Page 34 of Dom 4
The jury came back in moving slow, like they knew the whole room was holding its breath. They didn’t look nervous. They didn’t look proud. They just looked… settled. That’s how you knew they made up their minds before they ever walked back through that door.
Kilo sat beside me. He didn’t fidget or whisper or ask me anything. He just sat there with both hands clasped together between his knees staring straight ahead real calm and real collected. Like, however this played out, he was already prepared for it. Men who’ve spent years in and out of holding cells had a different kind of quietness during this time.
Judge Rodriguez cleared his throat and nodded toward the foreperson. “Madam Foreperson, has the jury reached a unanimous verdict?”
Her voice was steady. “Yes, Your Honor, we have.”
I didn’t look at her because I didn’t feel the need to, this wasn’t about intimidation. I watched the prosecutor’s fingertips tighten around her pen like she was nervous. I also watched the victim’s family lean forward like they were bracing for impact and ready to start a war. They all looked rough. I watched Kilo exhale one slow breath through his nose.
The foreperson unfolded the paper. “In the matter of the State of Florida versus Trent ‘Kilo’ Watkins, on the charge of Murder in the First Degree, we the jury find the defendant… not guilty.”
The sound that filled the room wasn’t a cheer and it wasn’t a gasp. It was one long exhale and the kind that came after months of bullshit and finally getting a break. Kilo lowered his head, butnot in disbelief, it was more so in acceptance like a relief, as he silently prayed. The judge dismissed the jury. The prosecutor swallowed her disappointment and tried to pretend she didn’t see me glance her way. I didn’t gloat and I didn’t smirk nor did I blink. I just started packing my briefcase because the work wasn’t done. Winning the case wasn’t the final move. Surviving the aftermath was.
Kilo leaned in, speaking low so only I could hear. “I appreciate you. Real shit.”
“You earned it,” I whispered. “Now don’t do anything stupid. Let me navigate the next forty-eight hours before you touch the streets.”
He nodded in agreeance. I didn’t have to look to know Dom was already standing. I felt him before I saw him. When I turned around his eyes were already on mine looking steady and proud but still unreadable to anyone who didn’t speak the language of our silence.
Two of his men rose with him, quiet and coordinated blending in like they were just other bodies leaving the courtroom. Nobody clocked it as cartel did nor did anybody clock it as protection. That was the point. We didn’t do loud unless it was necessary.
We exited through the attorney hallway, the one that bypassed the circus waiting on the courthouse steps. Kilo’s arm brushed mine out of awareness. He knew heads were already turning and eyes were already watching. He knew his next move mattered.
Before stepping out into the corridor where the side entrance would lead us straight to the parking garage, I paused and looked at Dom again without a smile. It was just the acknowledgment of what this win meant. It wasn’t just a verdict. It was also power and everybody in Miami was about to remember that.
The courthouse doors swung open, and the heat hit first very sticky and humid smelling like the smoked sausages from the sausage cart on the corner. Flashbulbs went off before our feet even touched the concrete. Reporters rushed in like they were starving, with microphones stretched out like spears, and it was annoying, but this was a part of the job.
I stepped forward because that’s what was expected. Kilo was on my left and Dom was on my right but slightly behind, not showboating, and of course not posing, but just watching like always. His shadows were invisible, but I felt them. They blended in too damn well. That was the Royal advantage.
“Mrs. Royal, how does it feel to win one of the biggest criminal defense cases in Miami history?”
“Mrs. Royal, do you have any concerns about public backlash?”
“Kilo, do you have anything to say to the victim’s family?”
“They’re saying your husband…”
I raised my hand politely stopping them but firmly allowing the huge diamond rock on my finger to catch the sun with my voice steady sounding unbothered. “My job was to defend my client in a court of law. The jury reviewed the evidence and ruled accordingly. I stand by the verdict and my work. That’s all I will be commenting on today.”
Kilo didn’t talk big. He just nodded his head a few times and answered. “I’m grateful to be going home. That’s all I got.”
It was respectful because he wasn’t gloating and the cameras loved it but what nobody noticed was the way Dom wasn’t looking at me, or the reporters, or the microphones. He was looking‘over’them, studying heights, angles and anything that looked out of place. He was watching the reflections in the windows, and the roof tops or any movements that were too still in hunter mode. His jaw clenched a few times and that was the only warning. A thin red dot swept across my chest so fast mostpeople would’ve thought it was a glare from a flash. Dom saw it and he reacted before my brain even processed the danger.
Just that quick his gun was out so fast the world stopped and it wasn’t no yelling and no command nor any hesitation when he fired at the exact source of the beam straight through the camera lens of what looked like a photographer in a khaki vest with press tags swinging off his neck. He wasn’t a real reporter he was disguised too.
The bullet went clean through the eye of the camera shattering glass spraying back right as the shooter pulled his own trigger. There was no time to scream and Kilo moved fast… so fast it didn’t look real. He shoved me down and covered my body with his own with his weight hitting me so hard the wind left my lungs. The gunshot echoed and then hell broke loose with people screaming and running with reporters dropping equipment and scrambling over each other in fear for their lives.
Dom fired again and this time it was three shots, and they were all precise. The cartel shadows disguised as pedestrians and courthouse clerks drew down in sync, firing at anyone who moved wrong. Their guns were suppressed, so all you heard was the thud of bodies dropping amid the chaos.
“CARMEN!” Dom’s voice blasted through everything, sounding sharp and terrified at the same time.
I tried to move but I couldn’t because Kilo’s body was heavy on top of mine and warm… too damn warm. Dom lunged through the scattering crowd shoving a man so hard he slid across concrete. Security yelled into radios but it was too late. The streets had already turned into a war zone.
He reached us and dropped to his knees with his hands going straight to Kilo first. “Kilo! Move! Get the fuck up. MOVE!” His voice cracked in a way I’d never heard as he pushed Kilo off of me. The blood pooled fast under his side, and it was warm and thick, and now it was seeping toward me. My hands were wetwith it. I couldn’t tell if it was mine and I couldn’t tell if it was his. My ears were ringing and my vision blurred but Dom’s face stayed sharp and I couldn’t move.
He grabbed my shoulders with wild eyes and his voice low and breaking even though he fought it. “Baby, look at me. Look at me. Are you hit?” His eyes searched my body, but he knew not to move me just in case. I couldn’t tell if I was hit but something was very wrong.
My mouth opened, but sound wouldn’t come out. I blinked a few times and his hands shook. A scream then tore somewhere behind us as police rushed out of the courthouse. The shooter’s body lay twisted on the pavement with half his face gone because of Dom. Kilo’s blood just kept spreading and I didn’t know if he was dead or alive. Dom looked from me to Kilo realizing something. Kilo didn’t just cover me; he shieldedwhere my baby sat.
