by April Lust
Fiona cried on Melanie’s shoulder for a few minutes; the stress of her brother, the confusion with Ace, everything was so overwhelming. Fiona didn’t know if she could handle it. Finally, her tears subsided, and Fiona surfaced, wiping her wet cheeks with her sleeve. “Thanks, Melanie,” she said.
“Of course. That’s what friends are for.” Melanie smiled warmly at her. “So is that why you’re at home? You and Ace…?” She trailed off, not wanting to say something that might wound Fiona.
When Fiona didn’t say anything for a long moment, Melanie thought, perhaps, she had managed to upset her anyway.
“No,” she finally said. “That’s not why I’m here.”
“Fiona,” Melanie said in a strained voice, “I’m a nervous fucking wreck over here. I need you to tell me everything, right now, all at once.” She loved Fiona dearly, but her friend had the annoying habit of telling a story bit by bit, and not always in the best order.
“Alexei has Niko, and I’m the only one who can help him now,” Fiona told her. “That’s why I’m here. I’m setting up a trap for Alexei.” She walked over to her kitchen and pulled the gun out of the top drawer, setting it on the counter.
“Why do you have a fucking gun?” Melanie asked, staring at the weapon.
“I think you know why, Melanie.”
“You’re going to kill Alexei?” Melanie said disbelievingly. “What—you think you’re gonna just call him up and ask him to swing by before killing your brother?”
“I’m going to tell him that I’ll tell him how to get to Ace in exchange for Niko,” Fiona replied.
“Let me guess,” Melanie rubbed her eyes with one hand, “you don’t really have any information that will help Alexei with Ace. You’re just hoping he walks in here, into your trap, with no protection or backup of any kind, am I right?” she asked sarcastically. “Have you thought about what will happen when Alexei sees through your terribly obvious plan and kills you? Or, let’s say a miracle happens, and your plan does work—what then? Even if you manage to kill Alexei, one of his little cronies will just come right in after him and kill you himself,” Melanie pointed out.
Fiona said nothing.
“Oh my god.” Melanie slowly realized what Fiona was thinking. “You don’t even care, do you? You know there’s a high chance you won’t live through this, don’t you?”
“There’s nothing else I can do,” Fiona said calmly. “I’ve tried everything I can, except for this one last thing.”
“Alexei is going to know something’s up right away, Fiona,” Melanie said, trying a softer approach. “What good does this do if it’s basically suicide? That doesn’t help Niko.”
“I have to try,” Fiona said stubbornly.
Melanie shook her head. “How can I help?” she asked.
Fiona smiled. “Thanks for the offer, but I don’t think you can. This is something I need to do alone. If you got hurt…I don’t know what I’d do.” Melanie opened her mouth to protest, but Fiona put up her hand, silencing her. “Please. If you feel like you have to do something, can you check on Bobby? The poor kid seemed a little shaken up.”
“Welcome to the club, Jimbo. We’re all a little shaken up,” Melanie muttered to herself. “Fine. I’ll go. But I’ll be back in a couple of hours to check on you,” she insisted. Melanie threw herself at Fiona and gave the smaller woman a giant hug, using more strength than anyone looking at Melanie would think she rightfully had.
“You sure you know what you’re doing?” Melanie asked one more time before opening the door.
“Yes,” Fiona said more confidently than she felt. The truth was she had no idea what she was doing, or if any of it would work, but like she had told Melanie earlier, she had to try.
Stepping outside to walk Melanie to her car, Fiona made sure to wave to her neighbor, the one who lived in the other half of the townhome. The woman stared at her, rightfully terrified, having heard gunfire and rampant property destruction on the other side of their shared wall no less than three times in the last two weeks.
Fiona watched the woman hurry back into her side of the building; hopefully she was calling the police right now. Fiona wouldn’t know for a while, so she walked back inside and settled down to wait. She looked at her burner phone and made sure the volume was on high.
Sure enough, less than a half an hour later, the phone rang loudly. Fiona knew that when her neighbor called the police, it meant William would be notified, and he would call Alexei immediately to tell him Fiona was at home, alone.
Taking a deep breath, Fiona answered. “Hello?”
“Hello, Fiona,” Alexei said on the other end of the line. “Are you feeling homesick?”
She ignored him. “I have information that you might want.”
“What could you possibly have that I would care about? I have your brother.” Fiona heard rustling as Alexei pulled the phone away from his ear and passed it to someone. There was a dull thud, then a loud groan.
“Fi…” Niko’s voice was muffled.
“And soon, I will have you,” Alexei continued, bringing the phone back to his ear. “You have nothing I want.”
“I have Ace,” she replied evenly. “I can get you Ace.”
Alexei said nothing for a long moment. “You have him, or you can get him?” he asked. “Those are two very different claims.”
“I can get him for you,” Fiona clarified. “Whenever you want, however you want. I can get him for you.”
“How?” Alexei asked suspiciously.
