Queen of Spades (House of Car...

A/N: I could just add this next part into the original chapter and extend it out, but I enjoyed leaving that short cliffhanger in there. So here is the rest of Alice and Malcolm's interlude with being caught.

SOME of this part is in Spanish. Because Google translate is so kind I am including the Spanish dialogue, but I will also include the English translation beside it in parenthesis. ( ) <----- those things are parenthesis if you didn't know.

ALSO, some of you are probably going to wonder how Alice is able to remember all of this. She is an autodidact, which means she has a compulsion to learn new things constantly, and eventually she will realize she has an eidetic memory, meaning that she remembers things exactly as she sees themm so she can visualize a dictonary page and remember ALL the words and meanings on it.  

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They'd been caught, in a quick panic Alice stepped away from Malcolm and saw West staring at them.

"Don't tell anyone." Alice blurted out to her newest friend.

West's gold eyes snapped from glaring a horrible death at Malcolm, to spot Alice and shine with relief. "Oh thank god it's you. For a second there I thought he was cheating on you." he commented with a little chuckle. Alice just gaped at him, completely lost as to how the hell West had KNOWN?

"What?" Ace demanded, completely lost.

"¿Cómo lo sabes?" Malcolm asked West in Spanish, unaware that Alice understood them.  

(How'd you know?)

"Que ella llamó su nombre cuando le atacaron. Sólo hay una razón a una mujer como que llama a sí mismo Parca. Soy tan tonto como para sumar dos y dos juntos y participar." West replied.  

(She called your name when they attacked her. There's only one reason a woman like that calls for Reaper himself. I'm dumb enough to put two and two together and get involved.)

"Parca?" Alice asked, getting surprised and alarmed looks from both men. They'd either forgotten she was there or never guessed she knew Spanish. It was the language of love and for an autodidact like Alice, it was too tempting to pass up. She loved to watch Spanish soap operas and laugh at the ridiculous 온라인카지노게임 lines and overly dramatic acting, but that was a secret she hadn't told anyone.

"Let's not have this discussion here." Malcolm ignored Alice's question. What the hell had Malcolm done to earn a nicname like Reaper? The thought made Alice chilled, the implications obvious to her. The Grim Reaper was Death. Had Malcolm lied when he said he never killed anyone? "We'll go talk at my place. Less likely for anyone else to get involved." his tone was sardonic. Alice grabbed her bag and thankfully West followed, a dark scowl on his handsome face.

Ace's head was reeling, confused and a little worried. She felt like she was getting pulled into a world she knew nothing about. So she hesitated for just a second, trying to decide if this is what she wanted. Malcolm turned to look at her as if he knew why she paused. His eyes were guarded and she knew that he wouldn't hold it against her if she decided that she wasn't comfortable staying with him. But she smiled softly, knowing that a life without risks would be terribly boring, and reached for his hand. Surprised flashed in both men's eyes, clearly they had expected her to takethe easy way out. Mal held her hand for a brief moment, but let it fall as they headed out to the Jeep. Alice was both relieved and disturbed that West had caught them. This was why they'd set up ground rules, but by 4:30 in the afternoon, neither of them had expected witnesses to be hanging around.

The ride to Malcolm's was tense and silent, all three passengers locked into their own thoughts. Ace wasn't sure what the others were thinking about, but she was desperately trying to not get too worked up before getting the full 온라인카지노게임. Alice ended up on Malcolm's couch with her legs crossed under her, Malcolm leaning against the arm of her seat and West across from them, slouched into a chair.

"Yes Alice and I are together. Obviously you understand why this has to be kept quiet." Mal stated. West gave him a sarcastic salute but stayed silent. Malcolm turned a little to look down at Alice. "You already knew I was in a gang a few yuears back." he started, looking at her without seeing her. "I was the middle of three children, my older sister Adri, me and baby brother Diego." his face looked melancholy. "We didn't live in the safest part of town, and when I was fourteen, a friend of my sister's came to tell us that the neighboring gang had done a snatch and drop." Malcolm cleared his throat. "She'd been drugged heavily and used repeatedly, and before the night was through, she'd died of an overdose." Alice stared at him, amazed at how calmly he told this 온라인카지노게임. No wonder he'd reacted so violently when she'd been attacked. "I asked that friend to help me get the bastardos back.Make them pay and live to regret their actions." Malcolm stood up and wandered to his kitchen, pulling a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue down and a glass.

West and Alice just looked at each other as Malcolm poured himself a drink. It was obvious that despite his calm tone, he was having trouble telling htem this and Alice tried to give him a little time to compose what he wanted to say.

"So West, you two know each other?" she asked, implying that they'd been too casual to have just met in school. There was obviously even more back온라인카지노게임 she hadn't heard yet.

