“I can’t believe you just said that to me.”
Shrugging, Barbara pulled out the bacon and set it aside to drain on a napkin then quickly cut up some vegetables into the skillet. “Maybe he thinks you’re getting too attached.”
“I love him like a brother. I can’t believe he just threw me away.”
“Don’t go beating yourself up about that, Tiff. The girl’s right, having you close when he’s falling in love is one too many women to worry about.”
Both women turned to find Earnest standing in the doorway. For one brief moment, Barbara thought about how well his name suited him. He did look very earnest as he continued speaking. “Some men are not very versatile. Some of us are real narrow-minded about relationships. We only have enough time, energy, and focus to take care of one woman properly. When Shelly was alive, I didn’t want to waste my time with anybody but my wife. I felt that every minute I wasted with another woman was a minute I missed being with her.”
Tiffany looked devastated. “I suppose what you’re saying makes sense. I just never had very many friends, and I thought Ace and I were tight.”
“Give him some time to get acclimated to being in a relationship. I’m sure he’ll eventually come around.” Barbara was in wonder at herself for giving that kind of advice to the pretty nurse she was beginning to think of as competition for face time with Ace.
“Thanks,” Tiffany said solemnly. “I’m going to go see if Alyssa wants to do something.”
“You know that you can’t leave the clubhouse right now,” Earnest reminded her. “We’re on lockdown. Hickory should be dropping off your mother anytime now, the filthy bastard.”
Tiffany’s smile was tired and sad. “You two keep it up and she’s going to kick you both to the curb.”
Barbara tuned out the conversation they were having about Tiffany’s mother and finished Ace’s breakfast. Arranging it nicely on the plate, she headed out back in the direction Tiffany had come from. Sure enough, Ace was sitting outside tipping the last of his coffee into his mouth.
Though his expression was blank, his eyes lit up as he watched her walking up. Handing him the plate, she heard him gasp. “This is not whoremade food. It looks like something out of a magazine and it’s too pretty to eat. Don’t get me wrong, I’m gonna gobble it right down ‘cause I’m starving.”
Barbara watched him look the plate over with happy eyes.
“Where does a man start on a delicacy like this?”
Picking up the fork, she cut off a bit off the side. “This isn’t my best work because I didn’t have a lot to work with in terms of ingredients. The bottom is toasted Italian bread cut at an angle to give it the unusual shape. I fried your egg ‘cause I didn’t know if you liked poached or not. I made a light hollandaise sauce with some fresh chives and bacon on the side. The greenery is just garnish. I suppose you could eat it, but it wouldn’t add much to the meal. I should have made a little side of hash browns but I couldn’t find any potatoes…”
Leaning over, he opened his mouth. Barbara loved spoon feeding her big, complicated guy. Biting her lip, she watched him chew and swallow.
“Do you have any idea what I’ve been eating for the last ten years or so?”
“I’ll bet prison food is kind of like the food served in the cafeteria when we were kids,” she guessed, and that was never very good.
“Close but not quite. It’s nowhere near as good as school food.” Pointing to the plate, he explained, “Compared to this, prison food is like something you scraped off your shoe and tried to eat. This tastes amazing. Quick, shove some more in my face, before I do a face-plant and just start gobbling it up like a dog.”
Laughing, she fed him a large fork full. “You’re such a goof. I made you a special coffee as well.”
“Good, ‘cause I just finished the cup I made.”
“Well, I cleaned the pot out and found a fresh packet. I don’t know how you take it normally, but I jazzed it up a bit.” Handing him the cup, she waited for him to chew his bite and take a sip.
Smiling, he murmured, “It tastes like a cross between coffee and hot chocolate. It’s really good.”
Taking the plate back from him, she fed him another bite. “I’m glad you like it. I love cooking and always dreamed of having a man who appreciated the effort that went into making a good meal.”
“You definitely found him.”
They sat together and she fed him a few more bites. “You’re really sweet, angel. Thanks for last night and for making me this nice breakfast.”
