Pep talks from War Rooms

5

Ace

Rage overwhelms me as I knock my papers and computer monitors onto the floor. My hands were shaking. I couldn’t remember the last time my hands even trembled a little, let alone full-on shakes. I pour a bourbon straight up and don’t even feel it as I drain the glass. Then realized that if she was my daughter, I didn’t want to meet her after drowning my rage in a glass. I launch the glass against the wall, and when it connects and shatters into shards on the floor, the door opens, and King walks in.

“Quite the reunion?” I glare in his direction, which is the only response he gets from me. “Queenie got the kid's sample without her knowledge, by the way.”

“I want the results within the hour,” I state, pointing at him becoming louder than I meant to. The rage I felt was boiling under the surface; I was barely holding it together. I was supposed to be the level-headed one or at least one of them. Honestly, I feel as unpredictable as Joker right now, and that’s not a good thing.

“It will be done. We have the lab here for a reason, and this trumps everything else we have going on.” The air felt heavy between us; I knew he had more to say.

“Out with it,” I snap at him as I fall back into my black leather chair while closing my eyes and letting the back of my head rest against the backrest.

“For what it’s worth, she looks like you. If she is yours, maybe we should start questioning the intel we got all those years ago. Which means we will have to deal with figuring out those who are loyal to us.”

“I know she looks like me. Did you see her eyes? I don’t know what scares me more, if the results show that she is mine or not mine... Is it terrible to hope that she is mine?” I ask my brother, hoping for a straight answer; I can always rely on King as my counsel.

“Why wouldn’t you want that? Maybe there is more to the story, and we got shitty intel, but it’s also what I hope for.” He says as he walks forward, looking at the file that Tess brought. A sick individual made the pictures and notes, and I know that if she ends up being my daughter, I will not rest until all those involved are dead and buried. “Either way, we need to help with this. Anyone who threatens a child needs to be exterminated.”

Children were a weakness; if Winnie were my child, she would become my Achilles heel. This means I will have to do some cleaning up on my enemies. They both will have to stay here in the fortress. They don't call it a fortress lightly. We give the Tower of London a run for its money. I will not be giving Tess a choice in the matter. They will be staying here. Fuck! She was even more beautiful now than she had been all those years ago.

My phone buzzed in my hand, and I looked down to see the e-mail from the lab made my heart rate speed up. Before I can overthink the decision, I open and read the report. I breathe a sigh of relief and, at the same time, feel that overwhelming rage swelling back up. I missed out on years of my daughter's life, I missed her birth along with all of her firsts, and now someone wants to end her when I just got her in my life. No fuck that.

King gives me a knowing look. He knew the results without even reading the report. “Congratulations, it’s a girl!” He started using jazz hands before turning around, but before he opened the door, he turned back around. “So that you know she loves you already. Tess never told that little girl anything but great things about you. Not saying what she did was right, but I just thought you should know.” He says, then walks away, leaving me with more questions than answers.

I text Queenie telling her to take them up to my floor of the building to let them stay in the spare rooms. Also, tell her to order whatever Winnie would need to make a little girl happy in her bedroom. I want her to be happy and have everything that she could want. Before I can think about it too much, I pull my phone out and send a group message to my siblings and Joker telling them to meet in the conference room in 10 minutes.

I walk down the hall and into the conference room, seeing everyone sitting around the table. King looked at me with a knowing look, the peacemaker looking almost like he was looking forward to the war that had just been brought to our doorstep. Queenie stuck her long wavy hair in a messy bun and nodded at me. Jack looks like the cat that caught the canary, knowing my life has been shaken. Joker gives me a look that is impossible to read, but then again, he was always impossible to read.

“So Tess is back, and I now have an almost five-year-old daughter. On top of that, someone threatens to kill them both. Let's find that threat and terminate it. Jack, I need you to reach out to trusted resources to learn about her past. Where she has been, friends, work, and anything else useful. I know that you had her phone already when she came in. Has it been of use?”

Jack rolls his eyes and pulls the phone out of his pocket, looking at it like it personally offended him. “If you can call this dinosaur a phone. She has a flip phone with exactly five numbers in it. Small daycare, pre-school, Bennett Memorial, her work-from-home job, a local pizzeria, and someone named Vivian. Her laptop is going to be gone as well.”

