Ace
"Welcome!" Says the woman behind the counter. She's dressed in a simple white top that's tucked into her skirt and she has an obnoxious look on her face.
"Hi," I say, I open my mouth to speak more but Constance beats me to it.
"We're your boss's 9am," She says sweetly.
"Alrighty! It will be about a 10-minute wait as he's working on something, but you can go in as soon as he's done!" The receptionist smiles, looking us both over with a sly eye.
"I appreciate it," I smile forcefully and pull Constance away from her and across the room.
"Uhm, excuse me?" She squeaks, pulling away from me and crossing her arms. The receptionist goes back to her phone but keeps a nosy eye on us.
"Why do you have attitude today? I can't figure out a single reason and honestly, I don't want to put up with it today," I ask her, mocking her crossed arms.
"I don't have attitude," She huffs, rolls her eyes, and turns away from me.
"Yes, you do," I say, pulling her to face me again. She looks me in the eyes and leans close, we pause for a second and my eyes linger on her lips slightly.
"No, I don't," She grumbles.
"Yes, you do, baby. Why can't you just be a good girl?" I ask her, grabbing her chin and pulling her face close to mine. "I know you can, so why won't you be a good girl for me?"
Her eyes darken at my words and she almost melts in my hand, I know I have her right where I want her, but that fucking receptionist butts in.
"He's ready for you," She says with a snarky voice.
I sigh and rub my forehead, trying to get rid of my building frustration. A bratty little makes for a shitty day.
Straightening out my shirt, I follow Constance over to where the man who we're supposed to see awaits us. She rushes forward to shake his hand politely.
"Ace," He turns and greets me, continuing to shake her hand gingerly. "It's nice to meet you, miss. This is an absolutely adorable one you've got here, congratulations!"
He grabs his beer belly as his laughter bellows out through the room. Just him breathing the same air as my Constance makes me want to shoot him on the spot, much less shake her hand the way he is now.
"Can we just get this meeting over with, Jason?" I ask with a low glare, pulling Constance to my side protectively.
"Of course, of course, come on in," He laughs. "We can use my downstairs office for now."
Constance doesn't hesitate to leave my side to follow him and I frustratingly follow behind. I'm about two seconds away from strangling her, I swear.
With a smile, Jason sits in his seat and motions to the two chairs in front of his desk.
"As I said over the phone, we can't ship the packages. Nothing you say today will change that," Jason says with a chuckle, pouring himself a whiskey as if he's the man of the room.
"Why can't you ship them?" Constance asks, butting in.
Jason grins and turns his attention to her. "Someone is refusing to let us use their port from now on unless we stop selling for you."
Constance goes to open her trap again and speak, but I wrap a hand around her thigh harshly, and her mouth snaps shut again.
"Are you going to tell me who?" I raise an eyebrow. Not that it would be that hard to find out, we just need to figure out who has connections with the owner.
Bank statements would probably lead us right to them.
"No." Jason responds.
My eyes lower and I stare at him, suppressing the need to pull out my gun and empty a clip into his head. "Why?"
"I can't tell you that," He sighs, shaking his head at me as if I should've assumed that.
I stand abruptly and turn to the little girl on my left.
"Let's go, we're leaving," I say to her, grabbing her arm and gently pulling her up and out of the room.
"Why? We don't have what we need," She questions confusedly.
"I know, baby, but we can't hurt him," I say, stopping outside of the doors to turn to her. "He's very important and it would jeopardize a lot of things. Come on, now."
The receptionist tells us a quick thank you as we leave the room quickly and head out into the hallway that leads to the main entry room. Pillars line the walls maybe every 10 feet, they're tall - going all the way up to the ceiling.
There are a couple of people in the hallway, scattered about. A few of them look at us as we walk out and I lower my eyes at them. I'm in no mood to be stared at like a circus animal.
One guy in particular, who's small and agile-looking, stares back at me with a confident and murderous look. He smirks and mouths a word.
Goodbye.
I grab Constance and throw us to the floor, me on top of her. The floor is harsh, and I'm sure Constance is more uncomfortable than me as I pull out my gun and hold it up whilst doing my best to block her.
Loud, banging gunshots ring out in the room, and pieces of marble smack to the floor as the bullets ricochet off the floor and into the pillars. I hear glass shattering and I look up as it covers the floor.
A young girl stares back at me, maybe 23, her eyes are filled with fear and tears drip from her chin.
Without any warning, she gets pushed over by an invisible force and her hands fly over her stomach as she crumples to the floor in a pile.
Constance grabs my attention, I look down to see her curled up into a ball underneath me.
Despite her circular form, she's gripping onto me for dear life. Tears are streaming down her face and she cries out, terrified. I snap out of it and realize that someone is yelling into the building.
"Give her to me!" His voice is loud and deep, demanding and vicious.
"Please, please, please," Constance begs under me.
"Who is it?" I ask her quietly.
