Till Death - Ace Merrill (BOOK 2)

We're not leaving.

"So you apologised yes?" Oceane asked as Ace flopped down next to her.

He nodded and gave her a small smile. "I apologised just fine."

Oceane looked up at Charlie and Fuzzy expectantly. They both nodded.

"He apologised." Charlie gave her a small smile.

She gave them both a smile as she leant up and kissed Ace on the cheek. Eyeball walked in carrying Austin as Oceane got up to go over to him.

"Okay well we're going for a bath then bed." She said as she took her son and turned to the boys.

"Make sure you lock up before you come up?" She asked Ace.

He nodded quickly, more concerned he was being allowed back in the bed.

"Night guys." She mumbled as she gently reached out and tapped Charlie's shoulder as she heard their chorused 'night ma'ams' back.

"Back in the bed then?" Eyeball asked with a smirk as he sat down next to Ace.

"She better not find out..." he only grumbled a response.

"Find out what?" Billy questioned as he shuffled closer.

"Ace didn't actually apologise to the guy." Fuzzy whispered quietly.

Even though Oceane had gone upstairs, they didn't want to risk it. A grin came to Billy's face.

"Why not?" Vince asked. "She's gonna find out."

Ace shook his head. "I'll bluff it or something."

The others all gave each other a small glance.

"The guy was talking to someone." Charlie blurted out. "We recognised him from somewhere but couldn't figure out where."

They all turned to him blankly as Fuzzy and Ace nodded slowly.

"It was like seeing his face reminded me of someone I'd seen before." Ace added.

"We followed him back to the B&B." Fuzzy added on.

"So who is he?" Billy asked.

They shrugged.

"We, um, didn't go in." Charlie mumbled quietly, suddenly looking down and going rather sheepish.

The others slowly realised Charlie still wasn't over what happened. Billy subconsciously brought his hand up to his bicep, where a scar remained from that day.

Looking over at Eyeball, he saw he, too, had moved his hand to side. They all knew he still had a scar there.

Billy got up and walked over to Charlie as the others sat in silence. Charlie was sat on the sofa as Billy sat next to him on the arm. His own hand went to Charlie's back as he gently gave him a comforting pat.

Charlie looked up at him as he forced out a smile. Billy gave him a small smile in response.

"We're good." He said quietly.

Charlie nodded back as Vince looked up.

"Me, Fuzz and Jack will go check it out tomorrow."

Billy, Charlie and Eyeball all gave him a thankful smile and nod.

The silence fell upon on the group again as they quietly came to their own realisations that none of them were fully over what happened that day.

"We'll all go." Ace finally spoke up.

They all turned to him expectantly.

"We're a fucking team ain't we?" He asked as he looked around at their faces. "We do this shit together."