Chapter 25
A few days had passed since shit went down, and I was anxious as hell. My trigger finger was itching. I’d practically been living at Jaeda’s house, watching the live video feed. Neither Charity nor Blane had been to the house, but thanks to Titan, we could hear and see everything going on in there. I wasn’t sure what possessed that nigga to put those cameras in the house, but they came in clutch.
Charity and Blane were in communication with the men staying there on a daily basis. We were able to intercept a shipment because they slipped up and gave the address. Pops made a call to one of our police allies and gave them the information. Unfortunately, none of Charity and Blane’s crew was there when the victims were rescued, and the people handing them off were apprehended.
“This shit is boring,” I mumbled, lighting my blunt.
I was currently at Jaeda’s, in her office. We’d been watching the cameras all day, and I was ready to go home. Shar was over here for a little while, but she said she needed a nap, so she left about an hour ago.
“How do you do this shit all the time?” I asked, passing Jaeda the blunt.
“Maybe because I enjoy what I do. Y’all can have the field work. Give me this.”
I chuckled. “Nerdy ass.”
She mushed my head. “Whatever. Somebody is going to appreciate me for my brains one of these days.”
“We do appreciate you, Jae.”
“I know, but we are family, and I’m essential to this operation. Y’all better appreciate me. I’ll disappear on your ass.”
I chuckled. “Don’t do that. We’d need you to find you.”
She laughed. “I mean, y’all can always enlist whoever helped Titan with the cameras.”
“Speaking of Titan. What’s going on with him and Mia? Did something happen that night?”
Jaeda rolled her eyes. “You know your sister is forever the drama queen. She won’t say if anything happened between them. All she told me was they were in training together and always went head-to-head. Mia likes to be the best at whatever she does, and Titan is competition. Between us, I think they used to fuck around.”
“I wouldn’t put it past that. Yo, it’s crazy how he just went into that house.”
“Right? Like, I’m sure Maddie gave him our location that night because of Mia, but he’s… he’s different.
I shrugged. “You think he’s an opp?”
“No. Maddie trusts him. I mean, I know she feels some type of way about Daddy, but she wouldn’t willingly work with anyone that means us harm.”
I nodded. “True. Plus, Maddie loves our grown asses.”
“She does. You think her and Daddy will get back together?”
I laughed out loud. “Would you get back with a nigga that told you he was still in love with his ex, who’s engaged to be married?”
“Hell no. He couldn’t say shit else to me.”
“Exactly.”
Movement on the monitor caused me to turn my head. Charity and Blane had just walked into the house.
“Finally, some action,” I said, sitting up.
Charity looked pissed as she walked into the dining room with the men behind her. She then went into the kitchen, coming back with a glass of wine. For a while, she just sat at the table, staring at them.
“I’m trying to figure out why y’all have been around here bullshitting instead of doing what you’ve been paid to do. Shipments haven’t been picked up. Bodies are rotting, and I’m losing money because, what the fuck can I do with a dead organ!” She threw the glass across the room, causing it to shatter against a wall. “What the fuck is wrong with y’all?”
“Wait,” Jaeda said, sitting up. “What did she just say? Is she the one in charge?”
“I thought you said Blane was in charge?”
“Maybe it’s both of them. That would finally explain the part she’s playing in all of this.”
We kept listening to the conversation.
“Oh shit!” we both exclaimed when she shot two of the men in the head.
“Y’all hear me now?” Charity asked as their bodies slumped to the floor.
Blane laughed. “Are you done throwing your temper tantrum?”
Charity pointed a gun at him. “Do you want to be next? There is nothing holding me back from shooting you too.”
He sat back in his chair and exhaled deeply. “Give us the room.”
The men stood and started to leave until Charity spoke up.
“Don’t just leave them here,” she snapped, pointing at the bodies. “Take them out of here.”
We watched as the group of men dragged the two dead bodies from the room. This wasn’t the Charity I was expecting. She’d acted so helpless when I met her. I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt. I tried to see the good in her, but the bitch definitely played me. All thoughts of her just being a pawn in someone else’s game went out the window when she put a fucking bomb in Zeno’s body. I didn’t think she was capable of this, but I thought wrong.
Shar was right the whole fucking time.
“You gotta chill,” Blane said.
“Fuck you.” Charity elbowed him. “You and the rest of those niggas are costing me money. I have clients waiting, and I can’t deliver because of that fucking Maceo.”
“All you had to do was shoot when they opened the back of the van. That was the whole purpose of you being there in the first place. Don’t put this shit on us when you fucked up your own mission.”
Charity spun around, glaring at him. “I was outnumbered, and I played it safe until I had a better opportunity. That girlfriend of his fucked up my plan B. Had he been single, it would have been easy to get close enough to find out more about him before I killed him. Other than most of his team being dead, we’re no closer than we were when we started.”
