Redeeming Ace's Heart

by M. T. Ossler

  “I’m going with you. You’re gonna need extra protection from that shithead if he shows up,” Blaze growls from beside me.

  Now, I really gotta know what his deal is with all this shit.

  “Maybe I should go too. King, you take my cage and get our girls and my baby boys home safely. Chains, Knuckles stay with them and wait for Ryder and Taz to get back,” Gio says, getting up to give his sleeping baby boys kisses on their little foreheads, in their car seats.

  “Thank you, brothers. I don’t know all the shit Ryan’s gotten himself into or his Club. I don’t even know if this is safe for Jules and the baby. So extra manpower will be good.”

  “All the more reason for us to tag along, brother. We’re family. We need to be there with you. Beast and I being there puts one man on the girls at all times. I texted Gator for Beast, and he’s on it. He’ll call Ryder and Taz and get them home.”

  “I’m comin’ too. If the Cartel is involved in any of this shit, I can help with that. Plus, I can get our guns on the plane with my security company’s license and our concealed carry cards. We may need them,” Shadow says patting his cut where his gun is. He hands his keys for his bike to Lorenzo. They must have all come in the SUV with their sister.

  Blaze hands his bike keys off to Dusty and turns back to us.

  “Let’s get out of here. We’ll leave your cage at the airport and a prospect will pick it up later,” Blaze says rushing us out.

  “I have your spare keys. When we get home, I’ll give them to Gator. Now, go get your girl and stay safe,” Bells says, then kisses her husband goodbye.

  “Ti amo, amore mio,” Bella tells her husband, her love, she loves him through their kiss.

  “Ti amo, mia bella Principessa,” Gio tells his wife, his beautiful princess, he loves her too.

  We all say our goodbyes and Hunter ushers me out the restaurant to our cage.

  On our way to the airport, I text Brook giving her Bella’s information instead of mine. I inform her I’m coming with Hunter and his brothers. She sends me her information and thanks me for helping.

  We make it to the closest airport and get our tickets to Indianapolis International Airport. From there we’ll drive about an hour to the small town she’s held up in at a motel.

  I’m having a hard time finding the town on my phone’s GPS. And don’t even get me started on the motel. I cannot even find it on the map at all. Once we get to the town, we’ll have to drive around or ask for directions. Well, knowing the guys, we’ll drive around until we find it.

  ****

  Three hours later and we finally arrive in Indianapolis. While we waited for our flight to leave from Sanford airport, Gio arranged to have a cage reserved for us when we arrived here. So, he’s grabbing the keys now from the rental car place.

  Thankfully, we were all able to travel together on the same plane. They had five seats available. Unfortunately, they were all scattered around the plane, but my man and his brothers have a way of getting what they want. The other passengers were more than happy to make room for us all to sit close together.

  During the plane ride, the guys came up with a plan. Once we get to Brook’s motel, Blaze, Shadow, and I will stay with them. Hunter and Gio are going to leave us to find a car dealership to buy a cage for us to travel back home in.

  Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get much out of Blaze. His lips were sealed tighter than his ass. He’s been grumpy since we left the restaurant.

  First, we need food. My baby is hungry from missing lunch and the peanuts and chips on the plane didn’t satisfy us at all. I’m sure the guys are starving too. My Hunter hasn’t eaten since our second breakfast late this morning at home.

  I walk out of the bathroom and find Hunter and Blaze waiting for me. Hunter has a white paper bag in his hand and passes it to me.

  “Here, eat this until we can stop for food, kitten,” he says handing me the bag and my stomach growls. The guys laugh as I snatch the bag from him.

  “What’s this?” I ask as I open it. It doesn’t smell too bad, but it doesn’t smell very appealing either. When I look inside the bag, I see white napkins over a rolled package on the bottom.

  “It’s a veggie roll. I’m sure it’ll taste fine, it’s healthy for you and the baby. You haven’t had real food since this morning. I need to keep you and our baby strong. We’ll grab some pizza once we get to Brookie, okay,” Hunter says, and I give him my pouty look. I want pizza and cheese fries now, not this shit sandwich.

