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Ace
Ace paced his office and sighed. He wanted to pick up Arabella, some Asian takeout, and go home. He was tired after spending the day putting out small fires around the casino. He wished he could spend more time over at his bar and just hang out with his guys. Being the Prez of the Smokey Bandits was practically a full-time job but it didn’t pay the bills. His penthouse wasn’t going to pay for itself and neither was his car fetish. Could be worse, he could have an Ol’lady draining him dry.
He loosened his tie and slumped into his chair. “Reese,” he shouted through his cracked office door. His secretary came in immediately, knowing him well enough to know that if he shouted for her instead of civilly calling her in on the phone, he was pissed.
“Boss,” she said. “What can I do for you?”
“Find Knox and tell him to get his ass in here. My partner can handle some of this shit so I can go get my daughter from daycare,” he said. “She’s been back with me for a week now and I feel like I haven’t seen her at all.” He hated having to drop her off every morning at daycare. He was lucky that he even got her into the learning center. They usually didn’t have infant openings but they made an exception for Arabella and his generous donation. Still, getting her in was just the first of many hurdles. He had to learn how to take care of his daughter by himself. Charity was usually the one to take Arabella’s nightly feedings, to let him get some sleep. Without her help, he was the one who had to stumble to the kitchen to grab his daughter’s bottle. Arabella didn’t seem to care that he was working on very little sleep, or that he was beginning to resemble a hungry grizzly bear woken during hibernation—when she wanted her bottle, there was no stopping her crying until she got it. Ace was running on fumes and if he didn’t get some help soon, and figure out his shit, he was going to burn out. He couldn’t do that to his daughter. It wasn’t her fault that her mother flaked out and took off on them to live with her new looser boyfriend. Arabella deserved his best and that was exactly what she was going to get—even if it ended up killing him in the process.
“I’m sorry Mr. Wild, but Mr. Heart is already on the casino floor, dealing with a problem down there. Would you like for me to pull him away from that and ask him to come to your office?” she asked.
“Shit,” he breathed. “No. I’m going to run and pick up Arabella and bring her back here.” Ace had set up a crib in the corner of his office for just such an occasion but he still hated that she had to come back to work with him. She deserved his undivided attention at night, not to have to hang out with her dad at work.
“Have you given any thought to opening a daycare here at the casino?” Reese asked. “I’m sure that your employees would love having that option for their kids.” He had only just begun to look into doing that but there were state laws and regulations they would need to follow and he wasn’t ready to start that process yet.
“No,” he breathed. “But I’m seriously considering it.”
“I can help you head up that project, Mr. Wild,” Reese offered.
“Thank you, Reese,” Ace breathed. “I’d appreciate the help. I’ll email you what I’ve found out so far and you can take it from there. Tell Knox that I ran into town to pick-up Arabella and I’ll be back. Please ask him to stick around so that I can talk to him when I return.”
“Will do,” Reese said.
“Thank you, Reese,” Ace said. He stood and removed his suit jacket, rolling up the sleeves to his white dress shirt, showing off his full sleeves of tats. Most people only knew him as the Prez of the Smokey Bandits. They knew him as the hot-headed biker who had trouble controlling his temper and his mouth. Not many people got to see him as the casino owner, in his suit and tie, building an empire for his daughter. Most people would be shocked to see his stock portfolio, 401K, or to find out that he was a multi-millionaire, but that was because most people only chose to see him in a certain light. They had trouble seeing past the bad boy persona, tattoos, and foul mouth. He didn’t give a fuck about how people perceived him, honestly. He knew exactly who he was and that was all that mattered.
“Be back in twenty minutes,” he said on his way out of the office. “Don’t forward any calls unless it’s an emergency. I’ll deal with this mess as soon as I get back.”
“Of course, Mr. Wild,” Reese agreed.
He stepped onto the elevator and was practically plowed down by a sexy little blond in heels that made her legs look like they went on for days. He let his eyes roam up her curves to find one very pissed off woman staring back at him. Charity’s sister—what was her name again?
“Hi,” he breathed. “Why are you in my casino?” he asked.
“I came to check in on Arabella,” she said. “You never called.”
“Well, in my defense, I didn’t know that I had to call you, um—” he paused, trying like hell to remember her name.
“Trinity,” she spat. “Wow—I’m your daughter’s aunt and the person who returned her to you, and you can’t even do me the favor of remembering my name, Ace?”
“In my defense, the bar was loud the night you dropped her off to me and I was a little shell shocked at seeing her. I didn’t think I’d ever see her again after Charity took her,” he admitted.
“Okay,” she said. “I’ll give you a pass on not knowing my name if you agree to let me see Bella.”
Ace smiled at her and shook his head. “That’s not her name,” he said.
“Right, we went over all that the other night. Her name’s Arabella but I’m her aunt and reserve the right to call her cute little nick names,” Trinity challenged. He liked her. Not only was she hot as hell but she had sass for days. She was mouthy and pushy—just like he liked his women. Ace needed to remember that she was Charity’s sister and off-limits. It would be weird to take up with his ex’s sister. The guys would constantly give him shit, but the way she watched him, made him hot.
“You look different than you did last week at your bar,” she said. It sounded almost as if she was accusing him of something instead of possibly paying him a compliment.
Ace looked down his body, “Different bad or different good?” he asked.
“Good,” Trinity breathed. “So how about it, Ace?” she asked.
“How about what?” The woman honestly had him tied up in knots and all twisted around with her sudden change of topics.
“Can I see Arabella?” she asked, pronouncing every syllable of his daughter’s name, making him chuckle.
“No,” he said. “She’s at daycare. In fact,” he made a show of checking his watch and looked back at Trinity to find her watching him again. “I’m late to pick her up. I need to run. Thanks for stopping by,” he said, stepping onto the elevator. Trinity stuck her hand in the doors as they were about to shut, stopping their progress.
