Sinking my teeth into my bottom lip, I listen as the sound of the beeps digress and the nurse comes toward me, placing her stethoscope on the heart of my chest. “You two are going to get me in trouble,” she teases.
I lower my head, concealing a laugh. Ace stands from the bed. “I’ll call Bianca. Let her know what’s up.”
I nod, watching him whip out his cellphone and half-walk, half-limp out the door.
“That’s one persistent man of yours,” the nurse says, stepping around to lift my gown. “He wouldn’t leave at all. We had to beg him to go home and change clothes… eat… something. He finally caved yesterday.”
“He was that much trouble, huh?”
Surprisingly, she shakes her head and smiles. “He’s determined. It’s understandable. I was one of the few that refused to keep him away.” After applying a new bandage, she places a hand on her hip and says, “He loves you. I’ve never witnessed a love so strong. You’ve got a good one, girl. Hang onto that. Never let go.” And after tossing the old bandages away, giving me a full cup of water, and letting me know she’ll bring me a few painkillers, she’s out the door.
My eyes travel back over to Ace who’s standing outside of the room with his cellphone to his ear. He’s already looking at me. He winks, smiling charismatically.
He’s beautiful.
He once was dangerous to me, but now, I feel nothing but safe in his arms. I’m glad to know I’m all he needs—glad to know he no longer desires the “business” in order to survive. He loves to keep on top, and he enjoys power, but while we’re together he doesn’t need it.
My Donovan… my Ace Crow.
He’s back.
He’s mine.
I’m his.
At first, I thought he was poison for my soul, toxic in everyway, but I was wrong. He’s light in my life, regardless of all the darkness and hell we’ve been through. He keeps me on my toes. He makes me better. He was a gift from above—a fallen angel I was able to fix and make whole again. A gift I will cherish for the rest of my life. I could’ve lost Ace three years ago just like I lost Jonah, but I didn’t. He’s alive and here for a reason.
He’s my rock.
He’s a part of the new London Stallone.
And I’m apart of the new him.
The restored Ace Crow.
The new and transformed Ace Crow
The real Ace Crow.
Apparently, we belong together because through thick and thin, we’ve always stuck by one another. I will never let go. And while he smiles at me through the glass window, so calm and completely irresistible, I know he won’t let go either.
The fight to be with one another is over.
Time to put that intimidating BEWARE sign behind us.
It’s time to live…
Live happily.
Live freely.
Live peacefully.
Live and love unconditionally.
Born To Die – Lana Del Rey
Six Days Later
The police station is flooded with men in black and navy blue uniforms, sporting silver or gold badges. The press is around, I’m sure. I see the news station vans, people waiting around the front of the building with cameras.
Sighing, I lower the visor and give myself a quick check.
Bianca insisted on keeping a sweet and innocent look, like I had no clue about what happened back in Creole. A few brushes of mascara, some nude lipstick, and a calm cat eye, no bottom liner or eye shadow.
“This is fucking ridiculous,” I sigh.
“Just go in, answer the questions, and then you’ll be out of there,” Ace says through the speakerphone. I shut the visor, pick up the phone and take the speaker off. Pressing it to my ear, I ask, “What if he asks if this was related to you?”
“He will, and you’ll say yes. Make it seem realistic. You’ve got this, London. Breathe. Relax, babe.”
“Bianca didn’t have to do this,” I mutter.
“That’s because everyone knows Bianca Love is busy, and if she doesn’t want to speak, she doesn’t have to. She’s already given a report as a witness, and the paparazzi are hounding her. The NYPD’s new target is you, Ace Crow’s ‘former’ lover.” He laughs at himself.
I look towards the station, spotting Agent Wales with a briefcase in hand, making his way through the revolving doors. “I don’t understand why.”
“You know why. Like you said before, this is what you signed up for when you decided to love me.”
Defeated, I murmur, “I know.”
“So go in there, kill that shit, and meet me back at the hotel so we can get the fuck out of this country.”
“I want that,” I grin.
“Badly?”
“Yes.”
