Page 85 of All The Smoke
When Kaori came home telling me about how Bri pushed down on her at the park with her mother and Solo, I blanked on Bri. I didn’t get involved in her shit outside of my son, so for the life of me I didn’t get why she was so invested in my shit. She had been with hella niggas, and she knew I’d been with my fair share of hoes, so shit was mind blowing how she was acting with Kaori. I was over the shit though and threatened to take her nutty assto court to get some shit in place with Solo where I didn’t have to deal with her ass directly at all. It was then that she got her shit together. I knew that was all she wanted, access to me in some way, so when I threatened to revoke that shit, she got in line.
The conversation went on and we spoke about my brother and how they were gon’ help me with the retainer and shit. Just like with his wife, I thanked them for the help and promised to get the bread back to him with interest. He was a little more understanding of that because, like me, he was a man with pride.
The topic of the wax I made and going legit with it came up. I told him about my meetings with Mase and my plans of going out west with him and his OGs very soon to do test runs with my shit over there since people here already fucked with it. He let me know Kaori was very concerned about me doingsomethinglegit to cover my ass and the shit made a nigga feel good because it reassured me that she cared. I knew one of her main concerns was that I could potentially end up in the same position as her pops but I assured her I was being careful. God forbid the shit happened, but if it did they would still be straight.
Once the visit was over I headed back to town and met Miles, the lawyer Kaori’s people had hooked me up with, at Morningside for a quick meeting. He claimed to just want to have a quick conversation about my brother’s case.
“Smoke, what’s good, bro?” he greeted when I approached his table in the back of the restaurant.
“What’s the word?” I accepted his outstretched hand before taking a seat.
“I appreciate you for coming by and I apologize for the mess.” He pointed to the table. “My girl and kid wanted to do a late brunch.”
“It’s no biggie.”
“Aight, I just wanted to clarify a few things before I really crack down on your brother’s appeal. This man…” He clickedaround on the screen of his iPad. “Henry Baines, he was your brother’s defense attorney or just an appellant?”
“Appellant,” I answered. “I couldn’t afford counsel when Noah got hit, so he had a state appointed attorney.”
“Your parents are Bishop and First Lady Tate, right?” he quizzed, clearly confused like most people were when they found out who our sorry ass parents were. “I’m sorry, but you gotta know I did my own research.”
“It’s straight, but yeah, they our donors. They ain’t help us with shit.”
“That’s crazy.” He shook his head. “But anyway, you had him on retainer for this long and he ain’t did shit?”
“Naw,” I griped, pissed just thinking about the shit. “Mothafucka did absolutely nothing then tried to sabotage his shit.”
His brows knitted. “Sabotage?”
I nodded. “My pops running for mayor and shit and the nigga didn’t want the shit to come up and hinder his ass or whatever. He went to see Noah’s lawyer and he agreed to basically do nothing while taking my money.”
“The fuck?”
“Right,” I mumbled. “But I got my bread back so I don’t gotta kill his bitch ass.”
“Bruh,don’t incriminate me and you.” He chuckled but I didn’t because I was deadass. I paid that mothafucka a lot of money so I expected something in return. “But yeah, I can definitely help y’all, without a doubt. There are a lot of holes in this shit just at first glance, but I need time to go over the shit with my brother then we’ll be in touch.” I nodded in response. “Also, we can get that mothafucka disbarred because what he did is unethical as fuck.”
I shook my head as I ran my hand across my fade. “Naw, I don’t even give a fuck about him enough. As long as he got my bread back to me then I was cool. I just want to get my brother home. That’s all.”
He nodded as he locked his iPad and slipped it in his bag. “Aight then, I’ll be in touch.”
After accepting the handshake, I stood and prepared to leave, but a thought came to mind. “If I needed you to do some custody shit for me in the future, you could do that?”
His brows dipped but he shrugged and nodded. “Yeah, I could, but if it’s K-Dot and Ice’s grandchild then…”
I cut him off and chuckled. “It’s not. I got another lil boy and his mama getting on my fucking nerves.”
“Oh, in that case then, yeah.” He laughed. “I know some people that could help.”
“Aight, bet. I appreciate you and whenever you need me, just hit my line.”
I felt good as fuck leaving the meeting with Miles because for the first time since my brother had been jammed up, I felt like there was hope. The other mothafucka took my bread and basically told me he would see what he could do, but Miles sounded confident as fuck, which was a relief.
In due fucking time there would be no more free my brother. My fucking brother would be free!
“I just feellike I can’t fit any more of my clothes,” Kaori whined, standing in the full body mirror she had bought and put up in my room.
“You look fine, baby.” I smiled as I stepped behind her, kissing her exposed shoulder. She wore a red shirt that onlycovered one of her arms, leaving the other completely exposed, jeans, and Gucci sneakers that matched the bag across her body. Her hair was different too. She had the shit in braids she let hang down, with more of them pushed to one side than the other.
