Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
Ace flipped the top of his lighter open and closed, letting the flame emerge then retreat over and over again as they waited for the man they’d come to see.
Anger coursed through his veins and irritation pulled his lips up in a permanent scowl.
Ace had his feet kicked up on the dock manager’s desk while Ray and Von stood in the corner like guards.
They didn’t have to wait long. A moment later, voices could be heard outside the door, only getting louder when the door opened. The man stopped short as soon as he saw Ace and Von.
“Hey, I’ll get with you later alright. I have something to handle,” he dismissed the person he was talking to, narrowing the opening of the doorway so his guests weren’t seen.
“Daniel,” Ace said as soon as the door was shut.
“H-hey Mr. King. What can I help you with?”
Ace took his foot down from the desk and glared at Daniel. “You can start by telling me where the fuck my shit is,” he gritted.
Ace had been in the middle of getting Joy situated when he received word that none of his men received their product because there were no shipments at the docks when they came to collect.
To be fair, they were pretty much done and he’d only been lingering to spend more time in her presence, afraid she’d disappear again when he turned his back, but he was still irritated by yet another interruption.
He’d had to deal with a near riot from his lieutenants. He had a plan in place to make amends for the issue but now he had to get down to the bottom of an issue that shouldn’t have been.
“I-I’m not sure w-what you mean,” Daniel said.
Ace smacked his lips and stood, rounding the desk. Once within arms length, he sent his fist into Daniels’ nose causing blood to flow, then forced him down into the chair on the other side of the desk.
“Quit all that damn stuttering,” Ace ordered, then leaned down until he and Daniel were face to face. “Why are my men telling me that they didn’t receive their shipments? If my memory serves me correctly, they were supposed to have docked last night so where are they?”
“Mr. King, please,” Daniel sniveled. “Some police officers came asking questions last week then I got a call saying to send it back. I figured that was you taking precautions. ”
Ace reared back. “A call from who?”
“I don’t know. They just called me and said they worked for the Kings and that I needed to send the shipments back because it wasn’t safe. I didn’t get a name.”
Ace pinched the bridge of his nose and looked up at Von who was shaking his head. Ace stood to his full height then paced the floor. “So you got a random call from an anonymous motherfucka telling you to send my shit back and you just… listened. No confirmation or verification. I have that right?”
Daniel’s throat bobbed with a thick swallow. “Uh… yes sir.”
Ace tsked and removed his gun from the holster on his hip. Von handed him the cylinder silencer and Ace kept eye contact with the man before him as he screwed it on.
“I don’t have use for idiots on my payroll Daniel. And I told you when we first started this little partnership that I don’t give second chances.”
“P-please. Mr. King. I’m sorry I didn’t-.”
A single muffled shot to the middle of his forehead silenced his pleas.
“Call clean-up,” Ace ordered, already walking towards the door.
Von nodded once as Ray held the door open for Ace’s exit.
Ace sat in his office with Jrue and Von in front of him. The three of them wore tight expressions while they strategized how to fix the issue they were currently dealing with.
“Let the Lieutenants know a replacement will be in this week. They’ll have extra in their packs for their trouble,” Ace instructed.
Von nodded. “I got you. I’m not gon’ lie though, most of them are more concerned with why the shit was delayed in the first place.”
Ace sighed. “Just tell them it’s been handled.”
Von nodded and stood. “You got it Boss.”
Once Von left, Jrue kicked his feet up on the empty chair.
“I set up a meeting tonight with Amos Toussaint,” he said, his face buried in his phone and a glass of amber liquid in one hand.
“They heard about what happened. The Jamaicans bring their shit through our ports and need to see your face so you can reassure him.
With your new transition, the last thing we need is a breakdown in trust.
Ace nodded. “I feel you.”
He hated this part of the business. He enjoyed the strategizing, the enforcing, and the ruling. But the politicing… he hated it. He had to spend too much time and energy catering to emotions and egos and he wasn’t with that but it was part of the job.
Ace pulled at the hair on his chin. “Harris is gonna be a problem,” he mused aloud.
Jrue snapped his eyes to him. “You think he had something to do with this?”
