Chapter 39
Chapter Thirty-Nine
“Rose. Baby.” Ace attempted to rouse Joy with kisses and soft words.
He knew his brothers could handle it, but they were both single minded in their own rights and Ace wouldn’t be settled until he looked the men in their eyes and evaluated them himself.
Still, it didn’t make moving from under Joy any easier.
Somehow they’d fallen asleep on the hard couch, papers and darkness surrounding them as the early evening hour turned to the middle of the night.
“Rose,” he tried again, this time shaking her gently.
“Hm,” she hummed as she lifted her head from his chest, her eyes still closed.
“I’ve gotta run, baby. I have some business to handle.”
Joy frowned. “Okay,” she replied. Her voice was still rough with sleep. She slowly rose until she was beside Ace rather than on top of him, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and smearing her eye makeup.
Ace helped her up, looking down into her face, the pad of his thumb stroking her cheek. “You gon’ be here when I get back?” he asked.
Joy looked up at him. “You want me to?”
“Yeah, I do,” Ace answered honestly. “I like knowing you’re here.”
“Then, I’ll be here,” Joy acquiesced easily. “Be safe,” she added.
Ace scoffed. A cocky grin spread across those lips she’d come to love. “Better tell them niggas to be safe baby, not me.”
Joy rolled her eyes then puckered her lips for a kiss. Ace held onto her face and obliged her.
He placed a series of soft pecks on her lips before capturing her mouth for a slow, passionate kiss.
They pulled away breathless and the look in Joy’s eyes gave Ace half a mind to tell Jrue to handle the meeting so he could handle Joy.
Instead, they shared one final kiss before he straightened and headed for the door.
Joy shook her head, then grabbed her shoes and bags and headed upstairs in search of the shower.
She stripped herself down, then took her time cleaning her face and body of all makeup and grime from her day, scrubbing until she was satisfied.
Once finished, she stepped out and wrapped a towel around herself, moving from the shower to the clawfoot tub to fill it with hot water and bubbles.
While she waited, she went back into the bedroom, pulling her weapons out of her purse and her cleaning solution and gun oil out of her suitcase.
She queued up the jazz playlist of her favorites from Ace’s collection, connecting to the speakers in the walls and letting Frank Sinatra’s voice fill the room.
She grabbed the tub tray then sank into the water, letting the heat relax her limbs.
She disassembled her guns, and flipped open her knives, humming contently as she cleaned them.
A complete loop of the playlist and five cleaned and sharpened knives later, she had reached a peaceful flow state, moving on to cleaning her guns.
“Having fun?”
Ace’s voice pulled her from the trance she was in. She looked to the doorway and found him standing there.
She smiled up at him. “I didn’t even hear you come in.”
“That’s cause you in your own ‘lil world over there,” he chuckled, stepping deeper in the bathroom.
Joy sighed. It was true. She was in her own world, her guard down as she simply enjoyed it. She hadn’t even realized how much time had passed until she looked down at her phone seeing that it’d been a little over two hours. It wasn’t like her.
“Hey.” Ace pulled her attention back to him with a finger under her chin. “That’s a good thing, baby. It means you’re relaxed. As you should be. You can be comfortable here.”
The tension in her shoulders loosened slightly and Ace grinned, leaning down to take her lips in a slow kiss, his tongue exploring every crevice of her mouth.
“I missed you,” he mumbled against her lips as soon as he pulled back for air.
“It’s been two hours,” Joy laughed as Ace chased after her mouth once more.
“So?” He chuckled and stood straight. “Mind if I join you?”
He was already working the buttons of his shirt, slowly revealing the sculpted planes of his chest and abs.
He removed the gun from the back of his pants, disassembling it before placing the pieces on the counter and unbuckling his belt.
Joy licked her lips, following the movements and enjoying the slow tease.
“I don’t mind at all,” she said softly.
He approached slowly, then slid in behind her.
He released a slight hiss when he lowered into the still very hot water that smoothed into a groan of comfort. With a muscular arm around her waist, he pulled Joy back into his chest until they were flush.
“Not too hot?” Joy asked, leaning her head against his chest.
“Nah,” he replied. “I can take the heat.”
Ace took the oiled cloth from where Joy placed it on the wooden bath tray and began cleaning his own gun.
