Redeeming Ace's Heart

by M. T. Ossler

  “I love you, Hunter, with all my heart, from now until my dying breath,” I say squeezing Hunter’s hand and winking at him.

  Then, Beast hands Hunter my ring and Bella hands me his. It’s time for Hunter to repeat after the reverend and then we can finally kiss for the first time as husband and wife.

  Hunter places the ring halfway down on my finger.

  “I, Hunter James, give you Julietta this ring as a symbol of my undying love and faithfulness to only you. Today, tomorrow, and until my last breath,” Hunter says, sliding a stunning band with solitaire diamonds on my finger that compliments my engagement ring perfectly.

  When he finishes I take his finger in my hand and slid the ring halfway down.

  “I, Julietta Maria, give you Hunter this ring as a symbol of my undying love and faithfulness to only you. Today, tomorrow, and until my last breath,” I say and place the ring on his finger.

  “You may now kiss your bride,” reverend says. Hunter and I crash into each other’s arms, lips smashing together. I take a breath as his tongue runs across the seam of my lips, opening me up for him. He deepens the kiss and tips me back.

  The crowd cheers and hollers, sending out congratulations to us.

  Now, it’s Gio and Bella’s turn to stop our public display of affection. They break our kiss and Hunter leads me down the aisle and over to the oak tree on the other side of our house. The oak trees set at the corner of our property and the unclaimed one next door.

  We meet the photographer there and take a slew of pictures with our wedding party. A half an hour later we’re done. We head over to where everyone is waiting to sit and eat.

  We eat, drink, and have great conversations until I hear Throttle calling Hunter and me to the dance floor for our first dance as husband and wife.

  Chapter 27

  Ace

  Today, I married the most beautiful woman in the world, the other half of my soul, my best friend and the mother-to-be of my children and I couldn’t have asked for a better day to commit my love to her either. The weather is perfect, not too hot, with the sun shining high in the sky. We are surrounded by our family, and they are all havin’ a fuckin’ blast, eating, drinking, and dancing like fools.

  As we finish our food, Throttle calls us over to the dance floor for our first dance. I’m excited to dance with my girl and hear what she thinks about the song I picked out for us. The song I chose for us as a special meaning to our relationship, and I hope she loves it. Make You Feel My Love by Adele plays and after the first line, my girl knows the song. She stares into my eyes and when we make eye contact, a single tear falls down her face.

  I take her in my arms and dance around the wood dance floor with her. Loving the way she feels in my arms with our little one in between us.

  My new wife is a huge fan of Adele, which was one of the reasons I selected her version of this song. When I was searching online for songs and going through all the lyrics, this song stood out to me the most. The bonus was finding out Adele had her own version of the song. I knew my girl would love it and know immediately all the reasons I picked it.

  I see it in her beautiful, soulful, chocolate brown eyes the love she shines on me. She worships me in so many ways, even though she would never admit it out loud. I worship my girl and tell her every day, I have no shame when it comes to my heart.

  We stay gazing into each other’s eyes as I glide her around the whole dance floor. It’s just us two out here and our brothers and sisters standing around the edge watching us have our moment. Our first dance as a couple, husband and wife.

  Shit, I still can’t believe how lucky I am to have found this wonderful woman and that she loves me. Mind, body, heart, and soul. She sees the real me, the real me I’ve hidden from the world.

  “I love you, Hunter. You picked the most perfect songs for today. Thank you,” she says, and I can’t hold back. I kiss her with everything I am. She is my world.

  “I love you too, kitten. I’m happy you like them,” I say before pushing my tongue forward and deepening our kiss. Of course, this causes a ruckus with all our guests, but I don’t give a shit. This moment is for Jules and me.

  We continue to kiss in the middle of the dance floor until the song is over. Then, Throttle announces for us to head over to the lake. It’s time to reveal the sex of our baby and cut our cake.

  Ces and Bella decided to have the inside of our wedding cake the color of the baby instead of doing balloons. Blue if we are blessed with a boy and pink if we are graced with a girl.

  “Blue,” Jules says getting my attention as we walk over to the lake.

