Avoiding Responsibility (Avoiding #2)(30)



"Cut it out," Lexi said smacking his hands away as they came dangerously close to crossing the line into high school dancing where his were reaching down towards her ass. Seth dropped his hands and stumbled backwards a step.

"Yeah, you said Jack's missing and everything was stolen?" Ramsey prompted leaning towards Seth. He was a couple inches taller than him and towered over him as he demanded answers to his questions. He had been taken out of a very appealing situation because his future brother-in-law was missing at his own bachelor party. He did not want to have to deal with Bekah's wrath about this.

"Hunter. Luke," Seth called turning from Ramsey's determined gaze. "Did I tell him Jack was missing?"

Ramsey stepped forward, grabbed a fistful of Seth's shirt in each hand, and yanked him towards him. "Give me a straight answer. Now," he growled. His demeanor had completely shifted. The anger that was radiating from his body was almost palpable. It's as if his body had shifted to this new character. His blind rage at the situation was taking over his body, and it was pretty obvious to everyone that if Seth stepped over the line Ramsey would not be happy. Eyes followed them around the room as it dawned on everyone that a fight was about to break out.

Lexi shifted her eyes around the establishment. She noticed the bouncer's general shift of attention towards their group. A few even began taking a few steps towards them. She could tell they were still deciding if something was going to go down or not. Neither of the guys was touching the women, who had mostly backed away from their enclave, which made them less threatening, but still Ramsey and Seth were both big guys. She was sure the bouncers didn't want to have to deal with unruly clients especially not ones who had been funneling money into the place all night.

"Ramsey," Lexi murmured placing her hand lightly on his bulging bicep, "people are staring at us. You need to be careful."

"I don't need to be careful here," Ramsey said never taking his eyes from Seth.

"I know, but really just back off of him. He's drunk and an idiot," she told him trying to calm him down. The last thing she wanted was trouble. She had enough drama to last her entire life time. Being kicked out of a strip club in the middle of New York City at an ungodly hour of the night was not something she wanted to add to the list.

"Don't make me ask you again," Ramsey told Seth ignoring Lexi's comments. He narrowed his eyes at Seth who had finally given his full attention to the gravity of the situation. "If Jack is missing, I have to deal with it. I can't just stand around and let you drunken frat boys continue to drink yourselves silly when something serious happened. So answer my damn questions."

"We were never in a frat," Seth managed his voice shaky as his brain tried to catch up with what was happening. Lexi could see a glimmer of laughter in his eyes, and wasn't sure she liked that look.

"Seth," she murmured softly at his ridiculous response.

"Just back off man and I'll tell you," he said shifting his eyes from Lexi back to Ramsey. With that look she saw that he had finally caught up to what was going on. Ramsey was threatening him.

She could tell that at that realization Seth appeared kind of scared of Ramsey. She would have never guessed that someone as cool and collected as Seth was scared of anyone. She was so accustomed to his flirtatious, overly-confident outwards appearance that the look of terror in his eyes really threw her off.

She knew Ramsey was a tall and really, really well built. Then again she also knew that deep down that bulk didn't characterize him. He was as a general rule very calm natured, at least around her. She wasn't sure how well Seth and Ramsey knew each other, but did Seth actually believe that Ramsey would hurt him? She had seen him become physically violent before, but never to someone that he knew. She had to admit though, he did look pretty frightening. When he wanted to look threatening, he certainly could. He had the height and mass to dissuade anyone from wanting to get in a fight with him.

His personality just never fit him being this kind of guy. She always found it strange when he played the tough guy. Even that night nearly a year ago when he had walked into Jack's apartment and threatened his life if he ever hurt Lexi or his sister, she had never thought of him as scary…as if he might actually follow through with it.

When he was with her, he always tried to be the most comforting person possible. He was cute, funny, and charming. He could string words together like a poet one minute and ramble like a nervous fool the next. She knew he wasn't this guy that he was putting on the act to be. Thus, it was too strange to see the fear reflected in Seth's eyes. Ramsey would never hurt him, right?

"Don't play games with me," Ramsey said releasing his shirt and pushing him backwards.

Seth ran his hands along the black button-up he was wearing to smooth out the wrinkles from Ramsey's aggressive behavior. "Chill out, geez."

"I'll chill out when I get a straight answer from you. You called me in a panic, made me leave everything I was doing." His eyes shot to Lexi's for a brief moment. "I want to know what is going on now, Seth."

"Wait what was that look?" he asked pointing between Lexi and Ramsey. A slow smile crept up onto his face and instantly turned into Seth's characteristic smirk. "Was something going on between you two? Is something going on between you two?"

Lexi's face instantly turned beet red. She couldn't help herself. She hadn't intended on going that far with Ramsey, not that it should matter to Seth one way or the other, but she still felt kind of silly. After all, they had been about to have sex when they were interrupted with Seth's stupid phone call. She could feel the warmth of her skin heating her face and her heart raced ahead before her at the thought of having sex with Ramsey. She knew her mind shouldn't wander there while she was standing before Seth, but she couldn't help it. And she was very thankful that the room was dark, and Seth couldn't tell how bad she was blushing. She would have certainly given herself away.

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