like a little girl in her sunflower dress and bare feet, but she’d also drawn a black line above her eyelid and was wearing bright pink gloss—stuff he’d given her. Sometimes, he regretted buying the kit, but she clearly loved it since she wore the make-up everywhere, even at home, with no one to impress but him. As he stared at the make-up, his thoughts ran back to Jezebel. He was giving her time before he went to her again. He hadn’t spoken to her since that day in her office but he knew she was safe. Will and Sam told him as much.

“Aunt Jezebel?” Lily repeated clearly. “I haven’t seen her for two weeks.”

His niece pinned him with an intense stare. Considering he usually had Lily once a week during the summer, she’d seen a good deal of Jezebel and had quickly taken to her.

“She’s been busy lately,” he replied with an easy smile. She raised a dark brow and Ramsey had to wonder at the days when he’d just tell Lily anything and she’d believe him. Those days were clearly going, if not gone.

“Busy with what?” Lily looked unconvinced.

“Li.”

Sadness entered her eyes. “Did you guys break up?”

He’d never told Lily they were dating but she was eleven after all and smart. She’d figured it out on her own, just like she’d figured out she had to call Jezebel “Aunt” and not by her first name. While he sometimes allowed her to call Bastian by his first name, it was because Ramsey understood why the child had little respect for her father.

“Li, it’s complicated.”

“So un-complicate it,” she suggested, looking a bit uneasy. Whenever Lily felt like she was pushing too much, she questioned herself. It was a habit he wanted her to grow out of because it signaled she’d grow to break or bend under pressure.

He smiled at her. “I’m trying to do that.”

“Okay.” She stared at him for long moments and Ramsey realized she had a piece of paper in her hand.

“What’s that?”

She looked down at her hand before looking guiltily up at him.

“Li…”

Standing, she walked around his desk until she was close enough that he could smell the minty shampoo she’d used on her hair. “Can I have a puppy, Uncle Ramsey?”

Ramsey almost choked. “A puppy?”

“This puppy.” She shoved the paper in his face. It was a small printout of the fluffiest puppy he’d ever seen. He wondered if it was even real. “He’s on sale.”

“Did you talk to your mom about this?” Sarah had never been a pet person and while Bastian was, his brother just didn’t seem to care about his family life. While Bastian was no longer a drunk, at least not around him or Lily, his brother still partied and whored like it was a sport. He doubted Bastian would want anything to do with a puppy.

Lily sighed before shaking her head. “She’ll say no.”

“Why?”

“Because…just because.” Lily’s eyes suddenly brightened and her face flushed in excitement. “Can you ask her for me? She listens to you. Maybe you can ask her at the circus on Saturday?”

Ramsey almost groaned. Right. The circus. He’d planned to take Lily and Sarah to see Cirque du Soleil while it was in New York.

“You didn’t forget, did you, Uncle Ramsey?” Lily asked in a low, almost understanding voice.

He shook his head and smiled. “Never, Li.”

Lily brightened. “Great! So, after the circus, can you ask her? Please? She’ll listen to you, I know she will.”

As Ramsey stared at her happy face, he could only nod. As if he could deny Lily anything. When she flounced out of his office minutes later, he snorted and shook his head. He hoped Sarah and Bastian were ready for a fluffy puppy.

***

When it rains, it pours.

That was the saying running through Jezebel’s head as she listened to the torrential downpour outside and stared at the thin white stick with the two red lines indicating that she was right. She didn’t have a stomach virus that only afflicted her in the mornings; she had something worse, something way more permanent and…expensive.

Not only had she found out that her man was possibly a gangster, and not just any gangster, the head of the largest, oldest South Korean gang, but now, she was probably—
likely
—pregnant for said gangster.

She tossed the stick into the trash, ripped open another box,
ClearBlu
, and stuck the applicator tip into a cup with her pee. She didn’t even care how unsanitary it was. The cup would be tossed, of course, but at the moment, she needed to be certain and she wasn’t going to chug water just to pee on numerous sticks.

Leaning against the sink, Jezebel closed her eyes and waited for the minutes to pass. She breathed deep, in and out, until she no longer felt as faint. There were a million and one reasons why she shouldn’t have this baby, most having to do with its father being a dangerous gangster, but some part of her rejected that. What did the baby do wrong? If she hadn’t been so eager to jump all over Ramsey, or so eager to let him jump all over her, the baby wouldn’t be here.

Birth control, Jezebel thought with a snort. So much for that. She’d taken it religiously, every day with her breakfast and it wasn’t as if she’d had any antibiotics.

Jezebel lifted her head and stared at herself in the mirror. Shaking her head, she groaned. Yes, yes, she had had antibiotics. She’d come down with a nasty head cold when Ramsey had been in Seoul, and she’d received a prescription of antibiotics to clear it up. She’d also been warned about it affecting her birth control, but she hadn’t taken it seriously because Ramsey wasn’t even in the country. And then he’d surprised her, not a day after her final dosage…and well… Her body heated at the memory of his homecoming and she sighed.

Lifting the pregnancy test, she nodded in acceptance at the two blue lines. She was pregnant. Inside of her, eating what she ate, making her sick, and growing daily, was a fetal version of her and Ramsey.

Tossing the stick into the bin with other discarded sticks, she dumped the pee into the toilet, flushed it, and threw the cup into the trash-bag as well. Grabbing the bag, she tied it tight, and made her way from the bathroom.

“Hey, is everything okay?” Delilah was standing just outside the bathroom in her bathrobe.

Jezebel nodded and gave her sister a smile. “Just fine.”

“Sure?”

“Positive.”

Jezebel made her way down the stairs and out into the backyard, where the garbage was. Rain soaked through her hair and clothes, but she moved quickly, needing to do this. She didn’t need any questions right now. She just wanted to think about everything without anyone giving her their unasked for input.

As she stuffed the bag into the trash and made her way back into the house, she didn’t see the dark car parked outside of her mother’s house, or the man inside with the binoculars staring curiously at her actions.

***

“How are you?” Ramsey asked the petite woman who walked beside him.

Sarah had always been beautiful, with her large dark eyes, pale, luminescent skin and delicate features, but age had added a grace to her that was unmatched by few. They’d just come from the circus, and Sarah held a few small toys he’d purchased for Lily. He had the larger toys.