West nodded. "Yeah, I got moved around a lot. My dad works for DFAIT, and he was stationed in Cuba for five years. During that time he met my mother and then viola, me. But the problem was his wife back in Canada and their three kids." his tone was dryly mocking. "So his time in Cuba ends and he's sent to Spain next. My mother dies of cancer when I was twelve and dad does the honorable thing by taking me on. So there I was, twelve years old in Spain with a father I've barely met in person. And he's busy pretty much always. So I start to tag along with some of the older boys from my school and geting into trouble. Around this time I met an older boy everyone calls Reaper. Mess with him and you wish you'd die, they told me." West stated with conviction. Alice looked to her boyfriend and saw him take a large swallow of his liquor. He wasn't denying the 온라인카지노게임 thus far. "Believe it or not but I spent the next two years following him around, wishing I could be him. Then I got busted for drug running and my dad sent me back to Cuba to live with my grandmother. I kept on keeping on, getting into Los Santos, but two years ago my grandmother moved us here. I spend the school year with her and summer with my dad's family, so it's an interesting life here. Though coming to school and finding out that Reaper is a teacher there blew my mind. Guess they never did catch him at it."

"Wait, how old are you?" Alice asked her friend, feeling overwhelmed and lost. This was a lot of back온라인카지노게임 to accept all at once.

"Nineteen. Reaper's only five years older than me. But I lost a lot of school time to stupid s***." he admitted with a shrug.

Malcolm finally came back over to the couch, his drink topped up. As he sat beside Alice, she grabbed the glass and took a gulp. He raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything besides taking the glass back. She looked at him and asked with her eyes for the rest of his 온라인카지노게임. He gave her a sad smile, taking another sip and finally getting started again.

"I was fourteen and filled with rage. Adrianna's friends accepted me into their group of toughs eagerly, still a small group at that time. Eventually they helped me track down the group that had gang banged her and I spent the next three years breaking those guys down. First I ruined their lives, then I focused on beating them bloody. After that I left them alone. He finished his drink again. "Westley here came in at the end if that run, and it wsa kids like him trying to act like I did that made me realize I was screwing up lives other than my own."

They sat silently after that, though none of them looked terribly relaxed. West seemed the most at ease about it all, though he was too relaxed looking and Ace knew it was bravado. She grabbed Malcolm's empty glass and went ot the kitchen, filling it up and grabbing some for West and herself too.

"You're going to get me arrested." Malcolm joked, raising his glass to her in a toast. Alice clinked with him and reached across to tap West's glass too.

"So how exactly did you piece it together that he and I were together?" Alice asked West, sipping at the strong liquor. It's fumes helped wipe away some of hte questions in her head and helped settle her nerves.

West smirked at her, strange eyes flashing. "First when I noticed that you were ignoring my charms." he grinned. "You're goregous and they way you dance is criminal. But when we danced together, you were dancing just for you and couldn't give a d*** if I was there or not. You didn't take the opportunity to get up on this." he touched his chest, voice arrogant with ego. "So right away I knew your heart was elsewhere." Alice managed to keep from blushing at that statement, wishing to argue the point. Yes her relationship with Malcolm wasn't exactly going slowly, but they were still far from the love stage. Weren't they? She mentally shook herself and sipped her drink. The likelihood of their relationship working were slim and nil, and she would enjoy it while it lasted but would also keep in mid that it'll end in her heartbreak if she gets too attatched. She liked Mal, a lot, and being with him made her day better, but falling in love with him was out of the question, she'd only get hurt. But right now she didn't want to interrupt West's explanation so she let it pass. "When I caught the look on his face when he walked in on us winding it, I realized that Reaper was definitely into you." West smirked at them, not seeming at all bothered by their age discrepancy or immorality of their relationship. "When I heard some noise from the change rooms and found those f***ers manhandling you, I couldn't not do anything and you called out for a Malcolm and I took a guess that you meant him." Alice ignoreed the chill in her gut at how casually West referred to the attack she couldn't even remember. Malcolm's hand came to rest on her thigh, lightly squeezing for comfort. "And several of us heard your friend announce that you'd gotten laid last night though I don't think she meant for any of us to find that out..." he trailed off as Alice's face flamed red and confirmed the rumor to be true. West just grinned at them while Malcolm cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"You will keep this quiet won't you?" Mal asked, the dark tone making it sound less like a request and more like a promise for violence if he didn't.

West gave his once idol a flat stare back. "I've heard enough about Alice's hi온라인카지노게임 to figure out that no one is going to be able to take advantage of her emotionally, and if anyone deserves to be happy it's the two of you. You're just so adorable together." he cooed sarcastically. Alice flipped the bird at him.

"So when you saw Malcolm kissing someone, you were offended on my behalf?" Alice asked, sounding amused.

