Ace returned from Alexei’s to find Katie, Diego, Smalls, and Riley all sitting at the kitchen table, waiting for him.

 

“We need to talk to you,” Katie said, her voice tight.

 

“What is this? A fucking intervention?” Ace joked as he sat down.

 

“Some of us,” Smalls began hesitantly, “are concerned your focus isn’t exactly where it should be right now. But all I need is some reassurance that you’re looking after things,” he said, emphasizing the ‘I’ to let Ace know he didn’t agree with everything Katie was saying.

 

Ace let out a deep sigh. “Look, guys, I know you’re worried, but trust me—I have everything under control.”

 

“You are not behaving like someone who has things under control,” Riley said.

 

Everyone gave him their full attention. Riley didn’t speak often, but when he did, it was something to be carefully considered.

 

“You walked into Alexei’s with no one behind you.” Ace realized Riley was scolding him. “The people in this gang rely on you. You have a responsibility to them as their leader to make them feel safe. When you make reckless choices and put yourself in danger, you weaken yourself, which frightens people and makes them weak in turn.” Riley gazed at Ace with heavy eyes. “Strong leader, strong group. Weak leader, weak group.”

 

Ace didn’t say anything for a moment, absorbing what Riley had said. “What about you, Diego?” he asked.

 

Diego shifted in his seat. “I’m all for going in guns blazing, pero going in by yourself is suicide. We need you around. This girl…” Diego started to say, immediately stopping when he saw Katie’s death glare.

 

Ace looked between the two of them. “Wait a minute, this is about Fiona?” he asked, looking directly at Katie.

 

“This is about the decisions you’ve made recently,” Katie said, throwing her hair over her shoulder. “But if we’re going there, yes, you started making these kinds of decisions once she came around.”

 

“Well, I’m taking her out of here, so you don’t have to be jealous anymore, Katie,” Ace said drily.

 

Riley, Diego, and Smalls all exchanged looks, slowly and quietly getting up out of their chairs to leave the kitchen. The three of them all knew there was no longer any room for a rational discussion. When Ace and Katie went at it, minimum safe distance was the far side of the moon.

 

“I am not jealous!” Katie screamed, and Ace rolled his eyes. “You are behaving like a complete ass, and you’re going to get us all killed!”

 

“Are you listening?” Ace asked sarcastically. “I said I’m moving her out of here! So no more danger, all right?”

 

“So you take her to some safe house, then what? What happens next? Because I’m still seeing us getting murdered.”

 

“I don’t understand how you can still be so mad,” Ace exclaimed. “This morning you told me you didn’t want her staying here, and now she’s not staying here! How do you still have a problem?”

 

“What I said was that you needed to put the gang first!” Katie yelled back. “And right now, the gang agrees! They want to know that if we go through with this plan, that if some of us die, it’s for us—not her.”

 

“How can you say that to me?” he asked her, pain clouding his dark green eyes.

 

Katie shrugged. “You haven’t been around lately…it makes some of us wonder.”

 

You especially, Ace thought. “The Hell Brothers happens to have a common interest with Fiona,” he said. “I make the choices I make for us, but she’s done a lot for her brother, and I think that kind of grit should be rewarded. She’s ballsy as fuck, you have to admit.” Ace gave Katie a sidelong glance. “If you didn’t hate her so much, you might like her.”

 

Katie turned and gave Ace the coldest look he’d ever seen. “If you don’t get her the fuck out of this house in the next thirty minutes, I’ll do Alexei’s job for him,” she said, walking away without a backwards glance.

 

Ace took the stairs to his room two at a time. Fiona brought barely anything with her, so getting her out would take less than ten minutes, but Ace didn’t trust Katie to stick to her word.

 

He burst into his room to find Fiona sitting in a chair with Lianna at her feet, a towel around her shoulders. Fiona was wearing yellow dish gloves and had a fistful of Lianna’s hair in one hand, and a small, goopy brush in the other. Lucky was sitting on his dresser, reading the back of a hair dye box.

 

“What the fuck…” Ace said, looking around. “I leave for two…” He stopped and took a deep breath. “Fiona, whatever this is, we gotta go, okay?”

 

“We can’t,” Fiona protested. “This has to set for at least twenty minutes.”

 

Ace grabbed Fiona’s bag. “Dammit, Fiona! Did you not hear me downstairs?” He knew from past experience sound traveled in this house.