Smiling at him, she quipped, “I can see you’re all confused. The nice breakfast is my personal thank you for last night, big guy.”
“Liar. You’d have made this for me even if I was crap in bed, ‘cause you like to cook.”
Smothering back a laugh, she had to admit the handsome devil had her number. “I wish you’d let me make you a nice meal at my place. I have all my cooking utensils and spices there. It would be a hundred times better than this.”
His eyes glittered. “You’re on, sweetheart.”
“Really?”
“Once we put this whole mess behind us, I’ll let you cook to your heart’s content. If I get fat eating all that delicious food, you’re still gonna love me, right?”
“You already know the answer to that question, but for the sake of argument, I’m going to say nothing could make me stop loving you. You’re totally it for me, handsome.”
That expression she couldn’t nail passed briefly over his face again. “It’s the same for me, angel. I can’t imagine feeling about anyone else the way I feel about you.”
“Is there anything I can do to help get us out of this situation with the bodies? Jesus, I just realized that I don’t even have the terminology in my brain to properly discuss this situation.”
He reached out a hand and clasped her knee. “My brothers are out pounding the pavement for answers, even as we speak. Peb’s facial recognition software has been running all night and should be finishing up any time now.”
Exasperated, she said, “I feel so useless. Sometimes I wish that I was like all the women I see in the movies. They’re brave, strong, and can’t wait to get out there and kick some bad guy ass. I’ve never hit anyone in my life and honestly don’t have the vaguest clue how to be helpful in this situation.”
“Around here, we have a long history of pulling together when the going gets rough. We all contribute whatever we’re good at.”
Barbara frowned. “I’m the lady with fourteen coordinated throw pillows on her sofa and a hand-painted coffee table. I have a dozen Pinterest boards with recipes for every occasion and a collection of cool summer vacation destinations. Other than that, I dig the occasional fossil, teach my classes, and do a little yoga. It feels like I’ve been living in a bizarre middle-class bubble my entire life, and consequently, I have not developed one single skill that could help us find a way out of this mess.”
Interrupting her escalating tirade, he stated casually, “You’d be the very first person voted off the island.”
“I’d be the what?” He saw the understanding click on her face and she flushed. “You’re right, of course. If only I could bake us out of this situation, we’d have it made.”
“I know when the brothers come back, they’re going to be starving. If you were in a mood to cook away some of your anxieties, I know they’d appreciate it.”
Perking up, Barbara was totally on board with that idea. “I don’t want to sound all girly, but I honestly do love cooking, and it would really take my mind off this whole ugly situation.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want to seem like I’m forcing your into the stereotypical homemaker role.”
“I know there’s not a lot of status in being a homemaker, and it’s not particularly PC right now for women to embrace that role, but I love cooking and taking care of my home. When all the other kids wanted Hot Wheels and slippy slides, I was all about the Easy Bake Oven and Dream House. Don’t fe
el bad offering me the role I love, handsome.”
Smiling, he encouraged, “Make a list of everything you need and I’ll send one of the prospects to shop for you. Do just as much as you like and don’t push yourself to hard. Leave the dead bodies and all that crap to me.”
Leaning over, she gave him a quick kiss. “Thanks. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
He deadpanned back, “You’d still be rubbing out one in the shower all by yourself.”
Laughter bubbled up at his reminder of her dry spell. “I forgot I told you about that.”
“Well, I don’t forget much, beautiful.”
“Just so you know, being in the shower with you is tons more fun than just thinking about you while I shower alone.”
“Yeah, it was for me, too. Don’t be surprised if I intentionally get myself dirty, so you have to clean me up again.”
She bit the inside of her cheek. “An image just flashed through my mind of throwing mud pies at you, just so I could pop you in the shower.”
Choking on his reply, he asked, “You mean like cow poo?”
