Finding Ace (Book 3)

Chapter 11. No Recollection

Aria

The hood fell and revealed the man's face. A gasp escaped me. His hands squeezed my neck tighter. I choked and gasped for air. I refused to die like this. I threw him off of me. He huffed and landed on his back. I flipped backward, landed on top of him, and straddled him. I held him down. He struggled against my hold.

"Ace!" I screeched. "What the fuck are you doing?" How didn't I know it was him all along?

Ace stared at me in confusion. He attempted to throw me off, but I punched him in the mouth. Blood came out of the corner of his mouth and ran down the side of his face. Ace glared at me with a murderous expression. I wasn't unfamiliar with the look in his eyes at all, but I had never been on the receiving end of it — it was a look he only gave to people he despised or wanted to kill.

"Die already, you fucking bitch!" he shouted.

I must be seeing things. I have to be. There is no possible way, but it is. I jumped to my feet and darted back into the kitchen. I grabbed my gun and light. I sprinted into the foyer.

Ace's heavy footfalls followed behind me. He shot at me as I ran behind a statue. The statue started to fall, and I dashed behind the next statue. He shot at me again but missed. I turned and fired a shot at him. He hissed in pain and fell to the floor.

I approached him and stood over him.

Ace stared at me in wonder. His gaze swept over my body and his lips parted. He gritted his teeth and looked away. "You won," he spat. "Shoot."

"I don't think so," I whispered. Instead of shooting him, I struck him over the head with my gun, and it knocked him out. It took me a long time to wrap my head around it. It was like he wasn't even Ace anymore. Ace was trying to kill me.

The shock wore off, and I dashed down the long hallway to the study to call Austin.

"Hello?" Austin asked.

"You need to get here now!" I shouted.

"Okay," he said and sighed. Austin hung the phone up.

I took my cell phone and gun with me when I went back to the foyer. I stopped and tilted my head. The front door was wide open, and Ace wasn't where he had been.

"Fuck!" I hissed.

When Austin came into the mansion, the door was still open. I sat on the steps in the foyer and stared at the spot Ace had laid before he escaped. The shock hadn't completely worn off. In all the years that I had done this job, I had never been so stunned by a situation. I sat there in a trance as I tried to piece together what possessed Ace to try to kill me.

"What happened?" Austin ran toward me.

"You're going to think that I'm crazy. I'm having a hard time believing otherwise myself," I muttered.

"What?" Austin asked, confused.

"It's Ace," I murmured. "The Chinese don't have him. They're not hiding him. He was here."

"What? Where'd he go?" Austin's voice came out barely above a whisper, and his voice shook.

Benny dashed through the front door of the mansion, which was still open. "You guys are not going to believe this shit!" Benny shouted.

I stared at Benny with a blank expression. "At this point, I would believe just about anything," I argued.

"Ace was in that store. He bought a burner phone from there just an hour before the text to Bohai. I know it's hard to believe, but it was him. I'm not crazy. I—" I cut Benny off.