Wingless Book Series (book 1) (8 page)

I gathered the pictures on
the floor, glad to see they weren’t broken, and started hanging
them one by one back up on the wall. Ace paced silently
back and forth by the door.

“
Are you alright?” I asked, coming
over to him.

He stopped what he was doing
and looked at me, his eyes tense
.

“
I’m alright, I’m just really
agitated.” He ran his hand over the top of his head, sighing as he
looked at me. We both stared at each other at a loss for words. Ace
touched my face, a small grin appearing.

“
What?” I asked, grinning
myself.

“
You.”

“
Me?”

“
Got me beating your brother up
and stuff,” he laughed.

“
I, uh, didn’t think you would do
all that, but thank you. Honestly, it was nice.” He nodded and left
the room. I smiled as I straightened up the house. Gray was nowhere
in sight, which was a good thing, I didn’t need any more crazy
behavior for today. I’d had enough.

Suddenly, there was a weird
chirping
noise. Barely able to tell where
it was coming from, I followed the chirp and found Ace’s cell
phone
on the ground by the wall where he
had snatched Gray up. I couldn’t tell who was calling. It only had
a number, so I decided to answer. Maybe it was for a job, I didn’t
want him to miss it.

“
Hello?” I said softly, feeling a
little nervous.

“
Can I speak to Evan?” an older
man asked, his accent Italian … I wasn’t sure, almost like New
Jersey or something. I only knew because part of my dad’s family
was Italian and it sort of sounded the same.

“
Um, I think you got the wrong
number,” I said.

“
No sweetie, I call the same
number every time. This is Evan’s phone,” he half laughed at
me.

I stood, confused, trying to come
up with something to say, but before I could speak, Ace grabbed the
phone from me with a concerned look.

“
Yeah, hey,
sorry about that,” he said, heading out my front door. He barely
even motioned to me that
he was heading
out. I stared after him, lingering in the foyer, trying to catch
anything he was saying to show he knew this person and, obviously,
the name was right in some way.

Even though he had told me
his name was Ace, I was starting to feel like maybe I didn’t know
everything I needed to know about him. And maybe, like my intuition
had said, I had been right and he had been lying or hiding
something. It was starting to make me sick. I didn’t want to look
stupid for letting this guy come in and win me over just
to be duped in the end. That was what everyone
expected to happen and I was truly hoping it wouldn’t. My head was
going crazy up until he came back in the house.

“
I didn’t know I dropped my
phone,” he said, acting nonchalantly.

“
Yeah, it was over by the wall.” I
pointed, barely even there.

He looked closely at my
expression, suddenly realizing that something wasn’t right with me.
“This doesn’t look good for me does it?”

“
No, not really,” I said, crossing
my arms.

“
Eve, don’t
freak out on me. I want to be open with you. It wasn’t a deliberate
thing that I was doing.” He moved toward me. I backed up… right
into Gray. Ace stopped
talking as soon as
we both saw him.

“
Don’t freak out about what?” Gray
asked, throwing his shoes on. Devan darted out the door with her
little purse. She wasn’t sticking around apparently. Gray looked at
me and then at Ace. Ace sighed practically kicking the screen door
open and bolted out of it.

“
Ace!” I yelled after
him.

“
Eve, what is going on? I swear to
God, if he is doing anything to you I will kill him right in the
front yard!” he yelled, looking past me to the door.

“
He’s not, and it’s not your
concern. Will you just shut up Gray! Shut up for once!” I yelled,
hitting him in the chest.

“
I’m not. I’m your brother. Like
me or not, that’s what I’m here for!” he yelled back.

“
I don’t need you to do anything.
And I’m sick of having to explain anything to someone who doesn’t
even care anyway.”

“
I care!” he yelled at me with a
serious expression.

“
You care about
this family and what is going to happen to its reputation. You
don’t care about what is going on with
me
, so leave me alone! If I wanted
your help I would ask and I am not!”

Devan threw open the door, her
face upset as she looked at us both.

“
Listen to your sister, Gray. She
is eighteen. Keep your nose out of it. That guy out there is not
one to mess with. Have an ego all you want, but not this time.
Let’s go!” She yelled this time, and I knew, she was
mad.

Gray stared at me for a few
moments and headed out the door behind Devan. I followed. Ace was
standing on the step as they passed.

Gray stopped going down the steps.
“Remember what I said, she may say she doesn’t need my help, but I
will do what is right, just remember!” He poked Ace in the chest
with his finger.

Ace leaped onto Gray so fast I
barely had time to scream as they both fell down the stairs and
rolled onto the lawn. Ace took one hand and pinned Gray with the
other. They both were viciously attacking each other.

I ran down the steps to them but
stopped short, nervous about trying to break it up. I looked at
Devan. She stood still as well. Gray got a hand free and hit Ace in
the side of the face, grunting loudly. Ace barely responded to his
blow and came back with what seemed like an endless amount of blows
to every part of Gray’s face. He was like a machine and the only
thing I could see Gray do was try to block his fist.

“
Get him off of him! He’s going to
kill him!” Devan yelled, jumping up and down in
hysterics.

I screamed at Ace. “Stop it right
now!”

Finally, Ace let go, rolling off
Gray. He got up, panting. Gray sat up on the ground, his face
swollen and bloody.

“
Devan get my phone!” he yelled at
her.

“
No! “ I yelled back. Devan
stopped in her tracks. “You get up and leave or do whatever you
were planning on doing, you brought it on yourself.”

