His Baby

Chapter Seven

When Rose finished tidying the kitchen, she sat in a chair next to Ace and smiled as she leaned back, “You know, I still don’t know much about you and I’m already four months pregnant” she says.

Ace looks at her nods in understanding, he could see how difficult it must be for her. Everything was happening so fast.

Rose saw the look on his face, she could tell he wanted to explain his life, but there was fear in his eyes, “I understand your background is difficult, believe me I know. But I want to know about you, not the life you have chosen or been pulled into” she says.

Ace looks at her with surprise, but his eyes held adoration for the girl in front of him.

Rose didn’t understand the expression “What?” she wonders.

Ace smiles but he remained silent.

Rose leans forward and places a hand on his knee “Ace, you’re starting to worry me” she says.

Ace focuses back on Rose and blinks, “Sorry, I was just surprised, everyone always wants something from me or ran because of who I am, they see the motorcycle and the tattoos and assume I’m going to kill them if they look at me wrong”.

Rose stands and wraps Ace in a hug, her hormones were all over the place, thankfully Ace reciprocated and wrapped his arms around her.

“You’re going to be a great dad” she whispers to him.

Ace smiles and holds her tighter.

When they separate Rose sits back down “Okay, so I know you cause trouble and are a gamer, your favourite colour is blue that’s all I remember from that night” she says blushing a little when she remembered what else they did.

Ace smirked knowing she was thinking about that night.

Rose learned that Ace loved action and horror films; typical guy. Racing, again typical guy, and rock music.

The smile never left her face as she listened to him talk, it was all the small bits of information that she loved listening too.

Her father realised that she hadn’t come out of the kitchen yet and shouted her name.

Rose smiles at Ace “One second” she tells him and walks out to the living room.

The guys were watching the football game “What’s wrong?” she questions.

Scott turns to her “You okay? You’ve been in there a while” he says.

Rose nods “Yeah, just talking with Ace, that’s all” she informs him.

Scott nods and turns back to the game, yelling when the opposing team has the ball.

When she walks back into the room, Ace was no longer sat down but stood up and phone in his hand.

“Hey” she says to get his attention.

Ace turns around and smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. Rose knew something was wrong and the grip he had on his phone confirmed it.

She smiles, “Go, you’ve been here all night” she says.

Ace looks at her surprised, making Rose chuckle, “I grew up around guys, I can read your face, and the grip you had on your phone also gave it away”.

He relaxes his grip on the phone and shoves it in his back pocket, “I’m sorry” he says, guilty for leaving.

Rose shakes her head, “It’s fine, honestly, go do what you need to” she says with a smile.

Ace walks up to Rose and kisses her forehead, “I’ll be back soon” he says.

Rose grips his wrist gently, “Don’t worry about it. Do what you need to do, no rush” she continues.

They say their goodbyes and Rose wanders into the living room and takes a seat next to her father, a yawn escaping her lips. Her eyes were trained on the television, but she wasn’t watching it.

Surprisingly, the cheers and calls from the guys lulled Rose to sleep. She woke a few hours later, still on the couch and a blanket over her body.

No one was about, curious, Rose walks into the kitchen and it was empty of people. No one was in the house, every room she looked in was silent of human interaction.

Rose heads into the last room she hadn’t looked; the office. Still no one. Walking to the desk chair she sits down and opens the laptop, the camera’s set up around the Mathews house. The entire team were around the house.

“What are you guys doing?” she mutters to herself. There had been no movement for the past three months, and no more threats, so the guys kept the cameras up to monitor from home and would go over once a week to check everything over.

She didn’t interrupt them and would question it later, although her mind was running with curiosity.

Four hours Rose was in her house alone, her father and the guys hadn’t returned. Rose began to get concerned and grabbed her house keys.

Locking the house, Rose walked to the Mathews house. Her stomach groans on the trip down and she decides to detour to the nearest takeout and order something. However, the first takeout place didn’t look appealing at all. The next location was further away and in the opposite direction, groaning in annoyance, Rose knew he stomach wouldn’t stop. The baby wanted a specific food and wasn’t going to stop until it got what it wanted.