 

“Of course,” Fiona said, bewildered. “But Lucky said that there was nothing to…” She trailed off, seeing Lucky in the corner making a slashing motion near her throat. “Okay, then. Let’s get going.” She peeled off the gloves, gingerly passing them to Lucky, who put them on and resumed painting Lianna’s hair.

 

Fifteen minutes later, they were on the back of Ace’s motorcycle. Fiona had no idea where they were going, but she found she trusted Ace, whatever his plan was.

 

He eventually began to slow, pulling into the parking lot of a mid-sized hotel.

 

“No way,” Fiona said once he had stopped and she had taken off her helmet. “I’m not staying here.”

 

“Goddammit, Fiona,” Ace said, exasperatedly rubbing his eyes with one hand. “Can we please at least argue inside? I’m feeling very exposed right now.”

 

Fiona looked around, noticing there was a clear view of the parking lot from the highway. “Fine,” she muttered, following him inside and to their room. “If I’m going to run away, why can’t I stay wherever Niko is?” she asked once the door was closed, throwing her bag on the bed.

 

“Do you know where he is?” Ace demanded. “Because I don’t. And strategy-wise, it’s a very bad idea to put the two of you together. I’m not an idiot, Fiona.”

 

“I never said you were!” she replied hotly. “But I don’t exactly have the greatest idea of what’s going on, so excuse me if I have a few questions!”

 

When was the last time I took a breath that wasn’t a tired sigh from repressing my frustration? Ace wondered. “Ask away, then,” he said, opening the mini-fridge and pulling out a beer. He fell back into a chair and took a long swallow.

 

“Why can’t I stay and help you? Don’t you think I could be of use?”

 

Ace flashed back to the Molotov cocktails in Fiona’s kitchen. “Of course I do, but the whole point of our deal was to keep you safe,” Ace pointed out.

 

“No,” Fiona corrected him. “It was to keep my brother safe. I can be an asset to you, Ace,” she insisted firmly.

 

“And here I used to think you were the obedient one,” Ace muttered under his breath. “It’s better for everyone if you stay out of the way, okay?” he said loudly.

 

“Why?” Fiona cried. “If I can help, why wouldn’t you want me there?”

 

“Christ!” Ace bellowed, shooting to his feet and flinging the beer bottle to the side. “Because if you’re there, Fiona, I won’t be able to focus on anything else!” he was breathing heavily, the unsaid implication of his words hanging in the air.

 

Fiona went over to him, taking his face in her hands. “What are you trying to say, Ace?”

 

He opened his mouth, trying to push the words past his tongue, but he couldn’t. Instead, he simply grabbed her wrists, holding her hands to his face as he leaned in to kiss her.

 

There was still this intense urgency in the kiss, Fiona noticed, but it was different this time, gentler, more sensual.

 

The kiss deepened as Ace lowered his hands to Fiona’s back, lightly tracing her spine with his fingers. Fiona reached up on her tiptoes to try to pull Ace even closer to her. They broke apart, panting.

 

Ace tugged on the hem of Fiona’s shirt. “Can I see you?” he asked quietly, desperately wanting her, but not wanting to push her.

 

“Of course.” Fiona smiled softly, pressing a sweet kiss to Ace’s lips.

 

He gently lifted the bottom over her head, his touch leaving a trail of goosebumps across Fiona’s tanned skin. Tossing the shirt to the side, Ace got down on his knees, the top of his head coming level with the underside of Fiona’s breasts. If he were two inches taller, he’d be able to bury his face between her luscious tits. Time for that later, he reminded himself as he began to undo the buttons of Fiona’s shorts.

 

He slid them over her wide hips and down her firm, muscular thighs. As the bottoms fell to Fiona’s ankles, Ace gave her legs long, erotic kisses. Fiona didn’t know the back of her knee could make her feel so sexual.

 

“Wh-what are you doing?” Fiona whispered, worried that if she spoke too loud, she would break whatever trance seemed to have come over Ace.

 

Ace sat back on his heels and stared at Fiona, not saying a word, his eyes roaming over her body, which was now dressed in only a matching set of plain yellow cotton underwear. Fiona wished she had worn something sexier, but Ace thought he had never seen someone so beautiful. Finally, he leaned forward again, kissing her tummy. “Let me show you,” he said.

 

Ace pulled down her panties, his thumb brushing back and forth over the soft dusting of hair that grew between her legs. Gently parting the curls, Ace pressed against her clitoris, smiling with delight as she shivered above him.

