ACE

I walk through the casino floor in yesterday’s clothes. The guys are with me, and Landon points to Tess and Claire, in their barely-there uniforms, standing with the requisite drink trays in hand.

“Shall we?” Landon asks.

I nod, hoping they’ve heard from Emmy. I tried to call her twice, and then McQueen told me I needed to stop acting like such a pussy.

They don’t understand that I’m in love with Emmy. That I would, and will, do anything to be with her.

“You sure, Ace?” Jack asks. “If Emmy is in with Grotto, these girls might be too.”

“Emmy isn’t with Grotto,” I say. “Besides, Tess in with him? Never.”

“Claire’s a tough one, though,” Landon says. “Who knows what she’s up to.”

“Claire may be tough, but she isn’t a fool. She’d never get wrapped up with Grotto,” I say.

“But Emmy would?” McQueen asks.

“Fuck this,” I say. “I don’t want to talk about Emmy anymore. Not until I’m looking at her face. Right now, we’re talking to her girls.”

We cut across the casino floor, toward them.

“Ace,” Claire says. “Everything okay? Heard you had a rough night.”

“Yeah?” Jack asks, stepping toward her aggressively. “What else did you hear?”

“Hey,” I tell him, pushing at his chest, needing him to back the fuck off. The last thing I need right now is a showdown in my casino. The press is probably already getting heavy-handed with me in jail last night.

“Fuck you, Jack,” Claire says. Tess’s eyes get wide. “Emmy told me Ace was in jail. And I don’t know whose fucking mess this is, but Emmy should not be the one cleaning it up.”

“Emmy’s cleaning what up?” I ask.

Tess sighs. “She’s at her sister’s apartment, trying to get some clues about Janie for Detective Clark. I told her she shouldn’t be alone, but we have our shifts and couldn’t get anyone to cover for us.”

“Why shouldn’t she be alone?” I ask.

“Because Grotto came after her.” Claire shakes her head, apparently confused as to how we don’t know this information. “Fuck, Ace, do you know anything?”

“I’ve been in a fucking jail cell for twenty-four hours,” I say, ready to punch something. Someone. Grotto. “I’ve gotta get over there.”

“We’ll come with,” Jack says.

“No,” I say, shaking my head. “Wait here with Claire and Tess. You girls go change, then stick with my boys. We’ll meet up after I get Emmy. I don’t want anyone in a position for Grotto to get close.”

“Should we get security detail?” Landon asks.

“Good call.” I nod, punching in a call to my assistant, wanting to get security to Emmy’s apartment ASAP.

“But we have our shift, Ace,” Tess says.

“I own this fucking hotel, and I own this town. Go change, and stay with my boys.”

“Got it, boss-man,” Claire says, biting back whatever fear she may have with a smile. Emmy is lucky to have friends like these girls.

“I’m out,” I say, then head to the garage for my car.

I’m driving fast.

It’s time I go get my woman.

* * *

A light is on in the apartment when I pull up to the run-down complex.

My cock’s been twitching the whole ride over, thinking about Emmy and our last few days together. All I want to do is press her against the wall and tell her everything is going to be okay. And then fuck her until she believes me.

During our phone call when I was detained, her words had been laced in fear. Laced in lies. Her sister was fucked up and feeding her bullshit, and I know the only reason Emmy believes it is because she wants so badly to have a family.

I didn’t want to be the bad guy to tell her that, so I tiptoed around the truth.

But I think the time for skirting the truth is gone. Now is the time for everything to be out in the open. Now is the time for her to understand that we aren’t just a choice.

We are inevitable.

I knock on her door.

No one answers, so I pound harder. After a minute of no answer, I kick the fucking piece of shit door in.

“Emmy?” I call out. “Emmy Rose?”

I storm around the apartment, but no one is here. Emmy isn’t here.

I dial Landon’s number.

“She’s not here,” I tell him. “Ask Claire and Tess where else could she have gone.”

“Fuck, shit. Okay, just a second.”

As Landon asks them, I scan the apartment again.

It hasn’t been touched in days.

I pull open the fridge, the freezer. Nothing much there. If Emmy was coming here for some clue about Janie, maybe I can find one myself.

In the bathroom, I root around in the medicine cabinet, but there’s nothing there but a toothbrush and mouthwash. In the drawers, I find more meaningless toiletry stuff. In the bedroom I pause, wondering if I am crossing a line.

“Hey,” Landon says into the phone. “The girls called her, and no one can get through. Tess is calling the hospital and Claire is calling the Detective now. Can you hold a sec?”

“Of course,” I tell him.

I pull open a dresser drawer. Panties and bras fill it, but it doesn’t get me hard, because I have no clue if this is Janie’s stuff or Emmy’s.

Looking around the room, I see two enormous suitcases on the floor by the closet filled with clothes and shoes. Emmy must still be living out of them.

I didn’t even notice them when we fucked here, probably because the only thing I noticed that day was Emmy’s gorgeous pussy.

I push Janie’s underwear aside and root in the back of the drawer. People hide things in underwear drawers, right?

