Chapter 19 #2
Even if only because it affected his ego. I doubted, however, that there was another currency for him.
“He paid five million,” Rogue grunted into the silence.
“Five… million?” Ace looked entirely torn between shock and relief.
“Yeh.”
“A… bidding war?” he asked.
“There was, but he overshot by a whole mountain,” Thistle put in.
“Why?” Ace asked.
I folded my arms, my eyes meeting Rogue’s. I’d never said it out loud, though I always assumed he knew.
“Because of me,” Rogue said with a shrug.
“You?” Thistle asked.
“Was exactly a hundred times what I paid for him.”
Okay. So he had noticed.
“It was?” Thistle perked up.
“He was being facetious,” he snorted. “Trying to make me sweat.”
Well.
Not the word I would have chosen, but not terribly inaccurate. I had wanted him to sweat. I’d wanted him to lose sleep wondering what kind of value—to me—translated to five million dollars.
Turns out I had been just as unsure about that as anyone else.
Made it a great wild card, I suppose. He couldn’t have worked it out if I hadn’t.
Ace finally relaxed, and it looked like work for him to remove his hand from Thistle’s waist.
“Trust you to rope in some pets in my absence,” he muttered, glancing down at her. “Perhaps I underestimated your ability to keep yourself safe.”
Thistle was glowing with the compliment, and she shifted closer, patting Bunny happily on the head. “We always figure things out.”
Ace sighed, looking around. “Catch me up, then. What do I need to know?”
I filled in the rest of the details: Thistle getting in Bella’s crosshairs because I was her match, and the fallout.
“So, you’re a mole for the authorities?” Ace asked.
“Yup,” I said.
He rolled his eyes. “Of course you are. For how long?”
“Since the moment you turned up here and put him in charge over me,” Rogue replied. “Didn’t give him many options, did you?”
He was right. Rogue had been tied to the Ring, even if not actively. They knew who he was. He’d bought me so he could distance himself, but that had been a peace offering—and the opposite of cutting ties. It made him as culpable as they were, which was the point.
I could have killed him and vanished, but they might have come after me if they didn’t know why.
“Well, there was the most obvious one,” Ace mused.
“I wasn’t participating.”
It had been my best bet.
Rogue had done a decent job of keeping to himself, and I think most of the Ring assumed he’d killed me—or the nameless Alpha he’d bought years ago. Not that anyone cared, or remembered.
Bella hadn’t even known we were mates.
So all I had to do was turn up with him leashed and I’d become a new player in the game—with the instant gravity of having chained one of their own.
Rogue was a Manzo, and his family had endless enemies in other parts of the country, so no one had questioned it.
“So. You’re a double agent for the Nevada trafficking ring. Your scent match just outed you to Carrion—or if she hasn’t, she will soon, and you dragged my mate into the middle of this disaster. Have I missed anything?”
“Nope.” Thistle popped the ‘p’. “But uh, I really need to emphasize the Bella issue.”
“Bella issue?”
“Scent matched bitch who made Knox bite her…” She lifted Bunny up to Ace. “See what she did to Bunny? Tried to fucking kill him.” She shuffled closer to him on the couch, clearly hoping for a reaction. Ace did, to his credit, take a longer look at Bunny than I expected.
If he felt anything, though, he’d returned to hiding it well.
It was hard to keep my face straight as Thistle found the courage to scoot a bit closer to him. I was clearly not built right for a pack, every hint of honied bourbon when she was in the room sent me into daydreams of digging up that goddamned knuckleduster again.
But Ace was like that on steroids.
He belongs to her, not the other way around.
I had to keep that in my brain—and he wouldn’t let her die. But it didn’t feel like enough.
I didn’t just want safety for her. I wanted her happy . I wanted her drawing more than just storms in that sketchbook. The only reason I didn’t lose it every time I caught Rogue’s gaze wandering to her ass was because the prick did make her happy.
But Ace?
There was no promise of that at all.
In fact, the idea that he couldn’t let her die only left me more on edge, because her dependency on him could be born of something similar. If he showed, even once, that he was capable of hurting her, I would lock him back up in that cage without a second thought.
He had one fucking chance.
And if she hated me for that… Well, she’d loved me through muzzling Rogue.
She’d get over it… eventually .
“Okay,” Ace said after what I realised was a long silence.
“Okay?” I asked.
“I can fix your mess.”
I froze, staring at him as he settled his arm down, and it was impossible not to notice how his hand drifted to Thistle’s waist.
