Walking up the staircase with Beau in my arms, I slowly made my way to her room that sat next to Maceo's and dressed her into something more comfortable to sleep in. Laying her in her little princess bed, I made my way back down to Maceo's office to find Ace, Ace's father Seth I had met at the dinner and Lucian sitting in the office with Zade and the rest of them.

There were no spaces left to sit so I made my way over to Zade, he pulled me onto his lap giving me one of his many smirks.

"Ava, you're probably wondering why you have to be here." Maceo started and I nodded slowly, keeping my worried eyes on him.

Everyone in the room was staring at me and I didn't like it.

"Do you remember the guy who talked to you at The Pit with the blue eyes?" He asked.

"With the other family in the booth?" I nodded.

"They're your mothers family, they're The Monrovian Family." Maceo continued.

"Oh, okay." I leaned into Zade's body; he tightened his arms around my body calming my nerves.

"Okay?" Maceo asked.

"I don't know what you want me to say." I said softly.

"How about why the fuck you didn't tell us about your mother sooner." Ace growled at me.

"Check yourself before I do it for you." Zade stood with me still in his arms, his tone cold and filled with menace.

Ace stood but was stopped by his father.

"Sit down son before you embarrass us both, again." He growled at Ace.

"Zade." I whispered, trying to calm him down.

He stared down Ace and Ace finally turned his head the other way and Zade finally sat, pulling me into his arms again.

"She didn't know about her mothers family." Lucian glared at Ace.

"She still could have told us about her mother being a Monrovian." Ace stared at me with disgust.

"Your hanging on by a thread Ace, throw another dirty look her way. I fucking dare you." Zade lifted me and placed me next to Blaine.

"What are you going to do about it?" Ace yelled.

"I'll have you out cold like I did last night, I held myself back at your dinner because of the kids in the room, fucking push me Ace." Zade seethed, stepping towards Ace challengingly.

"Enough!" Seth yelled at his son. "You embarrassed us last night already, do not do it again!"

"What are they talking about?" I asked Blaine worriedly, he looked pissed off as well.

"Him and Zade fought at The Pit last night, Zade won." Blaine said without taking his eyes off of Ace.

Why didn't he tell me? I thought.

"Ava." Maceo gave me a look and pointed at Zade.

Grabbing Zade's fist, he relaxed at my touch and came back to sit with me on his lap again.

"Maceo and Chris told me you had looked into me and my family." I said looking for confirmation, staring at Lucian.

"Yes, me and Ace." Lucian smiled.

So Ace must be the second one Maceo was speaking about, everything is making sense now. I thought.

"You two obviously didn't do a good enough job because if you looked closely at these files, you would have seen my mothers maiden name." I placed it in the front of the two and pointed to Monrovian next to my mother's name.

"I guess we didn't do a good job of that." Lucian scratched the back of his head.

"Then, I wasn't aware of my mothers family that I haven't met before, worked in this line of business so why would have I brought it up?" I said, making my way back to Zade.

"Why aren't you bothered by the new found information about your family?" Seth asked.

"I don't care for them is all I have to say and they are not my family. It doesn't affect me because I don't have any kind of connection with them." I shrugged, lacing my fingers in Zade's.

"They've been asking questions about you, did you know that?" Seth asked again.

"No I didn't."

"They want to meet you." Maceo said, giving me a soft look.

"Why?" I asked curiously.

"Because they now know you are Vee and that you are Maya's daughter." Zade said, confirming what I was thinking.

They probably only want to know about me because of my reputation in the underground fight club. I thought.

"How bad are they? In this business you guys are in." I asked, sinking into Zade more.

"You remember when I said the people we work for are 100 out of 10?" Maceo asked and gestured to Lucian and Seth.

I nodded.

"Well The Monrovian Family is 400 out of 10, they run 70% of this country and they have connections all over the world." He continued.

"That's crazy." I breathed.