In the back of the drawer I find a glass pipe that wasn’t been touched in a while. Next to it is a small balloon marked with a few Xs. I grew up a mafia boss’s son. I know a stash of heroin when I see it.

This is fucking great. Not only is Janie a lying sack of shit, she’s also an addict.

“Landon, you there?” I ask.

“Yeah, what is it man?”

“Grotto dealing?”

“I have no fucking clue what Grotto does. I thought he was mostly buying up property and fucking with you?”

“Anyone hear from Emmy?”

“Nothing. Want us to meet you somewhere?”

“Fuck, Landon. Where is she?” I ask, my heart beating fast, remembering the photo Grotto showed me of Trenton on the pavement, dead.

“I don’t know man. We have security looking all over the fucking city.”

“Call in more,” I tell him. Another call buzzes in. “Someone is calling me, I’ll call you back.”

I pick up the other line. It’s Stacy, the realtor.

“Hey, Ace, it’s Stacy.”

“Yea, is everything okay?”

“Just wanted to know if you’d been down at the property tonight. Just got a call someone had seen some lights on over there, and wanted to check since it’s getting late.”

I look at my watch. It’s already ten o’clock.

Stacy keeps talking. “When I was there yesterday with your friends they mentioned going back today with you after you got out of ... um ... well, custody, to really think through what you guys wanted to do with the building.”

“Yeah, we aren’t there, haven’t been there all day.”

“Okay, then, I’ll just swing by and turn the lights off,” Stacy says.

Holding the heroin pipe in my hand, my mind is on Grotto. Maybe he’s there.

“You know, I’ll have my security head over and take a look, make sure everything is in order.”

“Thanks, Ace. And is everything okay with the ... um ... arrest? I just know it might put your deal in jeopardy if word got out.”

“It’s under control. Grotto is fucking with me. But I’m taking care of him.”

I hang up, tossing Janie’s shit on the bed. If Grotto has done something to Emmy, I’m gonna fucking kill him.

I always hated the place I came from, but maybe I grew up in the mafia to prepare me for this day. This moment. I won’t let anyone take hold of my woman.

I call Landon to tell him where I’m headed, and to send backup if he doesn’t hear from me in an hour.

* * *

When I pull up to the building, I’m struck again by the size of this property, how we could turn this building into a fucking Vegas goldmine, if we just decided on what the fucking business was going to be.

Right now, though, all I care about is finding Emmy.

The parking lot is empty, but Stacy was right, there are lights on.

I push open the door, and my steps echo in the enormous room.

Then I hear the screams.

* * *

EMMY

When Grotto’s guy grabbed me outside the hospital I swore I wouldn’t cry. Not for this. Not for him.

But I never swore anything about screaming.

And fuck my life for reals. Because I’m tied up in a fucking shitty building. Literally tied up. I got thrown in a white van, and brought here.

And why?

When my asshole of a kidnapper started chowing down on fucking bean burrito from Taco Bell, I lost my shit. He had the balls to stop at a drive-thru before kidnapping me? Like, that seemed a thousand kinds of wack-a-doodle.

He careened down the freeway, and then we ended up here. He used rope on my wrists, tied me to a fucking four-by-four and refused to say why.

He’s eaten, like, five of those burritos, as if he’s a fucking animal. He chugs a two-liter of Dr. Pepper, and at this point all I want to do is punch him in the nuts. Or the gut. But he has eaten so much at this point it would probably make him puke. And I can handle a lot, but my kidnapper vomiting all over me? Just. No.

“Why are you doing this to me?” I ask, watching him adjust his junk as he makes a phone call.

“She’s here. A little pussy, but hot. She’ll be missed. Sorry, boss. Yeah. Yeah, an hour is long enough. Yeah, I got the gear and won’t leave a trail. I got you covered, man.”

“Long enough for what?” I scream. “What gear?”

“Keep it down, woman,” he says to me. Then into the phone he adds, “Okay, Grotto. It’ll all be done soon enough.”

He puts the phone away and shrugs. “Gonna find a restroom. Don’t move.”

“Fuck you!” I scream.

“You wish.”

Which is not true. I don’t wish to fuck anything as gross and disgusting as him. There is one thing I want to fuck, which will never happen as long as I am held hostage for reasons I don’t understand.

So I scream louder. I watch the asshole leave through some doors, looking for a toilet. Which, eww. He just ate five burritos in like five minutes.

I keep screaming. “Help. Let me go!”

And then—

Like the man I know he is, Ace appears.

Miraculously. Magically. The fucking saving grace I’ve been looking for, for too damn long. The fucking hero I need, because sure, I can do a lot of shit on my own, but I want his help.

I just fucking want him.

“Emmy,” he says, rushing to my side.

I need to keep screaming so I don’t tip off burrito man, but I want Ace to know we aren’t alone.

Ace seems to understand intrinsically, and I remember he grew up in a crime family and probably knows more than I do about kidnappings.

“Oh, baby,” he whispers, as I keep screaming, tears running down my cheeks, because I have no clue what this man was planning on doing. “I got you.”

And once my hands are untied, once my legs are no longer bound, he picks me up and we run.

