Page 89 of Maceo

Both of them pushed us away and spit out blood.

“We straight?” my father asked.

Mr. Paul looked at us, his chest heaving in anger. “We ain’t good until the muthafucka after my child is in the dirt.”

My father nodded. “It’s gonna be handled.”

“It better.”

Mr. Paul glared at me before walking away to his sons.

“You good, man?” Uncle Blake asked. “Your old ass was handling that well.”

“Fuck you.”

“You don’t hear me talking to you?”

The sound of my father slamming his hand down on the table broke me from thoughts of earlier events. We were sitting in the meeting room at the big house, with everybody still in wedding attire. Ms. Maddie had come over because we were going to need her and her contacts on this too. Currently, she was tending to his wounds.

“My bad, Pops,” I said, leaning forward. “What did you say?”

“I said you need to stay your ass in the house until we have a solid lead. This shit was too close for comfort. Shooting at us was nothing, but these niggas put a bomb in a body.”

Smoke scoffed. “That was slight work. That doesn’t mean they on some next level shit. They ain’t fucking with me on the weapons. I got some new shit coming in tonight.”

“Thank you, Devin,” Pops said sarcastically. “Please, make this moment about you.”

Smoke waved him off. “I’m just saying.”

Pops rolled his eyes, and Maddie popped the back of his head. “Be your ass still, Senior.”

“I’m being still.”

“No, if your ass had been still, I wouldn’t be doing this. Shame on all of you for letting his old ass get in a fight.”

“What were we supposed to do, Maddie?” Deuce asked. “Fight that nigga for him? That man is practically my wife’s uncle, and she already tore into my ass for letting them fight in the first place. If I’d put hands on him, that was gonna be the end of me getting some pussy for a hot minute. Y’all know I’m trying to get her pregnant. If he wants to fight, that’s on him. Pops is a grown ass man.”

“Overgrown, as Mama would say,” Uncle Blake added with a chuckle.

“Whatever,” Maddie mumbled, closing the first aid kit. “He’s not my problem anymore.”

“But you’re here,” Pops shot back at her.

“I’m here for the family. I love Maceo and Sharina. I’m here for them, just like I was here for Deuce and Salima. Now what the fuck are we gonna do?”

Pops turned to Jaeda, who was clicking away on her computer. “Baby girl, were you able to get anything off that burner?”

She didn’t answer right away. A few seconds went by before she finally looked up.

“Actually, yes. I was able to pin a location off a cell phone tower at the time of the call. It’s a house in the countryside. According to my calculations, it’s somewhere in the woods off Highway 14. Me and Mia are headed out that way tonight with my drone to see if I can get aerial footage.”

“My baby ain’t going out there without protection,” Maddie said.

Mia rolled her eyes. “Ma, I’m not a baby. I can handle myself.”

“I didn’t say you couldn’t. Take one of your brothers or your cousins.”

“Mom! Oh my God! Me and Jaeda are just as capable as any of these niggas.”

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