 

Fiona felt his other hand slide around to firmly cup her ass. He squeezed it tightly as his tongue performed acrobatics on her rapidly moistening pussy. His fingers slid inside her, then quickly withdrew, eliciting a sharp gasp from Fiona. She looked down to see him licking his middle finger.

 

“I swear, you taste as good as you smell,” he said, staring up at her before leaning in to lap at her sweet core like a man starved half to death. The force of him on her pressed Fiona back until her legs hit the edge of the bed and she fell, her legs spreading wide to grant Ace better access.

 

Ace held nothing back, giving Fiona every trick he knew to try to get her to that point as many times as he could. He knew she was close when she started to whimper and tug on his hair.

 

Instead of riding what Ace modestly thought could be the best orgasm of her life, Fiona sat up, pulling away from his tongue and fingers.

 

Now it was Ace’s turn to ask Fiona, “What are you doing?”

 

“Let me show you,” she repeated back to him, sitting up.

 

Switching places so Ace was the one on the bed with his legs resting over the edge, and Fiona was on her knees between his thighs, she pulled off his pants and boxers, while Ace removed his shirt.

 

Grasping his cock gently in her hand, Fiona pursed her lips, wrapping them around his head. Ace groaned loudly and Fiona flicked her tongue a few times to heighten his sensations.

 

She had never been particularly adept at this part of foreplay, but Ace brought out the seductress in her. She felt powerful with Ace at her mercy beneath her.

 

As Fiona worked him over with her beautiful mouth, he found himself reaching the need to cum far too quickly. He sat up a little, brushing Fiona’s hair over her ear. “Hey,” he said, breathing hard, “that feels way too good right now.”

 

Fiona bobbed her head down once more before coming up, and Ace’s eyes rolled into the back of his head. He grabbed her by the arm, pulling her to lay alongside him in the giant hotel bed.

 

“Holy shit, girl,” he said, smiling at her. “That was amazing.”

 

“Thank you,” Fiona said modestly. “It’s the least I could do for you when you make me feel so good.”

 

“Oh, that’s nothing!” Ace said wickedly. “You just wait!”

 

Fiona giggled happily as Ace dropped to his elbows, settling between her thighs once more. Her laughter quickly subsided as Ace’s tongue rapidly brought her higher and higher until she cried out with pleasure.

 

She opened her eyes, waiting to come back down to Earth so the feeling could return to her legs. “Talk about amazing,” she panted, looking down at Ace.

 

He surged upwards, his hard body firmly pinning her beneath him. Looking deep into her crystal blue eyes, Ace had never felt more connected to another person. This is what people mean, he realized. When they talk about sex as a physical act of emotion, they’re talking about this.

 

Ace always brushed off talk like that as hippie bullshit, but what he felt, what he was feeling right now…he had no words. The only way to express it was through this carnal, tender, act.

 

“Fiona,” he whispered in her ear, his face buried in the mass of curls exploding from her head. “I need you.”

 

Hearing his unspoken words, Fiona shifted her legs so Ace lay between them. She could feel the tip of his head resting against her clit, its warmth mingling with her own. Ace slowly inched forward, his cock slowly sliding into Fiona’s tight, hot pussy as they finally consummated the deal.

 

Ace groaned, Fiona echoing him a half-second later. “God, Fiona, I feel like I’ve waited my whole life for this,” Ace said, lost in the moment. “I never…never knew…” Of all the sex he’d had, Ace had never known what it was like to make love.

 

Instinctively, Fiona began to move her hips, grinding against Ace in an attempt to pull him even deeper inside her. She hooked her heels together behind his back, crying out as Ace thrust into her.

 

“Oh yes, Ace, just like that,” she moaned.

 

Ace dug his toes into the bed, trying to gain extra leverage. Missionary was usually his least favorite position to have sex in, but this time he had to focus on not finishing too quickly. Missionary allowed him to watch Fiona’s gorgeous face as the pleasure he gave her rippled through her.

 

If he tried looking down, he was faced with her perky tits, furiously jiggling as he pounded into her. Looking even farther down, he could see himself thrusting into her slippery, hot core. It was enough that Ace had to close his eyes and list off all the different kind of bikes he could remember, or he was going to finish right then and there.

 

Fiona wrapped her arms around Ace’s neck, kissing him as she felt him fill her up inside. She had expected sex with Ace to be like it had been fooling around in the back office that fateful day—rough and a little frightening.

