Two Solid Blows
"Did you see Eyeball?" Ace asked as he reached over my bare chest to grab a cigarette from the side dresser.
"I think he hates me even more now. But what can I do?"
"I need to see him too."
"Why?"
Ace lit up his first smoke of the day and skillfully flicked the match over me and into the ashtray, also on the side dresser. "Still can't get hold of Ants. Either she's still pissed off with me or..."
"Or what?"
"Dunno," he shrugged. "She never stays mad at me for long. It's not like her to not return my calls."
"So... what's Eyeball got to do with it?"
"He usually picks up the coke. If I do it instead, maybe I can catch a word of what's goin' on. Eyeball said Sergio's back on the door, and he knows about me and Ants, so I could come straight out and ask him if she's there or what."
"Oh. Alright."
"You OK with that?"
"Yeah," I shrugged. "Sounds like something you need to do. When are you going?"
"This afternoon. Carl's boys are supposed to be collecting tonight, right?"
I nodded. "I'm a little nervous. It's a lot of money and I don't know what to expect."
"So come with me and we'll drop it to him instead."
"Yeah," I grinned. "That would work."
"Don't worry, baby. I'll protect you," he dug at me, and he smirked as he took a drag. Smart ass.
"Sure you will. Just like you stuck by my side last time you said you would. Diego almost ate me alive."
"But that was before." He put the cigarette to his lips again, but I snatched it off him and threw it in the ashtray. "Hey!"
I got up on my knees and threw a leg over to straddle his hips. "Before what?" I asked.
He grinned and his eyes wandered down my naked form, and I felt something stir underneath me.
"Before you stopped seeing me as a source of income?"
"Who said I ever stopped?" he laughed, and I slapped him on the arm with a chuckle.
"What then?" I asked, adding some sass as I wrapped my arms around his neck.
I felt the roughness of his hands glide up my back and then down my spine, making every inch of skin tingle as his fingers slid over my bare ass and down my thighs. "Oh, you know," he said. "When you started driving me fucking crazy."
"Ooh... good answer." I lifted up and sunk myself down on him, as if to reward him. But, truthfully, I was just really horny. I always was around him. One was never enough.
-2-
"Eyeball, get out here," Ace shouted across the room.
We had just walked into Irby's - which was near empty at this time of the afternoon - and found Eyeball and Charlie playing on the far pool table. Eyeball stared at us from under a heavy brow that I interpreted as anger, disappointment and resentment all rolled into one. Charlie took another shot, missed the pocket and cursed, and Eyeball lent down to have his shot. Defiance. Pure defiance.
"I said, get the fuck out here," Ace demanded.
"What do you want?" Eyeball shrugged.
"Goddammit..." Ace went for Eyeball and grabbed him hard by the arm and tried to drag him away from the game, but Eyeball shook himself from Ace's grip.
"Get the fuck off, I'm comin'. Jesus."
Joe was leaning on his bar, watching the whole thing in amusement.
Ace grunted and stormed back to me with Eyeball tailing behind. We went outside to the pavement, Eyeball with a face hanging and drooping like an apathetic bulldog.
"What?" Eyeball said.
"You're not goin' to see Carl tonight. I am. And if you keep pissing and whining like a little kid, I'll take the whole fuckin' run off you."
"Fine. I don't want it anyway." Eyeball pushed the door open to head back inside, and Ace sort of flinched back in surprise at having his threat ignored.
"What, you're gonna quit?"
Eyeball turned back with a dead serious look on his face. "Yeah. I quit. I quit everything. Even the gang if that's what I gotta do." He went back inside, and the door closed behind him, leaving Ace and I just a wee bit flabbergasted.
"Fucking son-of-a..." Ace grabbed the door and went to rip it open, but I grabbed his other arm and held him back.
"It's not gonna do any good, Ace. You gotta let him wind down from this."
"From what?"
"From losing Natalie. He's in love with her."
