14. EMMA
Chapter fourteen
EMMA
I lay here resting my head on Ace's chest rising with each of his breaths as I trail the tip of my finger up and down his stomach.
Thinking of the events that have played since Ace and I have met, it's been a fucking wild ride but since I've met him, he has done nothing but protect me.
Of course it started as a game but when we learned we were to wed, something changed in him.
A contract marriage has turned into something more like an undeniable connection between the two of us.
I never wanted this life, mainly because I never thought that in this world, I would find a man like Ace.
Yes, he is fearless, a dark and twisted man, but he is not scared to show emotion.
At least he isn't to me, and to me that's what I want in a man.
With all these emotions flowing through me, it's harder for me to not have that fear now, of losing him.
Him being taken from me, like everything else good in my life has scared the fuck out of me.
I hear him set his phone down on the nightstand so I adjust myself, laying my arms across his chest, I rest my chin on my hands, as I look up to him and ask. “What's going on back home?” I have the right to know, it is half my empire afterall. And he took my phone and laptop.
His jaw clenches before he swallows hard. “We can't find your father. ”
I chew at my lip trying to think of a place where he may be hiding. “I assume the safehouses have been checked?”
“Yes, all of them. His estate, the hotels; he's disappeared. Ace growls with his words. His breathing quickens in pace and I continue to think of where my father could be and honestly, I don’t know.
Ace has been wanting to say something to me so, while I think, I try to take his mind off it for a minute.
“You've been wanting to say something Ace, what is it?”
He takes a deep breath, a really deep one, raising me with his breath before it escapes his lungs with his words. “I need you to do something for me, without fighting me on it.” I lift a brow, my words follow with annoyance. “Spit it out, Ace.”
He cocks a brow at my tone before a smirk forms from the corner of his lip. “When we get to Russia, you're going to stay with Bear while I go back and find your father.”
I spring backwards, sitting up in the bed as my voice comes out loud and fucking stern. “NO. FUCK NO.”
“It's not up for discussion, Baby Girl.” I feel betrayed, used, and fucking livid as my heart pounds in my chest and I stare him in the eye.
A Devilish huff sounds out before I lay into him.
“That's my city. I have been there working alongside our father's, running our empires every fucking day while you were in Russia!”
“Bab-”
“NO! I will not let you leave me in Russia.”
“Emma. I can't have you there. You fucking distract me. I can't fucking think clear like I need to.” He spits.
“That's not my fucking problem!”
“GODDAMNIT, EMMA!” He growls with his words before his hand latches around my throat, firmly holding as his darkened eyes bore into mine, the fire igniting in them, burning hot while he growls.. “You WILL stay there, my decision is made, and you will not change it, or anyone else.”
My lip curls into a snarl before I ask him an honest question. “You really think us being apart is safer?”
“No, I don't, there is nowhere safer than in my arms.”
“Then why? Why do you have to leave me?”
“I need to be the man I was trained to be, Baby Girl.
And I can't do that with you around me. You cloud my mind, I'm too focused on your safety. Baby, I was never trained.” He pauses as his icy blues return, they bore into mine before his words come out just above a whisper.
“I was never trained how to love and be the man I am. The man I have to be to keep you and our empire safe.”
My heart slams against my chest with his words, the gaze he holds on me, the purity to his words melting me, tears threatening to fill my eyes. “You did something to me a long time ago that no one has ever done. And then that night at the races; you are all I can think about.”
A smile forms on my lips thinking back to the night we saw each other for the first time since we were kids, at the office but then, he caught me racing.
“I guess you caught me then, didn't you?” Whispering my question, knowing what the answer is, yes, he has caught me, and I'm head over heels for him.
“I will always catch you.” He hooks his hands around my hips, and pulls me onto his lap as I straddle him, his warm hands rest against my bare skin on my thighs, resting my palms against his chest. “I need you to do this for me, Baby Girl, so I can find your father, and then.” A Devilish grin twists from those delicious lips of his.
“Then, I will bring you home so you can do whatever that beautifully twisted mind of yours has been dreaming of doing.”
I want that, more than anything. I have dreamed of exactly what I want to do and how it will take hours, showing no mercy. I will show him the worst version of himself, and then some. But as much as I want that, I do not want to be away from Ace, the only person I can trust. “I don't like this.”
“I know, but I promise I will bring you home as soon as I find your father.” I take a deep breath as I shake my head, letting it out, my eyes fluttering closed.
“Look at me.” His firm words cause my lids to rise and I stare into those gorgeous eyes.
“Okay Ace, if I do this for you, you have to promise me something.” He cocks a brow, my invitation to continue.
“We take Luca down together.” He shakes his head. “Bab-”
“No, you and I are stronger together than apart, if you would let yourself believe that.” He searches my eyes as I stare into his, he knows I'm right.
Luca is a dangerous man, far more dangerous than my father, and he needs my help to take him down.
