Page 117 of Maceo

“Oh my God!”Jaeda exclaimed, covering her mouth with her hand.

We’d just gotten to her house and told her what happened. She and Shar had grown as close as Shar and Salima over the last year. By the look on her face, I knew this shit hurt her too.

“Okay, okay, give me a minute…”

She paced the floor, fanning her face for a moment before bursting into tears. When I held out my arms to her, she didn’t hesitate to run into them and cry against my chest.

“We’re gonna bring her home, Jae,” I vowed.

She sniffled as she pulled away. “I’m going with you,” she said, firmly. “Daddy didn’t raise you to put your hands on women, but I’m beating that bitch’s ass before you do her in.”

Smoke chuckled. “Not you volunteering to get in the field.”

“Shar is my girl, and I love her like a sister. She understands me on a deeper level. If the tables were turned, I know she’d be right there to get in the paint if I needed her.”

“Facts,” I agreed.

Deuce handed over the dash camera. “See what you can pull off of here.”

“I’m on it. I’ll check Shar’s location too.”

“No need,” I said. “She turned off the location and I think the phone, too, because I can’t get through.”

We followed Jaeda to her office where she plugged the camera into her computer. When it loaded, she pulled up the log for the day and fast forwarded through. Smoke snickered as the video sped past me and Shar kissing in front of the truck.

“Horny asses,” he mumbled.

“I guess he can be like that with hiswife,” Steel threw in. “We will definitely talk about that shit.”

“Wife?” Jaeda echoed.

“Yeah, man,” Smoke confirmed. “They’remarried, married.”

Jaeda smiled softly. “Good for y’all.”

“Thanks, sis.”

She turned back to the computer monitors. When the police car appeared in the frame, she stopped it and zoomed in. We watched as she worked to clarify the image. The moment Charity’s face came into view, I felt the frown form on my face and my body tense.

“Caymen County Police…” Jaeda mumbled.

She moved to another monitor, and after a few minutes, she pulled up what looked like their central dispatch system.

“What are you looking for?” I asked.

“I’m trying to find who was assigned to this car so I can track the location.”

She clicked around for a few more minutes before the information popped up with a masculine presenting woman.

“Jazmine Payne… Looks like she was here for court proceedings yesterday.”

“Okay, but how does she know Charity?”

Jaeda shrugged. “I can’t answer that. But for her to let her use her department issued car for this, it’s either a personal relationship, or that woman is somewhere dead. I’m willing to bet money on the latter. Look at the way she’s tailing them. She was very intentional.”

The video came to the part where Amp could be seen pulling over, and Shar could be heard talking to me. We watched as Charity came to the driver’s side with a shotgun in her hand. The moment Amp rolled down the window, she fired on him, blood splattering all over the front windshield. A few seconds later, Shar sped off down the road.

The panic in her voice was real. I’d never known my wife to be scared of anything, but listening to her as the car sped out of control and then flipped over sent chills up my spine. Shar’s screams took me back to the moment my heart stopped. I’d been sure I was going to hear her take her last breaths while I listened on the other end of the phone.

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