DOM: The Miami King

1. Dominic Royal

T he second my phone started buzzing my eyes shot to the screen seeing no caller ID flashing across the screen, and it’s only one person ever to hit my line like he was a fuckin’ ghost, with no trace and no mistakes. ‘El Blanca.’

When that name popped up on my screen, I sat up straight ‘cause that's the kinda man you didn’t make wait, especially when it came to business. That voice alone would have grown men pissin’ on themselves in tailored suits, not me though, I wasn’t nobody’s bitch. El Blanca ran a Cartel family older than countries, and meaner than a muhfucka. I knew killers, but El Blanca… he built them muhfuckas’.

I picked up with no hesitation. “El Blanca.”

“You’re still breathing,” he said, in his smooth voice. “Good. I need a favor.”

I grabbed the lighter, sparked the blunt again, and let the smoke roll out slow. “El Blanca don’t ask for favors,” I replied. “So, let’s cut the bullshit. What you need?”

“My niece, Victoria.”

I stop mid-pull and let the silence linger between us. “TheVictoria?” I asked. “The one y’all keep locked tighter than Fort Knox? That Victoria?”

“She’s in Miami,” he said, calm as ever. “I want her watched and protected.”

“Why Miami?” I questioned, already knowin' this wasn’t no social visit.

“El Dorado cartel got wind she might’ve been the one who identified the snitch in Bogota. That whole warehouse that got lit up… the one with six of their men inside… they think she knew and whispered it to me, but she couldn’t have known… it’s a clear case of mistaken identity or they are using that as an excuse to initiate a war that they want me to start first. Now they want her dead for nothing at all. Everyone wants the heaviest balls.”

I exhaled, slow and tight. That ain’t just bad blood in my books. Sounded more like war talk. “And you sendin’ herhere?”

“She needs to disappear in plain sight,” he said making it clear. “And I trust you.”

I laughed, low and dry ‘cause I knew better. El Blanca didn’t trust shit. “Trust or leverage?” I asked.

“Both,” he admitted. “You’re smart, discreet, and dangerous. I don’t have to remind you what’ll happen if this goes sideways. I know where your money sits. I know the names of every judge on your payroll. Your sister’s club? I own half the liquor license on paper. Fuck up... and I’ll gut your empire from the inside out.”

He hung up after that like he usually did. It wasn’t no goodbyes, and no ‘thank you.’ It was just straight up pressure. I stared at the phone for a second, then finished the half-smoked blunt, until it was dead. That was funny he said he trusts me. The truth is, I’m the only one that can move clean in both worlds. I broke bread with billionaires and bandits alike. I can talk business in a boardroom, then pull a trigger in a back alley two hours later. I‘am’ Miami. Every hustler, politician, and dirty cop had my number, and every fed wished they did.

They didn’t call me the King for nothin’. However, this Victoria situation was different. She wasn’t just blood to El Blanca; she was a legacy piece. The kind of name that got whispered with fear in cartel circles. Her pops was shot execution style and left to bleed out on a church floor by people who knew where he’d be, and that hit was clean… too muhfuckin’ clean if you asked me. So, we knew it had to come from inside. That’s why they put her on ice and kept her tucked away behind 12-foot fences and hired security with eyes like dead men and no names attached to them. She wasn’t raised with toys; she was raised withguns and targets.

But now she was here inmycity, which meant my rules. Problem is, Miami wasn’t what it used to be. It was too many eyes and too many crabs tryna make a name. Simply too many ghosts crawlin’ out from underneath rocks and shit. The moment word got out that Victoria Blanca was breathin’ Miami air, the wolves were gon’ come sniffin’ and I ain’t talkin’ small-time hitters. I’m talkin’ ex-cartel lieutenants, dirty Venezuelan militias, DEA rats who got cut loose and now workin’ freelance. El Dorado? They already had ties in the Port of Miami. If they caught wind that she was here, they were definitely gon’ come for her, and loud too. When they did, they were gon’ die, ‘cause if I took the job, she wouldn’t just be under protection, she’d beunder me.

