Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
As soon as Joy made it to the office the next morning, her cases were reassigned to other associates and the details for Ace’s case were waiting in her email inbox.
Shaking her head, she navigated to the case files in their internal database and began reading.
New York V. Hill
Lead Attorney: Adonis King II
Franklin “Blue” Hill is alleged by law enforcement to be affiliated with a Brooklyn-based faction of a New York City criminal organization referred to as the “Black Mafia.” According to NYPD intelligence reports, the group has been under intermittent investigation since the 1970s for suspected involvement in narcotics distribution, money laundering, illegal gambling, weapons trafficking, and contract violence.
To date, law enforcement has not publicly identified or charged any individual as the organization’s leader.
Investigative files describe the group as highly structured and insulated, with limited success in securing indictments against upper-level members.
Mr. Hill has not been formally charged with racketeering (RICO) or conspiracy.
Mr. Hill was arrested outside a warehouse in Manhattan following a coordinated law enforcement raid.
Authorities allege the location was being used to store controlled substances and firearms. During the execution of the search warrant, officers reportedly recovered narcotics (pending laboratory confirmation), U.S.
currency, multiple firearms, and items characterized as gang paraphernalia.
Mr. Hill was taken into custody outside the premises, where officers allege he resisted arrest.
He is currently charged with:
Possession with Intent to Distribute (Controlled Substances)
Possession of Drug Paraphernalia
Unlawful Possession of a Firearm
Resisting Arrest
Obstruction of Justice
Public Intoxication
Joy whistled. The NYPD was clearly trying to catch the big fish and were throwing the book at poor Blue to ensure he helped them do it.
Joy wasn’t familiar with this mafia or their leader, but if they were anything close to Byron Thibodeaux and herself, no matter what dreams the NYPD sold, only God could stop Blue from being touched if he snitched.
In the midst of making note of her preliminary observations and potential issues to review, her desk phone jolted her out of her thoughts.
“Hello?” she answered the call.
“Ms. Thibodeaux.” Ace’s voice greeted her through the receiver.
“Mr. King,” she replied.
“I assume you received your assignment.”
“I did.”
“Good. Come see me in my office, let’s rap.”
“On my way,” she said, then put the phone back on the dock to end the call without waiting for a response.
Swiftly, she gathered her laptop, notebook, and phone and headed down the hall.
She stopped her stride when she made it to the large wooden desk that housed his receptionist. Jess smiled and approached door labeled with his name and knocked, announcing Joy’s presence.
“Send her in,” his voice called from the other end.
Joy stepped inside and saw Ace sitting at his desk with files and photos spread out in front of him.
On the table at the seating area beside his desk were even more papers scattered.
His suit jacket was slung on the back of his chair and his sleeves were rolled up, revealing corded muscle and tattoos.
He didn’t look like most lawyers Joy had seen.
He was built like he had stepped straight off of someone’s football field.
That, along with the thin gold chain around his neck and diamond studs in his ears, made him appear more like a record label executive than the heir to a legal empire, but she supposed when you had generational wealth, you weren’t bound to the constraints of professionalism politics.
“Good morning,” Joy said, walking deeper into the office.
“Good morning,” he answered, pinning her with his amber gaze. “I wanna start by going through this evidence with a fine-tooth comb.”
Joy dropped her belongings on Ace’s desk, then they both moved to the small table. She too removed her blazer, then turned to place it on the back of one of the chairs.
“You keep yo heat on you at all times, huh?” Ace asked, humor lacing his voice as he noticed her desert eagle tucked in the back of her skirt.
“Never leave home without it,” Joy answered with a shrug. She turned to face Ace who had a grin on his lips and something Joy couldn’t name in his eyes.
“You know how to use that thing?” he asked.
I could shoot you between those pretty eyes blindfolded, Joy wanted to say.
“Pray we never have to find out,” she said instead.
Ace huffed out a laugh then slid over, motioning for her to join him.
They organized the sheets of paper into piles then divided them between each other.
In their close proximity, Joy was all too aware of Ace’s body heat but she pushed the attention away in favor of focusing on the task at hand.
Going through the evidence listed in the police report, she noticed immediately that things weren’t right.
The bust was too clean, the intel too perfect. They knew exactly where to go and what they were looking for and that couldn’t have just come from random surveillance.
The warrant for the raid was signed quickly. Too quickly based on just an anonymous tip and a day of surveillance.
The cops identified Blue almost immediately when he showed up, in fact it seemed as if they were waiting on him despite not having any prior surveillance of him.
“The amount of drugs they allegedly found doesn’t match the amount of cash that was found at the spot,” Joy said.
