Ace of Hearts

by Gray, Khardine

  I swallowed hard knowing he would do it. It hadn’t happened before but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t. That he wouldn’t try.

  I bit back a whimper and got inside the back of the limo when he released me. I placed myself right over to the far side, away from him so I wouldn’t have to look at him.

  Bad enough that I couldn’t stand Frankie, but what the hell was this?

  Why was it?

  Pa had my car taken and sent Frankie to get me. Why?

  Even when the worst shit was going down, he’d never acted like this before. Why now?

  The minute the car was parked at the hotel’s entrance, I flew out and headed straight to Pa’s office like I had hellfire on my heels.

  It was ten. I knew he’d have his business meetings at this time with some of his knights. Sometimes he’d have clients.

  Armand and Vinny were the closest to him so they were usually present. They were like capos to the boss in a traditional setting.

  Not caring, I barged into his office and the door flew open, slamming against the wall.

  It was a stupid thing to do because it made them reach for their guns.

  All of them. Pa, Armand, Vinny, and Freddo.

  They reached for their guns and aimed right at me.

  “Hold your fucking fire!” Pa yelled. He stood up and marched over to me ready for war. “What the hell is the matter with you? You know not to do shit like that.”

  “What’s wrong with me? Really, Papa? What’s wrong with you? My car, where is it?” I would never, ever, speak to him like that in front of people, wouldn’t dream of it.

  That didn’t come from an acknowledgment of who he was. It was respect because he was my father. Today, I didn’t care one way or the other. Father or mafia boss.

  Darkness filled his gaze as he stared at me. It almost made him look unrecognizable.

  “Jia, that is the result of your little plan to leave,” he informed me.

  How the hell would he know that? Anya would never say anything to him. Never. She wouldn’t do that to me, but, so far she was the only person I’d told.

  “Leave?”

  “Don’t even try to deny it. I’ve been tracking your internet searches and it’s enough to give me a heads up. Whatever plan you have up your sleeve ends now. No car, no money. No route to escape.”

  Jesus Christ. My heart caught in my chest and it just caved.

  When I was sixteen he locked me away because he thought I would run away and get myself killed.

  It was the worst time in my life and straight after Ma’s death.

  This was worse. It was tying me down and cutting off my free will.

  Tears spilled down my cheeks.

  “How can you do this? How? I’m leaving and there’s nothing you can do to stop me,” I screamed.

  It was fine, I didn’t need his dirty money. That was what it was - dirty. Received from blood and deceit. I could find my way, get a job waitressing or God, even stripping. Anything to get away.

  I moved away from him. Just one step and he grabbed me. He grabbed me in a similar fashion to the way Frankie had, but worse. When Frankie grabbed me, he might have talked big like he was going to put me in my place but he still had that fear of Pa in his eyes. This was Pa and he didn’t have anyone to be afraid of.

  “Let go of me,” I snapped and he answered with the back of his hand.

  The impact of his heavy hand knocked me straight to the floor in a helpless heap.

  I was twenty six years old and in all my life no one had ever raised a hand to me. No one would dare because he was always there to protect me. It was so ironic that he would be the one to deal the first blow.

  I looked up at him as the tears came. My eyes glued to his. The storm of emotion in his eyes was remorse mingled with fear.

  Out the corner of my eyes I could even see that Armand and Vinny looked shocked. Of course they would from what they just witnessed.

  “You…” Pa warned, pointing at me. “You have had it too good and easy. You will listen to me or end up in a cage if you want to behave like a fucking animal.”

  Footsteps sounded against the marble floor and he stopped talking. He looked up and I followed his gaze to Xander. I didn’t know how long he’d been in the room or what he saw. Whatever he’d seen hardened his face.

  Of everybody, he was the only one to come to me.

  Once again with a piece of tissue. Yet this time he didn’t hand it to me. He wiped my face. He wiped my face and helped me to stand. Then as if it was a habit, he took my hand and led me away.

  We walked, leaving the tension of silence.

  Once again he showed he didn’t care what anyone thought.

  Not any of the other guys and not my father.

  Chapter 10

  Jia

  * * *

  I had to admit that surprise took me when Xander led me outside to his car.

  I didn’t ask any questions though. I just went with him.

  We walked up to a black Ferrari, he opened the passage door for me and I got in.

  I sat down and strapped on the seatbelt and he closed the door.

  He ditched his biker jacket in the back, revealing thick biceps that bulged against the sleeve of his long-sleeved t-shirt.

  He made his way around to the driver’s seat, jumped in and gunned the engine just as Frankie came down the steps. It looked like Pa might have sent him.

  As we shot down the road, the dashboard buzzed with a phone call.

  Xander answered it and switched on the handsfree.

  “Yo,” he answered as cool and casually as if nothing had happened.

  “Where are you taking her?” Came Pa’s cold hard voice.

  “Why?” Xander threw back.

  “What the fuck do you mean by why? Boy, you better fucking hope to not piss me off. Bring my daughter back to me right the fuck now.”

