Page 90 of Maceo

“You heard what I said, Mia. Either pick one of them, or I’m sending one of my own people.”

Mia folded her arms with a frown on her face but didn’t say anything.

Maddie chuckled. “Fine.” She pulled out her phone and dialed a number before placing it to her ear. “Orion, it’s Maddie. I need Titan tonight.”

Mia jumped up. “Oh, hell no! I’m not working with him, Ma. You know we hate each other.”

“Then pick somebody, or he’s it.”

Jaeda spoke up. “With all due respect, Ms. Maddie, I don’t need my brothers to babysit me. Me and Mia are just as capable as they are of taking care of ourselves. The type of drone I have can transmit video from up to five miles away, and it has thermal imaging. We don’t even have to leave the car.”

“I don’t care,” Maddie stated.

My father held up a hand. “Leave them be, Maddie. They can handle it. You have to stop coddling Mia. She’s an adult, and she’s had twice the training her siblings have. She’s good.”

Maddie sighed and hung up the phone. “Fine. Have at it.”

I could tell she was upset about not having eyes on Mia, but my father was right. Mia did have more training than the rest of us. She trained with Maddie’s father’s organization and with ours. There was no doubt that she could handle herself.

After talking strategy for a little while, Pops dismissed us. There wasn’t much we could do until we knew what we were working with. Jaeda’s aerial footage would give us an advantage if she actually found something.

I made my way down the driveway and in the direction of my house. Deuce had offered to give me a ride, but I needed the time to clear my head. Today was supposed to be one of the happiest days of my life, and it was nothing but a fucking mess. Now I had to go home and face Shar.

When I walked into the house, it was quiet as hell. Usually, she had music playing loud as hell, or she was watching some ratchet ass reality TV show. Tonight was different.

“Baby!” I yelled, closing the front door and locking it.

I heard the clicking of heels as Shar emerged from the kitchen, still in her wedding dress. She smiled softly as she approached me.

“Hey, baby,” she said, sliding her arms around my waist.

“Hey, love. Why are you still in your dress?”

“Well, they say it’s bad luck to see the bride in the dress before the ceremony. I figured we had enough bad luck today.”

I shook my head. “We damn sure did.”

“I don’t want it to end like this,” she said, peering up at me.

“What do you suggest we do?”

She smiled as she pulled away and grabbed my hand. “Come with me. I have something to show you.”

She gave my hand a tug, and I followed her through the house and out to the backyard. Much to my surprise, it was slightly decorated with a rose petal and candlelit path that led to an arch of flowers. Beneath the arch stood Salima with a sleeping Darlyn strapped to her chest.

“What is this?” I asked.

“This was supposed to be our wedding day, and I’m not going to bed without my last name being Dillinger. Salima went online and got ordained. She’s going to officiate our ceremony.”

“Yo, you serious?”

“Yes. Tensions are high right now. I don’t want to wait to plan another wedding. We can do this by ourselves, and when this whole thing is over, we can have the wedding we wanted.”

“I don’t want you to settle for this, Shar. You deserve more than a backyard wedding.”

She cupped my face. “I’m not settling. I want to be with you. Just like I knew you’d get me a beautiful ring, I know you’ll giveme the wedding of my dreams. Right now, I don’t care about the number of guests. I don’t care about the fancy decorations or extravagant wedding gifts. We may be living on borrowed time, and I don’t want to waste another second of it. I want to get married… tonight. Right here, right now.”

Just then, my back gate opened, and Deuce stepped through. He took a place at Salima’s side.

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