After the Rain

 

Book 7

 

Rain Series

 

by

 

 

 

 

Vanessa Miller

 

Publisher’s Note:

This short story is a work of fiction. References to real events, organizations, or places are used in a fictional context. Any resemblances to actual persons, living or dead are entirely coincidental.

 

Vanessa Miller

www.vanessamiller.com

 

Printed in the United States of America

© 2015 by Vanessa Miller

 

Praise Unlimited Enterprises

Charlotte, NC

 

No part of this ebook may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical—including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system—without permission in writing from the publisher.

 

 

 

Other Books by Vanessa Miller

 

After the Rain

How Sweet The Sound

Heirs of Rebellion

Feels Like Heaven

Heaven on Earth

The Best of All

Better for Us

Her Good Thing

Long Time Coming

A Promise of Forever Love

A Love for Tomorrow

Yesterday’s Promise

Forgotten

Forgiven

Forsaken

Rain for Christmas (Novella)

Through the Storm

Rain Storm

Latter Rain

Abundant Rain

Former Rain

 

 

Anthologies (Editor)

Keeping the Faith

Have A Little Faith

This Far by Faith

 

EBOOKS

Love Isn’t Enough

A Mighty Love

The Blessed One (Blessed and Highly Favored series)

The Wild One (Blessed and Highly Favored Series)

The Preacher’s Choice (Blessed and Highly Favored Series)

The Politician’s Wife (Blessed and Highly Favored Series)

The Playboy’s Redemption (Blessed and Highly Favored Series)

Tears Fall at Night (Praise Him Anyhow Series)

Joy Comes in the Morning (Praise Him Anyhow Series)

A Forever Kind of Love (Praise Him Anyhow Series)

Ramsey’s Praise (Praise Him Anyhow Series)

Escape to Love (Praise Him Anyhow Series)

Praise For Christmas (Praise Him Anyhow Series)

His Love Walk (Praise Him Anyhow Series)

Could This Be Love (Praise Him Anyhow Series)

Song of Praise (Praise Him Anyhow Series)

 

 

 

Prologue

 

O Lord, You have searched me and known me.

You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thoughts afar off.

You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.

For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold O Lord, You know it altogether.

You have hedged me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high, I cannot attain it.

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?

If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.

Psalm 139: 1-8

 

Isaac made sure to be in the delivery room this time. He had two other children but had witnessed not one birth. When Donavan was born, he had been laid up in a hospital having surgery to remove a bullet a hustler by the name of Ray-Ray put there. And Isaac hadn’t even known that Iona was his daughter until she was nine years old.

But things were different now. Isaac was no longer in the drug life. He’d left all of that behind. He was now a preacher and a family man.

“Aaarrgh!” Nina yelled as she squeezed his arm. The doctor stood at the end of the bed like an umpire at a baseball game. “Push baby… come on, just one more push,” Isaac encouraged. Nina was killing his arm, but he could take the pain. Because any minute now he was about to witness his child come into the world.

Nina gave one more good push and the doctor said, “I’ve got the head, keep pushing.”

“Did you hear that, Nina, our baby is almost here.” Isaac wiped the sweat from his wife’s forehead and kissed her. He loved this woman with every ounce of his heart and was thankful to God every day for allowing this woman to see enough good in him that she decided to give him another chance. Every day of his life, he was striving to prove to her that she’d chosen right this time.

“I’m tired. I don’t know if I can do this, Isaac. Can’t they just cut me open and take the baby.”

A terrified look came over Isaac’s face. He and Nina had been through so much. Isaac had just fully recovered from being shot while trying to save Iona from horrible people who wanted to kill her, simply because of who her father was. Years before that, Nina had been shot while trying to protect Donavan from certain death after he’d gotten himself mixed up with the wrong kind of people. Nina had been told that she couldn’t have any more children after that incident.

They were now well advanced in years and thought of this pregnancy as a miracle. But was this miracle about to kill his wife?

The doctor laughed at the expression on Isaac’s face. “Women often either ask to be knocked out or to have the baby cut out of them when we get to this point in the delivery. So calm down, I got this. One more push… your baby will greet us and then your wife will forget all about the pain she is enduring. She might even ask to have another child when this is over.”

Now Isaac was laughing. “We know we don’t look it, doc. But you might as well call her Sarah,” Isaac pointed at his wife. “And me, Abraham.”

Nina started laughing at that. And then without knowing she had done it, she pushed again and suddenly laughter was not the only sound in the room.

“It’s a boy!” the doctor yelled as the baby started crying.

They cleaned him off, wrapped him in a blanket and then put him in Isaac’s arms. Isaac hadn’t shed many tears in his lifetime. He’d learned from an early age to hold in his tears, because tears were a sign of weakness and there was a whole world full of people just waiting to exploit a man’s weak spot. But he could do nothing to hold back the tears from the overwhelming feeling of love he had at being in this room and witnessing the birth of his son and now being able to finally hold him and welcome him into the world. “Hey son, I’m your daddy.”

“Let me see him, Isaac. Bring him here,” Nina said while pulling on Isaac’s shirt.

“You had nine months with him. Give me a minute.”

Nina yanked her husband’s shirt again. “I’m not playing with you, Isaac Walker. I want to see my son.”

He looked down at the baby. “Your mother wants to start smothering you with her love already. She worked hard to get you out here, so I’ve got to listen to her.” The nurse raised the upper part of the bed so Nina would be in an upright position. Isaac then put the baby in her lap and asked, “Are you happy now?”

Smiling as she looked at her son, Nina said, “I’m thrilled. God has been so good to us.”

“And we are going to be good to our son. This child will never know anything about the life I have led. He will not have any dealings with drugs or drug lords. We will raise him to know and love the Lord, Jesus Christ,” Isaac declared.

Nina nodded her agreement. “He will have a good life.”

 

The church was packed. It was the fifth Sunday of the month of November. It was also baby dedication Sunday. Nina sat in the front row of the sanctuary with her new born baby. She smiled down at her precious gift from the Lord and exhaled. It had been a long journey, but she now held the promise of God in her hand. They had named him Isaac. Yes, he was a junior, but the name meant so much more than that. After Isaac made his joke about Sarah and Abraham in the delivery room, it made Nina think about the similarities. Sarah and Abraham had named their long awaited gift from God Isaac, so it seemed fitting that since God had blessed Nina—a barren woman just like Sarah—she should give her baby a name that meant laughter as well. Especially since there had been so much laughter and joy in the delivery room that day.

Their life had lacked laughter and joy for such a long time as they continued to deal with the fallout from Isaac’s past that Nina only wanted to be surrounded by things that brought her joy.

The day Iona had been kidnapped and Isaac had been shot, she had declared all-out war on the devil. She had decided right then and there that the baby growing inside her stomach would never be influenced by his father’s former life. Isaac had denied her nothing in that quest. They put their house up for sale and Isaac moved his family so deep into the suburbs that the people who looked like them in the neighborhood, didn’t act like them. Because their new neighbors were doctors, lawyers and ivy leaguers. Nina and Isaac had enough money to move in those circles. She only wanted Ikee to have the best, because she believed that a good environment was the key that would help Ikee to grow up as a man without any thug-life influences.

Isaac smiled down at Nina from behind the pulpit. He then turned his attention back to the congregation and said, “This is a very special fifth Sunday for me. One of the things I love to do as pastor of this church is dedicate babies back to the Lord. And there have been a lot of babies needing to be dedicated in this church.” He looked at Nina again with pure joy etched on his face. “But today I get to dedicate my own baby to the Lord. At one time, I didn’t think I would live to see this day. But God has been merciful to me.”

He stretched out his hand toward Nina and said, “Can you bring our son to the altar so that we can give him back to the Lord?”

Nina stood at the altar in front of her husband. Isaac Jr. was wearing all white, the traditional color for a christening. That was because a baby dedication was like a christening, except instead of using water, the baby was anointed with a dab of oil on his forehead.

Isaac had the oil in his hands. He opened the bottle and was tempted to pour all of the oil over his son. He was, after all, a Walker child. But he simply dabbed a bit of the oil on his son’s forehead. Nina bowed her head as he petitioned God on behalf of Isaac Walker Junior, or Ikee as they’d started calling him.

“Lord, we thank You for Your mercy and Your grace. Isaac Walker Junior has come into this world as a miracle child and we intend to nurture him and fill him with the knowledge of Your son, Jesus Christ.

“As the years go by, we pray that You would give us wisdom to raise this child so that if he should have a thought of turning away from You, his thoughts will once again be redirected in the way he should go. Teach our son the true joy that comes from serving the only true Lord. Now Father, I ask that You show me the right way to raise this man child. Because I don’t have any experience in raising a child from birth to adulthood. I was in and out of my other two children’s lives when they were small children. So, I need Your guidance.

“In the blessed name of Jesus, we give Isaac Walker Junior back to You and ask that You watch over him all the days of his life.”

And God was listening…

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter One

 

Present day

 

Pastor Isaac Walker smiled as he looked at the wounded and weary man standing before him. He’d been doing his part to set the captives free for more than thirty years now. “Repeat after me, Eric,” Isaac said as the man lifted his arms. “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He died and rose again so that I might be saved.”

The first time Isaac recited the sinner’s prayer in order to help someone with the salvation process, he had not yet been saved, nor had he recited the words for himself. Isaac had been serving out his prison sentence, doing his thing in prison, just as he’d done it on the streets. Then T-Bone wanted to challenge him for his spot. Isaac had been ready and willing to kill T-Bone, but that was the night the Lord visited him for the first time. Isaac received a guided tour of hell and realized that killing was not as cut and dried as it had once seemed.

From that moment on, he’d wanted nothing to do with death, only the abundant life that the Lord brings when He comes into a person’s life and makes them brand new.

“I believe… I believe,” Eric said as tears streamed down his face.

“Then go and sin no more,” Isaac told him as he anointed the man’s head with oil.

Eric’s eyes widened as he looked like he’d just been given a gift that he wasn’t sure he’d be able to keep. “Is it really that simple?”

Eric was one of those executive types. He’d been on the dean’s list all through school, then went to Duke University. He’d majored in engineering and found a great deal of success in the corporate world. He had accomplished everything that Isaac wished for his youngest son, Isaac Walker Jr, or as they called him, Ikee.

The only problem with Eric’s story of success was that he’d never included the Lord, Jesus in any of it. But he married a young lady, who after living with Eric for three years and dealing with his verbal abuse and his adultery, she had turned to the Lord. Eric had started attending church as a last ditch effort to save his marriage. He never thought there was anything more to it than getting up and going to church on Sunday morning. But he was feeling the difference now, way down deep in his soul. And Eric didn’t want this feeling of unconditional love and peace that passes anything he could understand to ever go away.

“Yes Eric, it is that simple.”

Eric wiped the tears from his face. “I’m saved? You mean it?”

“God has saved you, Eric. He’s not likely to change His mind about that,” Isaac assured Eric just before sending him to the prayer room to have an altar worker pray with him again and give him a Bible and information concerning the Bible classes Isaac developed, along with his wife Nina, for new converts.

“Thank you,” Eric said as he headed to the prayer room with the altar worker.

Isaac loved watching a new convert come to the knowledge of the unconditional love of Christ. The altar used to be filled with gang bangers, drug lords and drug addicts giving their lives to the Lord. But in the past few years, not many came down to the altar, Isaac attributed that to progress and growth. His ministry had evolved and he was now serving the masses instead of only the hood.

Life was good because Isaac was bringing souls into the kingdom and after thirty-one years of marriage, his wife was still in love with him. His son, Donavan had come back to the church and was now his co-pastor. Isaac only had one problem, and this time it had nothing to do with his daughter, Iona. She was thriving in her career as a defense attorney and in her marriage to Johnny, a police-detective-turned-FBI-agent who was also the head elder at the church.

No, Isaac’s problems were more focused on his namesake. Isaac Walker Jr. was only fifteen years old, but he was just as rebellious as Isaac had been at that age. Which was the reason Isaac was so worried. He knew the things he’d been involved in at Ikee’s age and only prayed that Ikee hadn’t gotten himself caught up.

Shaking his head as he walked toward his office, Isaac remembered the day he’d dedicated Ikee back to the Lord. He sent up a quick prayer on his son’s behalf, reminding God of His promises. He also prayed for his wife. Because if Isaac’s instincts were right, their youngest son wasn’t headed for anything good. Isaac would just have to trust that they had put enough God in him to get him back in line before he went too far.

As he opened the door to his office, an involuntary smile crossed his lips at the sight of Donavan. His son was six feet, the same height as his old man. Donavan had the same chocolate complexion as Isaac. As a matter-of-fact, all three of his children had his chocolate kiss complexion and deep dimples. However, Donavan had his mother’s hazel eyes and small button nose. Donavan was standing near his desk talking with Diana, the church secretary, who was also now his wife.

“Two of my favorite people. Making birthday plans?” Isaac asked as he sat down on the couch that had been placed directly underneath a huge picture window. Isaac still remembered the day that he’d caught Donavan and Diana in a compromising position when he’d gone to his son’s condo unannounced one day. Isaac has not used his key to Donavan’s or Iona’s place since that day. Even though Donavan and Diana’s relationship started the wrong way, Donavan had eventually done right by Diana and married her. There was no denying the love these two had for each other. They brought joy to Isaac’s heart each time he saw them together.

“Diana is being stubborn,” Donavan told his father. “She doesn’t want to do anything for her birthday.”

“What’s so wrong with wanting to go home and spend the day with my family?” Diana shoved her husband. “Amari is baking a cake for me. And our son has offered to make tacos. It will be fun.”

Donavan just shook his head. “At least I didn’t marry a high maintenance woman.” He pulled her in his arms and kissed her.

“Get a room,” Iona said as she came through the door and sat down next to her father.

“Shut up, little sis. You’re just mad because Johnny is out of town this week, and you don’t have anyone to cuddle with.”

“I can cuddle with those three kids Johnny left me with.” Iona rolled her eyes. “He gets to gallivant all over the country being Mr. FBI while I’m stuck here with our kids.”

“You love every minute of the time spent with my grandchildren, so I don’t know why you’re being so contrary about it.” In years past, Isaac wouldn’t have been surprised about his daughter’s comment. She was her daddy’s girl, and didn’t take much mess. Back in those days she had managed to become a successful attorney, but she was so unhappy that she mistreated people without giving it a second thought. Since giving her life to Christ and marrying Johnny, Iona had changed and was much more easygoing. So, Isaac knew that something was bothering her.

“Of course I love my kids, Dad. I wouldn’t trade those little monsters for anything in the world. But since Johnny transferred to the FBI and started doing all this traveling, I’ve had to cut my work hours down to thirty hours a week so the kids won’t feel as if they’re being raised by a nanny.”

“The kids are young. I think you’re making the right decision.” Donavan put his hand in Diana’s as he finished, “Truthfully, if Diana wasn’t working at the church and able to get off work in time to pick the kids up from school, I don’t think I’d want her to work at this stage in our lives.”

“Careful now, hon, you’re sounding like a chauvinist,” Diana told him.

Donavan shrugged. “I’m just being real. There’s not a man alive who wouldn’t want his wife at home taking care of the kids while he goes out and earns the money. Isn’t that right, Dad?”

Isaac shook his head while laughing at Donavan. “You’re not getting me in this fight. You started it, so either back your way out or just go on and say I’m sorry now.”

“He needs to apologize. Because Donavan is straight tripping. This is not the eighteenth century. Women want careers just as much as men do,” Iona told him.

“Yeah, and look at how our society has turned out since mothers decided they didn’t need to be at home with the kids.”

Ignoring Donavan, Diana told Iona, “I’m with you. Because I would lose my mind if I had to stay in the house all day/every day with our children. Working at the church is my way of escaping.”

Iona high-fived Diana. “You said it, sister-in-law. And if Johnny don’t get himself back here with the quickness, I’m about to plan my escape.”

“You just want Johnny to suffer and give up a career he’s worked years to build, simply because you’re bored. That’s not right, sis.”

With fire in her chestnut eyes, Iona kissed her father on the forehead, then got up. “I’d better take my children home, put on my apron and whip up something good to eat, before I say another word that might get me stoned up in here.”

“Iona, come on. Don’t go away mad.” Isaac didn’t like it when his children fought. Especially not now, because he needed their help.

“I can’t deal with him,” she pointed an angry finger toward Donavan, “judging me, like I’m such a terrible person for still wanting a life even though I’m married with kids.”

With an apologetic look on his face, Donavan put an arm around Iona. “You’re right, sis. I have no right to judge you. I know that you love your family and I also know how much you gave up for the good of your family.”

Iona twisted her lips as she contemplated whether or not to forgive her brother. He tightened the arm around her. “Come on, sis. Forgive me or I’m going to tickle you like I used to do when we were kids.”

Smiling at the memory, Iona jerked away. “Okay, big head, I’ll let you off the hook this time.”

Donavan laughed as he said, “Drama queen.”

“Golden boy,” Iona spat back at him.

Isaac clasped his hands together and leaned forward. “Now that we’re all friends again, can the two of you sit back down? I need to talk to you before your mother comes through that door.”

“What’s up? Are you planning a surprise for your anniversary?” Iona sat back down next to her father and Donavan sat in the chair across from the sofa.

Isaac shook his head. “We have at least four months before our anniversary. No, what I want to talk about is Ikee. His teacher asked if something traumatic happened to Ikee recently. I’m not aware of anything, so I need to know if he has talked to either one of you about what he’s going through.”

“What kind of trauma do they think he’s experienced?” Donavan asked with a quizzical expression on his face.

“That’s what I’m trying to find out,” Isaac told them. “I’m receiving calls from the school because he’s being disruptive and skipping class. Matter-of-fact, he’s even been skipping out on church the last few Sundays. I simply don’t know what has gotten into the boy.”

Donavan shook his head. “I had no idea. But Ikee doesn’t say much to me these days. He thinks I’m too”—Donavan did air quotes with his fingers—“ na about the Bible.”

Iona looked a bit guilty as she said, “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something, Dad. But to be honest, I didn’t know how you would take the news. You’re right though, Ikee has talked to me about something that he’s dealing with.”

“Thank God.” Isaac breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m glad he talked to somebody in this family, because I can’t get a word out of him.”

“I don’t think you’re going to like what I have to say… I guess that’s why I hadn’t told you before now.” Iona took a deep breath and continued, “See Dad, Ikee has only known you as a preacher and as a good man who feeds the homeless, prays with the hopeless and introduces people in need of a savior to Jesus. So, he was confused when he started hearing all these stories about how you used to be the king of the streets.”

“But Ikee knows that I used to be in the life. I don’t understand why hearing something like that would bother him.”

“I really don’t think Ikee has paid much attention to our conversations through the years… especially since we don’t discuss your past during Sunday dinners. And you only make general statements about it during your sermons most recently. But Ikee met up with a couple of bad-news guys who broke your past all the way down for him. Now Ikee thinks he should be a gangster rather than a church boy.”

Isaac exploded out of his seat. “And you failed to tell me any of this, because…?”

“It’s Ikee, Dad. I didn’t think he was actually going to hang out on a street corner. I mean, come on, he’s a suburban kid.”

“Okay, Iona, you tell me then… what has your brother been doing while he skips school and ditches church… before you answer, keep in mind that this is my son were talking about.

As if a lightbulb came on for Iona, her eyes went wide as she said, “I’m sorry, Daddy. I guess I wasn’t thinking of it that way.”

“What are you sorry about?” Nina asked as she stepped into the room. She was five feet with heels on, and since Isaac was a whole foot taller, he had to bend down in order to kiss her. “What are you harassing Iona about?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Two

 

By the time Ikee snuck out of the church his mind was made up. He rode his bike to the park a couple of blocks down the street, leaned it against a rusty chain link fence and headed for the basketball court. Lebron, Kobe, Jordan, Iverson and Barkley wannabes were on the court going at it like they had million dollar contracts and endorsement deals. The fat one… the Barkley wannabe was playing like he needed to prove fat men could jump. The game was his for the taking, until Kobe decided to show them that age ain’t nothing but a number.

Ikee was here to see the Kobe wannabe. The man was thirty-seven years old and shouldn’t have been anywhere near a court with twenty year olds. But the game was still in him and he was drawn to the court just the same way he was drawn to the life of crime this particular Kobe wannabe had led all his life. Which was probably the reason he hadn’t been able to go pro… too busy dealing with the juvee and adult court system to truly focus on the basketball court.

The guy’s name was Bobby-Ray Morgan. Ikee had met him at the mall while hanging out with some of his church friends. Bobby-Ray was the first person who’d ever mentioned how notorious his father had been back in the day. He’d even told him about drug deals and about some of the murders his father had committed.

Ikee used to look up to his father because he truly seemed like a good man. But he’d always felt inferior to his father, because deep down, Ikee knew he could never measure up to someone like Pastor Isaac Walker. Being labeled junior to a man like Pastor Walker was a hard pill to swallow, because Ikee knew that he would never be anything like his father. Donavan was following in the old man’s footsteps, but Ikee would never wear a preacher’s robe.

Now, Ikee had finally discovered a way that he too, could follow in his father’s footsteps. After his father informed him that he would have to pay for his own car… actually, Isaac had offered to put in the same amount that Ikee had saved for his car. The only trouble was that Ikee didn’t have a job and although he had received thousands through the years in birthday money, allowance and yard work here and there, Ikee had spent most of the money. He only had twelve hundred to his name. Even if his father did give him another twelve hundred that still wouldn’t come close to being enough for the Mustang he wanted.

So, Ikee decided that it was time to become an entrepreneur. He would have to start small, but Ikee had big plans. He was going to become not just the most notorious gangster around these parts as his father had been, no, as far as Ikee was concerned that was small-time thinking. He was getting ready to take over the world. By the time he was finished, kings and presidents would be bowing down and kissing his ring. All he needed now was to get started and Bobby-Ray seemed like the most likely way in.

“What you doing here, Choir Boy?” Bobby-Ray asked as he came off the court and grabbed a bottle of water.

Ikee had never sung in the choir and failed to understand why people needed to connect him with the church. So, he ignored the jab. “Looking for you,” Ikee told him, as if he had every right to be just where he stood at that moment.

Bobby-Ray stepped back. He gave Ikee the once over, and then, as if deciding that he liked what he saw, “What can I do you for?”

“I’m trying to get on, and you’re the man to help me with that.”

Bobby-Ray laughed. “Don’t you have enough money with all the books yo’ mama selling and tithes yo’ daddy collecting?”

“That’s their money. I’m old enough to make my own.” And besides, his daddy was being stingy with the cheddar.

“And you choose to sell drugs? Don’t you know that your daddy will kill you.”

“You let me worry about my daddy,” Ikee told him as he stood taller than his six foot-one frame would indicate.

Shaking his head, Bobby-Ray said, “You trying to get shot like your big brother? These streets don’t belong to the Walkers no more. Now go on home before you bite off more than you can chew.”

Donavan was too soft for the streets. Ikee didn’t know much about the incident Bobby-Ray was referring to, because his family kept him in the dark like he was a baby that couldn’t handle the realities of life or something. According to Bobby-Ray, Donavan had attempted a robbery that ended with the death of two of his friends. But Ikee wasn’t a thief and he wasn’t going to be pushed around by some two-bit hustler who never made it off the block. Shrugging his shoulders, Ikee told him, “I came to do business. You don’t want my money, then I’ll just find someone else.”

Ikee turned and headed back to his bicycle as if he was headed to an Aston Martin.

“Hold on there, lil pimp,” Bobby-Ray called after Ikee and then had to run to catch up with him. “If you’re serious about getting into this life, I got what you need.”

Ikee put a hand in his pocket and pulled out a roll of money. He handed it to Bobby-Ray. “That ought to be enough to get me started, right?”

Bobby-Ray counted the fives, tens and twenties, then turned back to Ikee and asked, “What you been doing… saving up your allowance and birthday money so you could get a good start?”

“I got it where I got it. The question is, can we do business?”

