Top of Your Ambitions

“They’re here.” Zack announced quietly after sticking his head out of the bedroom door.

He quickly closed the door behind him and turned to Wallace, who is sitting on his bed and checking her phone. She looked up from her device, giving her boyfriend a curt nod. He noticed a frown on her face and he absolutely knows why.

“We can stay at Jack’s until they leave.” Zack suggested hopefully.

The redhead pursed her lips but shook her head. This expression on her face is really hard for him to read. He does not know what to do at this point; he made a horrific mistake at the New Year’s Eve party. Wallace caught him in the act but she has forgiven him. It is hard to put a finger on what she is feeling about him now.

It is most unfortunate that this terrific storm blew out the power in both Ace and Wallace’s house on the same night, because now both are going to be staying in this loft at the same time. It will be extremely awkward for Zack and possibly for the two ladies as well, especially given what had happened.

“No, Zack.”

“You sure?”

Wallace got up from her bed and slowly walked over to him. When she is close enough, she wrapped both arms around his neck and pulled him closer to her. He shot her a small smile, in which she returned quickly.

“If you ask me if I’m threatened by her presence here, sure. If you want me to admit that I’m scared she’ll take you away from me, I will. But I do not want you to pull yourself back from her because of me. If you want her more than me, that’s fine Zack, you just have to tell me so we can end this.”

Zack stared at her, smile faltering quite a bit. He placed a hand on her cheek, caressing it slowly.

“I want to stay here and I want you to stay here so you have an opportunity to figure it out for yourself. If you cannot refrain yourself from kissing her while we’re here, you shouldn’t be with me. What I’m trying to say is, I want you to live under the same roof as Ace and see if you can resist her. If you love me enough, you will. If you love her more, you won’t.”

The bassist placed his other hand on her other cheek, pulling her face to his so that he can kiss her. In retaliation, she returned the action. After a few moments, they both pulled away at approximately the same time.

“I only want you, Wallace.”

“Well, then I’m glad to hear that!” She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before skipping off to his bed.



Ace bit onto the pen in frustration, throwing both her hands up in the air. She glanced at Rian beside her and shot him a look. He laughed at her, giving her a few pats on the shoulder. A grimace appeared on his face when he noticed how tense her muscles are.

“You need like a girl’s day at the spa or something.” He remarked.

The blonde rolled her eyes, sparing him a look from her laptop screen.

“That’d be cool, if I had any girlfriends.”

“You have girlfriends!” Rian argued.

“Yeah, girlfriends who only want to talk about you and me hooking up every time we have a girl’s day out.”

The drummer chuckled, leaning back against his chair.

“Touché.”

Acacia turned back to the laptop screen, scrolling down through Ryland Lockheart’s bank account. She blinked at the number of impulse purchases and the seven-digit number of dollars he has left to spare for this particular account. Her forehead crinkled as she scrolled down the long, boring list.

“Speaking of hooking up, how about you and Zack. Whatever did happen last night.”

“I told you everything, Ri.” She murmured as she clicked the print button in her laptop.

She got up from her seat when she heard the printer in the living room running. Shooting Rian a meaningful look, she walked over to the printer and pulled out the papers from it. While she waited for the rest of it to print, she continued to look at her best friend.

“Why did you kiss him, Ace?”

“He kissed me, by the way, and it doesn’t matter, you know why.”

Rian looked at her as if he understood, the sympathetic expression on his face killed her. It just shows her how sad her situation is. Nothing in her life is put together. Before, the only neat thing about her entire existence is her work as a homicide cop, but lately, it has been proven otherwise.

Acacia picked up the rest of the papers and walked back to her seat in the dining room. She sat down, placing the paper right in front of her. Snatching a yellow highlighter from the kitchen counter, she started focusing on the papers.

“Now, why would Ryland Lockheart want to frame Jack for the murder? I mean it makes sense that he would want to frame someone because that’s very common in criminal pattern, but why Jack? What did poor, innocent Jack do to him?” She asked more to herself than to Rian.

Rian picked up his phone.

“Do you want me to ask Jack?”

“Yeah, do that, I’m going to follow on a lead involving Lily Segat.” Ace said, unfocused.

He texted Jack the question, but then something bothered him all of a sudden. Everything makes less sense but it does make more sense to the case at the same time.

“Acacia?”

“Hmm?”

“Lily Segat AKA Lily Phantom, she’s been targeting me and digging up personal information on me. Remember last summer when she’s all over my business?” Rian asked.

She made a sound of affirmative, just barely remembering Lily Phantom blogs and several entries on him and Carol; even on Rian and Ace. There were a lot of things that Rian wasn’t comfortable with because she got way too personal.

That lit up a spark in her mind.

“So Lily Phantom and Ryland Lockheart were targeting All Time Low? What if they are still doing it?”

“Ace, Phantom’s in prison.” Rian stated.

Ace scanned through the bank statement, highlighting significant information and nodding to herself as she went through the list. Rian stared at her as she flipped through each individual page with ease. After she got through the last page, she looked over at him with a look of accomplishment.

He tilted his head at her, gesturing for her to elaborate.

