Red

C H A P T E R T W E N T Y F I V E

I woke myself up screaming.

It was a mess and I couldn’t tell if I was screaming from another nightmare or from Ace laying next to me, plotting my demise.

“Hey,” he mumbled sleepily, his arm snaked around my body and pulled me closer to him. “It’s okay, you’re safe. You’re safe.” His voice was a soothing coo and I turned to look at him, he was drowsy with hooded eyes and a husky voice.

“I’m safe?” I questioned.

His eyes blinked a few times, waking himself up fully. Only then could he comprehend his own words.

“You- it- it was a nightmare.”

“I know.” I settled back on the mattress and melted around his body. He held himself so tensely, not moving a muscle. “Relax.” I whispered. “It’s okay, you’re safe.” I mocked his words back to him and he rolled his eyes before we both drifted back to sleep.

___

“I’m unarmed, can’t you just put that thing down and talk to me for a second? We’ve got plenty of time to fight.” I grabbed a menu off the bedside table and looked over it. “I’m starving, let’s order room service. The pepperoni pizza looks good, stuffed crust.”

Everything ran smoothly this morning, or at least as well as it could’ve done after shacking up with the enemy. Ace woke up and showered, I pretended to sleep.

But when he got back into the room and I was sitting up in bed he pulled a gun out on me, here we are.

“What is Valentino’s plan?”

I stretched my limbs and groaned, last night was strenuous. I needed a massage. “You still have my brother, no?”

“Yes. No. I mean no.”

“Then our first plan is to get him back. He has a tracker in him, you’re fond of that plan, no?”

“No. I mean yes.” I smiled.

“Wherever you take him we will find him. My father wants you to pay. He’s dead set on finding someone you have an emotional connection to and then torturing and killing them while he makes you watch.”

“So what’s your role in all of this?”

I yawned. “Isn’t that obvious?”

He shook his head slowly.

“I’ve been feeding them information. Sitting in on your little business meetings. We’re always a step ahead of you. I told my family when you planned to take Antonio. I told them to join forces with Petrov. I got them the blueprints to your club. I befriended your men, your women, earned their trust and respect. I watched how you fight, how you rule. I learnt your weaknesses as well as your strengths.”

“What is my weakness?”

I laughed and nodded towards his arm. “You wear your heart on your sleeve.” He looked down at his birthmark and frowned.

“When you care about someone, you care about them.” I threw the sheet off my body to reveal my nakedness and shuffled along the bed towards him. His grip on the gun tightened and I pushed the cold spout into my stomach.

“Shoot me.” I toyed.

He pushed me down on the bed and I laughed.

“Number one, I don’t follow orders. Especially from you. Number two, I haven’t got all of the information I want from you.”

“And number three, you care about me.”

“I don’t care about anyone.” He spat out.

“Why is Petrov after you, what is in the package?”

“You’re not really in a position to ask the questions here Re-” he paused thoughtfully. “Willa isn’t even your name, is it?” I shook my head.

“I don’t know why you Valentino fuckers think I’m responsible for your death.” He shook his head, “or should I say your moms death. Alessio killed his own wife, he was given a choice and-”

“No, you’re wrong!” I blurted out, not wanting to hear that again. “He was never given the choice. Titus took me and my mom for some revenge plot. He wanted to sex traffic me. I had a spot on the shipment and everything. I was going to get shipped off to Ukraine. They’re still doing that Ace, do you even know what is in your containers?”

“Of course I do.” He spat out, but I could see the doubts rolling into his mind.

“I doubt that. You still rule with men who followed Titus’ orders. They’re your most trusted men and they’re pigs. You might order them to fill the containers up with bodies, drugs and weapons but what are they actually filling the containers with? Have you checked? Your men are still working under Titus’ rules.”

“Shut up!” He undid the safety latch on his gun and held his finger over the trigger. “You know nothing.”

“I lived it Ace. I got put in a container with about ninety other kids. I was five. My father rescued me from your shipyard. Your most trusted and valued men are still using those same ships, those same containers. They’re using your money and resources to sell children.”

“No, that’s Petrov.” He reiterated. “Nikolai Petrov sells kids to Russia and Ukraine. He uses his own resources to do it, not mine. Maybe we worked together once upon a time, but all ties got severed when I wouldn’t marry their daughter and the Blackburn name has never been in the sex business.”

“I was five when your father kidnapped me, he kept me in that warehouse for weeks. Forced me to watch him kill my mother and then left me with her decaying body before eventually stabbing me, stitching me up and putting me in that container. Why would he do that Ace? For what other reason besides sex trafficking?”

“For revenge on your father. I don’t know what to say Red.” Ace admitted quietly. “My father was...” I waited for him to tell me something comforting in the moment I was most vulnerable. “Good at his job.” He concluded.

“You’re just as fucking shitty as them. You’re so condensed you won’t allow yourself to believe the reality of your whole business. You don’t want to see the truth and that’s a real shame because you’re the only one who can stop it.”

“No, I’d know if that’s what they were doing. I’d know, you’re trying to get into my head. Using it as a tactic so you can strike while I’m distracted, I’m not falling for it.”

I sighed, admitting defeat on this whole argument. Instead, I picked up the hotel phone and pressed R.

“What are you doing?”

“Ordering food.”

“Are you fucking serious? We’re not dining, we’re about to fight.” I held my index finger up to him, making him wait.

“Hey, could I get a 12" pepperoni pizza, extra cheese. With a bottle of Diet Coke and throw something random in from the menu, I like to be surprised.”

He placed a lean finger down on the receiver and glared at me.

“I’m hungry.”

“Are you?”

“I’ll share.”

“Will you?”

My eyes narrowed at him, I didn’t like his smart ass tone. When the food arrived he got up to answer the door, I watched from the bed.

“The only Benjamin Franklin I have is crinkled, sorry about that.” He handed the note to the bellboy. Their fingers grazed slightly as they made the exchange.

My eyes narrowed in on the money, it didn’t look crinkled and $100 was a little excessive for room service pizza. He closed the door and brought the pizza to the bed, it smelt mouth-wateringly good.

“How long do I have?” I asked with a mouthful of cheesy goodness.

“What?” He tried to play off my suspicions.

“You just gave them a code, didn’t you?” Ace didn’t reply, but he gave me a look that confirmed my suspicions. “What did he give you?”

“You’re observant.” He commented. “Eat your pizza.” He replied, tucking into the food himself.

I decided to follow his advice and fill my stomach, only I ate faster because I didn’t want the pizza to go to waste if he decided to strike sooner.

“You’re wrong about my organisation. I wouldn’t stand for something like that. I wouldn’t have my name associated with something like that.”

Obviously the seeds I had planted inside his head had grown into full blown trees.

Ace sat up, throwing his pizza slice back down.

He grabbed my throat and squeezed.

I brought my hand up to stop him but he jabbed something into the soft flesh of my neck and everything around me zoned to black.