by J. L Rose
“I think someone kidnapped Roosevelt,” Natalie spoke up, drawing everyone’s attention to her.
She began explaining how she drove to Roosevelt’s mansion to confront him about her father, only to find the front security gates wide open with no security personnel in front of the house. She then told everyone that the front door to the mansion was wide open as well. She continued her story and explained how she walked inside and was then shot at by five men, who were, in turn, all killed by James, Dante, and Monica. She ended with the part about Dante being shot by one of the men who had been shot but was not dead—yet.
“So you didn’t see any sign of Roosevelt or his wife, Evelyn?” Carmen asked her daughter, seeing Natalie shaking her head no.
“What’s going on, Carmen?” Dante asked his original question again, meeting Carmen’s eyes once she looked back to him.
Carmen sighed deeply while slowly shaking her head.
Carmen then looked back at her husband and after a moment said, “I’m not exactly sure what’s going on, Dante. I just recently found out about a few incidents. But we’ve never been able to figure out who was behind them.”
“What incidents, Carmen?” Dante asked as the hospital room door swung open and both Tony T and Gomez entered the room.
“Where in God’s name have you been?” Carmen angrily asked, directing her question at Gomez. “Why weren’t you here to protect my daughter like you’re being paid to?”
“I—”
“He did as I told him, mother!” Carmen heard a voice behind her announce.
Natalie continued, “Harmony was having problems, and Tony T couldn’t get away while working, so I sent Gomez to pick up Harmony and bring her here so the doctor could have a look at her and the baby.”
“That’s where I just came from,” Tony T added.
“I’ll talk with Gomez later,” Dante spoke up, once more demanding everyone’s attention.
He looked at Carmen and again asked, “What’s going on, Carmen? What are these incidents you were talking about?”
After sighing again, Carmen explained, “We’ve had to change locations for pick-up for shipments twice so far, and we’ve also had a few clients under the Council Covenant’s protection that were attacked and robbed.”
“Wait a second!” Dante cut in. “Didn’t you tell me that even though the Council Covenant is made up of Dominic, Roosevelt, Atlas, and the other three members who filled the now-empty chairs, doesn’t each member still have their clients?”
“That’s correct, Dante,” Carmen answered, noticing the familiar expression on his face whenever he was putting things together inside his mind.
“What are you thinking, Dante?” Alinna asked, also noticing the look on his face, which she knew well herself.
Dante looked behind him after hearing some commotion coming from the room door. He looked at James and Tony T and nodded for them to both check on what was going on.
He then looked back at Carmen and asked, “Carmen, you keep records of everything dealt with each member of the Council Covenant, right?”
“Of course,” she answered. “I keep a copy, and there’s also a copy locked in the office safe at the Council building. Why?”
“I wanna look over those papers,” Dante told her.
“Yo, Dante!” Tony T called from the door.
“Yeah!” Dante answered, directing his attention back to the room door where Tony T stood halfway inside the room.
“Bruh, it’s the doctor out here!” Tony T said. “He’s demanding to see you and Dominic.”
“Let ’im in,” Dante told Tony T.
After a few minutes, Dominic’s personal physician entered the hospital room with his face balled up, and stared at Dante.
* * *
Dante allowed the doctor to check his bandages, and then he picked up a prescription for pain medication. He had Tony T leave a team of six men inside Dominic’s room to guard over him as he and the others left the hospital. Dante then rode with Carmen while James drove his Benz and took Alinna, Natalie, and Monica back to their house.
“Dante, are you sure you’re okay?” Carmen asked him, sounding like a worried mother while looking over his wounded chest.
“I’m all right, Carmen,” Dante replied.
Dante allowed Carmen to play mother and check his bandages, even though the doctor had just done so.
“Carmen, tell me something. Did Dominic ever get into it with Roosevelt?”
“I’ve told you before, Dante,” Carmen started as she sat back and stared over at her son-in-law, “Roosevelt didn’t get along with any of the members. He was always the outspoken one.”
