Leader

C H A P T E R F I F T Y F O U R

I woke up smiling.

Or at least experiencing this feeling of contentment or rather ′at peace.′ Grace poked at my face gently and I opened my eyes to her giggling.

“Good morning.” I spoke, pulling her little body into mine so we could cuddle.

“My daddy is here.” She whispered, looking around my body to see him, cocooning me in by his.

She didn’t react to the cuts and bruises on his face, my guess was that she was used to seeing them. Ace opened his eyes and blinked at us silently, I could see he was a little taken aback to wake up to us just staring at him.

“Hi.” He uttered, smiling sleepily.

“Hi daddy.” Grace pushed the blankets off of her and jumped up. “I’m going to go see the puppy.” She slipped towards the door and Ace sat up.

“Gracie, wait... no. You can’t walk around this place on your own.” She looked at him like he had lost his mind because for the past few days she had come and gone freely.

“It’s okay, hey.” I put my hand on his chest to settle him back down. “Nobody is going to hurt her.” I looked to Grace. “Go ahead Grace.”

“I can’t just let her walk around the fucking enemy mobsters house. I don’t trust any of you, not with her.”

“Ace, you need to rest. Your body has been through a lot.” I managed to pull him back down on the mattress and I lay my head on his chest. He remained stiff and uneasy. “Relax, she’s okay.”

His breathing settled and his fingers found my hair, combing through it softly. “You seem in a better mood today.” His voice hummed sweet vibrations through his chest.

“What would our marriage look like Ace? We have love but we don’t have trust. Would we always be betraying one another? Keeping secrets? Double crossing? Fighting?”

“I hope not.” He admitted. “I’m hoping the trust grows between us. I want you on my team. I want to keep secrets but have you as my only confidant. I want to double cross anyone we ever need to, but not have any doubts that we’re both on the same side. I will fight for you and with you, I want you to be my safe space and I want to be yours. You and me, against the world.”

“I never wanted this Ace. It’s exactly what I didn’t want. A leader husband, I didn’t need or want to be led. I wanted to be free spirited. An equal not an under.”

“Red, you’ve always been my equal. Have you ever felt you couldn’t stand up to me?”

I shook my head.

“Have you ever felt frightened of me?”

I shook my head again.

“You called me by name from the start, I never stopped you. You looked directly at me, I allowed it. You were in meetings, the ones I only let my most trusted men into. I took my mask off for you. You say whatever the fuck you want to me, do whatever the fuck you want. I don’t see you as beneath me, I see you as with me.”

“Ma’am?” I lifted my head to see Brussel in the doorway. “Sorry to disturb you but everyone is waiting for you in the meeting downstairs.”

“But my father is back now and my brothers?”

“You’re our leader ma’am.”

“See, it’s not only me that sees the full depth of your potential and worth. You ready to go to war?” Ace asked, sparkling with pride.

“Tell them I’ll be right down.”

•••

I was nervous, I would never admit that, but I was.

My dining table and kitchen was filled with the most powerful men that I knew. My father, his higher ups, my brothers, Ace who the leader of the Blackburn family, and they were all looking to me for orders.

Gracie sat up on the kitchen counter, eating a chocolate yogurt and Ace stood beside her. She gathered some pudding on to her spoon and put into his mouth.

“Our goal is simple, protect the package in every circumstance and in order to do that we must eliminate all of the threats. These are the blue prints to Nikolai’s base and we’ve had a man stationed on the inside for a number of weeks now, posing as security.”

I glanced up at Ace. He was listening so intently while Gracie coloured beside him.

“We’re going to be merging Blackburn and Valentino.” He smiled, his eyes glittering with happiness. “I don’t want any hostility between the two families. We work together, we are one.”

“Ma’am if we are one, whose orders do we follow?”

“We lead together.” I informed them. “You follow his instructions just as you would mine and I fully expect his men to do the same.”

“Yes ma’am”

“We will be breaking off into groups of ten. Group A will clear the trash, try not kill their men - just injure them enough to limit them temporarily. Knocking them unconscious is fine but let’s try and keep all of their limbs.

Group B will stay behind, they will fight from their computer screens. Informing us who and how many are in each room before we commit. They will be our eyes and ears through the cameras and communicate with us via headsets.

This isn’t a charge in and kill, this is a charge in and take over. Nikolai has built a whole organisation for himself. I want it. His men, his premises, his weapons, his shipments. After this, it’s going to be all mine.”

“Is that not a bit ambitious Willa?” My father asked, doubting my ability to pull through.

“Not nearly ambitious enough.” I answered sternly. “And I go by Gabriella now, you will address me as such.” My father cowered back, surprised by my harsh tone.

“Any other doubts?” I asked the circle of men, they looked at one another but none of them seemed brave enough to speak up. “No? How about you Ace, you got anything to say?”

He inhaled and then shook his head, “No, I trust in your leadership and your ability to protect the package Red so I agree with everything you’re saying.”

Good.”

“Group C will consist of my blood-family. You’re only to enter the building if and when every other man is down. I don’t want to risk any of his men informing Nikolai that you’re alive before we even get there. His death will be quick, he’s a smart man and not worth risking capture and ransom. Just kill him, shoot him on the spot the first chance any of you get. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes ma’am.” They uttered around the table.

“Any questions?”

“What’s my job?” The smallest voice in the room spoke up.

“Gracie,” ace started, nervously.

“You have the most important job here.”

“What’s that?”

“You have a wedding to plan.” She got instantly excited and clapped her hands. “I want you to make a whole folder with magazines cut outs and decorations. It’s all up to you kid! Don’t fuck it up.”

“I won’t fuck it up.” She repeated, giving herself a confident head nod. Ace scowled at me and I smiled.

“You’re all dismissed.”

“For the family.” The spoke in unison.

“For the family.” I repeated and watch them disappear.

Ace lingered back while Gracie went off to play with the dog. “So it’s happening then, the wedding?”

“You say that like I have a choice for it not to.” Ace quirked up a smile and pulled me towards him by my waistband.

“You know, you once told me that nobody could force you to do something that you don’t want to do. Don’t pretend like you don’t want this. It’s okay to be in love.”

“The mafia don’t do love.” He kissed my lips softly.

“They do, we do.” He handed me the drawing that Grace had been scribbling throughout my meeting. “She does.”

I looked down at it. It was a shitty colourful drawing of a bed. Me one side, Ace the other, her in the middle. She wrote in misspelled font ‘safest place.’

“She knows her safe place is between me and you. I want her to always feel safe in that position. That’s only going to happen if we’re both sure about this. You can say no, just tell me you don’t want it and I’ll call the whole thing off.”

I didn’t say anything.

“Or tell me you want it and make me the happiest man alive.”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

“I want it.”