Ace
Khloe's gray eyes flashed like flint and steel. She opened her mouth. I thought she might be gearing up to tear me a new one, chewing me out while she gave me an earful. But instead, she clamped her mouth shut again. She spun around again, heading for the door. She heaved a sigh that reflected that she was carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders.
I held my breath and waited. I wondered how much her grandfather had told her about this, about me—about our deal. I knew she would need to digest this information I just hurled her way in a crushing blow. I meant what I said. I needed to protect her and keep her safe. She just didn’t realize that yet or know me enough to trust me.
She looked so enchanting standing there, stunningly beautiful as she privately mulled over whether to bolt from the room and never look back or wait and see what kind of explanation I would offer her.
I would do whatever it took to keep her here in the room with me. It was like fate working in my favor. What were the odds of going into that shop and finding her there? I couldn’t screw up this opportunity. She wouldn’t be safe out there, especially not after what had happened tonight.
“Please, Khloe…” I trailed off softly. “I know there’s a lot to explain…”
“Explain what?” She barked so sharply that I gawked at her, mystified by her unique quality of anger. “What do you want from me?” She wailed pitifully. She took a step towards me, then cautiously back again.
“I want to protect you,” I said in a level voice.
Khloe let out a sardonic laugh. “You want to protect me by kidnapping me?”
“I’m not kidnapping you,” I argued and shook my head. “I took you away from there because…”
“Because what! Because your friends were going to kill me?”
“No,” I stated, firmly. “It just wasn’t safe for you there.”
“Well, why’d you bring me here?” She lifted her arms, waving it around the room. “How is being with you any safer?”
Her words hit me harder than her earlier blows. I swallowed. “I brought you here to talk to you and explain everything.”
She stared through my eyes, piercing my soul with her cool eyes that sent chills of pleasure up my spine.
“In case you didn’t notice,” she snarled. “I’m doing quite well for myself. I’m building my shop and have loyal customers.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle. “You were renting that run-down shack from that sleazeball taking you for a ride? He was probably charging you an arm and a leg for that place when it wasn’t worth shit.”
I wished I could redact the revelation as soon as I said it. Khloe's tormented expression ripped through me. Her mouth twisted as if she had been stung with a whip.
“I was just trying to do what I could. I couldn’t work out of my apartment anymore. I had too much inventory. Clients and other people were starting to come to my home unannounced,” she whispered defensively.
I shifted my weight against the painful grip of the handcuffs. No wonder she had begged for me to release her…
“I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant, there are better opportunities out there for you.”
Her lips curled into a cynical smile. “Let me guess, those opportunities start with you?” Her tone was bitterly sarcastic.
“Well…” I began. She wasn’t wrong. But she wasn’t entirely accurate either.
She folded her arms protectively over her chest. I would give anything to be able to hold her and kiss her everywhere just like I've wanted to do for years.
“Now that I’ve found you, I would do anything to protect you,” I stammered. “I would never forgive myself if I allowed you to go back to your shop and your old life.”
Khloe stared at me with backlash brewing in her fiery eyes. She pursed her lips and frowned. “I am making a name for myself,” she protested. “I can’t just leave my shop behind.”
My gang had initially planned to vandalize every one of Martin’s shops. We had orders to do maximum damage to the strip mall. I inwardly hoped that they hadn't ransacked her shop after our departure. After all, they had no idea I had even taken her. They had no idea what she meant to me.
“That’s fine. Nobody wants to take your dreams away from you, especially not me.”
“It seems like you are the very person trying to keep me away from fulfilling those dreams.” She pointed an accusatory finger at me. “It’s obvious to me now that those men were looking for Martin, not me.”
“So, you think you’re going to carry on there now that he’s dead, er, missing in action?” I commented.
She frowned and the glare in her eyes changed from dissent to uneasiness.
“Look, I just want the best for you,” I explained.
“Why?” Her voice raised to a decibel below a shriek. “I was just minding my own business, working on a deadline and here you and those mobsters come to shoot up the place.”
I hung my head low to hide my shame and then glanced back up at her. “I apologize for what happened back there. I needed to re-up my stash, so when the guys called me to help, I accepted. We took a job, just like we always do. We were there for the landlord named Martin, not you. We followed him to your dress shop. We shot up the spot so he’d know we meant business. No one was going to hurt you, not with me there. Once I recognized you, I knew I had to get you out of there.”
The color drained from her face. She was a pale porcelain doll staring at me with horror glazed eyes.
“You weren’t the one that pulled the trigger that killed Martin, but you might as well have been.” Her voice trembled as she spoke.
I nodded. “That’s true. His hit was already ordered. We knew he didn’t have the money.”
“He was a terrible person, but…” She dropped her face in her hand and exhaled.
I knew what she was going to say…that he was a terrible person and didn’t deserve to die. If she only knew the truth. She was just so naïve and trustworthy. Had no idea that her landlord was a rapist. She’d heard enough and seen enough. I didn’t want to scare her anymore. I definitely didn’t want her to fear me.
