Ace of Spades (Underground Affair Series Book 1) (33 page)

“I had a date last night.”

“That’s great. It is great, right? I mean that’s not why you’re walking?”

“It was almost too great. That’s why I needed to clear my head.”

“Any chance it’s a certain doctor that stitched up that ugly face of yours?” Declan smiled. He knew damn well it must have been.

“Yeah, Luke.” Shane’s smile spread from ear to ear.

“So you spent the night with him, huh. Did you have sex or did you only get as far as the Netflix and pizza?”

“Dec, we barely made it inside his house. We had sex all night long, we never even got to have dinner or turn on the TV.”

“Then what’s wrong that you needed to clear your head?”

“I never felt the way I did last night with anyone else, except…uh…it was…very intimate. It kind of scared me.”

“Are you trying to decide if you want to see him again?”

“No, I know I want to see him again. I guess I just wasn’t expecting to have these feelings.”

“Deal with the feelings, don’t run from them.”

“I’ll try, I just don’t know if I’ll ever be able to trust anyone again after Robert.”

“You’ve had more than your fair share of dickhead boyfriends that’s for sure but not all us guys are bad. Look at me for example.” Declan smiled.

“You’re a jerk, you know that?”

“I know but you love you me anyway.” Declan laughed.

“I do.”

Declan parked the car.

“Let’s go take care of Ace.”

Ace was sitting on the floor in his living room drinking his way through a case of beer. He had the engagement ring he bought for Lucy in his hand. Two days ago he was the happiest man in the world and now today his world was full of sadness and regret.

“Ace, you home?”

“Living room.”

Declan and Shane walked into the living room and there was Ace sitting on the floor with the case of beer by his side. Declan and Shane both sat down on the floor, one on each side of Ace and grabbed a beer.

“Declan told me what happened. I’m sorry man.”

“It’s my own damn fault.”

“How is it your fault that Lucy’s parents are judgmental, close minded people?”

“Shane, Lucy’s parents are good people. They love Lucy very much and I can’t honestly say that I would approve of my daughter marrying someone like me.”

“Like you? A smart, honest, wealthy man who risks his life every day to save others? Who donates his time and money to the less fortunate? Who started stripping as a poor college kid and stayed with it because he enjoyed it and craved the attention? Or is it the guy who would do anything for his friends? Because Ace, if my daughter loved and wanted to marry someone like that I would welcome him into my family in a heartbeat.”

“Declan is right. You can’t blame yourself nor can you forgive Lucy’s parents for how they feel. It’s wrong. You love her and she loves you and you should be together. Parents who truly love their children would only want them to be happy. You make Lucy happy and that is all that should matter to her parents and if they can’t be those parents then…”

Declan could see how upset Shane was getting. He knew how much Shane longed for his parents love and support. He decided he needed to change the subject.

“Shane, when do we leave for Vegas?”

Ace looked up at Declan and nodded his head. He knew why he changed the subject. Besides it took the heat off him as well.

“Three weeks. Which means I really shouldn’t be drinking this beer.”

Declan grabbed it from him and finished it.

“Thanks for the beer.” Declan winked.

“Ace, why don’t we go workout at the gym? I’ll let you kick my ass.”

“Let me, Shane? How do you know that I haven’t been going easy on you all these years?”

“Yeah, me too!” Declan laughed.

“Think what you want but I’m the Heavyweight Champ here.”

Shane got up and walked into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water.

Chace stood looking at the photos of all the victims they had posted up on the wall. One thing, he just wanted one thing to jump out at him that would lead him to the killer. The door opened and in filed Chief Manning, Kyle, three FBI agents, Chloe and her assistant Brad, Detectives St. Paul, Donovan, Travis and Sawyer.

“For those of you who don’t already know him this is Detective McQueen, he has been heading up the investigation with Detective Kent.”

Kyle turned and gave Travis a pat on his back.

“Hey, Bro.”

“Gabriel Sawyer?”

Sawyer turned around and smiled.

“Aaron, Hey!”

“Long time, no see. How are you doing?”

“I’m great, married with three children. Do you want to see them?”

Sawyer reached for his phone and started pulling up pictures. Aaron was shocked, he shook his head in disbelief.

“You’re shitting me right? I mean you were our idol, the ultimate manwhore. You really found a woman capable of taming you?”

“Yes and I’ve never been happier. This is my wife, Mia, our son, Christopher and these are our twin daughters, Gabrielle and Rosanna.”

