Chapter 13
When I brought up talking to Jaeda to Maceo, I wasn’t asking for permission. I was simply making him aware of my intentions because I was going to do what I wanted, regardless. I just needed the perfect moment. He was already a little irritated after his father blasted him, then he had to sit and listen to my parents go off about me being involved in his family’s business in any way. I felt bad that they were so worried for my safety, not knowing that they had every right to be.
We didn’t tell them everything. As far as they were concerned, I was working with the charity foundation. If they knew I was in the field driving the getaway van for victims who had been snatched up, they would have flipped their shit. I hated lying to them, but the less they knew, the safer it was.
After we got back from having dinner and conversation with my parents, I rolled him two blunts, got him good and high, then fucked him right to sleep. The combination was sure to have him knocked out well into the morning.
It was about nine o’clock when I rolled up to Jaeda’s house. I’d texted her before going over because sometimes my girl could go to bed early like she was somebody’s granny. She said she was up sipping wine and watching reality TV, so I headed over.
I didn’t get a chance to knock on her door before it was opening. She stood there in a pair of flannel pajama bottoms, a graphic tee with the word “Nerd” written across the front, and a pair of fuzzy slippers. Her hair was pulled into a messy bun and her glasses perched on her nose. She was absolutely adorable.
“Hey, boo,” I said, pushing her glasses up.
“Hey. Come on in.”’
She stepped aside to allow me entry, and I stepped inside. Kicking off my shoes, I made my way over to the plush, oversized pink sectional. Jaeda’s home was every bit of her. The entire thing was decorated in shades of pink, white, nude, and gold. Everything was color coordinated and very neatly put together. There was absolutely no trace of a man being present. If she ever got the nigga she was pining after, sis would have to change everything.
As I sat down on the couch, I noticed her phone was unlocked. On the screen was the dating app Mia had told her to get off of. She quickly picked up the phone and locked it before tucking it under her thigh.
I giggled. “I see you’re still at it.”
“Please don’t start.”
I raised my hand in surrender. “I don’t have anything to say. You’re grown, and that’s your business.”
“What brings you by? I thought you and my brother would’ve been going at it by now, considering he’s been away for four days.”
I smirked. “I put him to bed before I came over here.”
She frowned. “Ew.”
“Don’t be a hater ’cause you over here beat boxing on your clit with that rose.”
She laughed out loud as she mushed me. “Shut up!”
“Which one do you have? The regular one or the one with the mouth? I know you are a freaky little virgin, Jaeda.”
“Oh my God. Shar, please.”
“You’ve really never done anything? Like, nobody ever sucked a nipple or fingered you?”
“No.”
“Not even a dry hump?”
“Shar, I’ve never even been kissed.”
“What!”
She looked embarrassed, but I wasn’t judging her. My lil’ baby was different. Outside of the family, she was as innocent as they came. It should come as no surprise that she hadn’t tongued anybody down. I had half a mind to give her, her first kiss. It wasn’t like I hadn’t kissed girls before. Shit, I kissed Salima all the time when niggas used to be in our face. She’d been my pretend girlfriend several times, like it was nothing.
“Come here, Jaeda,” I said softly.
“Why?”
“Just come here.” She inched closer to me. Gently, I cupped her pretty face. “Close your eyes.”
She closed her eyes, and I pressed a soft kiss to her lips. No tongue. No swapping spit, or lips sucking like I did with her brother. It was just an innocent peck. When I pulled away, she blushed and giggled, and it was fucking adorable.
“Shar… thank you. That was sweet.” The look on her face changed from happy to mortified. “Wait… is your mouth clean! I know you didn’t kiss me with my brother’s dick on your lips!”
I cackled. “I promise, I brushed my teeth and used mouthwash, boo. I’m clean.”
“Nah, I need to brush my lips.”
“Brush your lips?”
“Yes! I can’t believe you!”
She jumped up from the couch and rushed down the hall. I just had to laugh at her dramatics. I couldn’t wait to tell Salima about this shit. When she finally came back, she had a smile on her face. I shook my head as she took a seat beside me and grabbed her wineglass.
“You never said what you came here for,” she said, glancing over at me.
“I uh… I need a favor.”
“Would this have anything to do with my daddy wanting to talk to Maceo alone today?”
“Yes.” I sighed. “It’s over now, so I guess I can tell you everything.”
I gave her every detail of what her brother and I had been up to since he contracted with an outside organization. She sat, going through a range of facial expressions. When I was done, all she could do was stare at me.
“Wow,” she finally said, blowing a breath. “Y’all have been busy.”
“We have.”
“Why would he do that? My dad doesn’t play about working with outside people or organizations without them being heavily vetted first.”
I sighed. “He… he wanted something of his own, Jae. Sometimes he feels like he’s just here because he’s your father’s son. He feels like if he were removed, nothing would change, like he wasn’t a vital part of the organization.”
“But that’s not true. We need him as much as everybody else.”
I shrugged. “He’s entitled to his feelings, sis. Anyway, your father canceled his contract, so we’re done with it. He’s gotta break the news to the guys.”
