CHAPTER 52: CHAPTER 52

The alley behind The Sapphire Lounge was like a deep, dark canyon. The air was cold and damp, smelling of rotting garbage from the dumpsters and the wet, earthy scent of old bricks. Ace leaned against the rough wall, trying to calm his racing heart. The sharp burst of adrenaline he had felt during the chaos inside was fading, leaving him feeling shaky and empty. He could not stop picturing the scene in his mind: the shower of sparkling glass, the other waiter’s horrified face, and the crushing weight of Vincenzo’s suspicious stare.

He had done what he was supposed to do, and he had won. Yet, it felt like a loss because he had saved himself by destroying someone else’s night and possibly even their job.

The sudden sound of an engine broke the heavy silence. A black sedan he did not recognize appeared at the far end of the alley, moving like a shark gliding through dark water. Its headlights were off. The passenger window rolled down without a sound to reveal the scarred face of Marcus in the gloom. Marcus did not speak a word. He just jerked his head toward the empty seat beside him, a clear command to get in.

Ace felt a tight knot of fear in his stomach. This wasn’t how things were supposed to go. He had planned to meet Evelyn a few blocks away and slip back into the night unnoticed. For a brief moment, he considered running, but he had nowhere to go. Ramos, had connections everywhere. Taking a deep breath, he pushed himself off the wall and walked toward the car, sliding into the passenger seat. The interior was luxurious, smelling of expensive leather with a faint metallic scent underneath—perhaps gun oil.

Instead of driving away, Marcus just sat there. He was a large, silent presence in the dark, his eyes fixed on the alley ahead. This heavy silence felt more threatening than if he had been yelling.

"Vincenzo’s guys are turning the place upside down," Marcus finally said, his voice a low, gravelly rumble in the quiet car. "They are looking for a waiter, a very clumsy one, and they are not happy. That little mess you made cost more than your life is worth."

Ace’s blood ran cold upon hearing this. He kept his face a careful, neutral mask and stared straight ahead at the grimy brick wall. "I saw the commotion from across the room," he said, keeping his voice even. "It looked like someone had a really bad night."

Marcus let out a short, harsh sound that was not quite a laugh. "Yeah, a bad night," he replied. He turned his head, his cold eyes slowly looking Ace up and down as if he were assessing a piece of damaged equipment. "You got lucky tonight, kid. Real lucky. The boss’s guy won, and he won big. That is the only thing that matters to the boss, and therefore, the only thing that matters to you."

Marcus reached into his jacket and took out a very thick, overstuffed envelope. It was bigger and heavier than any he had given Ace before. He threw it onto Ace’s lap, where it landed with a heavy, solid thud.

"Your share is in there," Marcus grunted. "It’s fifteen thousand dollars. You can count it if you don’t believe me."

Fifteen thousand dollars. The amount was so large it was hard to believe it was real. This was the kind of money that could change a person’s entire life. It was enough to finally start his real business, Aegis for real and buy his freedom. But instead of feeling like a treasure, the envelope felt like a heavy, dangerous burden in his lap.

Ace didn’t bother to count the money. He just held the envelope, feeling the sharp edges of all the bills inside through the paper. It was the most cash he had ever held, and yet it felt dirty and wrong.

"The boss is happy with your work," Marcus continued as he put the car into drive. The engine was so quiet it was almost a whisper. "But this job is going to cause us serious trouble. The man we stole from, Vincenzo, is not some low-level criminal like Deke. He is an old-school gangster with powerful connections. He has a long memory for revenge, and he will be furious that we made him look like a fool in his own home."

Marcus pulled the car out of the alley and joined the light late-night traffic. He looked over at Ace, his face looking grim under the passing streetlights. "The boss’s advice for you is to disappear completely. You need to become a ghost. That little repair business you are trying to start? Run it quietly and do not attract any attention. Having big ambitions will make people notice you, and that will make you easier for our enemies to find." Marcus looked over at Ace, and his face looked grim under the passing streetlights. "You are an important asset to the boss now. And valuable assets are either protected very carefully, or they are made to vanish completely to keep them out of enemy hands."

The meaning of this message was cold and clear. The approval from their boss, Ramos, was not a reward but a trap. Ace’s success had made him more useful, but it had also made him a target. He was no longer just some disposable kid from the streets. He was now a prized tool, and tools are kept locked away until they are needed for a specific job.

Marcus dropped him off two blocks away from his workshop. "Try not to spend all that money in one place," he said. This normally cheerful saying sounded like a dark threat as the car window closed. The luxury sedan then drove away smoothly, and its red taillights disappeared into the darkness of the night.

