Chapter 3 #2
I shook my head as I followed him to the doors. As I looked back, I caught the guy I was speaking to watching me leave. He offered a small wave. I gave one in return and continued out of the store.
Maybe we would meet again, . . . hopefully without my father.
“I wish I could have seen the look on your face,” Mia said, laughing.
We were sitting in my office while I continued to try my hand at tracking down the source of the spyware. Every time I got close, something came up to stop me in my tracks. If I didn’t know any better, I would think the person behind it was orchestrating it.
“I was so embarrassed, Mia.”
“I bet. Daddy is just as worse as his sons.”
“I’m just surprised you were even interested,” Salima said. “After that dinner fiasco, I thought you swore off men. You even deleted the app.”
I had said I was done with men. I should have listened when my brothers first told me to get off the app.
When I told the girls about DeWayne getting handsy with me, of course, they told my brothers.
It was ten o’clock at night when the four of them came banging on my door, yelling at me about why I hadn’t told them or put a bullet in him myself.
I barely got a word in before Deuce practically dragged me to my office to look up DeWayne’s address.
I was reluctant to give it up, but I knew they wouldn’t leave my house until I did.
The next thing I knew, there was a missing person report out on that man.
I wasn’t sure what they did to him, and I didn’t ask questions.
“He was cute,” I said. “Fine, . . . sexy, . . . beautiful?—”
Mia smacked my arm. “Damn, bitch. Are you in love or something?”
“Girl, please. He was attractive, okay? And he looked familiar. I can’t place where I might have seen him before.”
“Did he make your virgin kitty purr?”
“Fuck you.”
“That’s what you should have proposed to him. You could have been somewhere face down, ass up by now.”
I rolled my eyes. “This is why I don’t tell you shit. Everybody isn’t as horny as you and Sharina.”
“Aht, aht!” Shar said, walking into the room with my sleeping nephew, Marino, strapped to her chest. “I didn’t even say shit! Me and Marino were minding our own business, and y’all are in here talking about me when I couldn’t defend myself.”
I laughed. “What defense could you have? You and Maceo left the table at Mama Stephanie’s rehearsal dinner to fornicate in the bathroom.
You tried to leave your official engagement party to go hump in your childhood bedroom.
And . . . this is the big one . . . We started your wedding reception thirty minutes late because you two couldn’t wait to consummate your already six-month-old marriage. ”
Shar scoffed and turned to the side so I could see my nephew’s cute little face.
“Marino, ask your auntie why she’s bringing up old shit?”
“Old but relevant. You two are the horniest couple I’ve ever met.”
“How horny did you get when I kissed you?” she shot back.
My mouth dropped. “Sharina!”
“Wait!” Mia exclaimed. “You two kissed! Does Maceo know that!”
“It wasn’t like that,” I protested. “We were talking, and I let it slip that I hadn’t been kissed?—”
“You’ve never been kissed!” Romi and Mia exclaimed.
“Say it a little louder, why don’t you? I don’t think the rest of the compound heard you.”
Mia slapped her forehead. “Jaeda, what the fuck are you doing with your life? Nobody is that damn conservative.”
I covered her mouth. “Shhhh! You’re gonna wake the baby up.”
Shar waved me off. “Girl, this boy listened to me and his daddy blast Megan Thee Stallion, Glorilla, Lil Wayne, J. Cole, and so much other music my entire pregnancy. He’s used to niggas being loud.”
Romi giggled as she rubbed her belly. “I fear these two are gonna be the same way. Once we got acclimated to living with Devin, out came the loud music. When it’s just us, it’s trap music. When the kids are there, they are turning up to Gracie’s Corner and Doggyland .”
Mia waved her hands. “Uh, hello! Can we stay on topic? Back to this kiss. Was it tongue involved?”
I shook my head. “No, Mia. Just a peck on the lips.”
She looked at Salima who sat there grinning. “You knew about this?”
“Shar told me,” she confirmed.
“Oh! So you bitches are just keeping secrets from me. See if I tell you anything else.”
Salima rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to tell us anything. We can hear you and Titan arguing from our house.”
That made Romi, Shar, and me laugh. Mia crossed her arms.
“Whatever. I don’t wanna talk about that bastard. I’m over him.”
“Sure you are,” I said sarcastically.
I tuned her out as she told Shar and Salima all about their latest drama. I’d allowed them to distract me long enough. When they asked me about hanging out earlier, I told them I was busy working. They took that as an open invitation to come over to my place.
Their chatter fell on deaf ears, as I was hyper focused on the task at hand. I’d gotten past all but one encryption, and the last one was kicking my ass. Whoever was on the other end was doing a hell of a job blocking me at every turn. It had been an all-out war going on between us for hours now.
I clicked away on my keyboard until finally that IP address popped up.
“Gotcha!” I quickly recorded the address.
Just as I wrote the last number, the entire system went black.
“Son of a bitch!” I groaned as I tried to turn everything back on.
“What happened?” Mia asked.
“They shut my system down.”
“What kind of hacker are you dealing with?”
“Someone that matches or exceeds my skills. I swear to God, if my shit is fucked up, I’m gonna?—”
I stopped as the monitors booted back up. Waiting on the screen was a message.
“I quit. You win.”
“Oh, hell no,” I mumbled, going into my software.
I hoped this mystery hacker didn’t think they were getting off that easily. Oh no. I had plans for them. Big plans.