Pedal to the Metal

by Stephanie Nichole

  Ace hesitates and looks around the room at all of us like he’s trying to remember something from last night, but I can tell it’s something more. His eyes or eye since only one can open at the moment, lands on me and while he shakes his head no I know it means he’s lying. He’s trying to protect someone, and I can’t help but feel like it was me. “No sir, I didn’t see who they were. They hit me in the back of my head with something, I went down then tried to get back up but that’s when they stabbed me. I know there was more than one person, but I never got to see their faces. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay son. We’ll continue to investigate and if you happen to remember anything at all don’t hesitate to call us.” The detective says as he hands Axell a card with his name and number on it.

  After the detectives left we were ushered out as well so Ace could rest. I ended up with Jagger at his place and after making up I drifted off to sleep. However, I woke from a nightmare in the middle of the night. Trying to get back to sleep turned out to be harder than I imagined. I had been so tired when I climbed into this bed but now I was staring at Jagger’s ceiling, unable to sleep because I kept seeing Ace’s eye on me. Why did he look at just me? And why had no one else seemed to notice this? I know if Jagger had noticed this he would have mentioned or asked about it by now.

  By the time Jagger’s alarm goes off I’m already showered, dressed and attempting to make breakfast. Jagger comes down the stairs and as much as I want to get caught up in the fluttering in my stomach, I can’t allow myself to. I decided last night while lying awake that I would go see Ace and get to the bottom of his reaction. Maybe, I was just being paranoid, but I had to find out. Jagger walks up behind me and wraps his arms around my waist and kisses my cheek. “You’re up early pretty girl, couldn’t sleep?”

  “No, I slept fine. I just got a text from Kristy, my boss, asking me if I could fill in half the day today. Apparently, someone called in sick," I tell him and feel a pang of guilt for lying to him.

  “Oh okay, well since you’re only working half a day do you want to meet back up here and we can have lunch together?”

  “Yeah, sounds great," I tell him.

  “Good then I’ll go in to the shop while you’re at work too," he says before kissing my cheek again and heading back upstairs. When I hear the shower start up, I quickly grab a piece of paper and leave him a note telling him I’d see him for lunch. As I slip out of Jagger’s front door I feel guiltier than I have in years.

  ****

  After stopping by my place to change clothes I head to the hospital and breathe a sigh of relief when I don’t notice any of the James’ or Kynlee’s car in the lot. I have to keep my anxiety at bay while making my way up to Ace’s room. When I reach ICU, I let the nurse at the desk know who I was going to see, she told me no longer than a fifteen-minute visit but I doubted I’d even need that long.

  When I first enter Ace is asleep or at least he seems to be but without even opening his eyes he says, “I knew you’d come back but you shouldn’t have Londynn.”

  “How’d you know it was me?” I ask him bewildered by how he knew it was me without opening his one good eye.

  He rolls his head towards me, allowing his good eye to focus on me. “Because it smelt like flowers in here all of a sudden," I laugh, and Ace asks, “What are you doing here?”

  “I think you know. You gave me a look yesterday when the detectives asked you if you saw your attacker. I want to know why?” I explain.

  He shakes his head “I didn’t give you a look, hell I can barely see.”

  “Ace. You did, and you know it. If you saw who did this to you then you need to tell those detectives.”

  “Why?” he asks.

  I sigh “So they can arrest them.”

  “Londynn, you think the world is so black and white but it’s not. If I tell them the guys still won’t get arrested. I’m sure they already have an alibi in place. It would be a waste of time and hurt more people than what it already has," he explains.

  I study him for a moment. “Are you calling me naïve?”

  “Maybe a little. You grew up in a world where the law worked for you, it was your friend. You could depend on it but not in my world Londynn. The James’ word or description of someone isn’t going to be good enough to make the detectives from this side of town do anything. What happened doesn’t matter. I survived, yes maybe I’ll have a few more badass scars now but I’m going to live.”

