by Holly Hood
Suddenly, there was a weird chirping noise. Barely able to tell where it was coming from, I followed the chirp and found Ace’s cell phone on the ground by the wall where he had snatched Gray up. I couldn’t tell who was calling. It only had a number, so I decided to answer. Maybe it was for a job, I didn’t want him to miss it.
“Hello?” I said softly, feeling a little nervous.
“Can I speak to Evan?” an older man asked, his accent Italian … I wasn’t sure, almost like New Jersey or something. I only knew because part of my dad’s family was Italian and it sort of sounded the same.
“Um, I think you got the wrong number,” I said.
“No sweetie, I call the same number every time. This is Evan’s phone,” he half laughed at me.
I stood, confused, trying to come up with something to say, but before I could speak, Ace grabbed the phone from me with a concerned look.
“Yeah, hey, sorry about that,” he said, heading out my front door. He barely even motioned to me that he was heading out. I stared after him, lingering in the foyer, trying to catch anything he was saying to show he knew this person and, obviously, the name was right in some way.
Even though he had told me his name was Ace, I was starting to feel like maybe I didn’t know everything I needed to know about him. And maybe, like my intuition had said, I had been right and he had been lying or hiding something. It was starting to make me sick. I didn’t want to look stupid for letting this guy come in and win me over just to be duped in the end. That was what everyone expected to happen and I was truly hoping it wouldn’t. My head was going crazy up until he came back in the house.
“I didn’t know I dropped my phone,” he said, acting nonchalantly.
“Yeah, it was over by the wall.” I pointed, barely even there.
He looked closely at my expression, suddenly realizing that something wasn’t right with me. “This doesn’t look good for me does it?”
“No, not really,” I said, crossing my arms.
“Eve, don’t freak out on me. I want to be open with you. It wasn’t a deliberate thing that I was doing.” He moved toward me. I backed up… right into Gray. Ace stopped talking as soon as we both saw him.
“Don’t freak out about what?” Gray asked, throwing his shoes on. Devan darted out the door with her little purse. She wasn’t sticking around apparently. Gray looked at me and then at Ace. Ace sighed practically kicking the screen door open and bolted out of it.
“Ace!” I yelled after him.
“Eve, what is going on? I swear to God, if he is doing anything to you I will kill him right in the front yard!” he yelled, looking past me to the door.
“He’s not, and it’s not your concern. Will you just shut up Gray! Shut up for once!” I yelled, hitting him in the chest.
“I’m not. I’m your brother. Like me or not, that’s what I’m here for!” he yelled back.
“I don’t need you to do anything. And I’m sick of having to explain anything to someone who doesn’t even care anyway.”
“I care!” he yelled at me with a serious expression.
“You care about this family and what is going to happen to its reputation. You don’t care about what is going on with me, so leave me alone! If I wanted your help I would ask and I am not!”
Devan threw open the door, her face upset as she looked at us both.
“Listen to your sister, Gray. She is eighteen. Keep your nose out of it. That guy out there is not one to mess with. Have an ego all you want, but not this time. Let’s go!” She yelled this time, and I knew, she was mad.
Gray stared at me for a few moments and headed out the door behind Devan. I followed. Ace was standing on the step as they passed.
Gray stopped going down the steps. “Remember what I said, she may say she doesn’t need my help, but I will do what is right, just remember!” He poked Ace in the chest with his finger.
Ace leaped onto Gray so fast I barely had time to scream as they both fell down the stairs and rolled onto the lawn. Ace took one hand and pinned Gray with the other. They both were viciously attacking each other.
I ran down the steps to them but stopped short, nervous about trying to break it up. I looked at Devan. She stood still as well. Gray got a hand free and hit Ace in the side of the face, grunting loudly. Ace barely responded to his blow and came back with what seemed like an endless amount of blows to every part of Gray’s face. He was like a machine and the only thing I could see Gray do was try to block his fist.
“Get him off of him! He’s going to kill him!” Devan yelled, jumping up and down in hysterics.
I screamed at Ace. “Stop it right now!”
Finally, Ace let go, rolling off Gray. He got up, panting. Gray sat up on the ground, his face swollen and bloody.
“Devan get my phone!” he yelled at her.
“No! “ I yelled back. Devan stopped in her tracks. “You get up and leave or do whatever you were planning on doing, you brought it on yourself.”
Gray got up, spitting dirt out of his mouth. He touched his face, wincing. Ace stood watching. I was mad at everyone.
Gray lingered. “Go, Gray, now. Because I don’t think you want Mom and Dad hearing about this.” That’s all it took for him to go. And I knew that.