“I’ll say one thing for you Walkers… you might not be the smartest hustlers on the street, but y’all got heart.”

~~~~

“Where have you been?” Isaac demanded as Ikee strolled into the church building as if he was on time for service, rather than showing up as the sanctuary was being cleaned and his parents were ready to go home.

“Down the street hanging out,” he answered as if that’s what most people did while their father preached.

“You know you’re not allowed to hang out around the church,” Nina told him as she stood next to her husband.

Ikee scrunched up his face. “I don’t get the two of you. All I’ve ever heard is how important it is to keep this church in the hood. But we ain’t living in the hood… and you don’t want me hanging out here. That’s hypocritical, don’t you think?”

Nina put a hand on Isaac’s shoulder, praying that he wouldn’t jump down their son’s throat. “We just want the best for you, son. We put you in private school and moved to one of the best neighborhoods in the city because we want your future to be bright and filled with advantages that your father and I never had.”

“Well it looks like the both of you did okay even without all these so-called advantages you’re trying to give me.”

“Where is all this coming from?” Nina was literally floored by the way Ikee was acting. “I thought you liked the kids in our neighborhood.”

“I don’t have time for them squares.”

“Well, what do you have time for, Ikee? Because the way I hear it, you don’t seem to have time for school these days either.”

Ikee rolled his eyes to that. “You gon’ trip about a couple classes I missed when you’re the one who laid down the law… said I had to have my own money for a car? All I’m trying to do is make my way in this world.”

Isaac was trying his best not to explode. “Oh, so you got a job somewhere that we don’t know about?”

“I’m working on it,” Ikee said flippantly.

Isaac had had enough. “Look here, little rock head boy, I don’t know who you think you’re talking to, but if you keep talking crazy to me,” Isaac took a couple of steps forward, he reached out and grabbed Ikee by the collar. “I will stomp a mud hole in you.”

“Isaac, let him go.” Nina grabbed onto Isaac’s arms and pulled him away from their son.

“I’m not your boy.” Ikee said once he’d been released from his father’s grip. “I’m almost grown and I don’t have to take abuse from you.”

It offended Isaac that his son was standing there calling him an abuser. But Ikee had never even seen any kind of abuse in their household. He didn’t even know what that kind of horror was like, but Isaac knew first-hand. He had watched his father beat on his mother whenever he felt like it. Then Isaac grew up and did the same thing to the women in his life; that is, until the Lord Jesus got ahold of him and turned his life around. “You don’t know nothing about abuse, boy. But if you keep talking, you’ll find out everything you need to know about the subject.”

“I’m not scared of you,” Ikee declared.

“That shows how foolish you are,” Isaac told him with a menacing look on his face.

Ikee smirked. “What are you going to do? Kill me like you killed so many other people in this town?”

“Where’d you hear such a thing from?” Nina demanded.

“Apparently everybody in this town knows all about my father the pastor… or the mobster, depending on what day it is.”

Isaac knew this day would come. They had tried to shelter Ikee by not telling him anything about Isaac’s life before Christ came in and made him new. But through the years a nagging feeling plagued him that the day would come when they would pay for hiding so much from Ikee. His eyes closed tightly as he realized that his day of reckoning had finally come. When Ikee was young he’d made sure that anyone who stepped foot inside of their home understood that his past life was not a subject open to discussion around his son. He’d tried to shelter Ikee and bring him up in a way that he’d have no knowledge of the streets, but the streets found him anyway. “I’m not the same man that I used to be. I’m a pastor now and have been for over thirty years,” Isaac told him.

Pointing at his father, Ikee turned to Nina. “Do you hear him? All my life this man has been telling me to stop fighting in school, acting like I was so wrong for getting suspended because I should have been praying for people rather than fighting against them.” Ikee turned back to his father and spat, “And all the while, he was this thing people called the Ike-Man.”

“I’m not the Ike-man. I’m Pastor Isaac Walker,” Isaac declared. He knew his identity and he would never let anyone take that from him, not even his son.

“But you used to be Ike-Man, didn’t you? And you murdered people, right?”

Isaac let out a heavy sigh. He looked at Ikee in a manner that implored his son to understand. “We haven’t talked much about my past-”

“Much? How about not at all,” Ikee spat back while still holding his jaw. “All my life you’ve acted like you’re so perfect that you could walk on water with Jesus. You tried to make me believe that something was wrong with me just because I’m not like everybody around here.”

“We accept you for who you are, Ikee. Where are you getting this from?” Nina couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“If I’m so accepted around here, why did Dad get so upset when I got into that fight at school? I told him that the kid had been asking for it, but all he said was that I should have prayed for the guy.” Ikee turned to Isaac with daggers in his eyes. “Did you pray for any of the people you murdered, or did you think they were asking for it?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Three

 

Isaac drove them home. Told Ikee to go to his room and stay there, then he told Nina that he needed to take a ride to clear his mind. Nina went to their bedroom, got on her knees and started praying for her son like she had once prayed for Donavan. She and Isaac thought that moving into the suburbs and keeping Ikee away from the kinds of influences that had once caused Donavan to think about living a life of crime, would keep Ikee out of trouble. But no matter how much Nina and Isaac wanted to protect Ikee, trouble had found him anyway.

“I don’t know what to do, Lord. I don’t want a repeat of the tragic events that occurred when Donavan was young and trying to find his way. Please lead and guide Ikee out of harms way, Lord Jesus.” Tears flowed down Nina’s face as her words caught in her throat and left her moaning from the sorrows of a broken heart.

Donavan’s involvement with the criminal element in the area of town where they once lived had almost cost Nina her life. Nina vividly remembered the night that all of their lives had changed. She’d been sitting on the porch waiting for Donavan, who had snuck out of the house again.

As he ran onto the porch, she was trying to chastise him for sneaking out of the house. But she hadn’t noticed the car that had come barreling down their street, not until the shots rang out and all she could do was try to protect her son. In the end, she and Donavan both had to undergo surgery to have the bullets removed from their bodies. When Nina woke from the surgery, the surgeon informed her that because of where the bullet had landed, she would most likely never be able to have another child.

She had always thought of Ikee as their miracle child. And had done her best to keep the miracle God had blessed them with safe. She and Isaac had made sure that Ikee had every advantage and they’d shown him love. So what happened today took Nina by surprise, because she never saw this coming… not with Ikee.

She wiped the tears from her face as she continued to plead with God. “Please help my son, Lord Jesus. If You don’t help him, I don’t know what will become of him.”

After an hour of calling on the Lord, Nina decided it was time to talk to her son and see where his head was. She got off her knees and left her room. As she was about to knock on Ikee’s bedroom door, Nina heard the garage door open and figured that Isaac had come back home. If Isaac hadn’t calmed down yet, Nina didn’t want him to find her with Ikee and then the two of them go at it again. So, she backed away from her son’s door and went into the kitchen to wait on Isaac to come in through the garage.

But as she came out of her walk-in pantry carry a bag of chips and a water bottle, she noticed that Isaac hadn’t entered the house yet. Nina put her snack on the oversized granite countertop and then walked over to the garage door and opened it. The first thing she noticed was that Isaac’s car was not in the garage. The next thing she noticed was that her silver Mercedes was not in the garage either.

A sick feeling entered the pit of her stomach as she swung around and then ran back upstairs. She banged on Ikee’s bedroom door. “Open up, Ikee.”

No response.

“Boy, you better be in that room,” Nina fussed from the other side of the door. She then grabbed hold of the doorknob and turned. The door opened to an empty room. Nina was so red hot mad as she closed the door that she didn’t hear Isaac come up behind her.

As Isaac walked up to her he said, “I thought you were gone, since I didn’t see your car in the garage.”

Nina turned to her husband, shaking her head in disbelief as she told him, “Ikee stole my car.”

~~~~

“Boy, when I catch up with you, I’m going to put my foot so deep in your—”

Ikee hung up the phone. He didn’t have time to listen to his dad’s threats. There was money to be made on these streets and he was tired of sitting on the sidelines. His mama was rolling in a Mercedes and his dad had a Rolls Royce and a Range Rover. But they wanted him to be happy with whatever car he could pull out of the junkyard for forty-five hundred dollars. That wasn’t happening.