"It sounds so lame when you say it that way..." West complained.

They all started a little as Alice's phone shrilled an alarm from her bag. Ace finished her drink and wandered over, silencing the annoyance and grabbing a pill bottle from her bag. She took a couple of pills and walked over to the sink, filling her drinking glass with water. "The doctors want me to take the radioactive strength antibiotics until the hairline fracture in my face heals." she explained and washed the pills down. "S*** we're supposed to help Sal." Alice remembered. Malcolm set his drink down and West copied, realizing that their little chat was over.

Malcolm dropped Alice off at the pet shop so she could help while he drove West back to his grandmother's. It occured to her that she'd been very lucky that it was West that had caught them and not someone like Lexi. They'd felt safe because it was so late but obviously they needed to keep hteir ground rules firmly in place. Mal whispered pretty much hte same thing to her after he returned and pronised that they would discuss his hi온라인카지노게임 in greater detail later. She planned on holding him to that promise, needing to know the details so her mind stopped coming up with its own terrible scenarios. It was far worse to not know.

Things were less playful between them while they worked, but Alice was alright with that as she had enough challenge working with Monster shadowing her. He quickly learned to not get under foot, but everywhere she went, he would follow.

"Monster, go lie down out of the way." Alice firmly instructed, pointing at an out of the way corner and snapping her fingers. The puppy regarded her for a moment and then went and collapsed in the exact spot she pointed at.

"That was uncanny." Malcolm laughed. Alice's smart reply was cut off as the shop phone rang.

"Animal Haven, this is Alice, how may I help you?" she answered, putting a smile into her voice. When Salali had learned that Alice didn't mind reception work, she'd given all phone duties to her.

"Yeah this is Gulliver. Sal helps me with the big animals. Can you tell her we've got a skittish colt caught in barbed wire that could use her special help?"

"Hang on." Alice set the phone down and hunted the large Native woman down. Salali ended up taking the call directly and then pulling a flight of the bumblebees around the shop as she gathered necessary supplies.

"Sal, are you a vet?" Alice asked, a little surprised.

"I have a degree, yes. But I am also trained in traditional methods that most modern practictioners lack." she explained as she packed a treatment bag. "Malcolm, I need you to look after Alice tonight, this is going to be an all night trip and the foster system will freak at me if I leave her alone after ecerything htat's happened." Salali asked, not knowing her friend and her charge were now sleeping together.

"Alright. I'll take her back to your place and you can take off from here." Malcolm agreed, not even a twitch of his eyebrow to give away his emotional response to being alone with Alice.

Alice herself was feeling nervous again, though not from anticipation this time. What if Malcolm had done something she couldn't deal with? The Malcolm she cared about and trusted was not the same as he was back when he earned the nicname Reaper, but how much could he have chaged? Moster seemed to pick up on her anxiety and responded by sitting on her foot. She literally couldn't move without handeling him first.

She crouched down to pet the puppy, finding it more soothing to her than the dog. "Hey Monster, you trying to protect me from myself huh?" she asked the dog softly. His tail thumped at her, a seeming yes. She hugged the puppy and picked him up, getting a lick to the face in trade. She started to dance with Monster, pretending he was Oberon in the play. Choreography started to race through her head and she set the now happy puppy down and scribbled the moves out. When Malcolm came looking for her later, she'd gotten her first sequence worked out while feeding the animals. Monster wandered the shop, as if doing a final patrol and then walked himself into the pen, getting comfortable for the night.

"Yeah that's downright creepy." Malcolm teased quietly. Alice smiled at him, no longer panicking. It was nearly eleven when they made it to her apartment, and a weary Alice finally got her hot shower in.

"All yours." she told Malcolm, handing him a clean towel.

"Do you want to talk tonight, or later?" he asked, willing to wait if that's what Alice wanted.

"Go shower, you smell like Muttley's butt." Alice instructed, only half joking. He did have a strong dog odor right then. "If you're ok with starting our talk tonight, I'll ask questions while you get less smelly."

He surprised her with a quick kiss, then walked into the bathroom, stripping down without hesitation or seeming embarassment. Alice kept her eyes averted, because even though her head was no longer sure this was a good idea, her body very much liked any plan that involved Malcolm getting naked. She sat herself on the toilet and closed her eyes, the brief glimpse she caught of him getting wet made her brain come to a screaming halt.

"Obviously your past is about as PG 13 as mine is." Alice stated, not knowing how to start prying into his hi온라인카지노게임.

"I didn't kill them." Malcolm's voice was almost lost in the sounds of the shower. Alice opened her eyes and looked at him. The water was spraying over his shoulders and back, dripping down his face and his dark fire eyes caught hers. "Killing htem would have been a mercy compared to what I did." she had a sudden urge to silence him, let him keep his memories dormant. Her curiosity wasn't worth his pain, because she realized that with as much self-loathing as he carried over his past acts, she cared about him now no matter what he had done back then.

