Chapter 20: Wrong Moves

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Playlist for this chapter: Enemy (Orchestral Version) by Imagine Dragons.

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- N I C H O L A S - ACE - K I N G -

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- N I C H O L A S - ACE - K I N G -

"Ace!" I heard Jake yell as he came running towards me. 

"You're finally here. Come on, this way." He led me towards the basement and I followed him, walking briskly, my fists clenched. We entered one of the cells and I saw the man I had tortured the other day, dead. A bullet straight through his head.

"How the fuck did this happen?" I grunted and Jake came forward, handing me a piece of paper. 

"The fuck is this?" I asked him and he crossed his arms.

"It was near the body."  He said and I snatched the paper from his hands, my eyes scanning it quickly until all I saw was red.

"Wrong move, buddy, wrong move. I'll be waiting for you"

- Your good friend, Gio.

I crumpled the paper in my hands. 

"How the fuck did they get in?" I spoke slowly, my voice low and deeper. 

"How?" I yelled now and everyone flinched except Jake. 

"Who was on duty?" I asked Jake, turning my head toward him.

"Your men were drugged, Ace. Knocked 'em out so bad they're still not awake." He said and I could hint the anger in his voice.

"Fai lavorare gli uomini immediatamente. Trovalo!" (Get the men to work immediately. Find him.) I hissed and Jake gave me a curt nod as I walked towards my office, slamming the door behind me.

I sat in my chair behind my desk, running my hands through my hair. I eyed the crumpled piece of paper and threw it into the bin, taking out my phone from my coat pocket and opening Jake's contact.

"Schedule a meeting in 20." I texted him and he messaged back immediately.

"Done, capo." 

I sighed heavily, thinking over strategies and after exactly twenty minutes, a few men in suits came into my office.

"Ace." My uncle Stefano said.

"Zio." I said and he settled down, so did the other men, all of them who worked for me.

"We heard what happened." Stedano spoke and I grunted in response.

"Then you know why I called you. Where's zio Salvatore?" I asked him and he shook his head.

"Bastard's stuck in traffic." He chuckled and so did the other men along with him but they all shut up when they saw my unamused expression. 

Just then Jake came in with my uncle Salvatore behind him and they both sat down, making themselves comfortable.

"Let's sort this shit out." I spoke without wasting another moment and everyone nodded in response.

An hour passed and we were nowhere near a new plan. Zero leads. It was nearly dawn and my head was pounding when my phone chimed with a message and I sat up straight on seeing the contact.

"Tutto bene?" (Everything alright?) Stefano asked with his head tiltled to the side as if he was assessing me and I glanced at him warily.

"Bene." (Fine.) I answered, adjustig myself in my seat and opening the message from Dove.

"Sorry for texting so late. I felt like I needed to say thanks again, for everything.  You knoow, sticking up for me and helping me out in my weird situations and for the pizza, it was delicious. Hope to hear from you soon and hope everything's alright at work, you seemed tense. Anyways, bye."

I read her message over and over again as a small grin formed on my face.

"No problem, everything's fine. Thanks for asking, sweetheart." I messaged her back and saw that she read it immediately and I saw the dots appear and disappear.

She must be thinking whether or not she should text me back.

"You're still awake?" She finally sent her message.

"Emergency at work. What's your reason?" I texted her and she replied immediately.

"Couldn't sleep." I smirked at her response knowing full well what kept her up, my thoughts drifting off to the very not-innocent kiss in the pool, her sweet body and her soft laugh as I leane dback in my seat with a smug grin, rubbing my hand over my jaw.

"Ace." My uncle called and my smirk fell as I glanced up at him then back down at my phone.

"I have to go, duty calls. You should sleep." I messaged her and put my phone aside, focusing on the matters at hand. My phone screen lit up and I immediately unlocked the new message.

"Something the matter? You seem very interested in that thing." Salvatore spoke up and I glared at him while Jake gave me a knowing look so I gave him a deadly glare in return which made his smirk fall right off of his face as he cleared his throat and looked away.

"You were saying?" I raised my eyebrow at him and he cleared his throat before carrying on with saying whatever he was before.

"Okay, you should get some sleep while you can too."  With that I closed my phone, giving my full attention to the men in front of me who expected an answer from me. 

I folded my hands in my lap as I glanced at each and every one of them, my mind thinking of new leads, strategies, hell anything, but it kept drifting off to one person only.

She's driving me crazy and she's not even here.

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