  “Kitten, don’t give me that look. You need to eat something, and this was the best I could do on short notice. Please, just eat it and don’t fight me. I’ll get you plenty of cheese fries and pizza soon. I promise.” He kisses me on the lips and leads me over to the rows of chairs.

  I’ll give him this because he’s right and I am famished. I sit and start to eat my roll while we continue to wait for Gio and Shadow.

  I hear Hunter and Blaze laughing next to me as I devour the roll. Get over it assholes, I’m a starving pregnant woman. Put any food in front of me and I’ll demolish it. This baby steals all my nutrition lately and I can’t stop eating. Leaving the restaurant after smelling all the good food, I was looking forward to eating had me salivating. On the way out the door, someone had just gotten their order and I almost stole the burger from his plate. Hunter would have stood up for me and made the guy back down, but I didn’t want to delay him any more time than we already had.

  “Hey, be nice, assholes. I’m eating for two here. And it’s been hours since we ate,” I say through a mouthful of food. This causes them to laugh harder. I’m going to kick their asses after this baby comes. Brats.

  As I swallow the last bite of my food, Gio and Shadow return with the keys. We all head to the cage and off we go. Gio’s driving and Blaze sits up front in the passenger seat with him. Shadow takes one of the middle seats, leaving Hunter and me in the third row in the back for some privacy.

  Hunter is sitting beside me bouncing his leg, annoyingly. He’s so nervous and scared about seeing his baby sister, he’s shaking the SUV all over the place. I lovingly place my hand on his thigh to stop him, and then I crawl up onto his lap. I wrap my arms around his neck and lay my head on his shoulder.

  He wraps his arms around my waist and lays his hand on my swollen belly. Rubbing circles over our baby to relax himself. Less than four months to go and he or she will be here with us. I’ll find out next weekend. Some days I can’t wait to hold our baby and some days I just want to slow down time and stay pregnant for a while longer.

  “Blue, you have to calm down and start thinking like a VP, not a brother. She loves you and she needs you,” I whisper in his ear. “Babe, she asked you to protect her and keep them safe, no one else. She called the man she stills sees as a father figure, the man that used to take care of her and protect her.”

  He takes a deep breath and continues to rub my belly, over our baby. I feel him start to relax with every stroke he makes, and little bug wakes up and kicks his hand. He’s starting to think like a VP, not a brother/father.

  My man is going to make an excellent daddy, I know it.

  I stay on his lap for the rest of the drive. We arrive at the rundown motel Brook is hiding at about an hour later.

  We make our way to her door and wait for her to answer it.

  Chapter 23

  Ace

  My heart is pounding in my chest like a jackhammer as we stand out here waiting for the fuckin’ door to open. I can’t believe I’m this close to seeing my baby sister again. I need to hold her in my arms and never let her go again. Fuck, I missed her more than I allowed myself to feel all these years.

  The sun is starting to set in the west behind us for the night. We plan on staying here tonight in this room and then head out early in the mornin’. I need to feed my girl and baby some real food and she needs to rest. I’m sure my sister needs the same, being a few more weeks along than Jules. Then we’ll stop somewhere on the way to purchase another SUV, s
ince it’s too late to do that tonight. The new SUV will be for Brookie to keep for after she has the baby. Jules and I already have one, and we don’t need another. Brookie will need it to get around with the baby once things settle down.

  The door slowly opens, and I can’t move. I’m astonished by the vision before me, for more than one reason. Her right eye’s swollen and her lip is cut. I can only assume this is that asshole Rage’s handy work. Her eyes are all bloodshot from crying and her hair is up in a messy bun. She has on a large band shirt, hiding her belly and yoga capris. She’s still beautiful, stunning, older, the spitting image of our mother. And she still looks like a shining angel, well a glowing angel, nose ring and all. Her blonde, almost white, hair hasn’t changed that much, nor has her angelic face and blue eyes that match mine. The purest blue eyes, like sapphires.

  I hear a gasp come from behind me and ignore it as she lunges into my arms, crying and I grab her. Holding her so tight I may be hurting her and her baby, but I can’t help myself. I won’t let her go, never again. Never fuckin’ again!

