Ace Of Spades_A Dark Erotic Romance

by Natalie Bennett

  My attention was immediately drawn to the far back corner.

  Two men impossible not to notice stood together side by side.

  They looked completely out of place, dressed down in T-shirts and jeans with

  Mateo’s hand landed on my thigh where my dress exposed a bit of my flesh, raising my internal body heat.

  “Did you know the name of this place translates to indebted?” He leaned over and asked, speaking softly into my ear.

  Following his slight head nod, I looked to the center of the room where the two men were now approaching together. A hum of nervous energy and excitement filled the air.

  The two men met in the middle with another guy that was dressed in a flashy pantsuit, both wearing grim expressions. He said something to them, they both nodded, and then he raised his hand in the air, causing a hush fell over the room.

  When his hand came back down and stepped away, the two men moved to face off with one another and removed their shirts.

  The room was suddenly assuaged with enough noise that had me shifting nervously in my seat.

  Mateo moved his hand higher, massaging circles into my skin.

  With no more hesitation the men began to bare-knuckle box. They held nothing back.

  They quite literally beat the hell out of one another, fighting as if their lives depended on it. From the corner of my eye I saw another man with a ski-mask over his head, holding what looked like an assault rifle.

  His gaze was transfixed on the brawling men. I looked away with an understanding of how the building got its name. These men were fighting to clear their debts.

  The sound of raw flesh hitting raw flesh rang out in the air. I clenched my teeth when I felt a finger slip beneath the fabric of my underwear. The table and the linen obscured us from open view but if someone really looked they would know what he was doing.

  He ran one digit up and down my slit with slow caresses; I did my best to solely focus on the fight when I failed to remove it.

  I found myself self-consciously rooting for the one on the left. He had more drive in him.

  Even with a bloodied lip, blackened eye, and split knuckles, he persevered. Sweat drenched both men, matting their hair to their foreheads.

  An audible crack snapped through the air as a fist connected with a mouth and sent a few teeth scattering to the floor.

  They were growing tired, losing stamina with every blow taken or doled out. This clearly wasn’t a fight on television where a ref called intervened when one of the opponents had reached their limit.

  Blood covered the black marble floor. They slid through it, each grappling for the upper hand. Only when the man on the right was stooping, barely able to stand, swaying on his feet did the man in the pantsuit raise his hand again.

  He looked directly at us, as did most others in the room. Mateo waved his free hand in a circular motion, giving the green light for what occurred next.

  The winner was assisted out of the room. The loser was approached by the man wearing a ski mask. Without having to be told he sunk to his knees. He was exhausted––defeated and resigned to certain death. You could see it all in his demeanor.

  My stomach churned as the gun was held to the back of his head. The look of sheer terror on his face, and the sound of the bullet disengaging from its chamber was more haunting than the bloodied display put on just seconds ago.

  A hole formed, blood drizzled down his forehead, and his lifeless body simply slumped forward.

  Mateo removed his fingers from between my legs’ and sucked them into his mouth, leaving me more sexually-frustrated and then I’d ever been before.

  Some people applauded, others called something out in foreign tongue. Everyone began to move towards a set of double doors.

  “And now you know one of the many ways a man can clear his debt,” Mateo stated, rising from his chair. He offered me his hand, the same one that had just ended a man’s life, and I didn’t hesitate to take it.

  Chapter Eighteen

  People stood in small groups, laughing and drinking champagne. This was how these people entertained themselves after watching a man get killed.

  It wasn’t like I could judge, though, so I casually scanned the room every few minutes in search of my friends’. The space we were in now reminded me of an extremely upscale hotel lobby, but with a large U shaped bar that spanned the entire length of the back wall.

  There weren’t so many people here that I shouldn’t be able to find them. Come to think of it, I couldn’t find Elias or Sergio either.

  A feeling of foreboding spread in my gut. They’d said they were here, I still had the text. So where were they?

  “What do you think?” the older woman who’d been talking for the past ten minutes asked me.

  I had no idea what she’d been going on and on about being as that I could care less.

  “Elena’s a virgin. I’m sure after a few more rounds she’ll loosen up and be able to take it all in like a champ,” Mateo replied for me, giving her and her partner a disarming smile.

  “Oh. Well, he’s right. It does get a little easier every time.” The woman gave me a knowing smile, as if he’d really been discussing my level of sex expertise.

  I gave him a flat look and silently communicated that we needed to talk.

  He got the message, telling the two women goodbye. We moved on from the couple and made our way to a more private corner.

  “Where the hell are they?” I hissed in a low whisper.

  “There was a last minute change of plans.”

  “Explain,” I demanded, crossing my arms.

  “Brock has Melody, its okay, though. Elias, Sergio, and Peyton are tracking her.”

  I waved my hand between us to get him to shut up for a minute.

  “I take it Brock is the boy toy. So tell me why he has my best friend, and you’re just now telling me about it?”

  “What part of last minute should I clarify?”

  “Don’t get smart with me you sneaky fuck. Where. Are. They?”

