Page 69 of Ace of All Hearts

“Oh, my god.” Lik rolls his eyes. “Wallah, I wasn’t rubbing,” he promises in Arabic. “I’m trying to explain to Rachel the concept of morning wood. That’s what men get in the morning,habibti.”

“Stop talking to me like lesbians are stupid. It infuriates me.”

“Not lesbians,” he chuckles. “Just you.”

The death stare those words get him almost makes him stutter. “Okay, I’m sorry! Look, I’m sorry to bring it up, but surely you’ve experienced it with your fiancé?”

She shakes her head, disgust still covering her features. Her cheeks are red, like all the times someone makes her feel dumb, so I hug her from behind.

She’s not stupid, though she never took the time to study or educate herself beyond what she’s been told, and sometimes she lacks knowledge. I used to insist she takes extra classes, but she’s been told too many times by her parents that she’s just a brainless girl who is only good for marriage. So she believed it. Truth is, she’s anything but.

I tighten my arms around her waist and drop a kiss to the top of her head. “Not all men get morning wood,” I tell Lik to defend Rach.

“Yeah, you’d know with the amount you’ve slept with.”

This time, a laugh escapes my lips. Leaving Rach, I walk to him and sit up on the pillow, straddling him. “What’s wrong, baby? Are you a little jealous, maybe?”

He grabs my hips and flips me around until my back hits the bed. The pillow falls off as he settles between my legs. “Yes. Make it up to me.”

“Not now,” Sam’s voice cuts through our one-on-one. “Get dressed, everyone. We’re getting tested today.”

Lik gets off me and turns to his boyfriend. “What about breakfast?”

“We’ll grab breakfast right after. Then we’ll drop Rachel at her house.”

My heart drops to my stomach. “But—”

“Where’s Conor?” Sam asks Rachel, ignoring me.

Rachel goes to the leather skirt she’d discarded yesterday and grabs her phone from the pocket.

“Do you track him or something?” I say jokingly.

“Yeah,” she answers like it’s nothing. “Sam showed me how to install a tracking app he wouldn’t find.” She scrolls through her phone and nods to herself. “Still with his side girl,” she confirms. “Didn’t come home last night.” There’s such neutrality in her voice when she says that. There’s no doubt she couldn’t care less if he slept with the entire world behind her back.

“Do you know who she is?” I question, wondering if I could kill both of them in one go.

“It’s Beth.”

I choke on the air coming into my lungs. “Beth? As in, Beth Lam from school?”

This girl and I used to hate each other.

“Yep.” She makes the ‘p’ pop and shrugs her shoulders. “I guess testing and breakfast are on the table for me then. My phone will ping when he’s on the move. Let’s just not go too far from Stoneview.”

We all nod, but I’m shocked at the independence she’s finding outside of her abusive relationship. Shocked and relieved. Sam really is handling the situation, and I know we’ll get her out of there soon. My plan of simply killing him and getting rid of his body seems to be to no one’s taste. So I guess I’ll stick to their plan.

14

RACHEL

This is what falling in love feels like- JVKE

“Can I have the nachos, please?” I ask the waitress as I close the laminated menu in front of me. She grabs it, nodding with a smile.

“Nachos,” she repeats. She turns to Lik, waiting for his order.

We’ve all settled into a booth at Silvers’, about halfway between Silver Falls and Stoneview. Apparently, the results of our tests will be back next week. We were all absolutely terrified of the lady who gave us a big scolding for having unprotected sex. She had nothing to say about the fact that we were four people telling her we all had sex together.

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