Page 74 of Ink & Ambition

Plopping down in the seat, I watch Ryan linger slightly above me.

“Do you want a drink or something?”

I level him with a glare that answers his question, causing him to promptly sit down in the chair next to mine. We’re facing the house with the raging fire in front of us. It’s not a particularly cold night but my disdain for the person next to me is filling my veins with ice, causing me to shiver.

“Look, things got out of hand the other night. First, I want to apologize for what happened. I shouldn’t have busted into your apartment like that and I didn’t mean to blow up the way I did. I was not in my right mind,” Ryan says calmly.

I look over at him, seeing the sincerity in his eyes. “I appreciate the apology.” Ryan sighs in relief before I continue. “To be clear,I’m not saying what you did is okay and I don’t necessarily forgive you but I can acknowledge your sincerity.”

Ryan closes his mouth, clearly swallowing what he was about to say, and nods. For a moment, we’re both silent, staring into the blazing fire.

“Well, if that’s all,” I say, gripping the lawn chair arms to pull myself up when Ryan speaks again.

“Kai is not who you think he is.”

I’m stunned into silence. This is what he wants to talk to me about? “What does that mean? I hardly know Kai.”

“Okay, then, he’s not the guyAlexthinks he is.”

In exasperation, I run my hands down my face. “Ryan, just spit it out. This cryptic stuff is giving me a headache.” I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket but I don’t pull it out. It’s probably Danika looking for me and I know I need to get back to looking for her but not until Ryan gets to the point of his outburst. And boy does he…

“I’m sure you know that Keith was roughed up a bit by some of my guys,” Ryan looks me directly in the eyes when he speaks about how his friends hurt one of mine. I want to scream at him for his cavalier manner in speaking about it but he continues before I get the chance. “I want you to know the reason why that happened.

“Some of my guys have…problems. Gambling problems. They make bets without thinking, and they get themselves in trouble. One of my brothers, Logan, was at the horse track betting one day when he saw Kai. Logan convinced Kai to get in on some bets with him, mainly just to fuck with the Kappas. But Logan had no idea what kind of shit Kai was into.”

Ryan breathes fast and continues.

“Basically, Kai wrote more than a few checks his ass couldn’t cash. He owed some of us Deltas a lot of fucking money andLogan was tired of waiting for it. None of the promises Kai made ever came through.”

The fire flickers in front of us and my phone vibrates again but nothing could pull me from this conversation. This revelation.If it is the truth…

“Without consulting me, Logan and a few others decided to take some of the debt off Kai, by way of his brother. By the time I showed up after leaving your apartment, Keith was already pretty battered. I ripped my guys heads off and brought Keith to his front porch but the damage was already done.

“I didn’t want anyone to see me and as it is, I probably shouldn’t even be here but I knew you would be and I wanted to explain to you, relationship or not, I wanted to tell my side before it gets torn apart by Alex and his friends.”

As if on cue, the back door flies open, and Alex leads a pack of Kappas toward the fire pit. I’ve never been afraid of him before but I am suddenly, for the second time tonight, reminded of the first time I met him.

“What the fuck are you doing here, Walsh?”

As they get closer to the fire, I can see that Alex is flanked by Kai and Keith, the latter looking tired and the former looking like he could kill Ryan via telekinesis. It’s when I look at Alex that I start to sweat. He’s shooting daggers at me.Alone with the enemy.Yeah, it doesn’t look good.

To his defense, Ryan doesn’t meet fire with fire. In fact, he raises his hands in surrender, standing from the chair. “Not here for trouble, just wanted to talk to Margot.”

“You have no reason to talk to her,” Alex spits.

Ryan doesn’t fight, he doesn’t raise his voice when he nods and says, “I’m leaving now.”

“The fuck you are,” Kai mutters, launching himself toward us only to be held back by Devon.

“Margot, come here,” Alex says, his voice a command. He clearly wants to show us as a united front against Ryan, but I feel like this whole thing is ridiculous, especially because of what Ryan just told me.

“I actually think you guys should just talk to each other,” I say, motioning between Ryan and the group. Ryan looks over at me and I give him a nod of encouragement.

But it’s Kai who speaks up. “I’m not talking to the son of a bitch that tore up my brother. But you go ahead, princess, go with him if you care so much about what he has to say.”

I look over at Alex, hoping for some defense but his eyes are narrowed at me too. “I’m not leaving with him. I’m just saying, maybe you should hear him out.”

“If you trust anything that dipshit has to say, you don’t belong here.” Kai is taking over the narrative and based on what I just learned about him, I understand why. He doesn’t want the truth to come out. And I don’t want to be the one to fill in the gaps either. This has nothing to do with me and everything to do with the Deltas and the Kappas. I’ve never been interested in frat problems before and I’m not now.

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