Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
Ace rolled up the sleeves of his shirt as he entered the back room of their warehouse, preparing for what lay ahead.
The three remaining gunmen they’d taken captive sat on the floor against the furthest concrete wall.
Ace stopped in front of them, with Von to his left and Jrue a few paces behind, keeping watch to ensure the most unhinged of his brothers didn't kill the men before they got the information they needed.
“Take off their masks,” Ace ordered.
Von moved forward, snatching the ski mask from the first gunman. Ace’s eyes narrowed as a vaguely familiar face emerged. Von snatched the mask off of the second man and cursed.
“Fuck.”
Ace turned to him with silent question in his eyes. Von’s eyes never left the men before him as fury took over his features.
“They’re ours,” Von explained simply.
Ace looked down at the men again, studying their faces.
Sure enough, the longer he stared the more familiar they became, recognizing them from the visit he’d paid to the warehouse to speak to Curtis.
Ace locked eyes with the one in the middle.
“You know who I am?” he asked.
The man nodded in response, his eyes burning with hatred Ace couldn't place and fear.
Ace sniffed, running his tongue over the front of his teeth.
“Who sent you?”
The man remained silent, looking off to the opposite corner of the dank back room they’d been placed in.
In one swift motion, Ace pulled his gun from the waistband of his pants, aimed, and fired a shot between the man’s eyes. The loud bang made the men on either side of him jump and blood splatter onto both of them.
“I don’t have time to play the silent game,” he said, watching as the man to the right gagged.
He turned his gun on the one who remained stoic on the left, but instead of firing, whipped him across the face with it.
“Let’s try this again. Who sent you after me?”
Thirty minutes later, the man with the weak stomach laid in a crumpled heap beside the cooling corpse of his accomplice, barely breathing while Ace worked on the final hostage.
Blood splatter painted the front and sleeves of what was once a crisp white button down shirt. With brass knuckles looped over his fingers, he sent face and body shots to the traitor.
Ace hadn’t tied them up, allowing them to take him on alone and without any hindrances, giving the illusion of a chance of escape. The last man standing, just as the one before him, quickly learned that a fight with the Menace would never be fair.
While Ace broke skin and bones, Jrue stood across the room with his arms crossed over his chest.
“How he supposed to talk with a dislocated jaw?” Jrue asked with a chuckle.
Ace wiped the sweat and blood off his top lip with the back of his hand.
“He’ll figure it out,” he said flatly, then crouched in front of the man.
“Ain’t that right? Cause if I can’t get answers out of him I’mma get ‘em out of his brother T. And if T can’t tell me nothing, I’mma have to go see his baby moms,” he said, armed with information now that he’d identified the man who had once eaten from the King’s plate.
“Please—” the low level soldier whimpered.
“Please what?”
“Please,” he wheezed again through bloody teeth. “I’ll tell you what you want, man. Just… just leave my family alone. Please.”
“I’ll think about it.” Ace stood up. “Start talking.”
“Marco,” he gasped through his collapsing lung.
Ace folded his arms over his chest, unconcerned with the blood marring his clothes. “What about him?”
“W-we was just talking. Venting after Blue’s bail got denied. Marco showed up and said that he knew a way to fix all our issues but we had to take you out for him.”
Silence stretched, only the labored breaths of the man’s wheezing being heard. Ace’s first thought was that Joy was right. This was internal and it was bigger than just sabotage.
This was a coup.
Ace was hardly shocked by anything anymore but he couldn’t say this new information didn’t surprise him.
He didn’t know what Marco would gain from his death but he had a nagging feeling in his gut that he knew who did.
A few months ago, he would have dismissed the idea immediately but now—especially after the confrontation at the club—he wasn’t so sure.
Ace’s gut was hardly wrong but he would need hard proof if he were to act on it.
“Who was Marco working with? Cause he couldn’t pull all this off on his own,” Ace asked, fishing for an answer he hoped he didn’t get.
“I don’t know, man. He didn’t say. He just said he had someone backing him who was gonna take over once you were out the way.”
Ace straightened, looking over at Jrue, then Von, murderous looks in both of their eyes.
Sasha peeked her head into the room where Ace was carrying out his interrogation and he paused, turning to his brother’s right hand. “You found her?”
“Oh they found her alright. She sent three of my fucking men to the doc,” Sasha spat, jaw tight. Her irritation was clear but so was the underlying respect she wouldn’t dare voice.
Ace’s lips twitched with a smirk. A hint of pride welled in his chest. “So they lost her.”
Sasha nodded.
“Aight,” Ace grabbed his jacket off the chair and nodded to the men bleeding out on the floor. “Finish this. I’ll get her.”
He exited the room and went out into the larger warehouse space where the rest of the family gathered per their protocol.
The main floor of the warehouse was loud with movement, voices, and tension charging the air as they all waited for answers and next steps.
Remy sat at a table, going through surveillance. August leaned against a crate, tapping a rhythm on his thigh. April paced. Senior and Pops sat in the middle of the room, calm and unmoved, waiting for the new leader of the family to call the shots.
Ace’s grandmother sat beside Pops, his queen ready for war.
June sat beside Senior, his calm in the midst of the storm.
Ace couldn’t help but think of Joy, how she was the best of both worlds— both his calm, and his queen.
He needed to find her. He needed answers.
“I should go too,” Jrue said, following him out.
“For what?” Ace asked incredulously.
