His words burrow into my heart. A place no one gets to go, no one has ever tried to break into. And then they wrap me up in a comforting hug. His words do that.
Wow.
We went through something pretty crazy the other night. Awful. Scary. And I should associate all of those feelings with Ace, right? Like I should be feeling jittery and anxious right now. He thinks he’s in trouble, and I should want that trouble as far away from me as possible. But instead, I just feel…happy.
Like Ace and I are up on this isolated cloud where the bad things infecting the world can’t find us, can’t get to us.
And how insane is that?
“I’m strong?” The doubt in my voice is just as clear as the disbelief. “What about you? How does one come about becoming the head of a gambling ring at…how old are you, anyway?”
“Twenty-four.” A thoughtful expression crosses his face as he shakes his head. “By luck, honestly. It was one good bet...the first and only one I ever made. I used to hear the guys talking about betting on games at my uncle’s bar. If I know anything well, it’s football. I betted on one college game and won pretty big. I put all of that money into the G-Ring because I knew how successful it could be. It’s how I got everything set up.”
I stare at him, amazement building inside me. The arm circling me is hard and strong. Two things I connect with Ace. But it’s the moments when he’s not being this tough guy, the moments when he’s being real and open, that I want to bottle up and save.
“You’re a different kind of strong, though.” His voice is a murmur. “Your parents not being around, even though you obviously had money…”
Twisting under his arm, I look up at him. Two deep green eyes stare down at me. Now that I’m close to him and I have time to pay attention, I can see golden specks floating throughout the jewel-colored irises. They’re entrancing.
If I’m not careful, I could fall in deep and not be able to find my way out again.
I lock my arms around his neck. “I don’t want to talk about my parents.”
One brows lifts. “No?”
Shaking my head, my reply is barely a breath. “No.”
His full lips curve into a smirk. “What do you want, Naima?”
My heart beats faster. It thumps against my ribs, a caged hummingbird desperate to escape.
“I want you to tell me your plan to get the people who are after you off your back. And then I want you to kiss me senseless, Ace.”
His nostrils flare at the same time fire explodes in his eyes. The muscles in his arms tighten, pulling me closer to him in the process. I like it: the closeness, the feel of his arms around me. It feels safe, and…not lonely.
God, how pathetic is that?
Ace rips his gaze away from mine, glancing down as he steps back. He grabs my hand and leads me toward my bed. Sinking onto the plush pink quilt, he pulls me down beside him.
I settle into the softness and pull my legs up beneath me. Ace scrubs both hands over his face before lying back and staring up at the ceiling. Moving slow so I don’t disturb his thoughts, I lie down beside him and stare up, too.
“I’ve got it covered, Naima.” He sounds sure, but there’s something about it that’s off.
“What exactly do you have covered?” I roll onto my side so that I can see his facial expressions. I have a feeling that if his words aren’t telling me what I need to know, his face will be.
He continues to study my ceiling. I try to stay focused on his words and not the way his big body sprawls out on my bed, and how much I like it there.
“The guy that came in with a gun? I don’t know him, but he’d been to the ring a couple times before. Not the usual kind of client I get. The guys that gamble at the Ring are all young, out playing with Daddy’s money. They barely blink when they lose some, and I wouldn’t call them addicts. But this guy…he was different. I knew it from the jump. Never should have let him in.
“But I did, and the night you were there he was desperate. I could smell it on him. He obviously needed the money because he owed it. I didn’t pay enough attention. He didn’t win the cash he needed, so he decided to come back and take it.”
He pauses but doesn’t glance at me. I wish he would. I want to see his eyes while he tells me this. I don’t know why, but I do.
“So the guys that came in after him were men who work for whoever he owed. That much was clear. What isn’t obvious is who the loan shark is. I know there’re a few working the uptown circuit, but I stay out of those circles. I’m not a gambler myself. I started the G-Ring because my uncle owns a bar. He was a…safe place for me as a kid. When he opened, I was there as much as I could be. I’d just sit at the counter, and I’d hear stuff, you know? I got to know the way a man’s mind works, what he’s into. You know what I figured out? The number one thing that drives a man…and I’m no different?”
His words curl around me, a deep dark place inside where no one gets to go. Foreboding fills me with his meaning.
Yes, I know what drives men. It’s the thing which has always motivated my father my entire life, the thing that keeps both he and my mother away from me most of the time. A black cloud forms in my gut, causing me to clench up tight and close my eyes with dread.
“Money.”
He