  “Elena, that mouth of yours really is filthy,” he sighed, “They were on their way to your mother’s last time I checked.”

  God, this man was truly a piece of work. There were so many things that could have been said, but now wasn’t the time.

  “I guess me and you are going to see my mother then, aren’t we?” I stated, pivoting on my heel.

  I walked away and didn’t look back; if I had I’d have seen the satisfied grin on his face.

  He weaved his classic Mustang in and out of traffic on the highway, and I was reminded that he had tendencies to drive like he was invincible.

  “Don’t be upset, Elena. I made an executive decision to see this through and it’s working.”

  Angling my body towards him, I crossed my arms and shook my head.

  “Executive decision? We aren’t business partners. We’re supposed to be regular partners, like a team but every time I turn around you’ve gone behind my back and I’m tired of dealing with this bullshit.”

  “Actually we are business partners; you have half of everything, legally. I put the papers through last week.”

  “I didn’t sign off on anything,” I retorted in partial disbelief.

  “Okay, so I did it semi-legally then. That doesn’t change anything.”

  Leaning all the way back against my seat, I closed my eyes, releasing a small laugh. “You are such a pompous dick.”

  “Right, let it all out, amada. I’m cocky, arrogant, and an asshole.”

  “You forgot a few.”

  “You’re right, I’m also filthy fucking rich, handsome, and have a big cock. What else did I miss?”

  “Let’s just stick with you being an asshole.”

  “Well, that’s one way to say thank you,” he replied dryly.

  “You’re right, thank you, Mateo, for using my friend as a bait and switch without telling me, sending them into the lion’s den, and continuously––.”

  “Continuously m
aking the choices you won’t?” he interrupted.

  “You said you’d do anything for this sick, vile excuse of a woman to stop yet you throw a tantrum when things don’t go exactly how you want. Nothing is going to happen to your friends. If you don’t believe me then maybe you should at least begin believing them, considering this was their plan that they came to me with this morning without telling you.”

  Well, that certainly shut me up.

  “Guess we’re having our first argument.”

  “I don’t argue, I’m always right.”

  I ignored that last statement and focused on the view outside my window. I tried to see both sides of things, but it was hard when I felt my way was the right way.

  “What are we going to do when we get there?” I asked when he finally took an exit.

  He didn’t answer until we’d maneuvered through a sleeping part of the city.

  “We’re going to make sure that every day she breathes brings her unbearable misery.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  If you wanted to be off the grid and hidden away, where do you go?

  Apparently, it was either a bunker underneath the ground or someplace in the middle of the deep, dark woods hours away from civilization.

  Mateo turned off the desolate road we’d been on for the past twelve minutes, onto a long graveled drive. We traveled down it until we could no longer see the main path.

  Eventually, a large split level log cabin began to take shape.

  In the wide open plain as day to see, was Elias’ dark blue Bentley.

  Mateo pulled up behind it and cut the engine.

  “Where are they?” I asked, seeing the car was empty.

  “The same place we’re going.” He leaned across me and popped open the glove box, pulling out a shiny black gun.

  “You remember how to use one of these?”

  “Isn’t that a rhetorical question?”

  He took the safety off and pressed it into my hand before getting out.

  I scrambled to follow him, cursing my damn outfit as my movement was restricted.

  Mateo waited for me to round the car, offering me his hand. The second I took it he began walking. I had to take two steps in my heels for every stride he completed in order to keep up with him.

  “Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”

  He stopped walking and released a quiet breath. Turning towards me, he gripped the back of my neck and pulled me into him.

  “You know she’s in there,” he bluntly responded. “If you’re not ready for this you don’t have to in, but I need to.”

  Staring up at him, I felt a trickle of guilt for how I’d reacted in the car. It wasn’t just my life this affected, or she’d hurt. He’d been hurt too.

  “I can do this. I think I need to do it too.”

  “We’ll go together then,” he said, pressing a soft kiss on my lips.

  When he stepped away again he captured my hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze just as we reached the front door. He opened it right up, waltzing us inside like we lived here.

  We didn’t have to any further to see the party had already started.

  One man’s body lay at the bottom of the stairs with two bullet holes in the back of his head; face down in a puddle of blood.

  Another looked as if she had been tossed right over the banister. Her right leg was twisted around to the left side of her body.

  We walked forward and found ourselves staring into an open concept living, kitchen, and dining room.

  Melody and Peyton both looked up as we entered, both seemingly fine. In the center of the living room two people sat on a coffee table. Elias and Sergio stood sentry.

  “You two okay?” I asked my friends still moving forward.

  “We’re fine,” Peyton answered, watching me cautiously, expecting me to blow up on them. That could wait; right now my attention was elsewhere.

  I faltered for just a second; Mateo silently forced me to keep going.

  Swallowing the nerves threatening to make me vomit every ounce of champagne I’d had, I let myself focus on the anger and the pain to drown out the crushing anxiety.

  I let his hand go and slowly rounded the table. Nothing mattered but the voluptuous woman with long chocolate hair and shiny olive skin.

