Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
“Agh.”
A yawn ripped through Joy’s body as she stretched.
“Don’t do that,” Ace said through a yawn of his own, triggered by hers.
Joy giggled. “My bad. It’s so late.” The time on her watch said it was almost midnight. Ace was used to working 18 hour days but even he was whipped.
Their days had been filled with trial prep and jury selection for Blue's case and Joy had never been so tired yet she was more fulfilled than she’d been in years. Still, a part of her felt she was only living out half of her purpose though.
With the demands of this case, she hadn’t had much time to connect with the contacts she’d made at the anniversary party. She made a mental note to start on that the moment she had time to spare.
“It is. Let me drive you home,” Ace requested as they stood at the glass doors separating them from the elements outside.
“I told you I can get home myself,” Joy declined.
They loitered in the empty lobby, neither of them quite ready to let the other go yet. Their bodies were close, the heat radiating off of them in waves made them both oblivious to the chill of the blaring air conditioner.
“I know you can.”
“If you just wanna spend more time with me just say that,” Joy joked, a teasing grin on her lips.
“I wanna spend more time with you,” Ace replied, his stone expression giving away no humor.
Joy’s smile slowly faded. “Adonis, I?—“
“Yeah. Yeah, I know. We should stay professional. I don’t know you. You’re not a good girl. Did I miss any other of your bullshit excuses?”
“They’re not bullshit,” Joy protested, looking away from his eyes and out into the street.
“They are,” Ace asserted. He took a step closer and his chest brushed hers, making her nipples pebble beneath the dress and her neck having to extend upwards to meet his eyes.
One of Ace’s large hands came up to rest softly on Joy’s cheek. His thumb swiped lazily over her lip once, then twice.
“You’re hiding from me, Rose.” His hand trailed down, off of her face and grasping her neck in a gentle but firm grip.
Any other man would’ve had her knife buried in their gut for the action, too close to what Jermaine had done to her all those months ago.
But Joy didn’t get flashbacks of the past. Ace’s intentions were clear to her and the look in his eyes made her mind conjure fantasies and promises of the future rather than the violence of her past.
“And every reason you’ve come up with in that pretty head of yours why we can’t act on what I know we both feel is bullshit,” Ace said, his face so close that his breath fanned Joy’s lips.
Joy swallowed hard against his palm.
“It’s late,” she repeated. “I should go.” Joy abruptly pulled away from him, snapping herself out of the lull of his touch and the warmth of his words. His hand fell away easily but she could still feel the ghost of it.
She didn’t dare look at him again before she pushed through the glass double doors and stepped into the night air.
Not for the first time since she arrived in New York, Joy felt a burning of hatred creep up her throat.
Yet another thing the men in her life had stolen from her.
Ace was perhaps the greatest man she’d ever known and thanks to the men who raised her and the men who’d broken her, she didn’t know if she had the could ever let Ace in.
Being away from him was safer. Keeping her distance was smarter. She’d do well to remember that, even when his eyes called to her and his hands secured her.
“Excuse me!”
Joy was so caught up in her head, she didn’t feel the presence trailing her or hear the footsteps contrasting her own until the voice calling out to her was too close for comfort.
Joy kept walking, increasing her speed in the opposition direction of the beckoning voice.
“Ms. Thibodeaux! Can I speak to you for a minute?”
Joy slowed at the sound of her name but didn’t stop. She turned, finding a man trailing closely behind her with an aura that screamed cop.
Her assumptions were confirmed when the man’s face came into view, and he pulled a badge on a chain from beneath his wrinkled button down.
“Detective Harris. Can I ask you a few questions?”
“Not without my lawyer, you can’t,” she declined, turning to continue her trek.
“You’re not in trouble Ms. Thibodeaux,” he chuckled, jogging to catch up until he fell in stride with her.
“I’m apart of the task force investigating the King family and —“
“I can’t help you,” Joy cut in. “Goodnight, detective.”
She increased the pace of steps but skidded to a stop when the detective’s cold hand wrapped around her wrist.
“I suggest you let me go,” she warned through gritted teeth. Joy’s pulse quickened and she was sure he could feel it beneath his fingertips. He likely thought it was nerves or fear that had her heart racing, little did he know that only one of them had reason to be afraid.
“The firm you work for is run by a bunch of thugs in expensive suits. They’ve been terrorizing our city for a long time and we’re close to bringing them down. You seem pretty close to the younger Adonis King. Help me take him down and I’ll ensure you stay out of the crosshairs.”