As she passes an alley on the way to town, she hears grunts and groans. Rose freezes, she had no weapon for protection, not really thinking she would need it.

She stupidly goes towards the sound and she finds four guys huddled together over a body, one that wasn’t moving.

The two guys chat in hushed tones and Rose decides it was time to leave, she wasn’t in the best position to help.

When she turns around, her foot kicks a lid of a trash can. The sound echoes through the alley and she curses herself. They heard, looking over her shoulder she finds the four guys rushing towards her.

Rose’s eyes widen in panic and she takes of running. The guys behind her pick up the pace and they begin to shout, but Rose wasn’t listening to anything they were saying. She needed to get as far away from them as possible.

Rose manages to get around the corner of a building and she no longer hears them chasing her.

She rests her hands on her knees trying to catch her breath. After another minute, she believes the area to be clear and steps out. Only they were waiting for her and she is grabbed from behind and a hand placed on her mouth to stop her from screaming.

Her mind told her to fight back, but she thought about her baby and held back. “Don’t make a sound or you’ll die” his breath travelled down her neck making her shiver.

His voice didn’t sound old, perhaps in his twenties. Rose couldn’t help but react and bites down on his hand covering her mouth.

The guy shouts out in pain and releases Rose, but she never had the chance to run as another slapped her across the face.

Her head whips to the side and her cheek stings against the wind. They say something to one another, but the throbbing pain prevents her from hearing what they were saying.

One of the thugs grabs Rose’s arm, they drag her around the corner, she couldn’t risk her baby’s life and didn’t try too. She sees them pulling her towards a black van with tinted windows, “Very original” she mutters.

They open the back door and throw her inside; Rose moves so she didn’t land on her stomach.

The door she was thrown through closed and then the guys got into the front “Boss won’t like that someone witnessed this” one voice says to the other.

“We can’t get rid of a kid; people will notice a missing child” the other responds.

She wanted to argue back that she wasn’t a child, but that would probably put her in more danger, so she kept silent.

“Just take her back and see what he wants to do, I won’t have a child’s death on my conscious” one mutters, and the van drives off.

Pushing herself up so she was sitting, Rose wait until the van stopped to do anything. If Rose weren’t pregnant, she would have kicked the doors open and thrown herself out of the moving van, but that wasn’t an option right no.

She sat and counted the time, she needed to know how far they had been driving. She calculated it to about twenty minutes when the van came to its final stop.

She was outside of town, being nearly in the centre she calculated that it took fifteen minutes to exit the town and then it was an open road. So, she wasn’t far away from town, she could make it back if she ran.

The guys climbed out of the front of the van and Rose listens as they make their way around to the back doors. Jumping to her feet she waits for the doors to open.

When they do, she pushed past the men and jumps onto concrete, the impact of her feet echoed in the warehouse she was in and run to the nearest exit sign.

“s**t” she curses loudly, and she stops in her tracks. It wasn’t the exit; it took her into the main section where the entire gang was lounging about the place.

All eyes fell upon Rose. She turns on her heels to leave but the two guys from the van were already facing her guns aimed at her head.

“Uh…” not sure what to say, Rose’s eyes dart around looking for a better exit, but there was none. She was stuck.

“Why are you doing this?” she questions, she needed to stall.

One of the guys smirks and steps forward, the gun never moving from her forehead, “Because a nosey b***h got involved in the wrong stuff” I spits.

Rose notices the slight movement of his finger going towards the trigger, and she drops to the ground just before the bullet is fired. It echoes through the warehouse.

Rose tires to get back onto her feet to get away but a thug grab her by the hair, and she grits her teeth in pain, not wanting to give him the satisfaction.

A door somewhere in the room opens and a voice booms out “What’s going on?”.

Rose recognised the voice, but she wasn’t able to think thanks to the douchebag pulling her hair out by its roots.

“This b***h saw what happened” Tweedle-dee spoke.

Rose looks over to who the guys was answering, and her eyes widen when she see Ace stood there.

“Well why the f**k did you bring her here you i***t” Ace spits back.

