"Why? And they know damn well it’s no reason to hold him. No evidence, nothing!” I asked, already knowing the answer but needing to hear him say it.
"Because they've never been able to get at your family," Tyree continued. "They've tried for years. Never stuck anything. This case against Zaire is their shot. They think if they can lock him up, it puts pressure on you. It's leverage. I can’t say what’s the exact reason but I have to agree with you. This shit feels personal. I’ve never seen a case like this not be thrown out."
I was quiet for a moment, running through options in my head. None of my options were clean. All of them involved making somebody disappear or flipping somebody who couldn't be flipped. My brother wasn’t safe in that prison. His life had been attempted, and muthafuckas was taking this shit for a joke.
"What about the judge?" I asked. "Who we working with?"
"Judge Atkinson," Tyree said. "He’s tough. Doesn't respond to the usual pressure."
I ended the call without saying much else. Just told him I'd call him back.
When I turned back to Tatti, she was sitting up, looking at me with those eyes that saw everything.
"What happened?" she asked.
I didn't want to worry her with this. We were supposed to have two days. Just us. No business. No outside world.
But she was my wife now. And she was asking.
"The DA won't move on letting my brother out, even though they don’t have a case,” I said, laying it out. "Tyree's tried everything. They want Zaire too badly. This is about getting at the family, not about the actual case."
She was quiet for a moment, processing.
"Who's the judge?" she asked suddenly.
"Judge Atkinson. Why?"
Tatti sat up fully now, her whole body shifting into focus mode.
"My father mentioned things about him before," she said, her voice getting that sharp edge that meant she was thinking strategically. "He said Judge Atkinson had secrets that could make him lose everything. That he was compromised on some level."
I watched her, seeing something shift in the way she was moving. She wasn't scared or worried. She was solving.
"Call my father back," she said, turning to face me. "Tell him to set up a meeting with Judge Atkinson and that you not taking no for an answer. Tell him that you want to discuss your brother's case. And tell him that I'm coming with you."
I shook my head no, immediately. I ain’t know what the hell this girl had up her sleeve, but I felt like I had to trust her.
"Nah. I'm not putting you in that," I said.
"Kaseem, listen," she said, moving closer to me. "I know Judge Atkinson. I've met him at events with my father. He knows me. If I show up on your arm as your wife, it won't seem strange. It'll seem like you're just bringing your new wife to a professional meeting."
I still didn't like it.
"Once I'm in his office, I have a reader," Tatti continued, and I could see the plan forming in her mind as she talked. "It's small. I can use it to duplicate everything off his computer. Emails, files, documents. Whatever dirt my father said he has on him, we'll find it. I just have to get at least three feet within that computer. Then we'll have leverage."
I looked at her for a long moment. This was my wife sitting in front of me, talking about breaking into a judge's computersystem like it was nothing. Like she'd done this a thousand times.
"You sure you can do that?" I asked.
"I have a degree in this shit,” she said simply. "Duplicating data off a computer is literally what I do for a living. If he steps out of the office for at least five minutes, I can do it."
I felt something shift in my chest. This whole time, I'd been thinking about protecting her. Keeping her safe. But she wasn't asking me to protect her. She was asking me to let her use her skills to help me instead.
That was different.
That was real partnership. That was some shit I wasn’t expecting out of this marriage.
"Come give daddy a kiss," I said, and I could see her smile spread across her face.
