by April Lust
“Liar.”
Ace looked back to see Fiona staring at him defiantly. “Excuse me?” he said with a disbelieving chuckle.
“I called you a liar,” Fiona repeated challengingly.
“You’re the one who came into a bar pretending to be someone else!” Ace cried.
“You can do whatever you want,” Fiona continued, ignoring him. “You’re choosing not to help me.”
Ace shrugged. “You’re right. I could help you, but like I said before, it’s not worth risking my neck over.”
“What is, then?” Fiona said, seizing his words. “What would make it worth it? Money? How much?”
“Something tells me that if you had that kind of money, sweetie, Alexei wouldn’t be a problem for you,” Ace drawled.
Fiona looked down, avoiding his gaze. “I could get money, a lot of money. I just need a few days to get it, and, well…”
“Alexei’s not willing to wait,” Ace finished. “Where are you getting that kind of money that you can’t get it now?” he asked.
“My dad,” she said simply.
“Wait,” Ace said, confused again. “I thought you said your brother was all the family you had left.”
Fiona sighed. “It’s…complicated. We don’t talk to our dad much.”
Ace snorted. “If he’s still alive and willing to give you potentially thousands of dollars, how bad can he really be?”
Fiona sank down on a rusted, metal folding chair. “He isn’t…or, he wasn’t. Something happened after Niko was born and Dad just started to lose it.” Fiona stared ahead, looking at a memory. “So slowly we didn’t even realize what was happening until one day he was yelling at Mom and he punched a hole in the wall right next to her head. He’d yelled and punched walls before, but he’d never come that close to hitting her.” Fiona shrugged, coming back to Earth. “Mom was gone the next morning. After that, Dad didn’t yell when he was drunk anymore, but he didn’t do anything else either. I left for college as soon as I could, but I had to stay close because of Niko. I couldn’t leave him.”
“Sounds like you got lucky to me,” Ace said after a long moment, staring hard at the girl in front of him. “Your daddy never hit you, or worse. He still went to work, and you got to go to college.”
“I’m sorry my family isn’t as fucked up as yours clearly was,” Fiona fired back, standing in her anger, “but that doesn’t make me lucky. Not by a long shot. If anything, you’re in a better position than I am right now. Does that make you lucky?”
Ace stood up, towering over Fiona. His long, lean form cast a shadow across her, but she glared right back at him, refusing to look away. “My father didn’t punch the walls. He hit my mother and me. Sometimes so severely I couldn’t walk. Now do you feel lucky?” he asked her harshly.
Fiona felt a pit of guilt forming in her stomach.
“One day I came home from school and found that he had beaten her to death,” Ace said. “I was sixteen and there she was, lying in a pool of her own blood. I couldn’t even recognize her. But then I saw this, and I knew,” he held up a gold cross hanging from a thin matching chain necklace. Fiona tried to look anywhere but at his dark green eyes, but Ace reached out and grabbed her chin, holding her still. “Do you know what my father was doing when I found her, Fiona?” he asked. “He was watching the game on TV. So what I did was I went and got his shotgun, and I killed him right back. They gave me five years for a crime of passion, and because I was a minor. Do you feel lucky now? Because you should, Fiona. You’re very lucky,” Ace said, lowering his voice to a whisper.
Fiona took a step back, running into the liquor shelves behind her.
“You’re lucky I’m a nice guy who wouldn’t teach you and your friend a lesson for coming in here tonight.” He stepped forward to trap Fiona between the shelves and his hard stomach.
Fiona panicked. She planted her hands squarely on his chest and gave a hard shove with all her might. Nothing happened.
Ace stepped back a moment later, freeing Fiona. She eyed him suspiciously. “So?” she asked him hesitantly. “Will you loan us the money or perhaps help us with Alexei and I can pay you in a few days?”
Ace shook his head. “We’re not banks, and we don’t work on promise of payment. I’m sorry about you and your brother, but you just don’t have anything of value to me.” It really was a shame, he thought, glancing her over.
He opened the door once again; they had been in here far too long. Ace was sure to get an earful from Katie. For someone who wasn’t his old lady, she sure acted like it sometimes. “Time for you and your friend to go,” he said, glancing at the table where Melanie had several empty glasses in front of her, and was laughing uproariously at something Diego had just said.
Tears of frustration began to well up in Fiona’s eyes. She grabbed Ace’s hand and fell to her knees. “I will do anything for my brother. Anything you want, and I swear it’s yours.” Fiona wasn’t naïve. She knew the full implication of her words, and she didn’t care. If it would save Niko, it was worth it.
Ace raised an eyebrow. He looked back at the crowd of people barely forty feet away, and back down to the gorgeous Latina woman on her knees before him. “Do you know what you—” he started to ask, but she cut him off.
“When I said anything, I meant it,” she said quietly.
Ace took one last look at The Hell Brothers, drinking and laughing, and shut the door, leaving him alone in the office with Fiona.
Chapter 4
Fiona nervously stood as Ace slowly circled her. He looked her up and down appreciatively.
