DOM: The Miami King

4. Carmen Royal

T he Miami night always felt like something was about to pop off. The streets were lit up in neon colors and humid air. South Beach was moving fast as ever per usual, and I moved right along with it riding through in my black bulletproof G-Wagon like a sexy beast on wheels. I pulled up to‘Club Siren’looking good but feeling a little off no matter how hard I tried to disguise it. The files were still on my mind as well as Dom having Victoria tucked away in themainpenthouse. Meanwhile, I had to live in a separate one like I was just some distant piece of his world, and it truly irritated me.

Inside, Club Siren, the loud bass made the walls rumble as ‘Sexy Redd’ blast through the speakers. Meanwhile, the poles and walls shimmered, and the strippers’ bodies moved like snakes grinding all over men or the pole. This was a place where people popped pills and got drunk as a skunk like the outside world didn’t even exist up in here. The ballers popped bottles, and the money was raining everywhere which is exactly how it was supposed to be. O’Shynn didn’t play that. If they weren’t spending money, they were escorted out and it wasn’t no man in Miami that wanted that kind of embarrassment just to end up on a ‘Tea Page’ somewhere on the internet because everything was about the image here; fake it till you make it. The dancers twirled and shook ass on the overhead bars making magic out of their struggle because for a lot of them, it was their safe space.

The thick smoke swirled under strobe lights as I passed the bar without looking at the dudes trying to look at me. I didn’t come here for attention and the man I did want it from barely gave it to me. I simply came to keep my ears open and see if O’Shynn needed any assistance from me tonight. Big Dave, the bouncer gave me a nod of approval because I didn’t need an ID. As a matter of fact, I didn’t need to say who I was because those who knew… just knew. My name alone moved quiet power. While a fair share of people in the underworld knew Dom was my husband, a lot of others didn’t realize that I was Dom’s wife, and that was the way he designed it. But they knew I was Carmen Royal, the crime attorney to the ruthless. The kind of woman you didn't cross unless you had bail money and a bodyguard.

I sashayed upstairs and found O’Shynn where she always was owning the mezzanine like a queen pin in heels. Her black latex bodysuit hugged every curve of her body, and her hair was slicked back, as her curls cascaded down her shoulders. O’Shynn was beautiful in every way and that’s why dudes gawked over her, dudes who she’d never pay any attention to because O’Shynn refused to love men.

She was mid-laugh with a city commissioner acting like she was laughing at jokes that weren’t funny while slipping him paperwork underneath the table. Politics, power, and pussy are what moved this place, and she played all three without breaking a nail.

“About time,” she said when she saw me, kissing my cheek while handing me a drink.

“I had to process the disrespect first,” I muttered, rolling my eyes. “He has herin the main penthouse? Can you believe that shit? I never let much bother me, but that shit does, meanwhile I have to play it cool because this is what I signed up for.”

Her smirk faded just a little. “That part, girl I hear you. I truly don’t know how you did it, but then again, I do.”

I raised a brow and took the shot of Hennessy. “What that mean O’Shynn?”

“It means, although you feel how you’re feeling, no other woman comes before you. Hell, he funded your entire career and set you up nice. You get anything you want and never have to spend a dollar because Dom made sure you’re put up for life. I say fuck all of that other shit,” she winked.

I understood her perspective, but O’Shynn was just heartless so she could never relate. “I’m his wife, not some outside chick. Yet I’m posted up like a side mission, and she’s sitting center-stage.”

“His contract wife, his arranged marriage wife, don’t leave that out. I love that you love my brother, and I know it gets bothersome, but I admire how you keep it together. Trust me, he’s going to fold one day, that man loves you too, he just won’t do it out loud yet.”

Instead of responding, I scoped out the scenery while she continued. O’Shynn sipped on her own drink slow, looking cool as a fan. “Anyway, right now it ain’t even about the girl. It’s about the message. If El Blanca’s niece is inourspace, that means she’s in our business.” She glanced down at the floor below, scanning just like me. This place was full of Cartel and the naked eye would never know it. The Royals ran deep, and I knew that Dom had to beef up on security in all areas. “I didn’t hear about it from Dom,” she said after a moment. “I heard it fromDique’s crazy ass.”

