Chapter 11

Vanessa Vargas

I stood there, my mom and her boyfriend in the cell, crying to me.

"T-have they been here this whole time?" I asked, looked at Spade who looked absolutely uninterested.

"The day before you flew here." He nodded.

My mom bawled, trying to reach her overgrown manicured hand to me.

"Shut up will you?" I looked at her.

"I don't understand... why am I here paying a debt then?" I asked.

"Because I want you here Vanessa." He gave a small smile, mocking.

"So Daphne was right then?"

"Sure." He shrugged.

"What are you going to do to them?" I asked.

"That's up to you." He pulled cards from his pocket, this set was the same matte black but with shining red instead of gold.

I wondered what set that was used for.

He shuffled them after adjusting his rings.

"Now?" I asked.

"Why not? You're already here." He tilted his head with a grin.

"Don't hurt them." I shook my head.

"Well I wouldn't do that. Since you said so at least-"

"Can I just think it over?" I began my way to the exit and he didn't make a move to stop me.

I turned the knob, met with four men blocking the double doors on the other side.

I turned into a chest, my chin grabbed as I was forced to look up.

"No you can't. None of my men desire to hear your moms screams any longer." He sighed, scanning my face, his hand cupping it instead, rubbing gently over where he gripped as if he didn't intend that sort of harm.

"Well I don't know what to do and you're sick as far as I know." I said, messing with the hems on my top.

"I'm not sick. I'm rational. There's two options. Go to jail for fraud, on multiple accounts, or they're stuck somewhere I don't think even you'd want them to be. Not dead. By the way." He pushed my hair from my shoulders, tucking strands behind my ears.

I was so lost but felt nothing really.

They weren't gonna die.

He wasn't gonna hurt them.

"Jail." I shrugged and my mother shrieked a scream as Chad bawled over the concept.

"You hear her. Move." He looked above me, the guards that were behind me moving and pulling them from the cells.

"You're my alibi. I never kept them here. They stole from me. Got it?" He adjusted the straps of my top.

"Got it. Do I have to stay?" I asked.

He smiled, "Do you want to go back?"

"Not really."

"Then you don't have to leave, Ace." He dragged my lip down with a card before sticking the corner in my mouth.

I bit down so it wouldn't fall.

I pulled it from my lips.

"Are you actually obsessed with me?" I whispered.

He chuckled, but didn't break eye contact.

"Absolutely." He walked past me and out the exit, up the stairs.

I looked at the card in my hand.

Ace of Spades.