Page 51 of The Fire We Make

“Sorry I’m running my mouth,” she chuckled sheepishly.

“That mouth is useful. Keep using it,” Ace said.

Joy blinked rapidly before recovering. She told Ace all of her observations animatedly and he listened without interruption.

“Yeah this doesn’t make sense. Blue is too clean to ever go down like this,” Ace said.

“This is definitely a set up but we need to find a way to prove it. ‘He’s a better criminal than that’ isn’t the best defense,” Joy said.

Ace chuckled.

They continued to look through the evidence, making notes and adding sticky tabs to photos that stood out.

Around noon, Ace stood and stretched. “Need more coffee,” he grumbled, then walked out.

A few minutes later, he returned with two cups, one for him and he handed the other to her. Joy thanked him and after taking a sip looked up at him. It was made exactly to her liking. Brown sugar, cinnamon and almond milk.

Ace caught her eye and winked as he sipped his own.

“I have a question,” Joy said while they took their coffee break.

“Ask,” Ace replied, waving her on.

“Your family represents a lot of criminals,” she said.

“We do,” Ace nodded.

“Why?” The question had been burning a hole in her brain since she discovered the firm’s client list.

Setting his cup of coffee down, Ace cleared his throat. “When my granddad came up here from Georgia 60 years ago, criminals were the only people who would hire him. When you’re facing death row or 4 consecutive life sentences, you don’t care what your attorney looks like or that they talk a little funny. All they wanna know is can you send them home.”

Joy nodded. “And y’all stuck with them as you grew.”

“Yeah why not? Guilty money spends just as good as innocent. Besides, don’t the bad guys deserve due process? A chance at life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and all that shit?”

Joy chuckled. “Yeah I guess they do.”

After their break, they continued working into the late afternoon, writing down everything they talked about and next steps.

Joy listened intently to the details that couldn’t be found in the files and evidence given by the prosecution and jotted down notes. She sipped her coffee in between notes and replying to Ace’s words with agreements or suggestions. Together, they developed a strategy for defense in the event Ace couldn’t get the charges thrown out. Though they was sure the charges were bogus, the falsified evidence was convincing and damning.

Occasionally they disagreed, leading to spirited debates that ended in Ace’s concession or an agreement to revisit the topic later. Aside from those, they worked together in an easy harmony and by the time they finished, they had a solid plan.

“Good work, Rose. You’re brilliant” Ace said and the praise made Joy’s body tingle. “I think we’re gonna have fun together,” he said with a smile.

Joy couldn’t help but to smile back. “I think so too.”

Alone at the office, Ace flipped through the file Remy created on Joy and was instantly struck by the noticeable blankness of it, only fueling his interest.

There was no social media presence.

No known friends or associates. A credit card history that was so clean it was obviously curated. Not even a traffic ticket. Only the basic information that could be found in a standard background check, plus a sealed record from The South Texas Mental Institute and a prescription for an anti-psychotic that hadn’t been filled in five months.

Who the fuck is this woman?

Ace tugged at the hair on his chin with a grin. The more time he spent with Joy, the more he wanted. She was smart and beautiful and fierce as fuck when she wasn’t hiding.

She had been working at the firm for a little over a month and Ace found it harder to remain professional every time they were in the same vicinity. Their playful banter and unspoken challenges excited him. Ace could tell she didn’t do it consciously as a way to gain dominance or look better in the male dominated field. It seemed unconscious. Like she was accustomed to running shit and getting her way and actually had to hold herself back.