Out of the building. Out to the street. He puts me in his car and buckles me up. He shuts my door, gets in the other side, and in two seconds flat he’s gotten me away.

“What the fuck was that?” I ask as he flies over the freeway.

“What part?” Ace looks over at me, like he’s saved women in crisis a thousand times. If he has, I don’t care. I’m not jealous. Because those were just practice runs for me.

For us.

“The part where you saved me,” I say, breathless. “The part where you showed up. The part where you didn’t listen to what I told you on the phone.”

“You mean when I used my one call in jail for you to tell me we were through?”

“That one.”

“Was Grotto behind this?” he asks.

“Why? What does he want with me? Janie won’t talk ... I can’t get anywhere with her.”

“Did you know she was an addict?”

“What?” I shake my head, and the adrenaline is still coursing through my veins. Fuck, when did this become my life? First it was casino owners and one night stands, and now it’s true love and kidnappings and betrayal. Everything is spinning out of control.

I grab Ace’s hand; I need him to steady me.

“Pull over somewhere,” I tell him.

“We kind of need to get to the police station and report this, Emmy.”

“That can wait. We’re both safe. I’m safe. You got me. We can stop for a second.”

Ace takes the next exit and pulls off into an empty business park. It’s after eleven at night, and we’re far enough from the strip that everything is dark.

“Baby,” he says as I unbuckle, push his seat back.

I straddle him, pressing my ass against his growing cock, wanting to sit on his rod and feel him in me, wanting him to wrap his arms around me and never let me go.

“Ace,” I say. I press my mouth to his, find his tongue, let ours entwine.

I drink him in—his faith in me, in us. It fills me with warmth as his hands pull my top over my head, then he tugs down the lace of my bra. Filling his mouth with my tits, he sucks on my nipples until my panties drip with excitement.

“Ace,” I say again. “I believe you. That you weren’t there the night of the crash. I believe you. In everything.”

Ace massages my tits with his hands, his cock so nice and stiff under me.

“What changed your mind?” he asks.

Tears fill my eyes, because this is our moment. When clarity and truth are the only words we use.

“Ace, I thought Janie was my family. Worth fighting for. But I was wrong.”

“What’s right?”

“You. You are worth fighting for.”

“You’ll fight for me?” Ace growls in my ear, cupping my face with both his hands.

“I’ll fight so hard,” I say, my whole body promising myself to Ace. Nothing can keep us apart. Not life or death or broken families or broken hearts. Ace is my family. He is my everything. “I’ll fucking fight for you forever,” I tell him, kissing his lips fiercely, sealing myself to him. “I love you, Ace. I love you so hard.”

“I love you, Emmy Rose.”

The windows steam with the heat between us, the heat between my thighs and his cock and our mouth and our words. The heat we share is electrifying. It makes me alive.

Our words set me free.

My pussy begs to be touched and I only want his hands to flick my clit. I only want his fingers to plunge deep inside me. I only want his body to make me come.

I only want Ace.

He unbuckles his pants, and I fall back into the other seat, tugging off my pants, my panties. I unclasp my bra, letting my tits fall out. He’s stripped down to his bare cock, and I want it in my mouth.

He lowers his seat back with the simple touch of a button in this hundred-grand car.

I lean over him, pressing his bulging cock in my mouth. I can’t help it. I just want to be close to him, taste him, be filled with him.

Come from the tip of his hard cock touches my lips and I suck the delicious pre-come off.

I lick the length of him, letting his soft balls fall in my mouth, and I swirl them around, making him moan as I do. His hand grabs my ass I lean over him. He smacks me hard, and I nuzzle his cock deeper in my throat, wanting to gag, because I just want to be consumed with him.

Ace’s cock is so powerful. It makes me drip, and I press one finger into my opening as I continue to bob up and down, sucking him off, his cock throbbing in my mouth.

My fingers press against my clit, and I begin rubbing nice and hard, the pleasure growing as he smacks my ass again.

He pulls me up, onto his lap, I arch my back in pleasure and he sets me atop his thick cock. Oh, my pussy wraps him so nice and tight, and my entire being is filled with Ace.

I want to ride him fast and hard. I want to ride him nice and slow. I just want to ride him forever.

“Baby, you feel so good,” he says, as I move up and down on his rod. I grind on him, and he thrusts his throbbing dick deep in me. It pulses against the walls of my pussy, in an electrifying way, sending shivers across my body.

Ace’s arms wrap around me, strumming across the bare skin of my ass, my back. His touch sends trails of pleasure throughout me. I moan in response to the sensation.

He thrusts harder into me, and I bounce on top of him, my tits held by his powerful hands, my pussy juice soaking the base of his cock as I come, my body spasming as I release. The flood of the orgasm ripples through me, crashing down, and I grab his shoulders, look in his eyes.

The eyes of the man I love. The man who can get me off in a hotel room, or a car, in the hallway or the bedroom. The man who can fuck me in the shower and on the kitchen counter. The man who can read my body like it’s a roadmap to my soul.

This man is mine. And as I fall into his chest, as the orgasm washes over me, I know nothing will change that.