Damn Good Reasons **DISCONTINUED - SEE NEW VER!**

37 Backs to the Wall

I always suspected something else was going on - he always seemed under so much pressure. I mean, losing deals and having a slow rate of income doesn't matter unless something is making it matter. And it wasn't until tonight that I finally found out what that something is.

"Fuck!"

My heart leaped into my throat as I wondered what the problem could be this time. I rushed into the garage to see Ace, palms spread on the hood of one of our new cars.

"What's the problem?" I asked, exasperated.

"Who picked this car?"

Not wanting to get the boys in trouble - for whatever reason - I held off giving a name. "Every car is my responsibility."

Ace looked at me. His eyes were grievous. They were vacant like he wasn't really in there. "That's not what I asked you. Who picked this car?"

"What's wrong with it?"

Ace growled under his breath and then stormed into the trailer part of the place where Jack and Fuzzy were relaxing with a beer. He dragged Jack back into the garage with his fingers wrenched around the poor kid's upper arm, his fingertips digging so deep into his skin I could already see bruising.

"Was this you?" Ace asked him, holding him to the car.

Jack was wincing and writhing as he suffered in Ace's grip, and it looked like he was having trouble focusing on much else. He looked to me for answers with the same confusion in his eyes as I was feeling. He finally nodded 'yes' to Ace.

Ace released Jack's arm and instead grabbed him by the back of his singlet and slammed him down on the hood of the car with a BANG! Jack grunted in pain as his skull hit the cold metal. Luckily, he had turned his head to the side or he would have gone nose-first.

"Do you see that?!" Ace's voice boomed in his ear. He grabbed Jack by his now ruffled, greasy black hair and yanked his head up to make him look at the windshield.

"It's... a crack?" Jack squirmed.

"Ace," I rolled my eyes. "Let him go."

"How much do you think a new windshield costs?" Ace dug his knee into the back of Jack's thigh, shoving it into the car's front fender.

"About... $40?" Jack wretched.

"If I add that to everything else I gotta do to this piece of shit you hauled in here, I'll lose money."

"Ace..." I tried to cut in.

"You got it?"

"Got what? The money?"

"Well, you don't think I'm paying for your stupid mistakes, do ya?"

I went to Ace's side and gently put my arm around him, kissing into his shoulder. "Ace, let him go. I think we need to talk."

Ace's expression was taut and his breathing ragged. I rubbed his back, and his whole body felt rigid and stiff, his arms like steel bars.

"Come on. Let's send the boys home and have a drink. You need to relax and we'll sort this out, OK? We'll sort it out together."

Ace released his grip on Jack who sighed in relief as he rolled off the hood. Jack rubbed at his messed up arm, his expression panicked as he stared at Ace as if he were too shit scared to leave without explicit permission.

"Get the fuck outta here," Ace seethed.

Jack scooted out of the room, collecting Fuzzy on the way who had been watching wide-eyed from the doorway. I heard the front door of the trailer home close, leaving Ace and I alone.