“You can?” Thistle asked, wide-eyed, and she shuffled closer on instinct.
I didn’t believe him.
No way could he have come up with a solution that quick.
But… what if he had?
I hated the little whisper in my head that this was Ace Maverick. A kingpin so prolific that his name had frequently come up in trafficking circles.
It took all my self-control not to look at Rogue. If I did, with that ice-blue gaze fixed on me like it was, he’d know how unsure I was.
“Yup.” Ace leaned lazily on the armrest. “But first. My mansion.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You want to go back?”
“Yes.”
“You can give us the details,” I began. “We can?—”
“No.” Ace’s voice cut me off, ice cold. “You want me to fix the mess you made? I’m going back.”
“Not a chance.” I wasn’t letting him wander out of here to get up to god knew what.
He tilted his head, lifting his hand from where it rested on Thistle’s waist. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Thistle tense, eyes sliding to him as even the shadow of his touch vanished.
I forced my gaze back to him. “What do you need your house for?”
“It’s political.”
“Explain.” I folded my arms.
A smile curved his lips. “No.”
“Then you get fuck all.”
Ace shrugged. “Then enjoy planning without me.”
I sneered.
He was here to help because otherwise he’d be sent back to insanity. But I truly wasn’t sure if he was bluffing when he said he didn’t care.
“What would be the point?” Rogue asked. “If you went.”
I threw him a dirty look. I didn’t like giving Ace an inch when he was acting like this.
“ If I go…” Ace said the words slowly, and as he spoke, his hand shifted, gently brushing the back of Thistle’s hair.
She perked up, leaning into the touch, something bright in her eyes, which darted his way, even if she didn’t look at him fully.
“I would keep the point to myself until you needed to know.”
I let out a breath. “I’m not playing games.” As the words came out of my mouth, Ace shifted, the hand that had been playing with her hair, instead palming the back of his neck.
“No?” he asked.
I froze, caught between his answer, and the distinct flash of frustration from Thistle. I saw it in her eyes, the way she tensed, and caught it in her scent.
He was using her to taunt us.
I opened my mouth, then shut it.
My instinct told me to get to my feet and slam my fist straight into his face.
Except…
Thistle was still healing, and the contentment in her expression as she settled into the crook of his arm, it was enough to make my chest ache.
A cold smile stretched Ace’s lips as he followed my gaze. “Keep going, Knox,” he said, eyes flashing. “Don’t stop there.”
My heart raced, pure hatred burning my veins as I watched his hand drop to her waist again. Thistle went still, a flush rushing up her neck as she settled closer against him. A delicate hand rose cautiously, then settled on his chest.
“Knox?” Thistle asked. “Are you okay?”
I shook my head, unclenching my jaw and taking a breath. “I’ll give you one chance. Screw it up and it won’t happen again.”
Sure enough, the moment the words were out of my mouth, Ace’s fingers clamped down on her waist, and with his other hand, he drew her chin up.
“Omega,” he said quietly. Her gaze snapped up to him.
“Uh huh?” she asked, cheeks bright pink.
“You’re beautiful today.”
“I am?” Thistle sounded shocked.
The world was fading into a red haze. I couldn’t look away, couldn’t even look at Rogue—who had to know what was going on.
“Everything my soul match should be,” he went on.
Her fingers had curled in his shirt as she drew closer, eyes wide and sparkling with relief. Ace leaned forward and drew his chin along her forehead. A squeak of ecstatic delight slipped from Thistle’s throat. Her chest was heaving, and for a moment, I thought she was going to mount him.
Fuck .
“Doll,” I said, my voice tight.
“Yup?” She looked at me, eyes still bright from the compliment.
“Would you mind if I spoke to Bunny alone?”
I took a little satisfaction in the way Ace’s smile went stiff around the edges.
“I…” She looked between us, confused. “Did I do something wrong?”
“Not at all,” I said, but she looked far too worried. “I have jealousy issues that aren’t conducive to… negotiation.”
The smile that lit up her face was far worth the concession that statement offered Ace. But if he thought pride was how he’d get to me, he was so fucking wrong.
Thistle hopped to her feet, looking very smug, and crossed to me.
I lifted my knuckles to her cheek, trying to settle the fury still stirring. She didn’t let me brush her skin, though, catching my finger in her teeth, violet eyes glittering as she looked up at me.
“I leave on one condition,” she said as she drew back.
