Chapter 47
Chapter Forty-Seven
Joy went to her father’s office the next day prepared to yield.
Her heels echoed in the halls of the Thibodeaux Trucking building like a countdown to her demise.
Her chest was tight, not with nerves but with restraint. She felt like a convict turning herself in for death row.
To anyone watching, she was calm, composed and elegant. The princess returned to grovel for her spot back. Inside, she was raging against the injustice of it all.
She would do her duty to her family and pay her dues though and after this, she would demand her seat at the table be permanently returned.
Joy clocked every exit and felt for the familiar weight of her desert eagle strapped to her thigh beneath her dress.
She was prepared to concede but she wouldn’t be caught off guard if Jermaine tried anything. He was a proud man who was robbed of his opportunity for retribution when she was sent away then exiled. This was his way of punishing her and it wouldn’t stop with just her taking his last name.
He’d want to embarrass and break her, just as he’d tried to do before. Only this time, she knew her leash was shorter.
Her men moved around her, some acknowledging her, some doing their best to remain out of her sight. Joy didn’t pay attention to any of them though. They were just bodies and shadows moving around her as she set her sights on her father’s office.
Glock waited at the entrance of the hall for her, chewing on a toothpick.
“My dad invited you to this little meeting?”
Glock snorted, littering the hallway with his discarded toothpick. “Hell nah. I thought you might need some backup, though.”
Joy sighed. “Well let’s go then.”
Jermaine was there when they entered the office without knocking. He was leaned back in the leather chair just as he’d been the day before, smug and entitled, looking upon her with an expression that made her skin crawl.
Her father’s face was stone.
“Good morning, Joy,” Jermaine said, eyeing her up and down with a slow smirk.
“Shut the fuck up talking to me,” Joy snapped.
“You disrespectful little bitch, I’ll?—”
“That’s. Enough,” Byron boomed. “Everyone take a seat. The board will be here soon and I’d like to have this finalized before then.”
Joy ignored the death stare from Jermaine and the disappointed stare from her father as she took her seat, posture perfect and the mask of compliance slipped back over her features.
She listened, detached, as Byron and Jermaine discussed terms like she wasn’t even there. The first time around at this, she’d been a part of the discussion. Now, she was just the bargaining chip.
Joy hadn’t minded the prospect of an arranged marriage before. She knew love wasn’t in the cards for her, so what did a marriage of convenience matter?
Now that she’d tasted the forbidden fruit, it felt wrong to give the title of her husband to anyone but Adonis King the Second.
She nodded politely when spoken to and bit her tongue when she had objections.
“Joy,” Jermaine said, turning to her with a predatory glint in his eyes. Joy nearly shivered at the malice she witnessed within them.
“You’re on a probationary period until I say otherwise. I don’t want any trouble out of you. You understand what’s at stake if you cause problems or get out of line?”
Joy had to bite the inside of her cheek and ball her hands into fists to keep from clawing at him.
“Yes,” she said coolly, expression neutral.
“Good,” he smiled. He reached over and tried to take her hand in his. She slapped it away with a sharp sting, her sharp nails scratching him in the process.
“Do. Not. Touch. Me.”
He tilted his head. “You expect me not to touch my wife?”
“That’s exactly what I expect. Unless you wanna be twins with Cleve from beyond the grave. This is in name only. A business arrangement.”
His eyes darkened and he raked his eyes over her frame salaciously. “You know, there was a time when you loved my touch.”
“That was before you tried to kill me.”
“I’d say we’re even on that front my love.”
“And before I had better.”
His smirk fell for the first time since Joy had entered the room, replaced with a clenched jaw and darkened eyes that promised she’d pay for that comment as soon as the agreement was signed.
A tense silence settled over the room until it was shattered by the sharp bang of gunfire echoing through the other side of the door.
Glock was the first to move, pulling his gun from under his shirt without delay.
Joy was next, pulling her desert eagle from under her dress followed by Byron, and Jermaine’s guards.
For a moment, she wondered if she was too late and the feds were there to raid their office. When she didn’t hear the yelling or commands of law enforcement, she put that notion aside.
The guards at the door yelled out commands that were cut short by the sharp sounds of gunfire. More shots rang out, followed by the heavy thud of bodies slumping against the door.
The door burst open and for the first time in days, Joy felt like she could breathe.
Ace stepped in first, sucking all of the air out of the room. Behind him were Von and Ray.
“What is this?” Byron sputtered, face tight.
“Am I interrupting?” Ace asked, his voice low and dangerous. The boredom in his eyes made it clear he didn’t give a fuck whether he was or not.
“Yes you are, actually. We are in the middle of an important meeting.”
“I see that.”
For the first time since he entered the room, his eyes fell on Joy.
“Hey, Rose.”
Joy simpered despite herself. “Hi, Adonis.”
He walked towards her, unconcerned with the many angry stares being thrown his way.
“I told you I would always chase you. You thought I was playing?”