"They're actually from Romania but moved here over 20 year's ago." Chris added.

"Do you want us to tell you more about them?" Maceo asked.

"Sure, I'm curious." I gave him a smile.

"Your mother's parents still run the family business, they haven't passed it down to any of your mothers siblings yet."

"How many siblings does she have?" I asked.

"5, two girls and three boys." Chris answered.

"They have a lot of kids as well, some of them were at The Pit that night." Maceo also said.

"Okay, thank you." I gave the two of them hugs.

"That's your reaction? Is a thank you?" Ace stared at me.

"How would you like for me to react?" I gave him a hard look.

"I don't know. Maybe go around yelling or some shit, like what Kenna would do." He huffed.

"Sorry to disappoint you but I'm not going to react like that." I stated.

"Is there something you aren't telling me?" I asked Maceo and Chris, they looked nervous.

"They want to meet you tomorrow night at their house."

"I do not want to meet them." I said shaking my head.

"You have no choice, they threatened to take you if you don't go." Seth said.

"I thought you guys could protect me?" I raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Not against them, they run 70% of this country. It's suicidal going against them." Lucian huffed.

"Are they going to hurt me?" I asked Maceo.

"No, they just want to talk." He reassured me with his soft words.

"About what exactly?" I asked curiously.

"We don't know but we can only imagine it being about you fighting underground."

"We'll come with you." Ace gave me a smile and I couldn't help but think of him as a creep when he did so.

"I'd like to go by myself." I said, playing with Zade's fingers.

"What? No!" Zade said, turning me to face him.

"Ava that's not a good idea." Maceo and Chris said in unison.

"I agree with them." Blaine gave me a stern look.

"Look, if they're that bad then I don't want you guys involved with them." I looked at the four of them and ignoring the other men in the room.

"You guys have a family to look after." I turned to Maceo and Chris. "And I couldn't live with myself if things went south and something happened to you all."

"Why must you always think of everyone else before yourself?" Zade stood, spinning me around and lifting my chin up to stare at him.

"Because I care." I breathed in his scent, melting into his arms.

"I'm coming with you whether you like it or not." Zade muttered into the top of my head.

I didn't say anything, if anything I wanted Zade to be there.

"They just want to talk right?" I asked.

"Yes." Chris nodded.

"Okay." Is all I said before I zoned out, thinking about how things might go once I meet them and how much I was keeping from Gray, I need to tell him everything and soon.

The men in the room kept talking so I made my way into the kitchen to make myself a coffee. I felt someone's presence behind me but I kept busy with preparing my coffee.

"You know I can give you anything you want, I have more money and power then Zade will ever have." Ace's voice called out arrogantly.

"Good thing I don't want anything you have to offer and as for money and power? I don't care for it." I said simply, making my way out the other set of kitchen doors.

There's no way was I going to walk passed him, he crept me out with his wondering eyes that raked up and down my body, Zade never looked at me with the same disrespectful eyes Ace did, yeah Zade looked at me with clear want and desire but there's a difference between the two of them, respect goes a long way for me personally and Ace didn't have that.

But Zade did, and to me, that is a man.

I said my goodnight's to the men in the room and made my way up to Zade's bedroom. He had to stay down in the office while they all talked more. Locking his door behind me, I made my way into his bathroom to shower and dressed in one of his white t-shirts. I slipped into his bed and as soon as my head hit his pillows, sleep pulled me in.

_

The bed dipped and I jolted awake startled.

"Hey it's just me." Zade pulled me into his arms.

"You scared me." I hummed into his neck.

"Sorry princess." He whispered, getting more comfortable.

"Why didn't you tell me you were fighting last night?" I asked sleepily.

"I didn't want you to worry about me." He tightened his arms around my waist.

"I think I'll always worry about you and I understand why you did it but I'm still mad you didn't tell me." I yawned

"Go to sleep princess." He chuckled, placing a kiss on the side of my head.