Ace shrugged. “The port manager said cops were sniffing around, then some mysterious entity gives the order to send my shit back? I don’t know man. I don’t believe in coincidences.”
Jrue nodded. “I trust your instincts. Let me get with some of my contacts at the precinct and see what I can find.”
Ace nodded.
Jess knocked and peeked her head into the room. “Mr. King. The all-staff meeting is starting soon.”
“Thanks Jess,” Ace said “See you tonight J,” he threw to his brother as he stood, slipping his arms back through his suit jacket.
Ace emerged from his office and into the halls of the firm to make his way to the conference room for the quarterly all-staff meeting.
Ever observant, he kept his head on a swivel, peering around as much of the halls as he could see on his path.
When he made it to the glass encased conference room, his perusal of the area was halted and his eyes landed on the brownskinned beauty sipping on a cup of coffee in the corner of the packed room.
Joy Thibodeaux.
He thought his eyes were playing tricks on him when he saw her in the hallway the day before.
He recognized her cloud of coils and round ass from several feet away.
Just as he was beginning to extract her memory from his mind, there she was again.
He wasn’t sure if she’d been dropped in his lap as a small mercy or to taunt him but he’d take her either way.
Joy was doing the same thing he was, slowly surveying her surroundings around a coffee cup with a tight expression.
Her eyes were sharp as they drifted around the room with a familiar awareness.
She had mastered the slow and casual yet focused perusal that he had been trained to do when scoping any area for a threat.
While her attention was elsewhere, Ace took the opportunity to study her more closely in better lighting than he was afforded on the roof. Her skin was the color of toasted walnuts and was buttery smooth from what he could see around the long sleeved fitted dress that stopped at her knees.
His eyes trailed the length of her body, taking her in slowly.
Her limbs were long and she was clearly strong as indicated by the muscles in her legs on display and the slight definition in her arms. She was strong, but still held the femininity afforded by her soft curves. Maybe a former athlete, he surmised.
Her full lips were painted the same deep red, reminiscent of the color of blood when it kissed the air, and pulled tight into that fake ass smile that seemed to be her default.
Her nails, painted in the same hue, were filed to a sharp point that had his mind drifting to how they might feel scraping across the skin of his back and torso.
He wondered if she was strapped beneath this dress as well.
Everything about her appearance held hints of subtle violence that made the corners of his mouth tip up in a small smile. The thinly veiled darkness he saw swirling in her eyes made him wonder if that was intentional or instinctual.
When her assessment of the area snagged on Ace, her sultry, dark eyes met his gaze unwaveringly making him tamp down a smile. She didn’t shy away from Ace’s intense eye contact and just like before, it pleased him.
He loved that she wasn’t intimidated by him. She met his dangerous gaze with her own.
She was good at hiding it. To anyone else, she was simply a poised professional woman with a serious expression. But Ace saw past that. The eyes looking back at him across the conference room were the same ones he saw in the mirror everyday.
Not the color or shape but the fire and the shadows within them.
Ace wanted to know what had put them there.
Staring at Joy, Ace vowed to uncover what secrets lay behind her eyes. He was drawn to her in ways he’d never been to any other woman and her presence didn’t feel like that of a stranger.
He was attracted to her, yes. The way his pants tightened in her presence made that clear. But more than that he was intrigued. She was beautiful, delicate in ways she tried to hide but protected by the prickly thorns she surrounded herself with. Speckled with red, he likened her to a rose.
Pretty and prickly.
His pants tightened uncomfortably at his crotch at the memory of how her lips tasted.
How her lush body felt in his hands. It had been difficult to put the memories out of his head before but now that she was close enough to reach out and touch again, his body recalled everything his mind tried to downplay.
Ace’s thoughts were interrupted by Senior starting the staff meeting. With one last glance, he broke he and Joy’s staring competition but not before mentally promising to learn more about the woman with danger in her eyes and anger rolling off of her in waves.
That evening, the soothing melodies of John Coltrane’s saxophone floated through the speakers in Ace’s office as he poured himself three fingers of scotch.
Amos Toussaint had left not too long ago and Ace needed a moment to decompress and cleanse his space of the tension and business that still lingered. Amos was understanding of the issue with the ports but Ace sensed that a notch of distrust had been marked against him.
