Page 202 of The Fire We Make

“Joy Elise Thibodeaux. What the fuck were you thinking?”

“I told you I wanted to go home Mel.”

“I know but I thought you’d let that go. We’d been having such a good time. You’ve been a rockstar at work. Ace… Why would you want to go back to those people who hurt and abandoned you?”

Joy sighed. “Old habits die hard, I guess,” she muttered.

She’d equivocated pain and neglect to love and strength for so long, that what the people she’d come to love in New York made her feel, felt like weakness.

“I know. Come home Jo Jo.”

“I… I can’t,” Joy breathed. She tilted her head towards the ceiling of her childhood bedroom to keep the tears that stung her ducts at bay.

“Why?” Mel asked softly.

“I belong here. I built this organization. I gave my blood and childhood for it. If it’s gonna burn to the ground it’ll be because I lit the match.”

Mel sighed. “I can’t say I understand but I respect it. Do what you need to do then come home. I can’t believe Ace let you leave,” she chuckled.

The sound of his name made Joy’s heart race.

“He didn’t.”

“What do you mean?”

“I knew if I had to face him, I wouldn’t go. He begged me to stay Mel and I just… I felt so conflicted. Then I felt so scared. So I left in the middle of the night while he was sleep.”

“Ooo…” Mel sang. “Have you heard from him?”

“Nope. Radio silence.” The fact that he hadn’t reached out should have been a relief, but it felt like confirmation.

He’d let her go.

She should do the same.

“I’ll call you back tomorrow okay? I need to get with Glock.”

“Ooo tell his fine ass I said hey!”

“Gross. He’s like family Mel.”

“He’s like family to you. He ain’t no kin of mine.”

“Disgusting. Bye.”

“Bye girl. I love you!” Mel sang into the phone.

Joy chuckled. “Love you too.”

“I mean it Jo Jo. I give you a hard time but good bad or ugly, I love you. Blood couldn’t make us any closer.”

The tears she’d been trying to keep at bay fell then. “I love you too girl.”

Chapter Forty-Five

“Why the fuck do you smell like moth balls?” Ace growled.

His new associate flinched like Ace had bucked at him. “Uh… I—I got a new cologne sir,” the man stuttered.