Ace of Hearts Read online

  Ace of Hearts

  Khardine Gray

  Copyright © 2019 by Khardine Gray

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

  Ace of Hearts

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Ace of Hearts

  Game of Love Series

  * * *

  Book 1

  * * *

  Khardine Gray

  USA Today Bestselling Author

  Chapter 1

  Xander

  * * *

  Just like a shadow, I slipped in the crevice between the narrow path that snaked across the hallway without anyone noticing.

  I scanned my perimeters doing the standard sweep of my surroundings. There were a lot of passageways in Pablo’s secret hideaway.

  Secret and unkempt is what I would call it for the dust and dirt on the walls of the alcoves and passageways, old pipes and dangling wires.

  Water dripped down the wall across from me and dampness hung in the air.

  Still, there I loomed in the background, doing what I did best. Staying hidden…

  Could I call it that?

  I thought even I could give myself a little more credit than simply calling it ‘staying hidden’.

  But that was my life in general.

  It was more a case of being off-grid.

  In reality I was supposed to be dead. Dead for the last five years now.

  I preferred calling it off grid. It was less morbid to think of it that way.

  So mostly I was off-grid to the world.

  This little heist though… not so much. Maybe just the first part.

  Getting into the facility that Pablo Fernandez had set up here would have given anyone a solid run for their money. Me not so much.

  Getting what I came in for was a whole other story, along with getting out with what I’d come for.

  That was where I had to give the man credit and fair dues.

  I slipped in like a shadow, located the object of my mission, and took about five minutes to deduce that I wouldn’t be able to simply take the object I’d been hired to steal—a.k.a a computer chip—without going unseen.

  There were too many guards milling around. Too many I hadn’t seen prior to entry for the simple reason that good old Pablo had a device that screwed with anything that attempted to hack his internal CCTV.

  Screwed with in the sense that if you were a small time hacker you wouldn’t have been able to do shit. However, guys like me and mine could still get in but we could not see everything we wanted to see.

  The important thing for me was, I saw what I needed to see in terms of the object. Everything else was just details I’d have to work around.

  Wesley, who was my eyes and my partner in crime, cautioned me on this little problem. He said I might run into a few unsavory people. I just didn’t know at the time of cautioning that a few meant a lot.

  No problem.

  It was just my personal preference to have some element of shock when I went on these little excursions.

  All thieves had something. Something they wanted to be renowned for. Some left a calling card, others left some kind of mark.

  I liked to get my shit done before anyone realized what had actually happened and leave no trace.

  In and out, like it never occurred.

  Like a flicker of a shadow.

  That was what they used to call me when I was an agent. Really though… I was a thief.

  Thief… yes. I accepted a long time ago that that was what I was.

  I’d been many things in my thirty-six years.

  Orphan, hacker, manipulator, marine, black operative, agent, killer…

  Thief.

  That was the word that kept coming back. It was the crux that explained all that I did. Whether my intent was good or bad. No matter what it was I stole.

  Thief.

  I scanned my perimeters, deciding it was time to make a move. This part had already taken too long. I’d allocated five minutes and that had long since passed.

  There were two guys to the left guarding the entrance to the metal stairs. I could get past them easy. It was the guys by the door guarding the chip that were the problem. As in they were right outside the door and the room the chip was in was situated at the end of the corridor. That, and there was nowhere to go after I’d taken the chip except back the way I came.

  So, that was it then. The way. The plan.

  The rogue plan.

  On to it then…

  I slipped down the side of the staircase, blending in with the shadows of night. The music that boomed from the streets surrounding the area assisted in swallowing up the sounds around the building. It was like that everywhere in Brazil at this time of year. Carnival season, and the carnival in Rio attracted everybody from all over the world.

  The music from carnival could be heard all around. It was perfect for situations like this.

  I slinked in the crevice between the stairwell and the corridor, moving past the guards on the other side. Next were the guards I’d already seen. The goal was to get past them, head to the room with the chip and take out the guards securing the room.

  Once that was done, I knew the noise would alert the attention of the others.

  I could handle that. It was all about timing. Do it the other way around and I’d have more guys on my ass than I cared for. Then that would piss me right the fuck off.

  They’d have time to call for backup. More help could mean things could go wrong and I couldn’t afford that.

  I needed this gig. It was the money.

  Of course it was.

  When you lived the way I did and on your own mission of vengeance you needed a lot of money.

  Some jobs paid more than others and helped me advance further in my pursuit.

