Avoiding Responsibility (Avoiding #2)(28)
Author: K.A. Linde

The desperation in his voice unnerved her and she hugged him back releasing her pent up anger for the moment. When she stepped back, she looked into his bright green eyes which were filled with worry. "I’m not going anywhere," she reassured him.

He blew out the breath he had been holding. "Good."

"But you have to explain what she was talking about," she commanded.

"I will," he said strength and determination returning to his gaze as he realized he wasn’t losing her. "Come on. I’ll explain once we get there." He grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the office.

Lexi had a million questions to ask him, but she remained silent. The confrontation with Bekah had given her energy unlike anything she had felt in awhile. She could feel herself beginning to bounce off the walls, but she remained quite. She needed Ramsey to explain everything to her, and she wouldn’t accomplish that by discussing all of her fears with him. She had too many to even begin to articulate which one came first. Bekah was always somehow able to get into her subconscious and eat away at her inner most fears. She really was the devil!

Numbly, Lexi followed Ramsey back through the lobby, taking the elevator to the parking garage located below the building, and into his waiting Mercedes. Lexi tried to remain calm as they traveled through the city. Her confrontation with Bekah had her on edge. She hadn’t thought she was capable of despising her more…but she was wrong.

Not only had she destroyed what Lexi had had with Jack, she was trying to ruin it for her and Ramsey as well. She knew that there was more to the story than that. Bekah was never going to forgive Lexi for being ahead of her in anything especially not with the most important men in her life. She was trapped in the middle of some form of family feud that she wasn’t even completely conscious of having entered. Lexi just hoped that she didn’t have to continually be under crossfire.

They hadn’t been driving for more than ten minutes when Ramsey pulled into a mostly deserted parking lot. There was only one car parked in the far corner facing a tall brick wall. Lexi glanced around apprehensively not liking the secluded nature of their location. Ramsey took the spot directly next to the other car and killed the engine.

"Here we are," he said smiling hesitantly.

Lexi noticed the sign posted into the ground in front of Ramsey’s car that read ‘reserved.’ The sign didn’t add any legitimacy to the parking lot that they were sitting in, and she could tell her stomach was doing back flips in anticipation. "Where is here exactly?" she managed to ask turning her head to see if perhaps she had missed something.

"Come on I’ll show you," he said opening his door.

"Is it safe?" she asked before he got out of the car. His boisterous laugh as he walked around the car was answer enough. Stepping out of the car, Ramsey took her hand for reassurance before walking to the corner of the parking lot. A large, black, metal door that she hadn’t previously noticed was built into the brick wall. Ramsey pulled out a key, unlocked the deadbolt, and swung the door wide for her.

She peered anxiously into the dim light that appeared before her down a long hallway. He ushered her inside before closing and locking the door behind him. "This way," he told her motioning down the hallway.

"Is this where you tell me you’re part of the Umbrella Corporation and I’m a test subject?" she asked a stilted laughed following the comment.

Ramsey cocked his head to the side, the smirk on his face telling her that he was amused. "Precisely. I hope you’re immune."

"My name isn’t Alice."

"Alexa. Alice. Close enough," he said stopping abruptly in front of a door with a brass sign on the front that read ‘Employees Only.’ Passing through that door, they walked to the end of the barren hallway and into what appeared to be, at first glance, a security room for the entire building. Dozens of monitors lined the walls each showing varying angles of what appeared to be a darkened warehouse. A few showed the lighted hallways they had just entered through along with other locales that Lexi had no knowledge of.

"Ok Ramsey, fill me in. Where the f**k are we?" she asked her feelings of apprehension had only heightened.

"This is where I work," he said flipping several switches on a board. Instantly hundreds of lights began to flicker on all around her. But she realized that despite the number of computer screens filtering light into the room, the majority was coming from straight ahead. Lexi’s attention returned to the back of the room that she had originally thought was just a black wall and noticed that in fact it was an enormous window. She stepped forward to look through the panel of glass in front of her, and saw what appeared to be just an empty warehouse in the blackness come to life.

"Is this…a bar?" she asked mystified. Black granite-topped counters lined the walls on the bottom floor with hundreds of glass bottles atop of intricate shelving. High-backed black chairs were tucked into tables in one corner. A dance floor with a stage against the far wall took up nearly half of the room. Carpeted stairs led up to a more secluded area, what she would have guessed to be a VIP section, with posh leather booths and a bar stocked solely with top shelf liquor.

"Yes, well a club." He came up beside her staring out across the establishment.

"You work at a club?" she asked confused.

"Uh no," he said scratching the back of his head thoughtfully.

"Do you…run security?" she questioned him trying to put the pieces together. Why would he have waited so long to show her this? It hardly seemed like it was something to be ashamed of. Sure he could be a vice president within Bridges Enterprise, but if he liked this then she couldn’t say anything about it. It sure would explain why his family utterly detested his job though.