The guys grip on her hair loosens giving Rose chance to move, throwing her head forward she smacks the guy in the gut and his hand releases her hair. When his hand with the gun in drops she grabs it and stands up.

The gun was now aimed at him, she shakes her head with a devil’s smirk on her lips “You should have killed me when you had the chance” she utter and fires a bullet into his leg.

The guy screams in pain and topples to the ground.

Turning around she looks at Ace who was already staring at her in shock “Not exactly how I planned our next meet” Rose grins out like she hadn’t just put a bullet in a guy.

“I think it’s time you tell me your story don’t you think” a hint of annoyance and sarcasm laced her words.

Was she walks to Ace she stops and realises “I’m hungry, I was going to get some food when your goons grabbed me and tossed me in their van” I tell him.

Without breaking eye contact from Rose, he shouts “Brett go and get some fish and chips from that British take out in town” he orders, and a kid jumps to his feet and runs out the building.

Disarming the gun Rose smacks it against Ace’s chest when she reaches him “Next time warm me and your plebs the other exists, so this doesn’t happen again” she tells him. He nods and put the gun down before grabbing Rose and checking she wasn’t hurt anywhere.

“Are you okay?” he asks.

Rose nods “We’re okay” she smiles, and Ace breathes a sigh of relief.

“Boss” a guy calls out and Rose turns to see Tweedledum of the two guys who grabbed her, the one she didn’t shoot, “I think you have a wako chick, she keeps saying theirs two of her”.

Rose bits her lip to stop the laughter, turning to face Ace she mutters “i***t”, but he heard.

“b***h” he spits back.

“Jackass” she was getting pissed off.

“w***e” and that toppled her over the edge. Rose takes a step towards him, but Ace grabs her wrist stopping her from going further.

Turning back to Ace she glares, “Deal with him, or I will rip his balls of and then shoot his d**k off”.

Ace’s eyes widen at the vulgarity from Rose’s mouth “Are we clear?” she says.

Ace says nothing, only nods.

Patting his cheek, Rose walks in the direction Ace emerged from, if it wasn’t the right place, she can claim she was looking around. But there was an office, so she made herself comfortable. Sitting on the swivel chair she finds nothing on the open laptop and looked around, it was pretty normal considering it was a gang leaders office.

Ace had all his men looking at him, but he ignored him “Get back to work” he barks.

Following where Rose went, he walked into his office to find her sat in his office chair, staring at her bump.

“I’m sorry Rose, I didn’t mean for any of this to happen” he begins to apologise.

Rose looks up with a light smile on her face, “It’s okay” she tells him, she should have been more careful herself.

Ace shakes his head, “It isn’t, I should have told them about you, both of you could have been seriously hurt” he says full of guilt as he placed a hand on her small stomach.

Ace leans against the desk and sighs rubbing his face with his hands in stress. This could have ended badly.

Rose saw his distress and got to her feet, standing between his legs she places her hands on his forearms and rubs them up and down for soothing comfort.

“I could have stayed in the house and called for a takeout, but I didn’t, we can’t dwell on that now. I’m safe, our baby is safe, don’t worry”.

Ace smiles and grabs Rose’s hips, pulling her flush against his own body, her hands move to his chest “Ace” she says barely above a whisper.

Their eyes lock onto one another and Ace moves closer until his breath was dancing across her lips.

Rose’s eyes widen and her heartrate increase as Ace got nearer. The moment his lips touched hers, Rose moves her hands to the back of his neck and pulls him closer.

Ace’s arms snake around her waist and pulls her closer if that was even possible.

They held the kiss so long Rose was almost out of breath.

Ace realised as her motion slowed and he moved his lips across her cheek, to her jaw and neck, hot kisses sent a surge through Rose making butterflies stir.

Ace moved to the crook of her neck where it met her collar bone. A moan slips out of her lips as Ace nipped and sucked at her skin. The sound had Ace chuckling in amusement. The deep chuckle vibrated against Rose’s skin with the contact form his lips and Rose shivers, her grip tightens on his neck.

Ace moans and Rose just burst out laughing. Ace pulls away and looks at Rose like she was bat s**t crazy “What?” he asks amused by her random bout of laughter.

