There was a pause first before he replied which made knots form in my stomach. “They’re coming for your husband.”
Everything inside me froze for half a second. I walked farther into the office, turning slightly away from Dom even though I knew he was already watching me.
“Who is they?” I asked carefully.
“Miami-Dade police with help from county investigators in homicide. They’re building this case around the Riverside murders.”
I placed my hand on my stomach, but I didn’t panic because I was trained for this shit. “Fuck,” I whispered.
“Someone gave them enough to move faster than expected. They’re trying to tie him directly to Maine’s killing as a retaliation for you and Kilo.”
I closed my eyes and shook my head knowing they couldn’t possibly have enough and this was a scare tactic. “How much time?”
“Not long before they should be there. They have warrants to pick him up for questioning and I’m not sure how they know, but they’re coming to your office.”
“Barron is it real?” I chuckled low and evil seeing red.
“It’s real enough that you need to act like it is. If you need me, call me.”
Then the line went dead because he had to go as we never stayed on the phone too long. I stood there with the phone still at my ear for a second too long in my own thoughts. When I turned around, Dom was already on his feet. He looked at me, and whatever he saw on my face was enough to make his expression change.
“What happened ma?”
I swallowed hard, but that didn’t do nothing for the tightness in my throat. Although I wasn’t scared. I was just too busythinking running the next steps through my head like a spinning record.
Dom took one step toward me. “Carmen. What up?”
I finally set the phone down and looked him dead in his eyes. “They’re coming for you.”
DOMINIC ROYAL
The second Carmen said they coming for you, the whole energy in the office changed and not on some panic shit but on some Boss shit because we stayed ready, so we didn’t have to get ready. She stood there with the phone still in her hand for maybe another second, then turned and walked right back toward her desk like somebody had hit a switch in her. Her sandals slid fast across the hardwood floor while she started pulling files out one after another. It was a red one, a black one, and then another one from the bottom drawer. Papers slid across the desk, one folder hit the floor, and she bent down to pick it up without missing a beat.
I stayed where I was by the window for another second just looking at her with her hair down over one shoulder. Her cream dress was hugging the shit out of her stomach. She had one hand rested on her lower back for a second because she had been sitting too long. She looked good as hell and mean too. Lawyer Carmen always had this look in her eyes like she was about to sue God himself.
“You know how long?” I asked while I pulled my phone out.
“Not exactly,” she said without looking up. She flipped through a stack of papers, found whatever she was looking for,then tossed it onto the desk in front of her. “But if Barron called me, that means they already moving.”
I unlocked my phone and texted Tone first telling him to meet me at the station. Then I texted Marco to bring Zo. Then I text Rell. I checked my security cameras and pinged the security to make sure everything was tighten at the mansion. This wasn’t shit to me… annoying? Yeah. Inconvenient? Most definitely, but scary? Hell no. They ain’t have enough to really do anything to me.
The only reason they were even moving now was because they needed noise. They needed cameras and a story, and they needed the illusion that they were actually doing something after the Riverside murders since it was a big story. Carmen was already dialing somebody else.
“Marcus,” she said the second he answered. “I need you here now.” She listened for a second and rolled her eyes. Marcus was on the payroll, and he worked in this building. “No, not tomorrow, right now.” She started pacing behind the desk while she talked, one hand holding the phone to her ear, the other still flipping through papers.
“They’re trying to move on Dom.” There was a pause and then she continued. “No, I’m not panicking. I’m working.”
That made me smirk a little because that was Carmen all day. She wasn’t one of them women that cried and folded every time life got hard. If anything, she got colder, sharper, and more dangerous. She ended the call and immediately hit another number.
“Building security,” she said calmly once somebody answered. “This is Carmen Royal on twenty-three. If detectives come asking for my husband, nobody says anything to them until legal counsel is here.”
She listened for a second while she opened another folder. “I don’t care what they say they have. They can wait downstairs.”
She hung up and finally looked over at me. “You know they’re going to try to use Riverside murders and the courthouse together because that’s what this is about.”
I shrugged. “I never gave a fuck baby, I’m not worried.” I said in a low tone.
“They’re going to say the timing lines up too perfectly Dom.”