“For the last time, detective, I can’t help you.
Please let me go,” Joy said calmly. She silently prayed that he’d heed her request as the warning that it was.
She was a hairs breath away from an episode, and killing a cop wasn’t exactly laying low.
If her father ever got wind of the incident, he’d never allow her back.
“So you mean to tell me that you’ve been working closely with Adonis and know nothing.”
“That’s exactly what I’m telling you.”
The defiance in her gaze wasn’t disguised and after a moment of staring, the detective's lips tipped up in a sinister grin.
“Maybe I gave you too much credit. I thought you were just his plaything fucking him for cases but maybe you’re in on it.”
Joy chuckled. “You came up with that all on your own?”
Anger twisted his features under the streetlights and his grip on her arm turned bruising.
“Maybe I should take you in. We’ll see how much you know at the station.”
Joy scoffed, fighting the urge to slit this man’s throat. “You can’t arrest me for not knowing anything.”
“No but I can arrest you for obstruction of justice. Lying to a police officer. Shit I can make up something.” His grin was sinister and Joy recognized the look of an unhinged man who was grasping at straws.
The edges of Joy’s vision went fuzzy and her body tingled as she worked to pry the man’s hands off of her in a way that wouldn’t bring too much attention to herself.
The route she took was relatively empty for the city, but a commotion would surely have people flocking.
She was ready to succumb to the episode that was teasing her when his hand abruptly left her and his body went flying onto the pavement.
Joy barely registered what was going on when Ace came into view, a blur of fists and fury as he sent blow after punishing blow to the man’s face and body.
“The fuck you think you doing grabbing on my woman nigga? Huh? Have you lost your fucking mind?” Ace roared in the man’s face, picking him up by the collar of his shirt.
Joy heard nothing besides his woman.
She watched with a tender heart and a throbbing pussy as Ace repeatedly smashed his fists into the side of the man’s face. Hearts filled her eyes at the sight.
No one had ever defended like this. Not her father. Not her brother. Not even Glock.
Joy had always had to fight her own battles and defend her own honor. She could have in this instance too, but damn if it didn’t feel good to have someone do it on her behalf.
Blood decorating his hands and collared shirt, Joy watched Ace with lust dripping off of her in waves.
Mine.
The word echoed in her head like an incantation.
The chanting intensified when Ace pulled his gun from the waistband of his pants and smacked the detective across the face with it, sending blood splattering then cocked and aimed it at his head.
With an animalistic grunt, he held his weapon at his side then pulled the man up by his neck. “Apologize,” he growled.
“I-I’m sorry,” Harris panted through missing teeth and open gashes on his face.
Ace pistol-whipped him again. “Not to me nigga. Apologize to her.”
“I’m sorry. Please.”
For the first time since he entered the vicinity, Ace turned to Joy. “You accept his apology Rose?”
Joy shrugged. “I guess.”
“She may forgive you but that’s not good enough for me. I’ve tolerated your weird ass stalking and harassing me and my family, but putting your hands on her won’t slide.” Without another word, he raised the gun again and aimed it between the detective’s eyes.
He didn't hesitate to pull the trigger, splattering blood and brain matter across the concrete.
“Get in the car, Rose,” he ordered, turning his hard eyes on her.
She moved to follow his command, seeing an unfazed Ray standing on the curb with the door open for her.
She slid in and Ray closed the door behind her but not before she heard Ace on the phone.
“I need a clean up… I’ll explain later… I sent a pin.”
A moment later, Ace slid in beside her and Ray pulled off.
In the backseat of Ace’s Escalade, Joy ran her fingers over Ace’s bruised knuckles.
“You okay?” Ace asked, breaking the silence.
Joy looked up at him, seeing the apprehension in his eyes.
“I’m fine. Are you?” she asked, her gaze flicking down to his bloodied hands.
He flexed his fingers with a smirk. “All good.”
Joy stared up at him. Her heart and core thumping in time with each other.
“Adonis… You just killed a cop. What are we gonna do about the body?”
“Don’t worry about that,” he said, his fingers flying across his phone screen. “It’s handled.”
“How?”
He looked up at her. “Don’t worry about that either.”
Joy narrowed her eyes and in that moment she knew every article she read and rumor she heard about the King family was true. “He said he was with a task force looking into you and your family,” she said.