Chapter 8
8
ACE
Where I call you and you pretend you care.
“ I t’s time for class, not for you to feel sorry for yourself. Were you the bullet?”
She frowned.
“No, but?—”
“Exactly. It’s very black and white, as simple as that, unless you called out the hit, or shot him yourself, and even then, he knew the risks. Let’s go, you don’t want to be late.” I popped a piece of spearmint gum in my mouth and started walking toward the door.
When I opened it for her, she was still staring down at the floor.
“Now,” I grated out, all sense of politeness gone.
She didn’t need nice, she wouldn’t for a very long time.
“The professor waits for no one, and neither do I. So if you want to join your long lost love with a matching bullet wound, by all means stay here unprotected and let down not just your family but your favorite person in the world.”
She frowned.
“My favorite person in the world?”
“Louis, of course. Wouldn’t he be disappointed to see you now? All that blood spilled and in vain, all because you’re selfishly trying to take the credit for the perfect shot. It could have grazed his temple, instead he turned at the last minute taking it right through the cheek. He had no choice, you see. He was trying to use his body weight to shove you down. Had he not turned it wouldn’t have been enough; it could have still hit you or gone through him and hit you. Are we done here or do you need more details?”
Tears streamed down her cheeks colliding with her pristine white jacket.
“You have no heart.”
I shot her a bored look.
“Is this a bad time to let you know I included my soul in a two for one deal with the devil or should we table that for later?”
She stormed past me with a muttered curse.
“So, later. Cool. I’ll pencil you in,” I said under my breath, following her the entire way toward the business building.
Was it really that impossible for her to walk in straight lines or use the sidewalk?
The building was only a four-minute walk from the townhouse, and she seemed to skip every single path on the way making sure her short black boots were covered in mud by the time we made it to the double doors.
It had rained last night and she seemed hellbent on making sure the hallway would remember by way of trails of dirt, it didn’t help that her boots squeaked in protest with every step reminding everyone of her certain brand of chaos—as if they actually needed a reminder.
Curious stares followed her with every footstep, and I was close behind, always looking to the right, the left—always ready to be whatever she needed me to be.
The walls were white on the inside.
Institutional. Like the place was trying to bleach itself clean of the dirty bloodlines that walked the halls.
I had to remind myself I wasn’t there because I loved her.
I wasn’t there because I needed her approval or the families’ approval.
I was there to do a job and to protect.
Maybe if I did it well enough I’d finally absolve myself of my own guilt.
Maybe this time, with Raven, with the girl who most called a nightmare—I’d finally be able to sleep in peace.
Head high, I watched in appreciation as she weaved her way through the crowd and into the classroom, taking the seat in the back far corner, rolling her chair up to the desk and sitting with her hands folded on top of it.
I took the seat next to her and cleared my throat.
“Are we clear of spit wads and sharp pencils, Ace, or should I be on the lookout?” she said under her breath, touching her ear and tugging at her diamond studs.
"Like a sharp pencil could compare to your tongue,” I snapped before thinking.
Her jaw dropped before she shut it again and licked her lower lip. “Okay, short straw, I think you managed to shock me.”
“Short straw?”
“Yeah, the only one who would take me.”
“I offered. I didn’t have to pull a straw.”
Her eyebrow arched. I rebuked it. Sent it to hell. I didn’t find it cute at all. “They paying you more?”
I pulled out my phone. “I don’t need money.”
“Then what did they give you?”
“Nothing.” You. They gave me seconds. Minutes. Hours. They gave me absolute fucking torture—with you. All the things I wouldn’t say, couldn’t even if I wanted to. It didn’t matter.
"Everyone wants something.
” Her perfume wafted off her as she leaned in, her hair falling gently over her shoulder and nearly touching my fingers as they gripped the side of the table.
“What do you gain?”
I eyed her up and down, and for one second, one brief, solo second in time, I let myself feel.
I exhaled against the chains wrapped tightly around my body and wished for a moment where I could let go—maybe it would be safer with my enemy than my friend.
Maybe that’s where I went wrong in the beginning…
I trusted someone, I trusted my friend.