I raised a brow again. “You spoke to Dom?”

She shook her head. “Not yet, but I’m gonna.”

She stood and grabbed my hand with a wicked look on her face. “Come on… let me show you something.”

She led me through the velvet-back corridors behind the main floor. The lights shifted and the music began to sound muffled the deeper we went. We passed some dancers on break, security posted, and girls getting touched up in the locker room using all of the house mom’s supplies. We finally reached a coded door. She smoothy keyed it in, and the lock clicked open. I was nowhere near prepared for what was behind the door. The room was a deep red with dim lights, leather straps, chains, and mirrors. It was a full dominatrix setup. I was speechless as my brows rose.

She smirked and gave me a tour. “Shhh, this is my little secret right here. This is how I hold a lot of power and make these men succumb to whatever I need. I got everybody paying me for private sessions from judges to executives to D.A.s. Trust me, you’d be surprised what kind of men pay extra to lose control.”

“You dangerous,” I grinned. “Don’t let your brothers find out.”

She shrugged. “I do my job, any other business, is my own, especially what I do with my pussy and my free time. Shit turns me on too, so why not?”

I knew O’Shynn delt with heartbreak in the past, but she would never tell the story. I was almost positive that’s why she truly had no mercy on dudes. “So, you just around here beating muhfuckas huh?”

She winked. “I’m just creative with power.”

Before I could respond, her earpiece buzzed causing her to tilt her head and narrow her eyes. “They here. Dom… Dique… Tone… andher.”

That familiar feeling of a knife twisting in my stomach was there again. We walked back out just as the energy in the club shifted because you couldfeelDom’s presence before you saw him like someone important had just entered. He walked in with his head high as usual and strong jaws tight with his eyes locked in.

He wore a black-on-black Amiri outfit and was clean, yet sharp. His iced out Patek watch gleamed under the club lights, and his expression was harder than the diamonds he wore. Dom owned every inch of any space he stepped into. Behind him, Dominique was dripped too looking just as fine as Dom as his chains swayed, and expensive sweatsuit yelled ‘swag’. Tone followed last, just as clean but always chilling and on alert too. Tone was always calm, funny, but deadly as hell if needed.

As I got closer to them, there was Victoria, and she didn’t just walk in, she glided in wearing slim fit jeans on her tiny waist that also showed her plump ass. She wore a crop top, and gold hoops. She was definitely pretty as hell but looked even prettier in person. She almost looked untouchable if you didn’t know better, but I knew what she was fire looking for gasoline. I didn’t really trust it. I felt as though she was a pawn in a game that she didn’t even know was brewing.

I could tell Dom never expected her to come in because when he took a look over his shoulder and saw her, his whole body shifted. His voice was low, but steady and deadly. “What the fuck is this?” he questioned Tone.

Tone held his hands up all casual like it wasn’t shit. “Relax, King. She had to pee and ain’t no back-alley squat situation gon’ happen on my watch.”

“Still, you brought herin here?” Dom growled, with his jaws tight.

“She’s fine, bro. She comes in, gets out. Nobody touches her.” Tone replied.

Dom turned toward me and O’Shynn. “Get her to the restroom, quietly. Then get her the fuck back in the truck. I don’t want eyes on her.”

I moved without a word. Victoria followed me, but not before taking a glance back at Dom allowing her look to linger. It wasn’t curiosity, it was more like interest. I clocked it and kept moving. I didn't say a word and didn't tell her who I was… at least not yet. O’Shynn and I kept eyes on her without a word and she didn’t speak to us either like she knew this was just one of those situations where she was supposed to look, not speak. After Tone and the security escorted her back out after she used the restroom, we returned to the upstairs suite where the business was happening now.

“You always right on time sis, always late but early when shit goes down.” Dominique joked with his legs kicked up holding a bottle of Hennessy.

“I’m on Carmen time,” I replied. “You want me super early, call the interns.”