He knew that he’d only be extended so much grace as a new Boss before questions were raised about his fitness to rule. He needed to ensure problems such as these never arose again.
As soon as he got comfortable, his office phone rang on his desk.
“Yeah?” he answered.
“Mr. King, Mr. Kincaid is here to see you,” Jess said on the other end of the receiver.
Ace sighed. “Send him up.” Clearly, his break time was over.
He threw back the rest of his drink and a few moments later, a knock sounded on his door before it was pushed open.
Isaac walked through the door. When he reached Ace’s desk, he extended his hand and without standing, Ace dapped him up. They hadn’t spoken since their exchange of words at Ace’s party a few weeks prior.
“What can I do for you?” Ace asked, waving towards the empty chair across from him.
Isaac sat with a small smile on his face. “You know why I’m here, man.”
Ace chuckled. “You a persistent motherfucka, huh?”
Isaac chuckled nervously with a shrug. “I want you to know I’m serious about this. I heard about what happened with the shipments and figured I could help. Maybe if I take over handling the relationships with the docks and facilitating the pickups, there can’t be any more confusion.”
Ace leaned back in his seat, pulling his lighter from his pocket.
“Let’s bring it up at our next meeting,” Ace proposed.
He still wasn’t completely sure about integrating Isaac further into the business.
He was as flashy as Von, possibly more, but whereas Von kept his connection to the family and legitimate businesses out of the public eye, Isaac wanted the best of both worlds and that was dangerous.
Isaac smacked his lips. “There you go with that shit again. Is you the boss or ain’t you? What, you gotta run it by daddy first?”
Ace did one long blink, then looked down into his empty glass. “I must be drunk and hearing shit,” he mumbled to himself.
He looked up at Isaac. “I’m drunk and hearing shit right?”
“Ace I’m just?—“
“Because talking to me like that would be crazy and you know that.”
“My bad man. For real. I’m just tryna pull my weight and continue my grandfather’s legacy, same as you.”
Ace’s temper cooled a bit but he was done talking.
“I’ll see you at the meeting and we’ll talk,” Ace ended the conversation.
Isaac got the hint and rose mumbling a goodbye before heading back out the same way he came.
The only sound heard after that was the rattle of his office door slamming. That alone would’ve gotten him a bullet in the back of the head had he been anyone else but Ace knew Pops would have a fit if he harmed a Kincaid.
Ace sighed and massaged the bridge of his nose. He considered summoning Dana to release his pent up frustration and energy, but his mind drifted to Joy instead.
He leaned back in his chair with a slight grin as he thought of her.
He turned her name over in his mouth. It rolled off the tongue effortlessly and tasted sweet like ripe cherries – just like she smelled.
Her warm scent had taken up residence in Ace’s nostrils for hours after they’d met.
He lamented having to wash her scent off the suit he wore knowing he’d never have an opportunity to smell it again.
The universe seemed to have other plans.
He closed his eyes and scratched at his beard in deep thought as he visualized her face. He could still taste her mouth on his tongue, a mixture of the bourbon she’d consumed and her. He chuckled a bit at the way her eyes flashed with challenge when he questioned her about her weapon of choice.
Opening his eyes, he sat up and without thought, grabbed his cell phone from where it lay on his desk.
Placing it to his ear, he listened as the line trilled three times before Remy’s voice came through.
“Yo,” he answered.
“You busy?” Ace asked.
“Not particularly. What’s up?” His fingers tapping on keys could be heard in the background.
“Do me a favor and send me a file on Joy Thibodeaux.”
“Who is that?”
“A new associate at the firm. And do a more in depth check. Everything you can find.”
“Do you think something is off with her or sum?”
Ace ignored his question. “You think you can get it to me by tomorrow?” he asked.
Remy sighed, resigned to his friend’s secretiveness. “We’ll put a pin in this conversation. I’ll send you what I can find.” With that, he said a brief goodbye then hung up.
Satisfied that Remy would get him more information on the woman who’d captured his attention, Ace continued working through the tasks on his to-do list for the day.