  “Yea, babe,” I say looking down at her. She’s nervous, she’s not sure about finding out or if I’ll be happy.

  “Are you hoping for a boy?” she whispers her tone laced with worry. We’ve talked about this before. I have to settle her nerves, it’s not good for her or our baby.

  I stop us from moving and face her. “I want a healthy baby, you know that. Boy or girl, doesn’t matter to me. I just feel like the luckiest man to be having one. Whatever we are blessed with, I’ll be happy. It’s not like it will be our only child.” I kiss her forehead, nose, and lips. She relaxes, and I take her hand and lead her over to the table with our cake.

  I grab the knife off the table and place it in Jules’s hand. Holding hers in mine as we slice the cake together. The second the knife goes down I hold my breath. One side cut, then the other, and the piece is ready to be placed on the dish and reveal our baby. Grabbing a fork to help pull the piece out, we slowly pull back. The second we have the piece out we see the color staining the center of the cake. Jules starts to cry and practically throws the cake on the plate. Once it’s on she turns to me and wraps her arms around my waist and buries her head under my kutte.

  I feel the tears welling up in my eyes, but I hold them back as I announce to our family.

  “It’s a boy! We’re having a boy! A baby boy!” I scream excitedly full of pride. I can’t wait to have a son and experience all little boy things. Beast and I can coach football, baseball, basketball, soccer, hockey whatever our boys want to play. My brother and I are going to have the next generation of Dragons. Three little boys to rule the roost.

  In many ways, I’ve already experienced having a little girl with Brookie and now I get to experience a boy. I loved taking care of Brookie, don’t get me wrong, it was just different. Little girls are different from boys. This is gonna be so exciting having a little boy of our own.

  “Baby blue,” Jules says lifting her head to look up at me. “I want to nickname our baby that.” She has the biggest, brightest smile on her face. I nod in agreement and wipe her tears away. We step aside, and Cindy, Maggie, and Jan finish cutting the cake and pass it out.

  As we are finishing our third piece of cake, my new wife loves her sweets, Chains comes our way.

  “Ace, may I dance with my sister?” he asks me and how could I say no to him. He is a brother to both of us and is close to my girl. He just gave her away to me.

  “Sure,” I say and hand him her hand.

  “Sis, may I have this dance?” he asks waiting for her to make the first move. She takes it and he helps her off my lap. I follow them over to the dance floor. Chains signals to Throttle to change the song.

  Bruno Mar’s Count on Me plays and he leads her around the dance floor. He is an elegant dancer and Jules follows his lead flawlessly. As the song plays I’m mesmerized by the way my new bride sways her hips and dances. She’s so beautiful and I miss her in my arms.

  Bruno sings about counting on him and out of nowhere we hear an explosion at the front of the Compound. Shit, the Clubhouse.

  I run straight to my girl and take her in my arms. I frantically scan our surroundings as I drag her towards Beast’s house with Chains shielding us. We all have our guns drawn and in our hands. I see Brookie with Blaze and Torch at his side coming our way. Beast, King, Colt, and Gears have Bella and the boys. Knuckles and Whiskey have Shorty and Cindy.<
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  We need to get the women and children in the safe room and then go fight whoever is trying to attack us. We all storm into Beast’s home and straight to the sealed off room.

  I have to admit, when he built this room I thought he was crazy. I said it was a waste of money and we probably wouldn’t use it. Fuck, how wrong was I. Thankfully, my brother is obsessed with the safety of his family.

  We settle all our women in and kiss them in a mad rush out to defend our home. I kiss Jules on the lips and go to leave, she stops me. “I love you, Blue, be careful,” she says with tears glistening in her eyes. “I love you too, kitten.”

  I head over to my sister as Blaze is kissing her. He releases her from his arms and I take her in mine and place a kiss on her forehead. “I love you, baby girl. Stay with Jules and keep her calm for me.” “I love you too, dad. I’ll take care of her.” She kisses my cheek and I head to my brothers.

