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I was suffocating at this point, literally fucking restless finding myself pacing a lot.

Dom’s penthouse was everything it needed to be, but it still didn’t make it feel like a home to me.

The marble floors and floor to ceiling glass walls meant nothing when you were miserable.

The best part of it was the perfect, skyline view of Miami’s finest. It felt like a silent prison wrapped with gift wrap simply disguising what was really going on inside.

I couldn’t sit still, I couldn’t breathe right either and every second he was gone, my thoughts were louder… but my doubts were even louder.

I hadn’t seen Dom since he left in that all black outfit looking good enough to eat, moving like the King of the South just full of confidence, yet so cold, at least towards me.

He didn’t say where he was going, but it’s not like he ever really did either.

Tone or the crew didn’t talk to me much and the silence was killing me inside and maybe even showing on the outside too.

Even when the private chef came over to prepare a meal, not even he would say much.

Even when it was busy outside, it still couldn’t drown the noise in my head.

I stood barefoot in the kitchen pacing in nothing but a silk robe that fell to the middle of my thigh.

The only light that bounced off of my skin was the moonlight.

Yes, I looked expensive, and I always did.

I had expensive things, but outside of that, I felt used…

. by everyone around me. My phone vibrated on the counter distracting me from my thoughts.

I grabbed it hoping that it was Dom, but it wasn’t, and I should’ve known that after the way he played me before.

Maybe it was my fault for pushing up on a man who simply didn’t want it.

However, he didn’t stop me either. I ignored the call from my cousin Magalena and then scrolled to my contacts.

I scrolled to‘Tío El Blanca’and pressed the call button. He answered on the fourth. “Victoria.”

“Are you going to tell me what’s really going on?” I sassed.

“You’re safe Victoria, and that’s all that matters.”

“I’m not asking about me,” I replied. “I’m asking about Dom Tío.”

There was a long pause before he replied, and I could tell that he had briefly stopped doing whatever he was doing previously. I imagined him sitting in the office of his headquarters smoking a cigar. “The Miami King thinks he’s bigger than the crown now,” he said coldly. “He moves like I owe him.”

“Maybe you do,” I fired back with a shrug. I knew better than to speak this way, but my patience was running extremely short.

Again, there was another long pause before he replied. “Careful, Victoria. That tongue will get you hurt.”

I took a long deep breath. “You’re using me.

That’s what this is, huh? It’s a setup. I’m just another chess piece in this game El Blanca and you know it.

You have him watching me so you can watchhim .

You want to use me so you can take him out.

You think I don’t see it?” My heart began to pace fast, and I licked my lips trying to swallow the lump in my throat.

I didn’t know what was coming next. He didn’t raise me to be a coward; however, he did raise me to never question or challenge him.

Last time I did that, it nearly cost me my life.

“You weren’t raised to question me.”

“I wasn’t raised at all,” I whispered.

He laughed actually laughed and it was one of those bitter laughs. “You’re an ungrateful little girl. You think Dominic Royal gives a damn about you? He’s probably fucking you with one hand and playing war with the other. You don’t know him like I do.”

I clenched my jaws. “Maybe I don’t, but I know whatyouare. You are being greedy. You see him rising and it’s eating you up inside. You have to end this now El Blanca.”

“You’re right, El Dorado isn’t our enemy,” he hissed. “He is.”

“Then why you do you have me here?” I asked. “You pretended to hide me like I’m gold when all I am is bait?”

“You’re not bait,” he said softly. “You’re just a warning.”

I felt chills run up my spine and dropped my eyes. “I’m not coming back El Blanca.”

“You’ll regret that mi amor. ”

He hung up on me and I stood frozen in place still gripping the phone.

He would never hurt you Victoria, I said to myself.

My heart was beating so hard, I could feel it pulsating through my rib cage.

That was the first time my uncle ever spoke to me like that…

. not as a niece… but instead as a threat as if I were really one of his enemies.

I was no longer his legacy in this moment.

I’d called him out and was a liability now.

My hands were shaking when I tried to call Dom, but it went to voicemail.

I stared at the screen like it had betrayed me too. Where the fuck are you, Dom? I thought.

“You alright?” Tone’s deep voice came from behind me causing me to jump. He was sprawled across the living room couch with one ankle resting on his opposite knee and half smoked blunt in between his fingers.

“I’m fine,” I lied nearly mumbling.

“You don’t look fine.” He replied.

I turned to face him. “Where’s Dom?”

Tone grinned like I was a kid asking grown folk business with those teeth shining. “He out handling boss shit. You know how he move.”

“Do you?”

He just gave me a hard look but before he could reply to me his phone suddenly began to ring.

His entire energy shifted when he saw the screen.

“Shit,” he quickly answered the call. “Yo,” he paused.

“What you mean cramping?” he asked in a low tone.

“Bleeding? How much?” He was up on his feet now and I could see his muscles tense a little.

“Stay calm, I’m on the way.” He ended the call and grabbed his keys.

“Yo, my girl, at the hospital. I gotta go.”

“Go to her,” I said.

He looked at me like I should’ve known better. “Got me fucked up princess. You comin’ too.”

“I’ll stay here…”

He gave me a look. “Bring yo ass on, and that ain’t me askin’. Dom’ll kill me if I left you in this bitch. Fuck no.”

Five minutes later, I was in the back of a bulletproof black Suburban with a fucking attitude as my mind spun out of control trying to figure out where I go from here when all of this was over, because my mind was made up.

I was never going back to El Blanca and from the looks of things, he didn’t want me back right now either.

Riding through the Miami streets, Tone sat beside me, with his jaws tight the entire ride.

Two of Dom’s hitters were in the front with their Glocks tucked and eyes on every car that we passed.

I glanced out the of window with my chin propped in the palm of my hand.

The streetlights looked blurry through the heavily tinted windows and my stomach had knots in it from my nerves being bad.

tint. I couldn’t shake El Blanca’s voice because I knew it was a warning that echoed through my mind.

You’ll regret that. What did he even mean by that? Like, what was coming?

Tone hadn’t said one word since we left the penthouse. He was chewing his bottom lip in deep thought. “You okay?” I asked softly.

He looked at me. “Nah. But I’ma be.”

“You really love her, huh?”

“Yeah… gotta get to my girl Shona.”

When we pulled up to the hospital, he looked over at me. “Stay close and don’t say nothin’ to nobody. Don’t do nothin’ either… and whatever you do, don’t trust nobody but me while we in there. You feel me?”

I nodded my head and followed close to him. The doors opened, and we stepped into the hospital not knowing what we were heading into.