Ace Of Spades (Complete Raw First Draft, Unedited)

Eighteen: Needles

Jenna continued to stay with me for the next few days.  The days I was at work, she would spend her time with Bonnie, or at the clubhouse.

Something had happened between the girls.  There was no longer any hositility between them, and something more like a mutual understanding of one another.  I knew that Clyde must have spoken with Bonnie when I told him what Jenna told me, because she was no longer so cold toward her.

Likewise, Jenna had calmed down on the death glares she saved especially for Clyde, and was even able to speak to him without cringing.  She had calmed down a little, as well.  She was still jumpy, but she no longer tiptoed around us, as though she were trying to hide.  It was small steps, but it was still progress.

The days disappeared, and, before I knew it, Marcus was returning from the city with my dad.  Marcus sent me a text when they got home, around 11:30 PM, to say that they'd made it home safe, and I decided it would be better if I went to see him tomorrow, since it was so late.

So, of course, I was way too excited to sleep that night.

"Are you okay, Ace?"  Jenna asked in that soft timid voice, rubbing her eyes as she entered the lounge room where I was flipping through the channels.

"I'm great, darlin'," I told her, laughing.  "I feel like a kid before Christmas.  I didn't mean to wake you, I'm sorry."

She hesitantly padded over the floorboards and came to sit beside me, perching on the edge of the couch.

"Will you see your dad tomorrow?"  She wondered, tilting her head, some of her wavy blonde hair falling over her shoulder.

"I'm planning to," I told her, unable to hide the shit eating grin that spread over my face.

"You're too excited to sleep," she observed, smiling as I shrugged sheepishly.

"Yeah, well, I've been waiting for this for a long time."

"Why did he go to jail?"  Jenna asked, then her eyes widened in panic for a second, and she quickly backtracked.  "Is that alright to ask?"

I nodded.

"Yeah," I shrugged indifferently.  "He killed a guy."

I'd grown up knowing what my dad had done.  It was never any secret, and it seemed so normal, so justified.  At least to me.

Jenna, on the other hand, inhaled sharply, recoiling away from me.

"He took someone's life?"

"He was a bad person," I said firmly, immediately on the defense.  "He kidnapped my sister, Kim, when she was sixteen, beat her unconscious and left her tied up in this dingy shed."

"That's awful," Jenna said after a moment, still seeming horrified.

"That guy would have gotten six years, tops," I told her, remembering what Marcus had told me.  "Dad got twenty, for murder."

"But that's so unfair," Jenna argued.  "He was only protecting his family from someone horrible."

I laughed bitterly.

"I know, darlin'.  You're preaching to the converted."

We fell into companiable silence for a moment, each of us lost in our own thoughts.

"It's weird, to think about," I started, breaking the silence.  "If he didn't go away, then, I wouldn't know Bonnie and Clyde."

"How is that?"  She asked, curious.

"Clyde went to prison for a couple of years," I explained.  "He was in with my dad and his crew, then, he met Bonnie once he got out.  They came to live here, and he started working with me."