Page 37 of The Fire We Make

Von nodded once as Ray held the door open for Ace’s exit.

Ace sat in his office with Jrue and Von in front of him. The three of them wore tight expressions while they strategized how to fix the issue they were currently dealing with.

“Let the Lieutenants know a replacement will be in this week. They’ll have extra in their packs for their trouble,” Ace instructed.

Von nodded. “I got you. I’m not gon’ lie though, most of them are more concerned with why the shit was delayed in the first place.”

Ace sighed. “Just tell them it’s been handled.”

Von nodded and stood. “You got it Boss.”

Once Von left, Jrue kicked his feet up on the empty chair. “I set up a meeting tonight with Amos Toussaint,” he said, his face buried in his phone and a glass of amber liquid in one hand. “They heard about what happened. The Jamaicans bring their shit through our ports and need to see your face so you can reassure him. With your new transition, the last thing we need is a breakdown in trust.

Ace nodded. “I feel you.”

He hated this part of the business. He enjoyed the strategizing, the enforcing, and the ruling. But the politicing… he hated it. He had to spend too much time and energy catering to emotions and egos and he wasn’t with that but it was part of the job.

Ace pulled at the hair on his chin. “Harris is gonna be a problem,” he mused aloud.

Jrue snapped his eyes to him. “You think he had something to do with this?”

Ace shrugged. “The port manager said cops were sniffing around, then some mysterious entity gives the order to send my shit back? I don’t know man. I don’t believe in coincidences.”

Jrue nodded. “I trust your instincts. Let me get with some of my contacts at the precinct and see what I can find.”

Ace nodded.

Jess knocked and peeked her head into the room. “Mr. King. The all-staff meeting is starting soon.”

“Thanks Jess,” Ace said “See you tonight J,” he threw to his brother as he stood, slipping his arms back through his suit jacket.

Ace emerged from his office and into the halls of the firm to make his way to the conference room for the quarterly all-staff meeting.

Ever observant, he kept his head on a swivel, peering around as much of the halls as he could see on his path. When he made it to the glass encased conference room, his perusal of the area was halted and his eyes landed on the brownskinned beauty sipping on a cup of coffee in the corner of the packed room.

Joy Thibodeaux.

He thought his eyes were playing tricks on him when he saw her in the hallway the day before. He recognized her cloud of coils and round ass from several feet away. Just as he was beginning to extract her memory from his mind, there she was again. He wasn’t sure if she’d been dropped in his lap as a small mercy or to taunt him but he’d take her either way.

Joy was doing the same thing he was, slowly surveying her surroundings around a coffee cup with a tight expression. Her eyes were sharp as they drifted around the room with a familiar awareness. She had mastered the slow and casual yet focused perusal that he had been trained to do when scoping any area for a threat.

While her attention was elsewhere, Ace took the opportunity to study her more closely in better lighting than he was afforded on the roof. Her skin was the color of toasted walnuts and was buttery smooth from what he could see around the long sleeved fitted dress that stopped at her knees.

His eyes trailed the length of her body, taking her in slowly. Her limbs were long and she was clearly strong as indicated by the muscles in her legs on display and the slight definition in her arms. She was strong, but still held the femininity afforded by her soft curves. Maybe a former athlete, he surmised.

Her full lips were painted the same deep red, reminiscent of the color of blood when it kissed the air, and pulled tight into that fake ass smile that seemed to be her default.

Her nails, painted in the same hue, were filed to a sharp point that had his mind drifting to how they might feel scraping across the skin of his back and torso.

He wondered if she was strapped beneath this dress as well.

Everything about her appearance held hints of subtle violence that made the corners of his mouth tip up in a small smile. The thinly veiled darkness he saw swirling in her eyes made him wonder if that was intentional or instinctual.

When her assessment of the area snagged on Ace, her sultry, dark eyes met his gaze unwaveringly making him tamp down a smile. She didn’t shy away from Ace’s intense eye contact and just like before, it pleased him.

He loved that she wasn’t intimidated by him. She met his dangerous gaze with her own.

She was good at hiding it. To anyone else, she was simply a poised professional woman with a serious expression. But Ace saw past that. The eyes looking back at him across the conference room were the same ones he saw in the mirror everyday.