Chapter 203 A Private Video

Chapter 203 A Private Video
Chapter 203: A Private Video 

Reese

It almost sounded like the setup to an expensive, dangerous joke—the kind that ended with the person who laughed the hardest drawing a weapon on the one who had told it.

“A private video of Sav and me?” Roman’s voice had lost every trace of the earlier domestic ease. The amusement was gone, replaced by something colder. “What exactly are you talking about, Reese? Is this some sort of—”

I didn’t let him finish. I was already at the edge of what the night could take. All of it had weighed me down. 

More than anything I wanted to be in my own room with my wife instead of sitting in Ramsey’s bedroom holding a flash drive that was about to detonate another wing of this family.

“Randall secretly recorded you and Sav in the bathroom after you woke up from the coma,” I said. The words tasted wrong coming out of my mouth. “Roman… Ramsey saw Sav giving you a blowjob. And God knows what else the kid saw before he understood what he was looking at.”

There was a sharp sound on the other end—something between a breath and a curse—followed by the distinct noise of a phone nearly slipping from a grip.

“Randall,” Roman said slowly, “secretly watched Sav and me.” A short, humorless sound of disbelief and surprise left him. 

It was not a laugh. It was the sound of a man rearranging the world in real time. I knew the moment something changed. 

“So Reginald’s little surveillance system has cameras in bathrooms now. He keeps finding new ways to show me how low he is willing to go.”

The dark, flat quality of that almost-laugh made the air in Ramsey’s room feel thinner. I was grateful the bathroom door was still shut. 

If Ramsey had heard the tone in Roman’s voice just then, he would have been convinced the night was going to end with him in a body bag.

Which was never going to happen. Not while I was alive. 

“It was Randall,” I repeated, forcing the distinction to stay clear. “I also have reason to believe he was… using the videos. Actively.”

The silence that existed was the kind that made the skin between my shoulder blades tighten. I caught myself glancing at my own hands and grimaced at the thought of residual dirt still under my nails from earlier. 

“So Randall and his brother Ramsey—”

“No.” I cut him off hard before the wrong idea could take root. “Ramsey was not in on it. It was an accident. He walked into Randall’s room, saw the footage already playing on the screen, and froze. Randall bribed him afterward with a photograph of their mother to throw him off. That is the entire extent of Ramsey’s involvement.”

Roman’s voice dropped into a register I had only heard a handful of times in our lives. “You’re defending him.”

“Yes. Because Ramsey would never do something like this. It was a fucking accident, Roman. He is a child. Our brother. The most harmless person under this roof.” I said. “He fucking cried because he was terrified you would be angry at him. That is not the profile of someone who participates in this kind of violation.”

“I don’t care.” The words arrived quietly. “Do you have any idea what Sav has already survived? How many times is one woman expected to be violated before the word enough actually means something? Why won't they stop hurting her?” 

I knew this would happen. Whenever Sav was involved, Roman would lose all reasoning. He didn't care. He didn't listen. 

All he wanted was revenge and blood.

“Roman. Don’t put this on him. He’s a kid—”

“If this were about you and Lizzie,” he said, still in that same calm voice, “would you still be standing there reminding me that a twenty-year-old is a child?”

“Yes.” The answer came without hesitation. “I would never aim this at Ramsey, because I know exactly what kind of person he is. He's not disgusting. Randall is the one we have always known to be rotten. Randall is the one who has watched Sav with the wrong kind of interest.”

Another of those short, dark sounds left Roman. I could almost imagine him shaking his head. 

“He wants my wife.” The statement landed like a fact rather than a theory. “Isn’t that almost funny, Reese. I bet he wants my children too.”

“Roman, I think he—”

“He violated my wife.” The volume did not rise. The temperature did. “Just like Kingston did. Just like Dean did. No other man puts hands or eyes on her except me. I swore to myself that I would hunt down every single person who hurts her—”

“Not Ramsey.” I kept my voice steady even though my pulse was climbing. “Ramsey would never hurt Sav. He would never hurt anyone. He is the reason we have the drive at all. He snuck into Randall’s room and took it while the bastard was asleep because I asked him to. You are frightening him.”

A beat of silence. Then: “What’s on the flash drive? Did you find out who else he has been watching and touching himself to?”

“Not yet.”

“Plug it in.”

I looked at the small piece of hardware in my palm, then at Ramsey’s laptop sitting neatly on the table. 

Every instinct I had told me not to open it. 

Looking meant the possibility of seeing my brother and his wife in a moment that was never meant for any other set of eyes. Including mine. 

I would have rather put my hand in a fire than watch anything that had Sav in a state of undress. 

What he was asking of me was a lot. 

“Quit stalling and plug the fucking drive in.” Roman’s voice had gone quiet again, but the quiet was worse than shouting. It was the sound of something with the safety already off.

I exhaled, picked up the laptop, and asked Ramsey through the bathroom door if I could use it. His agreement came immediately, soft and eager to be useful.

The moment the drive connected, I switched the call to video so Roman could see the screen. The second his face appeared, every muscle in my spine locked.

He was holding a pistol.