“I'll make you a deal. I'll let you stay with me in the city after I find your father, but when it comes to Luca.” He shakes his head as his eyes darken.
“He's mine and I will be the one to end the war with him, this is my fight I started years ago when I killed his son.”
“Yes, I'm aware of that.” He lifts a questioning brow. “My father enlightened me as he tried to choke me to death.”
Ace growls with his words. “Are you going to tell me about that?”
“No. Not yet, but I will.” I watch the look of concern spread across his face. I will tell him but I am so sickened by my father, I don't want to talk about it. So I change the subject. “So, who is the Bear person?”
“He's my best friend; You’ll love him. He's a big teddy bear when he wants to be. And he's got your car.”
“Oh?”
“You can trust him. He knows how important you are to me.”
A wave of warmth floods my body as a smile twists from my lips, watching Ace reach up, cradling my face in his hand, I lean into him.
“You are the most important person in my life, Baby Girl.
That's why I need you to do this.” Everything in my body is telling me to fight this and not let him control me, but him admitting my importance, his feelings, I have to trust he's being honest and doing this for the right reasons.
I mean I have to watch my back always, my empire is on the line here.
I know he's doing this to protect our empires and me, not to steal my empire and gain more power. I know that, I see it, and most importantly, I feel it in every bone in my body. I also feel everything for a man I knew when I was young, but also don’t know him at all.
And now, we are married, and love incases my heart completely, swallowing it whole.
“Okay.” He leans forward and presses his lips to mine before he pulls back, hovering over my lips.
“Let's take this outside on the deck so I can drool over what's mine in a bikini.” I smile against his lips as I whisper.
“I say that sounds perfect.” If he's leaving, I want to spend what time we have together, because in the deepest parts of my heart, the fear of losing him now is greater than anything I have ever felt before.
I lift myself from his lap before I stand from the bed as he follows. “I'll meet you out there, I need to check on something.”
“Okay.” I say as I continue to walk to the bathroom, letting him do what he needs to do. I look over my shoulder as he slips on his swim trunks, before he snatches his phone from the night stand and walks out the door.
I grab my bag and pull out my bikini. I adjust the straps, checking myself out in the mirror, before I make my way to the deck.
So many emotions flood my every fucking nerve, twisting my stomach in a knot, learning Ace's feelings and how he sees us.
I've never loved. I wasn't able to find a man to share that with.
But with Ace, even though we started as a contract, not like a normal, hey we date and you pop the question kind of relationship.
Nothing normal or traditional, but let's be real, there's nothing normal about either of us.
But no matter how it started, it did, and I am falling in love with him.
ACE
I get out on the deck and look out, not a fucking thing in site and it's calming before I hit the green button on my phone to call my father back and find out what he wanted.
The phone rings in my ear, annoying the shit out of me, but he answers after the third ring.
“We need to talk, are you alone?” I look around and make sure I am, even though I already know I am before I answer. “Yes, Papa.”
“I'm in Russia.” He spits. Are you fucking serious right now, he left our fucking empire unattended. “Why are you in Russia? You are supposed to be-”
“I'm doing what needs to fucking be done.” My father growls the words in the tone, I do not threaten to challenge. “There is someone here that Emma hasn't seen since she was a little girl. And trust me son, when she learns this, her twisted little mind is going to go feral.”
Knowing first hand I have seen those dangerous little hands of hers go to work there was no hesitation in her movements when she tortured Rocco, she is beautifully twisted, my beautifully twisted wife.
I can only imagine what she has planned for her father and now my father is telling me there is yet another secret to tell her. The words bark from my mouth. “Who?”
“Do you remember April?” Furrowing my brows, my head cocks back.
Of course I remember April, she practically raised my ass in Russia.
She kept my head on right when I needed that mother figure, she was always there.
She lived in the little cottage at the back of our estate and would come to the main house often, she was a part of our family, I just never knew how. “I do. What is she to Emma?”
“Does she know you are leaving her there?” His question puts a pit in my throat, almost like I'm suffocating; yeah she knows, but is it what I want anymore? No.
“Yes, Papa, she knows. She's not happy about it.”
“I will be there in the morning to tell you both, she needs to hear this from me.”
“Fuck, Papa. What did you do?”
“I'll see you in the morning.” He hangs up without another word, which causes me to throw my phone on the cushion as the words roar from my mouth. “FUCK!”
I run my hands over my face in frustration before they comb through my hair, gripping my hair in my hands as I stare out trying to calm my breathing, my racing heart, my gut twists into knots, racking my brain around trying to figure this out on my own.
Trying to focus on things back in Russia, trying to pick up any detail that would remind me of Emma.
April was a sweet lady, about my dads age.
I do remember her and my father talking a lot when he would visit.
My eyes close shut, picturing her in my head, and it hits me. Oh fuck... it's her...