 

Instead, Ace was surprisingly gentle, yet somehow still performed as though the missionary position was the newest addition to the Kama Sutra. He pumped himself into her, loving the slick walls that hugged his cock.

 

Her ankles were hooked around his waist, and Ace rolled to the side, holding Fiona aloft so she was now on top and his hands were free to roam her supple body.

 

Squeezing her thighs, Fiona raised herself up, rocking her hips back and forth as she stirred above him. She leaned forward, her hands resting on Ace’s chest, her nails digging in as Ace thrust a little deeper.

 

“Oh my god, oh my god,” Fiona repeated over and over as another wave began to crest within her.

 

She brought her hand up, entwining her fingers with Ace’s, holding them to her breasts as she came. The sensations rippled through her, and she finally began to slow. She bent down to give Ace a passionate kiss, her nipples brushing sensitively against the light dusting of chest hair on Ace’s chest.

 

“That’s never happened before,” she admitted, blushing as she sat up.

 

“What?” Ace asked, very aware of his still rigid cock inside her.

 

“I’ve never managed to come from just sex before,” Fiona said, tucking her hair behind her ears. “I didn’t even think I could.” She giggled.

 

Her laugh drove Ace wild, and he rose up, gripping Fiona behind the neck, pulling her down to him again for another fiery kiss. “Why don’t we see what we can do about that?” he said, his tongue flicking her nipple.

 

Fiona looked down at him. “You didn’t…?”

 

He shook his head. “Nope. That was all you,” he said.

 

“I’m sorry!” Fiona exclaimed. “I totally thought that you finished.”

 

Ace shook his head again. “I didn’t. But if you don’t think you can go any longer, I understand.” Did I really just say that? Ace wondered, surprised at himself. When had he ever been okay not finishing?

 

It didn’t matter, however, because Fiona was furiously shaking her head, her thick curls whipping back and forth. “Absolutely not,” she declared as she leaned over him, her deep blue eyes threatening to drown him. “I feel like the fucking Energizer Bunny right now,” she said, bouncing up and down on his cock a little to prove her point.

 

Ace moaned, a wide grin spreading across his face. “I’ll have to try to keep up,” he teased. Winking at her, Ace gripped Fiona’s thighs and lifted her off of him, both groaning at the sudden loss of warmth between them.

 

Fiona lay sprawled on the bed, Ace towering over her, his cock seeming to jut out from his hard body to point right at her. He stroked it lazily as he stared at her beautiful form. Ace didn’t think he’d ever met a person who could be so tough one moment, and so soft the next.

 

“Bend over,” he ordered her. “I’ve been envisioning that ass of yours ever since you walked into The Crabtree.”

 

Fiona did as she was told, giving him a naughty smile over her shoulder once she was on all fours. Ace reached out with one hand—the other was still busy with his cock—and lightly grazed Fiona’s gorgeous ass. He traced its bubble shape with his fingers, dipping down to slide the longest one inside Fiona to feel her pussy.

 

Ace made a beckoning motion with his finger, and Fiona let out an involuntary, high-pitched whimper. He smiled to himself and slipped in a second finger, continuing to make the same gesture inside of her.

 

“Oh shit, Ace,” Fiona cursed. “Oh shit, oh fuck, oh goddamn!” she cried.

 

“That’s it, baby girl,” Ace encouraged her. “I wanna hear everything you got; let it out.” He wanted to make her scream—literally. His fingers pumped in and out, rapid fire as Fiona began to cry out, over and over.

 

Finally, she turned around, panting as she looked at Ace. “If you’re not going to fuck me with that cock of yours, then what good is it for?”

 

Ace stared at her in shock. He had never expected to hear such dirty talk come out of Fiona’s mouth. This woman was full of the strangest surprises—and he couldn’t get enough of it. Ace felt himself get even harder, if such a thing were even possible right now.

 

He grabbed his dick, lining it up with Fiona’s dripping wet pussy. He grabbed her around the waist, gently pulling her back to bury himself inside of her. Both of them let out deep sighs of satisfaction.

 

“Oh, Ace,” Fiona breathed. “Finally.”

 

“Is this what you wanted?” He asked her as he started to pump in and out. “Did you want me to fuck your tight pussy?”

 

“Yes!” Fiona hissed, her eyes closing in pleasure. “I’ve wanted you to fuck me since that night in the office.”

 

“Tell me,” Ace ordered, slamming into her now. “Tell me what you wanted me to do.”

