Page 22 of Ace

Ace didn’t bother to answer, throwing me a smoldering look before taking off.

I watched the truck until it disappeared behind the bend in the driveway.Damn.I wanted him to stay, and that made me grumpy.I thumped my way up the stairs to the porch.

“You mind telling me what’s with the ‘club business’ thing?”I threw the question at Tigger, not really expecting an answer.One thing had become glaringly obvious from the time I first set foot in the clubhouse, and that was the way these guys covered each other’s butts.I thought it was an admirable trait, until it kept me closed out.

“Not sure, but I imagine it has to do with the murder you saw.”

I threw him a surprised look.“You know about that?”

His head bobbed.“Yeah.Prez filled everyone in at church this morning.”

“I thought you weren’t supposed to tell me what happened at church.”I frowned.

He held the door open for me to enter.“You already know about that, so it doesn’t count.”

“What exactly does count?”I asked.

“Nice try.”A wide grin stretched across his face, instantly shaving years off his appearance.“Everything else.”

I obviously wasn’t going to get any more answers out of him about the meeting, and I honestly wasn’t sure I wanted to.I was suddenly too tired to care.Not sure if it was the overwhelming events in the past forty-eight hours, the throbbing bullet wound, or the effects of the painkillers.Probably a combination of all three.

Tiny deposited my gear in Ace’s room.I looked around.There was a dresser against the far wall, but I felt reluctant to open the drawers and squish his stuff to make room for mine.It wasn’t like I was moving in or anything.And it felt like I’d be invading his privacy.

I’d left the door open, and I turned as I heard grunting noises.Tiny and Tigger appeared, hauling a second dresser between them.

“Mom said you’d need this.Where should we put it?”

I gaped at them.

“Not trying to rush you, but this damn thing is heavy.”Tigger put his end down.“How about right beside the other one?”

“Umm.Okay.”I managed to close my mouth.

The two burly bikers maneuvered the dresser through the door and placed it beside the current one.Tiny dusted his hands off on his pants.“Anything else you need?”

I shook my head, at a loss for words.My stay at the clubhouse suddenly looked a little less temporary.“No.Tell Mom thanks.”

“Sure.If you need anything, just holler.”They headed out the doorway.

As they left, I realized I only heard one set of footsteps going down the stairs.I stuck my head out the door and saw Tiny lounging on a chair in the hallway.

He looked up.“You need something?”

“No.”I cocked my head sideways.“Are you making sure I don’t escape?”

He laughed, a deep-down belly type laugh.“Hell no.Just the opposite.I’m making sure no one gets past the guys downstairs and gets to you.Prez would not be happy if we let anything happen to you while he’s gone.”

“Oh.”What was I supposed to make of that?There was protective, and then there was crazily paranoid over the top protective.I should probably be upset, but it felt kind of nice.“You guys do this a lot?”

“No, at least not this personally.”He squinted, as if trying to decide how much to tell me.“Sometimes we do protection, but thisispersonal.You belong to Prez, and he wants you to be safe.”

“I don’t belong to your Prez.”That made me sound like some kind of prized pet.“I just asked him for help.”

Tiny didn’t look convinced.“You’re in his room.And he put you off limits.You and he can figure out what you want to call it, but from where I sit it looks like you belong to each other.”

Belong to each other.

I kind of liked the sound of that.Except our expectations from life were so very different.He was top guy in a biker gang, and I was desperately trying to get myself out of the ghetto and into a respectable profession.The two were not compatible.

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