"No, Lexi, I own the club."

"You own this place?" she gasped despite herself. Suddenly so many things fell into place. Memories of a distant past began to fill her mind. Lexi and Ramsey meeting at a club in New York, and him claiming to prefer to do business there. The fact that his entire apartment had been filled to the brim with people partying on a Sunday night, because they couldn’t on the weekends. Those were all employees of the various clubs he owned which also explained the stocked bar he constantly kept on hand. A strange conversation with a bartender at the 755 Club at Turner Field about his new employment. He must have worked for Ramsey at some point. The way Ramsey had edged out of conversations about his employment, and just claimed that it was his job to know people. He obviously had to know people to be successful in this town, and everyone likely wanted to know him.

"Among others," he said nodding.

"How many others?" she breathed.

"A dozen or so."

Lexi’s mouth dropped open as her eyes took in the scene below her. Everything in that room he owned. The building itself was massive and must have cost a fortune. Not to mention the location directly downtown along with property taxes and a sea of other concerns. The lawyer side of her brain was taking over, and she was quickly measuring up the building from a different perspective.

"About what Bekah said," he murmured reluctantly.

Stopping her endless calculations, Lexi was transported back to reality. She had completely forgotten Bekah. Yet, there must be something else to the story. Bekah had mentioned whores, and Lexi wasn’t putting two and two together. Was this how he had met women previously? Was this why everyone had been so surprised that he had a girlfriend? Was he really just a player and all his employees his whores? So many more questions floated through her subconscious as she waited for him to further explain.

"It’s just that not all of them aren’t this type of club," he managed to get out.

"What do you mean? What type of club are they?" she asked turning away from the window to face him.

He looked at her expectantly as if she was just magically going to come up with the answer on her own. When she just stared at him blankly, he reluctantly continued, "What other kind of clubs exist?"

Lexi stared at him for a minute longer before realization dawned on her. She gasped in surprise just as her cheeks flushed red. "Do you mean strip clubs? You own strip clubs?"

"Yeah see this is why I never have a girlfriend," he said miserably.

After taking a second to let the concept sink in, Lexi reached out and touched his arm. "Ramsey, I don’t care. I still like you. Though, I’ll be honest, I don’t much like that you spend a good deal of your time with strippers," she said unable to keep the angst out of her voice. "Especially because I’ve been oblivious to the fact the whole time."

The thing she hated most about the entire situation was that he had kept it from her. He had hid a huge part of himself from her for nearly six months. She had no idea the entire time what he did or who he spent his time with. The fact that he worked with women who were paid to take their clothes off was obviously not ideal, but she wasn’t going to change that. What was infuriating was his deception. He had so easily hid something so endemic in his life from her, and apparently only her.

All of his friends knew where he worked. Bekah and the rest of his family knew where he worked. Jack even probably knew what he did for a living. After all, he had been one of the first to warn her off of Ramsey. It had to have been for good reason…or at least for some reason. With all this in consideration, all she could wonder about was what else he was hiding from her.

* * *

Again, as always, thank you so much to all the people who review my work. It makes me want to write so much more (and faster) knowing there are people out there reading and enjoying my work. Awesome reviewers: Cupid’s Psyche (as always, you rock), WyldeLoneStar, helena33139, Kelly Rogala, ssolomon08, Ms. Vengeance, sunbeam07, jennalizing, and LoveAlways03.

K.A. Linde

Upside Down

Maybe this is wishful thinking

Probably mindless dreaming

If we loved again I swear I’d love you right

I’d go back in time and change it but I can’t

So if the chain is on your door, I understand

But this is me swallowing my pride,

Standing in front of you saying I’m sorry for that night

-Taylor Swift "Back to December"

* * *

Chapter 9: Present

As much as Lexi wanted to follow Ramsey’s advice, it was damn near impossible. Jack had cold feet. It hardly made sense for him to be unsure about this wedding. He had made his choice. He had chosen Bekah. It was that simple.

Or at least, she had been telling herself that for a year now to keep from really thinking about him. Time and time again she had let him choose someone else over her. She had always been second best. She had constantly been behind another woman, a job, a fling, whatever. She had been behind everything. Only in their brief stint in New York City had they had anything resembling a relationship, and even then he had been preoccupied in starting his career and had ended up cheating on her with his roommate nonetheless. The thought stung, as it normally did, but it was dull compared to what he had done just a year ago.

He had proposed to a woman with a fake of her wedding ring and only because she had found the ring in the first place. But maybe that was even a lie. Maybe she hadn’t even seen the ring. Maybe he had wanted to do it all along. Maybe he had just wanted to hurt her.