She tries to stop her laughter, but it was difficult. Ace kept a hold of her until she calmed down, “Sorry, you moaned” Rose smiles.

Ace looks at her “Usually, moans turned people on, not make them laugh” he smiles still amused.

“I’m not most people” Rose counters.

Ace laughs “Don’t I know it” he states, the grin never leaving his face.

Rose slips out of his grasps and walks away “Where are you going?” Ace questions.

Rose wanted to have some fun and decided to ignore him and keep walking away. Ace continues to call her, but she smiles enjoying the fact Ace was chasing after her.

“Rose” he calls again as she reaches the open area where the gang was. Everyone turns to look when Ace calls out again “Come on Rose” he begs out.

Rose stops, turning around with a cheeky smile on her face.

“Looks like the boss is having trouble” a guy calls out and everyone around him laughs.

She scowls in annoyance, turning to face the guy who spoke she pointed a finger at him “Don’t say anything else or I’ll rip your nut sack of, rip it right off” she gestures with her hand.

His eyes go wide, and one hand is placed protectively over his manhood.

Ace sighs “Guys don’t piss Rose off” he tells them.

Many look at him confused, he never cares if they said something so why be different now “You never told us off when we called out your other whores”.

Rose freezes, Ace walks up to her and wraps his arms around her waist. A protective move, but Rose yanks herself out of his grip and he looks at her confused.

Other. Whores. Who did they think they were? Who did he think he was?

“Take me home” Rose she says.

Ace opens his mouth to question it, but she yells “Take me home now”.

He sighs, he heads out the door and Rose follows, both of them silent.

Ace climbs onto his bike and Rose follows, reluctant to wrap her arms around his waist but she needed to stay on the bike.

How many girls has he had? Did he lie when he said he hadn’t been with anyone since meeting her that night? Was it all a lie?

The moment the bike came to a stop she jumped off the bike, but Ace grabbed her wrist before she could leave

“Rose” he starts but she doesn’t let him finish. Yanking her wrist from his hand, she suddenly felt cold without his touch, but she kept walking.

He never came after her, and that was when Rose realised he didn’t care.

She couldn’t help but wonder why he was so affectionate towards her if he didn’t care, was if because of the pregnancy? Did he want to sleep with her again? So many thoughts ran through her mind it sent her into a spin.

Slamming the door, she runs up to her room. Jumping onto the bed her face is met by a pillow and she screams, wanting a way to release the anger that built up inside her over a short time.

An hour later and the front door opens and closes, laughter filling the house form the guys.

A knock-on Rose’s door followed by Leighton’s voice, “Rose” he wanted to know if she was okay.

“What?” her voice croaks out.

Leighton frowns, that wasn’t the sound of a happy or tired girl, something was wrong. “Are you okay?” he questions, he didn’t want to barge into her room without being invited.

Rose didn’t even realise she was crying “Yeah, I’m fine” she call out trying to be convincing.

Leighton didn’t believe her, but he wasn’t going to push her, “We’ve got food” he says hoping it would encourage her to come out.

Rose smiles slightly, they were always thinking about her “I’m good, I’m going to sleep” she says.

Leighton frowns, Rose was never one to turn down food. Even before she was pregnant. He walks away without saying anything and Rose hears his footsteps fade into nothing.

Sighing she turns over, pulling the covers over her head, Rose closes her eyes and drifts to sleep.

It was the same routine for four weeks, eat in the middle of the night so no one saw her, and then head back to her room. She even brought some snacks into her room to eat when peckish.

She ignored everyone, none of the guys tried to barge in or break down the door, despite the need to know what was going on with her. They wanted her to come to them. But Rose didn’t want to talk to anyone, she was sick to death of people jumping to conclusions with her. She moved for this very reason, those conclusions turned to rumours and those rumours were like a back smell that she couldn’t get rid of.

Rose knew the guys only wanted to make sure she was okay but with her hormones all over the place she was easily irritated. Her mind was trapped in the past and how the present was quickly morphing into that very past she ran from.

She did the one thing she did best, run.