She smiled as she took her brass knuckles out of the cleaning solution and began scrubbing them.
When she was done, she snatched the cloth from Ace and began cleaning the pieces of her desert eagle, taking her time as she gently wiped down her baby. Ace chuckled but didn't speak on it, content to watch her.
She cleaned then reassembled her gun with expert ease and swiftness.
“How’d you learn to do that?” Ace asked, in awe of how she’d taken apart and put back together the weapon like she worked at the factory.
Joy sighed. “My dad. I had to learn every part of a gun before he let me shoot one,” she said. “‘A weapon is only as good as the hands that it’s in, Princess’,” she mocked her father’s deep twang.
She chuckled and Ace joined her. Not for the first time, he realized how similar their upbringings were.
He couldn’t help but think about how perfect they fit together.
They say that opposites attract but Ace knew that this was something much more than that.
Something kismet and beyond either of their control.
Ace didn't realize how much he’d needed someone like Joy until he had her.
His siblings understood his life but there was something different, a special type of pressure that came with being the heir to a criminal organization.
A special type of loneliness that came with being feared.
His siblings could empathize but they could never relate.
Not the way Joy could.
The discontent that had sat on his chest but never had a name had been replaced with a burning passion he felt for Joy that went beyond having something in common.
They stayed like that for almost an hour, lounging and cleaning until their weapons were immaculate and their skin had pruned.
Joy sighed contentedly. If she were any more comfortable, she’d have purred like a spoiled house cat.
Together, they scrubbed at their guns and knives, Joy wiping them clean and Ace drying them, then setting them on the towel they’d placed outside the tub.
Billie Holiday urged her lover to take all of her over the speaker and Joy couldn’t help but agree.
Occasionally Ace broke their seamless assembly line to place a trail of kisses down her neck or run his hands up and down her wet body.
This is nice, Joy thought.
This was something she could get used to.
Billie Holiday transitioned into Nat King Cole and Joy felt the rumble of Ace’s humming against her back.
Her phone vibrated beside her cleaned brass knuckles and Ace’s glock.
Assuming it was Mel asking if she planned on coming home tonight, she turned in his arms, reaching over to grab it.
She giggled as Ace took the opportunity to feel her up which erupted into full blown cackles when she settled back in his arms. He kissed a path down the side of her face and nuzzled her neck, the hair of his goatee tickling her.
Instead of a message from Mel, she found an encrypted message from Glock lighting up her screen. She opened their thread and her laughter immediately ceased.
Glock: A few of our DFW guys got pinched, but nothing crazy. Cleve lost his fucking mind and switched up your distribution system and it got a whole warehouse caught up.
Her body stilled as her blood heated in a way that had nothing to do with the bathwater.
Joy: WTF????
Glock: Yeah… Your pops is working with the lawyers but he pretty much exposed us. I’ll keep you updated.
Joy: Please do.
Ace noticed her shift in demeanor. “What’s wrong?” he asked, his voice hard and his body rigid like he was prepared to fight any threat for her. Fight with her.
Joy threw her phone back down on the towel and brought her hands to her face, water sloshing with her movements.
“Rose. What’s wrong baby?” Ace asked again, his arms tightening around her.
After a deep breath, she lowered her hands and turned to face him. “That nigga Cleve is gonna run my shit into the ground.”
“How?” Ace asked.
Joy recounted the few details she received from Glock as Ace listened intently.
“I created a flawless system. One that kept us out of law enforcement radar for years. I’m gone for a year and he’s tearing down my shit, for what?” she exclaimed.
Ace didn't speak, just rubbed her back while he let her vent.
“I don’t even know why I’m surprised,” Joy shook her head. “That motherfucka has always undermined me. Always questioned me. He’d throw his own mama over a cliff if he thought it’d spite me.”
Her eyes focused on the candle flickering on the counter, memories of her childhood training coming back to her in wave after traumatizing wave.
“What did he do to you?” Ace asked, watching as she zoned out.
Joy chuckled. “Where do I even start? He humiliated me more times than I could count. He sent me on dangerous missions alone to prove I didn't have what it took. When my father put him in charge of training, he’d set the bar higher for me than the boys. Sometimes I’d leave feeling like I got hit by a truck because even when I beat everyone, he wouldn't let me stop.
