10th Commandment | Revamped

Chapter 12

“And now she’s ignoring me… Just fantastic, love is a mess. I should have… I really should have stuck with the plan,” Fantasia mumbled.

“We need to disappear. There’s no way I’m going to prison; I have kids depending on me, you know that.” Rusty insisted.

“I get it. But you’re not leaving. If Lorenzo’s making a deal, he’s going to have to point fingers at the big players. That’s me! I need you and the guys to keep things running as best as you can. This is my battle, and I’m ready to confront it. It might be the end for me, and prison is a real possibility. I just need a moment to think,” Fantasia replied.

He nodded and stepped out.

Fantasia dozed off on her couch in her office at the warehouse, her phone buzzing incessantly with Taraji’s calls.

“Come on, Tasia, pick up!” Taraji said, pacing back and forth in the bathroom at the bureau, trying to warn her while Fantasia blissfully slept.

She was startled awake by the loud voices of the FBI outside her warehouse, booming through a megaphone.

“Fantasia, Triple 4, this is the FBI. We’ve got you surrounded; come out with your hands up, or we will enter.”

Jolted awake, Fantasia scrambled to hide some visible weapons as her three men rushed inside. “Big G, it’s the FBI,” Rusty said. “Hide! I’ll surrender. Keep this operation going…” she told him, throwing on a hoodie. Checking her phone, she noticed 17 missed calls and 3 messages from Taraji.

“Oh, now you’re calling me?!” she exclaimed, tossing her phone aside. “Call my lawyer right away.” As she hurried out, she raised her hands.

“Put your hands behind your head and turn around,” they ordered, and she complied. They cuffed her and pushed her into the back of a police car, slamming the door behind her. Meanwhile, some agents rushed inside to search the place.

She was taken into custody. Through the glass, Taraji watched; Fantasia remained calm, leaning back in her chair with her feet on the negotiation table, while Taraji, on the other side, was filled with dread.

“We’ve got her, but we didn’t find anything in the warehouse. It’s like she moved everything; Lorenzo told us we’d find evidence,” Agent Carter reported to Taraji.

“Then we can’t hold her. We have nothing,” Taraji replied.

“No way, I’m not giving in. We’re still working on breaking Diego Pereyra. If we get him to crack, we’ll have enough to keep Triple 4. I won’t fold here,” Carter insisted.

Taraji swallowed hard.

“What now?” she asked. “We go in and try to crack her. She’s confident, sure she’s Triple 4, but that doesn’t mean we can’t reach her. I need you in there.”

“Interrogation? That’s not what I’m here for. I did my job. I caught the bad guys for you; it’s time to make that count,” Taraji responded.

“Agent Henson, I know you don’t have to do this. I get that you’re busy, but I need your exceptional skills in there, okay? You’re the best in the entire department. I respect that you’re my boss and I’m not trying to take charge, but I really need your help to pin down a serious criminal. Please, boss, you’re known as the thug breaker. If anyone can chip away at that tough queenpin, it’s you. I believe in you, join me, please. This may be our last shot at catching her; it took us two years to get this close, and it’s all because of you.”

“Oh please, stop sweet-talking me. I’ll do it,” Taraji finally said, grabbing the file and marching into the interrogation room as Agent Carter observed from the glass.