Page 54 of Ace

“Neither did I when it happened,” she stressed. It was important he realize that ‘cause she could not take another spanking anytime soon. Her butt would not survive. “I only realized it earlier when you were talking about the rule and how ‘portant it was.”

“Earlier? Oh, when I was spanking you?”

“Mmmhmm.”

“Oh I see.”

“It didn’t happen a long time ago or nothin’” she reassured because that was important too. “Only Friday before I got here.”

“Okay, I understand.” Daddy tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Tell me what happened.”

“Well, you know I deliver to a lot of biker bars and stuff, right?”

“I mean, I never asked for a roster of the places you made deliveries to or anything, but yes, I assumed.”

“One of the places I deliver to is The Vipers Den.”

Before she could even continue, her Daddy exploded. “What?” He sat straight up, his face turned red and a vein bulged in his forehead. “I don’t want you going there, ever. It’s not safe.”

Lizzie squinted at him. She’d been expecting a bad reaction, but not quite that bad. “I have to,” she replied slowly. “It’s my job.”

He opened his mouth, looking like he was about to shout, and she held a hand up to stop him, her mindset now hovering on the precipice between Big and Little. “I promise we can have that conversation—conversation, not ultimatum—later, but right now, can I please just finish my story?”

Ace blinked and exhaled a hard puff of breath. “Yes, I’m sorry. Go ahead.”

“I’ve been doing deliveries there for a decade,” she added, just for good measure. “They can be a little crass, but the president is okay, and he’s almost always there.”

“It’s the almost that worries me,” Ace admitted. “Vinny is okay, but the rest of the Vipers kind of suck.”

“Yeah, I’m starting to see that. Anyway, I did my regular delivery on Friday and it was busier than usual, and they had placed a larger order than usual, so I asked if they were having an event or something. And Joey said—”

“Joey?” Ace cut her off. “What kind of biker name is Joey?”

“It’s not his biker name. Joey is Joseph Amadeus Lincoln. I went to high school with him. For that matter, middle school and grade school too. So he might think of himself as this big, bad biker dude, but I still see the skinny kid with the bowl cut playing four-square on the blacktop and being the last boy in our grade to finally hit a growth spurt and fill out. I still see him as little pipsqueak Joey. Which is probably why I didn’t think much of this when it happened. And for the record, I still don’t.”

“Okay.” Daddy nodded his understanding. “Tell me what happened.”

“Well, when I asked if they had an event or something happening, Joey just rolled his eyes and made a comment about their being one less biker bar to compete with. Then he said…” She hesitated.

“Said what? What did he say?”

“Well, he cussed,” she explained, “and I’m not ‘sposed to.”

“Paraphrase,” Daddy answered.

“Joey said ‘seems if you eff with the wrong people, you get effed with’.” She watched her Daddy’s face for a reaction, a clue that he’d taken it the same way she had. When he sucked air between his teeth, and winced, his jaw hardening, she got her answer.

“What else happened?” Daddy asked.

“Uh, well…” She scrunched her nose. She had a pretty good idea her Daddy wasn’t gonna like what came next. “I, uh… asked him if he was admitting culpability and if I should call the cops and tell them to get a warrant for the place. Then I mighta suggested his boss wouldn’t like that and that maybe he should just keep his mouth shut.”

Daddy covered his forehead with the palm of his hand. “You didn’t.”

“I did.”

“Why would you do that? The Vipers are dangerous, little one. They are not nice people, and you do not want to get on their bad side.”

“I get that now, but like I said, it was just Joey and he doesn’t scare me, so I mighta said more than I would usually say.”