“He undermined and questioned me at every chance he could. Anything to prove that my spot should belong to him. All that and the motherfucka eventually got what he wanted and look what the fuck he’s doing to my organization! With my spot!”
Joy’s fists clenched.
“Is that what you want?” Ace asked. “Your spot back?”
Joy looked up from where she was still watching the flame of the scented candle dance, staring Ace dead in the eye. She bit her lip, shaking off the words and anger that threatened to spill out of her.
“Say it,” Ace urged, but it sounded more like a dare.
Joy shook her head, her lips still trapped between her teeth.
Ace ran his hand up her leg, the soap and water easing the way and giving no resistance as he caressed her soft skin. “Say it, Rose,” he urged again. “It’s okay.”
Joy met his eyes and what she found there backed up everything he said. Perhaps it was wishful thinking but in his eyes, it did feel like it was okay to express her dark desires.
“I want that nigga dead,” she admitted, the words easing the weight on her chest.
Ace grinned. “Then why is he still breathing?”
Joy still expected a recoil or look of shock but all she got from Ace was a slow smile. She couldn’t keep the shock from her face and Ace chuckled.
“You can’t tell a nigga like me that, Joy,” he warned kissing her knuckles. “Your wants are my commands. If you want that nigga dead he’s good as gone.”
Joy simpered as his kisses trailed from her hand to her wrist and up her arm.
He continued his trail of kisses until his lips found the sensitive skin behind her ear that always made her squirm.
Joy released a shaky breath as he filled his hands with her waist and kissed and sucked her neck.
“That’s what you want, Rose? You want that nigga gone?” he mumbled into her ear.
Joy gasped when his fingers slipped beneath the sheet of foamy bubbles and between her legs, fondling with the wetness there. “Yes,” she admitted, her eyes closed and her head lolled against his shoulders. “But I wanna be the one to do it.”
The end of her sentence hitched when his thick fingers breached her opening, stretching her.
“We can make that happen, love,” Ace vowed, his lips on her ear. “Whatever you want.”
”Whatever I want?” Joy echoed, biting her lip.
“Whatever the fuck you want,” he confirmed in her ear as he added pressure to her clit with his thumb.
Joy opened her eyes, turning slightly in his hold to look up into his handsome face with eyes that blazed with devotion and desire. “Right now,” she panted as his speed increased. “I want to come.”
“Then come for me, baby.”
Joy did just that, three times over, before they finally climbed out of the cooled bathwater and washed each other up in the shower.
“I just need to run home and grab some things,” Joy said as she dried herself off, already planning what from her small arsenal she would use on Cleve.
Ace shook his head with a smile that she was sure made others uneasy but just made her pussy throb in protest of not being filled with him.
“Follow me,” he said, holding a hand out to her.
Joy wrapped the towel around herself, securing it at her chest, then placed her hand in his.
He led her out of the bathroom and into the walk-in closet. He went to a wall that held his suits and pushed them all aside, revealing a plain marble wall.
Joy watched intently as he then moved to the island in the middle of the closet that held his jewelry and lifted a Patek Philippe watch box revealing a button.
He pressed the button and with a pop, and hiss, the marble wall separated.
Joy’s eyes bulged and her jaw dropped when the wall revealed an arsenal of weapons of all kinds.
Guns of all calibers.
Knives of all sizes.
Even a torch.
Without thinking, she approached, feeling like a kid in a candy store as she surveyed all of Ace’s toys. She hadn’t had access to an arsenal like this since she left home and just the sight of deadly metal and feel of bullets in her hand put her at ease.
“Take whatever you need, baby,” Ace urged, placing a kiss on her cheek from behind her.
Joy turned, meeting his lips with a lingering kiss of her own before turning back to his stash.
While she browsed, Ace called Remy, getting the intel he needed on Cleve and putting him on standby for any tech needs.
“What you got going on, Ace?” Remy chuckled while he tapped away at his computer.
Ace looked over at Joy who was strapping her desert eagle to one thigh and a thin machete to the other. “Just helping my baby take care of her business,” he said with a smile.
Once he had what he needed from Remy, Ace shed his own towel and began getting dressed. In his boxers, he stood beside Joy picking out his own gear for their field trip.
They moved around each other in sync, pulling weapons from the wall for themselves and helping the other strap up.