“He’s in love with me,” she said, lying her ass off. “He’ll do anything for me. If he wasn’t, he would have given me up to you when you gave him the chance, but he didn’t.”
Ace has his own code of honor, but that doesn’t mean he’s in love with me—it just makes him obligated to me, Fiona thought bitterly.
“Let me guess: you want you and your brother to go free in exchange for Ace?” Alexei asked.
“Can Niko hear this?” If Niko overheard what she was about to say, he would flip out and ruin everything.
“No,” Alexei said slowly. “Only me.”
“I’ll give you Ace, and…I’ll take Niko’s place,” Fiona said.
She had absolutely no intention of giving up Ace, or herself for that matter, but Fiona needed to make a reasonable offer, or Alexei would know something was off. He might figure it out anyway, but if Fiona didn’t at least try, Niko would never even have a chance.
“Please, I’ll do anything,” she said, echoing the very words she had once directed at Ace only a week ago.
“Very well,” Alexei agreed after a short pause. “I will come to you. And, Fiona? Don’t do anything stupid,” he coldly warned her before immediately hanging up.
A chill ran down Fiona’s spine, and she tucked the phone into her back pocket. She arranged her demolished couch as best she could and sat down, looking at the gun in her lap. She flicked the safety off and raised the weapon, testing the weight of it.
A good pick, Lianna, Fiona thought. Thanks for this, girl.
She ran through her plan in her head repeatedly, checking her watch every ten minutes. Fiona didn’t know exactly when Alexei would arrive, which left her in a high state of alert. She took a deep breath to calm herself. All she could do right now was wait.
Chapter 11
Ace woke the next morning, or perhaps afternoon, judging by how high the sun was already. He felt like he had spun out on the highway, but he knew it was just a massive hangover—quite possibly the worst he’d ever had.
He sat up, wondering why he had been sleeping on the couch. Usually when he passed out anywhere other than his bed, Smalls would pick him up and tuck him in.
Memories of last night came back to him in a slow trickle. The biggest and brightest of which was the one of Fiona telling Ace she loved him, and him telling her to move on. Ace rested his head in his hands and let out an exasperated sigh.
The image of her face, filled with hurt, shocked disappointment, ha
d followed him around last night, always swimming in the edges of his conscience. He had drunk beer after beer in an attempt to forget the look on her face, eventually switching to whiskey when the beer failed to help.
After the whiskey…who knows what happened after the whiskey, Ace thought. He had a tendency to get pretty wild when he was drunk; he just hoped he hadn’t done anything stupid. Well, stupider than usual.
He stood up from the couch, using the arm for support. The sudden rise in elevation made his head pound furiously. He squinted and raised a hand to keep the light out of his eyes. Sunlight really was just the worst.
“Mornin’, Li,” Ace said, passing Lianna in the hallway.
Ace walked into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, pulling out a beer. He held it to his head for a few seconds, relishing the cool relief. Cracking it open, he gulped down half, hoping that would take the edge off of his crippling hangover.
“I do anything stupid last night?” he asked, seeing Lucky and Riley walk down the stairs.
“I was outside Fiona’s door all night,” Riley reminded him.
“Right, right.” Ace nodded as much as his headache would allow. “Who’s with her right now?”
“Diego,” Lucky answered.
“Don’t leave him too long, or he’ll get distracted by a pretty girl and wander off to follow her home,” Katie joked, walking into the kitchen to join them. “Where’s breakfast?” she asked, looking around for Smalls.
As though summoned, Smalls came hurrying into the kitchen. “Sorry,” he said, panting a little. “I was up late last night with Ace.”
“Did I do anything stupid?” he repeated.
“Besides how you treated Fiona?” Lucky muttered, low enough Ace couldn’t hear.
“No, nothin’,” Smalls said, though Ace noticed he didn’t seem to want to look his leader in the eye. “I’ll have breakfast in a jiff, everyone,” Smalls said loudly, beginning to pull out everything he needed.
“Okay, then,” Ace said slowly. He finished his beer and got up from the table. “I’ll be right back, so no one take all the hash browns before I get back.” He didn’t want to say it out loud, especially in front of Katie, but he had been restraining himself from going to see Fiona since he woke up, and he couldn’t contain the urge any longer.
“Wait!” Lucky cried, quickly moving to stand in front of him. “Where are you going?” She was supposed to keep Ace from finding out Fiona was missing for as long as she could, and she had a feeling Ace was going to go check on her now.
Ace, as well as everyone else, gave Lucky an odd look. “To the bathroom…” he lied.
“Oh, okay, then,” Lucky said lamely, stepping out of his way.
She watched him walk up the steps, her stomach sinking. She knew he wasn’t going to the bathroom, but there was nothing more she could do without raising suspicion. She sat down in between Smalls and Riley at the table, waiting for the inevitable.
“Where is she?” Ace roared, his voice reverberating through the house.
Lucky winced, hearing Ace’s heavy footsteps clatter down the steps.