I wasn’t really tryna babysit some spoiled cartel princess. I needed to know what she knew, what she saw, and whynow. I needed to know if this was a test… or a setup. And I wasn’t trippin’ about finding out ‘cause that’s what I do. I had plenty of penthouses but always thought better in my favorite one. I walked across the penthouse, with glass walls stretching from floor to ceiling looking at the city that laid out beneath me like it belonged to me, ‘cause it did. I built my shit from nothin’ at all, simply from fist fights, drug runs, blood money, and pain.

Our parents grew up broke, so they didn’t have shit to offer us. Their kids made them rich from the dirty games of the world. We didn’t have no fuckin’ handouts, or no luck. But now? I was about to add a new piece to my game: Victoria Blanca. The girl raised in a cage of gold and guarded secrets. I wanted to see if she really needed protection… or if I need protectionfromher.

As the sky cleared up, I found myself on the rooftop with the city lights dancing below. A bottle of Don Julio in my hand, a gun on my waist and one on the table as I watched the skyline like the shit was mine to rule.

My right-hand man Tone stood next to me. Tone was usually so quiet, I forgot he was around. “You good, boss?”

I nodded slow. “Just thinkin’.”

“Bout what?”

“Bout how I just got handed a fuckin’ bomb,” I muttered still staring at the view.

Tone could feel my energy without me havin’ to speak much. He looked like he could kill you and then roast you about your outfit while draggin’ your body out back. He was built like a linebacker with deep brown skin and a bald head that was always gleamin’. He had a tight beard, a crisp line-up, and mouth full of glistenin’ diamonds. He always wore black and gold ‘cause he said it made him feel like death and money at the same damn time.

“Alright, you brought me up here for the view or the bad news?” he asked, grinnin’. “If it’s more bodies, I want hazard pay.”

I handed him the blunt with my jaws tightened. “El Blanca called.”

Tone’s smile faded as he puffed and held the smoke in for a few seconds. “That ghost-linin’ muhfucka? Shit, what’dhewant?”

I turned to face him. “Says he got a niece in town, Victoria… and he wants me to keep her safe.”

Tone choked on the smoke. “Victoria Blanca? Ain’t that the one that been livin’ in a bulletproof bubble since she had baby teeth?” He inquired. If you knew about El Blanca, you knew about that niece he treated like gold. I simply nodded my head. “Shiiit,” he replied, draggin’ out the word. “He just dropped a bomb in yo’ lap and lit the fuckin’ fuse.”

“She already got shot at,” I informed ‘cause she did. She’d been gettin’ shot at since she came out the fuckin’ womb. Whole family was cursed if you asked me.

“That fast?” He laughed and shook his head. “Man, we ain’t even had time to set up the panic button. You ever think about gettin’ into the legal car business for real? Just cars, no guns, no ghosts, no dope, no girls with hit squads chasin’ 'em through Brickell.”

“Nah, that shit too borin’,” I smirked. He looked at me sideways, with a grin sneakin’ back up on his face.

“Damn, bro,” he said, lightly nudgin’ me with his elbow. “We really came a long way from that alley off 8th Street.”

Thinkin’ bout that shit made me chuckle. “You remember that night?”

“Remember it?” He said with his head slightly tilted to the side. “That shit’s why I still don’t trust Hondas to this day.”

I thought back to that very day ten fuckin’ years ago in Little Havana and shook my head.

I was 18, runnin’ solo jobs, still learnin’ how far I could push before breakin’ shit. But the night I met Tone was an eye opener. It was supposed to be a simple exchange, all I was supposed to do was drop off a duffle, grab an envelope, and bounce. I pulled up behind an Arab store in a busted-up Honda Civic. The duffle bag was on the passenger seat, and my gun was under my hoodie.

I didn’t even make it out the car before I realized it was a setup. Two dudes came out the shadows and were both holdin’ burners. From the way they crept, I knew they wasn’t amateurs. One came to my door, with his gun up. The other tried to open the back door. And then…BOOM.

