Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
“Hey, Thibodeaux.”
Joy looked up from the case brief she was writing, more than a little annoyed to be interrupted but she tamped down those feelings and replaced them with a smile.
“Hey Shawn,” she greeted one of the senior attorneys she’d been working with.
“We got a few new cases. Boss man said it’s all hands on deck, we’re meeting in conference room B.”
“Okay. And B is… downstairs?” Joy asked.
He shook his head. “Upstairs. I’ll wait and you can walk with me.”
Joy gave him a genuine smile. “Thanks,” she said, putting her computer to sleep and grabbing her notebook.
She joined him in the hall and fell into step beside him as he guided the way. The side of her face heated with his periodic stares. Joy could see him out of her periphery, stealing glances and working up the courage to say something.
She could practically hear the gears in his Ivy League-educated brain turning as he fumbled for a conversation starter. She stayed silent, not bothering to offer him any assistance.
A small part of her enjoyed making the man uncomfortable.
“What are your plans for lunch?” he asked as they walked the hallway and entered the elevator. He pushed the button for their floor and turned to Joy for an answer.
“I usually work through lunch,” she said. She usually used the time when everyone was out of office or distracted to go through the client list or read the reports from Glock.
“Overachiever, huh?”
Joy shrugged.
“Guess that’s why you kick ass the way you do.”
Joy chuckled in response.
In the month since she’d been at the firm, she’d begun to make a name for herself among the associates and partners for her prowess in the criminal cases.
The senior attorneys seemed to play hot potato with her, bouncing her around amongst themselves whenever they needed her specific expertise on a case. Joy didn’t mind.
It had been a while since she’d felt needed. Wanted. Knowing that she brought value to the table made her chest swell with the type of belonging she’d been missing.
The elevator dinged and opened, depositing them on the third floor.
“Well when you can take a break from being Johnny Cochran, we should get lunch sometime.”
Joy laughed.
She turned to him, looking into his blandly handsome face. He looked kind and polished, like the trust fund kids she’d gone to school with. He looked… normal.
She would chew him up and spit him out. One episode and he’d likely run for the hills.
“I don’t fuck where I eat,” she said, turning her back to take a seat on the other side of the table. Her eyes trailed to the head of the glass conference table to find Ace’s eyes already boring a hole into her.
His jaw was hard and his eyes were cold. If Joy didn’t know any better, he almost looked…angry.
She held his hard stare, meeting it with her own and quirked a brow.
After a moment, his lips softened and he looked away clearing his throat.
“If everyone is present, let’s get started.”
The chorus of shuffling of notebooks and clicking of pens sounded around the table and conversations ceased.
“There was a raid in Manhattan and a few of our clients were taken into custody. We were able to get most of the lower level soldiers out but they’re holding a few of them with priors without bail…”
Joy paid attention as Ace divvied up the cases to senior attorneys. She listened intently as they discussed strategy, most being especially aggressive in their approaches with Ace as their audience.
Shawn and Tonya, another senior associate Joy had worked closely with before, went back and forth on the approach for a case and Joy kept up with each argument like she was watching a tennis match, weeding through biases and egos to get to the facts.
While Ace was silent, the rest of the conference room was split, one half siding with Shawn and the other with Tonya.
“What do you think, Thibodeaux?” Tonya directed to her.
All eyes – including Ace’s – swung to her, awaiting her verdict.
She ignored his gaze in her periphery and instead focused on Tonya.
Joy sat up straight and cleared her throat. “Honestly? Neither.”
An uproar started around the room but Joy held her hand up to silence them as she spoke. As directed, the room quieted down.
Though she was technically at the bottom of the food chain at the firm, Joy had been raised to be a queen. Her aura exuded that of someone with a longer tenure than she had but no one questioned it so long as they continued winning cases off of her advice.
“Hear me out,” she said. “Y’all trying to plead guilty and find the best set of excuses and precedents that will make the judge lower the sentence ain’t gon’ work.
From what I see, the evidence against him is circumstantial.
Or at least it can be framed that way. Instead of using your time to get him a lower sentence, you can get him off by discrediting these witnesses and poking holes in the evidence.