“She’s gone!” he exclaimed.
“Who?” Smalls asked, bewildered.
“Fiona! Gone! How did this happen?” he asked when Diego came down the stairs. “Was she there when you checked on her when you two swapped?” Ace said, pointing at Riley and Diego.
The two men looked at each other. Neither of them wanted to tell their leader the truth: that Diego had seen Riley was missing from his post and had covered for him, only to catch Riley coming out of Lucky’s room an hour later.
“You didn’t check, did you?” Ace said flatly. “I can’t fucking believe this. Did you ever check on her?” he demanded, turning to Riley. “Through the whole night, did you ever open the door and see her?”
Riley shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Lucky spoke to her last night and said she was very tired. I did not want to disturb her.”
Lucky scrunched up her nose. She knew it would eventually roll around to her. She looked up to see Ace staring at her.
“Were you the last one to see her, then?” Ace asked.
Lucky glanced at Lianna, who was standing in the doorway just behind Ace. Technically, Lianna had been the last to see Fiona, but Lucky didn’t think Ace was looking for technicalities right now.
“Looks like,” Lucky said, a falsely bright smile on her face.
Ace continued to stare at her expectantly. “Well? Did something happen? Did she say anything?”
“Does it matter?” Katie muttered.
“What was that?” Ace said, turning to look at her.
“I said, does it matter? Wherever she is, you’re just going to go run off and get her, so does it really matter what happened or what she said?” Katie shrugged and flicked an invisible speck of lint off of her leg.
“Sorry, for a second there I thought you had something important to say,” Ace shot back. He looked at Lucky. He could tell she was holding something back. “Did something happen, or did she leave on her own?” he asked.
Lucky chewed her bottom lip. She figured enough time had passed that Fiona could have done what she needed to. “Both,” she admitted.
Ace’s brow gathered in confusion. “Both? What does that mean?”
“Fiona got a phone call from her brother, so she asked me to wait out in the hall, so I did, and then she came and got me and she told me that Alexei found her brother, and she was so scared,” Lucky blurted out, last night’s events spilling from her lips like a waterfall. “So I asked her what I could do and she…she wanted me to distract Riley so she could sneak out and go save her brother!” Tears began to form in Lucky’s eyes; she hated lying to everyone.
“What the fuck, Lucky?” Ace cried. “Why didn’t you come get me?”
“Well, after what you said to her, can you really blame her for thinking you didn’t want to get involved?” Lucky indignantly replied on Fiona’s behalf. “I tried to tell her you would do something, but she didn’t believe me.”
“So you just let her leave? I can’t even…” Ace took a deep breath and closed his eyes, trying to calm his fury. “Okay, where did she go?” he asked once he had control of himself.
“I don’t know,” Lucky said, biting her lip again. “Bobby came and picked her up.”
“What is this? The underground fuckin’ railroad?” Ace said exasperatedly. “Riley, go get the kid and bring him here.”
Riley nodded once and left, the sound of his motorcycle roaring down the road could be heard a few minutes later.
“If she’s gone to see Alexei, then I think it’s time we get our plan together,” Ace said.
“We don’t have the manpower for it,” Katie said.
“We can get it,” Ace fired at her.
“We are not going barreling into Alexei’s all because you’ve got a crush!” Katie said, staring Ace down as she leaned forward to rest her palms on the table. “We decided; we go in when we’re ready, and not a minute before.”
“Goddammit, Katie,” Ace snarled. “Are you really that jealous that you’re willing to let the girl die?”
Katie laughed in his face. “My god, get over yourself.”
“Enough!” Smalls shouted, standing up and flipping the long, heavy table on its side. Plates and silverware clattered sharply as they fell to the floor. “I have had it with the arguing in this gang! We’re supposed to be a family, for fuck’s sake! That’s why I joined,” Smalls said, emotion choking his voice. “I joined for my brother, and after he died, I stayed because this was his family, and now it’s mine. And you people are tearing it apart.” Smalls sniffled. He turned the table right side up and sat down, Diego gently patting his back.
No one said anything for several minutes. Finally, Ace cleared his throat. “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice raspy. “You’re right, Smalls. I haven’t been a good leader lately. But I gave Fiona my word, and I can’t go back on that—you deserve a leader whose word can be trust
ed.”
Ace was speaking to more than The Hell Brothers now. His words were also meant for Fiona. He had promised her he would keep her safe, and what had he done? Broken her heart and, likely, gotten her kidnapped and killed.
“But when I gave my word, I didn’t give it for all of us. I only gave it for me,” Ace continued, looking at his boots. “I can’t order you to help me with this as your leader. Instead, I’m asking for your help as your friend.” He raised his head to look at the members of The Hell Brothers.
“Of course we will help!” Smalls said passionately, several of the people in the kitchen nodding their agreement. Ace couldn’t help but notice Katie was not among them. “But we want to be together on it!”