 

“I wanted this,” she said, meeting his powerful thrusts with her own. “I wanted you to pound my pussy raw with that hard cock of yours. Oh god, Ace, yes! Fuck me, yes!” As Fiona felt her third orgasm of the night flow through her, she lost all self-restraint, screaming with no regard to who might overhear.

 

Hearing the filthy language pouring out of her mouth, Ace began to fuck her with wild abandon. Nothing existed anymore except Fiona and her amazing, beautiful ass that slapped his thighs as he rammed into her.

 

“Oh fuck, here it comes,” Ace cried, heat rushing up from the base of his cock and spilling from the tip.

 

His vision went dark for a minute, and he swayed erratically. For a second, he thought he was actually going to pass out, his orgasm had been so intense. Ace slipped out of Fiona, and the two lay next to each other, sweaty and satisfied.

 

“That…was…” Fiona panted. She had no words for what she had just experienced.

 

“Right?” Ace agreed as he tried to catch his breath.

 

There was a knock on the hotel door and they looked at each other in a panic.

 

“Who knows you brought me here?” Fiona asked, her heart now pounding from fear rather than excitement.

 

Ace shook his head. “No one,” he whispered.

 

Pulling on his pants as quietly as he could, Ace went to the door and peered through the peephole. It looked like a hotel worker, but he wouldn’t put it past Alexei to use a decoy. Ace reached into his jacket hanging on a nearby chair and pulled his gun from the inner pocket.

 

Fiona anxiously hugged the sheets to her chest as she watched Ace open the door a crack, leaving the chain bolted.

 

“Can I help you?” he asked aggressively.

 

The man on the other side of the door was more of a boy, all acne and gangly limbs that barely filled out his hotel uniform. Seeing Ace’s menacing face and his towering figure, the boy took an involuntary step back.

 

“I, uh,” he stammered, “there have been some, um, complaints,” he finally said.

 

“And?” Ace said expectantly.

 

“Well, the office asked me to, uh, to let you know that if-if you can’t keep your, um, ‘activities’”—he used air quotes—“down to a more reasonable volume, then, well, we’re going to have to, uh, ask you to, uh, leave,” the boy finished lamely, clearly terrified of Ace, who was a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier than him.

 

“Look…Bobby,” Ace said, squinting at the kid’s nametag. “I appreciate you got a job to do, but I’m not going anywhere tonight, and I’ll make as much noise as I goddamn please, understand?”

 

Bobby looked like he was going to faint.

 

“Ace!” Fiona called from inside the room. “Don’t cuss at him,” she scolded, coming around the corner still wrapped in her sheet. “Ignore him,” she told Bobby. “You can tell your boss we’ll be quieter; I promise,” she said, smiling.

 

Bobby stared at the beautiful woman who was clearly incredibly naked underneath the white sheet. If he looked hard enough, he could see her nipples poking through the thin fabric. His hormones sprang to life and he instantly got hard. “Oh, uh, th-thank you, ma’am.”

 

Bobby was stumbling over his words pretty badly at this point, staring so hard at Fiona Ace thought his eyes were going to fall out of his head. The kid’s probably sixteen and never seen a set of tits in real life before. He chuckled to himself.

 

“Sorry about the noise, kid,” Ace said as he reached into his back pocket to pull out a fifty-dollar bill. “We’ll keep it down.” He handed the cash to the awkward youngster, who reminded Ace of himself, back before everything had turned to shit.

 

He stared at the fifty bucks in his hands, then at Fiona, then at Ace, apparently too dumb-struck to even say thank you.

 

Ace shut the door and joined Fiona back in bed. Amazingly, within seconds, she had fallen asleep. He smiled to himself. They hadn’t even gotten the opportunity to talk about plans. Ace was going to tell her how The Hell Brothers were planning to attack Alexei, but it looked like that would have to wait until morning.

 

Morning… Ace thought to himself. What happens tomorrow morning? She stays here and I go back to headquarters to get things ready with the gang? What about after that? Let’s say this thing with Alexei miraculously turns out okay and we all live. What then? Fiona comes and lives with me at the house? He snorted skeptically. Yeah, right. I saw her face when she walked into the place—she thought it was a dump, and she’s right. Even if Katie didn’t murder her within the week, Fiona deserves a better place than what I’ve got.

 

So your plan is to, what? a second voice chimed in, mocking him. Go to her place instead? Yeah, right. If she deserves better than the house, then she definitely deserves better than you. She wouldn’t want you to come back with her, anyway. She might have enjoyed fucking you, but she doesn’t want to be with you. Come on, Acey! You’re smarter than that. He stared at Fiona’s sleeping form, knowing the voice was right. She would never want to be with him. She wanted someone safe, someone she could count on—someone like Ash, probably, he angrily assumed.