All you need is reasonable doubt and I see enough to get that. ”
“How are we supposed to discredit the witness?” Shawn asked. “He’s a local business owner with a squeaky clean record.”
Joy grinned. “A little good old fashioned gaslighting. If you make the witness start to second guess what they saw, the judge and jury will too. Rattle them in cross to get them to doubt themself. Get signed affidavits and bring in witnesses who can testify to the opposite. Now it turns into he said she said and once you sow that seed of doubt, you’re golden. ”
“Are you suggesting perjury?” Stephanie, another junior associate asked. Joy turned to the woman, finding a look of disgust on her face.
On another day, Joy might have been deterred by her expression but she was drunk on the power she felt. The entire room was eating out of her hand, hanging onto her every word. She wouldn’t let Stephanie ruin this moment for her. “I like to call it perspective. Everyone sees things differently.”
That earned a chuckle around the room.
“I don’t know. That sounds risky. If we don’t play it right, he could go to prison for the rest of his life. I don’t wanna gamble,” Tonya said, uneasiness on her face.
“I think he would prefer that we at least try to get him off. I like Thibodeaux’s idea,” Shawn said.
“I agree.” The room quieted as Ace spoke up for the first time since the debate ensued.
Joy reluctantly turned her attention to him, his thick arms crossed over his chest as he tugged at the luscious looking hair on his chin as he regarded her.
“People don’t come to King, Kincaid and Associates because we can get them lesser sentences.
They come to us because we can send them home to their families with a not guilty verdict.
If you see the opportunity to make that happen, then you go for it.
Even if you have to offer a little… perspective. ”
Joy grinned at his endorsement and though she could feel them boring into her, she didn’t meet his eyes.
As it tended to do, her body responded to his proximity despite herself.
She’d avoided him as much as she could since that moment in the kitchen.
It was clear she didn’t have control around him so she preferred distance.
With Ace’s blessing, the argument was over and the strategy was set. With nothing more to discuss on the matter, they moved on to the next case.
“Aight, that’s it for now. Good work everybody,” Ace started, fingers on his binder, ready to close it.
“What about the Franklin Hill case, Mr. King?” Stephanie asked.
“I’m taking that one. We’re gonna work out a plea deal to get him out of there quickly and quietly,” Ace answered.
Joy’s brow quirked, her mind already deciphering several reasons why that would be a bad idea.
“That’s not gonna work,” she blurted.
The room stilled.
The atmosphere grew thick with anxiety and shock.
The air conditioner stopped blowing, bathing the room in silence like even it was holding its breath.
Ace’s gaze slowly dragged to her, his head following. “Excuse me?”
He tilted his head like the thought of being opposed was puzzling to him. His eyes glittered but his jaw tightened like he wasn’t sure if he was amused or pissed.
The coldness in his eyes told Joy he didn’t appreciate the challenge but she didn’t back track, instead, she doubled down.
“Taking a plea isn’t a good idea,” she said.
She expected him to shut her down or dismiss her but instead, interest lit his eyes. He leaned back in his seat. “Explain,” he demanded, studying her.
So she did.
“All of these cases are connected, yes? And Mr. Hill is, allegedly, the leader of all of these other clients. Pleading out for him puts not only the rest of these cases in jeopardy but gives the DA more ammo to go after the rest of his organization who, I’m assuming, are also our clients.
“This won’t be quick or quiet. It’s a trap.”
The room remained silent as Ace silently regarded her. For a moment, she wondered if she overstepped. Finally after a few moments of deliberating with himself he nodded slowly.
“You’re right,” he said simply, then snapped his binder shut and turned to the rest of the room. “I want briefs on my desk by end of day. You’re dismissed.”
Everyone quickly gathered up their belongings and headed for the door. Joy stood, moving to follow before Ace’s deep timbre cut through the bustle.
“Except you, Thibodeaux.”
Joy stopped in her tracks but didn’t move closer and neither did Ace. Instead, she stood at one end of the conference table and he sat at the other, engaging in a silent stare-off as the room emptied.
Once they were alone, he stood, walking towards her. Joy took a few steps back, but he matched them until she was nearly backed into the frosted glass wall of the conference room.
“You know your way around criminal law, huh? The people around here can’t stop singing your praises,” he said.
