Ace Of Spades_A Dark Erotic Romance Read online

  The beamer’s engine roared to life as the garage door began to lift. With no hesitation on my end, I reversed and sharply turned the wheel to the right, forcing the car to spin around.

  Shifting, I pressed the pedal to the floor, barely clearing my Cadillac and the Porsche as the BMW shot forward.

  In the rearview, I saw one of the men running out of the front door yelling something I couldn’t hear. He was nearly albino, and his head was shaved bald, nothing like Mateo’s usual men.

  I didn’t know what the hell was going on, but that wasn’t anything new.

  That needed to change.

  Gripping the steering wheel, I exhaled a shaky breath and focused on putting as much distance between me, Remmington Hills, and my wacked fiancée as I could.

  Chapter Three

  I struggled to contain the bubbling anger rushing through my veins.

  This wasn’t something I was accustomed to dealing with. I was always clear minded and in total control. Elena tested that control religiously.

  Two of my Falcons, Eric, and Junior, stood in front of me swallowing nervously as I stared them down.

  “Why has it taken you three hours to tell me absolutely nothing?”

  I stubbed my cigar out in the ashtray and began rolling back the sleeves on my dress shirt.

  “We’ve done all we can, Patrón,” Eric answered, his hazel eyes boldly looking into mine.

  Elias, who was standing on the far side of my office, watched on as I stood up and rounded the desk.

  I moved to where I could stand toe to toe with Eric, silently continuing to stare him down. I was a good few inches taller than he was, reminding him that he was beneath me.

  His audible breathing seemed to echo through the room. With no inclination of a warning, I fisted a handful of his dred-locked hair and forced his head back, exposing the naked column of his tan throat. Pulling the Glock from my waistband, I cocked it and jammed the rounded silencer beneath his jaw.

  “That was the wrong answer.” I pulled the trigger.

  His head slightly jerked as the hollowed bullet burned through his flesh, shooting straight through the skull in a clear-cut line.

  Blood, a bit of brain matter, and a morsel of sinew sprayed Junior’s shirt and the side of his face.

  The gun disengaging had Sergio rushing into the office with his weapon at the ready. He lowered it as soon as he saw there wasn’t anyone that needed to be dealt with.

  I stepped back, letting the body land wherever it fell, not giving a shit about the crimson puddle rapidly forming on my shiny hardwood floor.

  “Elena abandoned her car and the BMW she stole. Her cellphone has led you on a wild goose chase. We’re all aware you don’t know where she is, but…,” pausing, I placed the Glock back in my waistband and returned to behind my desk.

  Sitting down, I pulled open the top drawer and removed one of the dark cloths I kept inside, wiping a few speckles of blood from my hand before continuing.

  “She can’t get out of Vice City. The only way in or out is by crossing Plaza Bridge, and that’s being monitored as we speak with ‘cargo’ checks.”

  “Looks like you’re in charge of the search now. What are you going to do about that?” Elias asked Junior, finally inserting himself into the conversation.

  “I I’m,” he paused and wiped the side of his face, visibly shaken by the death of his partner. Normally his stuttering and open display of jittery nerves would have him joining Eric on the floor, but he was a newbie, and young. I’d say between nineteen and twenty, so I allowed him a few seconds to compose himself.

  “I’m going to send guys to search the hotels, motels, and back roads,” he finally replied, standing a little taller.

  I looked at him a minute before smiling broadly.

  “That’s a much better answer. You should probably get started on that. I want an update within an hour.”

  He gave me a sharp nod before making a prompt exit out of the room, not once looking down.

  “We’re going to find her,” Sergio said the minute, Junior, was gone.

  “Before Ace does,” Elias added, coming to sit in one of the wing-backed chairs positioned across from me.

  I steeled my fingers and rested my chin on them. I wouldn’t guarantee my brother was correct, but I knew he meant well.

  The problem was that the game had been accelerated and Elena had no idea what that entailed. She’d made her smartest moves at the wrong fucking time. Not only that, she did the one thing I specifically told her not to do.

  Finding her wasn’t my main concern, I knew we would.

  I needed to ensure we did so before she could end up in the same position she was in when we first met, or worse.

  She would meet the same fate our sister had, gutted and left behind in a dumpster to rot.

  Chapter Four

  Past-28 years old

  Survival of the richest.

  That had always been the main objective of old money roulette. It was a power struggle between old money and new money with an outcome of lucrative blood money.

  I excelled at it in every aspect with a natural desire to win. I calculated, and then I decimated.

  It was vital to always be two steps ahead of everyone else. You needed to know someone’s move before they made it, maintaining the upper hand so to speak.

  No one had ever been able to catch me off guard but one man.

  My last judgment of him had been wrong. He turned out to be a worthy adversary in almost every aspect. He alone was solely responsible for altering my entire strategy of gameplay. He set in motion a chain of events that could never be undone.

  The last time I saw Ricardo Rias, was five long years ago to hand him a copy of the finalized documents he’d signed. He disappeared shortly after, and a memorial service was held in his honor when he didn’t resurface.

  So when an unmarked white box was delivered to my guard shack, addressed to me from Ricardo, I wasn’t sure what to expect and couldn’t guess what the contents could be.

