Page 197 of The Fire We Make

He’d given her something she’d never experienced and loved her back to health when she was drowning. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt him but the voice in her head…

The one that had been shouting commands at her since she was eight.

The one that trained her to be the ruthless machine she now was.

The one she took orders from for almost twenty years.

The one she thought she silenced.

It was back.

“You are my soldier, princess and one day you’ll be the queen of this empire we’re building. Love is not something you need to be chasing. You’re meant for more than that.”

“Love comes and goes. Power and legacy last forever.”

“There are women who are meant to love a man with power and there are women who are meant to hold the power. Very rarely can the two coexist.”

Byron’s words to her over the years about love all came back to her and they warred with the ones that Ace had tried to replace them with.

She wanted to keep living this fairytale but she knew that the clock had struck midnight. The carriage would return to a pumpkin and the lover would turn back into a soldier.

“Ace…,” Joy started, reaching up to hold his face. “I… I have to go. This is what I’ve been working a whole year for. This is what I’ve been working my whole life for… I can’t just give it up.”

“I’m not asking you to. If you want Texas, we can take it together.”

“I’m not interested in going from one man’s pawn to another.”

Ace released a humorless chuckle and Joy could see the hurt in his eyes.

“Pawn. Really? That’s what you think I want you for? To use you?”

Joy looked away, unable to stomach the pain in his voice and the shame of her assumption.

“Nah look at me. Look me in my eyes and tell me that you’re reducing my love for you to being a pawn,” Ace demanded, gripping her chin to bring her eyes back to him.

“I know your daddy fucked you up real good but let me tell you something Joy… I have my kingdom already. I don’t need you. Not for that. You could walk out that door right now and nothing around this motherfucka changes. I need you for me. I need you around because I want you around. If you want to be my queen and rule beside me, the throne is yours. If you want to practice law I have an office for you. Shit If you want to stay home and bake fucking cookies all day, I’ll make sure you have the best commercial-grade oven. It’s your world my love, all I ask is that you let me live in it.”

“Since I was 11, my only goal has been to run the Cartel. You of all people should understand that.”

“You of all people should understand that I’m not trying to stop you from doing that. Shit if you want the Cartel, me and my niggas can ride down there and help you take it.”

“I don’t need your help.”

“I know you don’t.”

“I don’t want it either.”

“Well goddamnit, what do you want, Joy?” Ace roared.

“I… Damn you Ace, I don't know!” she yelled back. “I used to know. I thought I knew. My goal was so clear until you came around and started making me feel different.”

“Baby I know what you’re searching for by going back, but you won’t find that in Houston. Your daddy left you for dead until he needed you then letting punk ass Jermaine come up here and fuck with you should tell you that. But you’ll find it here. With me. I love you Joy. Fire and all. Darkness and all. Violence and all.”

Tears streamed down Joy’s face and Ace could see the war in her eyes so he kissed her. He kissed her hard and deep. She wasn’t hearing him so maybe she needed to feel him. Maybe he could pour his love for her into her body from his own.

Joy kissed him back with equal fervor. She clung to him and Ace did the same, afraid that once he let her go, she would vanish. He’d finally found the love he’d been wanting all his life in Joy and he had no desire to give her up, especially not to her father and a group of motherfuckas who didn’t appreciate her or value her the way he did.

He’d nursed her heart back to health after they hurt her and helped her find the acceptance and beauty in her darkness. He’d be damned if she took everything he gave to her away and gave it back to people who didn’t deserve her.