Page 93 of Maceo

“You just can’t be soft, can you?”

“You already know who gets that side of me. My wife and my baby. Everybody else knows what it is, especially them niggas I call siblings. You’re included in that now too. I’ll be a little nicer to you because of my wife and daughter, though.”

I rolled my eyes. “How kind of you.”

He mushed my head as Maceo, his father, and Jaeda walked into the room. Maceo smacked the side of his brother’s head before taking a seat next to me. Mia walked in with a scowl on her face, followed by Maddie and some random guy shortly after. He looked like a nigga from my neck of the woods. His hair was fashioned in long locs that sat on top of his head in a messy bun. He was dressed in a plain black tee, black jeans that hung low off his hips, and black boots.

The man was fine as hell. He had the smoothest cashew-colored skin, thick, but neatly trimmed eyebrows, the darkest brown eyes, full lips, and neatly trimmed facial hair. A blunt was tucked behind his ear, which he immediately pulled out and lit as soon as he sat at the table.

“Nigga, put that shit out,” Deuce said. “Grams doesn’t like smoking in the house.”

The guy looked around the room at everybody staring at him. He chuckled.

“My fault, fam.” Outing the blunt, he stuck it back behind his ear.

The scowl on Mia’s face grew deeper as she said, “Clearly, he doesn’t have any home training.”

“Don’t start your shit with me, Mia,” the guy threw back at her.

Just as she went to respond, Ms. Maddie gave her a look. Mia crossed her arms and kissed her teeth.

“Who is that?” I whispered to Maceo.

“Titan DeLuca. He’s part of Maddie’s father’s organization.”

“What’s he doing here?”

“Maddie called for him to escort Mia and Jaeda last night. Pops said no. Apparently, he showed up anyway.”

“Did they have a thing?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I wouldn’t put it past my sister.”

We turned our attention to the head of the table where Jaeda had a projection screen set up along with her laptop.

“All right,” she said, clasping her hands together. “So last night, me and Mia… and the unexpected company of Titan, went to survey a location I found from the burner phone. From the aerial photos my drone took, it’s a farmhouse about two miles from the main road on the outskirts of town. The property is listed as abandoned, so there would be no need to suspect that anyone was there.”

She clicked around on the computer for a second before the footage popped up.

“As you can see, there are several cars parked out front. The thermal reader picked up at least ten bodies in the house.”

“So what are you thinking, Pops?” Deuce asked. “Are we sneaking them or walking right through the front door?”

Titan chuckled. “If you sneak them, you better come locked and loaded. You see that barn back there?” he asked, pointing at the screen. “It’s full of weapons.”

“How would you know that?” my father asked.

Mia jumped to answer. “Because his stupid ass wanted to play Mission Impossible and actually went on the property.”

“Clearly, I’m not too stupid. I made it back to sit here with you, princess.” He flicked her nose, and she slapped his hand.

“Don’t touch me, asshole. You always try to one up me.”

“One up you? You were along for the ride while your sister and I did all the real work. I would call you useless, but I wouldn’t want to hurt your little feelings.”

“Nigga, you don’t have the power you think to hurt me. Don’t make me call my grandfather and put you out of a job.”

Titan smirked. “I’ma let you live, baby. Anyway, the barn is full of weapons. Fifty handguns, twenty AK-47s, five sniper rifles, ten M4 Carbines. There is plenty of ammo for them along with two big ass boxes of grenades.”

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