“But had he ever gotten into it with anyone who would have made you believe that things would get violent?” he asked as he sat watching a now quiet Carmen slowly turn her head and look out of her window.
“Talk to me, Carmen! If you want me to help, you’ve gotta tell me what’s going on!” Dante continued.
Carmen remained quiet and continued to stare out the window. She debated whether or not to admit to Dante what she kept back not only from him but from her daughter as well. She heard him call her name again, so she looked back over at her son-in-law.
Carmen then spoke after a brief moment and said, “Dominic and Samuel Atlas got to the point of violence.”
Surprised by what he had just been told, after remembering the openly friendly Samuel Atlas from the first and only meeting with the lasting members of the Council Covenant, Dante asked, “What happened between the two?”
Carmen remained quiet for a minute as she looked away from Dante.
She then turned back toward him and answered, “Samuel and I had an affair when he first joined the Council Covenant. Dominic found out because he had me followed. I almost lost my marriage because of the affair.”
Dante now understood the connection between Carmen and Atlas at that meeting. Dante then quickly changed the subject after seeing the embarrassed expression on his mother-in-law’s face and asked, “How long has Roosevelt been a member of the Council Covenant?”
“Other than me and Dominic, Roosevelt is the oldest member. He’s been a part of the Council Covenant for more than twenty years. Samuel was the last member to join in the last nine years,” Carmen explained.
“Nine years, huh?” Dante repeated, just as the limousine pulled to a stop.
“What are you thinking, Dante?” Carmen asked, seeing that look on his face again.
“I’m not sure yet!” Dante answered as he nodded toward the door which the chauffeur had opened.
Once they were out of the limo, Dante walked his mother-in-law up the stairs and into her and Dominic’s mansion. James followed behind as Carmen quietly led the way. Carmen disappeared upstairs once they got inside, leaving both Dante and James waiting in the living room downstairs.
Dante nodded to one of the security guards who walked by, and then said, “James, something ain’t right, fam!”
“What you mean?”
“It’s just this whole thing with Dominic and now Roosevelt being kidnapped, and then I just got this crazy feeling about this dude Samuel Atlas! Shit not adding up, bruh!”
“So, what you think?”
“Dante?” Carmen cried from the top of the stairs, drawing both Dante’s and James’s attention as she rushed down the stairs and handed a cell phone to Dante.
“It’s Roosevelt. He’s been calling Dominic’s phone back to back,” she told him.
Taking the phone and seeing that someone was on the line, Dante placed the phone up to his ear and said, “Roosevelt?”
“About fucking time someone answered!” Roosevelt yelled into the phone. “I need fucking help. Now!”
THREE
ALINNA LAY ACROSS THE bed in her, Natalie, and Dante’s bedroom. She was on a conference call with Harmony, Vanessa, and Amber. She told her sisters about Dante getting shot, and she wasn’t surprised when Vanessa went off wanting to know if her brother was okay and
where he was.
“Vanessa, calm down, girl!” Alinna told her, looking up as Natalie entered the bedroom. “You know how Dante is. Yeah, his ass got shot and now he out in the streets with James trying to figure out who’s responsible for shooting him and Dominic.”
“Wait!” Amber spoke up now. “You say Dominic got shot?”
“Ain’t that who y’all work for, Alinna?” Vanessa asked.
“First off, we don’t work for nobody, Vanessa. And, secondly, Dominic is Natalie’s father. He’s the one that was supplying us at one point,” Alinna explained.
“So, who the hell shot him?” Harmony asked, speaking up.
“That’s what—! Hold on, y’all!” Alinna told her girl as Kerri walked into the bedroom. “What’s up, Kerri?”
“Dante just called me, and he wanted me to let you know that he and James found Fredrick Roosevelt. They’re on their way here now!”