“I’d never hurt you or let anyone else hurt you. We didn’t know anyone else was in the shop since it was late at night. We thought that sleazeball was just checking up on his units when he pulled up and went inside,” I told her.
“I wasn’t supposed to be there. I was working late,” she said.
"Will you just unlock me?" I hated begging, and I hated being locked up. I felt like a caged animal.
She slowly raised her chin. Her eyes locked with mine. I saw conflict, but I also saw how she was cracking in the way her eyes curiously stared into mine. “If I unlock you, will you put the cuffs back on me?” Her question rang with the soft demand of needing confirmation.
“I won’t put the cuffs back on you.”
She sighed and began to pace the room. She wouldn’t look at me, but I stayed silent, allowing her a few minutes to absorb the information and weigh her options. I watched her in awe. She was like an angel floating across the room. I wanted to get lost in her eyes. I yearned to reach out and run my hands through her silky black hair.
Her slender hips moved seductively as she walked back and forth even though she wasn’t deliberately trying to be sexy. She had the most perfect hourglass figure. I stared at the perfect mounds under her shirt, fantasizing about how enticing it would be to pull her shirt over her head, squeeze her breasts between my hands, and then lick her nipples until she was writhing under me.
I wanted to taste her red, cherry lips and nibble on her earlobes. I was getting hard just looking at her. I pushed the blankets over my lap with my free hand to conceal my excitement. If she noticed, she might beeline for the door without giving me a second glance. I couldn’t scare the skittish woman away. I’d come too close to let her slip through my fingers again.
She finally stopped pacing right before my anxiety began to gnaw away at my emotions. She approached me with the ke
y in hand. I stared at her, waiting for her to do something. For a second, her hardened expression made me think that she might slap me or hit me.
Without a word, she yanked my hand clamped to the handcuffs and unlocked it from my wrist. I touched the tender area, but I would be fine. I glanced up at her wearily.
“Thank you.”
She pursed her lips. She stared at me. She meant all business. “What now?”
I gulped. “If you stay with me, even for a little while, I promise everything will be better.”
“How?” She sounded less than convinced.
“I think you need to know why your grandfather gave you to me.”
She was silent, but the look on her face remained hopeful. “Okay, fine,” she finally replied. “Tell me everything.”
“Yes, everything. And you need to know why I left when I did.”
Chapter Five
Khloe
I stared at Ace. I had no way to mentally calculate whether he was bluffing and telling me stories just to keep me from leaving, but I had to give him the benefit of the doubt. I wanted answers, but I had my own demons to shake off too. I needed to come clean and dust off my own conscious a little. So did he.
“I knew that you were eventually supposed to come for me,” I confessed.
Ace raised his eyebrows. “You did?”
I shrugged and leaned up against the side of the door. I didn’t want to come any closer to him, and I wanted to be adjacent enough to the exit that I would be able to make a break for it if I needed to bolt through the door in a hurry. Who was I kidding? He’d hunt me down in seconds anyway, regardless of what kind of private scheme I might be plotting.
“Part of me did anyway,” I said with pitiful chagrin.
“What do you mean?” His forehead wrinkled in confusion. He looked dangerously handsome, sitting at the edge of the room on the other side of me. His hair had golden hues of red in it under the soft yellow glow of the lamp on the bedside table.
I inhaled a deep preparatory breath. "Well," I began. "My grandfather told me the gist."
Ace wrinkled his nose in disapproval and doubt. “Okay…” he trailed off.
This revelation of my past was particularly disturbing and extremely painful to uproot and discuss. I hated unearthing the darkness of my past. I wanted nothing more than to flee those murky times, but here I was, having to explain them again.
“My grandfather told me that you would eventually come for me. He begged me to go along with the plan and to do whatever you told me to do. As if what I wanted didn’t matter anymore…” I sniffed and glanced down at my feet, trying to prevent myself from swelling with a pool of tears.
“That must have been hard for you,” he whispered empathetically.
“It was.” I nodded and glanced at him. “I did wait for you. I did what I was told, followed instructions. Months went by,” I admitted. “You never came…” I trailed off so faintly that my voice was barely audible.
“I’m sorry,” he confessed, remorse chiming in his voice.
“When you never showed up for me, I was convinced that you either didn’t want me in the first place and had given up after my grandfather’s death, or you died too.” I glanced up at him and our eyes locked. I was filled with a million electrical volts of something I couldn’t understand, but it was a welcoming warmth.
I shrugged. “After you never re-emerged, and I was convinced I would never see you again, I packed up my things and moved to a different city. I was scared. I thought the best place to start was in a new location where I could let go of my past forever.”
Ace was quiet for a moment, staring at the blankets reflectively. When he never broke the silence, I spoke again.
“Why did you never come back?” I pressed. I took a hesitant step towards him.
“It’s complicated,” He sighed with reluctance, staring at the lamp.
“Is that your answer for everything?” I stated sarcastically and folded my arms across my chest.
“No.” He answered sharply and gave me a glaring look but immediately softened his features as soon as his gaze met mine. He swallowed hard. “I was still running with my old crew when I made that deal,” he explained. “Then, we were set up.”
