Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
“This is it?” Joy asked, looking out the window at the large warehouse in the middle of Manhattan.
Through means Joy didn’t question, Ace was able to find the contact for the low level soldier that was supposed to be on duty at the time of the raid. He’d been dodging Ace’s calls for a week so when Joy arrived at the office that morning, Ace informed her that they would be doing a pop up instead.
“Yup,” Ace replied, unbuckling his seatbelt. Joy did the same and moved to open the door but a heavy hand on her thigh halted her movements.
“Hold up,” Ace said.
He looked out the window and Joy followed his line of vision, seeing a tall dark skin man with locs and glasses exit another car and pull out a device from his pocket. A moment later, he locked eyes with Ace through the window and gave him a subtle nod.
“Aight let’s go,” Ace said.
Joy raised a brow, “What was that?” she asked.
“Checking for bugs and cameras. We’re gonna be having sensitive conversations with our client and discussing trial strategy. Clearly these investigators don’t mind playing dirty so we can’t be too careful.”
Joy gave him another glance then nodded, climbing out the car. She didn’t remove her pistol from the holster in her dress pants and she couldn’t help but notice that Ace didn’t either.
He stepped out first and rounded the front of the car, speaking in hushed tones. The conversation ceased when Joy joined them.
“Joy, this is my friend, Remy. Rem this is my associate, Joy,” he introduced.
“Good to meet you, Joy,” Remy greeted her.
“Same to you,” she replied. “Shall we go?”
Ace nodded. “Let me do the talking, aight?” he reminded her as they crossed the pavement.
“Sir, yes sir,” Joy saluted playfully as they crossed onto the other side of the street.
Ace shook his head, a smirk playing at his lips.
Von stood outside with a blunt between his fingers and a gun tucked into his jeans. His long locs covered his face but Joy could see the scowl peeking through. Wordlessly, he dapped Ace up. He looked Joy up and down and she returned his scrutinous stare.
“I thought you didn’t work for the firm,” Joy questioned.
Von’s scowl deepened and Joy was sure he was going to ignore her before he answered. “I don’t. I own this property ma.”
“Oh? You own a property that’s used as a stash house?”
“Your landlord keep tabs on what you do in your shit?”
Joy silently conceded that point but her narrowed gaze didn’t leave Von as they headed inside.
Jovon King wasn’t listed on the paperwork as the owner. It was a shell company owned by a shell company owned by a shell company weaving a path that led nowhere.
Joy saw now that was intentional.
From a few paces behind, Joy sensed the room still when Ace and Von walked in.
Conversations stalled, movements ceased and eyes shifted between the two men, nerves apparent.
The way they greeted Von but stiffened when Ace neared was clear to Joy that they held him in high regard, a fact she found odd even for the man that keeps them out of jail.
“Where’s Curtis?” Ace boomed. All of the soldiers stopped and pointed towards the back of the warehouse.
Ace nodded and motioned for Joy to follow.
Without knocking, he opened the single wooden door, revealing an office.
Curtis sat behind the desk with his feet kicked up and his phone playing TikTok videos at full volume.
He looked up, his expression saying that he was prepared to cuss out whoever had interrupted him but the words died on his lips and his eyes bulged when he saw Ace.
Instead, he locked his phone screen and sat up straight.
He moved to stand but Ace silently held a hand up halting his movements.
“Oh, hey Ace,” he said, his eyes shifting nervously from Ace’s face, to Joy’s, and behind them.
“What’s good Curtis?” Ace replied.
“My bad, I know I was supposed to call you back. Shit been busy. You know how it is.” Curtis offered what Joy assumed was supposed to be a cool smile but ended up looking like a grimace instead.
“Yeah,” Ace replied coolly. “I know how it is. You don’t look too busy right now though so how about we chop it up, then we’ll be out of your hair.”
Ace worded the statement as a request but his tone and the look in his eyes let Curtis know that he wasn’t asking. Acquiescing, Curtis nodded.
Ace slammed the door shut and leaned against it and Joy could’ve sworn she saw Curtis flinch. Joy dragged the only other chair in the small office and sat gingerly on the edge of it.
“Look I don’t know nothing about nothing,” Curtis said immediately, holding his hands up.
“We just have a few questions about the day of the raid. We need a little help aligning some things so we can get Blue out. Feel me?” Ace said, leaning forward, his elbows resting on his knees.
