Page 12 of Dark King (Advantage Play 2)

Fuck.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out where her best friend disappeared to. My blood starts to boil. I’m going to kill him.

Taking the stairs two at a time, a sense of need pulses through me. I need to fix this. I need to make her feel better. I need to make this right. I need to find my sister and Ace’s friend. And I need to put Burlone in the ground.

I stop my pursuit when I reach the door, finding myself in a foreign situation. Do I knock? I raise my hand to do so before dropping it to my side.

With a twist of the handle, I call out, “Ace?”

Sniffles greet me.

The hinges squeak slightly as I push the door the rest of the way open and step into the room across from mine where Ace slept last night.

Sitting on the edge of the bed is a distraught Ace with her head in her hands, her entire body racked with sobs.

My chest tightens, and my lungs struggle to expand as I watch as the girl who’s been through too damn much…breaks.

“Ace?” I rush over and wrap my arms around her, holding her tight as she completely loses it.

“She’s gone. She’s gone. It’s all my fault. I can’t do this. I can’t take it anymore.”

The sound of her gut-wrenching cries is like a knife to my chest. I slowly rub my hand up and down her back because I honestly don’t know what else to do. She’s hurting, and it’s killing me. I’d give anything to fix this. I just wish I knew how. Her fingers tighten their grip on my shirt, twisting the material back and forth, wringing out her agony through her hold.

“Shh. It’s okay.” I try to comfort her the only way I know how, but I can tell it isn’t working by the way her back continues heaving as she keeps beating herself up.

“I never should’ve talked to her. I never should’ve entered the tournament. I never should’ve tried to get back at him for what he did. This is all my fault, but she’s the one paying for it. All because we were friends.”

“It’s going to be okay, Ace—”

“You don’t understand!” She cuts me off. “I know what she’s going through. I know what he’s forcing her to do. I know all of it.” Another sob escapes her ruby red lips as she looks up at me with tear-stained cheeks before dropping her head back to my chest and burrowing deep. Like I might have the power to save her from her past, and I’d give anything to do exactly that. Still, I need to know the truth. All of it.

“What do you mean, you know?”

She doesn’t dare look up at me as I voice my question, keeping herself tucked against my chest. Warning bells are ringing in my head, but I don’t want to believe them, and I pray I’m wrong.

“Because I got to experience it first-hand as a little girl.” Her voice cracks on the last word, my heart following right after.

“Ace—”

She shoves away from me, shaking her head back and forth over and over again in an attempt to scatter the nightmare of memories that were her childhood.

And I want to flay the bastard who hurt her all over again.

“I can’t. I can’t let that happen to her. I can’t let that happen to your sister. I can’t do any of this anymore.” Collapsing into my arms once more, she rests her forehead on my shoulder as she mourns for the little girl she once was and the experiences she had to suffer through while knowing her best friend and my little sister are likely suffering the same fate at the hands of a monster. One who puts men like me––men who have murdered and maimed––to shame.

I don’t know how long we sit like this, and in all honesty, I don’t care, either. All that matters is Ace. All that matters is finding a way to let her heal and to keep her safe. All that matters is killing the sonofabitch who hurt her.

When the sobbing has stopped, and the tension in her body melts away, I whisper, “I’m going to get your friend back, Ace. I’m going to get my sister. And I’m going to kill Burlone for what he did to you.”

Ace backs away a few inches and dares to look up at me, her eyes still swollen from crying and from taking a beating a few nights before. But it doesn’t make her any less beautiful. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a bluer set of eyes.

With a pitiful squeak, she replies, “Truth.”

Gently, I drag her closer and lay down onto my back, the mattress dipping beneath me.

Nuzzling into my side, she breathes a quiet sigh before asking, “Tell me something good, King? Anything.”

My fingers lazily drag up and down the exposed skin on her arm as I search for something good to tell her. Something that might make her smile after the horrific day she’s had.

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