1 Playing Dirty

The room was filled with cigar smoke and it reeked of alcohol. At a large table in the middle of a bar, a girl sat with three men. She kept her cap low and glanced at her last card. Her partner looked up and she met his eyes. The guy on her left rubbed his stubby beard and threw a ten of hearts. Her partner obviously had nothing because he threw off. The guy on her right threw a four of hearts as a puff of smoke came from his cigar and everyone looked at her, waiting.

There's no way he thought that ten was going to walk. She threw a Queen of hearts and smirked. It was their last cards. Her and her partner had won. They would've won anyways of course, for they had the most books. That was their fifth and final round.

The man with the stubby beard slammed his hands on the table and cursed. He pushed his chair back angrily before storming off to the bar.

"Two shots of whiskey."

The girl was unfazed and didn't flinch at his sudden outburst. His partner only scowled and puffed his cigar.

The phone in her pocket rang and she picked it up. After a few seconds she spoke, "I'll deal with it." she glanced at her partner without showing any emotion, but it seemed as though the room got colder. She nodded towards the door before getting up to leave. Her partner grabbed the cash on the table and followed.

Before they exited the bar the man with the stubby beard spoke, "Remember what I told you. Our boss expects to see that money by Saturday. He also expects to see you at the gathering that the Tin's are hosting."

The girl stopped and without turning around spoke in a chilling voice, "What money? I thought we had already settled this. Tell your pig brained boss that he's not going to see any money any time soon. Also, tell Troy not to expect to see me there. I do as I please." She turned her head slightly towards him and continued, "and if he sends any more men after me there will be bloodshed."

The bar went silent and the duo walked out the door. The two men let out a breath of relief the moment she walked out.

The duo walked out into the parking lot and the guy led the girl to his car that was parked under a street light.

"Wow, that was an easy six hundred." He smirked as he counted the money.

"The only reason they put that much on the line was because they were trying to play dirty, but the idiots didn't realize that you can't play dirty in spades."

The guy stopped counting as Ace spoke and then shook his head in realization.

" Well, it doesn't matter because we just got a little extra money in our pockets. That's what they get for trying to play dirty." He put the money in his back pocket and started to pull his keys out.

" It's funny that they tried to cheat me. No one could ever play dirty with me and get away with it."

Zack glanced at Ace and creased his eyebrows before nodding, ignoring the danger in the tone of her voice.

Ace had her hands in her pocket and looked at Zack from under the brim of her 'Go Tigers' hat.

"Speaking of people trying to cheat me, I just got a phone call...You know I don't like to share, Zack." Ace hissed at him, but didn't show any expression. She kept her stone cold poker face as she spoke.

Zack froze. How did she find out? He had surely covered his tracks.

"A measly eight thousand dollars means nothing to me. I can easily make that money in one night, but it's the fact that my own right hand man had thought that he could take from me? Tsk tsk tsk." Ace smirked and walked closer to him.

Zack banged his fist against his car window and looked up at the sky with his lips in a thin line. It took a second before he spoke, "Ace you know how bad my situation is. Please, I'll get your money back!" He looked down into her eyes and creased his eyebrows sincerely.

She glanced and saw something glimmer in Zack's hand. He had pulled out a pocket knife and tried to hide it.

'So that's what he planned to do if I didn't forgive him.' Ace thought to herself.

she closed her eyes and sighed before opening them again, "I don't want money, Zack. I want loyal men."

Zack's facial expression changed and he flared his nose before he spoke again, "Ace, come one. We're friends! Forgive me! You know my situation!" Tears came into his eyes.

Ace was unfazed by his outburst. After letting out a cold laugh, she finally barely spoke above a whisper, "You must have forgotten who I am."

Anger quickly began to burn in Zack's eyes and in a swift move he grabbed Ace and pressed the knife to her neck, "No...I never forgot who you were. You've always been so full of yourself! Someone else needs to take your spot! I'm not the only one who doesn't like how you're running things! It's time for someone else to lead."

Zack turned pale as he felt cold metal press against his temple and he froze. He was now a mess. His blond hair was frizzing up and he was sweating bullets which caused his hair to stick to his face. His eyes were wide and he looked beside him without turning his head. He could see that there was a man with black gloves holding a gun to his head.

Zack was about to say something, but a loud bang rang through the parking lot before he could.

The sound of the gun seemed to make Ace's stern expression falter, but only for a second before she shook her head and stepped from the dead body behind her.

"Take care of this, I don't want to hear about 12 on our tails because of it. Take the 600 and think of it as a 'good job' from me." Ace snapped her fingers at the men that seemed to appear out of the darkness and they all surrounded the body. Her ears were ringing as she walked away.

The two men from inside the bar came out once they heard the gunshot. It wasn't unusual for the part of the city that they were in, but they knew that it had something to do with Ace. They looked around the parking lot until the one with the cigar pointed and directed his friend's eyes towards Ace walking to her black motor cycle. Their eyes traced back to where she was walking from and they saw blood splattered on the window of a grey Alexis car with men surrounding it.

"That woman is not someone to be messed with." The man with the cigar spoke more to himself with his cigar in the side of his mouth and he glanced at his friend.

"She is no one compared to our boss. She won't last a second in the s-same room as him. Let's go. I'm dri...driving." The guy with the stubby beard gulped down his third beer for the night and threw the bottle across the parking lot.

