Chapter 4
S on of a bitch.
I knew I had fucked up.
When I got the notification that my firewall had been breached, I knew it was nobody but Jaeda.
We’d been playing this game of cat and mouse for days now.
I’d been successfully able to block her attempts at uncovering me until two days ago.
A call from my mother thwarted my last attempt to conceal my identity.
The few-second time frame was probably all she needed.
I couldn’t believe I’d finally seen her in person.
Her pictures didn’t do her justice. Of course, they were beautiful, but Jaeda Dillinger up close was a fucking masterpiece.
She was shorter than me, and if I had to guess, I’d say she was about five feet six.
Her long tresses were in loose curls all over her head.
Those deep brown eyes, long lashes, and full lips were probably my favorite of her features.
The black-framed glasses that matched mine topped her whole look off.
Baby was slim-thick with a Coke bottle shape.
The graphic tee, that she’d cut into a crop top, and leggings perfectly showed off her figure.
I could see a sliver of a colorful tattoo going up her side.
There were a few others on the insides of her wrist and arms. Nothing big, just a few dainty ones.
She was so damn beautiful that I just had to stare at her for a moment.
She was so focused on the Lego kit that she didn’t even see me watching her.
I felt like a creep, but I couldn’t will my feet to move until I had a valid reason to talk to her.
I really did want that Toad set, and the fact that there was only one was the perfect excuse to say something to her.
I’d gathered up my confidence, and it all fell the moment our hands touched.
I felt like a kid trying to talk to his crush for the first time.
I’d called Titan as soon as I got in my car.
“What up, nigga,” he answered.
“I saw her.”
“Saw who?”
“Jaeda.”
“Jaeda who? Jaeda, Jaeda?”
“How many Jaedas do you know?”
“Shit, about four or five of them. Where did you see her?”
“The Joy Factory.”
He laughed. “Childish ass. Y’all would meet in a toy store. Did you talk to her?”
“Kinda.”
“What you mean kinda? Please tell me you asked for her number at least.”
I ran him the story of our brief interaction.
He wasn’t surprised that Mr. Dillinger popped up on us and snatched her up out of there.
I could tell she was fiercely protected, as Titan said, by the way her father was eyeing me.
If I made one wrong move, he looked like he would have put a bullet in my ass.
I regretted not asking for her number, and now, I probably wouldn’t get the chance. I guess I fumbled that ball.
“Man, I was so nervous, I could barely look at the girl. I didn’t even give her my damn name.”
He broke into laughter. “Q, man. I don’t know what else to tell you.
You had her in your grasp and you fumbled the ball.
I’m starting to think you ain’t as interested as you say you are.
You know what? When I touch down, I’m taking you to meet the girl.
You might have to wait a few days because I have to work Mia back into my good graces, but once we’re good, I got you.
You’re going out sad, and I can’t stand to see it. ”
“Fuck you, Titan.”
He laughed harder. “That’s what you need to be doing until you get your girl. Find something to fuck on. You don’t have a rolodex of Lego and anime loving nerds at your disposal? What about one of them furry hos we saw at Comicon last year? You like that weird, freaky shit, don’t you?”
I hung up on his ass.
Did I like roleplay? Yes. Was I into furries?
Hell no. More power to those who did, but it wasn’t my thing.
I liked to look into a woman’s eyes when I had sex with them.
I loved seeing the looks of pleasure on their faces.
The slight gasp as I filled them with more dick than they imagined.
There was something about a woman clawing at my back as I slow stroked her.
That moment, . . . the look of shock on their faces when they realized this square ass nerd could actually lay pipe, was one I lived for.
The sound of my phone ringing broke me from my dirty thoughts. I looked to see that it was my mother calling again.
“Hey, Ma.”
“Hey, baby. How are you?”
“I’m straight. How are you feeling?”
“I’m feeling better today. I just got back from my doctor’s appointment.”
My mother was recovering from having a hysterectomy after finding out she had uterine cancer. Since the cancer hadn’t spread and they caught it early, she opted to go that route. She said she wasn’t having any more kids and told the doctors to “cut that shit out.”
“How were your scans?” I asked.