Dominique laughed. “Ooooh, she got jokes today. What’s up, sis-in-law?”

I loved me some Dique, I truly did, although he wasn’t shit and no matter how many women knew it, he still had a slew of them. “Ain’t nothing, another day in the underworld.” I replied. I then looked at Dom. His jaws were tight, and he didn’t speak right away. I took a minute to admire how damn fine he was.

His tattoos covered nearly every inch of his body. His arms, his chest, his back, his hands, you name it, he had it, except for his face. All of his tattoos told silent stories only real ones could read or relate to. He was covered in hood murals, memorials, crowns, names of the dead, and a script from the Bible across his ribs that only the woman lucky enough to see him naked could get close enough to read. I was one of those lucky women but was never lucky enough to actually have sex with him.

His face was damn near perfect, and it was the kind of perfect that was dangerous. His thick eyebrows sat low over his chestnut brown eyes that saw through lames and made bitches fold without him saying a word. His lashes were thick too, and long enough to make a female jealous. That low cut he rocked stayed fresh and was always brushed down with thick waves rolling across his scalp. He kept his hairline crispy too thanks to his personal barber. His full lips stayed sitting pretty even when he was talking grimy and his perfect nose gave him that strong, masculine profile that had you staring whether you meant to or not.

“You good?” I asked him.

“I’m good,” he said in a low tone taking a shot of Henny to the head. “You?”

I nodded, knowing I was about to lie. “I’m fine.”

O’Shynn stepped in. “I went over the offshore holds earlier. Cartagena’s port been running late, and the last Lambo shipment flagged for additional review because customs are saying it was too clean.”

“That’s cause somebody probably got cute with the route,” Dominique said. “Word on the coast is El Dorado been testin’ our lanes. Pushin’ just close enough to stir tension but not enough to call war.”

Dom rubbed his chin. “We been too quiet. They think quiet mean soft.”

“They got us under a microscope,” O’Shynn replied. “If they smell blood, they comin’ for it.”

“And now Victoria shows her spoiled ass up in Miami…” Dominique sat up straighter, dropping his playfulness. “We got a big-ass spotlight on us, and Dom’s babysittin’ the plug’s niece.”

I watched Dom closely and he didn’t flinch, nor blink. “I didn’t have a choice,” he finally said. “El Blanca made the call. We got too much money tied up with that muhfucka. If she dies in this city, it’s on me. And if it’s on me, it’s onus.”

O’Shynn shook her head. “Still shoulda told me first. I run the books, Dom. You let someone like Victoria step into our world, I gotta know how to hide the footprints.”

“I’ll clean it up,” he said. El Blanca ain’t give me no heads-up on purpose. “Whatever’s dirty, I’ll handle it.”

The room was filled with silence. It was the kind that only came when too many people got too many secrets. I used the opportunity to step forward. “There’s more,” I said quietly. “I found something.” All eyes turned to me. I dropped the flash drive on the table. “Customs and sealed reports with Royal Enterprises flagged. There’s shipments linked to places they shouldn’t, and there’s a paper trail back to a trust account tied to my fucking firm. I never signed that.”

O’Shynn cursed under her breath. “I know you fuckin’ lyin’.”

Dominique sat forward, serious now. “That’s not just cartel. That shit is federal .

Dom stared at the drive like that shit was poison. “Who else knows?” he asked.

“No one but me and Janine at the office. I shut it down quick, but if I found it… someone else will too… and real soon.”

He ran a hand down his face as I watched the tension on it. Then he looked at me, like really- really looked as though he was reading through my eyes. “You mad?”

I tilted my head. “I’m furious, but I ain’t stupid, and I ain’t gonna fold. Something is fishy, and I know it isn’t you.”

In that moment, his eyes softened, just for a second. It was the part he hid from the world, the softness somewhere deep down in there. Dom carried weight like it didn’t bother him. He didn’t say I looked good, but I saw it in the way his eyes lingered on the curve of my hips. The way my blouse clung to my waist, and the way my perfect titties sat up. Yeah, he saw it, but he wouldn’t speak on it. Instead, he stepped closer and lowered his voice. “You ain’t gotta carry this, Carmen.”