Ikee was about to make his paper and get the car he’d wanted since he was twelve years old. The exact car that his father told him he wouldn’t be able to get until he graduated from high school. Ikee thought that was crazy, because if his father was willing to buy the car in two-and-a-half years, why not just do it now so he could roll up to school in his pimped out Mustang? But no… the Ike-man told him that if he wanted a car while he was still in school, he’d have to save and buy it himself. Well, he was about show the Ike-man a thing or two, because Ikee was going to flip the money he’d saved until he got exactly what he wanted.

~~~~~

“Wait Isaac, don’t leave this house while you’re this upset.” Nina had lived a long time without the wrath of Isaac Walker, but she’d never forgotten just how lethal he could be. Her son didn’t know that Isaac Walker, and no matter what he’d heard, it wasn’t about to compare with the real-life experience of dealing with the Ike-man in person.

Sighing deeply, Isaac turned to his wife. “He stole from us, Nina. Nobody steals from me, let alone my own flesh and blood.”

“That’s what I want you to remember, Isaac. He’s our flesh and blood. And we didn’t always do the right thing when we were younger. Neither did Donavan or Iona.”

“Neither Donavan nor Iona were crazy enough to steal from us,” Isaac retorted.

“I know, honey. And I’m steaming mad about what Ikee did too, but I need you to slow your roll on this one. He’s getting older and he’s just testing us.”

Picking up his keys, Isaac told her, “He should have been a better student, because he’s not about to pass this test.”

“Then let’s at least pray before you leave.”

“I know what you’re trying to do, Nina. But I can honestly tell you that no matter how long you keep me here praying, it’s not going to stop me from dealing with Ikee when I catch up with him. We’ve tried it your way for almost sixteen years. But it’s time for this kid to be introduced to the hard knocks of life.”

Isaac did take a few minutes to pray with her. But no sooner than the prayer was finished, he left the house in hot pursuit of their wayward son. Nina got on the phone and called Iona. Ikee loved both his brother and sister, but he tended to gravitate more to Iona these days. Isaac told Nina that Ikee had confided in Iona about those thugs telling him about Isaac’s former life, so she was hoping that she might know why he would steal her car; what could be so important that he couldn’t have just asked for a ride?

“Has Ikee called you?” she asked Iona when the phone was picked up.

“I talked to him a couple days ago. Why? Is he still acting out?”

“If you call stealing my car acting out, then yeah, I guess he is.”

A loud gasp could be heard through the phone line. Then Iona said, “I can’t believe he did that. What did Dad say?”

“He said he’s going to stomp him. And I’m terrified that Isaac is going to go too far and then we won’t be able to get Ikee back under control.”

“I don’t know, Nina-Mama; if one of my kids had the audacity to steal my car, I would probably bust a few heads myself.”

“You’ve always been your daddy’s daughter through and through. But I’m praying that one day the two of you will calm those hot heads down and stop reacting so quickly. Take time to hear what the Lord is saying before just treading all over everybody.”

“I don’t just tread over everybody, Nina-Mama. I fully admit that I still have a long way to go, But I have tried to be a bit more patient… some things just take time.”

“I know, hon. You and Isaac have really allowed God to work mightily in your lives. But I believe that when tests like these come, that’s when we are most vulnerable to reverting back to our old ways. That’s when we need to step back and let God take over the situation.”

“Did Donavan tell you about our conversation in Dad’s office?”

“I haven’t talked to Donavan. He and Diana are probably still celebrating her birthday. I don’t want to bother them with any of Ikee’s antics.”

“Okay,” Iona said, sounding a bit more relaxed. “I thought you were lecturing me because I don’t like the fact that my husband travels so much while I’m stuck here with a dying career.”

“I wouldn’t lecture you about something like that. I understand your frustration. Remember, I raised all of you and there were times in the early days of my career that I thought I could have increased my readership if I had been able to travel and meet with my readers more. But I still wouldn’t trade the time I spent with all of my kids… even if I do think that my career suffered a bit for it.”

“What are you talking about, Nina-Mama? You have a very successful writing career.”

“And I’m thankful to God for that success, but you always wonder… what if.”

“Wow, here I was feeling so guilty for having thought that my kids were costing me my career and all along you had the same thoughts.”

“I think most professional women with families have those thought. Reality is, we just cannot have it all. We can have a lot, but at some point, we as women will sacrifice some of ourselves for the good of our family.” Nina willed away a tear as she thought of the recent turn of events with Ikee. “We just hope those sacrifices are appreciated by our children.”

“Don’t cry, Nina-Mama. You did a wonderful job with Ikee. Maybe we should have told him the truth about Dad a long time ago, because Dad’s genes are pretty strong. It seems like all three of his children have to fight to get away from that old man.”

“I’m worried about what Ikee’s defiance is going to do to my old man.” Nina wasn’t speaking in biblical terms as Iona had been when she referred to what the Bible calls our “old man” when referring to the way we used to react, be or handle things before Christ, the new man, entered our lives. No, she was literally worried about Isaac, who hadn’t had opposition in many years. Would he be able to stand even while his son seemed to be falling into the enemy’s hands?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Four

 

Isaac might not be a street hustler anymore, but he still had pull on the streets. So, after making a few calls he discovered that his namesake had parked Nina’s car in front of a trap house on the West side of town that belonged to Bobby-Ray Jones. Bobby-Ray was a small time hustler who was trying to play a big man’s game and would probably get his fool-self killed if he didn’t get out while the getting was good.

Isaac had dealings with the man’s daddy back in the day. And he had a feeling that Bobby-Ray would run into a hustler just as lethal as he and his side kick, Keith had been and then Bobby-Ray would be reunited with his daddy. Isaac shook his head as his mind drifted back thirty-some years…

 

Isaac stepped into Fish & More. Ray-Ray was on his cell phone when his and Isaac’s eyes locked. Sweat dripped from Ray-Ray’s cornrows as he watched Isaac and Keith descend on him. Isaac wasn’t sure if Ray-Ray was nervous or if all that sweat came from being 120 pounds overweight. The one thing he was sure of was that Ray-Ray was on the line with one of the cats from the alley who’d just tried to take him out. Good, Isaac thought. Now I don’t have to explain nothin’ to him.

Since there were no explanations needed, Isaac swooped down on Ray-Ray like a bad dream. He whipped the gun out of his pants and slapped Ray-Ray upside the head. The impact knocked his victim to the ground. Ray-Ray lifted up his hands trying to cover his head. “You got a problem with me taking what belongs to me, Ray-Ray?”

“Man, that alley ain’t part of your turf,” Ray-Ray reasoned.

“Everywhere my feet shall tread, boy, that’s The Promised Land. You got it? Everywhere my feet shall tread.”

Ray-Ray glared at Isaac and said, “That alley is mine. Go to He—”

Isaac put his gun to Ray-Ray’s temple. “I got a better idea, Ray-Ray. You go to Hell—right now. I’ll meet you there later. Okay?”

“Isaac, man don’t do it.” Keith looked back and forth at all the stunned faces in the restaurant. “Not with all these witnesses.”

Isaac didn’t look up. He pushed his gun further into Ray-Ray’s temple. “So what’s it gon’ be, Ray-Ray?”

“All right, take it. Just take it!” Ray-Ray surrendered.

Isaac smirked at Keith, then extended his hand to help Ray-Ray up. “Thanks, man. I like doing business with reasonable brothers.”

 

 

Isaac thought he had solved the territory discrepancy. But there came a night when he was at his Friday night spot, sloppy drunk due to an argument he’d had with Nina, who wanted nothing to do with him.

He was in the middle of taking his anger out on Keith and Valerie, a sometimes-on-sometimes-off girlfriend who also ran drugs for him, when Ray-Ray made his move. “Y’all got to do better. We’re losing money left and right!”

Keith tried to defend himself. “We make plenty of money. What difference does it make if a new guy comes in and starts earning a little money too?”

Isaac tried to lean forward, but quickly fell back in his seat. Slurring every other word, he said, “It’s your job to make s-sure don’t nobody else earn no money ‘less we give ‘em permission.”

“What you want me to do, man? Shove a pistol down the throat of every guy that tries to earn a fast buck?”

Isaac slammed his fist on the table. His drink spilled. Valerie picked up the glass and wiped the table with a towel she extracted from the bar. “That’s right,” Isaac said. “That’s exactly what I want you to do. You’re supposed to be my enforcer; go enforce something!”

“You know what?” Keith stood up and slung his chair back. “Forget it. I’m going to the bar and drink in peace.”

“I’m not t-through talking.”

“I’m through listening. Call me when you sober up.”

Isaac was leaning, almost falling out of his chair. “I’m not drunk, boy. You can talk to me now!”

Keith looked at Valerie. “I’m going over to the bar. Can you get him home?”

“Yeah, Keith, I’ll get him home. Don’t worry about it,” Valerie replied.

Keith angrily stalked over to the bar, turned his back on Isaac and ordered himself a Whiskey Sour.

“Why you got to be so hard on Keith? You know he does a good job for you,” Valerie told Isaac.

Isaac waved down a waitress and pointed at his empty glass. “If he’s doing such a good job, why am I losing money?”

Valerie shifted in her seat and peered at Isaac. “Ain’t nobody done business in The Promised Land but you since the day you took it over, and you know it. If you’re losing money, it’s because people are going outside The Promised Land, and Keith ain’t got nothing to do with that.”

The waitress brought another drink over to Isaac, then looked at Valerie. “Are you taking him home?”

“Yeah,” Valerie told her, then turned the evil eye back on Isaac. “What’s the real reason you’re drinking yourself unconscious? As if I didn’t know.”

“What you think you know, girl?” Isaac sneered back at Valerie.

“I know plenty! Like the fact that you’re upset over Nina.”

“Why should I be upset about Nina?”

Valerie was silent, fuming, but silent.

Isaac leaned a little too far and almost fell out of his seat. He righted himself. His head began to bob back and forth. “Told me God was going to take care of her and my baby. Do you believe that? God! Like I didn’t have nothing to do with it.” He picked up his drink and gulped it down. “Nope, I’m not needed.”

Valerie opened her mouth to scream, then closed it before any uncontrollable sounds could penetrate her lips. They sat in silence for a while, Isaac brooding and Valerie pouting. Finally, Valerie could stand it no longer. She left Isaac to his thoughts and went to the bar with Keith. “Oooh, he makes me sick!”

“You need to ignore him when he’s like this,” Keith told Valerie. They sat and talked for a while trying to take their minds off the drunk in the corner. The three of them had had many happy and eventful years together. Keith and Valerie could always round up a “remember when” story. So that’s what they did as they waited for Isaac to pass out.

Just when they thought it was safe to approach Isaac again, Ray-Ray walked into the Belante’Club with two of his boys. Valerie saw him as he hungrily searched the crowd like a lion crouching upon its prey. She nudged Keith. He turned to see Ray-Ray pointing in Isaac’s direction. “I told Isaac that fool was gon’ be trouble.” He pulled out his gun. “You stay here.”

“Oh no.” She pulled up her right pant leg and grabbed her gun from her ankle strap. “It’s on.”

Ray-Ray’s boys held watch at the door while he advanced on Isaac. He pulled out his Glock and started blasting. A bullet went through Isaac’s shoulder, his head jerked up as the pain wrenched through his body. That sobered him up real quick. He grabbed his shoulder and stared at his assailant. He knew without a doubt that he was about to die.

What would they tell his son? Is death the end of everything? Or was Nina right, and some God was going to judge him for the wrong he’d done?

“Nooo!” Valerie yelled as she shot off several rounds, and dived on the table to cover Isaac. She took a bullet in her abdomen, pulled the trigger one last time, and then dropped the gun.

Ray-Ray fell to his knees and clutched his chest. Keith shot one of Ray-Ray’s boys, as he tried to open fire on Isaac. The other gunman assessed the situation and made a fast break out the front entrance.

Keith turned and saw that Ray-Ray was still on his knees gasping for air. He purposefully trod over to Ray-Ray, put his piece to his head and said, “I hope you prayed up, fool.” Bang!

Ray-Ray’s body made a big thud as he dropped to the floor. His eyes were wide open, the horror of expected death painted on his face.

With blood gushing from his shoulder, Isaac stood over Valerie. She didn’t look good. Her eyes raced back and forth. She was going in and out of consciousness. He looked around the room; nobody was moving. “Call an ambulance!” he screamed, then turned back to Valerie. “Come on, baby.” He shook her. “You’ve gotta make it. Don’t do this to me.”

Her eyes fluttered as she opened her mouth and whispered, “St… st… opped … him.”

“Yeah, baby, you stopped him.” He reached out his hand to rub her hair and winced at the pain shooting through his left arm. “The ambulance is on the way. Just hold on, okay?”

Her eyes fluttered again, but she didn’t respond.

“Isaac, come on, man. We gotta get out of here,” Keith told him. He looked down at Valerie, then at the crowd surrounding them.

“I can’t leave her, Keith. That bullet was meant for me.” He watched as blood trickled from Valerie’s mouth. “If she dies, I’ll be here with her. It’s the least I can do.”

Tommy Brooks, the bar owner, walked over to Isaac with a nervous look on his face. “The police are on the way. Y’all need to get on out of here.”

Isaac looked from Valerie to Keith.

Valerie coughed up some blood.

Isaac knew she didn’t have much time left. “Get out of here, Keith.” He grabbed his friend’s hand and squeezed it. “I appreciate everything you did tonight. Go—take care of that gun.”

 

Although none of the women Isaac dated had ever been more special than Nina, Valerie had come pretty close. She’d been there for him in ways that no other woman had ever been. But in the end, she had died because she loved a hustler who didn’t know how to give love back. So, even though Ray-Ray died that night, Isaac had lost something special also. The game had taken so much from him, he just prayed that it wasn’t about to lay claims to his son as well.

Isaac stepped into Bobby-Ray’s trap house like he had paid the mortgage on the joint. Hustlers and geekers were sprawled out all around the room. He took his time, looking each person in the face and saying a silent prayer for each person as he passed them. The devil couldn’t hold the captives bound forever… not when the saints were praying.

“You looking for somebody?”

Isaac swung around and came face to face with Bobby-Ray. He knew it was him, because except for the excess weight, Bobby-Ray looked just like his father. “You’re the man I’m looking for. You and my son, that is,” Isaac told him.

“What do I have to do with your son?”

“You need to explain that to me. Because the way I got it, you’ve been telling my son stories that his ears were never meant to hear.”

With a sinister grin on his face, Bobby-Ray said, “I didn’t know that you being a murdering, thieving parasite was such a secret.”

“Where’s my son?” Isaac asked, ignoring the obvious taunt.

Bobby-Ray stood his ground. Kept smirking in Isaac’s face.

Isaac took a step closer. “Careful, young man. You only know what you heard about me, but I’m way more dangerous than that. Don’t make me prove it to you.”

Bobby-Ray swallowed the lump in his throat as he stepped aside and then pointed to a room in the back.

Isaac didn’t have anyone to watch his back like he did in the old days when he and Keith would roll up on hustlers and take care of business. But Isaac wasn’t worried because God had his back these days. He headed into the next room and immediately spotted his son handing a rock to a woman and then taking the money from her and putting it in his pocket. What Isaac saw turned his stomach. He had worked long and hard, just about moved heaven and earth to keep his son away from this kind of life.

When Isaac had been drafted into this life, it had been because he couldn’t think of any other way to make a quick buck. His mother and brother sat at home starving because his daddy was out drinking up all the money. So, Isaac had to make things happen. But even with all the advantages his son had, Ikee still wanted to be the dope man. The thought sent Isaac into a rage as he put holy hands on Ikee and knocked him against the filthy wall, which probably hadn’t been washed in years.

Isaac’s arm was against Ikee’s neck. He applied pressure, wanting to choke him out. Ikee desperately tried to claw the arm away, but Isaac would not be moved and Ikee was about to black out. “I’m only going to tell you this once,” Isaac said as he spoke in Ikee’s left ear. “I’m walking out of this god-awful place and driving home. When I get there my wife’s car had better be back in the garage.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Five

 

“How did Ikee beat you home?” Nina asked Isaac as he walked through the door.

“He was motivated,” was all Isaac told her as he strode up the stairs. He grabbed a suitcase out of his and Nina’s walk-in closet. He then stalked over to Ikee’s door and swung it open without knocking.

“Hey man, this is my room,” Ikee said as he hopped off his bed.

“You don’t have a room in my house anymore.” Isaac threw the suitcase at him. “Pack your stuff.”

“Why I got to pack? Where am I supposed to go?”

Nina rushed to the room. “Isaac, what’s going on? You can’t just throw him out. He’s not even eighteen yet.” And besides, this was her baby.

“He’s a drug dealer, Nina. He can’t stay here because his very existence put you and the rest of our family at risk.” Isaac turned a cold stare on Ikee. “But you don’t care nothing about that, do you?”

“You trippin’. It’s not like I killed anybody. I’m just trying to flip a few dollars so I can buy my Mustang.”

“Ikee!” Nina hand went to her mouth as she shook her head. “Why would you need to do something like that? Your father and I provide everything you need.”

“You said that I had to get a car with the money I have or find a way to earn enough to get the car that I want.”

“We certainly never asked you to go sell drugs,” Nina declared, still very clearly devastated by the news she’d just received.

“How did you think I was going to get my Mustang then? Nobody here was going to help me. So, I had to get my hustle on. I don’t really don’t see the big deal. Dad sold drugs for years. That’s probably why we have this four-thousand-square-foot home and the cars.”

“First of all, you don’t have a four-thousand-square-foot home; me and your mom own this home and the cars and drug money didn’t buy any of it. Everything we have is because of the Lord’s mercy and grace. And I’m not about to allow a drug dealer to sully any of it.” Isaac pointed at the suitcase. “Make sure you only take shoes and clothes. That Xbox and your iPad stay here.”

Ikee picked up his cell phone and quickly called his sister. When she answered he started mouthing off, “Your daddy is throwing me out; can I crash over there until I can get a place of my own?”

Isaac snatched the phone from Ikee. He put it to his ear as he told Iona, “The only place your brother is going to end up in is a jail cell or a pine box. He’s a drug dealer, Iona. And he can’t stay at your house. I won’t allow him to put my grandchildren at risk.”

“But Daddy, he’s just a kid. Where’s he going to go if he can’t stay with family?”

“That’s for this little ninja to figure out. He wants to be a king pin, well maybe a dose of living on the streets will give him a good start so he can learn how to be hard and tough enough for his chosen career.” He hung up with Iona and then put Ikee’s iPhone in his pocket.

“I need that back,” Ikee told him as if he paid the bill.

“I guess you forgot that my name is on that Verizon bill. As I said before… only pack your shoes and clothes.” Isaac went into the bathroom and came out with Ikee’s toothbrush, he handed it to him. “You can take this too.”

“Is all this necessary, Isaac. He brought the car back. He’s home and he’s safe. Don’t send my baby out into this world like this. He’s not prepared yet.” All the concern Nina had for her son showed on her face.

Isaac wanted to pull his wife into his arms and assure her that everything would be all right. He wanted to tell her that this was only a test and that if things went the way he was hoping and praying, Ikee would never leave home again until he was on his way to his college dorm room. But he couldn’t say any of that. He had to remain strong and let Ikee know that he meant business. So, he turned to his wife and dealt some cold reality.

“You need to step back and let me handle this, Nina. Because if you continue to coddle this boy, he will get you killed, then have the nerve to cry all over your casket as if tears could change anything.

“If you and I had already been married when Donavan started hanging out with those thugs, I would have thrown him out too.” Isaac shook his head. “But what I’m not going to do is let another one of our kids bring anything to our doorstep that could bring harm to you. I know all about the life he’s craving. And I know exactly where he’s headed.”

“So stop him from craving such a life.” She was to the point of begging as tears spilled down her face.

Isaac shook his head. “I can’t. We just have to stand back and let him go, hon.”

Nina turned to Ikee. She looked like she wanted to say something. But she clamped her mouth shut and stumbled out of her son’s room.

“Mama… Mama,” Ikee called after her. “You just gon’ let him do me like this?”

Nina didn’t respond, but Isaac could hear the muffled sounds of his wife’s agony as she closed their bedroom door. He knew without seeing that she was on her knees. He hoped that God would move swiftly on this and that the angels in heaven would protect his son. But he still had to do what he had to do. “Come on, son. You still haven’t put anything in that suitcase. You only have about fifteen more minutes in this house, so I suggest you get moving.”

“I want to speak to my mother alone before I leave.”

Isaac shook his head. “You just stole her car. You’re lucky that we didn’t call the police.”

“You’d have your own son arrested?”

“My son stole from me, didn’t he?”

“I didn’t steal nothing. I brought the car back. I just borrowed it.”

“You borrowed,” Isaac said the word with sarcasm, “the car and committed a felony while it was in your possession. If the feds have Bobby-Ray under surveillance, then they have already made you. For all I know they’ll be knocking on my door by morning looking to arrest you and asking for the keys to Nina's Mercedes so they can auction it off.”

“The feds can’t touch me. I didn’t even sell anything outside where they could have filmed me. Bobby-Ray said I could get started in his trap house.”

“For all you know Bobby-Ray could be a snitch and the whole house could be wired for sound and video.”

The look on Ikee’s face told Isaac that he’d never even considered that. Isaac didn’t wait a moment before turning the knife. “You don’t know a thing about this grown man’s game, do you?”

“I know enough.” Ikee tried to stand tall, with the pressure that Isaac was putting on him. “Probably know about as much as you did at my age.”

“You don’t even know that much. Because I had a mentor who showed me the ropes, which helped me figure out how to run the streets before I took off on my own.”

“Bobby-Ray said he would get me on. He can mentor me. Pretty soon I’ll be the number one go-to man.” Ikee’s chest puffed out as he saw himself on top.

Isaac rolled his eyes heavenward as he tried to school his wayward son. “You’re so thick in the head you don’t even know that you can’t trust Bobby-Ray.”

“Why can’t I?”

At least the boy was pretending to listen. Isaac hated the next words that he had to utter, but they were true… his truth… his past. “Because my crew killed Bobby-Ray’s daddy after I humiliated the man by taking his territory.”

Ikee’s eyes bucked. “You admit it? You stole his territory and then killed him… and you’re mad because I borrowed Mama’s car?”

Isaac nodded. “I did a lot of things back then. I’m not proud of the life that I led. I still have nightmares about that life. I tried to shelter you, so that you’d never know anything about the streets. But you’ve got an itch that I can’t do anything about. So, go on. Do what you gotta do. But take my advice and stay far away from Bobby-Ray.”

Ikee put the suitcase on the bed and threw in two pairs of Jordan’s and his Lebron 12 sneakers. “Is there anyone else I should stay away from?” He pulled some sweats out of his dresser drawer.

“Most of the people I had beef with are dead. But if their kids are in the life, they won’t be too happy about a Walker trying to take over any of their territory.”

Ikee had a terrified look on his face. It never occurred to him that enemies could be lurking around every corner. “But it’s not fair that people would come after me simply because of the things you did so long ago.”

“That’s the way it works in the life you’ve opted into. Watch your back. Because if you don’t, you won’t make it long out there.” Isaac had helped many street hustlers come out of the life, now he was packing his son’s clothes and sending him out into it. He could have taken the route of forbidding his son from ever setting foot on the west side of town again. But if that’s where his son truly wanted to be, Ikee would find a way to get there. Isaac knew that the best thing to do was to school his son by giving him a dose of hard reality. Even if it pained him to do it, he wasn’t going to turn back now. “Take your suitcase to my car. I’ll drive you to an extended stay hotel and pay for your first week. After that, you’re on your own.”

“How can I save up enough money for my car if I have to pay my own rent?”

“Some things in life a man has got to figure out on his own.”

Ikee smirked, “But I thought you said I was still a boy… don’t boys need help?”

Isaac didn’t respond to that. He turned and started walking out of the room. “It’s time to go. I’m heading to the car.” If nothing else, Isaac knew that Nina would sleep a bit easier knowing that their son had a roof over his head for the night. But until now, Isaac hadn’t noticed just how spoiled Ikee truly was. If it wasn’t for his mother, Ikee would be sleeping outside, especially after questioning him about how he was going to pay rent and buy his car. This boy had nerve.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Six

 

“Dad, can I ask you a question?” Ikee said as they headed toward the extended stay hotel.

Considering the questions Ikee had asked him lately, Isaac wasn’t sure if he could deal with any more questions. But they had about twenty minutes before they’d reach the hotel, so Isaac figured he might as well talk to his son. “Ask me anything you want.”

“You were like a kingpin, right?”

He knew he wasn’t going to like any question coming from Ikee. “Yeah, I was like a kingpin.”

“I know you went to prison, but from the way I heard it, once you got out you would have been able to pick up where you left off, so why didn’t you?”

Nina must be praying really hard, because Isaac never even thought to tell his son about the way he came out of the drug life. But since Isaac pretty much had his son captive for the next twenty minutes, he figured that this was the right time for this story. “The drug life seems fabulous from the outside looking in, but I killed many men in order to stay on top. I never told you any of this because I’m not proud of the life I led back then. All I can do is thank God that your mother is a praying woman and that God stopped me in my tracks and allowed me to see how destructive my actions were.”

“How did God show you something like that?” Ikee’s eyebrows scrunched up as he tried to figure out what his father was talking about.

“God took me on a trip to hell and that’s when I saw just how wrong I had been.”

Ikee was still looking at him as if he didn’t understand, so Isaac decided he would tell his son the entire story. And as he began it was as if Isaac could hear the lyrics from the late Andrae Crouch’s old classic, “Take Me Back.” Isaac was definitely going back to the place he first received Jesus as he said, “It happened while I was serving my prison sentence and I was getting ready to kill another man, just to prove that I was Isaac Walker and didn’t nobody dare to mess with me…

 

Isaac went to sleep on that jailhouse cot, but when he opened his eyes, he found himself in a place he knew not of, but one thing was certain, he was definitely not in prison anymore. The blackness of this new place made him long for his three walls and government mandated iron bars.

A man stood next to Isaac. He was clothed in vibrant and wondrous colors. Colors that were unlike anything Isaac had ever seen. A hood hung over his head, so Isaac could not ID him. “Who are you?” Isaac asked.

The man looked at him. “I am Truth.”

The air was gaseous and polluted, dry and tainted. Isaac put his hands up to his nostrils. “What’s that smell?”

“It is the smell of decay, death, and dying. Come, let me show you.”

As Isaac followed Truth he watched as a black slimy substance oozed down the walls of this… this… it had to be some type of deserted cave. Then he heard the screams. It was unlike anything he’d ever heard. “What in the world?”

“You’re not in the world right now,” Truth told him as he stretched forth his arms. “This is hell.”

No duh, Isaac thought.

Truth continued, “It is a place where lost souls are tormented day and night, minute by minute forever. You seem to enjoy sending people here. I thought you might like a tour.”

A little further into the tunnel and they came to an opening. The very essence of evil sprang forth. Rejected and tormented souls were encased in the walls of the tunnel, anguishing their misery as their silhouettes attempted to pierce through the muck and mire.

Hundreds of menacing spirits stood, growling and snarling, waiting for their captain to unleash them on the world. The demons were of varied shapes and sizes. Some were as big as a grizzly bear with heads like bats and ten-inch fangs. Some were small and monkey-like, with big hairy arms. Still others had large heads, large ears and long jagged tails. The most dreadful of all were the smaller piranha-like imps. They infested their victims in swarms and gnawed at their flesh. The shadow of their leader swallowed the darkness as he towered over them. Green slime dripped from the tips of his flesh-devouring fangs. He received his orders directly from Satan. It was his duty to send these evil spirits forth. He marched back and forth in front of his troops, preparing them for the battle to come. His beady eyes glared at his troops one last time, then with a shout, commanded, “Go!”

The ominous beings flew up and out as the doors at the top of the belly of hell opened to spew these evil spirits out. Their captain continued shouting, “Destroy lives! Do evil! Confuse minds! Distort the truth! Go!”

Isaac grabbed Truth’s arm. “Didn’t you hear them? They’re going to destroy the earth. Why aren’t you stopping them?”

“The earth has been given to Satan. He that will be saved, let him come to the Lord.”

Truth took him into an area of hell that housed prison cells. It looked just like the cell Isaac was locked in every night. Same concrete floor, same iron bars, same filthy cot.

Truth told him, “These prison cells are readily available for those that served Satan, rather than the Lord, when they walked the face of the earth.”

“Why are we here? I could have stayed where I was if all you wanted me to see was some prison cells.”

“There is much you need to see here.”

A man tightly gripped the bars of his cell and started screaming, “Help! Help me, please. Come on, Isaac. I know you hear me.”

Isaac fixed his eyes toward the noise and saw a man in one of the cells. There was something familiar about the man. And that voice… Isaac stepped closer to the cell. “Leonard?”

“Help me, man. Get me out of here. I can’t take it anymore.”

Isaac smirked. “Why they got you in a cell? What’d you do, rob somebody down here too?” Leonard and Isaac had been boys. They had once done everything together, until Isaac got tired of Leonard smoking up their profits and stealing from him. That was the one and only day that Isaac took the life of a man he had once called friend.

Leonard’s eyes rolled back in his head. He lifted his hand to his hair and pulled at it as gut-wrenching screams bellowed from his mouth. But it wasn’t Leonard’s mouth anymore. Leonard was transforming into a deformed animal right in front of Isaac.

The creature reached out. “H-help me!”

Isaac jumped back. This was too Poltergeist for him. “What’s happening?”

Truth touched Isaac’s shoulder. “The drugs he sold while on earth caused people to become things they were never meant to be. As punishment, his body now changes form frequently. It will continue for eternity.” He sadly shook His head and moved Isaac away from the cells. “We have more to see.”

Isaac was horrified. He had no wish to see more of this place and he told Truth so. Truth kept walking.

“Where are we going?” Isaac inquired.

“To the Fun Room.” Truth informed him.

Yeah right, Isaac thought. There’s about as much fun as a bullet to the head to be had in this place.

The Fun Room had also been created for those who once enjoyed the pleasures of sin and all its trappings. Isaac held his nose as they walked into the room. A stank bomb must have exploded in this mug, Isaac thought.

In this room, demons watched as tortured souls tried to recreate the fun they partook in on earth. Crap games were going on. Con artists recited their street hustle over and over again. Former CEOs and executives discussed business ventures.

They were permitted to do anything they wanted in the Fun Room, anything but leave. And that was the rub, because there were also demons in the Fun Room. These demons taunted and tortured the souls. Every hour on the hour a bell would ring. The inhabitants of the Fun Room would tremble with fear and cry out for someone to save them. Isaac wondered why these people had such a problem with a bell ringing—their bodies didn’t change form or anything horrifying like that. Then the demons grabbed a few unfortunate souls and brought them to the center of the room.

Isaac recognized Ray-Ray immediately. Six demons marched around him like he was fresh meat. They hissed and cackled, spit and laughed. Ray-Ray looked real scared.

Initially, Isaac wanted to cheer on the demons. But then they started poking Ray-Ray with the long spears they carried. They pulled at his flesh. Ray-Ray let out a god-awful scream of agony that tore at Isaac’s heart.

Isaac turned to Truth. “They’re going to pull him apart.”

“They often do.”

“What do you mean?”

Truth pointed to a pile of discarded limbs. “The demons enjoy mutilating these people. They will pick them apart until there is nothing left.”

Isaac looked back to the center of the room. Ray-Ray was crawling away from the demons. His left leg had been violently pulled from his body, but there was no blood. Isaac watched as the demons brought another group to the center of the room.

He closed his eyes to avoid the pain. His brother Donavan was in this group. He looked at Truth. “Why are you doing this to me?”

He didn’t answer.

One of the demons put his spear in Donavan’s flesh. Isaac heard his little brother scream and beg for mercy.

Isaac ran to the center screaming, “Noooo! Not my brother!”

The demon lifted his spear again, positioning it for Donavan’s chest cavity. Isaac grabbed the spear and tried to yank it out of the demon’s hand, but its grip was much stronger than anything Isaac had ever known. The demon swatted Isaac to the ground. Venomous fluids oozed from his mouth as he hissed. His beady eyes centered on Isaac. With his lip curled and fangs fully exposed, he lunged.

Isaac was dead. He knew it would only be a matter of seconds. As soon as those fangs cut at his flesh, he was a goner.

Truth held up his hand. “Halt. You cannot have him.”

The demon hissed as he looked at Truth, but he obeyed.

Isaac was forced to witness every painful moment of Donavan’s torture. Two demons grabbed Donavan’s arms and stretched him out crucifixion style. “Donavan, run!” Isaac called out to his brother as another demon lifted his spear. The spear pierced Donavan’s left shoulder.

“Aaarrhhh!”

“Nooo!” Isaac yelled as the demon pulled the spear from Donavan and lifted it to impel him again. Isaac was no punk, and he wasn’t about to take this mess lying down. He pulled himself off the ground and ran full speed toward the offending demon. He jumped on its back and tried to pull the spear from his hand.

The demon hissed and cackled as he shook Isaac off his back. He picked Isaac up like he was a Raggedy Andy doll and threw him across the room. Isaac hit the wall—whoosh—his breath exited his body as he slid down the wall and landed on a heap of limbs. Dazed, Isaac shook his head.

The nine-foot tall demon turned jaundiced eyes in Isaac’s direction and pointed at him. “Stay there.”

Isaac climbed down from the pile of limbs and ran back to the demon.

Jaundiced eyes was waiting for him. He put his spear down. Isaac advanced, the demon spat green slime on the ground. He picked Isaac up by the collar and pimp smacked him.

Isaac wanted to retaliate, but he couldn’t make out which one of the three moving faces was the one that hit him. As soon as he could get the room to stop spinning and make out one head rather than three, he would smack that demon back. Before he could reconcile his vision, he was thrown against another wall.

Isaac didn’t get up.

Donavan looked at him. His eyes were full of pain. “Don’t come here,” he told Isaac as another spear penetrated him.

“Why won’t he run?” Isaac yelled at Truth. “Why don’t you let these people defend themselves?”

“They made their choice,” Truth told him. His voice was sad, but resigned. “Come.”

“I can’t leave Donavan.”

“You can’t do anything for him,” Truth told him. “Come, I have more to show you.”

“Oh, God, no! Just leave me alone.”

Truth walked out of the Fun Room and headed toward a dark tunnel. Isaac quickly ran to catch up with Truth. As they walked, Isaac could hear more howling and cackling, and the cries of the lost souls. He came to a dead stop, mouth gaped open, as he pointed at a man crumpled and shaking in a corner. “He can’t be here.”

“For more than a century now.”

“But he was a great man. The history books are full of his exploits.”

“Even great men must serve the Lord.”

Isaac remembered the story Nina recited years ago, about the rich man in hell. Great men must be no different from rich men, thugs or thieves. We all have to pay the piper, Isaac mournfully thought.

He looked at Truth. There was fear in his eyes. “Where are you taking me? Please tell me I’m not going to see my mother, am I?”

Truth turned to Isaac. “Your mother worshiped and served the Lord…”

“Lot of good that did her.”

“Your mother lives in peace,” Truth continued. “For eternity, she will only know goodness and joy. We’re here.”

The tunnel ended and the blackness of the great abyss gave way to pits of fire. Within those pits were souls. “These people once served the Lord, but they turned back to sin like a dog turns to his vomit.”

“No!” Isaac screamed and turned his head away from the unbearable sight before him.

“She served me until she was sixteen-years old. But one man after another turned her away,” Truth said.

Isaac walked up to the pit that held the frame of Valerie. Her shrilling cries of agony penetrated his heart. Years of unshed tears gushed from his eyes as the flames from the fire licked at Valerie’s skeletal form. Decayed flesh hung by shreds from her bones. It burned and fell into the bottom of the pit. She had no hair left. It had long been burned from her skeletal frame. Her face was as a hollow mass without eyes, just empty, neglected sockets.

When the flames died down, Isaac could see the worms crawling through the bones of her skeleton. “Why do you torture her like this? Why can’t you just forgive her? She was good people.” Isaac cried.

“She never asked me to forgive her. She died before she could be restored back to the Lord.”

The flesh crawled back onto her skeletal frame and the fire started at her feet again. Small flames at first, but they grew, and climbed up her body. Heavy tears flowed down Isaac’s face as he said, “I’m sorry, Valerie. I should have loved you.”

When the flames subsided and the worms were crawling up her body again, she looked at Isaac. “Even if you had loved me, you still wouldn’t have been worth this.”

“I know,” Isaac sobbed. “Oh, God. I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry. God, do You hear me? I’m sorry.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Seven

 

Isaac’s body and mind were worn and weary from the re-telling of the most horrible thing he’d ever experienced in life. But he would journey through hell a hundred more times, even with all the pain the knowledge of that place had inflicted on him, if he could stop his son from going, or sending anyone to that god-forsaken place.

By the time he walked back into the house, all he wanted to do was lay down and rest his mind. But Nina was wearing out the carpet in their bedroom as she paced up and down, back and forth. “I just don’t know, Isaac. I’m trying to trust you, but you left my baby at an extended stay hotel in the hood.” She started biting her nails as she kept pacing the floor. “And why would they even let Ikee stay there? He’s not even sixteen yet.”

“The boy is so tall and stocky that he looks about twenty-one. And the manager of that particular extended stay is a member of our church. He promised to look out for Ikee, and I trust that he will.”

“I don’t believe you did this. I can’t even call to check on him because you took his cell phone.” She shook her head while putting a hand on her hip. “I’m so angry right now, I’m about ready to have you pack a bag and go stay down at that hotel with our son, since you think it’s so fine.”

Lifting a hand he told her, “I did relent on the cell phone. I knew you’d feel better if you could contact your son, so I gave it back to him. Plus, we have tracking on his phone.”

“That’s right.” Forgetting about her anger for a moment, Nina grabbed her laptop and logged into the Find My iPhone app. Once in she was able to pinpoint Ikee’s location.

“See,” Isaac told her. “He’s right where I left him. And when he gets on the move, my contact at the hotel will notify me and you’ll be able to see where he’s at by using the app.”

“What if he tries to go somewhere tonight? Are you going to have someone follow him?”

Isaac sat down on the bed and pulled his wife onto his lap. “Stop worrying, Nina. Ikee’s not going anywhere tonight. He’s too shell shocked to even think about getting into trouble tonight, trust me on that.”

Nina narrowed her eyes as she said, “Isaac Walker, what else did you do to my son?”

“He’s my son too, Nina. And all I did was answer his question. He wanted to know why I left the dope business since I was like a kingpin. So, I told him all about my trip to hell.” Isaac held on to his stomach as he fell back onto the bed, laughing so hard that Nina fell off his lap. Although nothing was funny about the experience of going to hell, the look on Ikee’s face had been priceless.

Nina picked herself off the floor. “I don’t see what’s so funny.”

“Sorry for dropping you, honey.” Isaac stood up as he stopped laughing. “By the time I finished telling him about my experience, I could see how terrified he was. I guarantee you that boy isn’t going anywhere tonight. The knowledge that my brother had been a little younger than him when he died, but still opened his eyes in hell because of the life he chose to live, shook him up more than anything else. He’s probably lying in bed thinking real hard about that.”

“But how’s he going to get to school? Should I pick him up from the hotel in the morning and drop him off?”

Isaac wished he didn’t have to snap his wife into reality, but it would be better for everyone concerned if she faced facts now. He gently put a hand on his wife’s shoulder as he said, “Your son is a thug, Nina. Even if you take him to school, he’s just going to skip out or worse yet, sell all those private school kids some of the drugs he’s holding.”

“You didn’t take those drugs away from him?” Nina’s eyes widened in horror.

“For what? If Ikee wants this kingpin lifestyle that he thinks is so wonderful, he would have just gone out and purchased some more drugs… No, our son will have to get this taste out of his mouth on his own.”

Nina shook her head. “Not on his own… with the help of God.” She took her husband’s hands in hers. “Let’s pray for our son.”

Nodding, Isaac agreed. “Now, that we can do.”

~~~~

The Lord God Almighty was seated on His throne. The twenty-four elders surrounded Him, also seated on thrones, and clothed in white radiant robes. They wore crowns of gold on their heads.

Seven lamps of fire were burning and a sea of crystal lay at the Master’s feet. In the midst of the throne and around it, were four living creatures with eyes covering their entire bodies. The first living creature was like a lion, the second a calf, the third, a man, and the fourth, a flying eagle. Each of the creatures had six wings. They do not rest day or night, as their massive wings enabled them to soar high above the thrones. Generating cool winds throughout heaven, they bellow continuous alms to their King crying, “Holy, holy, holy. Lord, God Almighty. Who was and is and is to come!”

The twenty-four elders fell down before Him and worshipped saying, “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.” They threw their crowns before the throne in adoration.

Then thunder and lightning sparkled from the throne of Grace. Michael’s glorious nine-foot form stood. His colorful wings glistened as they flapped in the air. “Yes, my Lord,” he said, as he took the scrolls from the Omnipotent hand that held them.

Taking his marching orders, Michael left the throne room to confer with Aaron, the captain of the host. As he walked through the heavens, Michael couldn’t help but take in the beauty of it all. There were unnumbered mansions in the inner court, room enough for everyone. But, the beauty and splendor of heaven would only be enjoyed by the few that served God. As he passed by the room of tears, he glanced in and shook his head in wonderment. It still amazed him that God would find the tears of humans so precious that He would bottle and preserve them in such a bright white and glorious room.

The tree of life stood bold and beautiful in the middle of the outer court. Its leaves were a heavenly green, and its fruit was succulent and enjoyed by all. Sweet blissful music could be heard throughout the great expanse of heaven. It was the harp, but it was better than any harp on earth; it was the guitar, but it was better than any guitar on earth.

There were thousands upon thousands of saints moving through the joys of heaven, clothed in glistening white robes, and bare feet. Many had crowns on their heads with various types of jewels embedded in them. Those jewels were earned because of the lives they helped bring to Christ while on earth.

