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Andre

“I get it now,” I lean over and tell Creed the next afternoon as we sit at the long table in the attorney’s conference room with Tristan and Lorenzo, our co-defendants. We wait for our counsel to arrive to discuss our pending gun possession charges. Since the four of us refused to turn state witness on any of the others, and because we each have our own attorney to represent our best interest, we’ve been meeting as one group to save time.

“Get what?” my cousin and boss of bosses asks as he eyes the door impatiently.

“How impossible it feels for you to leave Zara to serve three-and-a-half years.”

Now his dark eyes turn my way. “I’m not going to serve any time.”

“Right. I hope we don’t have to. But I’d do just about anything to not leave Stella.” Last night, after our mind-blowing sex, Stella cleaned up every inch of the mess she made, and then she called in delivery from Franco’s. Neither of us could keep the smiles off our faces as we sat at the table and ate our pizza and drank our beers in silence.

“So, it’s all happily ever after for you and the viper?” Lorenzo asks from across the table, sounding surprised.

I can’t help but wince. “It’s not perfect by any means, but she can’t seem to keep her hands off me, despite how much she despises me. To have to leave her now, knowing I’ll be unable to be there to keep her safe or experience her next mood swing…I fucking hate it.”

“I’m working on it,” Tristan growls from his seat next to Lorenzo.

“Work harder.” Creed straightens his suit’s cuffs. “I think it’s about time to set up a meeting with Bertelli.”

“No,” Tristan grits out, causing me and Lorenzo’s eyes to widen in surprise. Nobody tells Creed Ferraro no. Well, except maybe his wife.

“I must have misheard you,” Creed remarks softly as he glares at our most reckless cousin, clutching the armrests of his chair in a white-knuckle grip.

“Not yet,” Tristan tacks on, voice a tad softer.

“You haven’t dug up any shit on her, so I’m setting up an appointment with Bertelli,” Creed replies. When Tristan opens his mouth to, no doubt, argue against going to the hitman, our boss snaps, “My decision is final.”

Well, fuck.

Based on the way Tristan’s wide shoulders deflate in his chair, I’m guessing he doesn’t approve. But Creed’s not wrong. Tristan’s been stalking the DA for over a month and has nothing to show for it so far.

Thankfully, that’s the end of the discussion when the conference room door opens, and four older men in suits come walking in, two carrying briefcases and two holding files.

“Since everyone’s already acquainted, let’s get down to it,” Baxter McMillan says. The sixty-something white-haired man is Creed’s attorney, and the best criminal defense attorney money can buy. “The DA wants to start the trials next month. We can decide whether it’s best to have all four defendants on trial at the same time or one at a time.”

“What would be the benefits of each? Which do you prefer?” Creed asks.

Baxter glances around the table as he considers the question. “That’s what counsel has been discussing. We each think it’d be best for our clients to stand alone.”

“Because you still think there’s a chance one of us will turn on the others?” I guess.

“That’s not going to happen,” Creed tells the lawyers.

“There’s always a chance, and you’d be the biggest target,” Baxter remarks.

“It’d also buy us time and help our cases if someone less culpable wanted to go first…” my attorney, Charles Wilson, with whom I interned right out of law school, explains to us.

“Like a test dummy?” Tristan asks.

“Basically,” Tristan’s lawyer, Joseph Jackson, agrees with a nod of his bald head.

“Buying time sounds good,” Creed says. “If we draw it out, I can maybe be here when Zara has the baby.”

“There’s just the matter of who will go first,” Baxter remarks. “Who the DA wants first…”

“I’ll do it,” Tristan declares a half a second later.

“We should talk about this alone with each of our clients,” Joseph says, no doubt to try to talk Tristan out of volunteering.

“I understand the risks. I don’t have a wife or a kid, so I’ll go first,” Tristan explains.

“And I’ll go second,” Lorenzo chimes in.

Lorenzo’s attorney, Hudson Davis, lifts his hand. “Now, wait a second. We should discuss this more.

“Like Tristan, I don’t have a significant other or baby on the way. I’ll go second,” Lorenzo informs his lawyer.

“And I’ll go third,” I offer, wanting to give Creed as much time as possible.

“Well,” Baxter says as he eyes each attorney. “While we appreciate you four are willing to work it out on your own, the DA was adamant about Creed going first.”

“Fuck,” he mutters. “When?”

“She wants you on the docket for February.”

“ Cazzo ! That’s barely more than a month away,” our boss grumbles.

“And while we’re all together,” Baxter goes on to say. “I should reiterate it’s very likely, considering all the evidence the DA has, a jury will convict every one of you. That’s why pleading guilty is your best option to reduce the forty-two-month sentence.”

“I thought the DA refused to offer any of us a plea deal. You think it’s worth pleading just to get the credit for acceptance of responsibility at sentencing?” I ask Charles.

“Yes,” Baxter answers before my attorney can. “It may not sound like much, I know, but it could be up to six months off your sentence. That’s six months you could spend with your loved ones instead, maybe more with good behavior...”

“As I’ve told you before, I’m not interested in a plea deal,” Creed informs the man. “And you know Dre can’t plead guilty, or he’ll lose his law license.”

I swear every attorney at the table cringes as if imagining the bar taking the license they worked so hard to earn, watching their entire livelihood swirl down the shitter.

“In that case, Andre should be tried last, giving us the most time to prepare our defense,” Charles suggests.

“Only if Tristan and Lorenzo agree, and if Baxter can’t convince the DA to push Creed’s trial back,” I tell him.

“I’ll go first second,” Tristan says. “Doesn’t matter to me.”

“I agree. Try my case whenever you need to,” Lorenzo directs his attorney.

“Then, at least that much is settled,” Baxter remarks. “I wish I had better news for the four of you, but as we’ve informed you from the beginning, the evidence is overwhelming.”

“Understood,” I tell him with a resigned sigh.

After the depressing meeting, I’m going to need a pick me up tonight. Just seeing Stella will make me feel better. But I also have an idea, one so I can finally have her in the bed we share. Hopefully, a way to help my sweet viper confront some of her demons.