  She cries into my chest, soaking my shirt and I feel tears welling up in my eyes too, but I won’t allow them to fall. No. No tears out of me.

  I feel Jules hand on my lower back as she nudges me forward into the room. I won’t let go of Brookie, so I lift her up off her feet, walk us into the room and place her down. The door shuts and locks behind me. We stand in the middle of the room with the guys and Jules behind us.

  I don’t know how much time passes, but they give us our space. I take her tiny frame in my arms and feel her swollen belly against me. She can’t weigh more than a hundred twenty pounds. She’s short like Bella, maybe five feet two inches at most. She smells like lavender flowers. Her hair and perfume. It reminds me of one of the perfumes Jules wears that she got at Victoria’s Secret. I wonder if it’s the same one. What am I thinking? I’m distracting myself from the main reason I’m here. I need answers, then we need to eat and sleep and get out of here in the mornin’.

  Finally, one of the guys clears their throat behind me and brings me back to reality. I let go of Brookie and take a tiny step back to evaluate her closer. I keep her in my arms, not wanting her to disappear on me.

  Standing here speechless, looking at her, feeling as if I’m in a dream. Looking at her face, she looks so young. She has her nose pierced, a few tattoos on her arms, wrists, and one under her right ear. Those are the ones that I can see peeking out of her clothes, who knows what’s underneath.

  Staying in my own little world while I evaluate her. That is until I see a flash go off in front of us. I look up and see Jules with a gleaming smile on her face and her phone in hand. She just captured a memory for us. Snapping a few pictures that I will forever cherish. I grab for Jules’s hand and take her under my right arm and keep Brookie under my left. Now, I have both my girls in my arms, right where they belong and their babies too.

  “Baby girl, this is my girl, ol’ lady, fiancée, all the above. She’ll be my wife next weekend, Jules,” I whisper rambling. I shake my head and laugh to break the spell I was under. I look down at Brookie, then I turn to Jules. “Kitten, this is my baby sister, Brookie.” I can’t believe this day has finally come and I have my worlds in my arms. Life sure is good.

  “It’s so great to finally meet you,” Jules says smiling brightly at my sister. Brookie reciprocates and they hug each other with me in the middle still holding them. Then, we stand frozen just staring at one another. Well, I can’t take my eyes off my sister. She’s turned into a beautiful young woman standing before me.

  Then, I hear one of the guys clear their throats behind us again. Shit, I totally forgot we weren’t alone. I turn my head and see Beast approaching us with a huge smile on his face and his cell phone in hand. I swear, ever since the girls got their phone privileges back all they do is take pictures and the guys have started that shit too. Especially, since the twins arrived.

  “Brother,” is all he says, and I nod lookin’ away from Brookie. I get his hint and break myself from our little moment to include my brothers.

  “Brookie, these are my brothers Beast, Shadow and that big guy over there is Blaze.” I indicate who’s who, pointing to Beast first, then Shadow and finally Blaze. She gives Beast and Shadow a warm timid smile.

  Then, she looks over at Blaze and I swear Brookie’s pale face just went even paler. I look at my brother and see his face in stone and the same color as hers. They both look like they’ve seen a ghost.

  Her smiling face fades away and goes sad. Her legs begin to shake. I let go of Jules and grab my sister, so she doesn’t fall. As I grasp Brookie around her waist, Jules comes to her other side and helps me get Brookie to the bed to sit. What the hell just happened? Is she sick or something?

  I kneel before her and keep her upright with my hands on her shoulders.

  “Brookie, what’s wrong?” I ask concerned. She doesn’t answer me or look at me, she’s still staring at Blaze. She places her left hand on her belly and silent tears cascade down her face. I look back at my brother again and see he’s still pale and hasn’t moved a muscle from the door. What the fuck is going on here?

  We all look back and forth between Brookie and Blaze. Do they know each other, no that’s impossible, right? Does he look like that guy Rage that hurt her, maybe? So, what could it be?

  We’re the only ones in the room and the blinds are drawn, no one can see in or out. So, it can’t be that. I don’t get a chance to ask any other questions in the eerily silent room.