On the opposite side of the outer court stood a great multitude of warrior angels. Their appearance was that of beauty and majesty. They wore white radiant garments with gold edged trim that embellished the front of the garment. At their waists, hung a huge golden sword, and large white wings flapped from behind. The outer court was like a waiting room. The saints were waiting to be admitted into the inner court and some, the Holy of Holies. The warrior angels waited for their next assignments. Right now, a great commotion was going on amongst the angels. They were anxious, something big was about to happen, they just knew it. Some asked if Michael would greet them today. To this day, the angels in heaven remained in awe of the one angel that was able to meet Lucifer in battle and come out victorious every time. Even Gabriel had needed Michael’s help when Lucifer had attacked him. They all greatly admired their general and longed for a glimpse of him.

Captain Aaron lifted a hand, silencing the angels. “Brothers, calm yourselves. Evil is running rampant on the earth, so our general is very busy putting out many fires. We do not know when he will call upon this host again, but we will be ready when he does.”

The angels lifted their swords and shouted, “We will be ready!” Their job was to fight and to destroy the works of the enemy as God gave them leave to do so. This host of angels had won many battles and had aided numerous humans in bringing souls to the Lord. They were the humble elite… they got the job done.

Which was the reason that Michael met with their captain and provided as many assignments as he could to their group. He was back today with a family they were familiar with. Michael smiled as he approached the group. “Did my ears hear the sound of angels ready to do battle?”

The host of angels burst with excitement as their general presented himself before them.

Captain Aaron quieted them once again. “Let’s hear what the general has to say.”

Michael stood in front of Aaron, his sword was longer and heavier than that of the captain of the host. Jewels were embedded throughout the handle of this massive sword, a symbol of his many victories. The belt that held his sword sparkled with the gold of heaven. Michael had defeated the Prince of Persia more times than he cared to remember. But the enemy was getting stronger as his time drew near. Michael eagerly awaited their next meeting. It would be their last. “The prayers of the Walker family have risen to heaven once more. I know you just lost a great number of warriors in our last battle with the wicked one, and this battle will not be an easy one, so I really need to know if your troops are up for a new battle.”

“We are always ready, general. You give the command and we will fight until there is no more fight in us.”

“Good,” Michael said as he continued, “The Walker’s youngest son has decided he wants to be a gangster. If this problem persists, the enemy will get his hooks in Isaac Walker Jr. and never let him go.

“His dad has pulled so many people out of the kingdom of darkness that we owe him this one.”

Captain Aaron nodded. “Consider it handled.”

“You’ve got a week to turn this around. Isaac just told his son about his hell experience. Maybe you can use that to maybe even allow him to see the demonic forces that are at work in the lifestyle he’s craving.”

“Isaac’s son is so young, do you think we really need to go that far?”

“He’s Isaac’s son, right?”

Captain Aaron got the message Michael was sending… a hard head made for a soft behind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Eight

 

Ikee couldn’t sleep. He wished that he’d never asked his father anything about his past or the reason he gave up the drug life. Ikee had tried to be brave about it, but the story his father told was terrifying. And now all Ikee could imagine was that demons were in his room jumping off the wall, onto his bed and that they were trying to get inside of his mind.

Ikee wanted to run back home, but he knew that his dad wouldn’t open the door for him at this time of night. Not after he caught him selling drugs. He would just accuse Ikee of running from a drug deal gone bad or something like that. So, Ikee toughed it out until he finally fell asleep at about four in the morning. Only to be awakened at seven a.m by some guy banging on the door down the hall.

The man started cussing and calling somebody named Roger every name in the book. Ikee pulled the pillow over his head as he tried to get back to sleep. But that’s when someone knocked on his door.

Ikee hoped it wasn’t the same man who’d just cussed that other guy out… like he was in charge of waking all the dead beats up and letting them know just how worthless they were. He tried to ignore the sound, but then the person knocked again and said, “Ikee, it’s me, Pete.”

Pete was the night manager and he was also a faithful member of his father’s church. So, Ikee knew that he was being watched and that his father was probably receiving a minute by minute account of his actions. “What do you want?”

“I’m getting ready to leave. I wanted to make sure you were okay and to see if you wanted to grab some breakfast.”

“I’m good. I think I’ll sleep a little while longer.” Ikee didn’t want to tell the man that he had been too scared to sleep until about four in the morning.

“Okay. If you need anything just ask the front desk for my cell number.”

“I’ll be fine, Pete. Didn’t my father tell you that I’m a grown man and could take care of myself?” Ikee was gabbing at the man as if his predicament was everybody’s fault but his own.

Finally, he was able to get back to sleep. This time he wasn’t bothered by any demons jumping off the walls, so he got himself an extra four hours before he hit the street to finish what he started yesterday, before his father interrupted him.

But Ikee didn’t go back to the trap house. That place belonged to Bobby-Ray and he believed every word his father had told him. There was no way that Bobby-Ray was just going to forgive and forget what Isaac and his crew had done to Bobby-Ray’s daddy. Time would come when Bobby-Ray would want to extract some street justice, and Ikee wanted to be far out the way when that impulse struck.

Ikee hung out with Young Geeze in youth group whenever his mother made him come to church. Young Geeze was only a year old than he, but he was in the life. So, Ikee called him up. His dad thought he didn’t listen to him, but he heard the things he wanted to. Like that thing about other hustlers having a problem with some new guy selling drugs on their territory. He didn’t know what territory belonged to who, but Ikee figured Young Geeze would know.

“Hey man, what’s up? You in school?”

Young Geeze laughed. “School is for chumps. I’m making dollars while them fools is learning to count to ten.”

“I’m not in school either,” Ikee told him. “I’ve got some stuff to unload and I was hoping that you could help me get rid of it.”

It sounded as if Young Geeze had just spit out whatever he’d been drinking. “Boy, your daddy is going to break your neck. Is this a joke?”

“It’s real. And my daddy don’t run my life. I live on my own now so I’ve got to find a way to pay the bills.”

“Where you at? I’ll come pick you up.”

Ikee gave him the address and then hung out on the porch with a few guys who were catching people as they walked down the street and selling dime bags of weed to them. Ikee watched how they did it, noticed which one was the smoothest with it and how sloppy the other guy was. Ikee could tell that the dude on his right would be fitted for handcuffs before he had a chance to make any real money. His extra baggy pants were the problem. They were so baggy that the dude had to use one hand to hold his pants while he tried to pull his stash out with the other. But the movements were so awkward because his pants kept falling down. He kept having to pull his pants back up, while trying to collect his money.

“You been sitting out here for a while. You need something?” The guy who looked like he might last in the game a little while longer than Mr-Pants-Falling-Down.

“I’m good,” Ikee told him. “Just waiting on a friend.”

“Gotcha. The way you was watching us, I thought for sure you wanted something.”

“Naw, just watching. Never know when I can pick up a few pointers.”

“You’re taking notes, huh?”

“Something like that.”

“Well the first thing you need to learn about these streets is that you can’t trust anyone, you hear me, little man?”

“I got you little man,” Ikee told him and got ready to raise up to show his 6’2 frame. But that’s when a man who purchased from Mr. Pants-Falling-Down came back around the corner wielding a tire iron.

The man wielding the tire iron threw the bag at the drug dealer as he yelled, “This ain’t no weed. You sold me hemp and some oregano.” Then he swung the tire iron.

It almost connected, but bending down to pull up his pants saved his neck. The drug dealer swung around too quickly, then fell to the ground. He pointed at the man standing next to Ikee. “He sold the stuff to me. I thought it was the real thing.”

The man with the tire iron turned in their direction. Then the guy who’d just told Ikee not to trust anyone up and disappeared. Ikee jumped up and leaned his head over the banister, wondering if the man had fallen down. But no one was on the other side of the banister.

“Where did he go?” the guy with the tire iron barked at Ikee.

“I don’t know,” Ikee said with a perplexed expression on his face. “He was just standing right here.”

The pants falling down guy got off the ground and ran like a track star all the way down the street and then rounded the corner.

The guy with the tire iron kicked the wall. “Somebody gon’ give me my money back.” He turned back to Ikee. “Were you working with those guys?”

“Naw, man. I don’t know them. I was just sitting here waiting on my ride.”

“Give me ten dollars,” the guy said to Ikee as if they hung out and borrowed money back and forth from each other.

“What?”

“You heard me.” He raised the tire iron in the air. “Give me the money in your pocket or I’m going to wrap this tire iron around your neck.”

“Hey, I don’t have nothing to do with this.” Ikee started backing away.

A car pulled up and he saw Young Geeze jump out and rush over to him, just as the tire iron was about to come down on his head.

Young Geeze grabbed it, swung the guy around and shoved a gun in his face. “You tryin’ to die today, fool?”

“I told you I didn’t have nothing to do with it,” Ikee yelled at him. He then told Young Geeze, “I’m glad you pulled up when you did. This psycho was trying to take my money because of something somebody else did to him.”

“You want me to cap this fool?”

“Let’s just go,” Ikee told him.

“Naw man, we gon’ give this one some street justice.”

Ikee couldn’t believe that this man was about to die over ten dollars. He thought about how his father had told him about hell and how there was no out once a person was sent there. He couldn’t let that happen to this guy. A beat down was one thing, but a bullet was way far past right.

Ikee punched the guy and then told Young Geeze, “I got my street justice, now come on and let’s go make some money.”

Young Geeze put the piece back in his pocket and hopped in the car with Ikee. “I didn’t feel like killing nobody today anyhow. Why was homeboy trippin’?”

“The guy that just sold him fake weed ran off so he thought he could jack me for my loot.”

“Now see, if you had one of these,” Young Geeze pulled the gun out of his pocket and waved it around in the car, “wouldn’t nobody mess with you.”

“Put that down. You don’t want that thing going off in the car.”

“You can’t be squeamish if you want to run these streets,” Young Geeze told him.

“I’m not squeamish… just don’t think guns are necessary.”

Young Geeze laughed in his face. “Man, if I hadn’t showed up with my gun, that dude back there would have been all over you with that tire iron. And then he would have jacked you for your stash and your money.” Geeze waved the gun around again. “But my peacemaker kept that fool in check.”

“Just drive this car and get us somewhere so we can make this money.”

~~~~~

The ratchedness was on steroids… and meth, and crack, and just about anything else they could get their hands on. The hood was already a place of poverty and despair. Drugs didn’t help the matter, just made some of the inhabitants crazy and desperate their next fix. And crazy and desperate was not a good combination. So, many people suffered because of the drugs constantly funneled into the hood.

Ikee had no problem with increasing the pain in the hood, but being a suburb kid, he didn’t understand why trash was thrown on the streets as people walked up and down them as if they thought some invisible person would come behind them and pick the trash up for them. The homes in this neighborhood were also worn to the point where several of them looked ready to cave in.

Ikee attributed the condition of the hood to the people not caring about their surroundings. But he didn’t attribute any of it to the drugs he and Young Geeze were standing on the corner selling to the zombies that walked by. He didn’t realize that what they were doing was devastating the area faster than any trash dropped on the street or chipped exterior paint.

“This is so easy. I don’t understand why more people aren’t making their paper like us,” Ikee said to Young Geeze after he made his fifth sale in the space of an hour.

“Most people are chumps,” Young Geeze told him. “They’d rather work a square job for the man, than get rich out on these streets.”

A woman came down the street. Ikee rushed over to her. “You need something?” he asked then looked up; her eyes were slits. Ikee couldn’t tell if she was about to fall asleep or had just woken up.

She started scratching her arms. “Yeah, I need it real bad.”

“Let’s do some business.”

“Where you want to go?” the woman asked him.

Ikee’s eyes shifted. “Why we got to go somewhere. I got the product, just give me the money and we can make this transaction.”

“I don’t have no money. But I can pay for my product; I’ll do whatever you want.” She reached for his pants.

Ikee jumped back, getting the message. “Whoa… hey… I don’t want nothing but money.” He didn’t know what had possessed this woman to think that looking like the walking dead was something that would entice men to give her drugs. But Ikee wasn’t interested… not at all.

Young Geeze came over to him laughing his head off. “Go on somewhere, Candy. Ain’t no freebees being passed out today.”

“Come on, Geeze. You know I’m good for it.” She leaned toward him. Putting a hand on his arm.

Geeze swatted her hand away. “You used to be good for it. You might want to look in a mirror. Matter-of-fact, you might want to get off these drugs, because they done you wrong.”

“It’s all the same in the dark,” she was saying as sirens started going off.

Geeze’s head swiveled around and then he pushed Ikee. “Run.”

Ikee looked back, saw the police car advancing on them and did just what Geeze instructed him to do. They cut across the street and started running through a field.

Geeze started pulling the money and the rest of his stash out of his pockets and throwing them on the ground.

“What are you doing?” Ikee said. He couldn’t believe that Geeze just threw out the money and the stash. Part of that money belonged to him, because Geeze didn’t have any product to sell today. They’ split up what Ikee had, so that Ikee could sell in the territory that Geeze was allowed to sell in. But Geeze was supposed to give Ikee half the money he’d earned today.

“You better throw yours out too, man. If the cops catch you with any of it, you getting arrested tonight.”

Ikee wasn’t trying to go to jail, so he emptied his pockets and kept following Geeze so they could get away from the spot that Geeze claimed was the best on the west side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Nine

 

Nina and Isaac spent another night in prayer for Ikee. Isaac thought the boy would be calling and begging them to let him come back home after one night on his own. But Ikee was just as stubborn as his old man had been at that age.

Isaac was now second guessing himself, worried about leaving Ikee with those drugs he’d purchased. If Ikee got himself arrested and ended up spending years in prison, Isaac would never forgive himself, because if Ikee went to prison, it would be all over for his son. Ikee didn’t know the first thing about hood life, nor would he be able to handle himself in a prison full of true thugs.

“Lord, we trust You. But help us to continue to trust You even when we don’t see a change to our circumstance.” Isaac didn’t want to fake the faith, not when so much was on the line. So, he needed to tell the Lord the truth. He believed, but he needed the Lord to help him, so that his faith wouldn’t grow weak and cause him to do something that wouldn’t be Christ-like.

“Amen,” Nina said as they ended the prayer. She then put her arms around her husband as she told him, “God has got this. Ikee is coming back home.”

“I sure hope so, honey. Because if something happens to him while he’s out on them streets I don’t know if I could ever forgive myself.” He turned to Nina, his eyes begging her to understand his position. “I didn’t know what else to do, Nina. We made huge mistakes with Donavan and Iona as they were growing up. But I really thought we got it right with Ikee… you know? A two parent household, with both parents living godly before him.” He just shook his head, at a loss for words.

But Nina told him, “Remember that scripture in bible when the disciples came back to Jesus perplexed because they had cast all these demons out of different people, but then they ran up on a man who had demons that they couldn’t cast out. What did Jesus tell them?”

Isaac nodded. “He said the particular demons that man had would only come out through fasting and prayer.” Isaac narrowed an eye at Nina. “So, what are you saying? My kid is demon possessed?”

“No, but what I am saying is that you have some strong genes. Each one of your kids was born with a little bit of street in them. We prayed it away from Donavan and Iona. But we’ll have to dig a little deeper for this last seed of yours.”

“Okay, well then you do the fasting and I’ll do the praying,” Isaac told her jokingly.

Nina put hands on hips. “I’m not cooking another meal in this house until my son comes home, Isaac Walker.”

~~~~

Adrenaline had pushed Ikee as he ran away from the cops the day before. He hadn’t thought about anything but surviving. But now that the sun had risen and it was time for him to get out of bed and make his way in the world again, Ikee was stuck.

He had thrown out his money and his product. He had a couple hundred more dollars in the bank but that was it. The amount he had wouldn’t even pay his rent and feed him next week. Since his father had only paid the rent through the first week, Ikee would have to come up with some money if he wanted to keep a roof over his head.

Truth be told, Ikee didn’t want this particular roof. The furniture in his room looked thirty years old, the carpet and the walls were dirty. He barely wanted to touch the sink and the toilet, but even though he didn’t like where he was, he knew sleeping outside would be a whole lot worse. His home was so nice… with hardwood floors on the first level and a cozy fireplace to warm his toes.

Someone started banging on the door to the left of him. Then the screaming and yelling started again. Another reason for Ikee to want to be home. People didn’t yell and scream first thing in the morning and start fights. This place is crazy.

His cell phone rang. Ikee grabbed it, thinking that his mother was calling to check on him. If he told her that he didn’t have any money and no way to get to the rest of the money he had, she’d come and pick him up… maybe even take him to breakfast like she used to do. He answered without even looking at the caller ID. “Hello?”

“Yo Ikee, this Young Geeze.”

Ikee wanted to hang up. If it wasn’t for Geeze he’d still have his loot. But he held onto the phone because he needed a ride to the bank. “What’s up?”

“If you wasn’t doing anything, I was getting ready to roll over there.”

“Can you give me a lift to the bank?” Ikee asked.

“Yeah, no problem. Do you have any more stash so we can get something started today?”

“I’ve got a solution to our little problem. Don’t worry about a thing. Just get dressed and meet me outside.”

As Ikee jumped in the shower he heard clearly the words from the man who’d stood next to him on the stoop yesterday morning, “Don’t trust nobody.”

Ikee was starting to believe that was true. His father had basically told him the same thing. Ikee knew he couldn’t go to Bobby-Ray for more product, because he couldn’t trust that Bobby-Ray wouldn’t try to exact revenge against his father. But he’d known Geeze for years because even though he was a thug, he attended youth group when his mother brought him to church. So, Ikee figured he could trust Geeze. He didn’t have a choice in the matter anyway. Nobody else was running to his aid.

As Ikee jumped in the car with Geeze, he thought he caught sight of the disappearing don’t-trust-nobody man. But the man hurriedly turned down the alley and Ikee couldn’t be sure if that was the same guy or not. Really, he didn’t know why he cared. The man was selling fake weed. He’d probably be dead pretty soon anyway.

Ikee told Geeze where his bank was. They headed downtown. Once Ikee pulled out his last two hundred, he hopped back in the car and said, “So, what’s your bright idea?”

“I know this guy that we can get some product from.”

“His name isn’t Bobby-Ray is it?”

“You know Bobby-Ray?” Geeze asked with awe in his voice. Like Bobby-Ray was a rock star who he’d been trying to get an autograph from for years.

“I know him. But I’m not doing business with him anymore.”

“Man, you crazy, Bobby-Ray got that good stuff.”

“Not interested,” Ikee told him.

“We not meeting up with Bobby-Ray, so don’t worry. Lou Jones is my contact. He’ll hook us up.”

When they arrived at Lou Jones’ place, Geeze made the introductions, then Lou said, “So you the one that brought five-o down on us yesterday. I had to shut down two corners early.”

“I don’t see how that was my fault.” Ikee stood his ground. “That cracked out woman pulling on me offering me everything but money is the one who alerted the cops that something was going on. Then I lost all my money.”

“Yeah, you right. Candy’s been asking for the one-way ticket to the grave for a while now. I just been letting it go because she and I used to have something special. But it don’t even matter no more.”

“I didn’t say she needed to be dead… just said she was in my way and costing me some money, not you,” Ikee told him.

Lou gave Ikee a quick stare down. “You don’t know who you’re talking to do you? That was my spot you was selling in yesterday. You owe me a cut from what you sold and I don’t care if you had to throw it all away or not. I’m still gon’ get my cut.”

“How?” Ikee’s eyebrows scrunched. “I lost everything I made yesterday.”

Lou pointed toward Geeze. “My man here tells me that ya’ll made about five hundred. So I’m going to need you to check in my twenty percent. Front and center.”

Ikee wanted to object. It wasn’t like Lou had done anything to help them yesterday. The man didn’t own the block and couldn’t just charge people as if it was a toll road or something. But his street smarts kept him from objecting. He went in his pocket and pulled out a hundred dollars and handed it over to Lou while eyeing Geeze. Because he now knew that he had someone else in his life that couldn’t be trusted. Geeze knew when he brought him to see Lou that the man was going to request his twenty percent, but Geeze never said a word. Now Ikee wondered how things would have turned out if he had not made a stop by the bank this morning.

Lou then informed him, “You work for me now. And I want you and Geeze on that same block until nightfall.”

Ikee didn’t know if he wanted to work for Lou, but at the moment, didn’t think he should bring that up, so he said, “I don’t have any product. I lost it all when we ran from the cops yesterday.”

“I got y’all covered. But this time we’re on a 90/10 split. Once you’re out of the hole for the money y’all lost me, then the split will go up to twenty percent.”

“Whatever,” Ikee said. He just wanted to get out of there. He would work for Lou long enough to pay back the money that had been lost on the block when the police swooped down on them, but that would be it. Ikee wasn’t trying to make another man rich.

Geeze yanked the steering wheel as he made a quick U in the street. “Why’d you have to tell Lou about Candy?”

“She got us spotted by five-o that’s all I said to him. How was I supposed to know he’d talk about killing her?”

“He’s been looking for a reason… now you put one in his head.”

Ikee didn’t like the sound of anyone getting killed. If he had known that Lou would even suggest such a thing, he never would have mentioned it, but he also thought that Geeze had some nerve getting his back up about anything he said to Lou. “I wouldn’t have been talking to Lou at all if you hadn’t set me up.”

“I didn’t set you up. Lou wanted his money. What was I supposed to do? I didn’t have any to give him.”

“Why didn’t you tell me that we would have to pay him twenty percent of the profits?”

“Because I was going to pay him out of my cut. He drove by while we was working. So, I couldn’t lie and say we didn’t sell nothing. But OGs like Lou don’t care if five-o swoop down on you. They still want their cut.”

“Let’s just get this over with,” Ikee said as he and Geeze headed to their spot. The day went better than expected. Ikee was getting the hang of things and enjoying hanging out with Geeze while they made a little money. The guy was a real cut up, which was probably why he had a hard time paying attention in school… the streets were a better fit for him anyway, Ikee suspected. Some guys made their paper on Wall street and others made theirs on hood street.

“Catch that one,” Geeze told him when a grey sedan pulled onto the street.

Ikee went over, but the white dude was looking for meth and Ikee didn’t have none. As the car made its way down the street, Ikee stood watching, not sure why his eyes were focused on the movement of the car. But in the next second a woman burst out of the house two doors down from where Ikee stood. She ran over to the car, bent down and said something to the two men inside.

As the woman swiveled her head and flipped her hair, Ikee saw that it was Candy. Something inside of him said, “Go tell her.”

Ikee’s conscience was filled with guilt because he knew that this woman was already dead, but she didn’t even know it. “Hey Candy,” he called to her.

Ikee had no intentions of telling the woman what Lou had said. He wasn’t crazy and sure wasn’t trying to die for no geeker. But he couldn’t get the impression of someone as young as Candy spending an eternity in hell. So, he had to at least tell her she needed to find somewhere else to do her geeking.

But one of the men opened the backseat door. Candy looked up, saw Ikee, gave him the finger and then got in the car.

So much for wanting to help somebody. Let them all live and die in these streets… see if he would try to offer some friendly advice to one of them again. When she turned up dead, she couldn’t blame him. And it really wasn’t Ikee’s business if Candy ended up in hell for eternity either. It wasn’t like they were friends or anything. It was just that he had been the one who brought her up to Lou.

He and Geeze called it quits at about nine that night. Geeze bunked on the let out sofa in his little studio apartment, while Ikee crashed on the bed. He liked having company at his new spot. At least he didn’t have to be alone that night, with thoughts of how his actions might be the cause of a girl going to hell.

He and Geeze slept in, but they were back on the street by noon. Lou wanted to see them. Ikee wished he could talk to his father about the drug life, because he’d like to know how Isaac Walker dealt with being an errand boy, who had to come when called. He’d also like to know how long he would have to deal with people like Lou before he’d have his own territory.

Lou was floating around the room, looking as if he’d drank some happy juice, or maybe he was just getting high on his own supply, Ikee thought.

“This is a good day, boys; once this day is over, I will be the HNIC around these parts. And I’m going to let the two of you help make my dreams come true. Isn’t that good of me?”

Ikee didn’t know what Lou was talking about. He just wanted to finish paying his off his debt and get on with his life.

“Here’s what I need y’all to do,” Lou began. “First,” He pointed to Ikee. “Sit down at that table and write down these addresses I’m about to give you.”

Ikee knew that Lou wasn’t asking, this was a command. So, he sat down and acted like he was a secretary taking dictation. “Done,” Ikee said when he was finished.

“Hand that paper to Geeze.” Then Lou turned to Geeze and said, “DeMarco has a shipment that just came in. Go pick that up for me. And then I need y’all to drop a brick off at the five locations on that paper.”

“Got it,” Geeze said.

“Hand me your cell phone,” Lou told Ikee. When Ikee handed it over, Lou put his number in the phone. “If anything goes wrong I want to be contacted by one of you immediately. Got me?”