  “But Ace it does matter. Someone did this to you and they deserve to pay. You’re letting them get away with this by not saying anything," I plead with him.

  He shakes his head then meets my gaze with his one good eye. “Trust me. I’m saving more people than anything else.”

  “How? Who? This sounds ridiculous Ace!”

  “I’m saving you, Londynn! And your relationship!” He almost shouts.

  His words hit me like a bucket of ice cold water. I think I knew last night what that look had meant but I’d been too scared to admit it to myself. “What do you mean?” I whisper.

  “I mean that if I tell who did this then Jagger will blame himself and you and your relationship. It’s how he’s wired, to take the blame. He’ll lose because he’ll push you away. You’ll lose because he won’t let you back in and you’ll both lose your relationship. Jagger is happy for the first time in years. I won’t be the one to take that from him.”

  “It was Ryce, wasn’t it?” I ask him, but I already know the answer to my question. Ace merely turns his head away from me and I feel the tears burn my eyes. I turn and head for the door. I manage to get out to my car before the tears start to fall because Ace is right, I’m about to lose everything.

  Chapter 28

  Londynn

  Once I get my emotions back under control I start my car and head back towards Santa Monica. The drive takes longer than normal with the morning traffic but when I look at the time I see it’s still too early for Ryce to be up and moving around. He rarely gets up before noon. As I pull into his driveway I notice his car, so I know he’s home. When I reach the door, I knock instead of ringing the doorbell. At least this way his housekeeper will answer it and I don’t’ have to worry about him trying to sneak out to avoid me if he is awake by chance.

  After his housekeeper lets me inside I head up the stairs to his bedroom. I knock and pause only for a second. It’s not like I haven’t seen him before. However, when I enter I’m slightly shocked to see Alivia pulling on one of Ryce’s shirts. “Londynn?” she asks looking as shocked as she sounds.

  “Alivia.” As I scan the room I see Ryce coming out of his closet.

  Alivia steps towards me. “This isn’t what it looks like.”

  I hold up my hand up to stop her from talking. “I don’t care Alivia.” Which was the truth. I didn’t care what either of them did. I had only come here to get the answers I needed, to help Ace. “I came here to talk to Ryce.”

  “Aww…baby you know I’ll take you back but I’m keeping Alivia on the side," he says with a wink.

  “Oh please! I didn’t come here for that I came to find out why you and your band of assholes attacked Ace.”

  “Ace?” he asks playing innocent.

  I shake my head at him but while I’m shaking my head I notice a dog tag laying on his desk. It’s a silver ace of hearts card. I recognize it because it belongs to Ace, I know because Kynlee bought it for him. She was so proud she made him show it to me the night I first kissed Jagger. “He was wearing that the night you nearly killed him," I tell him pointing at the dog tag lying on the desk.

  His head falls back in laughter, he continues to laugh until he grabs his side from an ache and even then, he has a hard time controlling it. When he finally regains some composure, I have to wait for him to catch his breath. “I’m sorry, well not really but it’s just trying not to take credit for Ace is hard.”

  “Why? Why Ace?” I ask him.

  “You.” He simply replies while taking a seat in one of his ch
airs.

  I can’t figure out what that means. I would get that if he had jumped Jagger but why Ace. “No, that doesn’t make sense. If it was because of me, you would have jumped Jagger.”

  “Oh! I would have loved that! Unfortunately, he wasn’t the one that walked into Red Hott.”

  “So, you just attacked Ace because he walked into a strip club at the same time as you?” I ask him while he reclines back in the chair like all of this is no big deal.

  Ryce shakes his head. “No, I jumped Ace because he cost me you.”

  I roll my eyes at him “How do you figure that?”

  “Well, you see the night of the charity ball I came back for you but when I got there I saw the taillights of Ace’s blue Hellcat leaving. If he hadn’t picked you up then Jagger wouldn’t have returned, and I’d still have you on my arm instead of Alivia," he says motioning towards Alivia who is sitting quietly on the bed. I can’t believe his audacity, to talk about trying to get me back with Alivia in his room. Obviously, they are more than just friends. “I came back that night to make it up to you.”

