“So I let your guys slide by, and you don’t take my case to the DA?” the judge asked as he drummed his fingers on the desk. “What’s in it for me?”
“You won’t go to prison,” I reminded him. “Judges don’t do well behind bars. Especially when they’re sent there for sending people to jail to line his pockets.”
Alvaro stood to walk around the room, and though the giant man moved as silently as a shadow, his presence was unmistakable. He casually pulled out his switchblade and began to flip it open and shut in the familiar tick that he used as an unspoken threat.
“I’m a respected man,” Travis Williams grinned as he sat forward to put his elbows on his desk.
The judge tried to ignore the intimidating second in command, but his beady eyes kept darting toward Alvaro as he strolled around the room and inspected the bookshelves.
“You are for now,” I reminded the magistrate as I drew his attention back to me, though the sound of the switchblade flicking open and closed still remained in the background.
“You may have some speculative information, but it’ll be my word against yours,” the older man said with a quick glance toward Alvaro.
“And the evidence I gathered,” I countered while I ignored the tall man who loomed nearby. “You really should be more careful when you filter money through Super PACs.”
The old magistrate narrowed his eyes, and his neck grew red as he clamped down on his rage.
“Fine,” the man huffed. “I give your boys a pass, and I stay out of jail.”
“Exactly,” I nodded my head. “And if you prove that you can learn from your mistakes, then we might be able to donate to your re-election campaign.”
“Let’s cut out all the legal mumbo jumbo,” Alvaro said as he came to stand at the edge of the desk.
He used the edge of his switchblade to lift a few papers in the judge’s inbox and then set them back down as he turned his dark eyes toward the fat magistrate.
“Alright,” the judge responded while he tried to stare back at the giant without fear. “What were you thinking?”
“Get the boys out, play nice when our boys come through your courtroom, we’ll keep your secrets, and we’ll throw… let’s say forty-thousand… into your campaign,” the dark eyed cartel man said with a small smirk. “I think that’s more than enough for your… friendship.”
“That is quite generous,” I reminded the judge.
“Or,” Alvaro said as he straightened and flicked his switchblade opened and closed again. “Osvaldo did say that if you didn’t accept the deal that I could present you with… other options.”
My late night drive through the Everglades rushed back to the forefront of my mind, and I hoped that I wouldn’t be included in whatever Alvaro had planned for the judge if he didn’t accept our offer. I did not want to be food for an alligator or a python, and a shiver ran up my spine as I remembered why the giant next to me always wore black.
“Well,” the judge blustered as he tried to remain tough in front of the terrifying enforcer’s calm smirk. “You listen here… I will not be threatened in my own home.”
“You do have a lovely family,” Alvaro remarked as he pointed to a portrait of the judge with his young wife and teenage son with his blade. “You have a lot to live for. They have a lot to live for.”
The threat was clear, either the judge accepted the deal we’d offered, or he and his family would forfeit their lives. He sputtered as he looked from the portrait to Alvaro and then back again. His face had turned an ugly shade of red that bordered on purple as his rage boiled over.
I didn’t believe the second in command would actually kill women and children, but he had a cool calm as he delivered the threat that made me start to question what I knew. I didn’t want to find out if it was a line that he was willing to cross, but the judge looked like he was about to start shouting, and if they came in, then Alvaro wouldn’t have much choice.
“Listen,” I said as I held up my open hands in front of me. “We all want to get out of this room in one piece.”
The judge turned his gaze on me, and for a second I thought he would fly over the desk to attack me. Instead he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and then let it out as he calmed himself down.
“You come into my house,” he started in a low voice. “You threaten my career, my life, and the lives of my family. And you expect me to work with you?”
“I expect you to make the smart decision,” I informed him. “You have several options in front of you. The best is simply to do what you’ve already been doing. But instead of sending people to jail you’ll show them leniency. And your campaign fund will benefit.”
“And if I don’t, then you’ll have this goon slice me and my family up?” the judge snarled with a gesture toward Alvaro.
The giant lifted an eyebrow as he shrugged nonchalantly and began to walk around the room again like a panther on the prowl.
“Mr. Fuentes has been very generous with his offers,” I said as my stomach clenched and bile threatened to rise.
The fat magistrate ground his teeth together, his hands balled into fists on the top of his desk, and his eyes were glued to the portrait of his family that hung on the wall by the door. He took a few deep breaths in and out as he contemplated his options, his attention