“That’s cow pies.” She laughed. “Mud pies are what little kids make when they play in the dirt. I used to make cute little ones and decorate the top with flowers. I’d never throw crap at you, handsome. I love you, remember?”
Taking the now empty plate from her, he set it aside and hauled her into his lap. Rubbing his face against hers, Ace allowed her to sift her fingers through his hair. “I need your niceness like a wildflower needs sunlight. It’s gonna be real hard to let you go.”
Peppering little kisses across his cheek, she said, “We already talked about this, handsome. I’m not going anywhere.”
“You can do better than an outlaw,” he told her, and she could tell he was serious. Still…
“Then be better than an outlaw. All the awful stuff that happened to you is in the past. You can make your future anything you want it to be.”
“You want me to leave the club?” he asked, sounding appalled at the very idea of doing such a thing.
“Heck no. I don’t care one way or the other about that. The only thing I care about is this whole inferiority complex you seem to have going on. I think you’re just perfect. You think you’re not. I’m merely pointing out that we’re not chained to our past. Whatever is making you feel less than is totally within your power to change. You changing to suit yourself doesn’t scare me in the least. I know whatever happens, you’ll continue to be just perfect in my eyes.”
His lips were on her inside of three seconds and he didn’t let up until she was clawing at his clothing. Huffing out an exasperated breath, she mumbled, “You really mess me the hell up, handsome.”
“I love that I have that effect on you.”
“You have a boner.”
He chuckled. “You don’t miss much.”
“It feels like an iron bar between my legs,” she purred, rubbing herself up against it. “No woman could miss it.”
“How about I get to work, you make your list, and we’ll get to bed early tonight?”
Pulling her fingers nervously through her hair, she replied primly, “I think that’s an outstanding idea, Mr. Strond.”
Setting her back off his boner, he helped her stand. Ace looked at her with heat in his pretty, dark eyes. “Come find me when you’ve finished your list.”
“Yes, sir,” she said with a flirty wink over her shoulder and a little added sway in her hips as she walked away.
~ Ace ~
Watching Barbara walk away twisted the bittersweet feeling in his chest until it hurt. Being with her was everything he ever wanted. When his hands were on her, he believed anything was possible. He craved the sweet, inspirational things she whispered in his ear. Once she walked away, the doubts came crawling back again.
Coming to his feet, he thought the situation over as he walked to the security room. Poor Peb looked like he’d been up all night. “You doing okay, kid?”
Rubbing his eyes, he nodded. “Yes, sir. The facial recognition program is coming to an end. I’m praying we’ll get a hit.”
“When that’s done, I want you to go get yourself a nap. I’ll take over the security room for a couple of hours.”
“I didn’t mean to stay up all night.”
“You’re worried, like the rest of us,” he pointed out. “It could be those bodies were stashed by someone who’s long gone.”
The computer made a dinging noise, and Ace leaned over the kid’s shoulder to see the screen of his laptop. “The two guys from the Seven-six are brothers, Juan and Hernando Havier. I’m going to run a quick internet search and see if I can find out if they’ve been in the news, arrested, or complained of anything on their social media before they turned up missing.”
Ace dropped into the other seat at the security desk. “It feels strange to see you in here without Cork.”
“My brother and I aren’t joined at the hip or anything.”
Ace grinned. “I didn’t say you were. Do you mind if I ask why you decided to start prospecting with the club.”
“Same reason my brother did. We don’t have nobody. The brothers have become my family. I want to help keep them safe.”
“You did a bang-up job with that ATF mole.”
“No, I didn’t. If I was doing a good job, I’d have run facial recognition on him the minute he landed on our doorstep. I ain’t makin’ that mistake again.”
“Don’t blame yourself. None of us suspected anything was amiss with him.”
“I ran your new lady and her students last night,” Peb informed him. “You can pull their files up there on the desktop.”
Jiggling the mouse, he opened the file marked Barbara Reynolds. “Shit, you have everything.”