"Don't be so quick to assume things.." he squinted at her one last time before he snatched the keys from his friend, "and give me the keys before you kills us both."

The two disappeared into the night.

Ace wiped the blood off of her face and took her cap off to put it in her hoodie. After she put her helmet on, she pulled off towards the city.

Ace pulled up to her mansion and ran up the steps and past her guards. The door to Ace's room flew opened and she sluggishly walked through. She kicked off her her sneakers. Today was a very long day for her. Zack was the third man that she had to kill that week and it was getting exhausting! She could've swore that she had the most loyal henchmen in the history of the Raingate Mafia. The boss of the last group of criminals Ace was in didn't even know his right hand men were plotting against him and ended up in his grave because of so.

Ace laughed out loud. She didn't like being his right hand man anyway.

It looked like Zack didn't like being her right hand man either. He had been plotting against her for months. Ace knew the entire time and was just waiting for him to make his first move. She loved his ambition and drive. She remembered that she was just the same. She got close to her boss and took him out when he didn't see it coming. Zack reminded Ace a lot of herself. That's why she had to get rid of him.

Ace took off her clothes as she walked through her room until she got to the bathroom. She looked at herself in the mirror and disregarded her looks as she unhooked her bra. She was beautiful, yes, and that beauty could be used to her advantage when she needed it.

She had beautiful green eyes and clear tan skin. She had a straight button nose and a pair of perfect pink lips to match her amazing features. Her curly black hair gracefully brushed her lower back as she took it out of a low bun.

Ace looked at her perfect physique and scowled. She wasn't displeased with herself. She was displeased with the fact that there would never be a man in her life that will appreciate her beauty that she'd love back. She never worried about love. It never came across her mind and she just focused on keeping her men in place and making sure business ran smoothly without any problems. Even though a relationship wasn't on her mind consciously, she subconsciously felt lonely at night some times.

After taking a shower, Ace threw on a black silk robe with a dragon on the back and fell onto her bed. She thought for a bit before pulling out her phone and dialing a number.

"Jack. I need you pick me up a dress from Jindu's boutique. I want the most extravagant dress that you see." She clicked the end call button before he could respond.

"I need to get this under control before I lose any more men." Ace sighed and covered her eyes with the back of her hand. It was hard running an underground business. It was especially hard when all your enemies don't play fair. It was a good thing that Ace didn't play fair either.

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The week was slow and business went back to usual after Ace replaced the dead men. She never gave Troy the twenty thousand dollars that she took from him and today was saturday. It would be like asking to die walking into the party that the Tin's were hosting knowing that she owed that man so much money. He'd be looking for her and just might kill her on the spot!

Jack handed her the dress and spoke his concerns, "I don't know, boss. I just don't think that's the best thing to do. You just stabbed Troy in the back and now you're going to just....waltz in there like everything's sweet?" Jack leaned on his black sports car and chewed on a tooth pick.

Ace glared at him and it sent chills down his back, "So you think I don't know what I'm doing? You think I can't handle this?" as she spoke she got closer to him. He was a lot bigger than her and she had to look up at him as she spoke, but still the look in her eyes scared him.

Everyone was scared of Ace. They knew what she was capable of and so they never questioned her choices and only followed her like sheep. Jack felt bad for any poor soul that ever underestimated her power. She's dangerous and every man that dared to lay eyes on her should know that.

"I know you can! Troy doesn't know what's coming to him!" Ace stepped back and smirked seemingly satisfied with his answer. Jack took a breath of relief once there was a little more space between them and continued, "I'm just saying I don't know boss. I don't think you should walk into a room full of armed men alone." Jack shrugged and Ace slightly creased her eyebrows and crossed her arms, thinking.

She smirked and looked at Jack as something came to her mind, "Which is why you will accompany me. Get yourself a suit, Jack. The dress code is formal." Again, just like how she did on the phone, she walked away before he could say anything and climbed on her motorcycle.

"...."

Jack didn't want to go! He couldn't protect her from anything! To bring him along she had to be planning something. Zack was the last man to accompany Ace when she was doing business and look at him! His body was being held down at the bottom of a river by cement blocks and chains! He got too comfortable with Ace to the point where he thought he could take advantage of her.

Jack wasn't stupid like Zack was. He knew to never get too comfortable around Ace. He knew that she wouldn't hesitate killing him, but he'd never give her the reason to. He was loyal to Ace, but that's what all her sheep say. Three of them turned out to be wolves in sheep's clothing coming after her, so Ace keeps an eye out even towards the ones who stood by her for years.

That afternoon came and Jack pulled up to Ace's mansion to pick her up. Ace's mansion is gigantic and heavily guarded. There was no reason for a small girl to live in a huge place like that all by herself. One day Jack asked about it and she said she just enjoyed the lifestyle. He didn't understand how someone could enjoy being lonely.

They had to be at the party at 7 p.m, but it was going on to be 7:30 now and Jack was still waiting for Ace. He knew that she wasn't in a rush. Ace rushed for no one and refused to show up anywhere on time.

Finally, Ace stepped out the door and four guards led her down the stairs that led to Jack's car. He glanced once, but then looked again to see her more clearly. He stared at her as she approached his car. Who was she trying to seduce!?