Hearts: Aces Underground Four, page 1
HEARTS
ACES UNDERGROUND FOUR
HELEN HARDT
This book is an original publication of Helen Hardt.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites or their content.
The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work that have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized by, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
Copyright © 2026 Helen Hardt
Cover Design: Shepard Originals
Edited by Eric J. McConnell
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic format without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-952841-46-0
CONTENTS
Hearts
Praise for Helen Hardt
“Well, I don’t want any to-day, at any rate.”
Prologue
1. Bianca
2. Harrison
3. Bianca
4. Harrison
5. Bianca
6. Harrison
7. Bianca
8. Harrison
9. Bianca
10. Harrison
11. Bianca
12. Harrison
13. Bianca
14. Harrison
15. Bianca
16. Harrison
17. Bianca
18. Harrison
19. Bianca
20. Harrison
21. Bianca
22. Harrison
23. Bianca
24. Harrison
25. Bianca
26. Harrison
27. Bianca
28. Harrison
29. Bianca
30. Harrison
31. Chet
32. Bianca
33. Harrison
34. Chet
35. Bianca
36. Harrison
37. Bianca
“I can’t believe that!” said Alice.
38. Harrison
Epilogue
Epilogue II
Excerpt from Summer of Thorns
Acknowledgments
Also by Helen Hardt
About the Author
HEARTS
ACES UNDERGROUND FOUR
Helen Hardt
PRAISE FOR HELEN HARDT
Wow! Mind just blown! A complete mindf**k…
~GoddessWithanAttitude on Spades
“Literally perfection.”
~Read with Aimee on My Heart Still Beats
“Helen Hardt is a master at making you fall for the bad boy.”
~Words We Love By on Savage Sin
“Hardt spins erotic gold…”
~Publishers Weekly on Follow Me Darkly
“22 Best Erotic Novels to Read”
~Marie Claire Magazine on Follow Me Darkly
“Intensely erotic and wildly emotional…”
~New York Times bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones on Follow Me Darkly
“Christian, Gideon, and now…Braden Black.”
~Books, Wine, and Besties on Follow Me Darkly
“This red-hot tale will have readers fanning themselves.”
~Publishers Weekly on Blush
“Scintillating…”
~Publishers Weekly on Bloom
“Helen's intelligent writing style and skills have made this story a must-read.”
~FireSerene Reads on Bloom
“It's hot, it's intense, and the plot starts off thick and had me completely spellbound from page one.”
~The Sassy Nerd Blog on Rebel
“This book was fantastic! It was steamy, funny, romantic, and just about any other emotion you can think of…”
~Steamy Book Mama on Lily and the Duke
“Craving is the jaw-dropping book you need to read!”
~New York Times bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones on Craving
"Completely raw and addictive."
~#1 New York Times bestselling author Meredith Wild on Craving
“Helen Hardt has some kind of skill I don’t have the words to describe. Her writing is addictive. She sucked in my mind and I just don’t want to read anything but her right now!”
~OMGReads Blog
“Helen Hardt…is a master story teller.”
~Small Town Book Nerd
“Well, I don’t want any to-day, at any rate.”
“You couldn’t have it if you did want it,” the Queen said. “The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday—but never jam to-day.”
“It must come sometimes to ‘jam to-day,’” Alice objected.
“No, it can’t,” said the Queen. “It’s jam every other day: to-day isn’t any other day, you know.”
“I don’t understand you,” said Alice. “It’s dreadfully confusing!”
“That’s the effect of living backwards,” the Queen said kindly.
Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass
PROLOGUE
BIANCA
Rouge saved me when I hit rock bottom.
But that doesn’t excuse what she’s done.
And I won’t allow her to get away with this.
“Bianca!”
A harsh whisper from behind me nearly makes me jump out of my skin as I enter my dressing room. I turn with a start.
It’s Harrison.
“Oh, thank God. You scared me.”
“Sorry.” He exhales. “I just saw you slip in here and wanted to talk to you. I think I might know where we’ll find this writing raven.”
I widen my eyes. “Really? Where?”
“The women’s restroom.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Why there?”
“I don’t know for sure. But it’s the only place I haven’t looked yet, besides the places I’m not allowed to go.” I pace back and forth. “But it makes sense for a place to hide something, right? Easy access from the secret entrance and all.”