  All my brothers are at the door waiting for Beast to come and lock them in. Bella has a tight grip on him and won’t let him go. I head over to them to try and help out. “Bells, can you keep an eye on my girls? I don’t want them worrying and hurting the babies,” I say calmly, but sternly. She finally let’s go of her tight grip on Beast’s kutte and looks at me.

  “I’ll do that if you have his back,” she says sassily, with tears cascading down her pretty face.

  “I will always have my brother’s six, even when I’m mad at him,” I say to her with a chuckle to lighten the mood a little, and then look over at Beast to get moving. There was another explosion outside when we came in here and gunshots. He gives her one more kiss and we run out of the room. He enters the code in the lock to seal them in. King, Chains, Blaze, Gator, Knuckles, Shadow, Throttle, and I are the only ones with the code to get in.

  We left prospect Colt in charge, with Gears and Tiny to watch over the girls and kids. There are six ol’ ladies with Sam, Cindy, Maggie, Jan, and a couple of the women the men brought to celebrate our big day with. Iceman and Rosie’s sons Jack and Johnny. Bull and Cassie’s daughter Emma and Beast and Bella’s twins are the only kids.

  We gather a few more weapons and grenades from Beast’s arsenal before heading back outside. We make our way over to the Clubhouse and I thank God we were all in the back of the property. The Clubhouse is full of holes and burning. Our front gates are down. Steel gates and fence are fine with keeping anyone out, but bullets, grenades, and bombs can get through.

  With guns ablazing, we run to the front gates. Bullets are flying all around us. Gator is front and center with Beast; Shadow, and I at his side.

  As we get closer, I notice who has armed the attack on us. The fuckin’ Mexicans, the Mexican Cartel has come to our territory for my girl. Well, it’s a shame they came all this way for nothin’, cause they ain’t leaving here with her. They will be lucky if they make it out of here alive.

  With our brothers at our backs, we move forward. The guys hide in the spots they can to stay out of the line of fire.

  When Cobra and Tank remodeled the Clubhouse, they kept in mind the safety of our men. Cobra anticipated war on our turf and took precautions. Out in front of the Clubhouse are hidden spots for the men to take cover.

  Firing through the fence, I see the one man that I want in the ground. He’s standing on the other side of the gates. They may have bombed them, but they’re steels so it takes a lot for them to go down completely. And that’s where he’s gonna meet his maker.

  The Cartel men are dropping like flies from being out in the open and exposed. I set my sights on Hector, Alejandro’s third, and make my way to him with my brothers help. I stay hidden and aim for his hands holding an AK47, then I go for his right shoulder. I hit my mark and shoot his left kneecap next. He goes down and I take the opportunity to make my way in front of him.

  One last shot to his other shoulder and I stand before him. Lookin’ down at him, I laugh at the jackass on the ground.

  “You came all this way, so I could kill you. That was so kind of you, saved me a trip to take you out on your turf. Say hello to Satan, fuckface,” I say, placing a bullet between his eyes.

  When I’m done with him, all their men are down. How they thought coming here with twenty men would be good to attack us, I have no idea.

  “Round em’ up, boys,” Gator yells as we hear sirens comin’ our way. Fire trucks, ambulance, and police coming closer to the Compound. Fuck, just what we needed today.

  “What’s the count, boys,” Gator asks as the guys gather around us.

  “No one’s down, just a few hurt. Gunner and Bones got the worst of it. Bones got a bullet in the arm and Gunner in the leg. I sent them back to Beast’s with Bull to clean them up,” Cowboy – our road captain – says. I breathe a sigh of relief. We got lucky this time and I have a feelin’ more would have come if it weren’t for the sirens.

  Hector had a look in his eyes that this shit isn’t over and there is more to come.

  “Red and Whiskey, move the gates and open em’ up for the Sheriff,” Gator yells to them in the guard gate. They get the gates opened just has the Sherriff gets out of his cruiser on the road.

  “Gator, Ace, what the fuck happened here and how am I gonna report this shit?” Johns yells at us. The police force here is in our pocket. We have an agreement with them, we keep the town clean of drugs and they turn a blind eye to our illegal activity. Not that we have much anymore since Gator and I have been cleaning up the Club.