  Elias and I stood in the dining room watching Sergio cut off the blue sash that was tightly wrapped around it.

  He removed the lid, and we all looked inside.

  “Why the hell did he send you this?” Elias asked.

  Reaching into the box, I pulled out a blank DVD case and an envelope. Popping the case open, a plain disc rested inside. There was no written description to indicate what was recorded on it.

  “Let’s see what’s in here,” I said, shaking out the contents of the envelope.

  A silver house key with a tag on it, a photo, and two folded pieces of paper landed on the tabletop.

  The picture had my immediate attention. I picked it up and studied the beautifully youthful face of Elena Rias.

  Doing some quick addition in my head, I knew she was right on the cusp of turning eighteen.

  The same age my sister had been when she was murdered.

  The Rias twins had never been a blip on my radar. Their grandmother and uncle never spoke of them. They were non-existent in my world until about three months ago, that’s when Eva showed up as a new hire, fucking anyone as long as she was paid up front.

  She was also a heavy hitter for coke and zanies. Toss the girl an eighth of yayo, and I was told she would keep her legs and mouth open for come deposits all night long.

  Ricardo would be shitting himself if he could see his baby girl now, turned out and always on a different man’s arm.

  Elena, however, hadn’t made a single appearance.

  I forced myself to look away from the chocolate brown eyes that seemed to be drilling into mine, choosing to focus on the key Sergio had picked up.

  “What’s that say?”

  “It’s an address.” He flipped the tag around so I could see it for myself.

  “That’s where the twins are,” Elias noted with a hint of confusion, reaching for one of the folded papers.

  I rubbed my chin, not seeing or understanding what Ricardo wanted
me to.

  I picked up the other piece of paper, which turned out to be an explicitly detailed letter, and read over it from front to back, twice.

  “Look.” Elias nudged my arm, holding out an old birth certificate that had seen better days.

  As I skimmed the details listed on the official document, Ricardo’s angle slowly began to become clear as crystal.

  “We need to take a little road trip,” I said, beginning to place all the documents back inside the box. The DVD could wait.

  The difference in societal levels was drastically obvious. I had to admit that it made sense for Ricardo to send his daughters somewhere like this, but he could have picked a location further than twelve hours away.

  If anyone were to figure out where he’d stashed the twins, it wouldn’t take long to find them. Of course, that’s exactly what happened.

  We passed a boarded-up corner store, the Tahoe’s headlights illuminating mangy stray cats on the sidewalk. Less than a half-a-mile down the road, Sergio, pulled over and cut the engine.

  “That’s it,” he said, jerking his chin towards a shitty rundown bungalow across the street.

  Elias let out a low whistle from the back seat. “So this is where Ricardo hid his Princesas’, eh?”

  Glancing around, the bungalow seemed to be the nicest house on the block, which truly spoke volumes, considering.

  It wasn’t possible to see all the way inside, but there were at least two lights on.

  My attention, however, was on the supped up Alfa Romero parked behind A PT Cruiser. The car didn’t belong in this area and stood out like a sore thumb.

  Before I could say anything a man came from behind the house, and calmly walked to the car.

  “What the fuck is Alex Norway doing here?” Sergio asked.

  “Excellent question.”

  We watched him get inside the car, his blonde head never once turning our way, fucking amateur. It was imperative to always be aware of your surroundings.

  He cruised off, heading away from us, taking a right turn at the end of the road.

  It took me less than a full sixty seconds to know what I was going to do. I knew something wasn’t right, we all did.

  What I didn’t know was why I gave a damn. It was like a silent, compulsive lure, telling me I had to go inside the house.

  Elias and Sergio got out of the truck right along with me, not asking a single question. The starless night sky covered us as we moved towards the bungalow. The Tahoe’s engine settled behind us, and a few of the cats could be heard from down by the old store.

  Removing my Glock, I pushed open the rusted gate blocking entry onto the property. Leading the way to the rear of the house, I went straight to the back door. It opened right up with zero resistance.

  Gesturing for Elias and Sergio to be quiet, we filed into a clean, but severely outdated kitchen.

  The house was small, only the whir from a box-fan and the steady hum of a fish-tank filter filling it with sound.

  The living room was empty and dark aside from a dim table lamp. A plaid sofa and recliner took up the majority of the space.

  There was a distinct lemony smell lingering in the air.

  Directly off the main room was a hall with three open doors and one closed with light shining from beneath it.

  “Don’t they have an ‘aunt’ that lives here, too?” Sergio asked, looking at the few pictures lining the wood-paneled walls.

  “Molly picks up graveyard shifts from time to time,” I replied, making my way down the hall, checking each room as I went.

  Getting closer to the closed door, I heard what sounded like labored breathing on the other side.

  I knocked and got a weak, indecipherable response in return. Grabbing the knob, I pushed the door in, and there she was.

  Her head slightly rolled back. She stared straight through me with a pair of heavy-lidded eyes she was visibly struggling to keep open.

  Two pouty lips moved, but whatever she said, once again, came out too low for me to understand.

