Page 64 of Ace

“Did you see Lizzie?”

“No, man, I didn’t but…”

“No buts. If you didn’t see her, anything could be happening. She could be hurt or worse.”

“They have a gun. We don’t. We should call the cops.”

“Whose fault is that?” Bear grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. Axel was not a violent type and was adamantly against them carrying guns in their everyday life, even though most of them had concealed carry licenses.

“Call them then!” Ace screamed. “But just so we are clear, I’m not waiting for them to get here.” Jumping off his bike, he rushed across the lot, and threw open the back of the truck almost weeping with relief at the scene that greeted him.

Lizzie was alive and in one piece. She had a nasty gash on her forehead, but she was the one holding the gun to the driver’s head, her finger heavy on the trigger. The driver was one of the men who had raped Jilly. Ace recognized him, but Lizzie wouldn’t know that. “Not such a fucking tough guy now, are you?”

He winced when she cussed but figured if she ever deserved a pass on the rule, it was right now. Her hand was shaking and she hadn’t even noticed his presence.

Neither had two of the other men. One of them was Snake, Jilly’s other rapist, and the other was some greaseball Ace didn’t recognize. They were staring at her with wide-open mouths and Ace could see they were trying to figure out how to make a move without getting their friend killed. The one he was pretty sure was Joey was flattened against the side of the interior of the truck. He caught Ace’s eye and lifted a finger to his mouth.

Ace narrowed his eyes. He wanted to kill the dude.

The big, greasy meaty one Ace had never seen before jumped out of his seat and leapt at Lizzie pointing a switchblade at her throat.

Ace stopped breathing for a split second then all the breath whooshed back into his lungs as he leapt into action.

Or he tried. He didn’t actually need to. Ace watched in slow motion shock as his sweet girl, his little Lizzie, did some high-tech, side-kick karate chop thing with the heel of her boot going straight into Meathead’s groin. He fell to his knees, clutching the family jewels, and the knife clattered onto the console between them.

With the gun still trained on Spider’s temple though, her hold did waver a little, and her hand was still shaking, Lizzie calmly picked up the knife and held it out, now trained on Snake.

Snake wasn’t as smart as his friends. He swung at her, knocking her off balance. The gun went off. A single, downward shot straight into Spider’s shoulder.

Spider screamed. Lizzie screamed. Snake grabbed for the knife. Lizzie jabbed it into his left shoulder, still screaming, still holding the gun.

She turned just enough to finally see Ace, and her whole body sagged with relief. “Daddy,” she whimpered.

While her guard was down, Snake lunged, with the blade still sticking out from his shoulder muscle, blood spurting from the tissue. Ace dove for his knees, tackling him to the ground. Lizzie looked down at them with wide eyes, her mouth working like a fish.

Meathead groaned one last time and pulled himself to a shaky stand. “You crazy bitch!” he cried. “I knew we should have killed you when we had the chance.”

Spider, holding his shoulder and moaning incoherently with his eyes closed, raised one hand in a gesture of surrender.

Lizzie pulled the gun away from his temple and pointed it at Meathead’s chest. “Do not fuck with me,” she growled. “I promise you I’m a much better shot than your friend here.”

Ace stared from where he had Snake pinned beneath him, with a knee jammed into his back, and reached around to pull out the knife, pressing the guy flatter to the floor of the truck.

“Oof,” Snake grunted, raising his hands into the air to match Spider’s.

Joey was still just standing there frozen, watching the scene unfold with wide, blank, eyes.

Meathead wasn’t as smart as his friends. He lunged for her again, and Ace leapt between the two of them at the same time Lizzie fired. The bullet grazed his shoulder before lodging itself in the wall of the truck.

“Motherfucker,” he screamed, knocking Meathead to the floor. “You dirty, stupid piece of shit!” All the stress of the last hour compiled into his fist, which he unleashed on the guy’s face.

Bone cracked. Blood squirted. Lizzie screamed.

Ace was only vaguely aware of Lizzie running to the front of the truck and grabbing something from the glove compartment only to come back and tie up Snake while Joey found some napkins and started pressing them against wounds.

“What the fuck happened here?” he heard Bear mutter, as he leapt into the back of the vehicle.

“It’s about time you two got here,” Ace grunted, still using Meathead’s face as his personal punching bag. He knew only a few minutes had passed but so much had happened in that short span it felt like forever.