A shot rang out and the dude at my door dropped like a sack of potatoes. His blood shattered all over the glass. The second one spun around, confused as fuck, and caught two to the chest before he could even lift his piece. I jumped out with my gun drawn, and heart racin’, ready for a third, but there wasn’t one. Just a tall-ass dude in a black hoodie, holdin’ a smokin’ pistol, walkin’ up like he did this shit for fun.

“You welcome,” he said, grinnin’ like a devil and shit. “You owe me gas money nigga.” That was Tone.

I found out later that he was there to robthem crabs, which meant the whole hit was gonna go sideways no matter what. But instead of robbin’ me, he saved my life. He said he liked my vibe and we been ridin’ together ever since.

“Still the wildest, cutest meet in history,” Tone said, laughin’ always playin’ and shit. “Two shooters, one bodega, and a bond forged in gun smoke and fuckery.”

I smirked, tossin’ him the rest of the blunt. “So, what, you regret linkin’ up with me? What you sayin’?”

Tone shrugged. “Regret? Hell nah. You a mastermind, changed my whole fuckin’ life. I got a penthouse view, and I wear Rolexes to piss off my probation officer. Besides, somebody gotta keep yo’ paranoid ass alive.”

I looked out at the city again. “This Victoria shit different.”

Tone’s voice got low. “You think it’s a setup?”

“I think she’s either bait or a bomb.”

He cracked his knuckles. “Either way, we handle it.”

I nodded with a focused mind. He knew he ain’t have to tell me that ‘cause I stayed ready and so did he. That’s why Tone’s my brother, it wasn’t just loyalty, its war tested. Shit, we bled together, we killed together, and we’d do the shit over a million times if we have to. I looked up at the night sky.

“Shit’s movin’ Tone, real fast.” I told him ready to make a move. I didn’t like waitin’ for the unknown and the sooner I got to her ass the better.

He grinned and sipped his liquor. “Let it move, we built for speed.”

“Damn right.”

On the way out we grabbed all the shit we needed ready to go get Victoria Blanca. I also called Carmen to brief her because if I ended up in any kind of trouble, she’d be the one getting my ass out if it. When she answered the facetime call, she was drenched in sweat on the treadmill inside of the gym and was locked in. Headphones in, and powder blue Alo Yoga set graced her body showing off her curves, painted on like a second skin. It was cut high on the hips and low across the chest. The matchin’ headband she wore, held up her ponytail as it swayed, at a steady pace and her bronze skin was glistening under the lights. Her eyes were focused like she was runnin’ from something and runnin’ toward it at the same time.

Usually, she wore a sweatshirt and sweatpants to the gym, so this was the first time I’d seen her ass showing skin and I didn’t know how I felt about it. I felt my jaws clenching. Why did I even give a fuck? This shit wasn’t real, but as long as my name was attached to hers, another man bet not have ever touched what belonged to me. I ain’t say nothin’ at first. I just stared.

“You wearin’ that toanygym?” I asked. “Or just the one the thirsty muhfuckas at?”

She smirked. “You’re the only one calling me Dom, so clearly nobody is pressed enough.”

That shit made my jaw clench. Since I married her, ain’t no man touched her. Yet, she out here lookin’ likeshe tryna get some attention and I was stuck dealin’ with cartel business and ‘bout to be keepin’ tabs on some spoiled ass lil Blanca bloodline. She kept runnin’ with her eyes forward, not sweating the heat she was throwin’ at all. That was just Carmen though, she never had to try too hard, shit… she was just like that.

“You tryna kill me from across the city?” I asked, which was my way of complimenting her while adjusting my chain. “Can’t even think straight.”

“You calledme,” she said once again in a sarcastic tone, still not missin’ a beat.

“I needed to update you.”

She tapped her screen to pull me into the full screen position as she slowed the treadmill down finally ready to listen. “I’m listening.”

I exhaled slow, lookin’ down for a second before meetin’ her eyes again. “El Blanca made a call… said I gotta keep watch over his niece Victoria.”