  “No,” Xander replied.

  All I could do was watch and listen. Watch and listen in pure disbelief.

  “What do you mean by no?”

  “It’s simple, it’s a no. But don’t worry Boss, we’ll be back later. I’ll be sure she gets back in one piece,” he promised, his voice heavy with a mingle of sarcasm and power.

  There was a long silence then Pa grunted. “I’m not happy about this.”

  Xander didn’t answer. He just hung up.

  I looked over at him and he glanced at me, the sympathy returning to his eyes, but he didn’t say anything.

  I rested my head back against the soft leather of the chair and accepted that I’d hit rock bottom. I had. I absolutely had.

  Forty minutes later we pulled up at Lake Mead.

  It was pretty to look at but I always thought the lack of trees made it look as manmade as it could ever be. It had the appearance of being a lake and the beautiful surroundings but just had something missing.

  He parked and shut off the engine and that was when I broke.

  It took all that time, the whole drive here and I’d held back. Kept it all in until the hum of the engine was no more and we were here.

  I must have looked so stupid to him. I must have looked so helpless.

  I’d had several little encounters with this man over this past week and each one of them saw me as helpless as shit.

  The club, the warehouse, the meeting room, just now, and right now.

  Not one scenario had me exhibiting one ounce of strength or showing who I really was. He’d seen me cry at least twice and look at me now, breaking down with the angst that took me out.

  Warm hands smoothed over mine and I turned to face him. In my tear-filled mess, the warmth in his eyes reached out to me and soothed me when he undid the seat belt and pulled me right over to him so I could cry on his shoulder while he held me.

  God knows how long I must have cried for, or how hard, but the tears fell and it felt like it was for everything.

  When people looked at me they probably thought I was a spoilt brat who had it all. Nothi
ng was further from the truth. Not a damn thing could have been further from the fact that my father was a monster and he just threatened to put me in a cage after he hit me.

  Something was happening and I didn’t know what it was. Whatever it was though, it just made me wish harder for some form of escape.

  Anything.

  Even death.

  I couldn’t live like this. He’d been right to call me an animal because that was what I felt like, an animal.

  I never doubted either that Pa would put me in a cage.

  Xander waited until I stopped crying before he pulled back to look at my face.

  The ache in my heart was so strong it actually numbed the sting on my cheek. It did hurt though. It literally stung on the surface then felt numb on the apple of my cheekbone.

  “I don’t think it will bruise too badly,” he assessed my face. It was the first time he’d spoken since he spoke to Pa. “There’s a little swelling. Does it hurt?”

  I met his eyes and found myself gazing into the depths of the bright blue hue.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Don’t you feel it?”

  “Yes, but it’s everywhere. He’s never hit me before.” I didn’t know why I said that, as if it meant something. Maybe on a subconscious level I was trying to explain my association with my father.

  “No?”

  I shook my head. “Never. He looked so angry at me.”

  “Anger, no matter how it comes, is never an excuse to hit a woman.”

  I was glad to hear him say that, but still embarrassed.

  “I know.” I lowered my gaze to my lap.

  When he shuffled and reached out to cup my face so he could inspect me further, I looked at him again. The touch of his fingers on my cheek was far too distracting.

  Just like I told Anya, he was a nice distraction and this was the longest I’d ever spent with him. We’d been sitting in the car at Lake Mead for about an hour and the drive here had been forty minutes.

  He stopped looking at the swelling and focused on me and I swear the lines blurred between him holding my face to check for bruising and him just touching my face. I wouldn’t complain about either.

  “Where were you going Jia?”

  “Europe. Somewhere in Europe would have been the ideal. Truthfully I didn’t have a plan, but in the sketchy draft of things I knew I had to get away. Anywhere.”

  Anywhere was the short answer.

  “Anywhere.” He breathed and ran his finger over the edge of my jaw.

  “Yeah.”

  He dropped his hand to his lap, but kept his gaze trained on me.

  “Why now? Why just anywhere?”

  I thought about that answer long and hard.

  “It’s everything, but in terms of recency…up until the warehouse, I didn’t realize how cruel my father could be. It’s stupid and you’re probably wondering if my eyes have been closed for the last twenty six years but I didn’t know the specifics.”

  He intensified his stare and a smile without humor inched across his lips. “Jia, it’s perhaps best if you stay out of business as much as you can. There’s a reason why women are kept out of business. This, the reaction you’re having is one reason. I can’t blame you for wanting to leave, wanting to flee but I’m not sure how you’re going to pull that off.”

  “I can’t stay. He treats me like an animal. He wants to marry me off to Armand and keep me in a cage. He’ll do it. I know he will.”

  He held out his hands and turned over his palms. “Baby steps, Jia. Take them. Trust me, when you push against a force stronger than you, you get knocked back. Knocked down in a way that takes you a long time to recover. It makes it harder to get what you want. It makes it a hundred times harder most of the time, so it’s worth the wait. Do you understand what I mean?”

  I nodded. “Yeah… I get it.”

