RED 🥀

Leader

C H A P T E R F I F T Y F O U R

I woke up smiling.

Or at least experiencing this feeling of contentment or  rather 'at peace.' Grace poked at my face gently and I opened my eyes to her giggling.

"Good morning." I spoke, pulling her little body into mine so we could cuddle.

"My daddy is here." She whispered, looking around my body to see him, cocooning me in by his.

She didn't react to the cuts and bruises on his face, my guess was that she was used to seeing them. Ace opened his eyes and blinked at us silently, I could see he was a little taken aback to wake up to us just staring at him.

"Hi." He uttered, smiling sleepily.

"Hi daddy." Grace pushed the blankets off of her and jumped up. "I'm going to go see the puppy." She slipped towards the door and Ace sat up.

"Gracie, wait... no. You can't walk around this place on your own." She looked at him like he had lost his mind because for the past few days she had come and gone freely.

"It's okay, hey." I put my hand on his chest to settle him back down. "Nobody is going to hurt her." I looked to Grace. "Go ahead Grace."

"I can't just let her walk around the fucking enemy mobsters house. I don't trust any of you, not with her."

"Ace, you need to rest. Your body has been through a lot." I managed to pull him back down on the mattress and I lay my head on his chest. He remained stiff and uneasy. "Relax, she's okay."

His breathing settled and his fingers found my hair, combing through it softly. "You seem in a better mood today." His voice hummed sweet vibrations through his chest.

"What would our marriage look like Ace? We have love but we don't have trust. Would we always be betraying one another? Keeping secrets? Double crossing? Fighting?"

"I hope not." He admitted. "I'm hoping the trust grows between us. I want you on my team. I want to keep secrets but have you as my only confidant. I want to double cross anyone we ever need to, but not have any doubts that we're both on the same side. I will fight for you and with you, I want you to be my safe space and I want to be yours. You and me, against the world."

"I never wanted this Ace. It's exactly what I didn't want. A leader husband, I didn't need or want to be led. I wanted to be free spirited. An equal not an under."

"Red, you've always been my equal. Have you ever felt you couldn't stand up to me?"

I shook my head.

"Have you ever felt frightened of me?"

I shook my head again.

"You called me by name from the start, I never stopped you. You looked directly at me, I allowed it. You were in meetings, the ones I only let my most trusted men into. I took my mask off for you. You say whatever the fuck you want to me, do whatever the fuck you want. I don't see you as beneath me, I see you as with me."