  She turned her head and I found myself staring into eyes so similar to mine, so familiar and at one time comforting.

  “And there she is,” she said with more than a little amusement, looking me over from head to toe. “You grew up to be so beautiful.”

  “Shame isn’t it?” I retorted, knowing if she’d had her way I wouldn’t have gotten to grow up at all.

  “Eva was a bit prettier. Do tell, how is my sweet girl?”

  “Happy to be free of you I assume,” I casually responded.

  This woman was wacked in the head; I wasn’t going to let her have a field day with mine.

  I dropped my gaze to her ruby red lips that were slowly tilting up into a smile. The rush of crippling heartbreak or onslaught of hysteria I feared would assault me in this moment never came.

  I wanted to jam the barrel of my gun down her throat and finger fuck the trigger. I couldn’t do that, though. I couldn’t leave any permanent blemishes, and she needed to be alive if I wanted to follow through with Mateo’s plan.

  Glancing at the man barely conscious beside her, I knew this was the boy toy I’d heard about, Brock, her pathetic little henchmen.

  “Is this the guy that did it?”

  Mateo came to stand beside me, not sparing my mother the glance she so desperately wanted.

  “This is him,” he replied, pressing his gun to the man’s kneecap.

  I stepped back when he pulled the trigger to spare my ears’ from some of the after effect.

  He woke up screaming and falling to the floor and grabbing at the bullet wound.

  “Are you ready to finish this?” I asked Mateo, reaching out and grabbing my mother by the back of her head.

  “I’m ready to win this.” He smiled and nodded in the direction of the foyer, telling me to lead the way.

  “Come on mother, we’re going on a trip.” I lifted her off the table and forced her to walk forward, keeping my gun pressed into her back.

  Even in her current predicament walked like a queen. Unfortunately for her there could only be one, and that title belonged to me.

  I watched them dismantle his body day by day of the course of two weeks.

  Sergio and I took turns hosing him down when Mateo or Elias would finish.

  The first day they took off his right hand. Mateo took the see-saw and worked it back and forth, burying it deep into the flesh and sawing down through the bone.

  Elias cauterized the massive wound with a blow-torch, burning Brock’s new stub to a crisp.

  The second day was his third hand. The fourth Mateo simply flipped out a pocket knife and sliced off the man’s ear, shoving it inside his mouth when he continued to scream.

  They finished him off together, peeling the flesh from his body with razor blades.

  It meant spending long nights away from my gorgeous man, but the mind-blowing sex afterwards made up for it.

  When all was said and done, Elias wanted to hang Brock from the plaza bridge, Mateo and I thought that might be a bit too much. No one would want to flock to Vice City with that route of advertising. So he was left for the gators to chow down on.

  By the end of the second week Melody and I were well prepared with our arsenal of tools, donning simple sundresses, and ready to work magic on my ‘mother’.

  “Suck in all the fresh air you can,” I warned, heeding my advice before I opened the door.

  Stepping into the white walled room, I curled my lip at the filthy bedpan and empty cans of Alma dog food.

  “Elena, how nice––,” a coughing fit interrupted whatever she was going to say.

  “You do know, that I know, you being sick is bullshit right? We have cameras in here.”

  I sh
ook my head and sat my makeup bag and jug of water down.

  “How much time do we have?” Melody asked, looking down at her wrists.

  “Two hours, let’s try to do it in less.”

  “Is this really how you’re going to treat your mother?” Rihannon intoned.

  “Oh, honey you’re not my mother. You’re just some deluded crazy bitch that killed my father, sister, and hurt way too many people.”

  She opened her mouth to spit out something cruel, no doubt, but Melody was there pressing a wad of duck tape across her lips.

  “You good?” she asked, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder.

  “I’m fine, let’s just get this over with.”

  With a nod, we spent the next bit of time prepping Rihannon for her new life.

  I dumped a half gallon of water on her head to attempt to clean her hair, and to give Melody a blank canvas to work her facial magic. She sputtered as it rolled down her face and over her nose.

  When we were done, we stood back and admired our efforts.

  “Much better,” Melody enthused, and I had to agree.

  “Do you want me to go get them? Give you a moment?”

  “Please?” I smiled, thanking her for everything. It wasn’t every day you found friends like mine, willing to help.

  As soon as she was gone, I ripped the tape off my mother’s face, taking a bit of peach fuzz with it.

  “What are you going to do with me?” she asked, actually sounding worried for once.

  “Well, if I tell you it’ll ruin the surprise.” I turned and began to gather up the things we’d used; it would all need to be pitched now.

  “You feel nothing for me, Elena? Look at me, I’m your mother.”

  Pausing, I turned back around and sighed.

  “This fake emotion thing you’re doing is pitiful. Did you feel anything for my father, your own brother, when you shoved his corpse into an empty oil drum to rot? What about Eva? Your other daughter, the one you terrified so badly she drove her car off a cliff to make you think she was dead.

  “That wasn’t enough for you, because you killed her anyway. What about my fiancée’s sister? Molly? I could go on and on. You’ve hurt a lot of people and have only thought of yourself.”