 

He slid down in the bed to lay next to Fiona. Tomorrow morning Ace would inject a little professionalism into their relationship, that was what he would do. If not for his own good, then for hers.

 

***

 

The next morning, Fiona awoke to an empty bed.

 

“Oh, you gotta be fucking kidding me,” she muttered angrily. “Ace!” Fiona shouted. “Ace, you’d better be in here, goddammit!”

 

Once, I can forgive, Fiona reasoned, but twice? If that motherfucker abandoned me again, I swear to god.

 

The bathroom door flew open and Ace barreled out into the room, looking around frantically. “What?” he panicked. “Who’s here? Are you okay?”

 

Fiona let out a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank god. I thought you…y’know, ran off again.”

 

“Oh,” Ace said, relaxing. “Sorry about that other time. Something came up and I just had to run,” he lied. Yeah, run away from your feelings, the self-deprecating side of him added.

 

“You’re getting dressed?” Fiona said questioningly, pointing at his outfit of a shirt and a pair of boxers.

 

“We didn’t get much of a chance to talk about it last night—” Ace started to say.

 

“Gee, I wonder why not?” Fiona said, cutting him off with a lustful grin.

 

Ace laughed nervously. He stepped back, putting some distance between him and Fiona. “Well, anyway,” he continued, “Alexei thinks I’m handing you over to him today, so it’s important that you stay here and don’t answer the door for anyone, okay?”

 

“Wait, where are you going to be?” Fiona asked.

 

“I have to get things set up for when we launch our assault,” Ace explained. He wasn’t supposed to meet the gang for another two hours, but he didn’t want Fiona to know that.

 

“What if I get hungry?” Fiona looked around the room.

 

Ace mentally cursed himself for his lack of foresight. Striding over to the room phone, he picked it up out of the cradle and dialed the front desk. A minute later, he put the phone back, and started to pull on his pants. “Call room service for whatever you want and have them charge it to the room,” he said as he laced up his boots. “I told them to send Bobby up with whatever you order.”

 

“Uh-oh,” Fiona said, grinning wickedly at him. “You won’t be jealous of me and Bobby here all alone?” she teased. Fiona hadn’t missed the way the boy looked at her last night.

 

Ace raised an eyebrow at her. “I think my ego can handle it,” he said evenly.

 

Fiona’s smile faltered a little. “Are you okay?” she asked.

 

“Yeah,” he answered shortly. “I’m fine. I just…I’ve got a lot on my mind.” Ace grabbed his jacket quickly, putting it on as he walked out the door. “Don’t leave,” he repeated, giving Fiona a pointed stare before closing the door behind him.

 

“Sit, Fiona! Stay!” she said to herself, falling back onto the bed.

 

She rifled through the nightstand drawer until she found the hotel’s room service menu. She dialed the kitchen and ordered a stack of waffles with strawberries and blueberries, as well as two orders of bacon, some yogurt, and an extra-large glass of orange juice.

 

She got dressed just in time to hear a knock at the door. Looking through the peephole, she saw Bobby standing next to a cart full of food, looking incredibly nervous.

 

“Hey, Bobby!” Fiona said, opening the door. “Come on in.”

 

He wheeled the cart into the room, carefully looking around.

 

Understanding his apprehension, Fiona told him, “He had to leave for the day. It’s just me.” She suppressed a giggle upon seeing Bobby’s obvious relief. “You can just put the food over by the bed.”

 

He pushed the trolley to the far side of the bed. “Is there anything else you need?” Bobby asked.

 

“Nope,” Fiona said, shaking her head. She thought about the long day ahead of her. “Do you have a lot of work today, Bobby?” she asked.

 

“Not really,” he said. “I was actually supposed to be off today, but your husband told my boss he’d give her a thousand dollars if she called me in to be a waiter today. So, here I am.”

 

Fiona winced. Ace wasn’t her husband, but she didn’t see the point of correcting the boy. Besides, it was kind of fun to imagine Ace as a well-to-do husband, coming home at five sharp, just in time for the meatloaf to finish cooking in the oven.

 

“Well,” Fiona said, “since you’re not busy, would you like to keep me company? I have a lot of waffles here, and access to some decent pay-per-view,” she pointed out.