I scratch the side of my head. “Okay…”
He holds up a hand. “You’re not convinced. Neither am I. But it’s the only place I haven’t looked. Obviously I can’t go in and look without a woman going in first to make sure the coast is clear.”
I’m about to tell him that what he’s saying makes no sense, but then I feel the familiar twitch above my eyebrow. It could just be nerves—this is a high-stakes situation, after all—but it hasn’t led me astray yet.
Maybe Harrison is right. There could be something in the ladies’ restroom hiding in plain sight.
“Let’s try it out.” I check my phone. “I have fifteen minutes until my next set. Rouge sometimes comes in and checks on me during my breaks, but there are a lot of extra people here for the holiday. They should keep her busy.”
He nods. “Great. Thanks for trying this out for me, babe.”
I get on my tiptoes and kiss his cheek. “I have a feeling you might be right about this.” I open my dressing room door and peek through. Rouge is all the way across in Spades, and no one seems to be paying much attention to the area surrounding the ladies’ restroom. I gesture Harrison to follow behind me.
We cross quickly toward the restroom. I go inside first, and the coast is clear. The three stalls are empty, and there’s no one sitting on the fainting couch at the entrance or adjusting their makeup in the mirror.
I open the door. “It’s empty. Come in.”
He enters, and together we push the fainting couch against the door to keep people from coming inside while we look around.
“Let’s be quick,” I say. “You never know when my sister might have to heed nature’s call.”
Harrison chuckles. “I didn’t think Rouge would ever be caught doing something so human as taking a shit.”
I let out a short laugh. It’s a funny thing to say. Unfortunately, I have seen the human side of Rouge, and it might be even more terrifying than her Queen side.
“Let’s look around. See if anything looks out of place.”
He nods.
I check the mirror behind the sink—since mirrors seem to be important to this section of the club—but find nothing. No secret cabinet or anything. I run my hands along the upholstery of the fainting couch. It’s all original stitching.
“That’s weird,” Harrison mutters from the stalls.
“What’s weird?” I walk over to him.
“The stalls in this bathroom. They have writing on the locks. Like in an airplane bathroom. When you switch the lock”—he demonstrates—“it goes from ‘vacant’ to ‘occupied.’”
I purse my lips. “So? That’s not exactly uncommon.”
He shakes his head. “I was in the men’s room before I met you in the dressing room. I looked up and down the doors of those toilet stalls, seeing if there was a picture of a raven or something, and they don’t have that feature.”
“So? There probably isn’t a fainting couch either. Sometimes ladies’ restrooms are a little fancier than men’s.” But then I gasp. “My God! It’s writing!”
“Yeah. As in the writing raven
“I thought it meant that the raven was doing the act of writing. Not the writing itself.”
He nods. “I was thinking about this earlier. The river of tears in the riddle wasn’t referring to an actual river, or actual tears. So we have to think outside the box on the other half of the riddle as well.”
“Okay. So what could raven mean?”
“I was thinking it could be raven as in raven hair. Like the color black.” He gestures to the stall doors. “But the writing on all these locks is pink, just like everything else in this bathroom.”
“Right.” I grab my phone. “Let’s see if there are other definitions of the word.” I pull up Google and search for the definition of “raven.” Several results pull up, and I pull up a dictionary website. “Well, the first definition is the bird, obviously. Then there’s the adjective, like ‘raven black hair.’ And then…” I widen my eyes.
“Then what?”
“It’s a verb, too. ‘To raven’ means ‘to devour voraciously.’ It must be where the word ‘ravenous’ comes from.”
He taps at his chin “So we’re looking for writing that is…eating something?”
“We might be at a dead end.” I sigh and pocket my phone.
“Not necessarily.” Harrison examines the lock of the first stall, turning it to ‘occupied’ and back. He then looks at the second one for a few seconds before moving on to the third.
There’s a knock on the door. A woman’s voice I don’t recognize. “Hello? Is the bathroom closed?”
I swallow. “Just a minute. There was an incident. We’re doing some cleaning.”
“Is that Bianca in there?”
“N-No.” I lower my voice. “But how sweet of you to think I sound like her. It’s…Hilda, the custodian. I’m cleaning up. Someone got sick in here.”
“Oh, heavens. How long will it be?”
“At least ten minutes,” I say. “Maybe you could use the men’s restroom.”
