Page 18 of Dom
I didn’t say shit at first. The only hit they could have been questioning them about was mine when I sprayed that white Escalade and the hit was clean… too clean and too quiet. They must’ve been Feds in disguise or some informants on a low-key assignment. Now they were sniffing around and trying to shake down my females thinking they’d get a slip up but the muhfuckas didn’t know Carmen and O’Shynn were trained and loyal to the bone. I stepped out of the lead truck first and I knew my energy was felt. Serrano met me at the entrance, adjusting his cufflinks like he was about to go fight for a million-dollar client because he was. The Mayor stood beside him, sweating through his tie like I knew he would, and the Cartel was behind me.
“You got five minutes to find out what’s goin’ on,” I told them. “I want Carmen and O’Shynnoutof that station, or we makin’ this a fuckin’ war zone. I’ll lay my life on the line and die about those two.”
Serrano gave me a nod and walked straight into the precinct like it was a fucking boardroom meeting awaiting him on the other side. The Mayor scrambled behind him, while stuttering and apologizing to nobody who was listening ‘cause I know I damn sure wasn’t. I didn’t budge at all. I stayed out front with my crew and we was deep too. The windows on the trucks were slightly cracked. Every nigga standing with me was loyal and every chain around a neck had been earned in blood.
The officers on duty outside the station were nervous, their radios buzzing nonstop with chatter they couldn’t control. They kept glancing over at us, unsure if they should call in backup or just stay out of the storm entirely. Phat lit a cigar right there on the sidewalk, blowing smoke in the direction of a nervous-looking rookie who looked like he wanted to shit his pants.
Lou checked his phone, then looked at me. “Nothin’ yet.”
“We gon’ wait,” I said calmly. “We ain’t goin’ nowhere till my wife and my sister walk out that muhfucka on their own feet.”
This wasn’t just about family anymore, it was about the principle. Carmen Royal wasn’t just my wife, she wasMiami’s sharpest female criminal attorney with a respected name in and outside of courtrooms, and they had the audacity to drag her down here onspeculation?Nah, fuck that… and O’Shynn ran an empire of her own, and they thought they’d break her because she was pretty and sharp? Nah... ain’t no way. These Fed niggas forgot who the fuck they were dealing with.
Minutes turned into hours, and the sun got even hotter, burning down on all of us like a spotlight from the heavens. Sweat ran down my temple, but I didn’t move and didn’t plan to. I leaned back against the truck with my arms folded cool as a fan on the surface. I could feel the weight of Miami watching and in that moment everything around me seemed a little smaller. The civilians passed by slow walking with their eyes wide and phones out but they hesitant to film. They knew what this presence meant, and the Royal Cartel don’t pull up unless it’s personal.
The glass doors swung open, and I felt like I could breathe again. Carmen and O’Shynn walked out side by side, calm as hell, draped in trench coats like they’d just walked off a runway instead of being interrogated for damn near twelve hours. They both had on shades, and both had a little smirk on their faces and in that exact moment,everyone who was watching knew that the Feds lost this round.I pushed off the truck and met Carmen halfway, eyeing her from head to toe like I needed to make sure she was untouched. O’Shynn’s savage ass winked at me before flipping her middle finger over her shoulder in the direction of the station. Carmen slid her shades down just enough for our eyes to lock.
“You okay ma?” I asked low.
She looked at me with those pretty ass eyes and smiled at me. “Yep, better than ever.”
Behind us, the Mayor was trying to save face pretending to answer calls while Serrano lit a cigarette looking like he’d just won his hundredth case. The presence of the Cartel was strong and the line of black Escalades, along with the motorcycles idling curbside told every single soul on that block the truth about what really just happened… werunthis city, and nobody was about to break what we built. They’d have to come with a solid case first.
The walls of the interrogation room were a dull gray, and cold. I was used to it but never from this side of it. The only time I’d ever entered one of these rooms was because I was showing up on the behalf of a client. It wasn’t a clock in sight or any windows. It wasn’t meant to be comfortable. It was just four corners, one steel table bolted to the ground, and two chairs we didn’t ask to fucking sit in. Me and O'Shynn were dressed in our trench coats fresh off a night where we were only supposed to be handling some quick business at the club and that landed us here. Go figure, we weren’t even supposed to be at the club at all tonight. We were simply having a ladies’ night in the sanctuary of my home.
"You okay?" O'Shynn asked in a whispered tone as her eyes stayed steady on the double-sided mirror.
I nodded my head leaning back in my chair with my legs crossed gently resting my arms. "They think we’re the weak links."
She smirked. "They gon’ learn tonight.”
We’d been sitting for what felt like hours and I knew the routine. They wanted us to sweat, but we didn’t plan on breaking and never have. Finally, the door slowly creaked open, and two agents stepped in. It was one black man with a shiny bald head that looked like he had an attitude problem, and a white woman with ugly energy written all over her face. They dropped a thick ass folder on the table like we were supposed to be impressed. I just stared at it.
The bald one leaned forward. “You ladies know why you’re here?”
"No," I replied coolly. "But what I do know is you have about fifteen minutes to either charge me or get the fuck out of my face. This little game you’re playing won’t end how you think.”
The woman cut in this time. “There was a shooting a few nights ago outside of the club. Does a white Escalade ring a bell?”
I glanced at O'Shynn, who blinked slow, just like me. We were already on one accord with each other. I turned back to the woman sounding unbothered. “Ma’am, it’s Miami. A shooting in front of a club isn’t exactly a unicorn you know.”
Baldy flipped open the folder and started sliding his finger over black and white surveillance photos across the table. They were from a traffic cam pointed toward the side of the club. One showed a motorcycle, and another showed a muzzle of flashes. There was another that looked like bullet holes in the Escalade, however, there was no face for the motorcycle, no license plate, and no proof. I knew better, that hit had Dom’s name written all over it, but I would never tell.
O’Shynn folded her arms. “That supposed to scare us?”
“You own the property,” Baldy said looking between O’Shynn and I. Yes, O’Shynn owned the club and yes, our names were tied into it, but we hadn’t done anything. “You expect us to believeyou didn’t know what happened outside? Especially when we know your ties?”
I leaned forward, locking eyes with him. “You ever hear of liability law? Because what you’re trying to do is paint suspicion without a canvas. You don’t have enough paint, sweetheart.”
The room fell silent, but I could feel the tension. They were hoping for some kind of crack or emotions to flare. Instead, I fixed my trench and yawned like I was tired. They tried to separate us next. They took O’Shynn to another room and left me in mine with a new agent who had a clip-on tie and tried to act like he knew something that he didn’t. He leaned back in his chair like he owned the tiny box of a room.
“I don’t think you fully understand how serious this is, Ms. Royal,” he said.
I smirked. “It’s Williams…. Carmen Williams.” I was being an asshole. Williams was the name I entered the U.S with but I was surely a Royal.
“Right… Williams,” he said, clearly annoyed that he didn’t get a rise out of me. “You’re affiliated with Dominic Royal, are you not?”
“I’m affiliated with success,” I shot back. “And business….legal business. Do you have a warrant to pull my affiliations out your ass?”
