Page 73 of Jaeda

I looked up to see her father making his way toward us. He didn’t look happy to see me, even though he was the one who invited me here. Maybe the scowl on his face was part of his scare tactic. I hated to break it to him, but that wasn’t gonna work on me.

“We’ll catch up with you later, sis,” Shar said. She tapped my arm. “Good luck.”

The girls walked away just as Mr. Dillinger walked up.

“Baby girl,” he said, kissing Jaeda’s cheek.

“Hey, Daddy.”

“Nice of y’all to finally join us.”

“I’m sure you remember we had a prior engagement since you demanded we be here.”

He chuckled. “Your mother called to remind me that I’m the asshole.” His eyes landed on me, and he extended his hand. “Mr. Michaels.”

“Mr. Dillinger.”

“You know what time it is, son. Come on.”

“Daddy!”

“I’ll send him back in one piece, baby girl.”

He didn’t say anything else before walking off. I turned to Jaeda.

“You know you don’t have to go with him, right?” she asked.

“I know, but he invited me here for this, so let’s get it over with. I’ll come find you, okay?”

She pouted. “Okay.”

I chuckled as I leaned in to kiss her lips. Giving her ass a light tap, I followed behind her father. He led me to a covered seating area where Deuce, Maceo, Smoke, Steel, and Donna sat. I dapped each of them before taking a seat.

“Baby, can you give us a minute?” Steel said to Donna. “Just go over there with Jaeda and the girls.”

“Sure thing. It was nice to meet you all.”

The men all gave various responses as she stood and walked away. As soon as she was out of earshot, Maceo spoke.

“Baby?”

“I’ll explain everything later. You know your daddy wants the floor with his aggy ass.”

Mr. Dillinger smacked the back of his head as he pulled a blunt from the front of his shirt pocket.

“Shut your ass up.” He lit the blunt, his eyes focused on me. “So, Mr. Michaels, tell me something about you.”

“Well, I’m twenty-eight with master’s degrees in information technology, specifically data analysis, and cyber security. I own a cyber security firm called Byte Guards. My parents have been together since they were eighteen, and I’m their only child. Titanis my best friend and has been since we were kids. No arrests. No warrants. No children. No money troubles. In fact, my bank account is sitting very nicely. Does that match up with what you found? Jaeda told me you did a background check on me.”

When she told me that in conversation, I couldn’t help but laugh. Given who her family was, I wasn’t even surprised. Mr. Dillinger smirked while his sons guffawed blatantly.

“It checks out,” Mr. Dillinger said. “You have a smart-ass mouth.”

I chuckled. “I do.”

“I told you,” Maceo said. “He might fit right in with us. Nigga got hands too.”

Smoke laughed. “Definitely didn’t expect to see you throwing blows like that in the club. Blind and all, he was swinging, and those licks were connecting.”

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