Hearts and Aces (Kelsey's Burden Series Book 7) by Kaylie Hunter (great books for teens txt) 📗

our lives hiding our children in fear of retaliation?” I asked, shaking my head. “My family—” I pointed toward the balcony “—matters more to me than any cocaine slinging cartel. Miguel can do as he pleases as long as he leaves us out of it.”

“And the rest of us?” one of the men of Aces asked. “All’s well as long as you and yours are safe?”

I stepped forward, wanting nothing more than to deck the guy, but Wild Card threw an arm around my chest, pulling me back. “Easy, darlin’. Breath through the rage, little dragon.”

Tech chuckled, looking at the guy. “She’s a sister to the men of Aces, dickhead. She’s not the type to leave anyone behind.”

“My peace deal was with Miguel. Everyone is safe from the cartel, including Shipwreck and Sebrina, though they don’t deserve it,” I said, gritting my teeth. “Santiago will probably to be arrested for murder either today or tomorrow.”

“Who did he kill?” Donovan asked.

“I can’t discuss the details,” I said as I stepped out of Wild Card’s hold. “I can say, the dead guy wasn’t a good guy, so it doesn’t matter.”

A slow grin spread across Donovan’s face. “You’re brilliant.”

“I know,” I said, winking at him.

“Anything else we need to know?” Wayne asked.

“That’s it. Other shit has happened the last couple of days, but it’s all been handled. How did the rope pulling contest go?” I asked the group at large.

Everyone started yelling and talking over each other.

“One at a time!” I yelled.

“Your team cheats,” Wayne said, glancing over at Katie and Bridget with narrowed eyes.

“What do you think I did today, Wayne?” I asked him. “We are clear of the mess with the cartel because I cheated. I hacked and defrauded Miguel’s companies, causing chaos before breakfast. Before lunch, I purposely didn’t report a felony to the authorities. This afternoon, I did even more shit like—maybe, possibly, somewhat—planted DNA evidence.”

“I didn’t hear that,” Maggie said, grinning.

“The point being, we cheat all the time. We don’t work for the military or for law enforcement because we don’t like to be hogtied by the rules. Our jobs at Aces require us to think outside the box for the good of the world, so why would we run an Aces competition by any other standard?”

Casey grinned, nodding to me. “Well said.”

“Technically,” Tech smirked, “we didn’t break a single one of the competition rules.”

“We just applied a little creativity to make them work in our favor,” Bridget added.

“They’re right,” Jerry said, holding up the rules sheet. “Doesn’t say anything about setting a rope on fire, or pretending everyone dropped the rope while Anne hid in the back holding it until everyone let go.”

I turned to look at my team, proud of them.

“It was so much fun,” Anne whispered, grabbing my arm and bouncing in excitement.

“We won two of the bouts?” I asked.

“Three.” Katie shook her head at Trigger. “Dumbass here convinced Nightcrawler to sneak into the woods and fire a gun. Everyone, except for Trigger, dropped the rope and started running toward the woods shooting.”

“I didn’t drop the rope,” Trigger said, raising his arms and flexing his muscles. “I pulled that sucker across the line all on my own. Single handedly got us a first-place win.”

“How in the hell did Nightcrawler survive?” I asked, turning to look back toward the house and confirming he was unharmed.

“Bulletproof vest, fast running, and a getaway car on the other side of the woods,” Bridget said.

I stepped over to Trigger, gripping his shirt in a wad. “You pull something like that again, and you’ll have to settle with me on the mats. Understood?”

His happy grin fell as he turned white and gulped. He nodded slowly.

“From now on,” I said, stepping away, “if I’m not available to consult, you run your ideas past Bridget or Tech.”

“Yes, boss. For the record though, I did warn Hattie. I didn’t want her and the kids to worry.”

“I appreciate that, but you could’ve gotten Nightcrawler killed. Most of these men have sniper training.

“Told you she’d be pissed,” Charlie said as she walked over and took off the baseball cap. Her hair streamed down in choppy layers, dyed at the tips in silver and black. It was a little unnerving seeing how alike we looked. “Now, cuz, are you going to explain the blood staining your shirt?”

I looked down at my shirt, and sure enough, a patch of blood had leaked through. “I must’ve pulled a stitch. Sorry.”

Alex lifted the edge of the shirt to look at it closer. “I can get the blood out, but what stitches?”

“I accidentally bumped into a guy at Headquarters while he was swinging a knife at me. Security over there’s not so good.”

Wayne ran a hand down the front of his face as he sighed and looked at my stitches.

“Damn,” Lisa said, resting a hand on my shoulder. “You had one hell of a day, didn’t you?”

“I need booze,” I said, nodding. “A lot of it.”

“Should the rest of us head back across the highway?” Wayne asked.

“No. Not tonight. Come on,” I said, waving for everyone to follow as we walked toward the main house. “Drinks are on me tonight.”

Chapter Thirty-Eight

“Did you hear about Billy Hobbs?” Wayne asked.

“That he was fired?” I said as Hattie set a drink on the table in front of me.

“No. That him and Daphne are getting married.”

I choked on my drink. “You’re shitting me! He was stalking her!”

“Apparently, she knew the whole time it was him. She liked the attention.”

“Damn,” Maggie said, sitting next to me. “Did not see that one coming.”

“Kelsey?” Jerry said, walking into the dining room, looking nervous.

“What’s up?” I asked, turning to face him from my chair.

“Um. There was this