What Lou was asking them to do was big time. If something went wrong, then Geeze and Ikee would either be dead or in jail. And Ikee didn’t like the sound of either option. “If the cops catch us carrying your load, that’s prison time.” Ikee shook his head. “I’m not trying to go to prison.”

“You should have thought about that before you decided to sell on my turf.” Lou gave Ikee a hard stare as he added, “Your daddy used to call his turf The Promised Land. I might not have as much territory as he had back in the day, but I protect what’s mine. If you didn’t want to work for me then you shouldn’t have come over here trying to profit off of what’s mine.”

“You know my daddy?”

“That’s right, I know that you’re Isaac Walker’s boy. So don’t make me send you back home in pieces. Your daddy was the man around these parts. A god. Believe me, I’d hate to be the one to break his heart.”

Ikee didn’t like the sound of his body being cut on either. He zipped his lip and got out of Lou’s house as fast as his legs would take him, and jumped into Geeze’s car.

“Man, it’s going down. I can’t believe Lou is letting us be a part of this.” Geeze was excited. But Ikee sure wasn’t.

“You’re happy to be someone’s patsy. You do know if something goes wrong, we are taking the fall?”

“What can go wrong? This shipment is about to put Lou on top, don’t you think he’s made sure this thing will go off right?”

“I don’t know about this, Geeze.”

“What’s to know? We pick the stuff up, distribute it and then get paid.”

But Ikee didn’t feel right… like something was telling him to run. Get out while the getting was good. “Maybe we should just call Lou and tell him to find somebody else.”

“Are you crazy?”

Ikee shook his head. “I’m not crazy and I’m not carrying all that weight around so five-o can swoop down on us again.”

Geeze kept driving like Ikee hadn’t said nothing worth listening to. “Lou said we doin’ it, so we doin’ it,”

“You can be a fool for Lou if you want, but I’m not carrying his dope. I’m trying to make my own name in this world, not go down like a sucka for some other OG.” Ikee might have been young, but he was a long way from stupid. There was a reason an experienced hustler like Lou would send two kids to pick up all that product and then make the deliveries without once seeing the product first-hand. Something wasn’t right and Ikee wanted no part of it.

Geeze opened the glove compartment and pulled out his gun. He pointed it in Ikee’s direction. “Don’t make me shoot you.”

“What? Geeze, we go way back… you’d shoot me over this?”

“I’d shoot my grandmother if she was messing with my money.”

“I don’t have nothing to do with your money. You were working for Lou before I got here and you can keep on working for him. I just want out.” Ikee put his hand on the door handle. He didn’t trust Geeze anymore and he wasn’t going to sit there and beg him to remember their friendship. His dad had told him about seeing one of his friends in hell… after he’d murdered him. So, Ikee knew that friendship didn’t mean much on the street. They were coming to a red light, so as Geeze slowed down a bit, Ikee opened the car door and rolled out.

He bumped against the curb as he heard Geeze calling him everything but a child of God. Ikee tried to get off the ground and run, but that’s when the bullets started flying. Geeze was really shooting at him.

Ikee crawled over to this big tree that was next to the curb. He then crouched down behind it and sent up some quick, fast and please hurry up and help me, Jesus kind of prayers. He didn’t want to die out there on the streets because then it would seem as if he’d been born for nothing. He hadn’t had time to make things happen, to accomplish anything in life. He needed to live, “Please, God; I want to live.”

“Follow me.”

Ikee’s head swiveled around as he felt a gentle touch to her shoulder. Standing in front of him was the man he’d talked to on the porch. The guy had on a coat that flared at the bottom. As Geeze started driving off, but still shooting in their direction, the man swung the coat so that he covered both of them and they simply walked down the street.

“Where you come from?” Ike asked the man.

“I heard you praying, so I figured you’d gotten yourself into a jam that you couldn’t get out of on your own.”

“Who are you?”

The man took the coat from around Ikee. “You should be safe now.” He extended his hand. “My name is Luke.”

“Why are you helping me? I don’t trust you.” Ikee stepped away from Luke.

“You can trust me,” Luke told him.

There was something in the man’s eyes. They almost sparkled when he spoke. It was weird and Ikee just wanted to get away from him too. “You’re the one who was selling fake weed. How can I trust you when you don’t even have integrity?”

“That’s funny.” Luke laughed. “A drug dealer expecting to be surrounded by people with integrity. Well okay, young Isaac, I will take you somewhere so you can find people with integrity. And I do believe you’ll be able to trust these people.”

“Are you crazy? I’m not going anywhere with you… and how did you know my name?”

The man smiled as they kept walking. But he didn’t say another word until they were standing in front of The House of God.

“This is my father’s church.” Ikee stared at the church building in awe as if he couldn’t figure out how he’d walked there without recognizing where he was. He then turned back to Luke to ask what his game was, but Luke was gone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Ten

 

It was two o’clock in the afternoon when Ikee opened the door to his father’s church and went inside. He rushed to Isaac’s office, but his dad wasn’t there. His sister-in-law, Diana was at her desk. She stood up as he walked into her work area. “Hey Ikee, you didn’t go to school today?”

It was Tuesday, so Diana had every right to wonder why he was at the church, rather than school. But Ikee didn’t want to discuss it, not after the day he’d had. “Is Dad out for lunch or something?”

“He stayed at home with your mom today.” Diana grabbed her purse. “I’ve got to go pick up the kids.”

Ikee didn’t want to be left alone, not even in a church, so he quickly asked, “Is anyone else here?”

She pointed towards Donavan’s office. “Your brother is back there. It would probably make his day if you went in and said hi or something.”

Ikee doubted that, but he wasn’t going back outside. Not right now, with Geeze gunning for him and Lou might be out looking for him for all he knew. “I’ll do that,” Ikee told her as he headed towards Donavan’s office. He knocked on the door.

Donavan yelled out, “Come on.”

Ikee took a deep breath, trying to get his cool back in place as he opened the door and walked into his brother’s office. He needed to talk to someone, but he didn’t know if Donavan would understand where he was coming from. Although Donavan was his brother, they hadn’t spent much time together. Donavan was in his twenties when Ikee was born and had already moved out of the house.

Donavan had also moved out of town and hadn’t returned until Ikee was about five or six. Donavan had taken Ikee to movies and events, but Ikee never truly felt connected to his big brother, because Donavan was like Mr. Do-the-Right-Thing. And Ikee always seemed to be doing the wrong thing.

Donavan looked up, saw how disheveled his brother looked and asked, “Boy, what happened to you?”

“I fell out of a car,” Ikee deadpanned.

“Quit playing. Is this how you dress since you’ve decided to be a high school drop out?”

If Donavan was going to start on him right off, then Ikee didn’t know if he wanted to talk to Donavan if he was going to be his judge and jury.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Donavan told him. “I’m concerned about you. And I’m glad that you stopped in to see me.” Donavan stood and walked over to the sofa. “Come over here and sit down with me.”

Ikee didn’t have anything else to do, so he joined his brother on the sofa, but he still had a sulky look on his face. “I just don’t understand why everybody’s so worried about whether or not I’m in school. It’s so much going on in these streets that I can’t even think about school right now.”

“You do know that you don’t have to be on the street, right?”

“Oh really?” Ikee’s voice was laden with sarcasm. “Is that why your father threw me out like I wasn’t even related to him?”

“From what I heard, you stole Mama’s car and then was caught in a drug house selling drugs. I don’t know why you thought any of that was going to fly.”

“He didn’t have to throw me out. I’m only fifteen. How am I supposed to take care of myself?” Ikee hadn’t thought taking care of himself was such a big deal when his dad had first put him out. But after two days on his own, only a hundred dollars left to his name and no way to flip that money, because he didn’t trust anybody enough to try to purchase any more product.

“I’m paranoid,” Ikee admitted. “I don’t know who to trust on these streets.”

“That’s good. Being paranoid will keep you alive.”

“Daddy told me about the hell experience he had when he was younger. I think he only told me to make me think twice about my actions. But it’s making me overthink things. And then Geeze tried to shoot me a little while ago and I just knew that I was about to open my eyes in hell with no way out.”

Donavan jumped up. “Somebody tried to shoot you?”

“Yeah… you remember Young Geeze. He attends youth group sometimes.”

Donavan nodded. “I remember him. His real name is Todd Harper and his mother is a God fearing woman. I wish she didn’t have to deal with Todd’s antics.”

“I wish I didn’t have to put up with his antics… he just tried to shoot me, remember?”

“How did you get away from him?”

“I told you already. I jumped out of the car and rolled my way to the curb.”

“You were serious about that?” Donavan shook his head. “Why didn’t you just stay at home? What possessed you to think you could be a gangster?”

Ikee honestly didn’t want to go back outside. The more he thought about the prospect, the more afraid he was becoming. Since he didn’t want to leave, he figured he might as well respond to his brother. “I had skipped out on church one Sunday and ran into this guy named Bobby-Ray. He came up to me, said he recognized me from the church and then started telling me stories about Daddy that I’d never heard before.

“After hearing about all the things Dad did in his heyday”—Ikee hunched his shoulder—“I don’t know… It was like I finally understood why I wasn’t like the rest of you do-gooders in this family. I thought maybe I’m supposed to be a hustler. But it’s crazy out there. Dad said the only reason he survived was because he had someone who mentored him as he was coming up. If I had somebody like that, maybe it would be different for me.”

“It wouldn’t be that much different. I don’t know if Dad filled you in all the way on that mentor of his, but once Daddy’s business started growing, his so-called mentor turned his back on him and Dad almost got killed because of it.”

“He didn’t tell me that. But he’s only just started telling me anything about his former life.”

“I used to wonder if Daddy’s don’t-talk-about-the-past rule would come back to bite us one day. But he was adamant about having you grow up without the knowledge of his past. Dad thought that it was enough that you knew that he used to be in that life, but he never wanted you to know the full extent.”

“Instead of telling me anything, he just chose to throw me out,” Ikee said bitterly.

“You can’t be mad at Dad for that,” Donavan told him. “When I was a teenager, I was angry with Dad because he seemed more interested in his ministry than in helping Mom parent me. I fell in with a bad crowd and the end result wasn’t good… but the worst part was that Mom almost died because of my disobedience. Trust me, Ikee. You don’t want something like that on your conscience.”

“I always thought you were such a square. I didn’t think you could understand what I was going through.”

“I have been honest during youth group. I’ve always told you that I did things that I wasn’t proud of when I was younger.”

“Yeah, but you never went into detail so I didn’t know just how bad things were. You and I are two different people; I never thought that you’d done anything that I would consider all that bad. And…,” he admitted, “I wanted to prove to people that I wasn’t no choir boy.”

“If you think that nickname is bad, my sister used to call me Golden Boy because she thought I was so good and by the book. A cringed every time she called me that because I knew that my lifestyle didn’t match up.”

“Wow. I never knew that you and I had so much in common,” Ikee told him while looking at his brother with open eyes. He felt comfortable talking to his brother now and wanted to know, “What do you think I should do now?”

“If people are shooting at you, I think we should go to the police.”

Ikee shook his head. “These aren’t the kind of guys you snitch on. Geeze tried to shoot me because I refused to be Lou Jones’ errand boy.”

“Please tell me you didn’t just say the name Lou Jones,” Donavan demanded as he stood and started pacing the room.

“Yeah, Lou Jones.” Then Ikee figured he may as well fess up to the rest of his crimes. After all, his brother had been where he’s at. They could put their heads together and figure a way out for him. “Geeze claimed he had a spot where I could unload my product. That’s where I was at yesterday. Everything was going good until this crack head started harassing me. She wanted to do all sorts of favors just to get her hands on my product, but all I wanted was the money. The next thing I knew the cops were pulling down on us.

“Geeze and I took off running and then we had to throw out the money and everything. But the next day Lou tells me that I still owe him twenty percent. And since I had five-o on his block and he couldn’t make money yesterday he said that me and Geeze had to pick up his next score and then deliver it to five different locations.”

“And if Lou wanted you to pick up as much drugs as I think, do you know how much time you’d get if the police caught you?”

“I told Geeze that we would be suckas if we picked that stuff up… said we should just ride out. But he wasn’t trying to hear it.”

Donavan ran his hands up his face and behind his ears. “I just wish you hadn’t got yourself involved with Lou Jones.”

“Daddy told me to stay away from Bobby-Ray because of bad blood between them.”

“Guess who had bad blood with Lou Jones?” Donavan asked as he pointed at himself.

“What? No way.” Ikee started laughing. “You and Daddy really should have warned a brother. Who knew that y’all had beef with some many people?”

“It’s not funny, Ikee.” Donavan sat back down across from his brother. “You are in more danger than you know. Lou’s father was Mickey Jones. When I was a kid, me and three other guys robbed Mickey’s dope house. He hunted us down, killed two of the guys. I had been next on his list; that’s how Mama got shot. She and I both went to the hospital that night. Now do you finally understand why Daddy does not want you in the house if you’re involved in his former life. He knows that those guys play for keeps.”

“You said Mickey killed two of them and then shot you. What happened to the fourth guy?”

Donavan smiled as he said, “He played in the NBA a few years. When his knee gave out, he became a lawyer. He’s now married with a beautiful family and doing very well for himself.”

“Well, something good came out of it,” Ikee said.

“Good for him, bad for you. Because the only reason he was able to live long enough to do any of those things is because Daddy caught up with Mickey and then beat him until the police arrived and hauled Mickey off to jail. Mickey got himself killed in prison and the family blames us, so I doubt that Lou was pleased to see you.”

“What am I going to do, Donavan? Geeze knows where I’m staying. He’s probably already told Lou where to find me.” Ikee knew that fear showed in his eyes. But he didn’t care, right about now he was ready to admit that he was terrified, if that’s what it would take to get Donavan to help him.

“One thing is for sure: You can’t go back to that hotel.”

“But my clothes are still there.” He had a couple pair of Jordan’s that he’d stood in line for hours to get. He wasn’t trying to let somebody just pick through his stuff.

“I’ll call Pete and ask him to pack up your things and bring them to church. And you’re coming home with me tonight.”

“But Dad said he didn’t want me around his grandchildren.” Ikee really wanted to go home with Donavan. But he didn’t want to put his brother’s family at risk. “Maybe you should just put me up in a different hotel,” Ikee suggested.

Shaking his head, Donavan told him, “I wouldn’t be able to sleep if I left you out there with no one to watch your back.”

“What about Diana and the kids?”

“I’m gonna see if they can stay at Iona’s place for a couple of days. Johnny won’t be back home until tomorrow night, so I think she’ll enjoy the company.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Eleven

 

Once Diana and the kids were off to spend a few days at Iona’s house, Donavan ordered a pizza and then he and Ikee kicked back in the game room and watched a basketball game on his brand new 65 inch smart television. The San Antonio Spurs were playing the Charlotte Hornets. Ikee liked the Spurs because they had won so many championships and even took down the Miami Heat last year. But Donavan was all in for the Charlotte Hornets.

“Man, why you even rooting for them. Didn’t you see how they got swept in the playoffs last year?” Ikee said, as he began to relax and enjoy himself. He was safe in his brother’s home. Nobody was shooting at him, cops weren’t chasing after him and no drug lord was pressuring him to do things he didn’t want to do.

“I saw how they got swept. But I also see this new team they’ s building. They might have had a bad start, but they’ve figuring things out. By next year, this team will be a real contender.”

“We ain’t talking ‘bout next year. We talking ‘bout the right here and now… and they are getting ready to get embarrassed by the Spurs.”

“You wanna bet?” Donavan asked trying to get a friendly wager going.

Ikee laughed at him. “I thought Christians didn’t believe in betting and stuff like that.”

“I’m not after your money. Just a friendly wager. If the Hornets win you have to wash those dishes that I told Diana I’d take care of tonight.”

“Okay.” Ikee could get with that. “And if the Spurs win, what do I get?”

“I won’t tell Daddy about your comedic, bumbling career as a dope man.” Donavan shoved his brother and then said, “That’s for talking about how my team got swept last year.”

“Ha ha, very funny. You must want me to be kicked out of the family altogether. I hope you’re ready to support me, because it’s obvious that I can’t make money going the illegal route. Not with how many beefs you and Dad have out there.”

Donavan laughed at him. “You’ve had the worst luck of anybody I’ve ever heard of trying to sell drugs. You might want to pick another profession because as hard as Mom and Dad are over there praying against you on this, I don’t think you are going to have any success in the drug game.”

The game got going and the two men rooted for their teams. The Hornets gave it a good go and by the fourth quarter it seemed as if victory was in sight for the team, but the Spurs proved why they were a championship team and pulled out the win with only a five point difference.

When the game was over, Ikee admitted, “The Hornets got game. I think you might be right… if they get one or two more quality players on the team, they might just be a contender.”

“I thought you knew,” Donavan said as he stood up.

“Going to bust them suds?” Ikee taunted.

“Yeah, you can hang out in here or come to the kitchen with me.”

“I’m feeling so good about my team pulling out the win, that I just might help you, bro.” They both headed downstairs.

Donavan turned on the news while he put the dishes in the dishwasher. Ikee wiped off the counter. They were laughing and joking together for the first time in many years. The brothers were truly enjoying each other’s company. But then there was breaking news and Ikee and Donavan both had to sit down on the stools at the counter and watch as pictures of Young Geeze and several other men in handcuffs flashed on the television. The newscaster quickly reported about the drug sting that had rounded up everybody but the ring leader.

The newscaster stated that the police had been after Lou Jones, a known drug dealer, but since his hands never touched this latest shipment they hadn’t been able to arrest him with the rest of the men in his organization.

Donavan turned to Ikee and said, “It’s time to tell Daddy what’s going on.”

~~~~

Nina and Isaac hadn’t eaten a thing in the past three days. Their days had been filled with prayer and now they were reading the scriptures trying to find something that gave them a clue on how to deal with their wayward son.

Nina stopped turning the pages at Isaiah chapter 40 and began reading at verse 28:

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.  He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.  Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;  but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

They read several scriptures, but one theme stood out in everything they read… trust God. It was as if God was telegraphing that He had this covered and that everything would turn out okay. The only problem was, this wasn’t Nina and Isaac’s first rodeo. They understood that even though things would turn out the way God intended them to be before it was all over, that didn’t guarantee that they wouldn’t go through a whole bunch of drama and trauma in the meantime.

Isaac pulled Nina into his arms as he said, “We just have to trust Him. It’s hard because we’re in the middle of going through with Ikee, but if we step outside of this for a moment and look back to all the other occasions when God turned things around for us, then we’ll be comforted.”

“I am comforted in the Lord. I just wish our children didn’t have to pay the price for our past mistakes.”

“We probably should have moved out of this town a long time ago. But I kept thinking that God had us here to help set the captives free.”

“Don’t second guess yourself, Isaac.” Nina put a hand on his face as she snuggled in closer to him. “Our ministry has brought so many people to Christ that I not only think that this is where God wanted you to be, I know it.”

Isaac leaned forward and kissed his wife. “Thank you for saying that. Our children have gone through so much because of the choices I made that I don’t know what I would do if I had heard God wrong and kept us in this city, only to bring destruction to our doorstep.”

“We’ve kept our faith in God for all these years, Isaac. I don’t see a reason to stop believing and trusting His guidance now.” After several beats she said, “Maybe we should have talked to Ikee about the past instead of hiding it from him. I can admit our part in this, but that still doesn’t give him an excuse to go off the way he has. Children may be affected by generational curses, but they still have the ability to choose to do right.”

“The boy has a hard head. But I still want him to straighten up and come back home.”

“I want to see him in his cap and gown as he graduates from high school,” Nina said, smiling at the thought.

“You’re thinking about high school, but I want to see that cap and gown as he graduates college. That’s when I’ll feel like our job is done.”

The phone rang. Nina jumped. “Maybe it’s Ikee.”

Isaac looked at the caller ID, then told his wife. “It’s Donavan.” He picked up then asked his son, “Did everything go okay at the church today?”

“I didn’t burn the place down, if that’s what you were worried about,” Donavan joked with his father.

“I’m not worried about anything like that. I know you’ve got a handle on the place. You’ll be taking over when I retire and start traveling around the world with your mother.”

“As if I even believe you’ll do something like that,” Donavan said and then his voice took on a serious note. “Ikee came to the church today.”

Isaac sat up. “He did? Is he okay? Why didn’t you call me?”

“I brought him home with me. We had been having a good time together until the news came on.”

“What’s that about the news?” Isaac asked, wondering if he’d heard Donavan right.

“I don’t want to discuss it over the phone. Can you come over here? We need to run something by you.”

~~~~

Isaac pulled into Donavan’s driveway, but before he could get out of the car, his cell rang. He saw that it was Nina, so he stayed seated and answered her call. “Hey baby, I just pulled up.”

“I thought you were there by now. I just want to pray with you before you go inside.”

He knew what this was about. Nina wanted to make sure he didn’t wring their son’s neck. “Okay, baby, that sounds good to me.”

Nina led the prayer as she called on God to see them through whatever issue Ikee was dealing with. She prayed that the Lord would give her husband patience and the ability to listen and understand exactly what the spirit of God was directing him to do. When she finished praying she had one final request for her husband. “Give your son a hug.”

“Baby, I heard your heart through your prayer. I know that you’re worried that I’m going to go in there and straight go off on this boy. I can promise you that I will try my best to be patient. But depending on what they have to tell me, I just can’t promise that I’m going to be in a hugging kinda mood.”

They hung up the phone on that note and Isaac got out of the car. He took a deep breath and then knocked on Donavan’s door.

Donavan opened the door. “Thanks for coming by tonight, Dad. We really need you on this one.”

“What’s going on? Is Ikee hurt?” Please, God say no to that question. He needed Ikee to be alright just like he needed to breathe.

“Ikee’s in the family room. He’s nervous about talking to you, so this needs to be a judgment-free zone, if you want to get the truth out of him.”

“Okay,” Isaac said. “Let’s just get to it.”

They went to the family room and as the three of them sat down, Donavan asked his father, “Did you catch the news tonight?”

“Your Mom and I haven’t had much time for TV.” He eyed Ikee. Ikee’s head was lowered, like he couldn’t face his dad. “We’ve been too busy fasting and praying.”

“I’m glad y’all were doing that, because to tell you the truth, that’s probably the only reason Ikee is even alive right now.” Donavan and Ikee then took turns telling Isaac everything that had transpired within the last few days.

When they were done, Isaac didn’t feel like chastising his son. He had made a mountain load of mistakes in his lifetime, so what Ikee did wasn’t important right now. What was important was keeping his son alive. He turned to him and said, “We need to get you out of town. Lou will be looking for you. He’ll need to shut you up so that the cops can’t connect him to that shipment.”

“What about his boys… shouldn’t he be more worried about them talking?” Ikee asked.

“They might be too loyal to turn rat. But I hope they do. Our best bet is for the police to get enough evidence to lock Lou up, that way he won’t be able to get to you. At least not on his own.” But Isaac didn’t want to think about the other ways Lou could get to his son.

As Isaac stood he said, “I need to make a few calls. Have to figure out where to take you.”

“Wait, Dad,” Donavan said. “I figured you’d want to get him out of town and I think I know of the perfect place.”

“Speak,” Isaac told him while reclaiming his seat.

“One of my frat brothers went into the military after college. He’s got some rank and he said he’d be able to get us a room on the base in Kentucky.”

Smiling Isaac said, “These drug gangs think they’re the toughest thing going, but I haven’t met a one of them that would mess with Uncle Sam.” He slapped his knee. “Let’s do it.”

Donavan made the call and got the okay. But before they could get on the highway, Ikee threw another monkey wrench in the plans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Twelve

 

Isaac had his hand on the door, getting ready to head to the car, when Ikee said. “I can’t leave.”

“What?” Isaac turned around and gave his son a look that asked, Are you insane?

Sitting down behind the kitchen counter Ikee said, “Remember how you told me about hell and how so many people went there who weren’t ready to die yet? But once they were there it’s over, no turning back.”

Isaac nodded.

“Well, I think I may be the reason that someone is on their way to their death.”

Isaac was deflated. All he ever wanted was to keep his sons as far away from the crime life as the east is from the west. But now Ikee was telling him that he was deeper in the game than Isaac ever suspected.

“You killed somebody?” Donavan asked as he sat down next to his brother.

Ikee quickly shook his head. “I wouldn’t do that. Not after what Dad told me. But I got into an argument with Lou because he said I was the reason that the police swooped down in his territory yesterday. But then I told him that he was wrong; that some crack head named Candy had brought the police down on us.”

“And then what did Lou do?” Isaac asked

“I don’t know if he’s done anything yet. But he said that Candy was going to get a one way ticket to hell. The look in his eyes was like he meant every word. I feel like I’m responsible if something happens to her.”

