Ace of Spades; A Dark Romance (18+)

FIFTEEN

What the fuck is wrong with him? I release the knife in horror and wipe his blood from his hand on my towel, and he chuckles, dropping his hand with blood trickling down his fingers.

"I'm not doing anything, Viper," I sputter, not able to take my eyes off the blood that's pooling on the floor.

Although this is part of my primary scheme to get Ace to lower his guard, an orgasm here and there never hurt anyone.

"You're beautiful, wren, I'll give you that," He starts, his eyes searching my face. "But Ace can't afford this, not now. Just know I have his best interest at heart. I care for him."

And he cares for me. I want to say, but I bite my lip.

"You're going to leave this home alive; we all promise it, but Ace is becoming dangerously close to losing everything when he already has next to nothing."

They think it's as easy as waiting it out, hoping that Derek will pay up or that they can keep me from Pakhan's clutches, but they know nothing of what Gloria threatened me with.

Either I escape, or I'm guaranteed death.

"Get dressed so I can shackle you."

"Can we just lose the shackles? I'm not going anywhere." I stalk past him, grab my clothes from the bed, and drop my towel, not caring that he's behind me. He sucks in a breath, and I hear him turn, and I smile to myself.

See, not a bad guy, after all.

Maybe a masochist with that whole knife incident, but we all have our crutches.

I quickly fasten my bra and pull on my panties, pulling on a pair of loose shorts and a tank top. After I'm done, I save him the effort and fasten the shackles around my wrists, the familiar weight pulling at me.

"We'll lose the shackles when you leave your room, and that's it." I nod, accepting his answer. Looks like I'll have to do this the hard way. Without another word, Viper stalks from my room and shuts the door behind him, leaving me alone.

I sit on the bed and lay back, my legs still weak and fighting to ignore the residual tingling between my center from the aftershock of Ace's tongue.

Not long after, I'm fast asleep.

♠♠♠

I awake in the middle of the night to a loud slam and hushed voices. My mind is instantly alert, and I sit upright, my eyes scanning the dark of my room and fighting to focus. I stand quickly and flick on the lamp beside my bed, my ears picking up on the hushed words spoken outside my door.

"...don't know who it is. They fled before I could get a good look..." I hear part of the sentence spoken by Viper. I stretch my chain as far as it'll let me, trying to get as close as possible to the door to hear more.

"They left once they saw me, but I want you guys to search the property to ensure nothing was left behind. I have a bad feeling. I'll stay with Wren." My heart hammers in my ears, and I think back to Gloria, who told me she had a man who would be leaving a burner phone on the tractor's tire. The man was probably seen and fled, hopefully holding his end of the bargain by leaving the phone behind. I listen more, but the conversation stops as I hear boots sounding through the house and out the front door. I jump when I hear my doorknob rattle, and as quickly as I can, I fling myself back into bed and turn over, facing the wall with my arms tucked into my chest. My heart beats so loudly, and my body is frozen in fear, but I stay as still as the dead and just as quiet.

I feel weight dip behind me as someone sits on my bed, so I shut my eyes, pretending I'm fast asleep. I feel a rough hand smooth hair from my face, and I focus on forcing my breath to come out naturally instead of in quick spurts like my fear so desperately wants it to.