Ace stayed away from me, staring in my direction. His face had a small cut from Gray, but he looked nothing like Gray did- Gray had taken way more blows. I was sure he would have a split lip and a black eye and who knew what else, maybe even a broken nose.
“All I want to know is this,” I said, turning away to walk up the stairs.
“What’s that?” Ace said, not even trying to follow me.
“Is it Ace or not?”
“Not. It’s Evan. And if you will let me explain, I will.”
Chapter 8
Overload
I was sure that I wanted to hear him out before I judged him. I knew that I owed him that much seeing he was nonjudgmental with me. Though I wasn’t sure how I would feel after. So after I was sure Gray would not call the police, I locked the house up and we started walking. I don’t think either one of us was thinking about where we were going, we just walked.
“I’m sorry,” Ace, or Evan, said.
“For what,” I asked, keeping in time with his feet.
“I’m sorry for a few different things,” he said, slowing his pace as we stopped at a crosswalk. The wind whipped my hair wildly all over the place.
“Will you just tell me what I don’t know about you and I will tell you if you need to be sorry or not.”
“How do I begin?”
“At the beginning,” I said, laughing dryly as we rounded a corner. There were barely any people out and about. The weather was gray and the wind was super annoying- I felt like I had a bunch of rabid snakes whipping around on the top of my head.
He turned down an alley and sat down on a wooden crate. “What are you doing?” I asked, afraid to sit. It was dirty and a little too remote. Even with him here, who knew what kind of characters were in these places?
“I’m going to explain everything to you. No one will hear me here. And if you want to leave or scream…you can.”
He pulled me by my hand to the crate in front of him. I sat, anxious as to what he meant, what it was he had to tell me and trying to get a grip on what I might do. It was a great deal of thinking.
“Okay,” was all I said, crossing my legs and pursing my lips.
He stared at me quietly at first and I could tell there were a million thoughts in his head. I could tell he was trying to find a way to make it all come out. He rested his elbows on his knees and took a few deep sighs before he started talking. And when he opened his mouth I was amazed, scared, hurt, angry, happy- I was so many emotions. I wanted to cry, I wanted to yell, I wanted to fall apart, I wanted to do just about everything.
“My name is Evan Carlo, so I did lie about that. I never told you about my family because I didn’t have much of one. My mother was young when she had me
and she gave me to an older lady after a few weeks because she couldn’t do it, I guess. So I was raised by Donna until I was about seven, I think. Donna ended up dying. And that is when I was taken in by Carlo.” He explained each thing to me as best he could, barely looking at me as he talked.
“Where is Carlo?” I asked.
“He is in Jersey. That’s where I grew up once I was with him.”
“What was he like?”
“He was good to me, he taught me a lot. He taught me how to be a man. And if not for him, I wouldn’t have a job, a family, a place to call home. I have so much respect for that man.” He stared down the alley.
“Well that’s a great thing. He sounds like he is a good man.”
“To some, it’s all in the way you look at things. When I met you I saw that in you. I saw that you had that unblinking eye when it came to your judgment in people.”
“What do you mean?”
“You were out in the woods drinking, a big guy wanders through and you didn’t freak out. You stayed long enough to know my intentions. It made me feel like you weren’t so judging.”
“I did though. I was scared.”
“You didn’t show it.”
“No. I was trying to figure you out.”
“That is why I think, in some ways, maybe I can get you to accept me for me.”
“I want to, I really do.”
“Why?”
“Because you have done that for me, and you make me feel un-judged,” I said looking at him.
He looked up and smiled a bit, but then went back to serious. “That’s the best thing you could say. Now, whether or not you will stand by it is another story.”
“Just tell me. Let me be the judge.”
“Carlo took me in, and he had two others, basically like his kids. It was as if I had an instant family again. It was nice. I had two brothers. Carlo, to some, may be a monster, but to me, he’s not. He’s my father. He did what he had to do to take care of me and I don’t look at him like others look at him. God this is hard…..” He stopped talking, sighing and just staring at me. I looked back, not knowing what to say. I was just waiting. I was waiting to hear God knows what.
“He raised us- Me, Kenny and Mark- to learn what he knew and to be part of his family. It’s all about respect, and we all took really quickly to everything they were about. After you grow up around it all, you just feel normal.”
“What? I don’t get what you’re saying, Carlo is into what?”
“His family is very powerful. To explain it in simple terms is hard, but basically, they are who almost everyone comes to when they need, um…any favors.”
“Like the mafia?” I asked in awe more than shock.
“We don’t believe there is such thing as a mafia, but yeah, basically.”
