Page 25 of Dom 4
“That’s why we calling a sit down,” I replied. “And not the big table either, just the core, just us.”
“Carmen, O’, Dique,” Tone listed.
“And Keondra gonna be there by default. She was in the line of fire.”
Tone closed the laptop. “What about Stone?”
I shook my head. “Not yet. I’m not questioning him before I talk to my own. We get the story frominsidefirst.”
Tone nodded slowly. “Yeah, I feel you.”
I looked out the window, but not at the scenery because I could care less about that. I just had to let my thoughts settle. It had been quiet, maybe too fucking quiet. Business was booming, my baby was growing, my marriage was flourishing, and I hadn’t had to kill nobody since El Blanca. I even had eyes on Victoria watching her every move. She’s taken her crown but that didn’t mean she fully accepted it.
“Somebody thought today was the day to test the perimeter,” I said. “I don’t give a fuck who they were aiming for. They put my family in their line of fire.”
Tone wore a hard expression on his face. “So now it’s our business.”
“Now,” I groaned in a lower tone, “it’s personal.” I told him.
He pulled his phone and started the encrypted sends with no questions. I rested my head back against the seat looking calm and controlled but very much awake inside. Somebody was about to lose something they couldn’t get back.
We rerouted to the penthouse instead of the Biscayne office because it just made more sense. It was soundproof, bulletproof glass, the whole floor locked down with private elevator access. The mansion was getting furnished and Carmen was taking her time because she was a perfectionist, but it seemed like every day the designers were doing something new. It didn’t bother me at all watching her do her thing. We were set to officially movein a few days so right now the penthouse was still home base and would still remain the place where decisions would be made and where I could get some peace and regain control when I needed to think.
The truck pulled into the private garage and the gate shut behind us closed the world out. Tone walked ahead to clear the elevator while I checked my phone again. Carmen’s text had already come through letting me know they were on the way. No matter how hard I tried to fight it, every time she wasn’t in my presence I got a fucked up feeling in the pit of my stomach because she was vulnerable now carrying the Royal Heir and I couldn’t stomach getting a phone call that something happened to her or my child.
We rode the elevator up until the metal doors slid open to the penthouse back to the high ceilings, black marble floors, floor-to-ceiling glass, and the view stretching across the whole bay. It was quiet in there, you could hear yourself thinking. I’d chose it that way on purpose when I first purchased it. A few minutes later we heard the levator again. The doors opened and the whole crew stepped out together like they were walking out of a movie frame or some shit.
Dique came in first with his chains swinging, his fitted cap low, and shoulders squared like he was ready for whatever. He stepped in like the world and everything in it was his. I could see the anger and relief on his face and if I knew Dique he was gon’ try to make light out of the situation to stop himself from going on a killing spree.
“Aye,” he said, looking around. “I forgot how big this bitch was. I’m finna take a nap in the guest room and act like its mine. You won’t be here much longer any way.”
Tone shook his eyes but smirked. Keondra pushed past him with Amour on her hip. She looked good and not loud and notsloppy like she used to dress… just clean. Her attitude was still the same though.
“I swear if one more bullet fly at me,” she started, already breathing heavy like she’d been waiting to get this off her chest, “I’m suin’ somebody’s ancestors, da fuck! And I’m eatin’ my food inside the house from now on. I don’t trust outside no more.”
Dique looked at her like he wanted to laugh but didn’t because his daughter was holding onto her tight, with her head on her shoulder, still tired from crying earlier. He just reached out and rubbed Amour’s back real gentle once again trying to hide his anger in front of her.
O’Shynn came in right behind them. She didn’t say nothing at first. She walked like she always did with her head high with her eyes on everything and nothing at the same time if that made sense. She wore a black bodysuit, an oversized flannel, her shades on, and hair slicked back. She wasn’t loud, but she was the loudest one in the room without saying a word right now. She didn’t look scared. She looked like she had already replayed the shootout from every angle in her head and was just waiting to line the facts up.
Carmen came in last and her eyes met mine as soon as she stepped inside and everything in the room balanced out. She didn’t ask if I was alright and I didn’t ask her either because I knew the answer. That’s not how we talked all the time. The check-in was in the eye contact. She came to me first, soft but not fragile, and I rested my hand on the small of her back letting her know I got her.
Rell and two of the other shadows stood near the entrance posted with guns tucked and eyes scanning every angle with no talking. They blended into the structure of the penthouse like part of the architecture and just like that the room was filled with different energies.
Dique started pacing like he was waiting for somebody to try him. Keondra was mumbling under her breath while adjusting Amour’s hoodie. O’Shynn was leaning against the back of the leather sectional with her arms crossed with an unreadable expression. Carmen took a seat after grabbing a bottle of water. Tone began checking sightlines and perimeters one more time from the balcony.
Before I questioned them, or before I pieced anything together, and before decisions were made… I had to look at my family first to see what the day did to them although this wasn’t new in our world. I wanted to see what they were holding back and to see what wasn’t being said without saying it. The silence was loud but not awkward. It was the kind of silence that only came before something that changed how things moved going forward.
“It wasn’t cartel.” I finally spoke. Everybody looked up and that alone said everything. If it had been cartel, we already knew how to respond. There’s rules in that with codes and signatures. But this… this was messy and too public not strategic. “So now I need to know,” I continued, slowly pacing the sectional. “Why the fuck wasStonethere, and who he was with?”
Silence.
It wasn’t the regular silence either, it was the kind where nobody wanted to be the first to talk because they know once the truth hits the floor, shit would be different. Dique looked around the room, then at Keondra, then back at me, then back at Keondra like something had just clicked.
“Oh nah,” he laughed, pointing at her. “So that’s what’s goin’ on? Carmen done turned yo’ ass into Michelle Obama, now you got football niggas? You got my baby around pregaming and frolickin’ with football niggas?”
Keondra’s head snapped around so fast her hoop earring almost hit her in the eye. “Dique shut the fuck up,” she shot back.“Ain’t nobody thinkin’ about no damn football nigga. I was just tryna eat my food without bullets flyin’ around my damn head, thank you.”
Tone laughed but tried to hide it and failed. Even Amour giggled although she didn’t know why. The moment broke the tension just for a split second, but I brought it right back, where it needed to be.
