Page 142 of The Fire We Make

“You and this dress gon’ get me in trouble.”

“You like it?” she asked, doing a half twirl. The deep red fabric fell to the marble floor and clung to every curve of her body, dipping as low as it could tastefully go in the back. She’d picked the dress with Ace and her newest piece of jewelry in mind and she smiled seeing his appreciation for it.

“I love it. So does every other motherfucka in this bitch,” Ace nearly growled.

“Well you’re the only one who’ll be taking it off,” she whispered seductively in his ear, trailing one sharp nail down his chest.

“Damn right,” Ace said, discreetly gripping a handful of her ass.

Joy giggled as she let him bring her into his embrace. She wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders grinning from ear to ear. Her smile dimmed when she looked over Ace’s shoulder.

She thought her eyes were playing tricks on her when they landed on Julius Chapman, Jermaine’s father.

“What’s wrong?” Ace asked, sensing the shift in her immediately.

“Nothing,” Joy answered too quickly even for her own ears, shaking her head as if it would clear the hallucination from her mind. When she looked over Ace’s shoulder again, he was still there. The older, slightly thinner version of the man who’d tried to break her.

Ace’s eyes narrowed on her. “You sure?”

“Yeah. I… I have to use the ladies room.”

“Okay,” Ace nodded. “I’ll take you.”

“No,” she said with more force and speed than intended. “I’m fine. I’ll be right back.” She offered a smile to soften the blow. She didn’t wait for Ace to speak again before rushing off in the direction of the restrooms.

Joy burst through the door of the ladies room and stared at herself in the mirror, her heart hammering in her chest. Not with anger or fear but anxiety.

Why was he here?

She didn’t think a Senator from Texas had any business in New York. Was he there for her? Would he out her to Ace? Things were finally starting to look up and she didn’t want to give up everything she’d worked for.

Joy talked herself down, surmising that it was just a coincidence and she would just need to ensure she stayed out of his way. After calming herself, she walked out of the restroom only to be slammed against the adjacent wall.

“You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting to get my hands on you, little bitch,” Julius growled in her face, spit flying as he spoke. “You thought you could almost kill my son and get away with it?”

“Yeah,” Joy gritted under the weight of his forearm on her throat. “For all this trouble, I should have followed through. If I ever see him again, I won’t be so careless.”

A fist to the side of her face silenced her.

“You have a lot of mouth for a bitch with no family,” he spat.

Joy flinched at the words, the reminder a greater pain than the punch he’d just thrown.

Joy wasn't surprised by the vitriol Julius spewed towards her. Even though he and everyone else in town knew Jermaine was a womanizing, abusive prick, like many oldest sons to powerful men, his flaws were overlooked and forgiven because of his status and enabled by daddy’s money that paid off whoever needed to keep quiet.

Julius and Joy had always bumped heads. Julius had wanted someone meeker and more agreeable as a daughter in law but knew an alliance with the Thibodeauxs was the best option for gaining power in the Texas underworld.

The Chapmans had wanted Joy’s head on a spike for what she did to Jermaine, not out of loyalty or love for their son, but to make an example out of her.

To bring her down a peg from the high horse everyone assumed she sat atop and make her conform to the ways of their family rather than running the Chapman house and everyone in it like it was her show to direct.

“Yeah I heard your daddy kicked your crazy ass out. Imagine my surprise when I found out you were hiding here like a sewer rat. A soldier with no army. Just pathetic.” He looked down at her with pure disgust. “A waste of a pretty face.”

Joy pushed against him but it only made him grip her harder.

“I wonder if Ace King knows his whore is a fucking deranged monster. Maybe I should tell him. Maybe I should tell him about your time in the mental institute. Tell him what you did to my son. How fucking useless you are that your own daddy wanted nothing to do with you,” he laughed in her face.

“I think that’s exactly what I’ll do,” he continued on, his fingers digging into her skin and his words digging into every fear and negative thought she’d had the past several weeks. “Pop this little bubble you think you have here then make you pay for embarrassing my family.”