“For you, me, and Aden?”
“Yes. For all of us.”
“Then get that fine ass in gear and show them what it’s about.”
I laugh, and after I tell him I love him, I end the call. Placing the phone in my blue clutch, I exhale and push out of the car, slamming the door behind me. After I’ve adjusted my sky-blue blouse and black skirt, I march forward in my matching blue stilettos and head for the building.
I keep my head held high as cameras flash around me. I don’t care if they see my face this time. It’ll be the last time they see me in person. Might as well let them enjoy it.
When I enter the building, it’s surely busy. Officers and men in suits are walking back and forth. Before, the sight of the guns on their waist used to terrify me, but after having so much experience with one, they no longer intimidate me.
Walking to the front desk, I lean forward a bit and smile at the man behind the computer. “Help you?” he asks without looking up.
“Yes. I’m here to see Agent Wales. I have a hearing with him in ten minutes.”
The man looks up immediately, his chubby cheeks dropping, mouth parting. “You are the woman from Creole? London Stallone?”
“That’s me.” I force a smile.
He quickly stands, searching his desk for the visitor badge appointed to me as well as a clipboard. “Just sign here. I’ll page Wales, let him know you’ve arrived.” He points at a dotted line on the paper after handing me the badge, but his eyes don’t dare drift from mine. I sign it and turn right away, badly wanting to get out of his presence.
How does he know about me? Yes, it was mentioned on the news and it was unexplainable from anyone outside of it, but they knew nothing about me other than the fact that I was one of the few that were injured. No names were ever listed.
Lifting the badge, I slide it across the laser, and the door unlocks, allowing me access inside. To my surprise, Agent Wales is already standing a few feet away from the door, hands in his front pockets.
He’s a decent looking man to be in his late forties. Had I not been so distraught the last time I saw him, I probably would’ve admired his chiseled chin with the small dimple on the center, his nice green eyes and his cropped, peppery hair.
“Good morning, Miss Stallone,” he greets, extending a hand my way. I shake it. “It’s great to see you again. Feeling well?”
I glance down, feeling a slight pain on my right. The painkillers I took kind of numbed the wound, but it’s not easy to overlook. “Never better,” I respond. “And you?”
“I’m great.” He smiles. “Follow me.” I follow Agent Wales down the hallway, passing people who stare at me, baffled. My forehead creases, confused by all the stares and whispers. One woman, I literally have to stare down in order for her to look away. “Right in here.” He gestures to an open room on our left, and I walk ahead of him, glad to get away from the oglers. He shuts the door behind him and then walks around me, unbuttoning his suit jacket. I realize what that gesture means—we’re going to be here for quite a while. “Would you like some water, coffee, anything?” he offers.
I take the seat across from him, head shaking. “No thank you. I’ve already had a cup from Braxton’s around the block.” His lips press, fo
rcing a smile as he opens a folder and lifts a stack of papers. “Do you mind me asking how long this will take, Agent Wales?”
“Hmm… not too long. As long as you cooperate, you’ll be out of here in no time.” Cooperate? He says that as if he already knows something—like I’m a criminal.
“Right.”
Pulling the microphone to the center, he turns it on and faces it in my direction. “You remember how this went last time, correct?”
I nod.
“You’ll have to speak, Miss Stallone.”
“Yes, I remember.”
“Good.” He relaxes in his seat, folding one leg on top of the other and holding a sheet of paper in front of him. After scanning the paper several times, he asks, “So, why don’t you start off by telling me exactly what happened in Creole?”
My throat works up down. “Well, I moved there over a year ago. When I first got there, I found a home in Oasis Valley. It seemed safe. Serene. Good for my son.” I fold my fingers tight in my lap. “Then, after three months I meet Captain Greg Price—”
“Before you continue, would you consider Captain Price a dirty cop?”
I struggle with answering. “I… wouldn’t say that exactly. I think he was just going off of orders.”
“A bad cop,” Wales states. “He was on someone’s payroll.”