  A hard laugh escapes my mouth and it seems to shock Ryce. “Make it up to me? How the hell could you make it up to me Ryce? You cheated on me in the hallway of the charity ball, forced me into a car while you drove drunk and recklessly, verbally and physically abused me then you drove off leaving me stranded on the side of the road with no cell phone or purse, in a ball gown and heels in a not so safe part of town. How could you make up for that? Even if Ace hadn’t shown up to help me there was no fixing that. It wasn’t his fault that we ended, and I got with Jagger…it was yours. You and your actions ended us.” Ryce studies me for a long time. “You know you’re lucky that someone showed up for Ace.”

  “Doubtful," he grunts.

  It sends my already high anger into a boiling state. “He could have died! And it would have been your fault! Yours, and let me guess who was with you…Justin, Marcus and probably Damon.”

  “Yeah and?” he asks like it’s not a big deal that someone could have died, and it would have been their fault.

  I shake my head in disgust and walk to the door. “You’re disgusting.” Once I’m back in my car I pull out the tape recorder I had on me. Maybe Ace didn’t want me to do anything and maybe it would cost me my relationship, but I couldn’t let Ryce and his friends get away with this. They got away with so much all the time because of their name or money or connections but this was serious. Ace could have died. They had to pay for this. I didn’t want to lose Jagger, but I knew that Ace was right. I would lose him. He would lay all the blame on himself for what had happened.

  Checking the time, I see I still have time before I’ll need to meet Jagger for lunch. I drive back to North Hills and straight to the police station. I ask for the detective, but he was out, so I left the recording with a police officer at the front. As I pull back up to my condo I feel exhausted. I walk in on Farrah doing some yoga in the living room, when I walk in she pauses the instructor on TV and turns to tell me “That’s all your mail, there’s something from ABA.”

  I gather the large stack of mail and make my way to my room. I couldn’t imagine why I’d have mail from ABA but I quickly search for that particular piece. Once I find it I rip it open to see that I have been offered a spot within the association. I’ve been removed from the waitlist. I can actually become a professional ballerina. It’s funny because for so long that’s all I dreamed about but so much has changed over the past year. I’ve changed, I’m not the same Londynn so I don’t have the same dreams.

  My dreams now have to do with Jagger and I, as a couple but who knows I may not have that option anymore. I place the mail on my nightstand. I’ll talk to Jagger first and see what happens. If it turns out that Ace is right, then I’ll come back and call ABA. I quickly text Jagger and ask him to meet me at the beach near the same place we had breakfast yesterday morning. I don’t know why I choose there but I do.

  ****

  Jagger

  “A couple of days ago I heard about this building going up for sale. “I explained to my oldest brother Axell. He’s looking around the crumbling building like I’ve lost my mind, but he doesn’t understand what the building could mean to Londynn. I mean yes right now it’s in bad shape. It’s been abandoned for years but after we fix it up it could be exactly what she dreamed of. “Look, I know this seems crazy and this building doesn’t look like much right now, but you have to admit it has potential. Londynn’s dream was to become a professional ballerina then open her own dance studio. I can’t make the first happen, but I can the second.”

  Axell shakes his head “How did you even afford this?”

  “I’ve won a lot of races and I’ve saved most of the money over the years.”

  Axell studies me for what seems like forever. “So, let me get this straight. You’ve been racing since you were sixteen and during that time you’ve won almost all of your races. Plus, you’ve always had a day job to pay your bills and what not. So, after your car was fixed up, you saved most of your winnings which you decide to use on a crumbling building to convert into a dance studio for a girl who has more money that both of us combined, is that correct?”

  I shrug “Yeah. I know that Londynn could have done this herself, but I wanted to do something special for her. I want her to see that being with me doesn’t mean she has to give up everything or pay for everything. I love her, and I just want to show her that.”