“Damn. I’m happy for you, man.”

“Thanks.”

Chief Manning cleared his throat.

“Sawyer, Mia and the kids are beautiful but we need to get started here.”

“Sorry, Chief.”

Sawyer and Aaron sat down. Chace walked over to the board and began speaking.

“So far this is what we have to go on. All the women belonged to the same gym, with the exception of Officer Cadence. It doesn’t look as if he is profiling one type of woman since they’ve all had different features, ethnicity, heights and weights.”

Liam spoke up, “I did notice that they’ve all taken the spinning and kickboxing classes. I narrowed it down to three instructors that teach both classes.”

Aaron chimed in, “We dug a bit further and found two instructors who were let go in the past year that also taught both classes.”

“Hey Bro, I know you used to teach kickboxing, maybe you should take a few classes and check things out?”

Kyle looked up at Drew and rolled his eyes. He didn’t need the guys on the force knowing he used to teach kickboxing to women. “I suppose I could, if the Chief wants me too?”

“That might be a good idea, it will give us a look at things from the inside. Maybe you will observe something that can help us snag this guy.”

“Excuse me but why are you all assuming it is a man who is killing these women?”

All eyes shifted down the table to Chloe.

Chace stood there shaking his head.

“To think I thought you were an intelligent woman. Don’t you write your own reports, Dr. Mason?”

“Yes, I do Detective McQueen.”

“Ok, so how can a woman be responsible for this? These victims were raped.”

“Yes, they were sexually assaulted but none of them showed evidence of semen. Who’s to say that it couldn’t be a woman who has a sexual fetish or an anger towards women?”

“You’re really out there, you know that?”

Storm looked over at Chloe and decided maybe she was onto something. He at least wanted to know what her reasoning was.

“Chloe, what else makes you think it could be a woman?”

“The knife wounds, they were deep enough to kill but typically I have found that men strike deeper, they are stronger. In my opinion it is a woman. If we look at the aspect of it being a member or instructor at the gym, then I can’t foresee it being a man. He would need to have the restraint to stop plunging in a knife using less than full force. It would be almost impossible as the adrenalin would be coursing through the body.”

Chace was pacing now. He knew that what Chloe was saying could make sense but damned if he was going to let her be right. He was the detective not her.

“It definitely gives us another angle to consider, thank you, Chloe.”

“No problem, Storm.”

Chace saw Chloe smiling out of the corner of his eye. He gritted his teeth and then sat down. It was going to be long afternoon.

Ace finally sobered up enough to leave his house. His first stop was to file his papers for a transfer. After he finished doing that he headed over to submit papers for a leave of absence until his transfer went through. Next step was to clean out his locker. When he finished packing up he closed the locker door and Lucy’s father was standing there.

“I’ll be out of here in a minute and then you won’t have to see me again.”

“Ace, why? Why did you do it? You have a career, money, friends…why degrade yourself like that?”

“When I started out, I had nobody, no one to care about me or for me to care about. I was in college and trying to support myself. I never got paid for sex. It was just stripping.”

“If it was only about the money then why didn’t you stop after you finished college or when you got hired on here?”

“Because I liked the attention, to be honest.”

“Attention? Desperate women touching you and seeing you naked? That is not the kind of attention anyone should seek.”

“It was the only attention I ever got from anyone. Look, you will never understand how blessed you are to have the family you have. I never had anyone and I guess I never will…now.”

Ace grabbed his duffel bag and walked around the Chief and out the door. The Chief just stood there looking down at the floor.

A
LMOST TWO WEEKS HAD
passed. Ace’s days were spent helping Shane train and his nights were full of drinking and sex with random hook ups.

“Ace, you alright? I didn’t mean to hit you that hard.”

Ace was so deep in thought about Lucy that he never saw Shane’s foot coming at him.

“I’m ok.”

“Thinking about Lucy again?”

“Don’t you mean still?”

“Let’s take a break.”

Shane took off his gloves and pulled out his mouth guard.

“I’m ok.”

“Ace, you’ve been saying that same shit for two weeks now. You are not ok. You haven’t taken one minute to sort through your feelings for Lucy. I appreciate you being here for me but what you really need is some time to think and get through this. You need to move on and not by drinking and fucking anything with a pulse. You need to put Lucy in your past since that’s where she is now and move on.”

“I miss her so much.”

Shane put his arm around Ace. He hated seeing him hurt this way.