She turned into more than that: my lover, my fiancé, my everything.
She’d slowly emptied my cup and filled it with nothing but the taste of her poison so when she finally left…
all I had left to drink was death.
All I had left to breathe was the scent of our regrets.
I had no answers only tattered memories of a love I’d regret for an eternity.
Maybe my love would be safer kept with hatred by its side.
I tilted my head at Raven.
“Do you want me to say you? Would that make you feel special?” I leaned over and raised my hand tucking her hair behind her ear.
“Would your heart skip a small little beat for me? Hmm? Would you curse it for being so desperate?” I pressed my palm to her neck.
“It isn’t racing but it’s doing something, maybe reminding you that you aren’t dead and have a pulse or maybe reminding you that somewhere in your grief you can still feel sexual attraction.”
She scoffed and batted my hand away.
“First off, you’re wrong. Second, the only strong feeling I have toward you is one of hatred…and murder.”
I smiled; I couldn’t help it.
“We aren’t so different, you know.”
“We are completely different,” she pointed out.
“I’m grieving and trying to survive all alone and you’re just…” She looked down at the table.
“A shell.”
I inwardly flinched.
“A shell sounds safer than a bomb ready to go off at any minute.” I mused and put in my air pods.
“The room’s secure, take all the notes you need. I’m hungry so try not to stick around and make friends, they’ll only talk to you because you’re pretty, rich, and powerful—don’t fall for it.”
“Never have, never will,” she said quickly.
But I saw the sadness in her eyes, the reality of loneliness and the want that followed to talk to anyone who wasn’t related to her family or connected.
To have a best friend, warm arms to run into and say, this sucks and I’m lost.
Instead.
She had me.
A paid bodyguard.
And a daily reminder of what she lost and won’t ever have again.
The sound of Metallica hit my ears, and while I told her I wasn’t paying attention, I waited for her to look toward the professor before I grabbed my phone and switched off the music and turned on the cameras in the townhouse.
Everything was as it should be.
I checked out her bedroom then turned everything completely off and pretended to be still listening to music for the next hour.
I stood before people started leaving and helped pull out her chair when she followed.
A guy in a black leather jacket and a matching beanie stayed back and eyed me up and down then shifted his attention to her.
I lifted my eyebrows silently telegraphing my response.
Yes, please try, I’m itching to punch someone in the face right now.
I gripped my cross necklace and twisted it in my hands then kissed it like I was already asking forgiveness for taking his life…
as I had so many times in the past.
The cross around my neck carried not just my sins but the sins of the blood I’d taken over and over again.
Did he want to be added to the list?
God, it would feel nice to wrap my hands around another scrawny neck and squeeze.
I waited.
He looked to my right, then back to me.
I grinned wider.
He shook his head and walked off with a muttered “asshole.”
Raven smacked me in the shoulder.
“He’s my new partner, you ass! He’s supposed to get my number, and now thanks to you he’s probably shitting his pants in the hallway!”
I rolled my eyes.
“I was saying hello with my eyes, it’s not my fault he was too intimidated to walk over.”
She shoved me to the side.
“No, you were shooting daggers and picking a fight with your face. There’s a huge difference. Trust me, I grew up with cousins ready to rip heads from bodies and use those same heads to play dodgeball. Why do you all have such anger issues?”
"It’s not anger, it’s pent up rage against the world and the way they see us and want us dead,” I said under my breath. “They look up to us, but we’re never good enough. They use us because they aren’t powerful enough, then wait for us to crack so they can take over. Who wouldn’t feel rage?”
“Tamp it.” She looked ready to flick me in the nose. Sighing, she dropped her hand. “Let me grab his number, and then we can eat.”
“Whatever you say.” I followed her out of the room.
Raven marched up to the guy and tapped him on the shoulder. “Sorry about that, he has the personality of drywall and watches crime shows because he thinks they’re comedy.”
The guy stared me down then met her gaze. “Comedy?”
"Because they’re so stupid it’s funny,” she whispered under her breath.
“Anyway, give me your number and we’ll connect later this week.”
"Yeah, yeah.” He licked his lips. “It’s?—”
I drowned it out, I’d get his entire background in the next five minutes anyway, no need to memorize it. I was more concerned about his social security number.