“Okay, so, favors. I’m sure that entails all sorts of things legal and illegal. I know to some that may be enough to scare them away, but it doesn’t really bother me. Why would you think that would make me not like you? It’s your family.”
He didn’t show relief. Instead, he shook his head, looking up at the sky, sighing again.
“You’re not getting what I am saying. I am part of that family and I do work for Carlo along with my brothers. I don’t think you get that.”
“Okay. So you’re employed by your father.” I shrugged.
“Eve, listen to me”
“I am listening. I don’t know why you want me to be so disturbed. It’s not that big of a deal. I know you enough to not feel threatened.”
“Because what I do for him is disturbing. I don’t steal cars or go rough someone up. I kill them.”
It was as if someone hit me in the head with a brick, my heart bashed my chest. He watched me closely. ”If you kill them, would you ever hurt me?”
“No.”
“Okay. Are they bad people?”
“It’s not something I want to discuss with anyone,” he trailed off.
I kept looking at him, trying to see a killer. He didn’t seem any different from when I first met him.
“You don’t seem different to me,” I said, touching his arm. His hands were nervously balled up. He relaxed at my touch, taking my hand in his.
“I thought that you would say that. But I don’t ever want to scare you or make you fear me. If I do, you just say the word and I will leave you alone.” He squeezed my hand.
“You don’t scare me, you make me feel safe. You know what would scare me though?”
“What’s that?”
“You getting caught or getting yourself in trouble and me never seeing you again because you’re in jail or something,” I said, feeling the pains in my chest from the thought of it.
“That is not going to happen, believe me. Don’t think twice about that.”
“How do you know something like that?”
“Because, you don’t know my family or what all this involves like I do.” He stood up. The alley was even darker, but now knowing what I knew I didn’t care if a gang of fifty came out of anywhere. It wouldn’t have mattered to me.
“So why did you tell me your name was Ace?” I asked, taking his hand as we walked back onto the street.
“That’s what Carlo has always called me, so it just came out I guess. You can call me Evan or Ace, I don’t care.”
“I like Evan. You look like an Evan,” I laughed. “What does it feel like to… you know?”
“I don’t think about it. It’s very numbing. I don’t even feel like I’m there. Sort of like a blackout or something, I don’t know.” He put his arm around my shoulders holding tight to me as we walked. A million words could not describe how I felt knowing that this guy that I liked more and more each time I talked to him was basically a hired assassin.
I didn’t care that he probably could end my life in seconds and probably not think twice about it. And I didn’t care that he had ended other people’s lives either. All that I cared about was that he was a good person to me.
Chapter 9
Timing
“Eve, I can’t concentrate with the music this loud,” my mother griped as she drove down the highway.
We were on our way back from the mall- she had begged me to go. I accepted just to get her off my case so that when Evan came over she wasn’t going to say that I spent all my time with him as she always did.
I hit the off button, leaning my head against the window. She had insisted on me picking out new clothes so I bought some jeans and a few tops that caught my eye. She bought herself some new high heels that she said were made for her feet. I thought anything with an expensive price tag seemed to be made for her.
“Is Ace coming over before dinner?”
“Evan.”
“Honey, I just don’t understand how we met him as Ace and now I am supposed to be okay with calling him Evan.”
I gave my mother a dirty look. She just never understood anything out of the norm.
“It’s called a nickname. His father calls him Ace. I like Evan better.”
She pulled into the driveway. Gray and my dad were both outside working on my dad’s old mustang he was restoring- it was something they had been doing for years. They would remake an old classic and then sell it or take it to a show a few times, then sell it.
“Hey hon, I’ll start dinner. I think Ace, or I mean Evan, may be joining us tonight.” She kissed my dad and practically floated into the house on all her pleasantness. My dad grunted as he slid underneath the mustang.
Gray handed him a tool looking over at me. “Sounds like a great dinner,” he said to no one in particular.
“What’s that mean Gray?” my dad asked from below.
“Oh, nothing. I was kidding.” He leaned into the car, staring away from me.
Ever since he and Evan fought, Gray didn’t have a whole lot to say to me anymore. He never told my parents what happened, just that he was messing around and tripped and hit a door handle. And of course they bought it, because it was coming from Gray.
<
br /> I truly believed that Gray was not into messing with my boyfriend or me anymore. For once, I think he knew when to shut up, and I was pleased.
Evan pulled up, coming to a stop at behind Gray’s jeep. Gray barely lifted his head before going back to what he was doing. Evan came walking up, a smile spreading from ear to ear.
“Hey, sup,” he said to me, tugging on my shirt sleeve playfully.