“All clear. They said I’m healing nicely. Your father is getting on my damn nerves, though. He’s acting like I’m handicapped or some shit.”
I chuckled. “Let that man take care of you, woman. You can be so stubborn.”
“I’m not stubborn.”
“Bullshit!” my father yelled in the background. That made me laugh harder.
“Go to hell, Linus!”
My parents were a mess. They’d been married for thirty years, and I was their only child.
There was never a lack of love or affection from them.
I was a different type of kid. I’d always been pretty advanced in school, and I’d skipped a couple of grades.
That led to me graduating high school at fourteen and college at sixteen because I had so many credits.
I had a master’s in information technology with a focus on data analytics and cyber security.
My parents nurtured my uniqueness, even when they didn’t understand what the hell I was talking about.
My dad worked overtime to send me to all kinds of camps and programs to further my skills as a kid, and that shit didn’t come cheap.
When I opened my cyber security firm and made my first million, I retired him from his job as a firefighter.
“Quaid, I’m about to send your mama to stay with you,” Dad said, coming to the phone.
“I wish you would,” my mother threatened.
“Y’all are funny. Ma, I know you like to overdo it, so you need to listen to Dad.”
“I didn’t call for you to gang up on me.”
“We aren’t ganging up on you, but you gotta chill, woman. Rest is an essential part of recovery.”
She sighed. “I guess. Anyway, I was calling to see if you wanted to have dinner with us tonight. I’m surprised you aren’t with that heathen. You can bring him if you want. I haven’t gotten in his ass in a minute.”
I chuckled at the title she’d dubbed for Titan. He’d grown on her over the years. As slick mouthed as he was, he practiced restraint and respect around my parents, . . . a first for him.
“He’s out of town, Ma.”
“Tell him I said hey.”
“I will. I’ll see you at dinner.”
“Seven o’clock”
“I got you.”
“We love you.”
“I love y’all too.”
Just as I hung up the phone, there was a knock at my door. I stood and slid it into my pocket and went to answer it without bothering to check the cameras.
“Who is it?”
“Delivery.”
I took off the locks, and as soon as I opened the door, I was staring down the barrel of a beretta. Four angry looking men stared back at me.
“Look, man, I don’t want any trouble,” I said.
“Shut your bitch ass up,” the biggest one snapped.
The one holding the gun backed me into the loft as they all filed in and closed the door.
“I hear you like to hack people’s shit,” the gunman said.
Instantly, I knew what this was about.
Jaeda.
These must have been her brothers.
I held up my hands. “I can explain.”
“Nah, nigga. The time for explaining shit is over.”
One of them walked over to my computer setup and picked up one of my awards. The next thing I knew, he smashed it against the biggest monitor.
“What the fuck, man!” I yelled. “Do you know how much I paid for that!”
“I don’t give a fuck. You’re lucky that wasn’t your fucking face.”
“Look, if y’all could just chill out, I can?—”
The gunman punched me in the gut. “Didn’t I say you ain’t explaining shit? You hard of hearing, my nigga?”
I took a deep breath to regain my composure. “I can hear just fine, my nigga . Y’all came in here fucking up my shit when I’m telling you I know what this is about.”
“Look, muthafucka, we aren’t the ones you have to answer to. Since you know what this is about, you already know who sent us. We finna take a lil trip.”
I sighed. “Fine. But keep your fucking hands to yourself. I’m not the punk ass bitch you think I am.”
The one that busted my monitor laughed. “This nerd ass nigga got heart.”
“Put the gun down, and I’ll show you how much heart I have.”
“You getting buck? You wanna run it?”
“We can run whatever the fuck you wanna run.”
The fact that he broke my shit had me hot. I could handle being snatched up because, honestly, I had the shit coming. Titan warned me about snooping through Jaeda’s shit too many times. But don’t touch my shit out of spite.
The gunman intercepted the conversation. “Y’all can run a fair one once Jaeda decides what she wants to do with this nigga. We need to go. Bring yo’ ass, Einstein.”
I was reluctant to follow them out of my loft. This was not how I imagined meeting their sister, but what could I do now?