Page 81 of Until Ace

The pandemic of opiates went out of control decades ago. And no one is immune. It seems like every family was hit with it.

I bend over him and hug him as best as I can, kissing the skin of his back. “I’m sorry you lost her. But it wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t your fault,” I repeat over and over, trying to imprint the words on his skin.

We stay like this for so long I start to think he’s fallen asleep. I keep tracing my finger over his back, hoping it gives him some comfort.

“I couldn’t help her, and I lost her,” he says after a while, moving and, in the process, shifting me until our heads share a pillow. “That’s why I need you to stay safe and not go looking for trouble when I can shield you from it, Mandy.”

“Okay, Ace,” I whisper, knowing this time I’ll keep my promise.

“Thank you, baby,” he mutters, kissing me with his whole heart.

Ace

“I told you to hold her, not to scare her to death, dipshit.”

It takes everything I have not to tear his head off.

Last night, after witnessing Mandy struggle, then finally share her life with me, I knew I needed this to get done. So I called a meeting in hopes that they have something.

Technically, I can’t be anywhere near this case. Not anymore.

But every man in this room knows it will take locking me up to keep me away, and even then, I would find a way to deal with this.

There’s no length I wouldn’t go for Mandy.

“We figured she needed a reality check.” Cobi shrugs. “What the hell was she thinking, going in there like that?”

“Not that it’s any of your business, but she was trying to do the right thing.” I sigh. “She just needed to accept that she was going about it the wrong way.”

What she needs to do is stop taking calls and reading all the messages. And she needs to let me deal with all that.

She needs to be able to rest her head at night and not have anything plague her mind in the dark.

She needs to fill her days with laughter with Mia, games with Beverly and her gang, and torturing me by making my dick hard while she tries to hide how much she wants me.

She needs to breathe easily.

She needs to live her life without any shadows.

She deserves nothing less.

And I’ll do all I have to in order to give her just that.

The days when Mandy was scared, hopeless, and feeling lonely are over.

Anyone who thinks differently will have to go through me first. And I don’t plan on failing.

"Tell me you got something," I demand.

It doesn't bode well that both Cobi and Frank are here in the captain's office again.

"No fingerprints, no video, since the only camera covering the entrance was busted, and no one saw anything," Frank rattles off the facts of Mandy’s break-in.

It has to be Gorskiy. Or one of his goons.

We just can’t tie them to it.

"So, you're saying you got nothing."