I ain’t like the flicker in her eyes. It was quick, but I saw that shit. That small shift in her jaw always told a story. “Victoria,” she repeated in a cool tone. She knew exactly who I was talkin’ about too.

“Yeah.”

“What does that mean, Dom?” she asked, with a towel in her hand now dabbing her wet face. “Like… watch her from a distance? Or she’s sleeping under the same roof, or in one of your other penthouses?”

I didn’t blink. “I don’t know yet.”

“Uh huh.” She replied, tight lipped waiting for me to say somethin’ else but I didn’t. Carmen laughed but it wasn’t the kind that had humor in it. “That long-ass pause told me everything I needed to know.”

“I ain’t actin’ on nothin’,” I said quick. “She may not even be my type.”

“You sure?”

My dark eyes were locked on the screen. “Look… I married you for a reason. I did it for you to stay in the States, and for business too but no matter what’s on paper, you a fuckin’ Royal… Mrs. Dominic Royal, and ain’t no bitch takin’ yo’ place. Same as you bet not ever be thinkin’ bout nobody tryna take mine.”

She wiped the sweat off her neck with one brow raised. “You say that like it still means something Dom, it’s either you love me, or you don’t.”

“It do mean somethin’,” I replied. “You think I’m out here lettin’ these lames look at you with yo skin all out and not feel a way? I’ll fuck somebody up ‘bout you, Carmen.”

She slowed the machine, coming to a full stop this time with the towel now draped over her shoulder. “So, you jealous now?”

“Ibeen jealous, I don’t fuck off about what’s mine.” I admitted. “I’m just usually better at hidin’ it. Cover all that shit up next time.”

She stepped off and leaned against the wall with one leg bent as she twisted the cap off the water bottle in her hand. She was still calm. “You ever gon’ act like I’m more than just your visa?” she asked in a soft tone.

I licked my lips, and my jaws flexed hard. “Carmen... I’m not even ‘bout to get into all that wit’ you. If I ever catch you actin’ like you belong to somebody else, even for a second, I’ll burn every muhfuckin’ bridge you think you can walk across.”

She smirked and not ‘cause she liked what I said, but because she knew I meant every fuckin’ word. “Then act like it,” she said. “Cause if I ever feel like I’m taking second place to a cartel princess tryna play mysterious in your kitchen one day, I won’t look back.”

I leaned in close, lettin’ the camera catch all the danger in my tone. “I got paperwork on you for life ma, you walk away from me Carmen… I swear to God; I’ll turn Miami into ashes.”

That silence after was an unspoken love in its rawest form. I didn’t even play with toys when I was little, so I damn sho’ wasn’t about to play with no bitch as an adult, not even Carmen. I never had to hide who I am. Did I have love for Carmen? Of course I did, and she had love for me. In reality I was everything she wanted, but I had one rule. Just don’t fall in love with me ‘cause no matter how much love I had for any woman, I wasn’t sure I could fall in love with them.

She nodded once. “I gotta finish my run, Dom,” and then she hung up. She didn’t have to scream and nag to shut me up, and she ain’t have to cry to be heard. She said what she meant. I slipped the phone back into my pocket as my mind shifted back to the job.

I’d never seen Victoria in person, and I knew her presence couldn’t shake a man like me. I had bitches in every area code ready to drop down on their knees and suck my dick without thinking twice. I had females waiting in line thinkin’ they had a chance to one day wear the Royal last name behind their own, but it wasn’t happening. Carmen Royal would forever be the one and only Mrs. Dominic Royal. However, when I fucked women, it was never considered cheatin’ because Carmen was simply an arrangement although she wanted more, deep down inside maybe I did too, just not now.

"The shipment touched down smooth." Tone said snapping me from my thoughts, as his eyes flickered between the streets and me. "No tails, no Fed taps. This mornin’ Dominique said his boy ran surveillance, clean as a whistle." He formed his lips in an oval and demonstrated a light whistle for emphases.

"Tell Dominique I said good work... but if his 'boy' so much as sneezes wrong, I’ll put a bullet in his sinus."

Tone chuckled. "I’ll let him know."