  “Angel... is... is that really you?” Blaze murmurs in a shaky voice like he knows her. A voice that doesn’t sound like my brother at all. It’s too gentle and loving, not hard like the brother I’ve known for years. No one says anything, I think we’re all in shock.

  Brookie doesn’t talk, just nods her head to him with tears spilling down her face.

  “Is... is she mine?” he asks quietly as he directs his eyes to Brookie’s center and tilts his head. He stares at her waiting for an answer.

  Is who his? What is he asking? Is he talking about Brookie or the baby in her belly? What the fuck is going on here? I don’t like the look on my brother’s face, not one iota.

  “Jaxson,” Brookie gabbles out with uncontrollable tears streaming down her white face.

  Jaxson, who the fuck is Jaxson? I go to stand up to inspect the room. Did another man get in here with us? Was someone in here with Brookie that I didn’t see when we walked in?

  Then it hits me, I know that name Jaxson. Asshole, that is Blaze’s given name. How in the world does Brookie know that?

  Now, I’m beginning to get really pissed the fuck off. I want to know what the fuck is going on here? Is this why Blaze has been acting so weird since I got Brookie’s call earlier?

  “What the fuck is goin’ on, brother?” I growl at Blaze, and again, I get ignored. It’s like no one is in the room, but the two of them.

  Brookie gets up from the bed slowly and walks over to Blaze, who is still standing by the door. We all stand back and watch them gravitate to one another.

  She takes his hands in her’s and places one on her swollen belly. Then takes the other to the side of her face. She takes her hand off the one on her belly and places it on the side of his face. He gasps from her touch and closes his eyes for a few seconds.

  I’m left speechless as I move closer to Jules and take her in my arms. I stand back watching them fuming.

  “Jaxson, is it really you? Are you really here?” Brookie soft voice asks him through sobs.

  Beast comes closer to my side and Shadow behind me. Beast is on my left and I have Jules tucked under my right arm. Jules leans her head on my chest and wraps her arms around my waist. Beast places his hand on my shoulder to keep me in place. I didn’t realize how angry I was getting until Jules touched my trembling body. I’m vibrating with fury and want to tear my brother apart right now.

  “Angel, is this my baby growin’ in your belly?” Blaze says in a soft, unr
ecognizable voice. I see him rubbing circles on her stomach over her shirt. I can’t think, I just see red and go to attack him. Beast’s grip on my shoulder tightens and Shadow grabs hold of the other to hold me back. I look at Jules, her eyes pleading for me to let them be and have a moment.

  I can’t breathe. When did they meet? Is she the chick he ran off with at the bike rally in October? Was my sister in Florida for that and I didn’t know? Her pregnancy kinda lines up with that timeline.

  Shit, he touched my baby sister? No, he fucked her and put a baby inside her. That’s his daughter baking in her oven. My soon to be niece is his daughter.

  “She is,” Brookie confirms through her sobbing and I see tears glistening in my brother’s eyes. My head is spinning. I want to feel for him, but I’m so full of rage towards him for touching my baby sister. My seventeen-year-old baby sister.

  “Jaxson, I didn’t want to keep this from you. I just... I didn’t know how to find you without putting you in danger. And now... Oh, shit.” Brookie doesn’t continue she just sobs, falling into Blaze’s arms. He holds her close, closing his eyes, and absorbing all her words. He has one hand on her back and the other on her head, protectively, soothing her as her body quakes in his arms.

  “I’ve been searching for you, angel. Your face has haunted my dreams since you left me. You just left without a word. Nothin’, you were just gone, and I had no way of finding you.” I can hear the gut-wrenching pain in his voice. She’s the one he’s had Throttle looking for, the woman he fell for.

  Too much shit is floating around in my head at once. First, she calls me after all these years for protection. Then she tells me she’s pregnant. Now, I find out her baby is my brothers and I have no clue how they know one another. We will get to that soon. Very fuckin’ soon.

  Blaze lifts Brookie in his arms and kisses her. Not able to watch this shit anymore, I growl, loudly and lunge for him again with no luck.