He had already noticed her rear; he stopped now to stare at it in the light. It was round, full, and supple. Ace reached out and placed his palm against her ass, cupping it firmly. He squeezed, testing Fiona’s reaction as much as he was the firmness of her butt.
Fiona, for her part, was expecting this, and didn’t resist. Ace rubbed his palm up and down for a minute, and then stepped away from her. He walked around to face her, taking stock of her front.
The vest clearly wasn’t hers, or at least it wasn’t her size. Her breasts weren’t huge, but they strained against the leather, rising even higher with every breath she took. The bottom half of her top was open, revealing a tight tummy that seemed to come more from genetics than exercise.
Ace dropped his gaze even farther, looking at the wide hips that came from her seemingly perfect ass, and her lean, tanned, powerful thighs. His eyes snapped up to meet hers, but they were no longer scrutinizing—they were filled with a dark, threatening lust.
He pushed her up against the shelves, trapping her again. Fiona bit her lip to keep from crying out. Ace smiled. He knew he scared her, even though she was pretending he didn’t. She had never met a man like him, he was willing to bet, let alone offered herself to one.
Ace ran his hands along her rigid body. She didn’t seem experienced, but to say she was unsexual would be a gross mistake. Her lips were an innocent, rosy pink, and Ace thought they begged to be tasted, to be bitten…to be wrapped around his cock. He began to stir down below as he flashed back to the image of her on her knees, with her big blue eyes staring up at him pleadingly.
He instinctively flicked his tongue out, wetting his lips. He hadn’t been this hot in a long time. He and Katie had great sex, there was no doubt about that, and Ace had a lay or two on the side when someone caught his eye. Katie was usually a bit pissy about it for a day or two afterwards, but then she’d revenge fuck some other guy and come back to him, so it all worked out.
The thing was, those women were a dime a dozen around The Crabtree. They walked in and out of the bar every day. A girl like Fiona, however, wouldn’t look at him twice if she saw him in the street. In fact, she might go out of her way to make sure she didn’t look at him once.
He pressed himself up against her, making sure she felt how hard he was. This time she gasped, closing her eyes. Ace paused, grinning—he wasn’t sure if that sound had come from a place of fear or somethin
g else entirely. He had a hunch that if Fiona were to let loose, she would be every bit as provocative as the girls out in the bar.
“How do I know you’re going to do what you say?” she asked suddenly.
“What do you mean?” he asked, pulled out of the fog of his imagination.
“How do I know you won’t just fuck me and then leave me and my brother out to dry?” Fiona clarified.
Ace shrugged. “I guess you don’t,” he said.
“I thought you said you were a nice guy,” Fiona panted, breaking the tense silence.
“Am I being mean?” Ace asked mildly.
“You’re abusing the situation for your own advantage,” she accused.
“I beg to differ,” he countered, still running his hands up and down her narrow waist. “You offered yourself—I merely accepted.”
“Asshole,” Fiona muttered.
Ace grabbed both of her wrists, slamming them above her head, holding them there. Fiona let out a small scream, unable to hide her fear this time.
He leaned in until his nose was inches from hers. “Feel free to back out at any time,” he said, letting go of her. “I’m not the one with everything to lose.” Ace stepped away from her and gestured to the door.
Fiona didn’t move. She hated that she was in this situation—it was humiliating! Though, perhaps, the reason it was so embarrassing was because Fiona had actually begun to find herself genuinely attracted to this terrifying man.
Ace scared her to the core, but nowhere near as much as the realization that she was enjoying being pinned against metal shelving in a dirty back office.
He was trying to push her, frighten her away; then he would be off the hook helping her. But she wasn’t going to give up so easily. Fiona was willing to do whatever it took to save her brother.
She looked Ace square in the eye and lifted her chin, all fear gone. She was daring him to do whatever he wished with her.
Fiona’s sudden lack of aversion surprised Ace. She was more resilient than he gave her credit for. I’ll just have to push her a little harder, he thought smugly. Ace might have agreed to help her with Alexei in exchange for sex, but if he slept with her and then something happened that scared Fiona so much that she couldn’t continue with the deal, well, that was a different story.
Gripping the back of her head, her thick brown hair cushioning his hold on her, Ace pressed his mouth to hers, slipping his tongue inside. He dropped his other hand to her back, cleaving his body to hers. Ace gathered Fiona into his arms, leaving her no escape.
Escape was the furthest thing from Fiona’s mind. She met Ace’s force with her own, winding her tongue around his. She moaned quietly, closing her eyes against the heat she felt building within herself.
Ace reached his hand down to slip between her legs, and he broke away from Fiona suddenly, shocked. She had been so incredibly hot and damp, he couldn’t believe it. Ace had wanted to scare her into running back home to Daddy and now he found himself with a raging hard-on that was pointing right at the girl—literally.
“What the fuck was that,” Fiona whimpered softly, mostly to herself.
