Page 230 of The Fire We Make

Ace’s jaw tightened. “What kind of legislation?” he asked.

Vincent slowly produced a folded manilla folder from the inside of his suit jacket and handed it over to Ace.

“They will be presenting legislation to the Senate in six months that will create more lax surveillance laws. There’s a bunch of legal jargon but essentially, anyone arrested in connection to organized crime related charges will automatically be able to bypass judge approved surveillance for any of their known associates. Anything found in that time will be completely admissible in court.”

Ace ripped open the folder and sure enough, it was all there, legislature that would take cases like Blue’s from troublesome to catastrophic.

Joy looked over his shoulder and her grunt of disapproval let him know that she saw exactly what he did.

“How likely do you think it is that this will be passed?” she asked.

“Honestly? Young has been doing a good job at lobbying this but there are still a few senators on the fence. Senator Edwards has the most sway so a vote nay from him could turn the tide.”

“Thank you Vincent, we’ll look into this.”

“Of course. And congratulations to you both. You’re a beautiful and… scary couple.”

They both beamed. “Thank you,” they said in unison.

Once Vincent left the two alone, Joy and Ace sat, flipping through the file, already shifting into strategy mode.

“So we need to get Jrue to speak to Senator Edwards,”Ace said.

“Not necessarily,” Joy answered. “We could go straight to them, but do we want to threaten a Senator? Even if there’s no proof, if they squeal about the big bad King family threatening them, it’ll only add fuel to the fire and turn fence voters into yays. We can’t take that risk.”

Ace grinned. “We?”

Joy smiled sheepishly, holding up her left hand, the glittering six carat diamond ring catching the light. “We.”

“They likely have a policy analyst, someone who advises on these things. It would be a better shot for him to speak to them.”

Ace looked over at her, never ceasing to be amazed by her brilliance.

Joy cackled, slapping him on the shoulder. “Focus, baby.”

With a sigh, Ace flipped through the file, looking for any information on a policy analyst. He found what he was looking for on the second to last page but the photo paper clipped to the corner brought him up short.

“Fuck,” he cursed under his breath.

“What?” Joy asked, scooting closer to get a better look.

“Who is she?” she asked, turning sharp eyes from Ace to the beautiful woman’s photo.

Ace swiped a hand down his face, not sure how even he could ask this of his little brother.

“Jrue’s wife.”