“Son, if Candy doesn’t get off drugs, the fact is her ticket might come up at any time. We can’t be responsible for that.”

Ikee shook his head. “I’m not asking you to be responsible for it, Dad. I’m the one who did this. I brought her name up to a psycho, who thinks killing is just as easy as ordering a pizza. And now I’m about to run away and leave her at his mercy. Did I tell you he offered to cut me up into pieces? What if he does that to her?”

“What do you want us to do, Ikee?” But Isaac already knew the answer.

“I want to go back to that neighborhood and get Candy. Maybe we can put her in a rehab facility or something. Once we do that, I’ll leave town and go anywhere you tell me to. I promise, Dad.”

~~~~

Candy heard the news and got real scared. Usually after a night of smoking crack, she would get paranoid, thinking that Lou was coming after her because she knew too much and he couldn’t afford for her to stay alive. But as soon as her high passed she stopped tripping. Lou had loved her, they had planned to one day get married and start a family. He wouldn’t kill her just because of what she knew. Not Lou. Candy had convinced herself that Lou was going to come back to her one day—maybe even help her get this monkey off her back.

But when she saw the news and realized that the police were stumped as to how to connect those drugs to Lou, that’s when she knew that she was a dead woman walking. She quickly threw a few things into a duffle, grabbed her cell phone and hightailed it out of the place where she had been crashing.

With each step she took, Candy kept getting angrier and angrier at Lou for how he’d ruined her life and then threw her out with the garbage when the drugs he’d filled her with had finally taken away the beauty that had once been her claim to fame. Every man she’d ever come in contact with had wanted her. She always had a date and her modeling career was taking off too.

Her mother had warned her not to get hooked up with none of the dope dealers in their neighborhood, had told her that they were poison and would ruin her life. But Candy didn’t listen. She thought she could take care of herself and she liked to party, so when she started hanging out with Lou and he introduced her to stuff that was better than the weed she and her friends had been partying with, Candy had fallen hard for the guy.

Then she moved in with him and became part of his organization. But one day the drugs became too much for her and she started stealing from Lou. He threw her out and left her to trade favors on the street for her drugs. For a while, most of the drug boys were willing to oblige because her looks hadn’t faded completely. But after a year on the street, most of them looked at her like that young boy who’d been with Geeze the other day… like she was disgusting. She would never forgive Lou for that.

~~~~~

Isaac had left Donavan at the house. As he and Ikee were headed toward the west side, he asked, “So, what you’re telling me is that you’re willing to put your life on the line for a woman you don’t even know?”

“I can’t really explain it, Dad, but there’s this feeling in my gut that’s telling me that I can’t just walk away. I know the girl is a crack head. But don’t they deserve saving too?”

Isaac didn’t want his son to call him a hypocrite again, but he really wanted to just drive the boy out of town without making this pit stop. If only there was some way that he could take back those words and tell Ikee that he didn’t mean it; he didn’t have to worry about Candy spending eternity in hell. But that wasn’t true. And Isaac knew with everything in him that Ikee would never have peace in his life if they just allowed this woman to die without trying to help her. Even though Isaac had been forgiven by God for all his dirty deeds, he still couldn’t hide from the reality of the lives he’d destroyed.

Isaac knew first-hand that in the drug game people turned up dead all the time. He commended Ikee for wanting to get help for this girl and wished that he had been able to do the same for his best friend, Keith’s mother. Thinking about what happened to her still brought pain to Isaac’s heart…

 

Way back when…

Isaac and Keith were young soldiers in the game, but they were quick studies so they were moving up fast and making enemies along the way. That was the reason for the conference they were dealing with now amongst a bunch of old-head gangsters who didn’t accept change very well.

No one smiled as Isaac and Keith glanced around the table. Spoony, Isaac’s mentor was at the head, Brown was on his right. To Spoony’s left was Stevie Johnson, a carrier turned top-dog once another gangster’s organization had been destroyed. Two other cats were at the table. On Brown’s right was another old school hustler named Shinny Watson and next to Stevie was Pete Jones, a guy who came up alongside Isaac. He just wasn’t closing as many deals as Isaac of late, but whose fault was that?

“Isaac, your take has doubled in the last year, and some of the brothers here think that you are trying to take over,” Spoony told him.

“Have I ever taken anything from you, Spoony?” Isaac asked. Spoony didn’t answer so Isaac asked another question. “And don’t I still bring all my business to you? So why haven’t you already told these cats to lay off?”

Brown said, “Look here, sonny—”

Isaac turned his cold black eyes on Brown and said, “You ain’t my daddy, and I’m not your son. I’m a man, and if I speak to you respectfully, I expect the same in return. Understand?”

Brown stood up and exploded. “Boy, I will slit your throat. How’s that for respect?”

Spoony touched Brown’s arm and said, “Brown, man, we came here to discuss this like reasonable men. Sit down, please.”

Brown flopped back into his seat as he told Spoony, “You just better tell your boy to check his self, before I do it for him.”

Stevie put his elbows on the table and tried his hand at intimidation. “Isaac, people are concerned.”

Brown added, “And we’re all a little worried about your family’s safety. People are getting uptight, thinking that you and Keith are earning money that should have been theirs. Anything could happen.”

Isaac wanted to laugh in Brown’s face. The only family he had left was his usually-wrong Daddy and he would gladly give up the address to Usually-wrong’s house if they wanted to do him a favor and kill that maggot. Thank God and good riddance was how Isaac saw it.

But Keith was another matter. He stood up and told them, “If you think I’m going to sit here and listen to you threaten my family, you’ve got another thought coming. Bring it on,” Keith said as he strutted to the door and waited on Isaac to join him.

Isaac slowly rose out of his chair, understanding he had now entered a game of winner take all—loser eat six feet of dirt. He nodded at Spoony and said, “I’ll see you around.”

Spoony nodded back with a look on his face that said, “I sure hope so.”

Over the next three months, Isaac and Keith’s cars were bombed. Their homes were riddled with bullets, so they started moving from hotel to hotel. Their runners were gunned down in the street. Isaac and Keith went to war and hit them harder than they were hit. By the end of that three month period, the only ones that were at that round table meeting left alive besides Isaac and Keith were Spoony and Brown. Spoony had arranged a meeting with Isaac and Brown and had them both agree to end the war. Isaac willingly agreed to stay on his side of town and leave Brown to his side. And with that, it was over. But just when Isaac and Keith thought they could breathe easy again, Isaac received a call from Joey, one of his runners. Joey told him that Keith needed to get over to his mother’s apartment ASAP. Isaac got Keith on the phone and told him, “Man, you need to get over to your mom’s place. Something has happened.”

“I told you I don’t want to be bothered by her drama anymore,” Keith said.

Keith’s mother was on that stuff and he was tired of dealing with it. “You need to get over there, Keith. One of my runners just called and told me that the ambulance and police are at her place.”

When they hung up, Isaac sped towards Ms. Doretha’s apartment on the lower south side. He pulled up at the same time Keith did. He watched as Keith jumped out of his car and ran up to one of the police officers. Then Keith turned and watched the paramedics bringing the bed out of the apartment with a body bag on top of it. He ran over to them. The police officer followed, trying to hold him back.

“Get off me, man. That’s my mama,” Keith yelled as he trod forward.

The paramedics set the ambulatory bed down and stood in front of it, waving Keith away. “You don’t want to see her now, sir,” One of them told him.

Isaac ran over to Keith and tried to pull him away also. But Keith jerked away. “I have a right to know if that is my mother.” Keith pointed at the body bag.

“She’s been cut up, man. Don’t do this to yourself,” the other police officer said.

Keith grabbed the bag and quickly unzipped it before he could be stopped by anyone. A thin arm fell out, but Keith wasn’t looking at the arm. He was looking into the slashed and bloody face of Doretha Williams. He put his arms around her and became covered in blood because her chest was cut up as well. Keith didn’t notice how bloody he was becoming. He just wanted to hold his mother one last time. “I’m sorry. You hear me?” he asked her. “I’m sorry.”

Isaac pulled Keith off of his mother so the paramedics could close the bag back up. Keith tried to fall back on the body, but Isaac grabbed him. Tears were streaming down Keith’s face as Isaac hugged him. Isaac’s own mother had been carried out by the paramedics covered in blood. So as they hugged, Isaac and Keith became forever bonded in blood.

“Come on, man. Let me take you home,” Isaac said.

“No. I can’t leave her like this, Isaac. She needs me, man.”

“You’ve got to get out of here. Let these people do their job.” Isaac tried to pull Keith away again, and this time Keith allowed him. He took Keith over to his car and opened the passenger side door for him. “Get in, Keith. I’ll have Valerie come pick up your car.”

Keith sat in the car numbly as Isaac drove. He then clenched his fist and smashed it against the dashboard. “Brown did this. I know it in my gut.”

Isaac didn’t say anything, but he had been thinking over the probability of Brown having something to do with Keith’s mother’s death. Ms. Doretha had been prostituting to get her drugs. Anyone could have done this as far as Isaac was concerned.

“We should have killed him right along with the rest of them.”

“Well, I’ll tell you what,” Isaac said. “Let’s check into it, and if Brown had something to do with this, then his family will finally get to cash in his insurance policy.

***

As it turned out, the killer just about begged the police to come and get him. He’d left his fingerprints all over Doretha’s apartment and body and bragged to numerous friends about the murder. Michael Hopkins was arrested in a coffee shop that was owned by Brown. And it was no wonder that the murderer was arrested at Brown’s coffee shop, since he was one of Brown’s top soldiers.

Keith and Isaac were watching the news while Valerie fixed steaks for them. The arrest was televised, so after watching Michael Hopkins get carted out of Brown’s coffee shop, Isaac and Keith looked at each other and nodded. That night they went out in search of Brown and whoever might try to get in their way. They found him at Fat Al’s juke joint. It was ten at night so there were only four people in the joint: Fat Al, Brown and two of Brown’s henchmen. Brown was sitting at a back table sucking on a barbecue rib bone. His men were at the bar. Isaac and Keith sat at Brown’s table and trained their guns on him from underneath the table.

Isaac told Brown, “You shouldn’t have done it.”

Brown put his barbecue down and asked, “What are you talking about?”

“We never tried to move in on your operation. We never bothered anything of yours, but the way you had Keith’s mother cut up…,” Isaac shook his head and then finished with, “…we can’t let that go.”

Brown turned to Keith. “I didn’t do anything to your mother. Don’t act crazy and get yourself killed in here.”

“Brave talk for a dead man,” Isaac said.

Brown laughed in Isaac’s face. “Man, get out of here before you get hurt.”

“We never forgot how you warned us about our families, Brown,” Keith said.

“And now we’ve got a warning for you,” Isaac said, and then pulled the trigger and shot Brown in the gut.

Brown began lifting out of his chair. “You can’t shoot me,” he said.

But Isaac must not have understood him because he lifted his gun and shot him again, this time in the head. As Brown fell face forward on top of his barbecue, Keith shot two of Brown’s henchmen as they tried to pull out their guns.

“What’s up, Fat Al,” Isaac asked as he pointed his gun at him.

Fat Al raised his hands. “I’m not taking sides, Ike-man. I’ve got a family and I just want to get out of here and see them again.”

“You remember your family when the police ask you about this. Okay?” Isaac said as he and Keith backed out the door.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Thirteen

 

“Back in the day, I know how I would have handled a situation like this,” Isaac told his son. “But I’m not living the life of a destroyer anymore, so I can’t go in with guns blazing. You understand what I’m saying?”

“Yeah, you’re not the Ike-man. You’re Pastor Isaac Walker,” Ikee said as if he finally understood the difference between the two.

“So, I’m going to pull over in this parking lot and I’m going to ask you to pray with me. Because I have seen God do mighty things for me. He has shown me that it is not my might, nor my power but it is my faith that moved mountains.”

“But God has the power, right?” Ikee asked as if he needed reassurance.

“He’s got more power in His baby finger than any of the gangsters I ever dealt with. I need you to believe that, Ikee. Because if I’m ever not around, I want you to know that you can always depend on God. Okay?”

Ikee nodded and then they held hands and prayed.

When they finished praying, Isaac told his son, “Your mom and I never wanted you to know anything about the drug life. We wanted you to live in peace.” Isaac was silent for a long moment as he looked out the window. When he turned back to his son he said, “If I had my life to live over, I would have chosen not to be a gang banger. Seems like my children keep paying for all the damage that I caused. I see how painful it is to know that someone is gunning for your child… I just wish I could go back and change some things.”

“It’s not your fault, Dad. You tried to warn me and I should have listened. I don’t know why I ever thought anything was cool about being a drug dealer. I’m scared to death that I might get killed and to be honest, with as much trouble as I’m having, I don’t even know how you made it out.”

Isaac didn’t know if he would survive this night, but if he died, he would go out fighting for what was right. He leaned over and hugged his son, real tight… like he wondered if he’d ever see him again tight. “Let’s do this.” He smiled at his son as they rode out; but in truth, Isaac wished that Keith had that seat rather than his son. He and Keith had outlasted the game and they were now respectable citizens of this great nation. But trouble kept finding them.

 

While Isaac and Ikee were inside the car praying to God for His protection and guidance, Brogan, the warrior angel who had fought many battles with and for Isaac stood on the hood of the car with his sword extended. They were going to battle again tonight, and he would be ready.

Luke joined him on the car, with sword drawn. “Is it happening tonight?”

“Oh yeah,” Brogan told him. “And I intend to extinguish that devil before this is over with.”

~~~~

With Lou trying to bring so much product into the city all at once, the police were on high alert. And that meant a serious crackdown was going down and hustlers were running for the hills. DeMarco, Bobby-Ray and Lou met up in the basement of one of Lou’s low key spots. Each man took turns frisking the other and checking for wires. Bad movies do have their basis in some truth, and too many hustlers have gotten snatched up because another hustler turned snitch and wore a wire on him.

“Let’s get down to business,” DeMarco said. “I’m heading south tonight and I’ll be laying low for at least a year down there.”

“So you gon’ skip out after bringing all this heat down on us?” Lou said with an angry scowl on his face.

DeMarco’s eyes shifted as he pointed at himself like he couldn’t understand the exchange that was going on. “I didn’t bring nothing down on you. The po-po must of had you under surveillance anyway, for them to swoop down on every one of your contacts. I’m just lucky they didn’t pinch me in the process.”

“That’s the million dollar question, right there,” Bobby-Ray said, eyeing DeMarco like airport security looking at a suspected terrorist. “Why didn’t the cops arrest you, since they tracked Geeze from the spot where he picked up the package?”

“Because I wasn’t there. I sent one of my boys. Now why he didn’t get arrested, I can’t tell you. But I will soon find out. My boys are taking him out of town right now. When I meet up with them, if he doesn’t have my money and a good explanation for why he’s not in handcuffs,” DeMarco shrugged, “we’ll never hear from him again. If he is a rat, then their case just got a little weaker.”

“Alright, you go handle that piece of business; Bobby-Ray and I will stay here and tie up some loose ends.”

Bobby-Ray wasn’t feeling that. “I’m not staying in this town another hour. I’m taking my woman on an extended vacation, which should have already started. She’s packing our stuff at the house right now.”

“So what you sayin’?” Lou asked. “You just gon’ leave me hanging like that?”

“What you want from me? I told you that was too much stuff to bring in here at once. But you wasn’t trying to hear from me. Told me you didn’t need my money to make the deal and went on about your business like you was getting ready to top me on the street. But now all of a sudden you need me.”

“It’s like that, huh?”

“It’s like that,” Bobby-Ray told him as if it was nothing. The two men had once been the best of friends. Had grown up on the same street and received respect in the neighborhood because their fathers, although deceased, had once been running the streets… until Isaac Walker ended their reign.

“What about this kid? You was supposed to help me settle up with his daddy by taking care of him. Then he comes in my territory and now I’ve got five-o breathing down my neck. You don’t think you owe me, when you let that loose in my streets?”

“How is that my fault, Lou? His daddy practically drug him out of my place the other night. I thought for sure I would see him again because he needed a place to sell the drugs he’d purchased from me. But the next thing I know he’s on your turf.”

“Don’t forget about the police showing up the same day he did. My operation would have gone smoothly if it hadn’t been for that kid. So, somebody’s got to kill him… and I pick you.”

“And while I’m taking care of that, what are you going to be doing?”

“I have a loose end I need to tie up before I can get out of here. So, if the three of us handle our business tonight, the cops won’t be able to touch us and we can start making money again.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Fourteen

 

Isaac pulled up to the house that Ikee saw Candy walk out of. “I think this is it,” Ikee said.

Isaac opened the car door and said, “You stay here and duck down.” It was almost one in the morning, but Isaac stood on the porch and knocked on the door as if it was two in the afternoon. No one came to the door, so he knocked again. He went around back and looked around. The place was dark and he couldn’t hear anyone moving around.

“I don’t think anyone is in there,” Isaac told Ikee when he got back in the car.

“Maybe we should call the police. She might be laying in there dead or something.”

“If she’s already dead, I certainly don’t want to be the one calling the police. We don’t need that kind of heat right about now. Let’s just drive around and keep an eye out.” At one point as Isaac and Ikee were looking, he was about to make a left turn but felt a nudging in his spirit to turn right instead. He went with his gut and then said, “Okay, now where?”

“Huh? What?” Ikee said.

“I wasn’t talking to you, boy. I’m talking to the Holy Spirit. It feels to me like God is trying to lead me somewhere so I’m trying to listen and let the Lord guide.”

“Gotcha,” Ikee said, but didn’t really understand.

Isaac turned off the gospel music he’d been playing to calm his mind, and he listened as he made another turn and then another one.

They were heading down a long street where a bunch of abandoned houses that had already been condemned were. The only other thing Ikee saw on this street were trees and more trees. “Are you sure you’re listening right?”

“Hush up, boy. Don’t interrupt the Lord when He’s trying to take us somewhere.”

Ikee twisted his lip and eyed his father like he wondered if he should offer to drive. Like maybe the stress of the last few days had loosened a few screws or something. But just as Ikee’s doubt began rolling in, he spotted someone walking a few blocks up. Pointing and getting excited, he said, “Daddy, I see someone.”

“Okay, just calm down. If it’s her, we don’t want to scare her off.” Isaac eased the car up, put it in park. “You get on her right side and I’ll pull up on her left.” Isaac got out of the car but left the door open and told Ikee to do the same.

As they got close to the woman, Isaac signaled his son to say something to her.

“Hey Candy, let me holler at you.” Ikee was right up on her.

She turned and tried to take off running in the other direction, but Isaac caught hold of her arm. “Hold on, now. We came to help you.”

“Leave me alone. I’m not going to say anything. I just want to be left alone,” she screamed at them.

“Listen to me,” Isaac said while holding on to her. “We think that you are in danger, so we came to get you. We don’t want to hurt you… just want to help.

But Candy wasn’t hearing it. She struggled and screamed until the first gunshots were heard. The three of them ducked as more bullets flew in their direction. Two bullets hit the car as Isaac, Ikee and Candy crawled over to it. They jumped in the car, Isaac closed his door and sped off as Ikee was still struggling to close his.

“Pull it harder,” Isaac commanded as he rounded the corner.

“Oh my God, he really does want to kill me,” Candy said as she accepted her new reality.

 

Brogan and Luke were hanging on while Isaac wheeled that car like a Nascar racer. “That was a close one,” Luke said.

Brogan shook his head. “I caught the assailants scent before Isaac stopped the car. That’s why I jumped off and stood in front of him.”

“If you hadn’t that first bullet would have hit him for sure.”

“Isaac don’t have time to die. He has work to do for the kingdom. And this young woman must have an assignment also, because there’s no other reason why she’s not already dead.”

Luke covered the car with his flaring coat just as he had to protect Ikee. He wanted to give Isaac enough time to escape by disturbing the assailant’s vision.

 

“I won’t talk… I won’t talk,” Candy kept saying as she rolled her head from side to side.

“What were you so afraid of when we approached you? Did you already know that Lou was after you?” Isaac asked, perplexed by the situation. But then he chalked it up to the paranoid disorder that often comes with drug abuse.

She started crying and kept chanting, “I won’t talk… I won’t talk.”

“What’s wrong with her, Dad? She didn’t seem this crazy yesterday.”

“I don’t know son. Sometimes drugs can make a person paranoid. Hopefully, Candy hasn’t lost her mind completely and will be able to recover and live a normal life once she makes up her mind to get off drugs.”

“How’s she going to do that living down here? Drugs are available everywhere you turn in the hood. You and Mom were right to move far away from this place. Now that I have seen for myself how much devastation goes on around here, I don’t want any parts of it. I promise you, Dad, if we make it through this I’m going back to school and this time I’m going to do what I need to do to make it in this world the right way.”

If nothing else, his son had experienced a real life scared straight program in which he had a starring role. Isaac was grateful that his son had finally seen the light, but he realized that Ikee was right about Candy’s prospects. If they drove her out of here tonight and took her to another hood, she’d just keep geeking until she killed herself. At that moment Isaac’s plans changed. He drove home and pulled into the garage. He helped Candy out of the car and took her into the house. He left Candy in the family room with Ikee and then went to the bedroom and woke Nina up.

“What’s going on? Did you bring Ikee back home?”

“He’s here. But we also brought a woman he was worried about. Our son has a good heart. He wants us to keep this girl safe. And I was hoping that you could pray with her or get her comfortable enough with us that she’ll at least give Jesus a try.”

“And we have to do all of this at two in the morning?”

“Well, we did just save her from a drug dealer who was trying to kill her.”

Nina held up a hand. “Hold up… wait a minute. Exactly what kind of trouble is Ikee in? And what possessed you to bring this woman here this time of morning?” Nina put her robe on as her husband told her about how Ikee got himself mixed up with a drug ring and now the guy is mostly after Ikee and the woman they just rescued.

“Why doesn’t he just run? That’s what I would do if the police were after me. I wouldn’t even bother myself with two people who ticked me off… or I guess he feels like they cost him some money.” Nina rolled her eyes at the silliness of it all.

“That’s because you’re not a gangster. It’s about street cred and code. And anyway, if Lou is anything like his father, he’s probably half crazy. And the things he does only make sense in his own mind.”

“Do you think we should call the police?”

Isaac nodded. “You go and talk with this girl, pray with her or whatever you can do to calm her down and I’ll give Iona and Johnny a call.”

As Nina left the room, Isaac walked over to the keypad for their alarm system and turned the door alarm and the window sensors on. They were locked in and the dangers of the world were locked out. He went to the closet and took out the tasers and pepper spray. Isaac might not believe in killing, but he wasn’t going to be caught slipping on protecting his family.

He sat down on the bed and called Iona. After filling her in, he asked if she could call Johnny.

“I just talked to him. His trip is being cut short and he should be home by morning.”

“Okay, just tell him to get over here as soon as he can.”

“Diana is spending the night. I’m leaving the kids with her because I’m on my way.”

“No Iona, you stay home with my grand babies. I don’t want you getting in this. Ikee and I will hold things down here until morning.”

“Is this a joke? You done got all old and non-violent and I’m worried you might have forgotten how to handle thugs like these.”

“I’m prepared. You just stay home.”

“All you’ve got over there is a bunch of tasers and an alarm system. Thugs ain’t scared of no alarm. And unless you can wrestle that gun away from them after you tase them, you’re hit. My husband is with the FBI so I’ve got the real gangster stopper. And I’m bringing it with me.”

“I’ve been taking care of myself for more years than you’ve been born, young lady. I got this.”

“Whatever,” Iona said, “I’m on my way. You just turn off that alarm and let me in because I’m going to be packing heat.”

~~~~

Iona couldn’t believe this, she had just been complaining about how boring her life had become and now her family’s lives were in jeopardy again. She would take boring over something like this any day of the week.

By the time she reached her dad’s house she had talked to her husband and her step-father Keith, who was also her father’s best friend. Once inside the house she told her father that not only would Johnny be there by morning, but Keith said to tell Isaac that if he wanted him to get on the road, just say the word.

“Naw, let that old man stay where he’s at. No sense getting him involved in this.” Isaac would love for Keith to be there and for the two of them to put their heads together to figure a way out of this jam. But Keith had just gotten out of the hospital due to some clogged arteries from all that good food his wife cooks.

“I figured you’d say that. I just wanted to update him, because if I didn’t, sick or not, he’d come down here and skin me alive. But he did say that he and Mama would be up the rest of the night praying.”

“Thanks for that. This family can use some prayers right about now.”

Isaac and Iona headed into the family room where Nina and Ikee sat with Candy. The moment Iona saw her, she grabbed her father’s arm and headed in the other direction. Once they were in the kitchen, Iona whispered, “Do you know who you have in there?”