"Thinks he is, Cass. He thinks he is. But tomorrow, he'll be fuckin' the next chick, you wait and see. And when he comes crawling back to me for those jobs 'cos he can't even afford a pack of smokes, he'd better be on his knees." Ace went storming back to his car, thumping his boots so hard on the pavement I should have seen it crack underneath him.
I tagged behind, still shocked and getting my head around what just happened. Did their friendship just end? Did Eyeball really think he could get by without Ace? Ace made out like this was the same story, different day, but I wasn't sold on the idea. And I just hoped that Ace could get by without Eyeball.
-3-
After visiting my place to pick up the rest of the money, we hit the road. Destination, Diego's mansion. And I prayed to the clouds above that we wouldn't actually have to see Diego.
Ace was in a grump the whole way. I thought a game of mailbox baseball might cheer him up (not that I like that game - he always cheats) but he didn't even batter an eyelid at the idea. He was slouched down as he stared at the road ahead, right hand on the wheel and left elbow on the door to support his hand cradling his forehead. It was like he was sunk into such deep thought that he couldn't even hear me. I decided to test the idea.
"Pull over and let's do it, right here on the side of the road."
Nope. Nothing. This was serious. I sighed and started cradling my own head in my hand.
After an hour driving, we drove through the cast iron gates that front the mansion. The first time we came, the beauty and serenity of the place dazzled me. Now it was just scary. We parked up by the big stone steps, right outside the front doors, and I grabbed my bag of cash. Ace got out, still without a word and I followed him.
Sergio was there to welcome us. Despite the mood, Ace adhered to his word and stuck with me as I was taken to the room where Carl was waiting. I looked around nervously, expecting Diego to rear his head, but he didn't. I guessed now that I didn't need scaring, now that I was in line, he had better things to do. That suited me just fine. Carl was happy with the payment, and even said I had done well which I was chuffed about. I did admit to him that some of it was the 'Lewis' money, but he just grinned. He didn't care where it came from, just that I had it.
After a congenial parting of ways, I left Ace to finish his own business with Carl, and I made my way back to the entrance room. My worn runners still looked very out of place against its lavish marble floor. Sergio saw me out, and I hoped he could give Ace the answers he needed.
I waited in the car, and time passed slowly. Twenty minutes went by and my mind started to wander. What if Ants was actually there? What if Ace got to see her? What if they were secretly reuniting in her private bedroom with Ace wondering why he even considered dumping her, for me of all people? I gazed up at every window as if searching to see the answers to my concerns.
Suddenly, Ace came through the door, and it closed behind him. He just stood there, bag in hand. No bounding down the steps, throwing the bag on the seat, cranking up his car and the radio and disrespectfully peeling out to leave big, black tire marks on Diego's pristine pavement, as I was expecting. He just stood there, staring out at the trees with the blankest look I'd ever seen on him.
I was about to get out and go to him, but he started walking down the steps, or more like, plodding down like he had heavy elephant legs. The extra weight seemed to make him wobble a little with each step down, and I thought he was going to lose his balance and tumble forward.
"Ace... are you OK?" I asked when he climbed into the car.
He looked at me, and I kid you not, he was pale white. "She's gone," he said. "She's really fucking gone."
"Gone where?"
Ace slouched down in his seat again, elbow on the door, hand covering his mouth as he chewed the side of his forefinger in thought. "Diego made her go to Europe to get married."
"What? He made her? Are you serious?"
"She was always a risk to herself," he said, dry mouthed. "And now she's gone and done it."
"Done what? You mean..."
Ace looked out to the grand countryside before us, but he sure wasn't admiring the view. "She topped herself. Threw herself off a cliff or something." Ace's breathing became ragged. He started breathing real hard through his nose, long, hard breaths at first until they shortened and got faster and faster and harder. "Fuck!" he yelled, thumping his fists on the wheel.
It was then that he cranked up his car and the radio and disrespectfully peeled out to leave big, black tire marks on Diego's pristine pavement. He was like a raging mass the whole way home. I didn't quite understand it. I mean, a girl had died and that was sad – whether I liked her or not – but I didn't understand why he was so aggressively upset when the whole week, he'd been trying to dump her.
Or did I?