Curtis nodded. “Fasho.”
“It looks like the cameras that are kept at the warehouse didn’t capture anything from the hours leading up to and following the raid. Did you notify anyone of the malfunction?” Joy asked.
Curtis turned to her. “Uh nah. I don’t really check the cameras like that.”
“Forgive my ignorance. Is that not a part of your job description?”
His eyes hardened on her, catching the indirect accusation.
“I mean kinda but we usually don’t have any issues.”
“Hm,” Joy hummed, pretending to write in her notebook.
Ace spoke up then. “The alleged evidence the cops seized was logged into the system before the raid. Did you notice anything missing when you did your counts?” he asked.
Curtis shook his head. “Nah I didn’t notice anything.”
“So you didn’t notice the cameras were down and you didn’t notice the missing product. What exactly do you do?” Joy asked.
“The fuck you tryna say?”
“I’m not trying to say anything, I’m just trying to gain some clarity. It seems a lot of things snuck past you so I’m trying to figure out what your job is.”
Curtis smacked his lips. “Look things usually run perfectly fine.”
“So you usually neglect the functions of your job?” Joy asked, tilting her head a fraction.
“You putting words in my mouth?” he snarled. “Yo Ace what the fuck is this?”
Ace looked down at him with hard eyes. “Answer the question and watch how you speak to her.”
Even Joy could hear the threat in his tone.
“There’s no reason to get defensive. We all just want to get Blue out. Right?” she confirmed, softening her bad cop approach just a little.
Curtis nodded slowly and Joy put on her best fake smile.
“Good,” Joy said standing. “Look, it seems that the security footage was tampered with. If it’s okay with you, I’m gonna take a look at your system and see if there’s any evidence that can invalidate the raid.”
Curtis nodded but his throat bobbed with a rough swallow. “That’s cool.”
“Good,” Ace said, lifting off the door. “Let’s go.”
“Wait you want me to leave?”
“If you’d be so kind,” Joy smiled.
“A-aight.”
Joy waited until Ace and a reluctant Curtis left before she set her belongings down on the desk and opened up the computer’s security system.
Sure enough, the frames were edited and closer inspection showed that the time stamps on the evidence log didn’t match up with the security footage of the raid.
She began writing down her observations and adding evidence to the drive she’d brought.
Heavy footsteps sounding off behind her alerted Joy of a presence joining her. Her spine didn’t tingle and her skin didn’t heat with awareness so she knew it was the other King brother.
“Find what you’re looking for?” Von asked.
“Not yet but I think we’re getting there,” she answered without turning from the stack of files she was inspecting.
“Hm. And how did you say you learned how to do this again?”
“I interned in the DA’s office back home.”
“Interesting. Didn’t know they were so… informed.”
“Guess we’re just advanced in Texas.”
He took a step towards her, all humor and friendly pretense draining from his expression as Joy finally turned to face him.
“You’re full of shit and I see right through you.
Usually my brother would too, but for some reason he has the wool pulled over his eyes when it comes to you.
Just know that I’m watching you and if I find out you’re on some funny shit, I’ma put you down myself regardless of what my brother has to say about it. ”
Joy matched his step forward. “I don’t take kindly to threats.”
“I don’t take kindly to liars,” he countered, mocking her southern accent.
Joy grinned. Von’s rough, no nonsense attitude reminded her of Glock. Under different circumstances, she might’ve liked him. “You have a good day, hear?”
“I will.”
Joy snorted and walked out the way she’d come.
Curtis stood in the hallway staring her down with anger in his eyes.
“Thank you for your cooperation, Curtis,” she said.
He scoffed and waved her off. “Yeah whatever, just get the fuck out bitch.”
Joy opened her mouth to speak but Ace’s deep voice and swift hand popping Curtis in the mouth beat her to the punch.
“I don’t like repeating myself, Curtis. Watch how you talk to her or you and I will have an issue,” Ace warned.
Curtis immediately piped down, rubbing the sting from his mouth. “My bad, man.”
Ace glared him down for a moment, then with a hand on the small of Joy’s back, guided them out of the warehouse and back to the car.
Joy spent the entire walk to the car trying to calm herself down but all she heard was the ringing in her ears and her father’s voice in her head, reprimanding her for accepting such disrespect.