Her mind was moving a mile a minute and her mouth was following.
“And look at the guns. No one at Blue’s level would leave the serial numbers on them.
These bitches look brand new.” She stopped talking abruptly, realizing she was getting too excited and talking too much.
“Sorry I’m running my mouth,” she chuckled sheepishly.
“That mouth is useful. Keep using it,” Ace said.
Joy blinked rapidly before recovering. She told Ace all of her observations animatedly and he listened without interruption.
“Yeah this doesn’t make sense. Blue is too clean to ever go down like this,” Ace said.
“This is definitely a set up but we need to find a way to prove it. ‘He’s a better criminal than that’ isn’t the best defense,” Joy said.
Ace chuckled.
They continued to look through the evidence, making notes and adding sticky tabs to photos that stood out.
Around noon, Ace stood and stretched. “Need more coffee,” he grumbled, then walked out.
A few minutes later, he returned with two cups, one for him and he handed the other to her. Joy thanked him and after taking a sip looked up at him. It was made exactly to her liking. Brown sugar, cinnamon and almond milk.
Ace caught her eye and winked as he sipped his own.
“I have a question,” Joy said while they took their coffee break.
“Ask,” Ace replied, waving her on.
“Your family represents a lot of criminals,” she said.
“We do,” Ace nodded.
“Why?” The question had been burning a hole in her brain since she discovered the firm’s client list.
Setting his cup of coffee down, Ace cleared his throat.
“When my granddad came up here from Georgia 60 years ago, criminals were the only people who would hire him. When you’re facing death row or 4 consecutive life sentences, you don’t care what your attorney looks like or that they talk a little funny.
All they wanna know is can you send them home. ”
Joy nodded. “And y’all stuck with them as you grew.”
“Yeah why not? Guilty money spends just as good as innocent. Besides, don’t the bad guys deserve due process? A chance at life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and all that shit?”
Joy chuckled. “Yeah I guess they do.”
After their break, they continued working into the late afternoon, writing down everything they talked about and next steps.
Joy listened intently to the details that couldn’t be found in the files and evidence given by the prosecution and jotted down notes.
She sipped her coffee in between notes and replying to Ace’s words with agreements or suggestions.
Together, they developed a strategy for defense in the event Ace couldn’t get the charges thrown out.
Though they was sure the charges were bogus, the falsified evidence was convincing and damning.
Occasionally they disagreed, leading to spirited debates that ended in Ace’s concession or an agreement to revisit the topic later. Aside from those, they worked together in an easy harmony and by the time they finished, they had a solid plan.
“Good work, Rose. You’re brilliant” Ace said and the praise made Joy’s body tingle. “I think we’re gonna have fun together,” he said with a smile.
Joy couldn’t help but to smile back. “I think so too.”
Alone at the office, Ace flipped through the file Remy created on Joy and was instantly struck by the noticeable blankness of it, only fueling his interest.
There was no social media presence.
No known friends or associates. A credit card history that was so clean it was obviously curated.
Not even a traffic ticket. Only the basic information that could be found in a standard background check, plus a sealed record from The South Texas Mental Institute and a prescription for an anti-psychotic that hadn’t been filled in five months.
Who the fuck is this woman?
Ace tugged at the hair on his chin with a grin. The more time he spent with Joy, the more he wanted. She was smart and beautiful and fierce as fuck when she wasn’t hiding.
She had been working at the firm for a little over a month and Ace found it harder to remain professional every time they were in the same vicinity.
Their playful banter and unspoken challenges excited him.
Ace could tell she didn’t do it consciously as a way to gain dominance or look better in the male dominated field.
It seemed unconscious. Like she was accustomed to running shit and getting her way and actually had to hold herself back.
He liked that shit. He liked her.
Unfortunately for her, she’d captured his attention and he wasn’t letting up until he had answers to his questions.
Something was off with her. If her empty file wasn’t enough to go on, the way she went about practicing the law was enough to raise his suspicion.
She was too good for a first year associate and knew too much about how the streets worked. She was sharp and cutthroat and now he knew why the senior associates praised and deferred to her the way they did.
Ace was equal parts aroused by and suspicious of Joy Thibodeaux and he planned to get to the bottom of what laid behind the mask he’d begun to peel back at the edges.
She was hiding something. Or running from something.
Ace sensed that she possessed power she didn’t even know she had.
Or maybe she did, and was afraid to use it. Afraid of the type of damage she could do if provoked. Ace made it his mission to provoke her. To keep fanning the flames she was trying to extinguish so he could see how beautifully she burned.