I don’t know if I was more surprised or relieved about what looked like a quiet social life for her. I hate her being alone, but the idea of anyone in her and Winnie’s life makes my rage boil back to the surface. The pizza made me think of dinner, hoping that ordering some later would make me a hero in my daughter's eyes. I need all the help I can get when it comes to getting in her good graces. “Queenie, did you learn anything from them while hanging out?”

“Honestly, she didn’t want to talk about anything too deep regarding her life these past years. I found out that she first thought it was a prank when she started getting the letters. When she got the pictures, she packed up and came here; she did say one thing that I found interesting: she was worried that her being here would complicate your home life and kept apologizing. I didn’t pry because she was so upset; I just kept telling her it would all be okay.” My sister was slowly getting back to the person she once was before Tess left; her last training session made her colder and detached. I am uncertain how she will respond to Tess and need to keep eye on it if possible.

I furrow my brows at that, unsure how my ‘homelife’ was even a worry in her mind. It wasn’t like she knew about my duties to the Deck and all it entailed. I made it pretty clear at the time that she was my priority. Or at least I thought I made it clear I cannot remember anymore. The whole time with Tess was a blur of emotions I didn’t know I had.

"Any ideas on how to be a dad?" I ask the group, really feeling out of my element.

Jack cleared his throat and spoke, "Exact opposite of our parents, and you should be fine."

“Talk to her, watch what she wants, don’t curse, and ask questions. You should be fine then.” Joker said, surprising all of us, and rolled his eyes at our questioning gazes. “Fuckers, I read about relating to children once for a mission. Kids aren’t exactly dying to hang out with me.”

“Do I even want to know what type of mission you were on that involved kids?” King asked him, somewhat curious from the tone in his voice. Joker shakes his head no and looks away, and just like that, the subject is dropped.

“Pizza is safe, right?” I said, questioning everything at this point.

“What are you brain damaged?” Jack asked snarkily. “I just said that one of the only numbers in her phone was a pizzeria. That's it. This settles it; having a kid for sure lowers your IQ.”

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Queenie snaps at Jack. “The man has had his life flipped upside down, making him stupid, but you don’t have to point it out, asshole!”

I couldn't help but chuckle at that statement; Queenie was starting to return to her feisty self. Before shutting back down, getting twitchy, and picking her nails. We pretend not to notice. We cannot begin to understand what she went through in her last training session. She doesn't talk about it. Joker was the one who found her and brought her back, saying exactly enough to know that our mother had to die. She disappeared like the snake she was, but knew what was good for her and stayed away.

Joker raises his eyebrows while steepling his fingers, his eyes such a light blue that they almost look white. “Is the meeting adjourned? If so, I believe I will see Nick about adding a new addition. Queen, would you like to get some new ink?” Knowing that getting new ink was therapy for Quennie.

Before she could open her mouth, King leaned his arms onto the table. “I was going to wait to mention this, but since we are all together. We have a new person I want us to start using for tattoos. Bear asked me to collect a debt I owed and was supposed to keep an eye on the artist Ash. She is a painter and tattoo artist; the shop is called The Fallen Haven.

Queenie looked hesitant about trying a new artist out. Once, she was used to something she didn’t like to change. But for King to even have a debt is almost unheard of, and Bear wasn't someone you wanted on your bad side. Joker smirked at King before looking at Queenie. “Queen, I’ll go first, and if you don’t like what she puts out, then I’ll take you to Nick.” Shooting a look at King that said try and argue with me, his hair was braided in small braids into a ponytail. His beard made his eyes more piercing, and the scar across his eye made him look terrifying, like a Viking berzerker.

King’s lips thin into a line, not pleased with it, but he nods, not wanting to get into a fight with Joker today. At least one of them would listen and go there; I am sure we all will do what King asks. I can’t help but smirk thinking about Joker and King fighting. Watching the bloodshed might have helped improve my current mood.

I am not enjoying the emotions I have been dealing with since Tess returned. Honestly, she made me feel emotions on her face, and she felt so profoundly that it would also affect me. She brought them back and brought a tiny human that made my nerve endings stand on end. I feel such a burning desire to make their deaths slow and painful; I owe them a debt of thanks for bringing them back, but that won't save them.

“So, talk to Tess? Then what's the plan?" Jack asked, making me smirk, wondering who was the first one who would ask.

“We are going to clean house. It’s going to get bloody.” I said, not able to control the smile on my face. I have been waiting a long time to have everyone see things my way.

Joker looks up and smiles knowingly at me, “my favorite.”