  “It doesn’t mean you give up what you want. It just means you wait longer but when you get it, it feels like you achieved it and you know it’s yours.”

  His words soothed me and I actually smiled.

  “That sounds nice.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Hmmm hmmm. It sounds like you got your thing.”

  He seemed thrown by my comment but he nodded. “In a way I did.”

  “What was it?”

  He thought for a moment then answered, “Direction… in life.” He chuckled and I smiled too.

  “Really? That was your thing?”

  “I bounced around from one foster home to another when I was a kid, not really belonging anywhere. And I could do stuff not a lot of people could do. I fell in with the wrong crowd and they used my skills for all kinds of crimes. Then one day I found my thing and realized I could do more than what I was doing.”

  What he’d said did not sound like his sense of direction had led him to work for Pa. That sounded like what a good person would say.

  “Why are you working for my father? You seem different.”

  “I am but that doesn’t make me a good person.”

  “Well you’re good in my book.” I raised my shoulders into a little shrug. “Thank you. Thanks for coming to my rescue, every time. I swear to God I’m more than this. I do more. I am more.”

  “You don’t have to convince me.”

  “I feel I have to.”

  “No. Not one damn bit, but I am curious as to why you want to head to Europe.”

  Finally, I could talk about something that made me look good.

  “I’m an artist,” I told him.

  “An artist?”

  “I studied fine art and fantasy at college. I do every kind of painting and sculpture you can think of and I really wanted to go to Europe to study more, work at a gallery and then open my own. I wanted to go to Italy. I would so love to live there. It’s beautiful and so me. But just being there to study and work even for a little while would be amazing. It’s been my dream forever.”

  “That’s some dream. It sounds good. You sound good.”

  “I am.”

  “Well you know you’re going to have to follow that talk with evidence right?” He smirked, looking impressed. It was good to see the look in association to me.

  “I’ll do a painting for you.” I promised. “As a thank you.”

  “I’m not going to say no to a thank you from you. What happened? How come you never went to Italy for art? Sounds like it was in the cards for you well before now.”

  The question brought the gloom of the answer with it.

  “I was on track to do it and really thought it was going to happen. Then my father started acting weird. He just got more protective and demanding. Had me in his line of sight more and basically controlling.”

  “Any reason why he just changed like that?”

  “Not specifically. Do you know how my mother died?” I asked.

  He nodded slowly. “I know. I was told.”

  “He freaked after and I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere.” It was better to put it that way. “If anyone came to see me he needed to know about it. As time went by he calmed down some but never became the way he was back then. Not ‘til now. But I don’t know of any threat that would make him behave this way. He seems more powerful now than ever with so much money. There’s so much wealth and it’s all legit. All of it. With all the wealth at his fingertips I can’t imagine what had him worked up so much to treat me this way.”

  “It’s a mystery.” He looked at me like he wasn’t sure what more to say to me.

  I couldn’t blame him. I wouldn’t know what more to say to me given that we were talking about my father.

  He looked out to the blue expanse of the lake before us and smiled.

  “Here’s what we’re going to do today,” he began.

  “What?”

  “This.” He pointed ahead. “We’re gonna do nothing and pretend nothing else matters. We’re just going to talk and walk around the place and not give a shit about anything else.”

  I considered it and s
miled, liking the idea. I tucked a lock of hair behind my ear and straightened up. “I can do that.”

  He opened the door and got out. I opened my side too but he insisted on taking my hand and helping me get out of the car.

  He kept hold of my hand when I went to let go and held it up.

  “You’re wearing heels on a quarry, don’t want you to fall over.”

  I looked at my feet in the little three inch heels that were a tamer version of the stilettos I usually wore.

  “Are you sure that’s not some excuse to hold my hand?” I teased.

  “No.” He pressed his free hand to his chest. “Don’t get the wrong idea, remember I’m off limits to you?”

  I smiled. “I remember Xander.”

  “Good.”

  I liked the sparkle in his eyes and the warmth of his hands on mine. It amplified the safety of being with him.

  Chapter 11

  Jia

  * * *

  Night fell and Xander made a fire in the bonfire pit near the car.

  We’d gone for a long walk where we’d talked, like he said and didn’t give a shit about anything.

  Sitting by the fire with him reminded me of camping in Italy with my cousins who were all so crazy with their ghost stories.

  I’d learned that Xander served in the marines when he started telling me all about his adventures.

  We sat practically side by side by the fire.

  I couldn’t help my fascination with how the orange flames highlighted the outline of his face. It was the artist in me that took note of things like that. The woman in me didn’t fail to notice either because the man was what you’d call mouthwatering gorgeous.

  Xander Cage was thirty six years old, a whole ten years older than me but looked more like he was in his mid to late twenties. He had the body of a god, the kind that you knew right off the bat he worked out and took complete, regimented care of.

  I doubted the man ever ate anything sugary in his life, or anything that could be classed as fattening. Basically, none of the typical stuff Anya and I would stuff our faces with on a girls night in, or out.