Joy looked up at him, pasting nonchalance on her expression.
“I interned at the DA’s office in law school,” she explained.
That fact was true, but he didn’t need to know that the particular strategies he’d witnessed had been learned when listening in on her Cartel’s attorneys putting together their strategies to defend her men.
“And now you’ve come to the dark side,” Ace smirked.
“Something like that,” she grinned, then attempted to brush past him but he placed his hand on the wall beside her, his arm out blocking her way.
Joy was acutely aware of the fact that anyone who walked by or lingered would have a full view of them together like this.
“This is gonna be a tough case,” he said.
“Yeah, good luck,” she said, then tried to move around him again but he didn’t budge.
“And I need an associate,” he continued unbothered.
“Okay?” Joy raised a brow.
“I want you.”
Joy heard the words that came out of his mouth but the smoldering look in his eyes made her feel like he wasn’t just talking about her legal expertise.
“I’m on a lot of other cases right now,” Joy said, trying and failing not to get lost in his eyes.
“What that gotta do with me?” he asked with a crooked grin. His eyes flicked to the vinyl placard boasting his last name on the frosted glass above her head. Joy followed the direction of his gaze.
She scoffed, rolling her eyes.
“You don’t wanna work with me, Rose?” Ace asked, taking yet another step towards her.
“No, not particularly,” Joy answered.
Amusement crossed over his face but he didn’t look deferred. “Why is that?”
Because you make my blood hot and stare at me like you see something you shouldn’t.
“Because we… have history and it wouldn’t be appropriate.”
“I’ll keep it professional. Scouts honor.”
“You weren’t no damn boy scout.”
“No, I wasn’t,” he grinned.
“This is gonna be a big case, they’ve been trying to catch one of the major players in this organization for years and if your assessment is right about this being a trap, they’ll throw everything they’ve got at this.
It’ll probably make regional headlines. There’ll be lots of eyes on this. Don’t you want your name on that?”
He spoke directly to her ambition like she was transparent.
Joy shook her head, fighting a grin of her own. Telling him ‘no’ was on the tip of her tongue until Byron’s voice filled her head.
Get out yo feelings and get in yo bag. Your emotions have no place here.
She hated to admit it but he was right. Getting close to a King and working on his cases was a surefire way to get close to the contacts she needed.
Making a name for herself on a high profile case would give her the credibility she needed to start her network from scratch.
Whatever feelings she was having for him personally didn’t matter.
She needed to put her big girl panties back on and get what she needed.
Ace must have seen her acquiescence written all over her face. His grin widened. “I’ll have my assistant send over the details.”
Joy sat on her window ledge, the cold night air coming through the lifted window.
With a blunt between her lips, she combed the internet for known King, Kincaid, and Associates connections and cross referenced them with her list of potential connections. The overlap was staggering, bringing a smile to her lips.
Her marriage to Jermaine was supposed to solidify an alliance with his father, a Senator and him who was being groomed to be the future attorney general of Texas.
Since her episode had ruined that alliance, she knew the only way to prove her worth was to form her own.
Finding politicians, high level attorneys and donors who had pull in Texas was no easy feat in New York jurisdiction but not impossible.
She scrolled through news articles and social media posts making note on the paper beside her of faces and names that could be of use to her.
Step one of her plan had been completed. Reintegrate herself into society. She’d been at the firm for a little over a month and had knocked the dust off of the polished persona she’d been crafting all her life.
The next step was to make a name for herself in the legal world.
She’d only just taken the bar when she was sent away and hadn’t yet been able to practice.
Jermaine was supposed to be the legitimate face of their organization and offer legal protection while she ran the underground business, playing his doting and accomplished wife in public. Now, she would need to play both roles.
Immediately following that, she would need to assemble her dream team of politicians, donors, attorneys, lobbyists, and fixers who would make her life easier back in Texas.
Joy strategically picked the King, Kincaid, and Associates because of their connection to high powered movers and shakers. Connections she needed.
Ace King, though a thorn in her side, would prove to be useful on that front.
As she worked, she wrote names and connections on sticky notes and slapped them on her bedroom wall.
Weed smoke billowed around her as her plan to get her life back started falling into place right before her eyes. She only hoped it would be enough for her father and the board.