“Thanks, Kerri!” Alinna told her personal assistant and friend who Dante introduced to her.
She turned back to her phone call after Kerri left, just as Natalie walked out of the bathroom after changing.
“Y’all not gonna believe this!” Alinna told her sisters, motioning Natalie over and then repeating the message that Kerri had just given her.
She then had to explain to Vanessa and Amber who Fredrick Roosevelt was.
Emmy walked into the bedroom while the women were still on the phone, to announce that Dante was home. Alinna told her girls that she would call them back as she hung up and went downstairs.
Alinna stood at the front door and saw Fredrick Roosevelt and a middle-aged, light-skinned pretty woman with him. Alinna then looked at Dante as he entered the front door followed by James.
“Alinna, you know Roosevelt. This is his wife, Evelyn,” Dante introduced, before adding, “You may wanna hear what Roosevelt has to tell you. I’ve heard it already.”
“Let’s go into the den,” Alinna suggested to the couple.
She then stopped and turned around to respond to her husband who had just called her, “Yeah?”
“Where’s Natalie?” he asked. “I wanna talk to her.”
“I think she’s in the office studying,” Alinna told her husband as she turned and headed into the den.
Nodding to James for him to sit with her, Dante then walked off to go look for Natalie.
* * *
Natalie looked up from her laptop after hearing the office door open, and saw her husband. She felt her heart pick up speed as he stood staring down at her, wondering what he was about to say to her.
Entering the office and closing the door behind him, Dante leaned back against the door, nodded his head, and then said, “Come here.”
Standing to her feet and stepping from behind the desk, Natalie walked over to Dante as the two stared into each other’s eyes. She stopped in front of her husband, only for him to use his good arm and wrap it around her waist, pulling her up against him in a hug that she instantly relaxed into, wrapping her arms gently around him, all the while mindful of his wounds.
“Dante, I’m sorry. I wasn’t—!”
“Natalie, forget it!” he told her, cutting her off while kissing her forehead. “Just don’t ever pull anything like that again.”
“I promise,” she replied, lifting her head from his chest and kissing his lips.
Dante ended the kiss, and then looked at his Kenneth Cole watch and saw that it was 7:45 p.m.
He looked back over at Natalie and said, “I’ma let you get back to your studying. I wanna call Carmen and ask her a few questions. And by the way, Roosevelt and his wife are here. They’re in the den talking with Alinna and James.”
“Where did you find Roosevelt at?” Natalie asked, releasing Dante and taking a step back.
“Relax, Natalie!” Dante told her, seeing the look on her face. “I know you think he’s responsible for Dominic lying in the hospital, but from what he just told me, I wanna talk to Carmen and then your father whenever he wakes up.”
“What did he tell you?”
“We’ll talk about it later.”
“Dante, I want to—!”
“We’ll talk about it later, Natalie!” he repeated, cutting her off again in the middle of what she was about to say.
Natalie sucked her teeth, turned angrily away, and stomped around to her desk, dropping back down into her desk chair. She missed the smirk that appeared on Dante’s lips before he turned and silently left the office.
* * *
Dante sat down inside his and his wives’ bedroom after talking with Natalie. He then sat down at the foot of the wide and overly large bed, pulled out his phone, and called Carmen’s cell phone.
He listened to the line ring twice before she answered, “Hello.”
“Carmen, it’s Dante. You busy?”
“Actually, no. I was just about to lie down. What’s the matter? Did you find Roosevelt and Evelyn?”
“They’re here at the house,” Dante told her. “I wanna ask you a question, Carmen. Who’s Edward Randolph?”
“Roosevelt told you about Randolph?”
“He told me to ask you, and only that he was once a member of the Council Covenant.”
