Hostile Takeover

She couldn’t stand Silky either.

“Who’s next?”

I looked at the clock on my desk. “I was thinking about grabbing The Kid and going to see Montel.”

Montel Lamont was a loan shark and a gambler that ran his game out of an apartment. He was a lying, cheating, backstabbing mutha fucka that would sell his grandmother if he thought he could make a dollar. André told me that back in the day, Montel was playing poker and lost big time to a hustler called Big Sky.

“Story is that when Montel couldn’t pay, Sky said don’t worry about the money, just let me have your wife and we’ll call it even. That nigga said take her,” André told me, and said that wasn’t the only time he did that.

Me and Montel had a run-in over André’s money once and he had to feel pain … okay, I damn near killed him, so I wasn’t one of his favorite people. But that nigga clocked so much paper outta that game so like Silky, André let him do what he wanted, but that was then. Now, I had André’s blessing to do whatever I wanted as long as it made him more money.

“You gonna kill him too?”

“No, Wanda. I’m not gonna kill him. I’m just going to talk to him.”

“I’m just asking because I know you don’t like him.”

“It’s not even about that, Wanda. This is business.”

“Make sure you remember that.”

“Yes, mommy,” I said and Wanda took a playful swing at me.

“I ain’t Emily. If I was, I would have beat your little ass a long time ago,” Wanda said, and we both laughed.

I stood up. “What you getting ready to do?”

“I’m going home to bed. I need to get up in the morning and study.” Wanda paused. “But before you go, there’s something I need to tell you about.”

I sat back down. “What’s up?”

“I’ve been applying to law schools?”

“Really?” I said, and tried to act surprised. Her mother had told me she was applying a month ago. But even if she hadn’t, I know that Wanda has wanted to be a lawyer since we were kids.

“Really, Mike. And I’ve been accepted at New York Law School, Columbia Law, and the New York University School of Law.”

I hugged her. “Congratulations.”

“Thank you, Mike.”

“I am so proud of you. You decide which one you want to go to?”

“Not really, but honestly, Mike, unless I get a scholarship, I can’t afford law school.”

I stood up again. “You just decide where you wanna go and you let me worry about how we’re gonna pay for it,” I said and headed for the door.

“Mike.”

“What?” I turned and asked.

“Thank you.”

“You can thank me by graduating law school and becoming a lawyer.” I had a feeling we were going to need one.

“With the moves we’re making, having a strong criminal lawyer on retainer wouldn’t be a bad idea,” Wanda said, and then she got that look on her face that she gets when she wants something. “I’ll be our lawyer, Mike,” she said definitely and nodded her head. “But in the meantime, I’ll start making some inquiries. And before you say André got lawyers,” Wanda dropped her voice a few octaves trying to imitate mine. “There may come a time when our interests conflict with his and we need to be prepared for that.”

“I agree. Make it happen.”