Filed To Story: Kidnapped by My Mate Novel (Belle & Grayson)
Ace
I don’t know why you’re avoiding me but I need you to fucking talk to me here.
Ace
What the hell is going on, Doe?
Ace
Doe, I swear to god, if you don’t answer your phone in the next two seconds, I’m going to lose my fucking mind.
Ace
I’m not kidding, Doe. Don’t make me hunt you down.
As if he knew I was looking at my phone, his name and contact picture lit up my phone screen as he called me.
I considered answering it but then thought better of it and hit the rejection button instead. He would just yell at me for not answering sooner if I talked to him.
I sent a quick text instead.
Dorothy
Sheesh, why are you freaking out? I’m fine.
His reply came within seconds.
Ace
Do you have any idea how worried I was? What happened? Tell me what’s wrong.
Dorothy
Why do you think something is wrong?
Ace
Because I know you. I can feel it. You’re upset about something.
Now answer my call.
I stared down at his message in confusion just as the screen lit up with his call once again. He could just feel that I was upset about something? That made zero sense.
Nothing ever made sense when it came to him, and after the emotional roller coaster I’d just been on, I was so sick of it. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with it.
I hit reject again.
Dorothy
I’m fine. Watching a movie with my family. Can’t talk.
It was a lie but a white one. With that, I turned off my phone and put it in the drawer of my bedside table where I wouldn’t see it or think about how angry I was making Ace.
I needed a distraction, so I wiped the remainder of my tears away and grabbed my laptop to watch a horror movie.
I had never seen one, but horror was Marta’s favorite genre so had always recommended several movies to me.
But surprise, surprise, Ace never let me. He said that if I got scared during the voodoo scenes from The Princess and the Frog, ?there was no way I would be able to handle a real horror movie.
But he wasn’t here tonight to stop me, was he? So, I could do whatever I wanted.
I loaded up the movie and hit play.
Take that, Ace.
***
I was an idiot.
Yep, I admit it. Watching the horror movie had been such a bad idea. I now understood why Ace had always told me I couldn’t handle it. I was only ten minutes in and I was about to pee my pants.
Why the hell did they have to use such suspenseful music? Any time a character turned a corner, the music got more intense, and I had to squeeze my eyes shut in case something popped out to eat them.
Someone knocked on my bedroom door, and I nearly shat my pants. It wasn’t even a hard knock, either, but a gentle tap, like the person on the other side thought I might be sleeping.
I clasped a hand over my racing heart and took a deep breath, trying to get my emotions under control.
“Come in,” I called out.
The door opened, and my dad appeared, his silhouette framed by the hallway light shining from behind him and into my room.
“Why is it so dark in here?” He flicked on my light.
I blinked as my eyes readjusted. “I was watching a movie,” I explained, gesturing to my laptop. I noted his worried expression. “What is it?”
“Ace is texting me.” He frowned. “And calling me. Says he needs to talk to you and you’re not answering the phone.”
I stared at him. There was no way Ace would go as far as to call my dad to get a hold of me. “You’re kidding, right?”
He shook his head. “Nope.”
I groaned and fell back down on the bed. “He texted you?” I whispered, covering my face with my hands.
Ace and my stepdad had a strange relationship.
Ace’s mom died of cancer when he was only eight years old. Mrs. Stoll’s death was hard on everyone, but especially Ace’s father.
Mr. Stoll started drinking. A lot. He stopped going to work and would often disappear for months at a time, leaving Ace all by himself without warning.
When he was around, he was a completely different person, including being cruel and emotionally abusive toward Ace, and sometimes even physically abusive, leaving Ace with horrible bruises.
Just like my biological father, Ace’s dad abandoned him when he needed him. But instead of running off, he hurt Ace, got into fights with him, and told him he would never live up to his potential.
In response, Ace started to lose his temper more often. Instead of crying or writing his feelings down in a journal, he threw chairs and punched walls and bit people.
Yep, you read that right: Ace would bite people when he got mad.
I was the only person who could calm him down, but there were times when even I wasn’t enough, and he’d race off to the woods and disappear for hours at a time until he got himself under control.
He didn’t like being upset around me. He didn’t want to scare me.
Even at nine years old, I was so worried about him. Everyone was.
Thankfully, Joe stepped in and took Ace under his wing.
Joe and Ace’s father spent a lot of time together. They were both key figureheads for the community, often organizing things like town functions, budgeting, and dealing with any emergencies.
They were also childhood best friends, reminding me a lot of Ace and Madoc’s relationship. Mr. Stoll was even the one who introduced my mom to Joe.