“Not on your life. I’ll go ask Rouge if I can use her restroom in her office.”
“No! No! Don’t do that!” I think quickly. “If you can just wait a few minutes, we’ll be open momentarily.”
“Okay… I guess I’ll wait.”
“Great. Thank you.” I turn to Harrison. “Can you hurry it up?”
“I think I might have found something.” Harrison exits the leftmost stall, the one against the wall. “Look here.”
I cross. “Make it quick. We’ve got someone waiting.”
“I heard. But look.” He turns the lock on the stall to ‘occupied’ and points. “See here? Could these be little teeth?”
I point. On the right side of the ‘occupied’ end of the lock, there are a few tiny triangles. Hardly noticeable unless you’re looking for it.
“And these aren’t on the other two stalls?”
“Correct. If the word ‘occupied’ has these little teeth, then it kind of looks like it’s eating the word ‘vacant’ when you turn the lock.”
I blink. “The writing is…ravening.”
“Indeed.” He grins.
“Oh, my God. Did we actually figure it out?”
“I don’t know, but we should check this stall out from top to bottom.”
“And quickly”—I glance toward the bathroom door—“before Ms. Whoever outside decides to call Rouge for help.”
“Right.” He gets on his knees and looks around the toilet. “Anything odd?”
“No,” I sigh. “It looks like a regular toilet to me.” I look it up and down, from the bottom of the toilet to its bowl to its tank on top. I even remove the top to check the flushing mechanism on the inside, but everything looks like it should. “Maybe we were seeing things with those little teeth.” I rub at the back of my neck. “It seems like every time we get some momentum, we end up right where we started. Maybe this is all a wild—”
I stop as I examine the lever in front of the tank. I’ve never noticed before, but in tiny cursive writing it has the words “Flush Me” on it. I check the other toilets. They don’t have the writing on the lever.
I walk in and flush the toilet, expecting something crazy to happen.
And the toilet simply flushes.
Damn it. Just like I said. Every time we…
But of course the nothing would be revealed if you flushed the toilet the regular way, by pressing the lever down. Then every single woman who came here and did her business would open some secret door revealing all of Rouge’s deepest secrets.
I squeeze my eyes shut and think.
And the cool voice of my sister floats through my brain.
Here at Aces Underground, we pride ourselves on the weird and wonderful. Here we believe that turning the known upside down reveals the hidden.
My God. It’s not just a motto. It’s a clue.
An ordinary person would push the lever down to initiate the flushing mechanism. But an extraordinary person, who, as my sister would say, would thrive in this environment, would flush by pushing the lever up.
I do so, and a second later a groan echoes from the wall behind the toilet.
“Holy shit!” Harrison exclaims. “I think we figured it out!”
The walls give way to reveal a hidden crawlspace above the toilet, small enough for one person to go inside.
My heart pounds, matching the rhythm of the twitch of my eyebrow.
What we find in this crawlspace is going to change everything.
Just like the lever on the toilet, everything will be turned upside down.
I’m terrified…and excited.
“Looks like there’s only room enough for one person to check it out,” Harrison says. “You figured out how to open the door, so why don’t you do the honors?”
I swallow down my nerves. “All right.” I turn on the flashlight of my phone just as there’s another knock on the door.
“Will the bathroom be open soon?” The same woman as before.
“Yes!” I call back. “Just five more minutes.”
“All right! Thank you.”
“Better make this quick.” I hoist myself onto the top of the toilet and Harrison helps me up into the crawlspace.
It’s dark, so I shine my flashlight around. The crawlspace leads to a small room, maybe five feet by five feet. Concrete walls, and the only object in the room is a small table. I look it over. It’s a regular folding table, the cheap kind that would stick out like a sore thumb in the delicately furnished environment of Aces Underground.
But then my breath catches in my throat as I notice a few small drops on the table’s surface. Dark brown.
The color of dried blood.
I look under the table as my heart thumps in my ears. Underneath is a small cooler, light pink in color.
“Anything in there, babe?” Harrison asks.
“Yeah. A tiny cooler under a table. I think there’s drops of dried blood on the table.”
“Damn. What’s in the cooler?”
“I’m going to check now.”
“Okay. Just be safe.”
I get down on my hands and knees and remove the lid from the cooler. I shine my flashlight and view its contents.
And…
Oh, my God.
It can’t be.
It’s… It’s…