 

Bobby shuffled his feet. “Won’t your husband mind?” he asked.

 

“Ace is not…” Fiona stopped herself. “It’ll be fine—as long as you don’t try to hit on me or anything,” she warned him jokingly.

 

Bobby laughed with her, and the two began to dig into the waffles, Fiona grateful for the distraction.

 

***

 

Ace opened up the throttle on his motorcycle, relishing in the engine’s powerful response. He wanted to be like that—a machine—with nothing to worry about except the fuel in its tank.

 

If a machine broke, there was a way to fix it. It had a manual that came with it that told you what part to replace, or how to repair it.

 

That’s the problem with people, Ace thought as he sped down the highway, there’s no manual. If something inside you is broken, you can’t replace it, and there’s no way to know how to fix it, or even if it can be fixed.

 

Something inside him was broken, Ace knew that. And he knew it was that kind of broken that ended up breaking everything else around it. That was why he joined The Hell Brothers. It was full of other broken people, people you didn’t have to worry about hurting because they were like him—too damaged to feel it anymore.

 

I never should have made that deal with her! Ace berated himself. He could see it already, in how they acted together, in how light she made him feel. She’s gonna fall in love with me, and I’m going to ruin her, because that’s what I do. I can’t ever love her back the way she wants—the way she deserves—and it’s going to ruin her.

 

He hoped it wasn’t too late. He hoped that maybe, if he never touched her like that again, she would be able to move on without too much pain. It would already be too late for him. He just didn’t know if he could make that promise to himself and keep it.

 

The sex with Fiona hadn’t just been sex, Ace realized. He’d had sex before—lots of it—and none of it had ever been anything close to what he’d experienced last night. When he’d looked into her pale blue eyes, he felt a sense of peace he’d felt only once before, as a very young boy.

 

When he was about six or seven, he’d stayed over at a friend’s house for the night. He was old enough to know that his family was different from others, but he’d never had the opportunity to examine a family other than his own until then.

 

It had been fairly similar to his own on a good day, until it was time for bed. His friend’s mom had helped them get ready, something his own mother did, but once they were all tucked it, something unusual happened.

 

His friend’s dad walked in with a thick book called The Fellowship of the Ring, and sat down on the edge of the bed, while his friend’s mom squeezed in between the two young boys and wrapped one arm around each of them, pulling them close.

 

“We’re already a little ways into the book, but it’s a good scene,” the father had said.

 

And it was. Ace enjoyed the fantastic tale quite a bit, even to go so far as to imagine he, too, would one day embark on an epic quest to do what was right. But what Ace remembered most was this strange sort of calm that fell over him as he listened to the heartbeat of the mother in his left ear, and the cool, strong voice of the father in his right.

 

It was love, of the unconditional variety. And he had felt that again last night when he had been with Fiona.

 

So? Who cares if you think you might be in love? Ace asked himself angrily as he sped through traffic. You could never show her the right way—you’d just fuck it up. If you really love her, you’ll break her heart a little now so you don’t break it a lot later.

 

He knew he should go back home to the Brothers, but right now, Ace just wanted time to himself.

 

***

 

There were at least a dozen extra bikes outside of the house when Ace got home the next day. He turned off the engine and pulled off his helmet as Katie and Diego stepped outside, Smalls, Riley, and Lucky following them out quickly.

 

“Hey, guys,” Ace said cautiously. “What’s going on?” he gestured to all the bikes around him.

 

He noticed Lucky, Smalls, and, strangely enough, Diego all seemed to have been crying.

 

“They blew up The Crabtree,” Katie said flatly.

 

Ace dropped his helmet in the grass. “What?” he whispered.

 

“Alexei and his guys,” Smalls said, his voice quavering. “They wired the place up and lit the spark.”

 

“Did anyone get hurt?” he asked. “Any of us?”

 

“No,” Katie said. “Everyone was here for our monthly meeting—which you also missed.”

 

“The bar was closed anyway,” Riley said quietly. “Not many lives were lost.”

 

“Blake’s was,” Lucky said with a small hiccup. Fresh tears began to stream down her face. “Blake lived at the bar, and now…” She broke into a sob and Riley wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her into a hug.

 

“Blake’s dead?” Ace said.

 

“Yeah,” Katie said shortly. “And you would have found out about it along with the rest of us if you’d fucking been here.”

 

“Where were you, Ace?” Diego finally spoke up. “We needed you. We needed our leader.” He turned around and went back inside, the rest of the gang following him.

