The Ace

Chapter 9 - The Fallen Angel

His words seemed to echo over and over again in my head.

We're protecting you.

The enemy.

Before I allowed myself to ask any questions, I realized I needed to organize my thoughts.

First and foremost, protect me from who? What enemy? As far as I was concerned, I had lived the most painfully boring life up until my move to New York, and even then, the only person I seemed to constantly piss off was Ace.

If someone told me a few weeks ago that I would be in this position, I would've assumed it was Ace coming after me, not "protecting" me.

I couldn't think of a single soul that I would consider my enemy. Maybe Jeremy, of all people, but as much as we never got along, I couldn't imagine the day he'd go to these lengths to harm me. He's far too lazy.

Secondly, why was my protection in any way Ace's responsibility? Who were the others that were with him when he came to my apartment? I never saw their faces, hence my shock and anger upon the realization that Ace was part of it, but I distinctly remember two other men along with him.

Last but most certainly not least, who the fuck was the Don?

I was surprised that I hadn't forgotten hearing that line considering I was a thread away from being fully unconscious, but I couldn't shake it off.

Tell the Don we got her.

That means that they were ordered by the Don to even get me in the first place.

What importance could I possibly have that made people want to hurt me?

Remember back in high school when you were told someone you didn't know existed apparently hated you? Sort of like that, except this wasn't high school where the worst that could happen was getting subtweeted on Twitter or blocked on Instagram.

Fuck.

"Why?" I croaked, my hands in my lap as he continued watching my every move.

He paused before answering, "I'm not exactly sure what you're asking."

"Why me?"

He sighed, "I don't know."

I gave him a confused look, which made him continue, "I don't know why they want you. We were ordered to take you from your apartment because they were after you, so we had to make sure we got you first. We weren't exactly told why they were after you, only that they were."

I nodded slowly, allowing myself to absorb each word Ace was saying. I chose my next question carefully.

"Were you ordered by the Don?"

He blinked, clearly taken aback by my question. I figured he had no idea that I heard their closing statement after their big performance of assault and kidnapping.

"How do you know that?" He asked. His voice was steady, monotone, and he knew to hold back from showing any form of emotion regarding the matter to not give away too much information through his body language and tone.

"I heard someone say it right before I knocked out," I looked at him and noticed his eyes hadn't left me.

"Yes," he said, "we were ordered by the Don."

With each answer he gave me, I felt more and more confused. I didn't want to bombard him with a million questions at once because knowing Ace, his tiny temper would erupt from being overwhelmed and he'd probably storm off all angry, leaving me back at square one.