“How?” I asked.
He stood up and absentmindedly stroked the side of the wall as if he were trying to smooth out the kinks in the surface with his fingers.
“We were framed and taken into custody for a bank robbery that one of our rival gangs committed. We were in the wrong place at the wrong time after receiving a tip to head to that location. The cops were already waiting for us there.” He shook his head regretfully. “I was so pissed off. We were so stupid.”
“Is that why you never came for me? You were locked up on bank robbery charges?”
Part of me felt relief if that were the truth. I didn’t want to admit it, but part of me wanted him to find me. Part of me wanted to feel safe and secure with a man who would be able to take care of me and keep me company no matter what.
“I didn’t go to jail for that bank robbery,” he corrected.
“So, what happened?” I asked.
I held my breath as he took a step towards me. His grizzly stare was so intoxicating, alluring. I was lost in his gaze as if he were the only person left on earth.
“I was charged and sentenced for a series of crimes I did commit,” he confessed. Then he shrugged. “I don’t want to get into my past crimes. I did time in prison already, so please don't ask me about them." His cheeks stained a rogue red as if he were embarrassed to discuss the matter with me or admit that he had a shady reputation.
“So, you were in prison serving your time while I was out in the real world waiting on you?”
Ace stared at me with enough sorrow laced in his eyes to melt my soul. “I didn’t realize you would be waiting on me.”
“Yeah well…” I trailed off, glancing at the ground as I shifted my weight. “I made due. I distracted myself in my work, and I just got to a point where I could consider myself somewhat successful and then bam! There you came, crashing into my life again like a lightning bolt."
I left out the part where I was relieved to finally know the truth about his absence. I had been alone and scared, needing a familiar face. The protection was welcomed, even if I was still too proud at the moment to admit it. It had been a long time coming but mentally releasing this vent of emotions felt liberating.
“Anyway,” I said with a firm tone. "You are no better than the mobsters who just attacked me."
“I didn’t attack you,” he fired back defensively.
“You’re guilty anyway. You met me, kept grinning at me when you came to visit, and then you allowed my grandfather to sell me as if I were a piece of property,” I shrieked with grief. “That’s just wrong. I…I don’t even know what to call it at this point.”
Ace hung his shoulders. I had been expecting him to spray me back with defensive quips, denying the fact that he was a heartless monster.
“I know,” he whispered. He stared up at me with sad, puppy dog eyes. “I’m no stranger to being called a dog, a worthless human.”
“I didn’t mean it like that—” I began.
“No, I understand.” He sharply interjected. “It's okay.” He stared at me with a stone cold expression. “The first crime I was ever convicted of was for murdering my father.”
“Your father?” I gasped, surprised. I wasn’t expecting him to say that.
“Yes.” He nodded somberly. “He had beat my mother for decades. I couldn’t live with it. Seeing her like that. When he hurt me, I could run. Get away for a few days. Go spend the night at a shelter or somewhere. But my mother…she just stayed.” He shook his head. “I emptied my clip into his chest. After that, there was no going back. I would do it all again if I had the chance. If that motherfucker came back to life, I would shoot him dead again.”
“Your mama…? Where is she now?” I croaked, fearing the worse.
“She died a few months after I was released from prison. She visited me a lot while I was serving my time.”
“I’m so sorry. Well now I feel terrible,” I admitted and took another step forward. “I mean that’s a terrible thing to do but…I didn’t know that about you.” I was ashamed at how I’d been chastising him without discovering the whole truth about his troubled past. There were some fucked up men in this world, and I had no idea that Ace had grown up in a similar situation to mine.
Ace glanced at me with pain conflicting in the hazel speckling of his eyes. “You never asked why your grandfather owed me money.” The suffering cracked in his voice.
“I don’t know. The packages…I never saw what was in them.”
His eyes lit up like he was learning this for the first time.
He shook his head. “That’s not the kind of debt he owed me.”
I sighed. “The cartel? Does he still owe them?”
“He owed the cartel I worked for, but he satisfied his debt after a time. If there were any others after that, I don’t know of them.”
“So were you just the courier or the guy who comes to collect what people owe and then shoots them in the head when they don’t pay up?” I was bitter, and my words stung as I noticed him wincing.
“I was both.” He met my gaze and locked it there. It was his admission. He’d been previously ordered to kill my grandfather in the event that he couldn’t pay up. I refused to think about what might have happened if my grandfather wasn’t providing the packages like clockwork.
“So, after my grandfather paid the debt he owed the cartel, he then asked you for money?” I was confused.
"Not for money. He asked me to do something for him. After I did it, I came to collect what was owed to me. I wasn't the middleman in this contract. He negotiated with me directly.“
I scoffed. "And after you made this contract and he couldn't pay, you then ended up with basically everything my grandfather owned?” I told it like it was, or at least how it appeared to me. “I saw the documents after he died. He left nothing to me because he had nothing else to give.”
Claimed by the Ex-Con: An Ex-Con Second Chance Contemporary Romance Novel Page 3
