Page 109 of The Fire We Make

“They weren’t lying when they said you were a criminal mastermind Ms. Thibodeaux,” he said.

Joy shrugged.

“Where did you learn to think like this? Your internship at the DA’s office?”

Joy flinched at his words. It was slight and anyone who wasn’t studying her so closely might have missed it but Ace didn’t. When it came to Joy he didn’t miss anything.

Joy nodded. “Yeah. That and crime movies.”

Ace chuckled. “Crime movies huh?”

Ace lifted his glass and Joy did the same.

“To crime movies,” Ace toasted.

With a chuckle, Joy clinked her glass against his.

“To crime movies.”

“Wait, so you think we have a rat?” April asked. The King siblings and Remy were gathered in Pops’ office at the estate so Ace could share the events from earlier and Joy’s assumption.

“This is beyond a rat,” Jrue said, nursing a glass of whiskey. “This is sabotage.”

“But who and why?” Aug asked.

Von shook his head. “I’ve been hearing some grumblings in the street but none of them niggas have the juice to pull off something this big. Not without help. This is coming from someone up top.”

“You think it’s the lieutenants?” Remy asked.

“They could be in on it and might have the juice to pull off some shit in the streets but the shit with the courts is beyond them. Someone with legit pull is helping them behind the scenes,” Von replied.

Ace nodded in agreement, his brother voicing his thoughts exactly. “That's what I need y’all to figure out,” Ace said.

“And you said Joy is the one who brought this up?” Jrue asked tentatively.

Ace nodded. “Yeah, the more she explained it, the more it started to make sense.” He chuckled, shaking his head. “I don’t know how I didn't consider the possibility earlier.”

“She doesn’t know…?” Jrue started.

“No,” Ace answered definitively.

Joy wasn't a dummy. Anyone with eyes could see that the Kings were corrupt. A few Google searches would feed her all of the allegations and rumors that were rooted in truth about the King family, but no one knew just how deep their influence ran and how invested they were in the cases they tried.

“I’m not worried about her, though. I’m more focused on this shit. We need to figure out who’s playing with us and nip it in the bud. The longer this festers, the more unsettled the soldiers will get and the more ammunition Harris and DA Young will have against us.”

“I’ll have Sasha and my men put their ears to the streets to see if they hear anything,” Von offered, already making plays on his phone.

Ace nodded, before Joy’s words from their visit to the warehouse popped into his mind.

“Have Sasha keep an eye on Curtis,” he instructed Von. “Joy expressed that something wasn’t right with him when we went to look into the cameras and logs.”

“Joy said, huh?” Von scoffed.

Ace shot him a warning glare and Von raised his hands in mock surrender.

“You got it boss.”

“I’ll do some digging to see if I can find anything about where these anonymous tips are coming from,” Remy said, slicing through the tension.