Isaac shook his head. “All I know is that she’s on drugs and she almost got Ikee arrested the other day because she was trying to trade sex for drugs.”

Pointing towards the family room, Iona informed her father, “Her name is Candace Drake. She had once been a very beautiful model who decided that the drug life was more profitable. She helped Lou Jones grow his business and probably knows where every body is buried.”

Now everything made since to Isaac. Before he didn’t understand why Lou would risk being nabbed by the police in order to kill Candy, simply because he was ticked about the part she played in the cops showing up on his block the other day. Lou was getting rid of a potential rat and none of them would be safe until Isaac could turn her over to Johnny.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Fifteen

 

Bobby-Ray parked his car on the side of the house and then he and two of his boys went around back. In fancy neighborhoods like these there were always sliding glass doors. And every so often someone would forget to re-lock it after spending a fun filled evening grilling on the patio. People didn’t do stuff like that in the hood. They knew to always be on guard, because a TV could come up missing just like that.

Thieves these days were so bold; they didn’t even sneak around back. Some of them walked right onto the porch and kicked down the door in broad daylight. And those I-have-an-alarm signs didn’t detract most thieves in the hood, because they knew that when push came to shove, and a person had to decide between feeding their kids and paying an ADT bill. ADT would lose every time.

“You got your tools?” Bobby-Ray asked Gimme-Jimmy. They called him gimme because he was the kind of burglar who would come to your house, steal everything that would sell and then take the worthless I-have-an-alarm sign out of the person’s front yard and go sell that to someone too.

“I don’t leave home without them,” Gimme-Jimmy told him. He went to work on the sliding glass door, and within minutes, he had popped the lock and opened the door. But they soon found out that the sign in the front wasn’t just for show as the alarm sounded the minute the door opened.

Jimmy quickly found the keypad. And then shook his head. “It’s legit. We got to get out of here with the quickness.”

“Cover me,” Bobby-Ray told Jimmy. I’m not leaving here until I get who I came for.” He and Tony, his right hand man, made their way up the stairs, going from room to room, looking for their prey.

 

The alarm jolted Donavan out of his sleep. He hopped up and hit the panic button and then went to the walk-in closet to grab his bat. He’d had that alarm for a year and had never once heard it go off in the middle of the night. Donavan was just glad that his wife and kids were at Iona’s house because he was going to get some baseball practice in on whoever tried to come through his door.

The door opened and Donavan swung like he was Hank Aaron trying to prove that he belonged in the Major League. The guy went down and stayed down. Donavan was feeling good and ready to take on the next guy through the door, but that’s when Donavan noticed the gun in Bobby-Ray’s hand.

“What are you doing, Bobby-Ray? I thought this was settled between our families a long time ago.”

Holding the gun square at Donavan’s chest, Bobby-Ray told him, “I don’t have a problem with you. My son likes you a lot. Even told me that he’s planning on becoming a preacher. But now, your father… oh yeah, I’ve got beef with him. And Lou has a beef with your brother. Seems like you are just caught in the middle.”

“There is no middle when it comes to my family.”

“I’m glad you feel that way, because we are going to see them in a matter of minutes. Now come on, let’s go.” Bobby-Ray, kicked Tony in the side to see if the man would wake up. When he still didn’t stir, he told Donavan, “I can either shoot you here and you can lay on this floor with Tony, waiting for the police to show up. Or we can get moving for the family reunion. It’s up to you.”

~~~~

“How do you know so much about Candy?” Isaac asked while trying to figure out their next move.

“She came to see me a few years ago. Asked if I would represent her if she ever got arrested, but I knew that the FBI had her gang under surveillance because Johnny was on the surveillance team. So I told her I wouldn’t be able to represent her, but she knows things, Daddy.”

“From the looks of her, she’s probably forgotten more than she knows,” Isaac said with a doubtful expression.

“The drugs might have taken over, but this girl is smart. She’d even tried to give me a key, said she’d put some important papers in a safe deposit box.”

“No wonder Lou wants her dead. This woman could really bring him down.”

“Lou Jones doesn’t need Candy’s help, his greed is bringing him down.”

“What do you mean? Is something else going on that I don’t know about?”

“I can’t tell you the whole story right now, but just trust me, he won’t be on the streets for long.”

Isaac was glad to hear it, because he didn’t want to worry about Ikee every time he stepped a foot out of the house. Once Lou was behind bars, he prayed that his influence on the streets wouldn’t be worth anything. If the police seized everything he had and he went in the prison system with nothing to use to barter, nobody was going to listen to his hard luck story and take action. And he could forget about anyone on the streets having his back. No money, meant no friends.

“Do you mind talking to Candy to see if she’s ready to cooperate with the authorities so that they can put Lou away for good?”

“I’ll see what I can do.” Iona grinned at her father and then said, “I told you that y’all needed me over here.”

“We always need you, Iona, you are my heart. But we don’t need you with guns ablazing. We can leave that to Johnny and the police to carry that heavy burden.”

“Whatever,” Iona said while walking out of the kitchen. “Bet not nobody start nothing, or I’m going to show them what my husband taught me.”

Isaac shook his head. Saved or not, out of all his children, his daughter was the most like him. He just prayed that nobody was dumb enough to test his daughter tonight… Just a few more hours and this would be over.

~~~~

“Bobby-Ray, you did the thang on this one.” Lou was grinning from ear to ear. “When you first started popping off about a way to get to the old man, I just thought you was blowing smoke. But you done brought me, Donavan.”

“You don’t like to listen, but I knew where Donavan stayed because my baby-mama has taken our kid to some of the yard parties he’s thrown for the youth group. My son really likes Donavan too.”

“I hope Isaac likes his son and is willing to make a trade, because they just swooped down and made off with Candy before I could take care of that situation.”

“I wonder what they wanted with Candy.”

Lou shook his head. “I have no idea. But we can ask him, once we find him.”

Pointing toward Donavan, whose hands and feet were tied up, Bobby-Ray said, “I brought you Donavan. We can get the old man’s address from him.”

A sinister smile crept across his rat-like face. He strutted over to Donavan, like a man who knew he held all power in his hands. “Look what the dog dragged in.” Lou lifted his foot and landed a swift kick against Donavan’s rib cage.

Donavan didn’t say a word. He just looked at Lou as if to say, Bring it.

“Don’t think that I’ve forgotten about the money you stole from my dad. Well, tonight you’re going to pay up.”

“I gave that money back, but your dad was too crazy to accept it. He caused his own demise and you’re about to do the same.”

Smirking at him, Lou said, “From where I’m standing, it looks like the Walker family is about to finally be demolished. And you can all thank little Ikee for what I’m about to do to each and every one of you.”

Lou took off his coat and bounced around like he was getting ready for the fight of his life. “Now,” he said as he glanced back at Donavan. “I need your father’s address.”

Donavan knew what was coming if he didn’t comply, but he was a Walker and he didn’t roll over for nobody. Especially not some slime trying to take his family down. “People in hell want a way of escape, but they ain’t getting it.”

The first blow almost knocked Donavan unconscious. By the second and third, Donavan wished he would pass out. Then at least Lou wouldn’t get his sick pleasure from the agony he witnessed on Donavan’s face.

~~~~

Iona gave Ikee a hug and then punched him in the chest. “Next time, maybe you’ll listen.”

Ikee doubled over and coughed, then said, “Why you got to be so violent? I’m dealing with enough already, don’t you think?”

She ignored him as she sat down across from Candy. Iona looked at the woman and said a quick prayer for her; she looked like she’d smoked so much crack that her heart could explode at any moment. Why people played around with drugs in the first place was a true mystery to Iona. There were so many things to spend money on that were more beneficial, like, food, clothing and paying a mortgage. But Iona suspected that those things didn’t matter when your mind was clouded by drugs.

“Hi Candy, my name is Iona Walker. Do you remember coming to my office about two years ago?”

Candy had been nodding off and she struggled to focus her eyes on Iona. It took a minute but then she lifted a finger in Iona’s direction. “You wouldn’t help me.”

“It wasn’t so much that I wouldn’t help you… I couldn’t help you at that time because there was a conflict of interest.”

“A conflict of what?” Candy was still trying to come back where the rest of the world lived.

“I really need you to focus on what I’m saying. Okay?”

Candy nodded, then said, “I’m just so sleepy.”

Nina sat down next to Candy and put an arm around the young woman. Nina’s gentle touch seemed to revive her, if only for the moment.

“The reason it was a conflict of interest was because I knew that my husband was investigating Lou and his organization. I knew that it was only a matter of time before the FBI would close Lou down. I couldn’t tell you that then, but since it has already begun—and now it appears that Lou is trying to kill anyone who might have evidence against him—I figured you might want to tell the police what you know in order to get Lou off the streets.”

Candy shook her head. “I don’t know nothing about Lou’s business.”

“That’s not what you said when you came to see me,” Iona reminded her.

Candy eyed her, and then said, “But wasn’t that . . .,” she popped her fingers, trying to come up with the word “privileged.”

“You’re not my client, so that wouldn’t apply, but I will not repeat anything you and I talk about unless I’m subpoenaed. But you should tell what you know.”

Candy shook her head and tightened her lips.

“Lou just tried to kill you. Don’t you want him off the street?”

“He loves me,” Candy cried. “Lou wouldn’t kill me.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Sixteen

 

Isaac felt sorry for Candy. She reminded him of Valerie, a woman he had dated and never intended to do right by, but Valerie remained down for him. She knew more about his organization than any other woman he’d dealt with. Valerie could have brought him down, but instead, she died trying to protect him. Isaac prayed that Candy wouldn’t die a foolish death for a man who had long ago lost interest in her.

The phone rang as he was pondering how to get Candy to see the truth. At three in the morning, Isaac figured the call must be important so he picked up. “Hello?”

“Is Mr. or Mrs. Walker in?”

Isaac stared at the receiver. There was no way he was getting a sales call at this time of night. But who else would be so formal when calling. “This is Isaac. How can I help you?”

“This is your alarm company. We’re calling to inform you that the alarm went off at…,” the woman read off the address of the home. “The police arrived and the resident was not at home, but they did find the assailant there and unconscious.”

The address the woman read off was Donavan’s. Isaac paid the monthly fee for the alarm system at both Donavan’s and Iona’s homes so that if anything went down, he would be notified without jumping through a thousand hoops. “And you’re positive that the owner of the home was not there when the police arrived?”

“That is the information we received back.”

Fury was growing in Isaac. They had taken his son. He took his anger out on the dispatcher. “I thought you were supposed to call me the moment the police were dispatched to either home listed on my profile.”

“I’m sorry, sir. This has been an especially busy night. But we contacted the police immediately.”

Ikee walked into the kitchen as Isaac slammed the phone down on the counter. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

“They broke into Donavan’s house and took him.”

“Are you sure, Dad? Maybe Donavan is on his way here.”

Isaac shook his head. “He’s not… but I’m on my way to find Lou.”

Ikee grabbed his cell phone off the counter. “Wait Dad. Maybe we don’t have to go looking for Lou. We just might be able to get him to come to us.”

~~~~

“Let up on him, Lou. You’re going to kill him before we can get anything out of him,” Bobby-Ray told him.

“He won’t talk, what do you want me to do?” Lou was enjoying himself. Donavan had made a fool of his father and now he was getting the ultimate revenge. Actually, Lou didn’t think his revenge would be complete until he extinguished the whole Walker clan. When he was a kid he remembered hearing his daddy tell stories about Isaac Walker. He’d always thought those stories were too big, too fantasy-like to be true. But then one day his dad stopped telling those stories. Something had happened, but Mickey never wanted to talk about it. So, he knew that Isaac had done something unspeakable to his father. Well, tonight was pay back.

“Are you going to give me that address or not?”

Donavan’s eye was swollen shut and his jaw felt like lead. He was about to die; he could see it coming. He closed his eyes and prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive me.” And then he blacked out.

~~~~

“Look at God. He knows what he’s doing even when we don’t. I’m so glad I let you keep that cell phone. Now hand it here.”

Ikee showed Isaac the number that belonged to Lou. Isaac pushed it and waited, praying that Lou would answer.

On the first ring, he said, “Lord Jesus.” Second ring, “Please, Father God,” third ring, “Bring my son back to me.”

“Yeah, what?” Lou said.

“You have something that belongs to me. I want him back tonight.” Isaac’s voice was calm, but there was no mistaking the demand.

“No problem,” Lou said.

“Where are you? I’ll come and get him.

“It’s not going to work like that. You don’t give the orders. My daddy ain’t your runner no more and neither am I. Give me your address. I’m coming there to get what belongs to me.”

“What do you want?” Isaac asked.

“You know what I want. I’ll bring Donavan. But I’m exchanging him for Candy and Ikee.”

Here we go again, Isaac thought as his mind drifted back to the day he had made an enemy of Lou’s father, Mickey Jones.

 

Back in the day…

This was Isaac’s last morning as a federally mandated, underpaid license plate maker. Most would have been elated. But Isaac needed time to think. Time to put together what his new life outside of prison would look like. So as the morning bell shook the prison walls, and hundreds of men stood to be loosed from the cells that held them bound, Isaac continued to rub his chin and ponder. He stretched his well-toned chocolate body and exhaled. Isaac was in an uncomfortable place. He’d given his life to Jesus and meant every word of his declaration. But did he really have what it took to live for the Lord outside the confines of prison?

Isaac wanted so badly to walk upright before the One who claimed his soul, and to be forgiven by the one who had claimed his heart oh so many years ago. Sweet Nina Lewis, his baby’s mama. He thought he was strong, until she taught him how to withstand the storms of life. Thought he had all the answers, until she taught him how to bow his knee, and wait on God to bring the answer.

The bell stopped ringing and his cell unlocked. In about an hour, he would be released. Isaac made up his cot, and then got on his knees. Most of the inmates joked about Isaac’s morning routine. But Isaac could find nothing routine about his relationship with Jesus.

“Oh Father, here I am, the one You cleansed. Thank You for being so faithful. Thank You for loving me in spite of all the things I’ve done. You’re great and mighty, Lord. Help me to walk upright before You—You are a holy God. And You require Your servants to be holy. May my life bring You glory. May I never grieve the Holy Spirit You have placed in me.”

For some odd reason, he looked at his hands. Hands that had caused mass destruction. Hands that had destroyed not-so-innocent lives. “This is my pledge to You, Lord. I will never use these hands to destroy Your people again. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.”

After communing with his Savior, he walked through the morning mechanically. Didn’t even notice the plaster falling from the walls, the scratchy soap as he showered and shaved. He said his final goodbyes without catching a whiff of the mixture of urine, humidity and sweat that clung to the air. “You keep walking with Jesus,” his old cellmate, told him.

T-bone strutted over to him. “Don’t worry about the prison ministry. I’m in this joint for another year at least. I’ll hold it together.”

Isaac picked up the Bible and an assortment of workbook materials the chaplain had given him. “You’ll need this stuff.”

He walked away. No looking back, no regrets. He’d served his time and did God’s will while in prison. Time for a new chapter. He’d received letters from countless preachers over the last year. Many had heard about the revival going on in this place.

He was grateful for all that God allowed him to do while in prison. But right now his son, Donavan, and Nina were on his mind. He wasn’t sure if Nina could let go of the past and accept him back into her life. But he would do anything to make that happen. He tried to convince her that he was different every time she brought his son for a visit. But Nina made it clear that she wasn’t interested, and was only there to provide Donavan a ride home.

He picked up his two-hundred-dollar check for five years of service. Isaac owed a lot of back child support. How was he supposed to pay what he owed with two hundred dollars? His hand tightened around the check. He wanted to ball it up and throw it in the guard’s smug face, but that would go against his pledge to God. The prison doors opened. He felt like Mel Gibson in Braveheart, screaming FREEDOM!

He put the check in his pocket and walked out. Walking up the street toward the pick-up zone, the brisk March wind swirled around him. He zipped his jacket and stuffed his hands in his pockets, all the while hoping that Keith, his best friend for more than two decades would not be late. Entering the pick-up zone, Isaac spotted a broken down Ford Taurus, a red Lincoln Navigator with spinners and a black and gray Cadillac Seville. Keith was in none of them. The guy in the Navigator got out and headed over to him.

His smile showed off his gold plated mouth. His jeweled hands seemed out of place with his baggy Nike jogging suit.

“Isaac, my man. How’s it going?” He offered his hand. “I’ve been out here over an hour waiting on you to pop that spot.”

Isaac glanced at the outstretched hand, then sucked his teeth while sizing up the hustler in front of him.

The hustler conceded. He put his hand down, rubbing it on the side of his pants. “You don’t remember me? I’m Mickey.” He put his hands in the air, indicating someone about chest level to where he now stood. “Remember little Mickey Jones? I worked for you on Williams Street.”

Mickey had gotten taller. At six feet he now stood eye to eye with Isaac. Isaac remembered him, but with recognition came a flood of memories. The Williams Street turf war was the source of Isaac’s nightmares. The whole thing was wicked from the start. Isaac had been losing money on Williams Street. A quick investigation told him that a hustler named Ray-Ray had moved in on his turf. By the time the episode was over, Isaac had been shot, Valerie, one of his girls, and Ray-Ray were dead. The only good memory he had of that night was of Nina birthing his son.

“Yeah, Mickey, I remember you.” They did the Black man’s handshake. Isaac’s head nodded in the direction of the Navigator. “I see you’ve come up in the world.”

His gold teeth glistened as he smiled. “Well, you know, I couldn’t be a runner forever. You taught me better than that.”

“You can’t stay in the game forever, Mickey. The game gets played out, one way or another.”

Mickey shook his head. “Nobody ran them streets like you did. You ain’t played out, Isaac. That’s why I came to get you.”

A silver Mercedes pulled up next to the Navigator.

Mickey continued. “I already got you a house.” He handed Isaac the keys to the Navigator. “I bought it for you. You don’t have to worry about a thing. Me and you, Isaac. We will own the city once again.”

Isaac looked at the keys and studied the jewels on Mickey’s hands. “Looks like you already own it.”

Mickey lit up the friendly skies with his smile again. “Man, there’s room enough for the both of us. I started in this business because of you.”

Isaac flinched. Life would be so sweet if only he didn’t have to think about how many dead men walking he had started in this business.

A suit stepped out of the Mercedes. Armani down to his shoes, with a Sunday go-to-meeting hat on his self-assured head. He trotted his well-to-do self in Isaac’s direction.

“Isaac Walker?”

Isaac turned toward Mr. Well-to-do wondering if he was getting ready to be gifted with a Mercedes next. Isaac didn’t know how much of this he could take.

“That’s me,” Isaac said and the man extended his hand.

Isaac glanced at it, but his hands still felt like resting at his side. There was something about shaking a man’s hand. Isaac didn’t take it lightly. Shaking a man’s hand connected you with him. It said, “I agree with you.” And Isaac wasn’t agreeable all the time.

“I’m Bishop William Sumler. Your friend, Keith asked me to come and pick you up.”

Isaac shook his head. He had to work on his trust issues. He took Bishop Sumler’s hand and shook it gladly. “I thought Keith was picking me up.”

“He had some car trouble. I told him that I wanted to meet you in person anyway. So I made the trip for him.”

Mickey got fidgety. Started looking around. “Look, Isaac, can we get going? I really don’t want to hang around this place any longer than necessary.”

Bishop Sumler eyed Mickey as he moved a little closer to Isaac. “Is this young man a friend of yours?”

“Yeah,” Isaac told him. “Me and Mickey go way back. As a matter-of-fact,” Isaac lifted the keys in his hand. “Mickey just brought me a car to roll out of here in.”

Bishop Sumler’s high yellow cheeks reddened. “So you don’t need a ride?”

“That’s not what I said.” Isaac plopped the keys back in Mickey’s hand. “Thanks for the offer. But I’m a new man now. I can’t go back to life as usual.”

Bishop Sumler put a possessive hand on Isaac’s shoulder. “God is pleased with you. Just keep looking to Him for answers.”

“That’s what I intend to do.” Isaac smiled at Mickey. “Thanks for looking out for me. I’ll catch up with you another time—shoot the breeze or something.”

Mickey backed away. “All right, man. But if you change your mind, you know where to find me.”

“Didn’t I always?”

Mickey gave a small, nervous laugh. “Yeah, I guess you did.” He opened the door to his Navigator. “Well, keep holding it down. I’ll see you on the other side.”

“I sure hope so,” Isaac said, even though he knew they were thinking of two different sides. Mickey wanted to see Isaac back on the gang-banging drug dealing side. While the side Isaac hoped to see Mickey on had pearly gates and streets of gold.

 

Mickey had smiled at him and wished him well that day. But then he’d come after Donavan, thinking that Isaac wouldn’t do anything about it. Things hadn’t gone quite the way Mickey planned and Isaac was praying that Lou would soon discover what the word of God meant when it said, “touch not my anointed and do my prophet no harm.”

Isaac rushed back into the family room; he told Nina to take Ikee and get out of the house.

“No, Dad,” Ikee said. “I created this mess. I’m not leaving you and Donavan to deal with it without me.”

“What’s going on?” Nina jumped out of her seat.

Isaac couldn’t lie to his wife, no matter how much he wanted to spare her from the realities of what she signed up for when she decided to love him, in spite of his past. “Lou kidnapped Donavan. He’s on his way here because he wants to trade Donavan for Ikee and Candy.”

“Lou is coming to get me?” Candy said with excitement in her voice.

Isaac wasn’t going to spare this girl this badly needed jolt of reality. So, he said, “Yes, he’s own his way. He’s asked me to give you and Ikee to him so he can kill the both of you. Now do you understand that this man does not love you anymore?”

Candy didn’t answer. She put her duffle bag in her lap, then lowered her head and started crying.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Seventeen

 

Nina grabbed the bible and then quickly turned to Proverbs chapter three and read for all their hearing: Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

After reading those words she went upstairs to her bedroom and sent out a chain email and text messages to the prayer warriors she associated with. Isaac had his way of doing battle and Nina had hers. If her prayer warriors would get out of bed and go to war with her, they would win this fight. Not by power, not by might, but the spirit of the Lord shall rise up and help them fight another battle. Nina was sure of it, so she turned on praise music and began walking the length of the room, singing praises to her God.

Isaac came into their bedroom with Ikee. He stopped and stared at his wife for a moment. Even after all these years, she was still so beautiful to him. Her spirit was so in tune with God that Isaac sometimes worried that the Lord would send a chariot down here for her, she’s jumped on and then ride it all the way to heaven, leaving him his to deal with all the problems he’d created in the world.

“I want you to get out of the house, Nina. I already have Ikee refusing to leave… please don’t be just as stubborn as the rest of us.”

“What can I say, Isaac. I guess you just rubbed off on the entire family.” Nina walked over to her husband and put her arms around him. “You need me here, honey. And I need to be here. This battle belongs to the Lord and I’m going to pray until we get the victory.”

He wasn’t going to talk her into leaving. And they didn’t have much time left before Lou and his gang would get to the house anyway. “Then promise me that no matter what happens, you’ll stay in this room. Don’t try to be a hero. Okay?”

She touched her husband’s handsome face. “I’m no hero, husband. But Spiderman, Iron Man and the rest of them don’t have anything on the Hero I serve.”

Isaac stepped over to the bed and picked up the tasers and pepper spray he’d taken out of the closet earlier. He handed one of each to Ikee and then showed him how to use each one.

“I didn’t know we had these.” Ikee was fascinated by his new toys.

“Remember, son, we are not destroyers. We want abundant life for everyone we come in contact with, but that doesn’t mean we won’t defend our home and our family.”

Ikee nodded. “Gotcha.”

Before leaving the bedroom, Isaac handed Nina a taser and some pepper spray as well. “If someone comes through this door, blast ‘em with everything you’ve got.”

She took them from her husband, so that he would have a little less to worry about. But the moment he left the room and shut the bedroom door, she threw the weapons on the bed and kept praying and praising. Yes, Nina was aware that they were in a fight with a human, but she also knew there was an evil force guiding that human. She and Isaac could do nothing with that force, so she was calling on a legion of angels to come down from heaven and take care of business.

~~~~~

Brogan and Luke were already on the job. But they could feel the force of a thousand demons marching their way. In his attempt to whitewash his past, Isaac hadn’t ventured into the hood on a salvation hunt in many years. Oh, he ministered to the inhabitants once they found their own way to his church, but he chose not to go to the source and loose the captives, so the enemy had grown stronger and had multiplied during those years. Brogan and Luke would need help if they were going to come out victorious this night.

“Are you ready?” Luke asked Brogan.

Brogan drew his sword. “I have fought many battles for Isaac Walker. I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t be ready to not only fight, but to win.”