  This was like that. Bernard Perabo, my latest client had offered up five hundred G’s to get a chip that contained the passwords to a safe that held two million dollars’ worth of gold bars.

  Truth be told, I could steal the chip and keep it for myself, and get the said two million if I could find out the location of the safe. But that wasn’t my style. I had some honor. It was what kept me in business with those I allowed to find me.

  I stopped and pressed further into the wall when one of the guards moved closer.

  “I’m raising my bet. You won’t be able to resist her. Too hot to handle.” The guy said to his meathead friend who’d been screwing around with Pablo’s wife.

  Wes and I had seen it all during our surveillance over the last few days. That was when we were trying to establish where the chip was being held. At the time my client thought Pablo was keeping it at his house. What we did find was an adulterous wife who cheated on her husband with every guard he’d set up to watch her.

  “No, I will totally say no.” Came the meathead’s response. “I promised Father Perez I would be good this week.”

  I
rolled my eyes under the balaclava I wore. These people were such idiots. They worked for a guy like Pablo, screwed his wife on a daily basis, and believed they could redeem themselves with one Our Father and a few Hail Marys.

  Fucking ridiculous.

  And I’d heard enough.

  In my trademark way, I stepped out as he shuffled again and I acted just like a shadow, moving with him in the casting his own shadow made on the floor. If they looked a little closer, or paid a little more attention, they would have possibly been able to see me right there in plain sight, switching past them in the optical illusion.

  But no… they didn’t see me.

  Good for me, shit for them. Neither of them might make it through the next five minutes.

  I got to the corridor I’d had my eye on.

  The guards that would draw attention to my presence were ten feet away from where I hid.

  The minute I stepped out the guards at the door would see me.

  I was dressed in full black so they wouldn’t have been able to recognize me but that wasn’t the problem. The problem was I’d have no way of knowing their reaction and responses. And, this was a damn corridor. Bullets would fly and this might be one time that they hit me where it counted.

  I was not exactly fond of that part of rogueing it out with no plan.

  I pulled in a deep breath.

  It was now or never, and never didn’t put food on my table.

  On an exhale of that breath, I lunged forward and kicked off the wall, taking four strides across it. It bought me five seconds and popped me in front of the first guy before he was able to pull his gun.

  That was exactly what I was hoping for and I ended him with a knife to his throat before he could pull that gun on me.

  The second guy was quicker. He was the guy I had to worry about.

  He fired several shots at me, which I dodged and ended him too, with a four star cross to his head.

  The part about timing was now.

  How long did I have to get inside the room, grab the chip and be gone?

  Adrenaline took over. As guy number two went down and the echo of a stirring behind me became more prominent, I grabbed him and shoved his hand on the security panel. Pablo had the place set up with fingerprint recognition.

  The door opened and I ran inside.

  The chip would be over on the table in the briefcase. Wes had been able to get the codes so I wouldn’t have to do my standard hack. He was useful for these types of jobs. His assistance in those ways made things a lot easier and made good for timing.

  I got to the briefcase and grabbed that damn chip, but fuck, I wasn’t quick enough. A bullet whizzed past my ear and could have hit my head.

  Pablo’s scum had gotten to me quicker than I expected.

  The good thing was that I had what I came in here for.

  Four guys came through the door, guns blazing. With lightning speed I pulled two guns from my back pocket and fired back. Then I went straight for them instead of backing away like they assumed I would.

  I got a clearing and headed straight past them, proceeding the way I came in, thanking my abilities when I got to the stairwell unharmed.

  That was exactly where I needed to get to then it would be out.

  Two shots fired behind me, to which I responded with two shots back.

  I barely spared the second it took to register that I’d just hit the first two guards I’d seen previously talking about Pablo’s wife.

  I was right that they wouldn’t make it through the next five minutes. It had taken about that length of time to get the chip.

  The second was all I spared because more bullets flew my way.

  I sprinted up the stairs to the balcony and jumped through the window I’d come through. And, eureka… I was out.

  The advantage of this way was the poorly made passage down the fire escape. It was one of those old styles that were only designed for one person going down at a time.

  I just needed to get past the first steps and jump down to my bike.

  That was what I did.

  I was on that bike and out of the vicinity of those motherfuckers before they could process what to do next.

  Some tried to follow but I lost them at the junction when I gunned my engine and leapt over a truck carrying a stack of hay.