“I dug deep ‘cause she was yours. I trust her, but you never know what kind of baggage a person picks up without knowing it. I wanted you to know every shady person she ever had contact with. Fortunately, there weren’t any. It seems she went straight from her mother’s home to her husband’s. It doesn’t appear that David was abusive, ‘cause there were no trips to the ER or anything like that. All he did was cheat on her and brag his ass off about his beautiful wife. They made the social pages of the local paper a lot.”
“She said he treated her like an expensive ornament, dragging her out to show off for all the right people.”
“We all knew he was a jerk. I ain’t been here but a minute, and even I know that. She seems real nice. I’m glad she’s with you. She deserves a real man.”
Ace swallowed thickly. “I ain’t anything special, kid. If you’re looking for a role model, pick that brother of yours. He’s a real straight arrow.”
“He is. I have a lot of respect for Cork. He’s spent his entire life looking after me. Now that I’m a grown man, it’s my turn to look after him in my own way. You’re a good role model, too. You don’t see it, but we’re a lot alike.”
Without looking up, Ace asked, “In what way?”
“We’ve both had shitty childhoods and been dealt a raw hand in life. I watched you come back after doing time and facing off with Ryder. You were a mess, but you slowly clawed your way back. It’s what made me believe that I could, too.”
“Ain’t we a pair, brother?”
The teen glanced up for a split second before returning to his computer. “I ain’t earned the right to be called brother by you, but I will. I promise you that much.”
Reaching over to grasp the young man’s shoulder, Ace said honestly, “When you make the cut, I’ll be proud to call you a brother.”
“Thank you, sir. I tracked down some intel on victims from the Seven-six. I’m transferring the file to the desktop for you.”
“You do good work, Peb. Get some sleep, in case things pop off later.”
“Yes, sir. If you need me, just holler.”
Once the door to the tiny office shut behind Peb, Ace flipped through all the active cameras. Everything seemed to be going smoothly. Barbara was
seated in the kitchen writing on a sheet of paper. He zoomed the camera in to see if he could tell what she was making for dinner. The breakfast she’d made left his taste buds screaming for more.
Shock ripped through his chest when he realized it wasn’t a grocery list. It was list with their names in a heart at the top, a line down the middle with pros on one side and cons on the other. It was the kind of list a woman made when she was trying to decide whether to take a man on for real.
Squinting, he could barely make out the words. On the con side, there were two things written. One was “not pretty or interesting enough to hang onto a hot biker.” Ace chuckled at that ‘cause she was way off-base. When she moved her hand, he read something about him not loving himself as much as she did. It was kind of cute that she considered that some kind of drawback to being with him.
Meanwhile, her hand was flying down the pros side of the paper, as she wrote mostly one-word items. He tilted his head, making out the words: warm, friendly, funny, down to earth, sexy, handsome, cool tattoos, nice rod, incredible in bed, protective, honest, good-looking, sexy, good at snuggling, great kisser, beautiful eyes, sexy, nice teeth, fun, talkative, likes my food, funny, safe with him, and drink-making god. She scrawled “can’t live without him” when she was running out of room at the bottom of the page.
Ace sat with a big stupid grin on his face, feeling like a teenager all over again ‘cause she’d accidentally put sexy three times without realizing it. He watched her read over her own list, frown, and quickly mark some things out and scrawl some other things down. Reading over it again, she smiled, wadded it up, and tossed it in the trash. Finally, she got down to the task of making her grocery list.
Opening the file Peb had created again, Ace perused everything from her grade school yearbook pictures to clips from her social media accounts. She seemed so clueless about how horrible the world could be. He reminded himself that she was a grown woman, capable of and willing to make her own decisions in life.
A little voice whispered in the back of his mind that if they were together, he could offer her the kind of protection most men couldn’t. He could see her flourishing under his gentle praise and loving protection. That was something her high-class husband never managed to give her. Ace would never be stupid enough cheat on her, that was for damn sure.
Ace of Hearts (Blind Jacks MC Book 3) Page 13