It was like she knew she had me in a vice. That she could ask for anything right now and my first instinct would be to say yes.
That was a challenge I wouldn’t lose, though.
It was becoming increasingly obvious that the only thing that stood between Thistle and absolute queen-ship over this pack was self-confidence. I should probably go easy on letting her know that I needed a level head to have any chance of fixing the disaster we were in.
“What’s that?” I asked.
She leaned close, her whisper just for me. “Rogue’s night, your night, now you let me have Bunny.”
I refrained from looking over at him.
A whole fucking night?
But Thistle leaned back with a pout. “That’s fair.”
I scowled. I was running out of ways to stop her, barring chaining her up. Which… would be hot. But possibly counter-productive right now. Plus, if I kept giving her orders I knew she’d break, I would run thin on any real leverage. “Maybe.”
The smile that lit up her face told me how fast her brat filter had translated that word.
She leaned up and pressed her lips to mine before crossing to Rogue and planting a kiss on his cheek, then she squeezed her stuffed bunny tight and hurried out.
I turned back to the other two, trying to contain my flare of annoyance as I saw Ace’s stupid face again.
“She’s fragile,” I said through gritted teeth.
“Is she?” Ace asked. “My weaker half. Always so ready to snap?—”
“Shut your mouth,” I snarled, leaning forward. “You don’t get to break her, then complain she needs fixing.”
She was stronger than Ace had ever needed to be.
She was hurt, not weak.
“Maybe she shouldn’t have been so easy to break,” Ace mused.
I couldn’t help but look at Rogue. He hadn’t said enough. Hadn’t defended her enough.
He was tense, but not as much as me, and he was watching Ace with a more curious gaze than an angry one.
“How about this,” Ace said. “You stop trying to micromanage how I protect my mate, and then maybe you’ll find I won’t wind her up so much.”
I took a breath, jaw still clenched, mind racing. Thistle had a habit of scrambling things up.
I needed to start treating him like I did the Ring.
“Your mansion. If you go, we go with you,” Rogue said. I frowned, sparing a glare for him, but he shrugged. “What’s the worst that happens? We leave Thistle with the Misfits, if he tries to pull anything they can keep her out of the way until he undoes it.”
“Great,” Ace said. “It’s sorted. Tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow?” I asked.
“If you want me to bail your sorry ass out, Knox,” he said, getting to his feet, “we’ve got to get moving .”
“What’s your plan?”
Ace’s grin was broad as he gave me a fake smile, and then exited out of the room.
There was a ringing silence in his wake. “Do you believe him?” I asked after far too long.
Rogue gave a so-so motion with his head. “Dunno, but what’s the harm in finding out? You got a better idea?”
I already had people trying to find Bella’s location, but even once she was dead, it didn’t save us from Carrion.
“Are you okay with him screwing with her like that?” I was surprised. I expected Rogue to be more angry than I was. “You want to just let him fuck with her like?—”
“She’s not afraid of him.”
“So what?”
“So.” He shrugged. “You give him more power if you decide you’re going to be on her behalf.”
“I’m not afraid. I just want to put a bullet in his skull.”
“But you can’t, and he knows that.”
“You were the one beating on him?—”
“And what happened when I did?” Rogue demanded.
My mind cycled back to Thistle darting between them looking nervous and helping him up. Rogue, it seemed, hadn’t missed that.
I rubbed my chin, anger still bubbling up. “You saw what he was doing—you think I should’ve played along?”
“I think we should manage him if he becomes a problem. If you let him negotiate over possibilities, he gets more than he deserves.”
“So you want to let him?—”
“Show her affection?” Rogue asked. “Far as I can tell, she was happy.”
“But he’ll only do it if he gets what he wants?”
Rogue rolled his eyes. “He’s bonded to her. He might hate it, but he needs her to survive if he wants to—and he does . We go with him to the mansion, he sees it as a win, she gets a win—and we can let him play his cards for us to see.”
I stared at him, something bitter curling my lips, but Rogue shrugged.
“Until the moment she’s upset, I don’t give a fuck what he does. Let him scramble.”
What?
Had that looked like scrambling to him? “What if he plays her ?—?”
“She heat bonded him. Alphas like him don’t like losing—he’s grappling with that.
Let him—and let her find her footing. You know what I want to see?
” Rogue asked. “I want to see him on his knees before her. That’s it.
But if you can’t get your shit together, you’ll hand him the power to take that from her, too?—”
“I won’t?—”
“Then let her lead .”