Morozov

Chapter 21

Archie and the guy, who appeared to be called Tristan, finished up the surgery and wiped all the blood off Ace's body. They helped me get him in bed. Archie spent the night in one of our guest rooms and Tris left.

I was lying on Ace's couch, too scared to leave him alone so I decided to sleep in his room. He was sleeping, exhausted from all the pain and stress and blood loss he went through. Archie said nothing could happen anymore but I just couldn't take my eyes off him. I knew exactly that he might as well just could've died that day.

At around 1 a.m. I started dozing off when I suddenly heard Ace's bed sheets ruffle and my eyes snapped open immediately.

The blonde was lying on his back, yet his tired eyes were fixated on me. "Are you okay?" I asked immediately full of fear. He chuckled but quickly regretted doing that.

"I think my stitches just ripped" he said in shock with wide eyes and I instantly got up and rushed over to him to have a look at it.

He wasn't wearing a shirt but there were bandaids on his two wounds so that they wouldn't get infected. As soon as I reached him he started laughing again.

"You jerk" I cursed as I punched his uninjured shoulder slightly. I wanted to go back to the couch when he suddenly grabbed my wrist and his hand slid down to stop in mine.

I looked at our intertwined fingers and then found his gaze again. "You won't sleep on the couch" he stated confidently. "I won't leave you alone either" I cussed in concern. "Who said I want you to leave?"

My lips formed a line in order to suppress the smile that forced itself on them but no matter how hard I tried to suppress it, it didn't work. So I lay down next to him. I cuddled into the blanket and quickly fell asleep.

I didn't know what we were or what we were to be but I knew that it felt right. And that I was glad to have whatever this was with him and no one else.

———

Ace got better the following weeks. His wounds weren't completely healed but he was able to move normally again.

Today was a very important day because a group of new trainees was about to arrive at the office. No one from the last group made it through the finals so Ace had to look for new ones.

I woke up from loud knocks at my door. "Mallory, wake up" Ace yelled from the other side of the dark wood, his voice muted down by it.

I sighed and got up. I put on a long black gym set because it was very cold outside already, then I put my hair in a ponytail and went downstairs.

I rubbed my sleepy eyes as they adjusted to the light and turned on the coffee machine with a yawn.

"You know you could wake me up a bit nicer" I snapped at a grinning Ace who was leaning against the kitchen counter with a cup of coffee in his hand. "And you didn't even make coffee for me" I frowned as the loud wheezing from the machine filled the room.

Once it shut, Ace spoke. "I was convinced you don't drink your coffee as black as I do" he grinned at me while eyeing me up and down. "Let me guess, it's as black as your soul" I whispered ironically while slightly shaking my hands next to my body for more drama.

"Exactly" he said before his gaze shouted to a more serious one. "We need to talk" "Yeah I think so too" I replied in the same tone causing him to look at me confused. I waited for a few seconds with a straight face before I started laughing. "Just kidding I wanted to see how you would react." "Ha. Ha. Funny."

"Anyways" he started and I already heard from his voice that he would ask me a favor. "You're very well trained and I would appreciate it if you helped Archie train the newcomers. We can't afford another team like the one before."

I looked at him, debating it in my head. I knew how bad it was for Mafias to lose all their newcomers so I agreed.

I nodded reassuringly. "Thank you" he said in the same serious tone as most times he spoke up and left the kitchen.

Later at the office we were waiting in the training hall to greet the new trainees. When Cullen came in my face dropped. some of them were not even over the age of 14.

I turned to Ace with a angry expression but he didn't look at me. It was almost like he knew what I was going to say.

"Newcomers" Ace started. "You were given the chance to become one of my Mafia's members. In 3 months starting today we will decide who's going to be accepted into it and who won't."

I could see the fear in everyones eyes as he spoke. Everyone except for one girl. She looked pretty calm which was weird considering that the most feared man in the Mafia branches spoke to them.

She glanced at me and for some reason looked very familiar. I quickly thought about where I had seen that tall, lean and pale body before but shoved it off when I was not able to remember it.

After Ace's speech the trainees scattered to the different training areas and started practicing, Ace left for a business meeting, leaving the responsibility over them on Archie and me.

"How's it been? You know, with Ace" Archie asked as we were walking down the big hall. "I don't know. I think pretty well considering-" "Yeah, I know" he shut me off and I gave him a confused look.

I saw two boys fighting over something and Archie ran over to them to solve it. I walked over to the dagger section when the girl from earlier stopped me.

"Hey, what's your name?" I turned around and gave her a surprised look when I saw it was her. "I'm Mallory" I said. I could have sworn I heard her voice before.

"I'm Anne" she introduced herself and I shook her hand. "Can you show me the shooting hall?" she asked. "Oh I have to pass. You're not allowed in the shooting hall until two weeks into the training plus Ac-" I quickly corrected myself. "Mr. Rodrigues requested to be present every time someone that's not in his Mafia is using our guns" I informed her.

"Oh okay. Can you show me how to kick box then?" she asked instead and I agreed. We got to one of the mats on the floor and I showed her some basic skills.