“I’m sorry, Agent Wales, can we just get to the point, please?” I realize how impatient I sound, so I back myself up. “My son has spent the last week without me. I’d like to go home as soon as possible and be with him.”
Wales sits forward, placing his sheet of paper down and folding his fingers on top of the table. “Of course, Miss Stallone. Since you’d like to get straight to the point, I got word that there was a witness. A neighbor of yours. A few other neighbors called in and reported gunshots but weren’t brave enough to go out and check. But there was one man that says he saw you outside with a young mixed woman, whom I assume is Bianca Crow, and a young boy, whom I assume is your son. Is that correct?”
“Yes.”
“Well, here’s the funny thing…” He laughs a little, fingers unfolding and tapping on the table. “He also mentioned a man. The description he gave us was tall, mixed, and kind of uptight. Very protective of you.”
“He was probably mentioning Trent.”
“Trent?”
“Yes. Trenton Brookes. He came to check in on me that week.”
“Trenton Brookes used to work for Ace Crow, didn’t he?”
“Yes. Just like Bianca is his cousin and Aden is his son.”
“You have lots of ties with him, Miss Stallone. You two must have been really close.”
I narrow my eyes as he glares at me. “Is there a point here, Agent Wales?”
His gaze doesn’t leave mine, and he doesn’t speak right away. Instead, after staring each other down for nearly ten seconds, he pulls the microphone back, turns it off, and slides it aside. “Let’s not play dumb. That wasn’t Trent the man was describing. Trent is Caucasian. He’s not mixed.”
“Mr. Norris is a very old man. He has terrible eyesight. I’ve actually had to go help him find his glasses a few times. That day, Agent Wales, he wasn’t wearing his glasses.”
“He said this mysterious man was touching you… hugging you. Are you telling me that Trenton Brookes is having an affair with you? I’ve looked into all of Ace’s men, kept up with them, and Trenton has a family. They look happy. Why would he ruin that?”
“Trent and I are just friends.” I lean forward, sighing. “If you’re trying to get me to say that it was Ace Crow standing there, perhaps Mr. Norris was just seeing the angel he is now. If I’m remembering clearly, you confirmed to me that Ace Crow is dead. He died on May 17th, 2012.”
“Oh please, Miss Stallone,” Agent Wales spits, slamming his hands on the table. “You and I both know that was bullshit. We had to tell you that to get you to back off of the case. That wasn’t his DNA. It wasn’t his case. An employee lied on the autopsy, and for that, they were terminated and put in jail.”
My eyes expand. “Wow,” I say, pretending to be shocked. “H-how didn’t I know that? Why would they lie?”
“To protect someone, and I think you know exactly who they were protecting.” Nixon West, the man that brutalized the man I love, but I’ll never tell. “No,” my head shakes. “I don’t. How would I know?”
“Because,” Wales breathes, standing from his seat and walking behind me. “He came to you. He’s the one that fought for you. That bullshit report you and Bianca gave to Creole, I didn’t believe it for a second. Maurice wouldn’t just attack you after three years. Too random. It doesn’t make sense. He knew he’d never get anything out of you. You don’t know the details of how Ace ran Crow. You were on the outside. Clearly, Maurice had to have a motive.
“Maurice and Ace grew up together. It was clear there would be tension between them sooner or later. Working with your friends in that kind of business never turns out well. My theory is Maurice planned Ace’s death. He had him kidnapped, had someone pretend the body was his. That person planted DNA, hair… everything we needed in order for us to automatically assume it was Donovan Crow who died in that alley that day. Only,” he whispers, almost in awe, “it wasn’t.” He steps to my side, looking down at me. I hold his gaze. “Covering for a felon will lead to some serious jail time, Miss Stallone. You would be an accessory to over fifteen murders. I’m saying fifty years to life. Are you sure you want to defend this man and lose everything, including that precious son of yours?
The room stills. If a pin dropped, it would make my ears ring. I know what he’s trying to do. Ace warned me of this. “Agent Wales, Ace Crow is dead. I’m not sure who’s putting these theories in your head or why you’re so obsessed with his case, but Maurice Grimes attacked us because Bianca no longer wanted to be with him.”
