Black Hand

9

Namjoon and Jungkook come out of the shadows. I see the man who was with Ace on the ground, a hole in his chest. And the guy I had pinned with my gun, was on his knees. Not dead. Jungkook runs past Ace and me and zip ties the man's hands behind his back. Namjoon goes to untie Ace's arms from the rope. I stand there paralyzed. Waiting for something, anything, I channel all my anger and frustration into punching the shit out of the man.

"You answer me you fucking piece of excrement. What relation does my mother have with EmberWing? Why was I spared? What's my father planning on doing?" I grab his jaw.

The man shakes his head, loosening my grip on him. He spits out a wad of blood onto the pavement. "You don't know do you?" The man smirks. "EmberWing was your mother's idea." He revealed. There is no way. He has to be lying. He continues, "She wanted to make the world have easy access to things. Medical supplies, doctors, lawyers. You know the good stuff. But your father, well, he wanted something else. He found ways to have ties with Thailand and Japan and some South American countries with the sex trade and drug trade. Fast cash that way."

I didn't believe this. There's no way, no fucking way, mama agreed to this change. I look back at Ace, who's in Namjoon's arms. He's not doing so well.

"Speak faster." I urge the man. I walk closer to him. 

"Okay, okay. Well, when your mother found out what your father had planned, she left. Hid herself for years. She hid you. Until the day she was gunned down. I did that by the way. Oh it was a pleasure killing her. That's when we found out about you." He reminisces. "Oh and one more thing. Before you, your mother was pregnant. A boy. But when your father found out, he forced her to have an abortion. So, maybe that's why she left. To save you." He shrugs. "Shame. You're just like your father."

I grit my teeth. "I. AM. NOTHING. LIKE. HIM."

The man laughs. "Au contraire. You may have grown up away from his influence, but look at you, you are in the same business as he is."

I lose it. Lies. All fucking lies. Why would he tell me the truth? I aim my gun at him again, and this time press the trigger. A shot rings out as the man falls face first. I click on the safety and holster my gun before turning and running to Ace. I gently push Namjoon aside and hold Ace in my arms. I try to shake him awake.

"Ace, stay with me. Baby, stay with me. Ace. I love you. I love you. Okay. Wake up. Ace, I love you. You're right, I don't say it enough. I should. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I don't care about you arresting me. Not anymore. Your name is Alexander. But I have been calling you by a nickname, or something equivalent to you calling me 'babe' this whole time. Neither of us realized it until I did the other day. Everyone calls you Ace because I call you Ace. You're my Ace." I ramble. If this is the only time I get to say it, I wanted to make sure it's all said.

But he lost so much blood that he passed out. Calling an ambulance is out of the question. I can't have him treated at a real hospital. No.

"There's no other option." Namjoon says as if he can read my thoughts. "If we wait any longer he will die."

Death. I was ready to die. To see mama again. To be free from all this. To be her sweet little boy again. But in this moment, right here, holding Ace, seeing him slip away from me; I can't handle it. He's turned me into a different person. I never thought I would love someone more than my own mother, but somehow I managed to. Ace is the one person who understands me. The person I talk to about everything. By best friend. My boyfriend. In life, he's my second in command. That's why I call him Ace. Ace is the number one card in a deck of cards. In most games, it's ranked the highest. He's my number one. I pick up his body while I stand and run towards the cars. I put him in the back seat and gun it to the nearest hospital. Jungkook and Namjoon follow behind.

Jimin sees us come in and calls to get the OR prepped. He calls for a surgeon and his team to perform surgery. I sit in the waiting room, my head in my hands. Jimin comes to sit next to me. he holds my hand, assuring me it's going to be okay.