“I already am husband.” I replied sarcastically. We were inches apart and close, but we didn’t touch and didn’t say what we really wanted to. I wondered how long Dom was going to be able to fight the feeling.

O’Shynn cleared her throat. “If ya’ll done flirting, we got money to wash and a princess to hide.”

Dom nodded. “Dique, set up the safehouse rotation. O’Shynn, you rework the manifests. Carmen… keep yo’ eyes on that file. I need to know if anybody else breathes near that shit.”

“I got you,” I said.

Dom looked at me once more in a heavy stare. Like his eyes were saying, thank you, I’m sorry, I want you, I still need you. He stepped closer once again. “You sure you good?”

“I’m not the one with offshore accounts under my empire,” I said.

His eyes scanned my face. He was looking at me hard. The way he did when he didn’t wanna say what he was thinking. His jaw tightened and his gaze dropped lower. “You look good,” he said.

I raised a brow. “You always say that when you don’t got nothing real to say Dom.”

He didn’t respond, he just looked at my lips in silence. I cleared my throat and tried to stay focused as his Baccarat filled my nostrils. “You gonna fix this?” I asked.

“I’ma bury that shit.”

“You better.” I said managing to smile. Dom didn’t even know the extent that I had already gone through to start the process of cleaning this shit up.

Dominique cleared his throat. “So... we blowin’ shit up or what?”

O’Shynn rolled her eyes. “Can you go one day without turning shit into a shootout?”

Dom looked at his twin siblings and gave orders. “Aye, no mistakes, no loose ends. Keep shit quiet and keep it movin’.” Then he looked at me one last time. That one look said everything his mouth wasn’t ready to say. I could feel my pussy moistening and knew I needed to get home.

While Dom stayed inside finishing things with his siblings, the security walked me out to my own truck. Rows of heavily bulletproofed black Escalades were lined up along the road that screamed Royal Cartel all over it. I didn’t mind being followed home by some of Dom’s men because he only did it for safety, but that didn’t mean that I didn’t ride with my own gun on my lap.

It was a little after 5AM when I walked back inside of my sanctuary fighting the storm that came out of nowhere on my way home. My hair was a mess, and my hands slightly trembling from adrenaline of rushing inside. I set my gun down on the counter, peeled off my clothes, and flopped onto the couch with the weight of many lives sitting on my chest.

My phone buzzed and my eyes jolted down to a message from Dom: “U good?”

I stared at the screen for a long minute before typing back: “Always. We need to talk. Of course, in person and soon.”

He left me on ‘read’ which was typical. He wouldn’t say much right now, but I saw the message beneath his silence. He was watching my ass making sure that I didn’t fold, and his eyes told me he needed me in more ways than one. I sat in the dark for a few minutes trying to ignore the tension in my warm pussy. I needed Dom too, and I’d die before I let anyone bring the Royals down, even if one of them was the reason the feds came knocking.

I walked to my nightstand, pulled open the drawer, and grabbed the only damn thing that made sense at the moment, my rose toy. My pussy was so wet that I didn’t need lubricant. I hadn’t been fucked by a man since before I even met Dom and it had been a long time coming, I just wished he would do it already before I found it elsewhere. The weight of the night had me going, especially the tension with Dom.

The flashes of Victoria glancing at him like she didn’t have no shame replayed in my mind. Also, the secret files waiting to catch fire were on my mind as well and the loyalty I knew would cost me everything. I couldn't carry it anymore and I needed to release. I laid back on my bed, as the city lights peeked through the windows. I took slow, deep breaths as I began to please myself. It was only so long a woman could hold off, but my loyalty made me wait, even if I was just a contracted wife.

I was right on the edge of cumming when that shift in the air had me feeling as though there was a presence with me. That presence that only one man ever brought with him. I jerked up, pulling the toy away, ready to grab my gun with my heart pounding. Dom stood in the doorway looking at me hard like he wanted to tear the world down just to have a piece of me.