Gray got up, spitting dirt out of
his mouth. He touched his face, wincing. Ace stood watching. I was
mad at everyone.

Gray lingered. “Go, Gray, now.
Because I don’t think you want Mom and Dad hearing about this.”
That’s all it took for him to go. And I knew that.

Ace stayed away from me,
staring in my direction. His face had a small cut from Gray, but he
looked nothing like Gray did- Gray had
taken way more blows. I was sure he would have a split lip
and a black eye and who knew what else, maybe even a broken
nose.

“
All I want to know is this,” I
said, turning away to walk up the stairs.

“
What’s that?”
Ace said, not even trying
to follow
me.

“
Is it Ace or not?”

“
Not. It’s Evan. And if you will
let me explain, I will.”

Chapter 8

Overload

I was sure that I wanted to hear
him out before I judged him. I knew that I owed him that much
seeing he was nonjudgmental with me. Though I wasn’t sure how I
would feel after. So after I was sure Gray would not call the
police, I locked the house up and we started walking. I don’t think
either one of us was thinking about where we were going, we just
walked.

“
I’m sorry,” Ace, or Evan,
said.

“
For what,” I asked, keeping in
time with his feet.

“
I’m sorry for a few different
things,” he said, slowing his pace as we stopped at a crosswalk.
The wind whipped my hair wildly all over the place.

“
Will you just tell me what I
don’t know about you and I will tell you if you need to be sorry or
not.”

“
How do I begin?”

“
At the beginning,” I said,
laughing dryly as we rounded a corner. There were barely any people
out and about. The weather was gray and the wind was super
annoying- I felt like I had a bunch of rabid snakes whipping around
on the top of my head.

He turned down an alley and sat
down on a wooden crate. “What are you doing?” I asked, afraid to
sit. It was dirty and a little too remote. Even with him here, who
knew what kind of characters were in these places?

“
I’m going to explain everything
to you. No one will hear me here. And if you want to leave or
scream…you can.”

He pulled me by my hand to the
crate in front of him. I sat, anxious as to what he meant, what it
was he had to tell me and trying to get a grip on what I might do.
It was a great deal of thinking.

“
Okay,” was all I said, crossing
my legs and pursing my lips.

He stared at me quietly at
first and
I could tell there were a
million thoughts in his head. I could tell he was trying to find a
way to make it all come out. He rested his elbows on his knees and
took a few deep sighs before he started talking. And when he opened
his mouth I was amazed, scared, hurt, angry, happy- I was so many
emotions. I wanted to cry, I wanted to yell, I wanted to fall
apart, I wanted to do just about everything.

“
My name is Evan Carlo, so I did
lie about that. I never told you about my family because I didn’t
have much of one. My mother was young when she had me and she gave
me to an older lady after a few weeks because she couldn’t do it, I
guess. So I was raised by Donna until I was about seven, I think.
Donna ended up dying. And that is when I was taken in by Carlo.” He
explained each thing to me as best he could, barely looking at me
as he talked.

“
Where is Carlo?” I
asked.

“
He is in Jersey. That’s where I
grew up once I was with him.”

“
What was he like?”

“
He was good to me, he taught me a
lot. He taught me how to be a man. And if not for him, I wouldn’t
have a job, a family, a place to call home. I have so much respect
for that man.” He stared down the alley.

“
Well that’s a great thing. He
sounds like he is a good man.”

“
To some, it’s all in the way you
look at things. When I met you I saw that in you. I saw that you
had that unblinking eye when it came to your judgment in
people.”

“
What do you mean?”

“
You were out in
the woods drinking, a big guy wanders through and
you didn’t freak out. You stayed long enough to
know my intentions. It made me feel like you weren’t so
judging.”

“
I did though. I was
scared.”

“
You didn’t show it.”

“
No. I was trying to figure you
out.”

“
That is why I think, in some
ways, maybe I can get you to accept me for me.”

“
I want to, I really
do.”

“
Why?”

“
Because you have done that for
me, and you make me feel un-judged,” I said looking at
him.

He looked up and smiled a bit, but
then went back to serious. “That’s the best thing you could say.
Now, whether or not you will stand by it is another
story.”

“
Just tell me. Let me be the
judge.”

“
Carlo took me in, and he had two
others, basically like his kids. It was as if I had an instant
family again. It was nice. I had two brothers. Carlo, to some, may
be a monster, but to me, he’s not. He’s my father. He did what he
had to do to take care of me and I don’t look at him like others
look at him. God this is hard…..” He stopped talking, sighing and
just staring at me. I looked back, not knowing what to say. I was
just waiting. I was waiting to hear God knows what.

“
He raised us- Me, Kenny and Mark-
to learn what he knew and to be part of his family. It’s all about
respect, and we all took really quickly to everything they were
about. After you grow up around it all, you just feel
normal.”

“
What? I don’t get what you’re
saying, Carlo is into what?”

“
His family is
very powerful. To explain it in
simple
terms
is hard, but basically, they are who
almost everyone comes to when they need, um…any
favors.”

“
Like the mafia?” I asked in awe
more than shock.

“
We don’t believe there is such
thing as a mafia, but yeah, basically.”

“
Okay, so,
favors. I’m sure that entails all sorts of things legal and
illegal. I know to some that may be enough
to
scare
them
away, but it doesn’t really
bother me. Why would you think that would make me not like you?
It’s your family.”