"Thank you, Your Honor," I said respectfully. "I appreciate your cooperation."
We stood up. Tatti stood with me, slipping her hand into mine like we hadn't just orchestrated a legal assassination in his office. Tyree looked between us like he was trying to figure out what had just happened.
"Thank you for your time," I said as we walked toward the door.
"Kaseem," the judge said, his voice stopping me at the threshold. I turned back. "Don't do this again. Don't come back here. Anything we need to discuss, I’ll get your number and call."
I looked at him calmly. "Hopefully I won’t have a need to come back. You're going to do the right thing, and we're never going to have this conversation again. I can tell that you are a good, law abiding judge. Thank you again for your time.” I smiled.
He nodded slowly.
I walked out of the courthouse with Tatti on my arm. The moment we hit the sunlight, she squeezed my hand.
"When we get home and to my computer, I’ll see what all I can uncover. Looks like you already have him shook without me even digging yet.”
"Yeah. That nigga scared and I don’t even have the dirt on his ass yet. Zaire will be home, and the judge will be too shook to do anything about it. I can’t wait to see what yo ass find on this nigga.”
Tyree caught up with us on the steps.
"What the hell just happened in there?" he asked, genuinely confused.
"Justice," I said simply. "The kind that doesn't require a jury."
We got in the truck and I pulled off, already thinking about the next move. Zaire had forty-eight hours left. After that, my little brother was coming home.
And when he did, Brick Boyz was going to understand what it meant to be at war for real.
When we pulled into the compound, the first thing I saw was my Mercedes sitting in the driveway like it had been waiting for me. My car was here. Not some borrowed shit or something Kaseem provided. MY car. My independence sitting right there in white leather and chrome.
I got out the truck, stopped walking right in front of it and just stared at it.
Kaseem came up beside me and wrapped his arm around my waist.
"Your car got delivered this morning," he said quietly. "I had Neil handle it. You're free to move how you want now. I'm not about to keep you locked up. That's not the type of nigga I am.”he lied. That was exactly the type of nigga he was, but he was trying, so I forgave him.
I turned and looked at him, and something in my chest shifted. This man had kidnapped me. Had forced me into a marriage. Had controlled every aspect of my life for weeks. And now he was giving me the keys back to my freedom.
I kissed him like I loved him. Shit, I damn near did. We kissed like I was trying to show him that I understood what that meant. That I saw him changing. That I appreciated it even though everything else was complicated as hell in our lives right now.
"Thank you," I said against his lips.
"Don't thank me. Just be smart with it," he said. "You got something you need to be doing right now?”
"Yeah," I said. "I need to work on that computer situation for a minute. I need to see what I actually got."
He nodded like he understood.
"Aight. Do your thing. I'm gonna go check on some shit with Namier. You can go in the office but call me or come out here if you need anything."
I watched him walk off, then I went into the house and into his office. The one that Kaseem had basically given me access to when he snatched me up and brought me here. I closed the door behind me and sat down at the desk, pulling the reader out of my purse.
I'd had maybe five minutes in the judge's office. Five minutes to slide that reader as close to his computer as I could get it without being obvious. Five minutes of me sitting in that leather chair, looking at papers on his desk like I was just interested inthe decor, while actually my hands were working as fast as they could.
Now I had everything, and I needed to see what that everything was.
I plugged the reader into my laptop and waited for the files to transfer. I went through everything intentionally. I didn’t want to miss anything. I found a lot of unbelievable shit about this man.
Then I ran across some deleted audio. I took a deep breath before listening.
