Finding Ace (Book 3)

Chapter 23. Dinner Plans

Aria

Eight weeks passed since I miscarried the baby. I thought it would get easier, but it didn't. I kept my mind off of it primarily by training. Ace taught me, bo staff. It wasn't an easy thing to learn, but I had down for the most part.

Angel got really good at bo staff too. Angel became a strong fighter in a short amount of time, thanks to Ace.

When Ace came back from China, he was more lethal than he ever had before. It led me to believe that even when he thought he worked for the Chinese, some part of him deep down knew killing me wasn't the right thing to do. I firmly believed if it came down to Ace and me fighting, Ace would win. No doubt, I was strong, and a good fighter, but Ace was a killing machine. It was no wonder why the Chinese sent him after me. If anyone could kill me, it was him.

"I'm going to go tell the boys that supper is done," I told Carley.

I went downstairs to the basement. Ace, Austin, and Angel were down there.

"You know one day your own boy is going to be whooping your ass, right?" Austin said and laughed

"Just like my wife," Ace said and laughed.

He gives me way too much credit. "What is going on?" I asked.

The boys turned around and smiled innocently. "Nothing," Austin and Ace said simultaneously.

"Sure," I dragged out the word. "Food is done."

"Food!" All three boys yelled and ran past me up the stairs.

I chuckled and shook my head.

We all sat down to eat. Aiden crawled into Ace's lap. Aiden became such a daddy's boy.

We were supposed to be going after the Chinese a week from today. Carley and Austin were to be married the day after tomorrow. We agreed to get past the wedding stuff before we went out of respect for them. We had the rehearsal dinner tomorrow night. Carley and Austin had Ace as the best man and me as the maid of honor.

Once everyone finished eating, we settled in the living room to watch a movie. Austin had all of the kids. Carley told Austin she wanted one, and Austin didn't like the idea. Austin had four kids with Kalia. To him, that was enough. I told Austin that it wasn't fair to Carley. Carley didn't have kids of her own. It was only expected that she wanted one. Carley was great with Austin's kids.

Arizona, Dray, Dom, and Jessica took such a liking to Carley. They lost their mom at such a young age. Of course, they had no idea the truth about their mom and probably never would. It had been rough on the kids, Austin, and Carley.

Carley suddenly had to start playing mommy to four kids, and Austin had to put on a funeral for his kids' sake. Austin acted like he could have cared less, but he had to pretend to care for his kids.

I was pretty sure Austin had a more challenging time dealing with it than he led on. Carley told me she worried about him and that he sometimes woke up from nightmares. Carley thought a part of Austin regretted killing Kalia. Austin denied that, but I thought Carley was right. I thought killing Kalia was hard on Austin. After all, how could it not be? Kalia was the mother of his kids and his wife for a long time.

I told Carley one thing I was sure of was that Austin loved her more than he ever did Kalia. Austin loved Kalia, but Austin never loved anybody the way he loved Carley. Austin never fell out of love with Carley, and he wasn't ever able to give his whole heart to Kalia.

However, love didn't always matter. Being a Latin King was part of being wired a certain way. No matter who you were to us, if you betrayed us, you would die. It is the rule. Ace was easier to forgive. It wasn't the same kind of betrayal. Ace didn't know he was betraying us. Kalia knew exactly what she was doing.