Page 55 of Ace

“Did anything else happen?”

“Well, Joey mighta pinned me up against the wall, called me the b word and told me to shut my stupid mouth before he shut it for me.”

“Dammit,” Ace swore under his breath. “How come you’re just telling me this now?”

“I swear to you, I didn’t think it was important. I’m used to dealing with tough guy wannabes with overinflated egos. It goes with the territory of my job and since it’s a family business, I’ve been dealing with it all my life. Plus,” she added with a shrug, “it’s Joey. Also, that’s pretty much all there was to it.”

“Pretty much?” Ace questioned, his expression suspicious.

“Well, that’s when I ducked out from under his arms, walked to the front, slammed the invoice on the counter, and headed out the door.”

“Mmmhmmm. But there’s more, isn’t there?”

She lowered her eyelids so she wasn’t looking up at him as she recounted the last part. “As I was walking out the door, he made some comment about how I always dated sissy boys and asked if I had ever been with a real man and said maybe it was time I tried.”

She looked up just in time to see Ace roll his eyes. “That was pretty much my reaction in a nutshell, so I told him that my man was more of a man than he would ever be and I left.”

Daddy’s chest deflated as he breathed a huge sigh of relief. “Well, I guess that’s not so bad. It sounds like you held your own. But you did the right thing, by telling me. Thank you for that.”

“Well, it gets worse. I’m not finished.”

Ace blinked. “It gets worse? You said you left so I assumed the story was finished. Don’t tell me he followed you.”

“He didn’t,” she quickly reassured him, “and well, it was finished… I mean, that’s all that happened on Friday, but…”

“After that you were with me.” Ace’s brows furrowed as he tried to figure out what else could have happened. She saw the exact moment understanding dawned. “Joey was the one in the car with that douchebag.”

“Joey was the one in the car,” she confirmed. “I’m pretty sure. It looked like him.”

“And now he knows you’re with me.”

She nodded.

“And the Vipers already have a problem with us.”

She nodded then frowned. “It seemed that way, but why?”

He shook his head to dismiss the question and kissed her forehead. “Don’t worry about that.”

“Okay, Daddy,” she promised, knowing she didn’t mean it. It wasn’t a lie, she just wouldn’t be able to stop herself from worrying.

Daddy seemed to be deep in thought. His eyebrows scrunched, his lips pursed, his jaw hardened and she could almost see the wheels turning in his brain.

“Is there anyone else who could do that delivery for you?”

She shook her head. “I do all the deliveries now. It’s just me. I might be able to get my dad to fill in once or twice for an emergency, but it’s not a long-term solution.”

His short, huffed breath told her he did not like that answer.

“Well, how often do you deliver to them?”

“Usually just once a week. On Fridays.”

“Next Friday, I’m going with you,” he announced. “And don’t even bother arguing. Despite your years of dealing with them without serious issue, the Vipers are not nice guys, and for reasons I won’t go into because they aren’t mine to explain, they have a vendetta against us right now. And that vendetta, I would imagine, extends by association.”

She nodded slowly, her heart sinking to her gut. “You’re saying that now that they know I’m with you, it isn’t safe.”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying. And I’m not just talking about once-a-week deliveries. It’s not safe, period.”