  Her naked body sat submerged in a tub full of blood and bubbles, one of her wrists hung over the side, staining the dull white porcelain red and dripping onto the faded tile.

  At that moment, I didn’t see, Elena Rias, as my adversary’s daughter. She wasn’t just a random girl born from a union of incest.

  I saw a young woman trying to hold onto her life. I saw a chance to save her from the cruelty of a world she didn’t ask to be a part of, but was made a casualty nonetheless, just like my baby sister had been.

  It didn’t make sense right then, why someone would come all this way to hurt Elena when she had been gone from Vice City for so long. I immediately suspected the twin, Eva, had something to with this.

  Not allowing myself time to second guess my actions, I called for my brother and cousin.

  I knew I had to help her.

  I couldn’t let her die.

  I didn’t figure out until much later, as I sat by her side and watched over like a damn guard dog all through the night, that she was the catalyst of my life.

  Chapter Five

  Present

  He never came for me.

  I’m sure he had people looking, but he didn’t come in the three, almost four days I’d been gone so far.

  My leg bounced up and down, every five minutes I was glancing over at the motel room’s door. I had no idea what was going on, which had me delaying in taking any action.

  I’d never been so disconnected from the outside world.

  I had the fleeting thought that maybe I shouldn’t have ditched my cell in some random field, but I knew just like the Cadillac, it could be used to track me.

  Three quick knocks on the motel door drew my blank stare away from the Law & Order marathon playing on the old box television.

  Rubbing my hands on my jean shorts, I pushed off the bed, bunching the floral comforter in the process.

  I ignored the slight sting from the blisters on the bottom of my feet and hobbled over. I’d gotten them after ditching the BMW on the side of the road, having no choice but to walk through the damn woods to get to wherever the hell I was. My entire body ached; muscles burned in places I didn’t even know had muscles.

  Double checking the peep-hole to make sure it was really Peyton and Melody; I undid all three locks and opened the door.

  The second it was open they both rushed inside, smelling of fresh, dewy rain and mouth-watering Chinese food.

  They were both dressed down in jeans and a hoodie as not to draw any extra attention to themselves.

  “Anything new?” Peyton asked, sitting the bags he had on a round table in the corner.

  “No. Have you two heard anything?”

  “Regarding Mateo searching for you, no,” Melody replied, sliding the chain on the door back into place. “But, after thinking about it, if someone really is searching for you outside of him then he wouldn’t make a huge spectacle about you missing. I’m not sure what the fucks going on, but Mateo is obsessed with you, and that’s pretty obvious. I don’t think he’ll ever kill you.”

  “Wow, thanks for that,” I replied dryly.

  She shrugged and handed me the two plastic store bags.

  I looked inside one, quickly reading the labels on a few hygiene products, and let out an exaggerated breath of relief. “Thank you. I feel like I haven’t washed my hair in weeks.”

  “We can tell, Hun,” Peyton quipped.

  “Bitches,” I softly joked, going to reclaim my seat on the edge of the bed.

  “We parked at the dingy bistro across the street and grabbed some coffee for an added cover. No one saw us, the front desk manager was in the back office when we walked by,” Peyton explained, handing me a napkin, plastic fork, and white takeout container

  I nodded, popping the lid off and immediately digging into the most exquisite chicken lo mien I’d ever had. After snacking on cereal bars and fruit gushers the last twenty-four hours, this was a five-course meal.

 
“How are you doing?” Melody attentively asked, sitting down beside me.

  I slurped one last noodle into my mouth and accepted a bottle of water from Peyton.

  This was the giant pink elephant in my shitty motel room that they’d been cautiously dancing around.

  My sister’s jagged heart now hung around my neck right beside mine. The box of ashes sat on the nightstand. I didn’t pay much attention to it. There’d be brief little moments I forgot it was even there until it flashed in my peripheral.

  She was gone. Call it a twin thing.

  Or be a realist and base everything purely on the words from a man who’d twisted the truth and gave me a flickering flame of false hope. Whichever way it needed to be explained so it could make sense to anyone else was irrelevant because I couldn’t feel her anymore.

  I took a long sip of water and then slowly exhaled. “I haven’t cried, haven’t even asked myself the usual questions. Ya know, the whys, how’s, and what’s?” I trailed off wondering how brutally honest I wanted to be.

  It didn’t take me long to decide that as much as these two incredible people risked their asses for me, they deserved the raw truth.

  Part of me feels so incredibly hollow, like I should be curled in the fetal position and sobbing my heart out. Then there’s this other part of me…” I shifted my weight and diverted my gaze back to the television.

  “I feel like she needed to die to be free of all the demons dragging her down. I spent literal years, day in and day out trying to reach her before giving up. The drugs––this world––it had a hold on her that I couldn’t break. I lost the Eva I knew a long time ago.

  “I’m not even a little bit sorry to be glad she’s gone, because I don’t have to worry anymore.”

  The sound of the fictional detectives filled the lengthy silence between the three of us. When I finally glanced at my two friends, the lack of judgment I saw made me feel ten pounds lighter.

  “I think it’s perfectly fine to feel that way,” Melody said, laying her head on my shoulder.