I held up my hand. “I’m going to interrupt you right there.” I snatched his phone out of his hand and typed in my number, then my name, Ace, the Matchstick, De Lange . “That’s my number, sunshine, with hers right underneath it in the information section. Think of me as a personal secretary.” I slammed the phone back onto his chest.
He sucked in a sharp breath. I hoped for a small bruise later right where I tapped him.
“This is how it’s going to work, you need her, you’re going to need me. If you need to meet up, you find the quickest and shortest way to say so with your words and meet in a crowded place preferably with cameras and/or a priest nearby.”
His eyes darted from mine to hers then back again. “Alright.”
“Blinking twice to alert the authorities doesn’t get you out of this situation, sweetheart.” I winked. “I am the authority, so get used to it. Now, if you touch her, I remove the part of your body that did the touching—regardless if you need it to survive. Doesn’t matter if it’s a handshake or a very deep breath. Everything counts in my playbook. If you so much as flirt with her without my permission, I’ll find a way to give you a sexually transmitted disease via paper clip, a pencil sharpener, and basic high school chemistry—you’ll be itching your dick before you can ask how.”
He stumbled back, phone in hand. “Got it.”
I stared at his shaking legs. “Huh, you held the piss in, stronger than most, good for you, Casanova.” I smacked him on the shoulder. “And in case none of that landed between your ears where your brain should be, she’s off limits, think of me as the limit. I’m your gateway drug into the holy land—and your only prayer of finishing this assignment alive. I’m your savior, you’re my servant. There will never be a scenario where you sweep in with your money, good looks, talent, or fast car and impress her—trust me she’s seen better. Any questions? No?”
"No sir,” he whispered and looked past me to Raven.
“He always a dick?”
“Always.” She yawned.
“But he’s not wrong. I’m not easily impressed, though I would have liked to see you try, I like being entertained.”
I shook my head.
“Shit for brains would have led with his last name. You can go now, Stuart.”
“Steven,” he corrected.
“Sounds good Sven.” I saluted him with my middle finger.
He muttered “bastard” under his breath, stumbled away from us and tripped just enough to hit the elevator’s down button on the way.
I tilted my head. “He’s too tall for you anyway.”
"Wow, saving me from tall guys and murderers? My hero.” Raven tugged at her ear again, then ran her fingers over her earring. Her tell. Her nervous tic. The crack in her facade.
“Ears hurt?” I asked, knowing the tic by now and wondering if she was aware she even did it when she was uncomfortable or thinking.
She dropped her hand. “No, just hungry, tired, and annoyed that you scared him off. Besides, he seemed nice.”
I pulled out my phone and tapped the screen then tapped it again and sent her the background check I’d already run on him. I wondered if she’d still use the word nice in reference to him once she did a quick scan. I looked forward to the trauma, actually. Did that make me evil or just bored? Either way, she needed the reminder about what nice got you sometimes. She read the text and shot me a glare.
I could have gone my entire life without seeing that.”
“It’s good to know who your partner is.”
She turned and started walking away from me. It’s probably AI.”
“I highly doubt AI allows a pig to legally get taken by a?—“
"Stop trying to ruin lunch!
”
"What?” I fell into step beside her. “I’m just doing my job.”
“Walk behind me then, not next to me.”
“No.”
"Fine.
Walk ahead of me then.
”
“Again, nice, see what I did there? Using nice? Try. But no.”
“Eat shit and die.”
“Maybe once this job is done.”
She stopped dead in her tracks.
“That’s not funny.”
It hit me.
That line right there.
It bothered her. My death somehow triggered her?
“Why would you care anyway? Let’s go.”
I felt it, though.
The slow burn. The ache that the thought brought to my chest.
Like that very shallow grave I was already digging myself the longer I stayed next to her.
It made my heart feel something—warm, I think—that she didn’t like the idea of me being in the cold hard ground.
Too bad she’d soon be disappointed.
My line of work wasn’t conducive with life.
She didn’t know it yet, but my only reason for living.
From here on out.
Was her. Raven Alfero.