  “They came to our house and bombed us on my wedding day to kidnap my wife and her little sister. Do what you gotta to clean this shit up. We gotta get back to our women,” I growl, pissed the fuck off. We pay the police department a hefty sum a month, so he can figure out what to do about the twenty dead bodies. I need to get back to my girls and so do my brothers.

  The fire trucks make their way through the gates and start hosing off the Clubhouse.

  “Shit, Ace, congratulations. Go to your women, I’ll get this cleaned up. You may want to get away for a few days, put some distance between y’all and this place while I take care of this shit. I’m gonna have a shit ton of paperwork from all this,” Johns says to Gator.

  “We’ll leave at nightfall and stay gone for five days. I’ll be in contact,” Gator says to him, and then he addresses the guys.

  “Everyone back to Beast’s for Church. Settle your women, then we’ll meet in Beast’s man cave,” Gator says and all the guys with women race off to them.

  Chapter 28

  Julietta

  One minute I’m dancing with my brother and the next there is an explosion at the Clubhouse. I’ve never been so scared in my life. I’m thankful to Gio for having the hindsight to build the safe room in his house. He’s an overbearing ogre when it comes to protecting his wife and kids and normally it bothers me, but in this case, I’m grateful.

  I hate that Hunter had to leave me. Ever since those evil men tried to kidnap us in that dance club, I’ve kind of been attached to him. He’s my safe haven, I would never tell him this of course, but I like to be close to him. I require staying close to him for my sanity. So, being locked in this room without him is causing me to start to panic.

  I’m sitting on the couch, Brook is next to me, biting her lip and wringing her hands on her lap over her swollen belly. I know she’s nervous for her brother and Blaze and I honestly don’t know how to comfort her. I’m sure all the ol’ ladies are beside themselves. I should be saying some words of wisdom to ease their minds as the VP’s ol’ lady, but I can’t move. I too am biting my lip to the point I taste blood now and my hands haven’t left my belly. I’m floating on a cloud away from here and I don’t like the feeling.

  “Jules, can you hold Dominic for me? He’s fussy and you’re the only one who can calm him down when he gets like this,” Bells says handing me the baby. “I’m going to make him a bottle and you can feed him. Gigi has Lorenzo and I need to get him a bottle too.” She leaves us and heads over to the little kitchen. Gio installed a deep freezer
and has been stockpiling Bella’s breast milk. She pumps a lot lately in hopes of stopping soon but wants to supply enough milk for the boys to have until they’re at least six months old. He’s stored some in here in case of an emergency. Gio is always thinking ahead and that’s what makes him the Clubs best SAA, according to Hunter. I can see the way he is with his family. I call him an overbearing ogre in fun, he just loves with his whole heart and puts the women and children in his life first.

  “Your daddy and uncles are hero’s, little man. They’re out there right now protecting us. Keeping us safe in here. They love us with all their heart. They are the best men you will ever meet,” I say as Gigi sits next to me with Lorenzo in her arms, giving me a shy smile. Dominic grabs my index finger in his hand, pulling it closer to him and cooing in my arms. I look down at him, seeing so much of Gio in him and pray our men are safe. They all have to be safe.

  “How long has it been?” Gigi asks and before I can answer Brook speaks.

  “Not long, they will be fine. When I was growing up with the Satan’s they wouldn’t think twice about the girls. They would leave us to fend for ourselves. Your men are different, and you should feel lucky. I never saw love growing up and here I’m surrounded by it. It’s a good feeling to see the way the men are with you all. Even seeing Taz and Ryder together...” Brookie says with her head down and spine stiff.

  “You are all so lucky and so are your men. I can only hope to be as happy as you are one day.” She snuffles out the words and Sam takes her in her arms.

  “Do you not see how your man looks at you? The things he’s done for you. Brook, you have what we all have, you just need to accept his love and let him in, sweetie,” Sam says as everyone gathers around us.

  “I have to say, Sam is right. I hate that you women have come in and taken all the good guys, but we can all see the love they have for you,” Maggie says, and I stare at her for a moment. We’ve had our fair share of issues, but I like to think we’ve gotten past them.