DOMINIC ROYAL
Kilo’s body was heavy when I shoved him off Carmen and the weight of him sliding across the pavement made that familiar sound I’d heard too many times over the years. His blood had already soaked through his shirt and onto her hands and the concrete beneath them too. That shit was dark and thick while spreading faster than anybody could stop the shit, including me, so I didn’t even try cause I had to get to Carmen.
For a split second the world slowed down and I felt something I didn’t usually feel, I felt fear and the King didn’t fear shit, but the possibility of losing Carmen scared the fuck out of me. It was chaotic around us from the courthouse steps, the cameras, the screaming reporters, the police running toward us with their guns drawn, all of it was a blur together until the only thing that existed in front of me was my wife lying on the ground trying to breathe.
“Baby, look at me,” I said, grabbing her shoulders carefully because I didn’t know if she was hurt or not and the last thing I needed to do was make it worse. “Look at me.”
Her eyes blinked slow like she was trying to find her way back to me through the tears. In all the years of knowing her I neversaw her look so weak or defeated and I knew it was because of our child. Her hands were shaking and they were covered in blood, but I realized it wasn’t hers and I couldn’t see that before, but I knew that now, the blood belonged to Kilo because he threw himself over her so fast when the shots rang out that the bullet meant for her hit him instead.
The sirens were loud behind me, and I could hear my people already moving through the crowd, pushing civilians back, with their guns drawn as they scanned the perimeter for anything that still looked wrong like we wasn’t right in front of the courthouse. The nigga that had been doing the shooting lay a few feet away on the hot pavement with the camera he’d been holding shattered next to him. My shot went straight through the lens and into his face. I didn’t even think twice about it when I pulled the trigger. My body reacted before my brain had time to catch up like it always did.
“Dom,” Carmen whispered, barely loud enough for me to hear.
“I’m right here,” I told her, leaning closer so she didn’t have to strain. “You with me?”
She nodded weakly but I could see something wasn’t right. Her skin was super pale, and her breathing was uneven like her body was trying to recover but I didn’t know from what yet because pregnancy changed everything. The doctors had warned us about stress and adrenaline and trauma and shit, but what happened just now had all three.
Behind me somebody shouted, “Drop the gun!”
I didn’t even turn my head as a pair of hands grabbed my arm trying to pull me away from Carmen and that was the wrong move. I jerked my shoulder free so fast the officer stumbled backwards into another one and suddenly guns were being raised in every direction. My shadows shifted positions immediately, stepping forward just enough to make it clear thatanybody trying to put cuffs on me right now was about to start a different kind of war in front of this muhfucka.
Then a familiar voice cut through all the chaos. “Stand down!”
Chief Martez pushed his way through the crowd of officers with his badge hanging from his neck and a tight look on his face ‘cause he knew they didn’t know who they was fucking with. He had been on my payroll long enough to understand that this moment could turn into something the city wouldn’t recover from even years from now.
“Everybody back up,” he barked, waving his men away. “Back up now!”
He looked down at Carmen, and the anger left his face long enough to sympathize with her. Outside of me being who I was, Carmen was well respected. “Ambulance is two minutes out,” he told me quietly. “Let the medics work when they get here.”
I didn’t answer him. Instead, I kept my eyes on Carmen while Kilo groaned beside us and that was when I remembered he was still alive. It’s just his blood kept pouring out of his side, but his chest was rising and falling, which meant he still had a chance if the ambulance got here fast enough.
“You hear that?” I said to Carmen in a soft tone. “He’s still breathing.” I told her, because despite what she was feeling, I kept seeing her trying to look his way worried about him too.
Her eyes then shifted toward him, and I could see the guilt flicker across her face. “He jumped over me,” she whispered.
“I know.”
She squeezed my hand weakly. “The baby…”
“The baby is fine,” I told her before she could finish the thought, even though I didn’t have a doctor confirming it yet. She needed to hear it and right now that was enough. I wasn’t speaking none of that negative shit in the universe. She wascarrying a Royal, and my lil soldier was a survivor whether a boy or a girl.
The ambulances finally sped around the corner with their sirens screaming and the medics jumped out before the vehicles even fully stopped. They moved quick but carefully, checking Carmen first while another team rolled a stretcher toward Kilo.
“What’s her condition?” one of them asked.
“She’s pregnant,” I answered before anybody else could speak. “About five months.”
That changed the urgency in their movements instantly. They began checking her vitals, shining lights into her eyes and pressing a stethoscope against her chest while another medic cut open Kilo’s shirt to get a better look at the wound and when he did that, blood immediately soaked his gloves.
“He’s hit bad,” the paramedic mumbled.
They carefully lifted Carmen onto a stretcher, strapping her down while keeping their movements steady so they didn’t stress her body more than it already was. She winced when they moved her, but she didn’t cry out. Carmen was stronger than most people realized, hell, even me right now. I climbed into the ambulance with her without asking permission daring anybody to try to stop me with a hard look on my face and that killer shit in my eyes.
The ride to the hospital felt like it lasted hours even though it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes. Carmen’s hand stayed wrapped around mine the entire time and I kept talking to her so she wouldn’t drift too far into that fog her body was trying to sink into.
“You good wifey,” I kept telling her. “You hear me? You good ma.”
When the ambulance doors finally opened at the hospital, the staff was already on alert. Nurses and doctors rushed out to meet us, and they wheeled Carmen straight inside whileanother team rushed Kilo through a different set of doors toward surgery.