“I know you trust her and everything, but you blinded by pussy right now. Clearly our assumptions about her were right, the girl ain’t normal. I need to get a read on her and make sure she isn’t a part of what’s going on.”
“Nigga I?—”
“You killed a detective for her,” Jrue cut in. “The same detective you told Von to leave alone.”
Ace had no rebuttal for that.
Jrue clapped Ace on the shoulder as he passed. “Don’t take offense, better men than you have fallen victim to pussy power man.”
Ace rolled his eyes but didn’t protest further. His mind had been gone over Joy for months and as confident as he was in her innocence, he couldn’t let his love for her cloud his judgment.
“And I’m going too, fuck that,” Von exclaimed.
“Why do you need to go?” Ace asked with an exasperated sigh.
“Maybe you didn’t hear Sasha earlier. The bitch sent three of my best men to the doc on her own. What makes you think you could take her if some shit goes south? Plus I don’t trust that you’ll be able to put a bullet in her skull if needed.”
Ace glared at his brother. “Make that your last time calling her a bitch or talking about putting a bullet in her. She’s innocent until proven guilty and that’s how I expect you to treat her.”
“Pussy whipped,” Von said, disguised under a cough.
Senior spoke up then. “How’d she react when the shooting started?” he asked.
“She didn’t really react,” April answered. “The shooting started and the next thing I know, she has her gun out bussing back. No panic or hesitation. She just… moved.”
“Hm… And what about after?”
Jrue cut in then. “We didn’t get to talk to her. Once we made sure they were all down, she vanished.”
Ace dragged a hand over his mouth. He knew it didn’t look good. The old him would’ve already put her down. The secrets, lies, and coincidences would’ve been enough for him.
Joy had turned him into a version of himself that didn’t put the business over everything. She’d turned him into a version of himself that made allowances and gave concessions for the sake of personal pleasure. She’d woken something up in him he’d thought was dead rather than dormant.
“I’m going to talk to her,” Ace asserted.
“Ooh I wanna go!” April said.
“No.”
“Yes, we’re cool and she might trust me.”
Ace sighed.
“Well damn I wanna go too,” Aug said.
Ace began shaking his head. “Nah it’s not going like this. We can’t all go or we’ll spook her.”
“Awww Ace come on! We haven't all been on a sibling mission in forever!” April pleaded. “We’ll be chill. Right?” she turned her glare on her brothers.
They all halfheartedly mumbled in agreement.
Ace sighed. “Let me talk to her first then I’ll call you.”
This wasn’t just business. This was between him and Joy.
This was about proving to himself he hadn’t been so blinded by companionship that he’d been wrong about her.
“Is this girl gonna be a problem?” Pops’ voice cut through the room.
Ace looked up.
His grandfather leaned back in his chair, fingers steepled and eyes sharp despite the calm exterior.
“A hell of a coincidence,” he continued, “that y’all get ambushed like this… and suddenly your girl is a sniper.”
Before Ace could answer, Von spoke.
“Don’t ask him, Pops,” Von said around a mouthful of food. “He’s pussy whipped.”
“Watch your mouth in front of the ladies,” Pops snapped.
Von rolled his eyes. “Man I seen granny pull a nigga teeth out his head and April feel up on niggas to plant bugs on them but I gotta watch my mouth?”
“Yes,” Senior and Pops said in unison.
A few laughs broke the tension.
Von waved them off and continued digging into the plate that seemed to have appeared out of thin air.
Ace didn’t smile.
“I can stay objective,” he said firmly. “Especially when it comes to this family.”
“Mm,” Pops hummed. “What you think?” he asked Jrue.
Jrue shrugged. “Only met her twice. But… he pulled a switchblade out her bra the first time and the second, Ace sliced up Isaac’s face in front of her and she didn’t flinch.”
Ace didn’t miss the way his grandfather’s gaze sharpened.
“We’ll come back to what you did to Isaac,” he promised. “That girl is more than she appears to be.”
“Yes, she is,” Ace agreed.
“But you don’t want to know the truth.” It wasn’t a question. It was a statement. Borderline an indictment.
Ace didn’t answer. He didn’t know. He had seen signs and had suspicions but he hadn’t confirmed out of fear of losing what they had.
“Figure it out,” Pops said, voice low. “And make sure she ain’t a threat to what I built. If she’s not… bring her to dinner. I’d like to meet her.”
He speared Ace with eyes that reminded him of the old Zachariah King, not the loving grandfather but the legend and nightmare.
“And if she is…” Heavy silence stretched between them. “You know what you need to do.”
Ace swallowed around the thickness in his throat and nodded.
He cleaned up in the bathroom then bypassed his family, his sights set on talking to Joy.
His mind wasn’t on Marco.
Or the traitors.
Or even the mafia.
It was on her.
The way she didn’t flinch.
The way she shot back like she’d been trained.
The way she disappeared before anyone could question her.
His mind was on the way he found her before the shooting started. The crazed look in her eyes and brutal way she beat the lifeless man beneath her.
He wondered if he hadn’t imagined it all those times she looked at him like she knew exactly who and what he was.
Ace slid into his car, jaw tight.
He’d tip-toed around this conversation for long enough. They’d toyed with each other, trying to see who would be the first to break and spill all of their secrets.
Ace had enjoyed the game but now he needed answers.
Two truths sat heavy in his chest:
Someone in his house was trying to take him down.
And the woman he couldn’t stay away from — the woman he’d come to need like he’d never needed anyone else — might not be innocent.
He started the engine then pulled off into the night in search of his rose.