Page 2 of Jaeda

“This uppity bitch is about five seconds from putting a hot one in your broke, lying, trifling ass.Youinvited me to this place, knowing you couldn’t afford it. That’s on you. I get it now. You thought you would take me to this nice restaurant, and you would get some ass afterward, right? You waited until I went to the bathroom to get out of the bill you couldn’t pay.Thatis broke behavior, and let me make one thingabundantlyclear. Money grubbing and me can never go in the same sentence, baby. I could buy your entire life just as quick as I can take it. Now, you have about three seconds to back the fuck away from me before I get to shooting in this muthafucka.”

He didn’t hesitate to back away. I watched until he climbed into his car before I got into mine. For a moment, I sat there, staring off into nothing. Pulling out my phone, I went to the dating app I’d been using and finally deleted that shit. It was time, . . . past time, actually. Maybe I just needed to stay single. I mean, I was good at it.

Maybe true love wasn’t in the cards for me, and that was something I had to come to terms with. It was a hard pill to swallow. It seemed like my siblings were moving in order with finding their significant others. First Deuce, then Maceo, then Smoke. Even Mia had that toxic shit going on with Titan.

If I was next, life might as well hit the pass button.

“Where you at?” Steel questioned as I rushed around my house to finish getting ready.

“Kerrion, you’re in my business.”

“Mama asked me to call you. You missed dinner.”

“I’m aware.”

“So what are you doing?”

“Trying to figure some weird shit out. Something is up with my computer.”

“Shit, I can’t help you with that.”

I kissed my teeth. “Of course you can’t.”

“What time are you gonna get here, man?”

“Kerrion! I don’t know! I’m getting ready now.”

“Aye, pipe all that yelling down. I’m just the messenger. Save all that for your mama. You know better than to yell at her.”

I sighed. “I’ll see you when I get to the house. Bye.”

I hung up and shoved my phone into my pocket. I was already irritated that I had to stop what I was doing, but I promised my mother I would come over today. I was supposed to leave earlier, but I messed around and found spyware on my computer. For the last four hours, I’d been trying to track down the source of it.

I had my suspicions for a while now that something funny was going on. Any time I was working a case, information pertaining to the case would show up in my files that I knew I didn’t access. It was like someone was helping me, and I didn’t like that shit. How someone had gotten past my very secure firewall was beyond me, and it put everything I was working on at risk.

I’d been so close to cracking the case until my mother called me three times to remind me of where I was supposed to be.

“Fuck!” I yelled, stubbing my toe on my bed.

I sat down, fighting the urge to cry because it hurt that bad. After a few deep breaths, I slipped my shoes on and grabbed my crossbody before heading downstairs. As I opened my front door, there stood Mia, preparing to knock. The look on her face told me she was coming to complain about something, probably Titan, and I just didn’t have time for it.

“Where are you going?” she asked as I brushed past her.

“Dinner at my mom’s.”

“Do you have a second? I really need to?—”

“No, Mia. I don’t. I’m already late. I’ll call you tonight.”

I hurried and got in my car, leaving her on the porch in protest. I knew it was going to be the same old song and dance. Titan did this. Titan did that. Titan gets on my nerves. For someone that seemed to hate him so much, she also couldn’t stay away from him. I didn’t have a man, but there was no way in hell I could deal with a situation as toxic as theirs.

I left the compound and headed for my mama’s house. Tavia Jenkins was going to have my head, so I had to prepare to hear her mouth. I loved my mother dearly. Growing up, it was like I had three mothers instead of one because we were always between home, Mama Stephanie’s, or Mama Allison’s when we weren’t with my daddy.

As toxic as it could have been, it was a blessing that all his baby mamas got along. The three of them came together to raise Senior’s children and ensure we all had a great relationship. Did we fight like cats and dogs sometimes? Absolutely. But there has never been a time when we didn’t have each other’s back. If you messed with one Dillinger, you messed with all of them. My brothers were a lot by themselves, but when you added my cousins to the mix, it could be a total shit show.

That thought made me feel bad about dismissing Mia the way I did. She had her flaws, but she was my little sister. With a heavy sigh, I called her through Bluetooth.

“What?” she answered in a snappy tone.

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