Joy’s hands had joined the twitch in her eye and by the time they reached Ray and the car, she’d barely gotten a harness on her anger.
Ace waited beside the door for her to slide in first but when she went to do so, she realized she didn’t have her notebook or pen.
“Shit I left something inside. I’ll be right back,” she said quickly. Her blood still had a low hum beneath her skin and she wasn’t looking forward to seeing that man again.
“What’d you leave? I can get it for you,” Ace offered.
“I got it,” Joy declined, then turned and headed back in the direction of the building.
She went back to the door and knocked, waiting impatiently for Curtis to open it. When he swung the door open, he had a 40 in his hand and an even deeper scowl on his face.
“The fuck you want? Came back to put more words in my mouth?” he snapped.
Joy took a deep breath and thought peaceful thoughts before responding.
“No, I left my notes on your desk. Would it be okay if I came in to get it?” Joy asked. She injected as much diplomacy into her tone as she could muster.
He stared at her a moment, a predatory glint in his eyes before he stepped aside and let her enter.
She quickly located her belongings and was halfway to the open door when his voice halted her.
“You need to watch that big ass mouth before I put something in it. Hoes like you don’t know your place.”
Joy stilled and she didn’t fight the onslaught of anger pulsing through her.
She turned slowly on her heels.
“Fuck you say to me?” she asked, dropping the items she’d come to retrieve on the floor.
“You heard me,” Curtis replied defiantly, taking another swing of his drink.
Joy took several steps forward until she closed the space between them.
“I want you to try that shit pussy ass nigga,” Joy challenged. All diplomacy was gone from her tone and her stance had become defensive.
Curtis laughed.
“Crazy ass bitch, you must not know where you at or who I am. Get the fuck outta here,” he waved her off.
“Seems to me you ain’t shit but a lazy motherfucka who can’t do their job. Or perhaps a snitch?”
He nearly growled at that, taking a threatening step forward that Joy didn’t retreat from. “Bitch do you know I will kill you? Get the fuck on. Ace ain’t here to save you.”
The dismissal was the straw that snapped Joy’s control.
She stalked up to him, snatching the bottle out his hand and crashed it over his head, followed by a flurry of punches to his face.
Once she got him on the ground she placed her foot on his neck and pulled her baby eagle from beneath her skirt, placing it in his mouth.
Her blood thrummed from the power she felt. Part of her said she should stop. That normal girls don’t hold disrespectful men at gunpoint. But that part was too quiet to listen to.
The part of her who’d killed for less, who’d been taught that disrespect was a death sentence? She roared like a wild fire.
“A woman in this game without respect is a dead woman,” her father’s voice boomed in her head. His teachings coming back to her like ghosts of a past that wouldn’t let her go. “You make niggas feel you. Make em fear you.”
“Put something in my mouth motherfucka. You did all that talking. Talk now bitch,” she taunted, shoving the barrel of the gun as far down his throat as it would go.
He gagged and squirmed but his air supply was scarce with Joy’s stiletto on his throat.
“It’s taking every fiber in my soul not to drop yo bitch ass so get down on your knees tonight and say your prayers in thanks,” Joy gritted out. She removed the gun from his mouth then sent it crashing down on his face again making blood fly from his nose and a tooth pop free from his mouth.
“But don’t tempt me, hoe. The next time I come in this bitch, you better talk to me like you got some sense or I’ma send you ass to the upper room. Feel me?”
She didn’t wait for a response before she spit on his bloodied and blue face and rose, lifted her foot from his neck, watching him gasp for air.
She checked her clothes for blood splatter and placed her gun back where it belonged then strode out to the car, feeling lighter now that her need for vengeance had been satisfied, she couldn’t bring herself to be ashamed of the mini episode.
Not yet, anyway.
Ace stood beside the car where she’d left him with an unreadable expression on his face. “Ready?”
Joy nodded and climbed in. “Ready.”
“Did you get what you needed?” he asked as they slid into their seats and secured themselves inside.
Joy turned to him, nodding with a tight smile. “Yep. Best case scenario, we can take this to internal affairs to get the case thrown completely. Worst case, this is reasonable doubt in trial.”
She sighed, rotating her shoulders. “I’d keep my eye on Curtis if I was his boss,” she mused aloud. “He’s either painfully incompetent or a fucking rat.”