Page 56 of Ace

Her mouth dropped wide open and her eyes filled with tears. “You’re saying I could be in danger? What am I gonna do?”

“You’re gonna move in here with me.”

She moved her mouth, about to argue, but Daddy shook his head, grabbed the bottle off the nightstand, popped the nipple between her lips and said, “This is not up for discussion, little one. A lot of things are, but not this. Daddy has spoken, and his word is final.”

Her eyes were wide as she obediently sucked milk from her bottle, letting the motion soothe her.

Her eyes started to droop, and exhaustion from the emotions of the morning finally set in.

“Rest your eyes,” Daddy whispered, lying back down and curling his body around hers. “We can talk through the details later.”

Ace

His blood was boiling and his mind racing, but somehow he managed to stay still and calm until he was sure Lizzie had drifted into a deep sleep. He watched as her body relaxed, the bottle fell from her lips, her mouth worked around the nipple that was no longer there, until she eventually rolled onto her side and started snoring softly. As soon as that happened, he slowly slid out of bed, sent a text to the Saints group chat on his phone, and headed down to the basement clubhouse.

He was as he expected, the first one there. Clenching his hands into fists, he paced around the small space, punching his hand into his fist.

Finally, the door swung open and Axel entered with Bear and King on his heels.

“I got that system installed last night,” Bear said as soon as he saw Ace. “Bastard has already been caught on camera three times.”

Ace pursed his lips and scowled. He’d forgotten all about the situation with Christine and Angela momentarily, and the reminder just compounded his problems and made him angrier. “We’ve got an even bigger problem,” he announced as Lucky, Bandit, and Slim filed in, grabbing cold drinks and taking their usual seats.

“I figured as much. We don’t usually have two emergency meetings in less than twenty-four hours,” Bandit surmised. “What’s up?”

“It’s those bastard Vipers again.” He gave them the rundown of everything Lizzie had told him.

“Shit,” King swore. “I mean, that’s not too bad, but it’s not good either.”

“Exactly,” Ace agreed.

“They’ve always been a bunch of lowlife pricks, but it seems like they are on a downward spiral,” Bear grunted.

“Do you think they will come for Lizzie?” Lucky asked.

Ace shook his head. “I honestly don’t know. I’d like to say no, because of the business relationship they have with her family, but I’m pretty sure the only one who cares about that is probably Vinny. These days he’s also the only one with any integrity. The rest of them seem to be a bunch of lowlife scums.”

“You can say that again,” Axel agreed, looking sick to his stomach. Not that Ace could blame him, after what they’d done to his Jilly…

“Lowlife scums!” Lucky repeated, lightening the mood. Then he got serious. “So, they pretty much admitted to burning down King’s, they threatened Lizzie and they are working with the lowlife pedo.” He punched a fist into the palm of his opposite hand. “What do you want us to do, Prez? Should we fuck em up? Burn down their bar? Shave their heads, cut their dicks off…” The longer Lucky went on, the more outrageous his ideas became.

“Stop,” Axel barked. “We aren’t doing anything. We aren’t like them and we don’t stoop to their level.”

“Oh, we don’t?” Bandit retorted. “Seems like it was a different story when it was your girl in question.”

Ace jumped up, standing between Axel and Bandit, half afraid their habitually non-violent president would break Bandit’s face for the comment he’d just made.

Axel just rolled his eyes. “That’s not the same. That was rape. They fucking deserved what they got, and what they got wasn’t even half of what they should have gotten. This time they haven’t really done anything yet.”

“Hello?” Bear answered, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “They burned down our clubhouse! They cost us our jobs and we had to leave our homes in fear that they’d burn those down too.”

“We already knew they were behind that. Joey’s out-his-ass comment didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know. So yes, they are guilty of that, but it’s old news. All that’s happened so far is a veiled threat and crude comments that didn’t really scare Lizzie, and one of them being in a car with a lowlife scumbag. If we kick their asses over shit like that, we’re no better than they are, ya feel me?” Axel’s impassioned speech was met with a chorus of resigned sighs.

“Yeah, Prez, we understand. But if we aren’t gonna do anything, then what’s the purpose of this meeting?” King crossed his arms over his chest.

“We just need to be alert, and aware. I tried not to overreact for Lizzie’s sake, because I didn’t want to scare her, but I’m a little worried they might go after her to get back at us, or to draw us into a fight.”

“Dude.” Bear shook his head. “They do not want to fight with us. I will grind their guts into snake food.”