Ace took a look at her, relieved to see that she seemed as shaken up as he was about what had just transpired between them. He quickly composed himself, discreetly adjusting his pants to obscure his throbbing hard cock. “Scared you might like it, or just plain scared?” Ace taunted Fiona, fighting to keep his voice from shaking.
Fiona dropped her eyes to the front of Ace’s jeans that did nothing to obscure his erection. “Really?” she said, pointing at his crotch.
Ace shrugged, trying to seem nonchalant. “I’m a guy—it doesn’t take much,” he scoffed.
Fiona stared at him. Why does he insist on being such a fucking prick? she wondered. She rolled her eyes and caught a glimpse of the clock hanging above the door.
“Forty-five minutes?” she cried. “We’ve been in here for almost forty-five minutes!” Melanie was surely scared shitless for Fiona, not to mention whatever she was dealing with out in the bar.
“Your friend is fine,” Ace said, correctly guessing why Fiona was freaking out. “My boys will make sure she gets home safe. And alone,” he added, seeing her face.
“I’ll make sure of that,” Fiona said firmly, pushing past Ace to open the door. He reached out to stop her, both of their hands gripping the doorknob. He loomed over her, and Fiona felt a heady sensation wash over her entire body.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked.
“I’m going to get my friend.” Fiona yanked the knob, but it held fast under Ace strong fingers.
“You’re not going anywhere,” he told her. “Not until you’ve finished, er, paying for our services.”
Fiona looked around. In the moment, the dingy room had been sexy in its distastefulness, but now that her head was clear, it was downright offensive. “I’m not having sex with you here,” Fiona said haughtily. “This place is disgusting.”
“You didn’t seem to mind a minute ago,” he replied with a smirk.
Fiona’s cheeks burned with embarrassment as she remembered the clear arousal in her reaction. “That was a minute ago,” she shot back.
Ace laughed. “All right, then where?” he asked.
Fiona thought for a minute. “We can go back to my place.”
“Didn’t you say Alexei was planning on killing you? Shouldn’t you stay somewhere else, like a hotel or something?” Ace pointed out.
“Thanks, I hadn’t thought of that,” she said sarcastically. She grew serious, biting her lip. Ace wanted to do it for her. “I don’t want Alexei thinking he got to me,” Fiona said. “That, and I can’t afford it,” she added. “I need every penny for Niko.”
Ace considered the fact that her bedroom would probably make Fiona feel more comfortable. That was against his plan; he wanted to push her as far out of her comfort zone as he could.
He wanted her to admit that she was out of her depth, that she didn’t belong here. People like Fiona, good, innocent people, should stay on their side of the tracks. If her brother’s in trouble, she needs to drop her brother, Ace thought. She had no clue what Alexei would do to her when the time came. Once he gave her a taste, however, he knew she would come to her senses and make a run for it.
***
Katie looked at her phone. Ace had been gone with that girl for over a half an hour at this point. She narrowed her hazel, almond-shaped eyes and threw back a shot.
Next to her, Diego was charming the shorts off of Melanie. She was giggling up a storm; her drunken laughter made Katie’s teeth grate.
Smalls leaned in on her other side, his massive stomach grazing her arm. “Is it a good idea for Diego to be hittin’ up a back-warmer from an unknown gang?” he muttered to her worriedly. “What if she’s someone’s old lady?”
Katie gave Smalls a look. “Do you see any property patches on her?” she asked blankly.
Smalls frowned, half a dozen wrinkles appearing on his forehead. “Oh,” he said, squinting his eyes at Melanie. “I guess you’re right.”
“Besides, it’s not like she’s a real biker, anyway,” Katie sighed.
“Right,” Smalls said, automatically agreeing. “Wait, what?” he cried in a strangled whisper. “What d’you mean ‘not a real biker’?”
“Smalls, seriously?” Katie said, disheartened. “She’s got no patches of any kind, no colors, nothing. Her friend didn’t have anything on either.”
“If they’re not from a gang, then why are they here?” Smalls asked.
Katie stared at the door to the back office. “I don’t know, Smalls.”
“How do they know about Alexei?”
Katie sighed, exasperated. “I don’t know, Smalls!” she snapped. “But you can be damn sure I’m going to find out,” Katie murmured to herself.
At that moment, the door opened, and Katie saw Ace about to step out. She breathed a sigh of relief; the two of them looked as though they had been arguing. Maybe now the g
irl and her friend would leave, and The Hell Brothers could get back to more important things at hand, namely Alexei.
Katie wanted to confront Fiona about her and her friend’s disguise, but she accurately guessed that Ace had already noticed their fraud and that was why he had secluded her to the back.
She made a move to stand up, but right as she did, she saw Fiona drop to her knees, grabbing Ace as she fell. Is this fucking whore going to blow him with the door wide open? Katie wondered.
Instead, Ace glanced out into the bar, his eyes completely passing over her, and he shut the door, leaving him once again alone in the room with Fiona.
Katie closed her eyes to regain control of herself. If she wasn’t careful, she might snap, go into that back office, and beat the shit out of them.