“And that’s my fault? Your daddy was the one with the underground connections.”
“Yet he went behind my back and entrusted you with his business. Now look at him… fucking dead.”
“Her daddy?” I asked. “Who was—Quame?”
“It’s gotta be him. Think about it. Human trafficking. Blane. It can’t be a coincidence.”
“I thought Quinton was his only child.”
Jaeda shrugged as she turned to the computer. “He’s the only one I looked into because he was putting money on Quame’s books. I didn’t think about him having another kid. Damn. This bitch has a whole fake identity. I swear everything I found on her looked legit. Birth certificate, social security number, all of her records… everything. Somebody went through a lot of trouble to make Charity Lynn look like a real person.”
I nodded. “It makes sense now why she was in the back of that van. She knew if she got caught, the police would be involved in some way. She needed to look clean.”
“I’m gonna dig into this some—Oh my God,” Jaeda mumbled, covering her eyes and turning away from the screen.
When I saw what she saw, I turned my head, too, because I wasn’t trying to watch Charity sucking this man off. The sound was enough and too much all at once. Jaeda’s face was beet red, and it made me laugh.
“Sis, you really need to get laid,” I said.
“I’m so not discussing my sex life or lack thereof with you, Maceo.”
“You talk about it with Mia, Shar, and Salima.”
“They are women and my sisters. They understand.”
“You know what I don’t understand? Why you don’t think you’re deserving of everything a good nigga has to offer.”
She sighed. “I do. I just… Men make me nervous, Maceo. I’ve never been good at talking to them. I know I’m attractive. I know I’m smart, and I have a lot going for me. The problem is, I don’t know how to talk to men and just be myself. Outside of the family shit, I’m boring in real life. I like to shop, eat, read my books, do techy shit, play with Legos, and watch anime?—”
I frowned. “The fuck is wrong with that? You’re perfect for one of these niggas. You just need a nerd like you.”
“You know, calling me a nerd isn’t the compliment you think it is.”
“I apologize. I mean it in the best way possible. You’re the smartest person I know. Remember when you used to help me with my homework? You know how embarrassing it was that my little sister understood that shit more than I did? That was a flex for you though. Who else do you know can say they have all the degrees and certifications you have at your age?”
She blushed. “Nobody.”
“Exactly. You the shit. Period, pooh.” I snapped my fingers, and it made her laugh.
“Don’t ever do that again. You sound like Mia.”
We shared a laugh. I glanced back at the screen because it had grown somewhat silent. My eyes widened as I watched Charity reach for a butcher knife.
“Oh shit! She’s about to stab that nigga,” I said, grabbing Jaeda’s attention.
Now, I’d copped my share of bodies, and I’d seen my share of lives taken, but I’d never seen some shit like this.
“Is she—” Jaeda started.
“She definitely is.”
“Oh my God! She’s sick!”
We watched until she finally left the kitchen. A few minutes later, the group of men returned to get Blane’s body.
“That was dark,” Jaeda mumbled. “I definitely have to get that image out of my head before I go to bed. Anyway, back to this bitch being Quame’s daughter. Give me a second.”
I watched as she clicked away on the keyboard. “What are you doing?”
“I’m searching birth records with Quame listed as the father.”
She was silent for a moment as she searched. After about a minute, information loaded on the screen. Turns out, Quame had about four kids outside of the two he shared with his ex-wife. There she was, Quinn Alexander.
“Let me grab her social… There we go. Now I can run her background.”
I relit the blunt we were smoking since it had gone out. I was gonna need something to ease my nerves after this shit. Six degrees of separation was a crazy thing. What were the chances of Charity… well Quinn, being this man’s daughter?
“Whoa!” Jaeda said, as an extensive rap sheet and mug shots populated. “She’s always been a terror. This is crazy.”
“Nah, this is perfect,” I said, thinking hard. “She just killed her partner. That’s one less person we have to worry about. We know she isn’t staying in the farmhouse. I say we take out her men on the ground. That leaves her open with no protection.”
“Maceo, the woman literally got herself off as she killed a man. I don’t think she’s worried about having protection.”
“Maybe not, but you heard her. She’s still trying to move shipments, and she can’t do that shit by herself.”
“True, but we don’t know who else is working with her.”
“What did Pops always tell us? Cut off the head, and the body will fall. If we take out her muscle, she’s gonna show her weakness. We have to draw her out.”
Jaeda sighed. “I guess we need to talk to Daddy and get a plan together.”
“I’m on it.”
I pulled out my phone and sent a message to the family group chat. I finally felt like we had something solid. All we needed was an even more solid plan. Whatever it was, the end result would be the same.
This Charity, Quinn bitch had to go.