Page 4 of Maceo

Our siblings laughed like they always did when she threatened to whip us.

“My bad, Ma,” I said, raising my hands in mock surrender. “You two ready for tomorrow?”

Aaron, her fiancé, grinned and nodded. “It’s been a long time coming.”

He leaned over and kissed her. Honestly, I was happy for them. We all watched my dad basically trade off on his baby mamas over the years. Other than Maddie, all of them now had new partners and were happy as hell. Pops wasn’t taking Mama Stephanie getting married too well.

Deuce told me how he had to hem him up one night when he came to his house drunk as hell, begging him to get his mother to consider taking him back. I knew he had to be embarrassed when he sobered up and Deuce told him what happened. It was bad enough he’d taken his ass to the woman’s house and begged her to take him back. I just prayed that if he showed up at this wedding, he’d sit his ass back and mope in peace.

“So are we getting some new siblings or what?” I jested.

Deuce’s head snapped at me. “Shut yo’ ass up.” He turned to Aaron. “Look man, I ain’t got no beef with you, but don’t be out here getting my mama pregnant. She’s too old for that, and my baby can’t be older than her uncle or aunt.”

“Excuse you!” Mama exclaimed. “I am not that old. All of my parts still work, and very well, thank you.”

My brothers and I frowned while my sisters, Salima, and Shar hyped her up.

“Don’t let him play with you, Mama!”

“I know that’s right!”

“You better tell him!”

Mama Stephanie giggled. “There will be no babies. Stanley was enough. I just got him grown and married. I’m not starting over.”

“Whatchu’ mean, I’m enough?” Deuce asked, offended. “I’m not even that bad, Mama.”

The table erupted with murmurs of disagreement. He looked around at all of us in disbelief and pulled out his solid gold beretta, placing it on the table.

“Which one of y’all wants the first bullet?”

“Put that shit away!” Mama Stephanie snapped.

“You never know how to act,” Salima fussed, smacking the side of his head. “I told you not to bring that in here.”

I didn’t know why she bothered. We never went anywhere not strapped. Most everybody sitting at this table was carrying right now. It came with being a Dillinger. My family had a long history in this city. From gang activity to drugs, to weapons, we’d done it all. It didn’t matter that we gave back to the community through our charity foundation.

It didn’t matter that my father’s organization protected that same community. It didn’t matter that we were behind uncovering some of the biggest crimes happening not only in the city, but in the state and around the fucking country. We would always have bad blood because the good we did would never outweigh the bad. We were a bunch of niggas with power. That alone made us a threat.

It was what it was.

The feeling of my burner phone vibrating in my pocket caused me to pull my attention away from the table. I pulled it out to see an unknown number calling me.

“I’ll be right back,” I whispered to Shar.

She frowned. “Do you have to do this right now?”

“It can’t wait.”

I pecked her lips before excusing myself from the table and heading outside.

“Talk to me,” I answered.

“Seven twenty-four Haywood Heights Drive. The shipment is arriving at nine.”

I looked at my watch. It was eight, meaning I had an hour to get my team together and in place.

“I got you. You got my money?”

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