Page 5 of Maceo

The phone chimed in my ear. I pulled it away to see that a payment of $350,000 had been sent to me.

“As always, you’ll get the other half when the job is done.”

“Bet.”

We disconnected the call, and I sent a mass text to my team before sliding my phone back in my pocket. Now all I needed was a believable excuse for dipping out early. Unbeknownst to my family, I’d started taking outside missions about eight months ago. They would tear into my ass if they knew. We never worked with anyone outside of our organization.

Even though they paid me well, it wasn’t even about the money. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what it was. Something just drew me to this shit. I’d been working in the family business for years now, and I’d seen a little of everything on these missions, but it was nothing like the shit I was seeing now.

The organization I worked with was deep in uncovering black market shit. People sold any and everything for a fucking dollar. We were currently working on shutting down a group, trafficking people for organs. In the last eight months, I’d seen more internal organs than I cared to, but it was worth it to reunite the victims with their families.

I headed back inside. Everybody was eating and talking as I walked up to Mama Stephanie.

“Ma, I gotta go,” I said, kissing her cheek. “Something came up, and I have to go handle it.”

She looked worried. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah. This just can’t wait. I’ll see your pretty self tomorrow.”

She stood and hugged me tightly. There was no doubt she knew I was about to go do some dangerous shit.

“Be careful,” she whispered, cupping my face. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” I walked around the table and reached for Shar. “Come on.”

She kissed her teeth as she stood and grabbed my hand. I knew she was mad, but I would make it up to her.

“Aye, where you going?” Deuce demanded. “You always running off these days, man.”

“Don’t worry about me. I’m good. I’ll see y’all tomorrow.”

“Me and you are gonna talk.”

“A’ight, Deuce.”

I waved goodbye and pulled Shar behind me toward the door. She was quiet as we made our way to the car, but I could feel the anger radiating from her. I opened her door and helped her inside. She glared at me as I closed it. I knew I was going to have to kiss her ass for pulling her out of the dinner.

“I’ll make it up to you,” I said as I pulled out of the parking lot.

“Whatever.”

“Come on, baby. Don’t act like that.”

“I’m not acting like anything, Maceo. Where are we going?”

“The shipment is coming in at nine. We have less than an hour to get everybody together and in place.”

“Fine.”

When I said Shar was my ride or die, I meant that shit. She was the only person who knew what I was into these days because baby wanted to be on some Bonnie and Clyde type of shit. If Mr. Gladden knew what I was letting his precious baby girl get into, he would kick my ass, and I’d probably let him have that.

While I didn’t let her get in on the action, she drove the people we rescued to the safe house. She got them fed, cleanedup, and made sure they were comfortable until we got them back to their families. Since she’d been doing it, I found myself falling even more in love with her. She was a lot more nurturing than she let on, and it had me thinking she’d be the perfect woman to mother my children.

I could see us building a life together with kids, dogs, and all that shit. Before I met her, I was just like my daddy, fucking on different women. The only difference was, I didn’t have any baby mamas. Now, I wanted the woman sitting next to me to not only have my kids, but to be my wife one day.

The shit was crazy.

I couldn’t believe I was thinking about that shit. Here I was at twenty-eight, finally thinking about my damn future. I guess that was what happened to my brother. You never knew just what you were missing until you found that shit.

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