Her eyes shift to mine, full of fear. Her bottom lip trembles and her hands shake harshly.
Her tears come down even harder and she opens her mouth, speaking softly. "My father."
My face hardens and I hold in a growl, quickly pulling her up and pulling her further behind a pillar. I turn away and look around, searching for the shooters. I see a couple of people hiding behind other pillars and I smirk.
"Listen," I whisper, but Constance is still whispering to herself and not paying attention to me. "Baby, baby, baby. Listen to me."
Her head snaps up to me and she grips my shirt tighter.
"When I say go, you need to run behind the corner and hide, okay?" I ask her, looking into her eyes seriously.
"But what about you?" She asks, worry filling her expression.
"I'll be okay, just do as I said, and trust me," I tell her.
"HEY!" I yell loudly. "I'LL HAND HER OVER, STOP SHOOTING!"
The gunshots quickly stop and a voice calls out.
"Go, go, go," I whisper and push her, pulling out my gun and firing at the men simultaneously. I quickly follow Constance behind the corner.
Almost immediately, the bullets begin again - a few narrowly missing me as I slide.
Returning fire with one hand, I quickly dish out my phone to Constance.
"Here," I tell her. The gunshots are loud, ear-exploding, and are slowly tearing apart the corner we're hiding behind. "Call Noah, tell him where we're at and that we need help."
"But.. But..." Constance says, her eyes teary and filled with fear. She looks up to me, whimpering.
"It's okay," I say, reaching out to rub her cheek with my thumb. "You can do it, you're okay."
I watch her as she shakily grabs the phone, raising it to dial Noah and she begins to yell into the phone as he answers.
The gunshots come to a slow and I fire off a few of my own, grinning as I hear one hit and a man yell out in pain.
"Constance, slow down! What's going on?" I hear Noah yell through the phone.
"Noah, if you don't get your ass here right fucking now, I swear to god when we're done here you're DEAD!" I yell into the phone, anger scorching my insides. It doesn't matter if you can understand her, if Constance calls any of my men they should immediately come running.
"Yes, sir!" He replies, hanging up to haul ass I assume.
Constance starts tugging on my sleeve while I'm looking around the corner, I turn quickly to see her pointing.
A camera, previously turned towards the men who were shooting at us, is now pointed directly at us. I raise my arm and fire a sole shot - the camera crumbles and pieces fall to the floor.
I can hear sirens loudly blaring in the distance and some of the men swear. The bullets seem to come harsher, one hitting a small piece of the corner next to my face, making it fly by as I push Constance back.
Her cries get louder and more desperate - I know that she must be feeling a mess, hearing her father yell for her, knowing that if someone doesn't get here soon then it's entirely possible he'll have her again.
Though, I would rather die than let him take her.
"Shh, it's okay. Noah's going to be here soon and he'll get us out of this, it's okay," I try to quiet her down as the bullets come endlessly. It doesn't take long for screams to ring out and the gunshots slow to a stop. I quickly pick her up and place her on my hip, kissing her forehead.
"It's clear, sir!" Noah yells out. Constance continues to cry into my shoulder and I carry her to where Noah stands, an automatic in his hands and men surrounding the room, checking bodies. All of the furniture is turned over in some way, bullet holes riddling the somewhat decent fabrics.
Looking around, I don't see her father anywhere. Either he wasn't actually here and they used some kind of call - or they found some way out.
Softly, I rock Constance to distract her, and partly myself; it takes everything in me to not take off and fire rounds into every single person I can find.
She doesn't deserve this shit, there's not a single thing she could ever do to warrant the life she's lived, the things she's gone through.
"Are you guys okay? Do we need to go to the hospital?" Noah questions, coming close to look us over.
"We're fine," I reply shortly, it's not his fault this bullshit happened, but that doesn't make me any less pissed. The sirens before are now louder, signaling that they're getting closer by the minute. "We need to leave, now."
"Yes, sir!" Noah says, quickly leading us to the hallway and checking every corner before letting us by. The walls are destroyed, and a whole armory is poured into the pillars. Bodies line the floors, some dressed in bulletproof vests and some not.
"Make sure to collect as many guns and I.D.'s before everyone circles out, but don't get caught by police. They'll be here soon," I tell Noah as we make it to the front doors, he gestures to our car and stops to tell another guard before following us. "We also need to stop by an ice cream shop."
Noah nods as he opens the door for us, waiting for us to climb in before shutting it a second later. I pull Constance back into my lap, letting her curl into me comfortably.
I try not to zone out as he starts the car and the engine thrums underneath us as the world flies by. Constance sits quietly in my lap; an occasional sniffle escapes her and both of her hands grip my suit tightly.
"Bunny?" I whisper, checking to see if she's awake. She whimpers and tightens her grip. I slowly pet her head and rock her back and forth, hoping it'll make her feel better.
"It's okay, we're not in there anymore and we're going home. No one is going to hurt you, baby," I whisper, holding her to me.
How do I fix this?