  “I can see that. On my days off I’d be happy to help you fix this place up.”

  “Thanks man," I tell my brother as we exit the building. I hadn’t planned on the sale to go through so quickly but now that the place is officially ours, I have an idea. I quickly text Londynn the address to the building so I can surprise her with lunch here and tell her about my plan. I know she’s going to be excited.

  I hadn’t heard back from Londynn and I was just about to pick up the phone to call her when she finally texted me back and told me she’d be here within the hour. I quickly ran and got food. I was standing in the middle of the building when I heard a car pull into the gravel parking lot. I was standing in the middle of the building when Londynn opened the door. “Jagger?” She called out into the darkness.

  “In here!” I hollered back.

  She finally spots me and heads in my direction. “What are you doing here?”

  When she’s close enough I grab her, pulling her into my arms, I pick her up and swing around in a circle. I’m so excited that I can barely contain myself. Once she’s back on her feet I ask her “What do you think?” while motioning towards the rest of the building.

  She hesitates “Is that a trick question?”

  I laugh “No, I know it doesn’t seem like much now, but you have to use your imagination. The studios can be set up in those rooms over there and over here we knock out these walls and create a performance area.”

  “Are you talking about a dance studio?” Londynn asks in shock.

  I nod “Of course! I just signed the papers this morning. I wanted to surprise you.” Tears spring into her eyes and she turns away from me. I reach out and grab her elbow forcing her to look back my way. “I’m sorry Londynn, I thought this would be good.”

  She shakes her head “No, it’s perfect but it makes what I have to tell you worse.”

  “What do you have to tell me?” I ask trying to run over every possible issue, but nothing comes to mind. We seem to have gotten to a better place.

  “I didn’t have to work today," she tells me first off and simply I answer okay very slowly. “I don’t think you or anyone else noticed how Ace looked at me while the detectives were questioning him, but I did, and I knew it meant something. So, I came up with the work excuse, so I could go ask him about it. He remembers who attacked him, but he didn’t want to say because he was afraid it would hurt us, but I finally got him to tell me. After he told me I went to confront one of the guys and I saw that dog tag that Kynlee got for Ace laying in his room. He admitted
to doing it and named his friends. I had this recorder that I had bought for my college prep class in high school and I used it. I got everything he said on tape. I know Ace wanted to let it slide but this was too big to let him get away with. I mean Ace could have died so I turned in the tape.”

  I’m standing there trying to absorb everything she’s telling me, but it seems so unreal. How had I missed Ace looking at Londynn? Why had he lied to us when we asked about the attackers? Why had Londynn lied about work instead of just telling me about this? What good did it do for Ace to keep this a secret? Then it dawned on me, he was trying to keep from hurting one of us. Londynn had mentioned that. I was scared to ask but I had to. “Who attacked Ace?”

  Londynn closes her eyes like that will keep the tears from falling. “Ryce.”

  That one word, that one name turns my world upside down, Ace been attacked and almost killed. I was seeing red, but I had to know why. I understood that Ryce had an issue with me because Londynn had chosen me but what had Ace done. “Why Ace?” I ask through clenched teeth.

  “Apparently the night of the charity ball when Ryce left me on the side of the road, he was coming back to pick me up and try to fix things between us, but when he pulled back up he saw Ace’s car pulling back onto the road. He blames him for us," she whispers.

  I start pacing back and forth. My brother being jumped and almost killed was all because I had fallen for a girl from Santa Monica. If he had died it would have been my fault. Ace was right we were doomed. Londynn and I didn’t belong with one another. She’d always belong in Santa Monica with guys like Ryce and I’d always be North Hills. Maybe she had chosen me but look at the price we were paying for that decision. If I had just stayed away from her to begin with then my brother wouldn’t be in ICU right now. As if the guilt of ruining the memory of Harlyn didn’t eat at me on a daily basis now I had to deal with the guilt of almost getting my brother killed because of the girl I chose to be with.