Chapter One

Cinnamon Paxton, age eleven, and Paprika, age nine—her sister—are as nearly inseparable as sisters can be. Although they are in different grades at school—Harlem World Academy Lower School—they see each other at recess, lunch, assemblies, and all school activities. The two girls attend the same church—Universal Church—are in the same Girl Scout troop, play computer games together, and are part of the same small circle of BFFs with few friends or acquaintances outside that circle. By the sheerest of coincidences, they share the same birthday, two years apart. The sisters live with their mother in a very expensive five-story condominium on 142 West 129th Street under assumed names. The girls and their mother live separate from their father. That separation came about because the separation of the worlds of their mother and their father is—by mutual choice—necessary to protect the mother and children. The rich, privileged, and carefully protected, girls live in fear. That fear is mainly of their father and the people who surround him in his world.

Very highly trained and capable men and women are on duty to provide security for the children and their mother twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, and have been in place since the children were born. The separation of the parents was occasioned when the girls were ages three and five by two acts of serious violence that took place near their former home in South Harlem. Angelina Paxton—the wife and mother—was completely ignorant and naïve about her new husband, Damien Markee, prior to their marriage. When the scales fell from her eyes and she came to realize what Damien’s livelihood and life entails, she grew up rapidly and issued an ultimatum—either he renounce his involvement with the BK [Black Knights] for a respectable life with her and their children; or the two spouses will have to live apart. Divorce is out of the question—they are Catholics, he is a controlling and an alpha male; and besides, as king of the BK, Damien is disinclined to abandon the enormously lucrative ongoing criminal enterprise he controls. For that matter, walking away from the gang is quite literally impossible to do and to survive. Damien and Angelina—real name, Desireé—agree to live separately despite all of the security issues and inconveniences that entails.

She does not want to assume a new identity and to live apart from her husband, but he convinces her that it is altogether necessary. An accumulation of events after the separation further convinces Angelina of the wisdom of maintaining separate and secret lives, and she accepts the profound change in her life with conviction that it is the only acceptable alternative. Violence involving her husband makes the news with unnerving frequency, and—try as she might—Angelina is not able to shield her children from knowing about their father and what he does for a living. It is probably for the best that they receive frequent reminders because it keeps them wary and convinced that they must never make a mistake and reveal who their father is and what he does.

After six years in the beautiful new school for Cinnamon and four years for Paprika, the student body and faculty have become accustomed to the presence of the bodyguard contingent. Security personnel are not at all uncommon in the exclusive and prestigious K-12 school. Cinnamon and Paprika—like their classmates—make a determined effort not to pay attention to the security men and women and their guns. On any given day, about a dozen men and women sit watching their young charges or take turns patrolling the hall. The important children of important people never quibble about the presence of so many armed officers. The general consensus is that it would be unforgivable to have their child go to school and be killed there by a loony. Nobody has any ‘icky-poo’ liberal nonsense about guns, metal detectors, x-ray machines when required, or pat-downs. They want their children to come home safe every day.

This particular day is Cinnamon and Paprika’s birthday, and for lunch there is a birthday party for the entire school paid for by the girls’ father, Damien Markee. Only the head of the lower school—as it is commonly called—knows that Damien is the children’s father, and for this—as for many other occasions—he is an anonymous donor. Cinnamon is sitting with Paprika and two special friends who help them open cards from every faculty member, administrator, janitor, security officer, and student. No gifts are allowed to make it possible to honor every child on his or her birthday without going broke buying presents or crazy trying to keep up with anything more than a card made from colored card stock with a very short personal note.

Pizza, chocolate cupcakes, and milk are the food groups chosen for the occasion as they are for almost every birthday at the school. Cinnamon especially loves parties, and she and Paprika have a great time laughing at the funny notes written by their favorite people. They have to wait an extra hour after school because their security unit is a man short, and they are reluctant to join the large crowd leaving the school grounds immediately after the last bell rings. Hank Duffy—former MMA fighter and Navy SEAL—developed a bleeding ulcer just before Cinnamon and Paprika were to be picked up for their ride to school that morning, and a certified substitute is not available on such short notice for the escorted ride home.