Joy shook her head.
Ace lifted his hand and Joy anticipated his touch but the progression was interrupted by Jermaine’s grating voice.
“Um excuse me? What the fuck is going on here?”
“I’m having a conversation with my woman, nigga. You mind?” Ace asked though his eyes never left Joy’s.
“Uh yes I do mind. That’s my fucking fiancé.”
Ace turned at that. His body never moved but his head rotated with an agonizing slowness to face Jermaine like a possessed doll.
“Excuse me?”
Jermaine puffed his chest out, foolishly mistaking Ace’s surprise for weakness.
“Yeah we?—”
Ace stepped across the room to Jermaine in two strides and his gun was at the man’s temple before he could finish his sentence.
Jermaine’s security tried to intervene but Von and Ray trained their guns on them, halting their movements.
Ace pressed the barrel more firmly against Jermaine’s head.
“She’s not your anything,” Ace said, his eyes dark and his voice threateningly low. “She’s mine. Let’s be clear on that.”
Jermaine’s eyes widened. “Joy, who is this?” he asked.
“Better,” she smirked.
Fury lit his eyes and she was sure if Ace’s gun wasn’t trained at his head, she’d have caught a fist to her mouth for the quip.
“Adonis,” Joy said.
“What?” he snapped, turning to her with his gun still at Jermaine’s head.
“Put the gun down.”
Ace scoffed. “You got some motherfuckin nerve asking me to spare this niggas life. This why you left me? So you can come home to your nigga?”
Joy reeled back. “Of course not. You’re the only one I want to be with.”
“Aye don’t let her treacherous ass sweet talk you big bruh. Put that nigga down and snatch her ass up so we can go. It’s hot as a fuck down here,” Von griped.
Joy smiled. “Hi Von.”
“Don’t ‘hi Von’ me Jane. You wrong as hell and you know it.”
Joy huffed and turned her attention back to Ace who still had his gun trained to Jermaine’s head.
She put her hand on his arm and lowered the gun herself. “I don’t give a damn about his life but if anyone is gonna kill him, it’s gonna be me.”
Jermaine scoffed. “Same old Joy. Byron I thought you said you had her under control.”
Joy’s eyes ballooned at that. She wasn’t sure why she was so shocked.
“Joy…” Byron started, tension evident in his shoulders and the set of his jaw. “That’s enough. I don’t know what you were up there doing in New York but tell your friend to leave. We have business to finish and I don’t have time right for these games.”
Neither Joy or Ace acknowledged him, their eyes catching again.
“I came all the way down to this humid ass city to get you, Rose. You gon’ stand there and stare or you gon’ give me a kiss?”
“This is enough, Joy,” Byron barked. “You had your fun in New York but now it’s time to do your duty to this organization. To this family.”
“Would you shut yo old ass up?” Von snapped. “My brother trying to be romantic and shit.”
Ace scoffed. “Some family this is.” He turned to her, gripping her chin to force her eyes to meet his.
“She is my daughter.”
“I don’t give a damn,” Ace growled. “You lost all rights to her in my eyes the moment you tossed her out. You don’t deserve her.”
“And you do?”
“Nah,” Ace smiled, looking down at Joy. “But the difference between me and you is that I know I don’t… and I’ll do my best to earn her anyway rather than break and use her.”
Joy’s breath caught in her throat.
Ace’s voice dropped, his plea just for her. “Kiss me, Rose.”
“You don’t have to keep doing this,” Ace said, motioning around the room at the group of men chomping at the bit to take pieces of her for their own power and pleasure.
“Let me love you. Let me choose you just as you are. Let me show you it’s possible.
I’ll spend every fucking day proving it to you. ”
Joy was silent for a moment.
The room stilled and everyone held their breath.
Inside, Joy recalled every moment of control.
Every time she was used and abused.
Every time she was shamed.
It all clicked for her in that moment. This mental illness she’d been fighting. The one that had been exploited to the point of abuse. It was because she was constantly made to feel unsafe.
She wasn’t crazy or unstable, she was just giving herself what the men around her never did.
It occurred to Joy that the only episode she’d had since being with Ace was at the gala with Jermaine’s father. Her body never felt the need to defend herself around him. Her heart and mind put up walls but her soul knew it was safe.
He and his family had never shamed her for her blood lust and they’d never used it for their own gain. Every body she caught with them was not for acceptance or an order. It was because she wanted to.
Everything she’d fought for, Ace gave freely.
Everything she hid, Ace loved.
In that moment, Joy didn’t snap, she decided.
She decided she didn’t want to fight for acceptance anymore.
She didn’t want to play her role and stay in a space that never brought her comfort.
So, she cupped the side of his face with her hand, raising on the tips of her toes to reach him, and she kissed him.
There, in front of Byron. In front of Jermaine. She didn’t just choose Ace, she chose agency.
She chose herself and the life and love she wanted and deserved.