Smoke and Mirrors (DE)

63. By the gun

Grace peeled her eyes away from the limo tinted back window, glancing over at Joseph who stared out of his own window pulling at his beard as if he were in deep thought. She crawled across the posh leather seats in the back of their spacious black truck over to him. He instantly looked at her and lifted his arm so she could cuddle up next to him. Grace was certain Joseph had something on his mind, he'd been acting quiet and deep in thought all day since he'd woken up. Part of her wanted to pick his brain and ask what's wrong but she'd been down that road many times before and knew he wouldn't tell her.

It was a man's business— she needed not to worry her pretty little head on it as he would say.

Grace smoothed her hand over the breast plate of his custom suit jacket. "You look handsome," Grace said softly, close enough to inhale the alluring scent of the Baccarat he'd spray on all his pulse points before they'd left the house.

Joseph grabbed her dainty hand in his and brought it to his lips, kissing it and making her smile. They were on their way to Al's birthday dinner celebration— a black tie event.

Joseph was dressed in an Alexander McQueen suit, Christian Louboutin dress shoes gracing his size twelve feet, with sparkling diamond chains adorning his tattooed neck and wrists. On his left hand his Cartier wedding ring, and on his right a bust down pinky ring.

Grace herself had found a beautiful black satin dress that barely kissed the floor as she walked and was made for expecting mothers. Surprisingly, she was able to squeeze her eight and a half month belly into it and get it zipped as the dress wasn't very stretchy due to the satin material. She too slipped on a pair of Christian Louboutins to match her husband, deciding to go purse-less for the night as she didn't feel like carrying anything— perks of having a man that doesn't let her spend a dime.

"Are you okay?" Grace asked after a moment of observing his face as he stared out of the window, gently caressing her hand as he held it in his, rubbing over the top of her soft skin with his thumb.

Joseph licked over his lips nodding, before leaning in for a kiss. Grace pulled back for a second, narrowing her eyes at her husband. "I know you're not but I'm going to let you have this one," She said.

He cracked a small smile, the first one all day. "Thank you— forreal," He said, genuinely appreciative that she was finally learning how to just let him have his moments.

Joseph had yet to speak to Al or Richard after receiving those texts last night— he hadn't spoken to anyone and wasn't sure how Al's birthday dinner would go tonight or how his energy would be placed. A few of their smugglers were caught on a routine run by the coast guard sneaking the packs from Cuba back to Miami to be distributed. Those runners folded and led the DEA to their manufacturing plant— their largest one. The plant was raided, all of their supply was seized, and all of their workers were arrested and Don was taken too— he was in charge of overseeing production.

That plant was their money maker, that's where all of their eggs were and the DEA took that basket. No product means no distribution, no distribution means no sales, and no sales means no profit.

Joseph had been keeping up with Cuban media coverage all morning, watching the new president, Jose Juarez, boast to reporters how he'd just made the biggest drug bust in Cuban history and how he wasn't stopping until he'd arrested every last member of the Cuban cartel. The bust was so big that the US was even covering the story about how the US Coast Guard intercepted a load of three hundred kilos of cocaine— a street value of a little over nine million dollars wholesale.

"Mhm," She mumbled sarcastically, as he rubbed her satin covered belly. "Your child has been sticking her feet in my ribs all day and I can't breathe,"