Page 43 of Dom 5: The Finale
Marcus leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “They’re embarrassed,” he said. “That’s the real problem. They made all that noise with the press and arrest. They expected something to shake loose, and it didn’t.”
“So now they’ll start looking harder into that case,” Carmen said.
“Exactly.”
Barron finally sat down after that with one ankle crossing over his knee. “That’s fine.”
Marcus looked over at him. “You already have somebody lined up, correct?
Barron nodded once. “Yeah. Mrs. Royal gave me the names.”
That was all he said because Barron didn’t talk too much and he never had to. Men like him only spoke when it mattered. I leaned back into the couch and looked over at him. “Which one of my guys would be first pick?”
“Rashad, because he has three kids, a baby mama, and gambling debt, no priors, no records, no points. ” Barron said simply. “He’ll say whatever we need him to say if it ever gets that far.”
Carmen looked down at the papers on the table for a second. “Will it?”
“No,” Marcus said immediately. “Not unless somebody gets stupid.”
“Or desperate,” Barron added.
That had everybody quiet for a second because that was the real danger, not police, not feds, and not the cameras. People got desperate when they were scared. They talked too much and they made deals. They thought saving themselves mattered more than loyalty.
“You think somebody talking?” Carmen asked.
“Everybody talks,” I said. “Question is whether they know enough for it to matter.”
Marcus nodded. “And right now, nobody does.”
Carmen looked over at me then. Not scared. Not emotional. Just serious. “You need to make sure you’re around,” she said above a strong whisper.
“I am around.” I assured her. See, when it came to Cartel shit we didn’t have to worry about this kind of stuff unless drugs were involved. We could have a shoot-out and blow up an entire block and the feds would turn the other cheek as long as everyone’s pockets were hefty but when it came to street shit like this, the local law always stuck their nose where it didn’t belong that’s why we left that street shit long ago but this… this was personal and it had to be done, no questions asked.
“No,” she replied, sitting her glass back down. “I mean really around.” She kept going. I looked at her, deep in her eyes. “You need to be here,” she said softly. “For me, for the baby, for all this.” Her voice wasn’t shaky because she wasn’t begging, but Iknew what she meant because all of this had gotten too close too many times already.
I reached over and slid my hand over hers where it rested on her stomach out of habit. “I’m not goin’ nowhere,” I said.
She held the gaze in my eyes for another second before nodding. “Good,” she replied.
Marcus stood up after that and grabbed his briefcase. “I’ll keep my ear to the street and the courthouse,” he said. “If they move on anything else, we’ll know first.”
Barron stood too. “And if they get too close,” he said calmly, “I’ll handle the rest.”
It wasn’t much for me to say because I knew he would. That was the thing about power. It wasn’t just the money. It was having enough people around you that every problem already had an answer before it even happened.
After Marcus and Barron left and after the news finally stopped replaying the footage of me walking out the station every five minutes, I stepped out onto the balcony with a glass of Hennessy and let the quietness settle around me as the chef prepared our food filling the air with spices. The glow from downtown in the distance was in my view with the water reflecting back everything Miami was trying to hide. From that high up, it almost looked peaceful, but I knew better.
The balcony sat off the back of the mansion, wide enough for outdoor couches, a fire table, and one of them expensive lounge chairs Carmen liked laying in when she wanted to sit outside in the evenings. The pool below glowed a pretty blue color in the dark, and I could still see a couple shadows moving near the back gate because security had been doubled ever since the courthouse.
I leaned both hands against the railing and looked out over the city. Jail wasn’t on my mind, that part was already done. I looked down at the Hennessy in my hand for a second andthought about Carmen downstairs. Thought about her sitting on the couch with files spread all over the table, laptop open, glasses on, still working while she rubbed her stomach every few minutes without realizing it.
Then I thought about the baby, the nursery, the little neutral clothes already hanging up. The tiny socks, the stuffed animals, the books and everything else. Before Carmen got pregnant, I ain’t give a fuck what happened to me. If I got shot, I got shot. If I got locked up, then it was what it was. If I died, I died. But now? Now I had something to lose. That made me more dangerous than I had ever been in my life because now it wasn’t just about me. Now it was about Carmen and about my child.
It was about making sure nothing and nobody ever got close enough to touch what was mine. I took a slow sip of the Hennessy and looked down toward the front gates. A couple trucks were still out there cause nobody had really gone home yet. They were still hanging around because that was what happened when one of ours got picked up. Everybody showed up and didn’t leave until they knew everything was secure, everybody stayed close. The city thought I had people because I had money. That wasn’t it by itself.
I had people because I made sure everybody around me ate. I made sure families were good, bills paid, kids straight. That kind of loyalty was hard to find and even harder to break. I looked back out over the city again. Everything felt solid but solid wasn’t enough for me anymore… not with a baby coming, because once that baby got here, I wanted peace. Not regular people peace because that was never going to happen for somebody like me, but my version of it. I wanted to be able to sit in that nursery and not think about who was plotting. I wanted Carmen to be able to take the baby somewhere without me wondering who might be watching.
I wanted to be able to go out with my wife and not keep my hand near a gun the whole time. That meant loose ends had to go and the biggest loose end still breathing was Victoria. I hadn’t seen her since she left. Hadn’t heard from her either. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t thinking about her because Victoria was still dangerous. I didn’t want her, didn’t love her, and bever did… she was simply somebody I looked out for because El Blanca wanted me to. Then El Blanca turned his back on her and she ain’t really have nobody else. Somewhere in the middle of all that, she got attached. That was her problem not mine and now I had to play chess.