“I can’t believe this shit.” She shook her head. “So this woman… you think she’s shady?”
“Something ain’t right, Jae. Every time I’ve had a feeling about a bitch, I was right. If I trust nothing else, I trust my intuition. Your brother is brushing it off like it’s no big deal. He thinks I think she just wants to fuck him. Maybe she does, but that ain’t it. And this big scary looking nigga she’s hooked up with? Something about that man makes me quiver, Jaeda, and not in a good way. That’s why I need you to look into them.”
“I don’t know, Shar. I hate keeping secrets from my brothers about business.”
“I’m not asking you to keep a secret. I just need a peace of mind. If she is who she says she is, I’ll let it go.”
She eyed me for a second before sighing. “Fine. Follow me.”
She stood and led me down the hall to a door with a keypad on it. After verifying her fingerprints, the door unlocked, and she led me inside.
“What in the Penelope Garcia…” I mumbled, looking around.
She laughed. “Salima said the same thing. I love Penelope.”
“You really could work for the FBI, Jae.”
“Girl, my daddy has several government agencies in his back pocket. They take the credit, and we take a payout.”
“Not Senior having pull like that. How did he even get into this shit?”
She hung her head. “He um… there was an incident. A lot of innocent people got hurt, and he wasn’t the same after that. He came out of pocket for the families of the victims, but that didn’t make it any better. I think helping people and going legit is his way of trying to make up for what he took from those families. It doesn’t bring their loved ones back, but he’s never taken another life that wasn’t warranted again.
“That’s why he keeps the organization mostly within the family. Most of the time, we are all we have, Shar. The ones of us that try to do good still get the backlash from the ones that are out here being reckless. I love my uncle Blake, but I don’t agree with him pushing that poison in our community. My father worked hard to combat that. When people say we own half the city, they aren’t lying. Senior put a lot of money back into the same community Uncle Blake is running his drugs through. That’s his brother, and he loves him. If he can’t stop him, he at least tries to make up for it.”
I knew Senior had a good heart. He was a lot of things… a lot of things… but he had good in him. Jaeda shook her head as she took a seat at her desk. Monitors were everywhere. She switched them on, and my eyes widened at the mountain of information she was working on. Maceo told me how smart and efficient she was, and I was low-key excited to see her in action.
She started typing away on her keyboard. Windows popped open on several of the monitors.
“What’s the name she gave you?”
“Charity Lynn.”
“Is that first and middle or first and last?”
“First and last.”
“And do you have a picture of her? I can run it against my facial recognition software.”
“I do, actually. I snapped it at brunch.”
“Send it to me.”
I sent the picture to her phone. After messing around with it for a few seconds, the picture populated on a screen.
“I’m gonna run her image and name against DMV records to see what I can find.”
She clicked away at the keyboard for a minute or so before a license popped up.
“Charity Lynn. Age twenty-seven. From Petersville, Georgia. Is that where she was supposedly taken from?”
“I don’t know. Maceo had an officer come speak to them. We weren’t present for that.”
“The local police department?”
“Yes.”
“Give me a minute. I have to access their database.”
“You can do that?”
She giggled. “Girl, I can do anything. It’s gonna take a little time, but I’ll find it.”
“Okay. Jae, please don’t say anything to your brother. We aren’t on the same page when it comes to this. I need cold, hard evidence when I bring it to him again.”
She sighed. “I hear you, Shar. I don’t like this, but I love you, and I trust you. If this is a potential threat, I wanna get ahead of it.”
“Thanks, Jaeda. I could almost kiss you again.”
She laughed. “Spare me, please.”
I playfully kissed my teeth. “You know you like these soft ass lips.”
“They were soft, and the kiss was nice. But I know what you and my brother do behind closed doors, so no more kisses.”
“That’s fair. I’m about to go home and wake him up to some wet ass mouth right now.”
She pretended to gag. “That’s disgusting.”
“Girl, if you ever want a man, you better get over that and learn to suck a mean dick. I mean, I could teach you.” I laughed. “I have this cousin, Iridessa. She was trying to teach her girlfriend how to suck their boyfriend’s dick?—”
“Wait. She has a girlfriend, and they have a boyfriend?”
“Yes, girl. They are a whole throuple and happy as hell. Anyway, she put on this strap-on and damn near made the girl choke.”
“Oh, no, ma’am. I’m not a violent person, but that would be the day I beat your ass, Sharina.”
I laughed. “I wouldn’t do you like that. We can practice on a banana or something. Hell, Salima and Mia can join us.”
“And what if my brothers walk in? You know they don’t know anything about knocking on doors.”
“Then I guess they will get an eye full.”
She palmed her face. “Good night, Shar.”
I giggled as I went to hug her. “Good night, girl. I’ll lock up on my way out.”
I kissed her cheek before leaving her office and the house to head home. Part of me wanted to be right about Charity. But the other part… that part wanted to be wrong so bad. If she wasn’t who she said she was, that was a whole other problem. A problem we’d potentially brought to Maceo’s family.
That , I wasn’t prepared for.