 

Ace hesitantly went in after them. There was an impromptu wake going on for Blake. She had been well liked by every gang in town. Most of the gangs were gone now, but the remaining members, all stragglers who’d managed to avoid Alexei’s wrath, were gathered in the living room to pay their respects.

 

That explains the bikes outside, Ace thought miserably.

 

If he thought that he had felt like shit before, it was nothing compared to now. Blake had been a friend of his for a long time. She had been a staple in the biker community. If The Crabtree wasn’t there to go to anymore…where would the gangs meet? What gangs are left, anyway.

 

Ace slid a hand over his face. Was there even any point in sticking around here anymore? Everything he and The Hell Brothers once loved was now gone. Maybe I should take Alexei’s offer to leave, figure out how to sneak Fiona away from him. I don’t think I could handle another death on my conscience.

 

Katie was right. I should have been here. Instead, I was with Fiona, or off by myself because of Fiona—because I think I love her or some bullshit. Ace knew he was never going to be able to have a future with her, so why was he wasting time with her when the people in his life were in danger?

 

This was why he didn’t get close to people—they made you weak. I’m no better than the sap right now. I’m worse. At least when he makes a fool of himself, no one gets hurt!

 

Ace took one night to enjoy himself, to enjoy what he felt for Fiona, and look what happened. He lost focus, and now one of his closest friends was dead.

 

Smaller voices in Ace’s head told him that there was no way he could have possibly predicted this, that even if he had been at the meeting like he was supposed to have been, Blake would still be dead, but he didn’t care. He was too busy blaming himself for allowing Alexei to catch him off guard.

 

He stepped into the living room where Lianna and Lucky were setting up coolers full of beers for the mourners. There was a big board filled with pictures of Blake. Ace spotted himself in quite a few of the photos, and he hated himself more than ever.

 

His chest felt like it was suddenly four sizes too small as he struggled for air. Black spots appeared in front of his eyes and he heard ringing in his ears.

 

“Are you gonna get that?”

 

Ace looked over, startled. His vision zoomed in on an older woman with heavy black eyeliner.

 

“What?”

 

“I said, are you gonna get that?” she repeated, annoyed. “Your phone? It’s only been ringing for the last five minutes.”

 

Ace dazedly reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. Fiona. Not now. He ignored the call, muting the phone as he shoved it back where it came from. Looking around the room, he saw a dozen pairs of eyes all staring back at him. I have to get out of here, he panicked.

 

He turned abruptly and walked out of the house. A small voice reminded him that in a couple of hours, Alexei and his men would know Ace wasn’t planning on turning Fiona over to them. If they had blown up The Crabtree with no provocation, there was no telling how Alexei’s mob would react to a direct insult like this.

 

What Ace wanted to do right now was throw caution to the wind and storm Alexei’s all by himself, but he knew that would be a suicide mission, and he refused to abandon The Hell Brothers in their hour of need…not again.

 

He took a deep breath and turned to go back inside. Plunging his hand into the cooler of ice, Ace dug around until he surfaced with something suitable to drink. Part of him yearned for the stronger stuff to numb his pain, but he knew he needed to keep his head clear.

 

“Glad to see you decided to stick around,” Katie said from behind him.

 

Ace closed his eyes in exasperation, pivoting to look at her. Surprisingly, Katie’s face seemed sincere. Her eyes were red, but Ace could tell she still had yet to shed a tear. That was to be expected. Katie didn’t tolerate weakness, least of all in herself, and she wanted a man who would be just as tough as she was. Her attitude regarding what she considered to be weak was in no small measure why she and Ace fought so often.

 

As the leader of The Hell Brothers, Ace had to make some hard choices. Sometimes he wanted some validation that the choice he had made was the right one, and if he tried to seek this out from Katie, more often than not, she would accuse him of being insecure and unstable.

 

His phone buzzed in his pocket, and Ace pulled it out to look, though he already knew who it was.

 

“Who is that?” Katie asked accusingly, correctly imagining it to be Fiona.

 

“No one,” he said, turning the phone off and shoving it back into his pocket.

 

It tore Ace’s heart in half to say that, but he knew what the gang needed from him right now, and he was going to give it to them, no matter the cost to himself or his own personal happiness. He would send someone to guard Fiona instead.

 

This is where you belong, he reminded himself as he looked at Katie’s wavy black hair. What you had with Fiona, whatever it was, it wasn’t real. This is real. This is your life, now and forever.