Page 70 of Maceo

Mia jumped to her defense. “Don’t talk to my sister like that.”

“Shut the hell up!” My father’s voice boomed as he walked into the room. “Every time y’all get together, you start all that damn arguing. Zip it.” He took a seat at the head of the table. “It’s time to stop the babbling. We have business to attend to.”

Everybody gave him their undivided attention. I sat with my head down. This shit was really fucking with me. Jaeda reached over and grabbed my hand. When I glanced at her, she gave me a soft smile.

“Chin up. We all make mistakes.”

I squeezed her hand and lifted my head. I did make a mistake, and I was man enough to own that.

“All right,” my father said. “By now, you all know what’s been going on. Seems like one of us may have a target on our backs, and you know how I feel about that. It’s family over everything. I don’t care what your opinion is. I don’t give a fuck about your thoughts on the situation, we protect our own by any means necessary.” He looked to me. “Maceo, I’ve made arrangements to take care of David’s funeral. His family will be compensated.”

“Thank you, Pops.”

“Don’t thank me just yet.” He refocused his gaze on the table. “Jaeda, tell them what you found.”

Jae ran down the information she’d already shared with Shar and me about the whole black-market operation. Everyone listened attentively. Every so often, I could feel all eyes on me.

“The good thing is, they don’t know what we know about them,” Jaeda said.

The good thing about Jaeda being the tech in the family, was nobody knew about her skill set. Without her, we wouldn’t be able to do half of what we did undetected. It wasn’t a secret she was a Dillinger, but she was the least suspected of us all. If I’d had her on my team, we probably wouldn’t be in this shit right now.

“I’ve had Quame taken care of,” Pops said nonchalantly. “Quinton too.”

“Damn, Daddy,” Smoke said. “How did you get on that so quick?”

“Money talks, son. I might not be as active in the field anymore, but I’ve got eyes and ears everywhere. If you thought I wasn’t putting a nigga in the dirt over mine, you thought wrong.”

Jaeda took over again. “The problem is still Blane and Charity. I’m still trying to figure out how she’s tied into all of this, but I know for certain he’s the head nigga in charge.” Sheturned to me. “I’m sorry about your friend, Maceo. I checked the traffic cameras at the time of the shooting and cross-referenced that with his location. He was there. A white van pulled up in front of him, and when the doors opened, the shooter opened fire. He didn’t have a chance to run, react, or anything.”

I sighed. “Anything on Zeno?”

She shook her head. “I’m sorry. There is a missing person’s report out on him. My connect down at the police station will keep me on standby if they hear anything.”

I nodded. “Thank you.”

My father spoke up. “All right. We don’t know how many people there are in this little operation—what chances are if the boss is here, the minions are not far away. This goes without being said, but stay strapped. We are not moving like some bitch ass niggas that are afraid to take a bullet. We’re moving smart. Maceo, you and Shar need to lay low.”

“Um…. that may be easier said than done,” I said, scratching the back of my neck. “We’re getting married.”

His eyes widened. “Since when?”

“Last night.”

“He proposed without a ring, Daddy,” Mia revealed.

My father shook his head. “She should have said no.”

“Shar isn’t like most women. My lady likes spontaneous shit. She knows that when I present her with a ring, it’s going to be the best of the best. My jeweler is already on standby, and I’m headed there after this.”

My father smiled, and I think it was the first one I’d seen in days. “Well congratulations, son.”

“Thanks.”

“I guess we need to get this over with sooner rather than later. You have a wedding to plan. I’m sure Sharina wants something extravagant.”

“Actually, she wants something small and intimate.”

They all looked at me, then at each other and laughed.

---