Page 82 of Until Ace

"Not quite," he says. "There's an ATM across the street from her building. We're waiting on the footage from its camera. Maybe it caught something."

Goddammit, it’s been over a month, and we’re still waiting for the basic shit in any investigation. Sometimes, I don’t think this job is worth it anymore. Too much red tape, too many hoops to jump through. And too many fucking rules to follow.

"Maybe." I rub my hands over my face.

Fuck, this whole thing is going nowhere. We need to find some evidence to lock them up.

"How deep is she in with Gorskiy?" Frank asks, bringing us to the point of this meeting.

"She's not tied to him at all. She was offered as collateral.” It's a nicer way of saying she was given as payment for a debt or whatever her brother’s fuck-up was.

Fucking hell, just the idea of it is vile enough to send me into a blind rage. "So, now we wait," Frank spits out. He doesn't like the idea of waiting any more than I do.

"We don't have time to wait. She went to the Den last night to ask for a payment plan or something. She’s determined to get this done. She got it in her head she can do it, needs to do it, so it won’t spill over."

"Seriously?" I can see Cobi is torn between outrage and laughing his ass off.

"Don't start," I warn him. I’m not in the mood. If we don’t do something, there’s no telling what Mandy will come up with next. I know she’s getting tired of this situation. And I don’t believe she won’t try something again, even for a second. Today, as I was leaving, she was cleaning, which I knew wasn’t a good sign. Whenever she’s planning something, she cleans. My house is so organized even those two women from the show she watches over and over would be impressed, so her mind wanders. And it wanders where it shouldn’t, convincing her she has a way to deal with this situation.

“I’ll just say, you have a wild one.” Cobi snickers.

It’s all funny now that she’s out of that bar and safe. Just thinking about how it could have so easily gone the other way makes me shudder.

“Do we have any other angle?” I’m determined to get this done. One way or another, Gorskiy has to be gone from Mandy’s life. I don’t give a fuck how it’s gonna get done anymore, just as long as it does. My girl needs to rest easy, and I’ll do everything in my power to make that happen.

“Not yet,” Garrett says, full of false bravado.

“Fuck,” I bark, and I rub a hand up the back of my neck.

This case was supposed to be done. It’s not the easiest case I ever worked on, but this level of complication never happened before.

“All right, men,” our captain barks. “Go out and do your jobs, and get this shit done.”

We all move to do just that, but then the captain calls me back, “Ace, hang for a second, will ya?”

It’s not a question but an order. I stay put as Cobi and Frank leave the office, chin lifts exchanged. But when Garret walks by me, I barely restrain myself from clocking him in his smug face. Something about that man rubs me wrong, but I can’t put my finger on what it is exactly.

"Ace, I assume you're not taking the new case," the captain prompts after we're left alone.

"Listen, Cap." Fuck, this is hard to say. "I need you to take me off undercover cases."

"Okay, how long do you need?" He sits down at his desk and puts on his glasses. I don’t know how to tell him what I have to say. I worked my ass off to get undercover jobs, and then I worked even harder to put scum behind bars. To give everything up, it’s not easy. But I also need to do it. I don’t want Mandy to not know for months on end where I am or even if I’m alive.

The captain glances up at me, and he knows the answer without me having to say it. "Fuck, you're not coming back."

"No, I'm not." I know he doesn't need any explanation, but I feel I owe it to him. I don't know how to describe it to someone who hasn't lived through it. But then it hits me. "I'm going to marry that woman."

Chapter 19

Ace

All day, I've been wired. I can't explain the feeling; it's almost like I'm waiting for something. Something I know will shake me to my very foundation.

It’s an unwritten rule. When your gut is telling you something, you stop and fucking listen.

I don't have to wait long, as my phone rings. It’s Nico, and I answer immediately.

“Talk to me.”