“Why would he need eight men, nine including Price, just to kill two innocent women?” He leans down, getting closer to my face. “He had those men there because there was some kind of threat. That threat was Ace Crow. So where is he, London?”
“Dead,” I rumble through clamped teeth.
“Dead?”
“Yes. Dead.”
“You know just as well as I do that that’s not true. He’s out there somewhere. Protecting you. Watching over you. Wherever you are, he’s somewhere close. I can easily follow you from here, camp out, and wait. I don’t mind. My wife left me, my kids are in college,”—he lifts his hands in the air, dropping them dramatically—“ I have all the time in the world, London.”
“Go ahead. You won’t find him anywhere.” I stand from my seat, clearing my throat. “You’re trying to intimidate me, make me shake in my heels by threatening me with jail time, but we both know that if the word gets out that a forensics tech lied on Ace Crow’s autopsy, there will be an uproar. They will question the NYPD, the FBI, and every cop out there. They won’t trust you. They won’t feel safe. All because of one single fuck up. I would hate for so many people to lose their jobs because of budget cuts.”
Agent Wales’s eyes bore into mine, his jaw ticking. “Where. Is. He?”
“Dead,” I repeat. “Ace Crow, the one you’re supposedly after, is gone. You are chasing a ghost. And if you can’t come to terms with that, then I feel sorry for you. What a lonely, pathetic life you must have to still think a man that passed away three years ago is still alive. Those may not be his ashes, but what makes you think he isn’t still dead? Like you said, you think someone kidnapped him. That person has most likely killed him by now.”
Wales plants his hands on his waist, lowering his head and laughing. “I can’t believe this.”
“Believe it.” I pick up my clutch.
“So, Miss Baker. We find her murdered in her home, fingers cut off her right hand, throat sliced, cellphone missing. Soon, we find out through her emails that she and Maurice had been talking quite a lot. I find it odd that she just so happened to die while Maurice was in Creole. There’s
only one person that knew her that could kill and not leave a single trace of himself.”
He taps his foot, and I fold my arms. “We all knew Baker had it coming. She defended criminals. She started losing cases after hearing Ace died because she was too busy pretending to care. Not having a clear conscious can really get to you after a while. Any one of her clients that was in prison because she lost a case could’ve hired a hit man to torture her and take her out.”
He smirks. “Right around the time that you and Bianca get attacked by Maurice?”
“Coincidences rarely happen in my world, but they happen, Agent Wales.”
“All bullshit,” he snuffs.
“That’s my story. The truth. You can take it or leave it.” I turn for the door, snatch it open and walk down the hallway, doing my best to maintain my composure.
“I’ll take it, Miss Stallone!” Agent Wales calls from the room. “But I won’t leave it. Not for a second.”
I don’t look back, even as confused eyes travel over to me. I feel like the star of a really bad show. Everyone is looking at me, but instead of admiring, they’re unsure. The man I’m involved with, it terrifies them to think that I used to be his. They don’t know what I’m capable of.
To them, a woman that falls in love with Ace Crow must be just as crazy and homicidal as he was. They’re wrong. A woman that loves Ace Crow is a strong woman. A woman that has been through hell and back and would still go through the worst just to be with him. A woman that loves Ace Crow isn’t perfect, but she’s worthy.
They don’t see that, and that’s okay because I know my worth. I know what he sees. My purity, although I’ve almost had to shed some blood. A nurturing spirit, one he can rely on to keep his head on straight. The mother of his first child, a love that never fades.
His Red.
His fiancée.
His everything.
That’s all that matters.
When I walk out of the station and hop into my car, I dig through my clutch and pull out the round diamond cut, $30,000 ring. I slide the platinum band on my ring finger. I can’t help but stare at it, holding it in the sunlight. I’ve been waiting years for this moment. I knew I would get married one day. I always assumed it would be to a good guy with a decent job. A really nice guy that has no criminal background or even a bad driving record.
Beware 2: The Comeback Page 24