  Flying down the road adjacent to me, I managed to lose everybody. It would take a while for the goons to first figure out what direction I’d gone and next catch me.

  I’d credit the man who could catch up with a midnight Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R, much less one with me riding the hell out of it.

  Not one of Pablo’s guys would have been able to dream of doing so.

  That was what happened when you hired meatheads and idiots to do a high stakes job.

  Not my problem though.

  I could just imagine how Pablo would lose his shit when he found out the precious chip was gone. Serve him right, maybe this lesson would force his hand out of dirty dealings and he’d be a better mayor.

  “Did you get it?” Wes asked in my ear piece. He would have seen me leaving the warehouse on the surveillance he’d had set up.

  “Got it,” I told him.

  “Yayy, we can have steak for dinner on Sunday.” He chuckled.

  “You and your fucking steak.”

  “Same as you and your disgusting hash brown sandwiches.”

  “See you later, man.” I shook my head at him as I sped along the winding roads.

  He could make fun of me all he wanted over my hash brown sandwiches. At one point in my life they’d been a treat. Making good use of leftover hash browns I’d been able to salvage from the bins at the boys home I’d lived at for the first part of my life was what I used to consider good days.

  I’d make a sandwich to add more substance to the two slices of bread and butter I’d had most nights. It tasted good and kept me going.

  I think sometimes I still did it to remember those days and the journey I’d taken since then.

  But sure, Wes could have steak.

  It took me half an hour to get back to the office. Or, rather what we called the office.

  It was a place we had set up at the back of a garage to meet clients.

  All I had to do was deliver the chip and pick up the cash.

  I parked up, took off my helmet and the balaclava, and jumped off my bike.

  There was a crowd that had gathered outside the work area. They were talking about racing after carnival. The area was notorious for illegal street racing and had attracted everyone who was into it for the way it was set up.

  The cops were paid well to turn a blind eye.

  I went inside and proceeded up the stairs to the room I met my clients in. It was nothing fancy. Just a meeting point with a desk and two chairs. A space to talk out business and make a deal.

  I expected Bernard to be here already with his assistant.

  I opened the door to the room and frowned when I saw the place was empty.

  “What the hell?” I scuffed. There was no way I’d ever expected the bastard to be late to meet me.

  That idea to keep the chip was starting to look better and better. Two million was definitely better than five hundred grand.

  A shuffle made me turn, but a blow to the back of my head sent me down to my knees.

  Stars speckled my vision as I coiled from the blinding pain.

  And, fuck, another blow in my face that felt like being hit by a truck knocked me right out.

  Darkness surrounded me, blocking everything out.

  Chapter 2

  Jia

  “So is that a no? As in, nope, not at all?” Mr. Green Eyes asked me.

  “It’s a no,” I replied.

  “Aww honey, you’re breaking my heart here.” He grabbed his chest and made a show of looking disappointed. “How many more times are you going to turn me down? I swear to God I’ve never heard ‘no’ that many times in my life let alone a week.”

  That was the tenth time this we
ek I’d turned him down.

  “As many times as it takes.” I chuckled and rocked back on my heels. The movement made his eyes drop to my breasts and linger there for far too long.

  Yup… that would be the reason for my many attempts to turn this man away.

  He was gorgeous and definitely my type. Definitely the kind of guy I would go for hands down. But he was totally the type that I was trying to avoid in my pursuit to fold over a new leaf.

  No more assholes.

  Armand Ricci, my ex, had been the biggest asshole ever. Asshole enough to rule them all.

  He’d loved my breasts too and the entire look of me. Blond hair, blue eyes and big breasts seemed to definitely get a lot of attention. Like most guys he’d never looked past my appearance and valued what was underneath. As such it turned out he loved the look of a lot of women at the casino as well and made plenty of room in his bed to accommodate.

  I’d found him cheating on me with not just one woman but two. Wonderful… and double the shock.

  The idiot didn’t even care who I was when he started cheating on me. It was what happened when you got privileges from the king.

  I wanted more than that.

  More than a man who was just looking at me for my beauty and body, like this guy in front of me now, and I wasn’t going to find anybody like that in Sin City. Las Vegas attracted all manner of people. That was the first lesson I’d learned from living here all my life.

  All manner of people and no one was who they said they were. What you saw was what you got and you had to make your own inferences from that.

  I cleared my throat in an exaggerated manner and Mr. Green Eyes looked up at me with a sly smile on his face that brought out the dimples. Gorgeous dimples.