“I might know why they are working together.” She announced.

“Yeah?”

Turning from him once again, Ace pulled up her search engine and typed in Lily Phantom June 2012. When the images showed up, she clicked on one of them of her at a coffee shop sipping on some drink. She is wearing sunglasses and her dark brown hair is tied in a bun.

“Are you stalking her back or…?” Rian asked, confused.

“Look.”

She zoomed in on the photo, cursing the enhanced pixels for going blurry every time she zooms in on something. It is something that is loathed by most detectives.

“Do you see what she is wearing?”

“Um… sunglasses?”

“No, look at her earrings.”

“What?”

“Diamond earrings, fourteen grand.” Ace stated.

Rian laughed.

“Since when are you a diamond expert?”

“Since I read through Ryland Lockheart’s bank statements.” She pointed at one of the highlighted portion of the paper bank statement.

Rian’s mouth opened in realization, nodding along to her clarification.

“They are obviously lovers.” Ace finalized.

“But they’ve done a good job at keeping it secret.”

“Apparently not good enough, because I found out.”

“Ace, no one can keep anything from you.” Rian joked.

The blonde laughed, closing her laptop shut as she did that. Rian held out a hand for her to take and she agreed. He pulled her out of her seat, bringing her to the living room. She is beyond confused at what he is doing but decided to ignore it.

“You need to take a chill pill. Walk away from the work and take time to relax.” Rian turned on the TV.

The detective rolled her eyes once again but allowed herself to lean back into the sofa cushion. When she looked at the TV, she is distraught to find that it is left on the gossip channel. She assumed that Wallace was the last person to watch this television. Rian handed her the remote.

Just as she prepared to change the channel, a picture of Zack and Wallace showed up on the screen. They were both on the red carpet for Loki’s New Years Eve party just last night. Ace stopped to observe.

“Lockheart model Wallace Poulsen and musician boyfriend Zack Merrick showed up to the red carpet looking like the dynamic duo that they are! Wallace wore Lockheart, of course, the long blue cocktail dress complimenting her curves and her skin tone; and do not forget, the beautiful red hair!” It looks like someone is critiquing the fashion choices that took place at the party.

She sighed in defeat, admitting the fact that Wallace and Zack does, in fact, look excellent and perfect together. The press agrees, the world agrees, and even she agrees. It is very sad considering the fact that she really wants him.

“This look is definitely one of the best of the night, this look and fellow Lockheart model Dale Levine’s look. Moving on from the model and her rock star boyfriend, we now move onto our beloved Baltimore tennis sensation Liezel Beckett and her new boyfriend…”

A picture of Liezel and Tomas replaced the picture that made Acacia feel uneasy. She can hear Rian chuckle from beside her; he knows everything.

“They are definitely another one of the dynamic duos, disproving the saying that tennis is the only game where love means nothing. It means something to them, all right! Liezel Beckett is wearing Zac Posen once again; Beckett, we know you are a wonderful tennis player but honey, your fashion choices are getting predictable. Zac Posen might as well make all of your dresses for the rest of your life!”

Ace rolled her eyes and shook her head. It is unbelievable that her friend is getting talked down just for wearing the same name brand during every formal event. Ace herself could barely afford an actual name brand dress for all the events of the world. The media is a harsh critic.

“But purple is a good color on her, you must admit. She is grinning wide standing next to her new beau, who is a tennis player from the Czech Republic. As predictable as her wardrobe is, she is definitely not when it comes to her taste in men. From rock stars to tennis players, for sure she does not have a certain type.”

The detective has no idea why she is still watching this.

“Speaking of her rock star ex-boyfriend, it seems like All Time Low singer Alex Gaskarth has moved on…”

“Oh no!” Acacia groaned, placing a hand over her face.

Rian laughed loudly from beside her, ready to tease her for whatever it is to come onto the television screen.

“At the same event, Gaskarth was seen with a gorgeous blonde in Gucci yellow by his side. Just last night, everyone speculated over who the lucky lady might be, but we’ve found out that Alex’s possible new girlfriend is Detective Acacia Kovacs, a homicide police officer from our very own Baltimore Police Department.”

“Possible new girlfriend from the Baltimore Police Department.” Rian cooed at her, poking at her ribcage.

“I’m going to kill you, Dawson, right after I head over to that station building to brutally murder that commentator.” She muttered to her friend in embarrassment.

She turned off the TV after realizing she’s had enough of the bullshit the media is feeding her.

“Careful, detective, that’s an awful lot of death threats for a homicide cop!”

“Don’t worry about me, I’d worry about you. Your death would find no justice with a homicide cop covering up your murder and all!” She teased, sticking a tongue out at him.

They both laughed at each other, shaking their heads while they are at it. A more optimistic thought appeared in her mind after they were done laughing. Ace glanced at him with a big grin on her face to have him return the expression.

Even though she does not have the only man she has ever wanted, even though her reputation as a homicide detective is falling apart, and even though she lives in an extremely small apartment with her sister, she is contempt with her life. She has Rian, the only best friend she can ever ask for.

Notes

Thanks to folieahdude for commenting on the previous chapter!