Page 111 of Surrogate For My Best Friend’s Man 2

“At the moment.” He said it like we were discussing a flat tire. That was Scambino never a lot of extra shit, he got straight to it. “I fired your lawyers.”

For a second, I thought I heard him wrong. “You did what?”

“Ellis is done.”

I sat forward. Mark and his partner. Marcus ain’t even my main attorney.”

“I don’t care.” The way he said it let me know that part of the conversation was already over in his mind but not mine. “How the fuck you fire my lawyers?”

“Apparently, you don’t understand how this works.”

I stared through the glass at him, Scambino didn’t blink. “You’re sitting in here because people who should’ve been ahead of this weren’t. Now the government has time to build while your attorneys file motions and tell you to be patient.”

“Mark knows my case.” I replied.

“Mark knows the part of your case they gave him.” Scambino leaned slightly toward the glass. “The attorney coming tomorrow knows what matters.”

“Who?” I asked.

“You’ll meet him tomorrow.”

I didn’t like that answer. “Are you just making decisions about my case now without talking to me first?”

“Your case?” His eyebrow lifted. “Your trucks aren’t moving the way they’re supposed to and people are nervous. Money is being held up and everybody connected to you is looking over their shoulder because they don’t know what you said, what they have, or who’s next.”

“I ain’t said shit.”

“I know.”

“Then don’t talk to me like I’m cooperating.”

“If I thought you were cooperating, Deuce, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

I knew exactly what the fuck he meant, my ass would be dead. But one thing I prided myself on was being a solid nigga out here in these streets. I didn’t have to prove shit because my actions spoke for me. He continued before I could respond. “You being in here is costing me money.”

“How much?” I asked.

“Enough for me to come down here myself.” That told me everything I needed to know. Scambino didn’t move unless there was money attached.

“If you sit for another month, it gets worse. If they add charges, it gets worse. If somebody around you gets scared and starts talking, it gets expensive.”

“Ain’t nobody around me talking.” I spat.

“You don’t know that.” He said calmly.

“I know my people.”

He gave me a look. “Everybody knows their people until their people are looking at twenty years.”

I couldn’t argue with that. I’d seen solid niggas turn into storytellers over less.

“Tomorrow, you listen to my attorney. You tell him exactly what happened from beginning to end. No street version or protecting your pride. He can’t work with information you keep from him.”

“I know how to talk to a lawyer.”

“Apparently not, you're still here.”

I stared at him and he stared right back. I wasn’t intimidated by this nigga at all never had been. But I also wasn’t stupid there were certain niggas you could argue with and certain men you let finish talking. Scambino was the second kind. Still, there was something I wasn’t letting slide.