"Mal..." Alice's voice was soft and she stood up from the toilet to come closer to him.

"Alice you need to know this. Not being honest about my past was a mistake I made with Shawna and I don't want to make those mistakes with you." he explained.

"You get to make all new ones with me." Alice smiled as she said it so he knew she wasn't serious.

"Thanks for that vote of confidence." he replied sarcastially. Alice sat back down, feeling a little foolish watching him shower. "There were four bangers involved in what happened to Adri. Paco, Juntez, Nicky and Logan. First I seduced Paco's fiancee on their wedding day. Then I got a few friends to help me moltov his little bar. He never kept the place up to code and it exploded. Finally I caught up with him and tried to see how many bones I could break with my fist." his voice was mechanical and emotionless, but his movements to lather up were angry strokes and swipes. It was eerie, intimidating and a little arousing, a combination that left Alice feeling a little dazed. "Juntex was easier to take care of, he had debts all over. A few suggestions and suddenly all his flags were called. I didn't lay a finger on him but he ended up in traction because of me." there was no pride in his voice. "Nicky was so busy snorting everything he could up his nose he didn't even realize I'd burned his home down for an entire weekend. THen I gave his wife all the information she needed to prove he was cheating on her. Once she was through with him, I accidentally hit him with a dirt bike. His leg was shattered." he rinsed off, pausing his emotionaless confession. "And Logan was the guy who'd picked my sister specifically because she was a good girl. She wanted to wait for marriage. I eviscerated him myself." he stopped as something occured to him. "I guess I lied to you when I said I'd never tortured anyone. Sorry I just couldn't...." he trailed off, standing limply under the water spray.

Alice reached into the shower and turned off the water, not caring that she was getting drenched in hte process. He watched her, eyes vulnerable and guarded at the same time, ready for her outrage and rejection. He felt like he deserved it. But Alice remembered how she'd felt in the moment she hesitated to kill Stuart. She'd had that brief chance but thought being hte better person meant letting go so he would learn a lesson. The only thing he'd learned from the experience was that he needed to break her, so he'd poured boiling water over her. Ace knew that if ever she was given the opportunity now, she'd kill him and deal with the consequences. She felt uniquely qualified to understand where such a black rage could come from. Somethings you would willingly do even knowing it made you a bad person. Alice didn't say any of this to him though, just handed him a towel and waited while he started to dry off. Her silence seemed to unnerve him and she knew her unreadable expression was driving him mental.

"Will you please just say something?" he demanded, voive betraying his nerves.

"When's your brother's wedding?" she asked, as if everything he'd just told her hadn't fazed her at all. Malcolm frowned, not following for a moment what she meant by it. But then he realized she understood his actions even if they bothered her, and she was choosing to stay by his side. His hands came up to her arms and pulled her into a hug. He was still damp and naked, so Alice's hormones went into immediate feeding frenzy mode, demanding that she maul him and maul him now. But Malcolm pulled out of hte hug before she went cave woman on him.

"Now I have to go change, I'm all wet." Alice whined, not realizing the double entendre until Malcolm's eyebrows went up. "Oh for the love of God.." Alice laughed. "Why don't I just open my mouth and stick it in there?" she caught the flub and tried to recvoer. "My foot, my foot in there. Agh!" she gave a frustrated sounds as Malcolm started to laugh at her accidental innuendos. She spun on her heel and walked away, leaving him to go hide in her room. His arms wrapped around her before she got very far. His chest rumbled with laughter and Alice felt his breath stir her hair.

"I didn't mean to upset you." he apologized, smile in his voice.

"You're an a**hole." Alice retorted, making him laugh again.

"The wedding is new year's day, I'll take you there, it's over night at the hotel Lac Lemy." he said into her hair, still holding her to his chest. He walked her into her room while he talked, letting go only after he'd finished his speil.

Alice turned to face him and had to smile at the relieved happiness that played in his eyes. She could tell he loved his family very much and now she was determined to make a good impression on them. He pulled her to his chest again, kissing her face and cheeks until she grabbed his face and finally kissed hteir lips together. He was so maddening sometimes! His tongue dominated hers and her lips tingled as he controlled the kiss. He was more bold tonight, his hands sure as he tugged at her sleeping shorts.

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A/N: Obviously there is going to be another steamy scene between them. I will post the detailed adult chapter like I did the other one. Not all these scenese are going to get written out though, just the ones I feel something significant occurs at the same time. SO, if you want the adult continuation, go to my profile, look up the QoS: Adult chapter one and I've added it into there by the time you've read all this.

ENJOY!