Ace stood alone on the empty sidewalk, clutching an envelope that felt like it was burning a hole in his hand. He walked the last two blocks as quickly as he could, with all his senses on high alert. Every shadow and every passing car made his heart jump, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that Vincenzo’s eyes were watching him from everywhere.

When he finally pushed open the heavy, new steel door of their workshop, Unit B-17, Evelyn and Silva immediately jumped to their feet. The relief on their faces was so strong it felt like a physical presence in the room.

"You’re okay!" Silva blurted out. His whole body seemed to sag with released tension, and he looked like he wanted to rush over and hug him.

Evelyn’s eyes, however, went straight to the thick envelope in Ace’s hand. Her expression was a mix of hope and dread as she asked, "You got it?"

Without saying a word, Ace walked to the workbench they used as a conference table. He turned the envelope upside down, and stacks of hundred-dollar bills spilled out onto the scratched wooden surface. The money formed a chaotic river of green and white, representing more cash than the workshop had ever seen. Silva’s eyes went wide with amazement; he had never seen so much money in one place in his entire life.

"Whoa..." he breathed, reaching out a tentative finger to touch a stack as if to make sure it was real. "Ace... we’re rich."

"Fifteen thousand," Ace said. His voice was flat and empty, as if all the emotion had been drained out of it. He then told them everything. He described the tense, silent game he had to play, the whispered codes he had to speak into a man named Sterling’s ear, and the way Vincenzo had stared at him with hawk-like eyes, seeming to see right through him. He explained about the security guard closing in and the desperate, shameful distraction he created by sacrificing another waiter’s night to save his own skin. He told them about the quiet, threatening car ride with Marcus and the final warning he received. "Vincenzo’s men are now looking for the clumsy waiter," Ace explained. "Ramos says we have to disappear. We have to become ghosts and avoid drawing any attention to ourselves. Our repair business has to stay small and completely invisible."

The joy and shock drained from Silva’s face, replaced by a sickly, pale fear. Evelyn listened with her arms crossed tightly over her chest, as if she were trying to hold herself together. Her expression was grim, confirming her worst fears had come true.

"So that’s the real price we have to pay," she said softly, her eyes fixed on the small fortune covering the bench. "We have fifteen thousand dollars, but we also have a powerful and vengeful new enemy who has a reason to hunt you down. We aren’t free, Ace. We are not building a future. We’re just trading one prison for another, and this one is far more expensive."

"It’s still money we didn’t have yesterday," Ace argued. A defensive tone crept into his tired voice as he tried to convince her as much as himself. "This is what we needed. This money is for Aegis, for our business account, and for the parts we need to buy. This is for our future."

"And what future is that, exactly?" Evelyn fired back, her voice rising with frustrated fear. "Is it a future where we are always hiding? Where we jump at every shadow, wondering if it’s Vincenzo’s men coming for revenge? A future where Ramos owns you because he is the only one who can supposedly protect you from the monster he sent you to provoke?"

The truth of her words hit Ace like a punch to the gut. He had been so blinded by the large amount of money, and by the sheer size of accomplishing his goal, that he refused to see the heavy chains that were attached to it.

Silva, desperate to break the suffocating tension, picked up a stack of bills. "I mean... it’s still a lot of money," he said, his voice hopeful. "We could... I don’t know, buy a really, really good alarm system?"

Ace managed a weak, tired smile. Silva’s simple, earnest logic was a lifeline. "We already have a good alarm system, Silva."

"Right," Silva nodded, getting more into his idea. "A better one then! With lasers! And... and a moat! Do workshops have moats?"

The sheer absurdity of the suggestion finally broke the terrible tension. A small, strained laugh escaped Evelyn’s lips. The fear was still there, sitting in the room like a cold and heavy knot, but now it was a fear they all shared together as a team.

"Alright," Ace said, taking a deep, steadying breath. He started gathering the money back into the envelope, stacking the bills neatly to give himself something to do. "First thing tomorrow, we will deposit this into the business account. Then... then we will do exactly what Ramos said. We will become invisible. We will take no more high-profile jobs. We will stop showing off online. We will focus only on the repair business. We will keep our heads down, work hard, and build our future quietly."

He looked at the money and then at Evelyn and Silva. The fifteen thousand dollars was supposed to be their ticket to freedom, but instead it felt like a cement block tied to their ankles, pulling them deeper into the dark and dangerous water they were so desperately trying to escape.

The cost of doing business with a devil is never just money. It also costs a piece of your soul and paints a target on your back for a whole new set of monsters. Ace had paid the price in full, and now they all had to live with the consequences.