After softly sighing, Carmen began, “Edward Randolph was a member, yes. But that was before I came into power of the Council Covenant. Randolph was a member while my father was still head, until there was a power struggle between my father and Randolph, which led to Randolph being exiled. That, in turn, led to a war that only ended after the death of Randolph’s only son. My father decided to leave Randolph alone, and for years we haven’t heard anything—even after my father passed away—until a few years ago. We received a message from Edward offering a deal of partnership to combine the Council Covenant and the organization he was putting together with three other known drug lords, but both Dominic and me, along with the other members of the Council Covenant, all agreed that we would—! Wait! There was one member among us who felt we would at least meet with Edward Randolph.”
“Who?”
“Samuel Atlas!”
“Samuel Atlas, huh?” Dante repeated as his mind began flowing with thoughts and unanswered questions to which he planned on finding answers.
Dante listened to Carmen as she finished telling him the rest of the information she knew on Edward Randolph.
Once she was finished, Dante said, “Look, Carmen, I wanna see everything you have on every member, dead or alive, who’s with or was with the Council Covenant. I’ll pick up the files on the incidents you also told me about.”
“What time will you be here, because I want to go back to the hospital to be with Dominic just in case he wakes up.”
“I’ll be there early tomorrow morning,” he told her, but then said, “I’ll also bring you back Dominic’s phone.”
“Very well,” Carmen replied, before asking, “How is Natalie doing?”
“She’s fine,” he answered. “She’s inside the office studying. I’ll have her call you.”
“Thank you, Dante.”
After hanging up with Carmen, Dante sat thinking about everything he had just learned, only for Atlas to return to his thoughts once again. Pulling out Dominic’s phone from his pocket, Dante first began looking through his received calls and then his outgoing calls. Most of Dominic’s incoming calls were from Roosevelt, Carmen, and even Natalie, but the last four outgoing calls were only to Roosevelt.
Dante then checked the phone book and looked through different names and numbers, only to pause on a familiar name. He slowly smiled and pressed send, calling the number and listening to the line ring three times before someone finally answered.
“Hello.”
“Long time no hear. How’s it going, Carlos?”
* * *
Alinna looked up and saw Dante enter the den dressed in gray sweat pants, a white wifebeater, and white socks. She noticed that his hair looked slightly wet. She stood up from sitting in the La-Z-Boy that Dante always sat in, to let
him sit in his favorite chair. She then sat down in his lap, which he always liked either she or Natalie to do.
“So, have you spoken with Carmen about what we talked about, Blackwell?” Roosevelt asked, speaking up first while staring straight at Dante.
Nodding his head slowly, Dante said, “I spoke with her. I know now who Edward Randolph is, but my question to you is, how do you know it was him who sent men after you and Dominic?”
“Because of what Dominic told me, that’s how,” Roosevelt answered. “And before you ask, Dominic called me one night and told me to add more men to my security team and not to be surprised if I received a call from Edward Randolph.”
“What does that prove?” James spoke up from his position leaning against the wall a few feet away from both Dante and Alinna, with his arms crossed over his chest.
“Who are you?” Roosevelt asked nastily, staring hard at James. “Aren’t you the help? Why are you even opening your mouth when business is being discussed?”
“Because! He’s my brother!” Dante spoke up loudly, drawing Roosevelt’s attention to him again. “And that’s a good question. You may want to answer it before I begin to think negatively!”
Roosevelt held the young man’s eyes, remembering Dominic’s warning about the young killer.
He then sighed deeply and loudly before he began, “Because Dominic told me that Randolph mentioned to him about the new heroin connect the two of us are soon to be dealing with.”
“Whoa! What heroin contact?” Alinna asked, surprised at what she had just heard.
“Dominic and I are in contact with a Japanese man named Kevin Kim,” Roosevelt told Alinna and Dante. “The two of us were going to bring things to the Council Covenant’s attention until we were exiled.”
“Does Carmen know about this?” Dante asked him.
“I’m really not sure,” Roosevelt answered honestly. “But seeing that she is his wife and the rightful leader of the Council Covenant, I’m willing to believe that he shared this information with her.”
