Chapter 23
Sharina Nicole Dillinger.
I smiled as I looked down at my ring. The wedding band blended in perfectly with the engagement ring, so it was easy to conceal. I couldn’t believe that Maceo and I had secretly gotten married after such an atrocious mess of a wedding day. I felt guilty about being so happy when the lives of three undeserving people had been lost. Tiny, Sloan, and Mikko dedicated years of their lives to their country. They dedicated a year to a greater cause, right here on American soil, only to be gunned down in the street.
It didn’t sit right with me.
An elbow to my side caused me to look up from my ring. I looked over to see Deuce peering at me. We were sitting in the meeting room at the big house. I told Maceo that I wanted to sit in on all conversations until Charity and Blane were taken care of. For one, I was tired of everybody putting so much blame on my man when I knew what the fuck I was getting myself into. I knew me, and Maceo knew me too. Once I got something in my head, there was no talking me out of it.
Now that he was my husband, all that jumping down his throat was gonna stop.
“You know, if you wanna keep this under wraps, you might not wanna draw too much attention to your hand,” he jested.
I grinned. “I can’t help myself.”
“I see that. I’m happy for y’all. I know I gave y’all a hard time, especially with all this shit going on, but I really do think you’re the best person for my brother. As long as he’s happy, I’m happy.”
I playfully nudged him. “Awww, look at you being sweet.”
He kissed his teeth. “Go on, now. Ain’t shit sweet over here.”
“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.”
“Nigga, did you count that shit?” Smoke asked.
Titan shrugged. “I have an eidetic memory. I don’t forget shit, right, Mia?”
She glared at him. “Bite me.”
He laughed. “Anyway, there’s something else.” He stood and walked over to the computer. “May I?”
Jaeda was hesitant to move because sis never let anybody touch her computer.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“I just wanna show you something.”
She slowly stepped to the side and let him have the floor. He clicked away on the computer for a few moments before it switched to a live camera feed. Everybody sat up in their seats, while Maddie smiled with pride.
“How did you get that in there?” Jaeda asked.
Titan smirked. “While the goons were out today, I took the liberty of installing cameras in the house. Let’s just say I have my own personal Jaeda on the other side that helps me with the tech stuff. I think you would like him, actually. He’s single.”
Jaeda scoffed. “I don’t need your help. Thank you very much.”
He raised his hands in mock surrender. “I’m just saying. I have him watching the cameras, too, just in case you miss something. Anyway, my job is done. I have a flight to catch tonight, so I’m out. Ms. Maddie, as always, it was good to see you. Mia… eh.”
He walked out of the room, but not before Mia hurled her shoe at the back of his head. “Fuck you, Titan DeLuca! Mom, I can’t believe you had him follow us last night.”
Ms. Maddie shrugged. “You’ll live.”
Smoke’s brows furrowed. “I don’t know if I like him.”
“Maddie, what does he do again?” Maceo asked.
“Be the bane of my existence,” Mia replied.
Ms. Maddie rolled her eyes. “Titan’s mom is my good friend. He’s young and a little reckless, but he’s smart as hell and just as smooth in the field. He and Mia were trained together. There has always been some imaginary competition between them.”
Mia shook her head. “Oh, please. There’s no competition. He thinks he’s better than me. If I’d joined my grandfather’s organization, there would be no Titan DeLuca to speak of. Keep him away from me, Ma. I swear to God, I will put a bullet between his eyes.”
“Cut this shit out,” Mr. Dillinger snapped, waving a hand. “Look, I don’t care what kind of hatred you have toward the man at the moment. He came through in a major way. We’re a step closer to ending this shit and moving the fuck on.”
I raised my hand. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
My father-in-law shook his head. “Baby girl, no offense, but I don’t wanna have to give your daddy this work again because I allowed you to do the same shit my son did. He may not tell you no, but I will. Hell no , you can’t help. You can keep your pretty self safe by staying put and out of the way. You shouldn’t even be here right now, but because this involves you, I allowed it.”
“Can I just make it clear that Maceo didn’t force me into anything. This isn’t entirely his fault, and I don’t like that so many of y’all are putting all the blame on him. I was a willing participant?—”
“Let me make something very clear to you , Sharina,” Mr. Dillinger said, cutting me off. “I know you love my son. You’ve made that abundantly clear. But this ain’t a game you want to play, baby girl. You might like to play with guns, but everybody sitting among you at this table is a stone-cold killer. You are not. I sleep well at night knowing I put a muthafucka on his back. You will not. We’re built for this shit. Born and bred for it. You were not. Let us handle this. I promise, I’ll return your husband to you.”
I gasped at the sound of that. He didn’t elaborate, and nobody else seemed to catch on to the fact that he meant exactly what he said by calling Maceo my husband.
“Are we clear?” he asked.
I nodded slowly. “Crystal.”
“Good. I trust this won’t become a thing. You gotta be around for my future grandbabies.”
He winked at me before he drew the group’s attention back to the projector screen to watch the live feed. I settled back in my seat as everyone talked amongst the group. Maceo threw an arm around my shoulder and pulled me into his side where he kissed my temple.
“Thank you,” he said in a low tone. “I appreciate what you tried to do, but I can take the heat from this.”
“I’m your wife,” I whispered. “I’m never gonna just let you take the heat. We’re a team too.”
“We are… but let me take it this time because I knew better. I will never put you in harm’s way like this again, Shar. When it comes to this business, you just have to let me do what I do, okay?”
I sighed. “Okay.”
He raised an eyebrow and grinned. “I’m sorry. What was that?”
“I said, okay.”
“No back talk?”
“No back talk.”
He grinned. “If marrying you was all I had to do for you to listen, I would have done it a long time ago.”
I playfully punched him in the rib. “Fuck you, asshole.”
“I’m playing, I’m playing. Give me those lips, mama.”
I tilted my chin, and he gave me the sweetest press of his lips. Behind us, Mr. Dillinger cleared his throat.
“Are we interrupting something by discussing business?” he asked.
Maceo grinned. “Sorry, Pops.”
He gave us a side-eye before tuning back in.
Beside me, Deuce shook his head.
“Yeah… y’all niggas are gonna give yourselves away, sure as shit.”