“They’re getting closer, Brogan. I know you say we will win, but if we don’t get more help…”

Brogan smiled as he told Luke, “You hear the sound of demons marching our way, but I hear the sound of prayer. Trust me, old friend, help is on the way.”

~~~~

While Nina prayed, Isaac took his spot on the porch to wait for Lou to arrive. Isaac had bullet resistant windows installed in his home a long time ago. He had lived a hard life. And turf wars had been a part of his existence. Stray bullets had hit people that had been close to him more times than he cared to think about. So, even though he was no longer in the drug life, Isaac always thought of safety first and had set up certain protections, like being the point of contact for the alarm company, and bullet resistance windows with a brick structure. No one was coming into his house that he didn’t want in there.

It wasn’t that he didn’t trust God, quite the opposite, Isaac trusted God with everything that he had; he just didn’t trust man. He saw car lights down the street, making their way toward him and Isaac got the feeling that this normally quiet street was about to get the shock of its life. He would be hearing from the Homeowners Association about this.

~~~~

 

Nina’s prayer warriors hadn’t let her down, and with all the prayer and praise making its way up to heaven, God loosed a platoon of angels to assist Brogan and Luke.

Once Brogan’s help had arrived, he lifted his sword as he told the other warrior angels, “I hear the sound of destruction coming our way. But I see no reason to just sit here and wait on them. Let’s take the fight to them!”

A mountain load of demons were slithering their way. These demons knew that Isaac Walker had the protection of God and had stayed away from him and his family while he stayed away from them. But once Ikee went over into their territory, they had been given free rein. But Brogan was about to interrupt this party.

Luke walked next to him as they got closer. He scrunched his nose and asked Brogan, “Do you smell that?”

Brogan nodded. “Death; it’s all around us.”

Jaundiced green eyes cast menacing glances from their perch on tree branches as they watched the army of the Lord boldly walk into their encampment. One of the small monkey-like imps flapped its black wings trying to signal the others that trouble was approaching. But they were all too busy getting rowdy, raising their fists and swords and talking about crushing some heads and doing damage to notice that a host of angels had just swooped down on them.

Brogan looked at the sea of angels that had entered the encampment with him and said, “We came here together, I’m praying that each of us lives to fight another day. So let’s get in and get out while we still have prayer support.” Brogan lifted his sword and the other angels did the same as he yelled, “For all that is holy and all that is right!”

And with that, the angels charged toward their enemies.

~~~~

“Does your mother really think all that praying is going to stop Lou from killing every last one of us, if that’s what he wants to do?” Candy asked Iona while running her shaky hand over her duffle bag.

Iona was sitting next to the window that overlooked the porch. She had a gun in her hand as she said, “You don’t get it do you?”

Candy shrugged as if to say, Get what?

“The Bible tells us that when we face adversity, that the battle is not ours, but it belongs to God… He will fight for us.”

Pointing at the gun in Iona’s hand, “Candy asked, “If you believe that God is fighting this battle, then why do you have that gun?”

Iona wanted to say, Don’t judge me. But instead she told her, “I’m a firm believer that God uses humans as well as angels. And if He wants to use me tonight to protect my father, I’m going to be ready.”

“Another thing I don’t understand about this family…,” Candy began. The drugs were wearing off and she was becoming curious. “…why did your father and brother risk their lives to save me tonight? I mean, look at me. I’m worth less than nothing. My own family don’t want me around. I’m probably better off dead.”

“If that’s what you think, you’ll probably be dead before long anyway,” Iona told her. “But if you can think back to a time when you knew for sure that God had you on the planet for a reason, and then fight to get back to that… you just might live to see another day.”

“If I do live to see another day, what am I supposed to do with it?”

Ikee walked back into the room and before Iona could answer the question he suggested, “Why don’t you pray? If I had done more of what my mom is upstairs doing, my family wouldn’t be in the trouble we’re in right now.”

Candy turned away from Ikee. She couldn’t stand to look at him in her sober state. “You think I’m trash, I don’t know why you even came after me tonight.”

He walked over to her. Stood right in front of her and looked at her as if she was someone who mattered and not some monstrous thing jonesing for a fix. “I think that offering your body for drugs is a trashy thing to do. I also think that selling drugs is a trashy thing to do.” He pointed at himself, “I made that mistake. But my parents didn’t throw me away like I thought they had. And I don’t think God has thrown you away. So, stop doing it to yourself.”

A car pulled up and they heard a guttural sound escape Isaac’s mouth as he yelled out, “What did you do to my son?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Eighteen

 

Brogan was the first to slice through the crowd of demons. His mighty sword gutted two demons at once. And then a mighty battle cry soared through the sea of angels that pierced the very core of heaven as the angels attacked.

The leader of the demons stalked toward Brogan and demanded, “Why are you here? What have we to do with you?”

“We are sent by the Lord. You will not prevail against the man of God,” Brogan told him as he lifted his sword and positioned himself to fight.

“It’s over with. Face it, Isaac Walker’s family will be destroyed tonight, so tell your men to back off.”

But Brogan wasn’t in the mood to listen to demon spawn. He took his sword and split the monster in half and then moved on to cut down as many demons as he could find.

Luke wasn’t sleeping on the job either. He swooped down on a group of demons. The surprise of seeing this magnificent warrior angel left the gorilla-monster-like demons in mouth dropping, slime oozing surprise. Luke wasted no time in slicing them from gullet to gut.

None of the angels were being shy about handling their business. In no time at all the multitude of demons had been banished back to the abyss. When they were finished, Brogan sheathed his sword as he sniffed the air. It was clear.

“Isaac Walker ought to be able to handle Lou now that he doesn’t have the help of those demons bolstering him on.”

“I have no doubt. We have cleared the way. And Isaac will now be able to take on his enemy as well.”

~~~~

Lou and Bobby-Ray stepped out of the car. They took pleasure in the pain etched on Isaac’s face. “What’s wrong?” Lou asked gleefully, “Don’t you recognize him?”

Isaac didn’t care what happened to him, but he wasn’t in the mood to ask for permission to open the car door and get his son. If it was locked, he was going to snatch it off the hinges. The way he was feeling at this very moment, he could choke Lou and Bobby-Ray with his bare hands and send them off to hell where they belonged.

The door opened. Lou said, “I didn’t give you permission to open that.”

He tried to take the door handle out of Isaac’s hand but Isaac turned around and zapped him with a taser and then in the next second he sprayed Bobby-Ray with the pepper spray. “Back off,” Isaac told them as if he was the one with the gun rather than some spray and a taser.

While Isaac was untying Donavan’s legs, Lou pulled out his gun and tried to shoot Isaac. Ikee ran outside and tased Lou again.

“Help me get your brother in the house.” Isaac pulled Donavan out of the car. Ikee grabbed hold of Donavan’s arm and helped him move towards the house while Donavan moaned at every step. “Keep going,” Isaac told them. “Don’t stop.”

Bobby-Ray looked like he was recovering from the pepper spray so Isaac zapped him while he made his way towards the house behind his sons. Lou recovered from the zap Ikee gave him, and got off the ground again, dazed and a little confused about why his gun wasn’t shooting since he had pulled the trigger numerous times.

“Forget it,” Lou said as he took the butt of the gun and cracked Isaac over the head with it. Isaac went down like a lead balloon.

As Ikee and Donavan burst through the door, Iona rushed into the room, and aimed her gun at Lou as he stood over her father. “Don’t even try it.”

“What you gon’ do?” Lou barked. “It’s not like you can hold that gun on me and Bobby-Ray. And if I don’t get what I came here for, trust me, one of us is going to shoot this old man.”

The front door opened wider and Candy stood next to Iona, her duffle bag slung on her arm while her hand was inside the bag. “Did you come all the way out here for me, Lou? You want me to get in the car so you can try to shoot me?”

“What are you talking about?” Lou looked innocent. “I didn’t try to shoot you.”

She dropped the bag, aimed the gun that was in her hand at him and pulled the trigger. “I wasn’t trying to shoot you either.” And then she shot him again.

~~~~

“This is 911, what’s your emergency?”

“I don’t know what’s going on outside; people are yelling and screaming. My husband is scheduled to perform surgery on a very sick woman in a few hours. He needs his sleep.”

“Thank you for calling, ma’am. We’ll send someone to your neighborhood.

The next call to 911 was more frantic. “I just heard the sound of gun fire. This shouldn’t be happening in our neighborhood. I want the police here immediately.”

The third caller screamed, “Help us! We are in the middle of some turf gang war or something.”

The 911 operator said, “Ma’am, the police have already been dispatched.”

“Well send more. Something terrible is happening at the black people’s house next door.”

~~~~

Nina heard the shot. She glanced out the window and saw Isaac laying on the ground. “Nooo!” She ran down the stairs, but before she could get outside she saw Donavan, beaten and bruised. He was stretched out on the floor while Ikee dabbed at bloody spots on his face and arms with the wet towel in his hands. Nina screamed.

“I got him, Mama. He came back to us and he’s alive. Praise God,” Ikee added, “he’s alive.”

Nina wanted to stay right there and help Donavan, but Ikee’s words brought her comfort. Her son had come back to them, and although bruised, he was alive. Now she needed to know if her husband was still alive.

As she stepped onto the porch, Nina first heard the sirens. Then she saw Iona holding a gun on one of the men. Candy was picking up Lou’s gun as he hopped around, screaming about being shot in the arm and leg.

Nina ignored the entire scene unfolding on her front porch, all she was concerned about was the man lying on the ground, not moving… her man. Nina slid down on the ground next to Isaac and lifted his head onto her lap. “Somebody call an ambulance.”

 

Nina wrung her hands as she paced the floor of the intensive care unit. She didn’t know what to do but to call out to the One she had trusted since childhood. She left her family and went to the hospital chapel to pray. The place was empty; she sat on one of the pews, alone with Jesus, and gazed up at the wooden cross that was suspended from the wall above the altar.

Tears welled in her eyes and began sliding down her cheeks. Her beloved husband and son had both been rushed to the hospital. Isaac still hadn’t woken up and Donavan was having a broken arm and cracked ribs attended to. Both of them could have been killed and Nina was at a loss for understanding this one. They had lived for God for a long time, but these people kept coming after them. Looking directly at the cross, Nina screamed out loud, “Why is this happening?”

She got down on her knees, steepled her hands, and then began pouring her heart out to the Lord. “I don’t understand any of this, Lord. We did it right this time. We raise Ikee with knowledge of you, and no knowledge of the street life. But he still gravitated to the streets and my family is suffering once again. I want to be done with these people. Let someone else drag these gang bangers out of the muck they wallow in. I’m tired of sacrificing my family for the very people who keep coming after us.”

She had told Isaac that she believed in his ministry, but after the way those monster attacked her son and her husband, Nina had had enough. Her heart could take no more. “Help us, Lord. Because if You don’t help us, I don’t know what we’re going to do. If Isaac or Donavan suffers complications and dies, Ikee will be devastated… and I will be destroyed.” A jolt of pain went through her body, and she closed her eyes. She started weeping again as she tried to form the words that were in her heart. She was so overcome with sadness that all she could say was, “I trust You, Lord.”

Nina stayed on the floor, hoping to hear from God, but after about thirty minutes of hearing only the sound of her sobs, she dried her face on her sleeve and stood up. She hadn’t heard God’s voice audibly, but she was confident that He had heard her prayers, and that knowledge alone was enough.

She headed back to the ICU, praying that Isaac’s condition had changed for the better since she’d been gone. As she rounded the corner and started down the final stretch of hallway, she could see Diana standing at the nurses’ station. The frantic look on her face mirrored how Nina was feeling. Nina rushed over to her as the nurse buzzed her into the ICU. “Oh honey, I’m so sorry that we had to call with such horrible news.”

Diana hugged her mother-in-law as the tears stained her face. “If I would have known something like this was going to happen, I never would have left the house. I wish he had let us stay with him tonight.”

“And then we’d have another loved one in the hospital.”

“I can’t lose him, Nina. I just cannot lose my husband.” She touched her belly. “I didn’t even get a chance to tell him that I’m expecting again.” Diana sobbed as Nina provided a shoulder for her to cry on.

“He’s going to be okay,” Nina assured Diana. “The doctors are putting a cast on his arm and he has some cracked ribs, but Donavan is strong. He survived what those animals did to him and he will survive this healing process.” Nina was absolutely positive that her son would survive.

They started walking down the hall headed to the waiting area where Iona and Ikee were seated. Diana said, “Forgive me, Nina. I didn’t even ask how Isaac is doing.”

Nina tried to smile, but her lip trembled at her attempt. “He’s still out,” Nina said. “We’re just waiting on him to wake up, and then we’ll know…then we’ll know.” They stopped walking, and Diana provided a shoulder to cry on. Once she calmed herself, Nina was embarrassed at the display of weakness. “Look at me, blubbering all over you like I don’t have any faith at all.”

“Hey,” Diana halted Nina’s apology. “You don’t have to be so strong for us all the time. God is not going to take away His love if you fall apart with the rest of us just once.”

~~~~

Isaac was with his mother and his brother Donavan. They were laughing and joking just as they had done when he was a kid… but only when his daddy wasn’t home. When daddy came home all the laughter stopped. And the house became like a horror movie.

But Isaac wanted to stop laughing because he wanted to warn his mother that she needed to get away from daddy, because he was going to kill her. And he wanted to warn Donavan about the street… tell him to stay away from crap games, because he was going to get himself killed. But the words wouldn’t come out of his mouth. He just kept playing and laughing with them as if the world was this perfect place where mothers didn’t get attacked and murdered, and brothers didn’t die early deaths in alleyways.

“Help them, Lord.” But even as he mumbled those words, Isaac knew it was too late. He couldn’t help his family. His mother waved at him as she went back inside that house of horrors. “No, don’t go in there,” Isaac screamed, but she wasn’t listening.

He swung around looking for his brother. Isaac looked on in utter terror as he saw Donavan pick up those dice and head toward the alley.

Isaac turned angry eyes toward heaven. He screamed at the Lord, “If you won’t let me help them, why am I here? I don’t want to watch them die all over again.”

“They are gone,” Isaac heard the Lord say to him.

Then as if his body was being turned in a thousand different directions, images of men, women and children drifted by. Their faces were hollow, with no life and no laughter in them. These people lived a hard street life, and they were walking by him, and Isaac was doing nothing to change their circumstances.

“You forgot your first love.”

“How can you say that, Lord? My church is still in the neighborhood. I minister to any and all who come. It’s not my fault that hustlers would rather sleep in on Sunday morning.”

Isaac didn’t get a response to that, and then the images left him as everything went dark again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Nineteen

 

After sitting in the waiting room for hours, they were finally allowed to see Donavan. Ikee was beside himself with grief. His brother’s face was swollen, his arm was in a cast and his ribs were bandaged. “I wish I had stayed at the house with you. Then they would have just taken me and left you alone.”

“Don’t talk like that… would have killed you,” Donavan told his brother through swollen lips.

Nina put her arm around Ikee and let him lean on her as he broke down and cried. “I’m sorry, Mama.”

Nina didn’t know what to say to her son, because he was, in fact, the reason that Donavan and Isaac were in the hospital. But she didn’t want Ikee to feel any worse than he did right now. Her baby was growing up, he was getting to the point where he didn’t need his mother. But for today, he needed her shoulder to lean on, and she would be here for him as long as necessary.

After about ten minutes, the group left Donavan’s room so that Diana could spend a few minutes alone with her husband. Nina went into the room with Isaac and sat down next to his bed. They had been here before when a vendetta against him caused Iona to be kidnapped. In the process of getting her back, Isaac had been shot. Nina had thought for sure that she was going to lose her husband that night. She was only thankful that he hadn’t been shot again. There was only so much a body could take, even if that body belonged to Isaac Walker.

“I want you to wake up, do you hear me?”

His silence was hard to take. Nina’s heart ached from the longing to hear her husband’s smooth baritone voice say her name. “I need you here with me, so don’t get any ideas about taking a tour of heaven.”

The early years with Isaac were wild, fast and out of control. She still remembered the first night they met and how hard she’d fallen just because he’d shown her those deep chocolate dimples…

 

Lost in time…

Nina and some of her friends decided to leave the college scene and check out a party on the west side. She had worn her black leather jumpsuit that fit like a second skin and accentuated the curves of her voluptuous boom-boom bootie. The three-inch heels on her black leather knee high boots added extra height to her five-foot frame. The strobe lights moved over her olive skin as she stepped into the crowded room. The men and women turned to stare as her hazel eyes glistened in the light. Her friends headed toward the dance floor. Nina sat at the bar and ordered a Long Island Iced Tea. Cigar smoke assaulted her nostrils as King Puff seated next to her blew cancer into the air. 

Mr. Armani inched his way toward her. His diamond bedecked hands glittered in the air as he sauntered. His suit jacket curved nicely over his muscles. 

“Mmmh, mmh, mh,” she said while running her French manicured fingers through her short-layered hair, Nina turned slightly in his direction to put out the welcome mat. His pace quickened, and before long, he stood looking down at her. 

Honey oozed out of his chocolate-coated mouth as he asked, “Have you been waiting long?” 

She looked into those deep chestnut eyes. Eyes that seemed to read her every thought and intent. Lord, have mercy. “Waiting for what?”

“A man. Someone to take care of you, like you deserve.”

Although a little too bold for Nina’s taste, he spoke just the right words to appease her vanity. Most guys never seemed very appreciative. She deserved better. Yeah, she thought, I have been waiting a long time. “So are you here to rescue me?”

“Why don’t we get to know each other a little better first”—he pulled up a seat next to her–“then we’ll see if you’re worth rescuing.” He flashed a dimpled smile.

Nina thought that smile of his must have driven countless women wild. And she was no different.

 

From that day to this, Nina had always belonged to Isaac Walker. Even in the years she’d wanted nothing to do with him, because God had claimed her heart and he was still in the life… she still hadn’t been able to completely erase the love she felt for the man. Which is why, after a decade of being apart, she finally gave in and took him back. They’d now been married for almost twenty years and Nina wanted twenty more.

~~~~

Johnny had arrived back in town in time to meet Candy at the precinct as she was being charged for shooting Lou Jones. However, the police didn’t really care that she shot Lou twice, she could have filled him full of bullets and they probably would have thrown a party. The charge was leverage.

Johnny sat down in the chair across from Candy and handed her a cup of coffee. “It’s been a long night. I thought you might want something to drink.”

“Thank you,” Candy said as she sipped from the cup.

Johnny opened his notebook, he studied the words on the pages as if he hadn’t written everything on the page himself. “Now, let me see, according to my notes, you have known Lou Jones for a few years, is that correct?”

“Let’s not play games with each other.” Candy put the coffee cup down. “I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. But I want a deal: no jail time and I want access to a good rehab facility.”

“Depending on what you have to offer, we might be able to work a deal.” Johnny was confident that Candy had enough information to put the final nail in Lou’s coffin, but he had to make sure that she wasn’t just blowing smoke.

“I was with Lou while the deals were being made. At one point in our relationship, I handled transactions for him and kept a log of his contacts and the amount of product he purchased each time.”

“Where is this log?”

“The log is in my duffel bag. I used to keep it in a lock box at the bank, but they closed it down when I couldn’t keep up with the payments.”

“Is that all you have?” Johnny asked, as he silently prayed that the log she’d created had survived the test of time.

But Candy surprised him when she said, “Do you remember Shawn Parks and Dion Sampson?”

Johnny knew both names. Shawn Parks had been rolling with the big dogs. Making moves and claiming territory on the west side. He went to Lou once when Shawn came up missing. A year later when the ground was being dug up downtown to make way for a new parking lot, the bodies of Shawn Parks and Dion Sampson had been found with bullet wounds to their heads. Now the police were confused, because Dion hadn’t been in the life, just a good kid on his way to college. “I remember that case.”

“The gun I shot Lou with is the same gun that he used to kill Shawn Parks and Dion Sampson. Only he didn’t really want to kill Dion, because he didn’t know the guy. But Lou was tired of working under Shawn and wanted him gone. Dion just happened to be hanging out with Shawn that night.”

“How did you end up with the gun?”

Candy leaned forward, all business now. “What about my deal… do I have it?”

Johnny wasn’t about to pass up this opportunity. If the ballistics on that gun matched, he wanted Lou to go down for his drug trafficking and for those murders. Lou Jones would never see the outside of a prison again in his lifetime. “I’ll talk it over with the district attorney, but if your information pans out… yeah, you’ve got a deal.”

“I was with Lou when he shot them. He handed me the gun and told me to get rid of it, but I kept it just in case he ever acted a fool on me.”

Johnny stood up. “Drink your coffee, I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Don’t forget to check on the rehab. I’m tired of living like this.”

Johnny stepped out of the room. The district attorney and an undercover cop who’d been working the Lou Jones case with them was standing behind the window watching the interview. “We got him,” Johnny said as he closed the door to the interview room.

DeMarco, the undercover cop said, “I thought for sure this thing had blown up in our faces when Lou sent that teenager to pick up the shipment from me.”

“I got called back home from my assignment so we could figure out a way to get those handcuffs on Lou. And come to find out, my wife was holding a gun on him… and by the way,” Johnny told him. “Your botched job is going to cost me big time at home. My wife will never let me live down the fact that she and Candy took Lou down when we couldn’t.”

“I’m sure you’ll live with it. Especially since I had to meet up with Lou after everything went down, just so I could get him on record admitting that he ordered that shipment from me.” DeMarco took the big fake diamond earring off and opened it, showing a small device. “Thank God they weren’t up on new technology or I’d be dead.”

“You two did good,” the district attorney told them as he turned to leave. “Oh, and tell Candy that she’s got her deal. We’ll need to get her into that rehab right away. I don’t want her looking like a crack head when she takes the stand to tell everything she knows about Lou Jones.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Twenty

 

Scream, Isaac told himself. As he felt that old familiar inferno kind of heat that burned from the inside out. But screams wouldn’t help him now as he was being dragged back into the abyss.  He had thought that he would willingly go through this experience a thousand times or more if it would keep Ikee from ever coming to this place, but he was wrong. He couldn’t endure this place, not even for his son. Oh Lord, help me, they’re trying to take me back!

“Look at you. Big, bad, Isaac Walker crying for help.”

Oh God, not again! Not this again! Sweat drizzled from Isaac’s coal black hair. It dripped from his nose like snot. Could he live through another night of god-awful torment? Evil invaded his space and demanded his attention. 

Destroyer, that old enemy demon taunted him. “Your people caused my demons to be destroyed tonight, and now I’m going to make you pay.”

He didn’t know what demons destroyer was referring to, but that didn’t matter, because Isaac was going to pay for whatever wrongs destroyer felt he’d suffered, so he braced himself and prepared for the blows that were soon to come.

But then he heard someone say, “Leave us. You have no business with him.”

Isaac looked up, knowing immediately that he was hearing the voice of Truth, the one who’d given him a guided tour of hell. He was safe as long as he was with Truth. “Why am I here? I don’t want to be in hell, that’s why I have spent so much of my life serving You.”

“Your services have been noted in heaven, but you’ve been serving Me so long that you forgot your mission.”

Isaac stood up. He bowed before the Lord and then said, “I don’t understand. I am still bringing souls into the kingdom. My ministry is all about witnessing to the lost.”

As Isaac said those words, two of Satan’s henchmen brought his brother’s mangled form into what the demons called the Fun Room. Although the demons had plenty of fun, none of the inhabitants of this room had any. They were too busy having their limbs torn off and being used for target practice to have any fun. They tormented Donavan until he yelled and made the agonizing sound of a man who knew there would be no help coming, no matter how loud the scream.

Isaac fell on his knees. “Help me, Lord. I don’t want to watch this. Please tell me what to do.” A sob caught in his throat. Tears mingled with sweat. 

They left the Fun Room, but the agony didn’t end there; Truth then took him all around this god-forsaken place as if he were a tourist on vacation. But there was nothing about hell that he ever wanted to see again. He didn’t want to see Valerie, Ray-Ray or Lenard. But Truth made sure he visited each of them and hundreds more, until Isaac began to weep for the multitude of gangsters and drug addicted people who found their way to a place like this. “This hurts, Lord. Please make it stop.”

“I can’t, Isaac. Only you and the ones to come after you can make this stop. Because you can tell this people about Me… tell them how much I love them. Truth opened his hands showing the holes where nails had been driven into his hands. Tell them that I died for them and that it breaks My heart to see them come to this place when they don’t have to.”

~~~~

Nina and Iona sat down on one of the couches in the waiting area with Diana. Ikee was hunched in a chair against the wall in a small alcove, his head down, arms wrapped around himself. He looked like a child who’d been placed in the corner for a time-out. 

Diana tilted her head in Ikee’s direction. “Why is he sitting over there?” she asked Nina.

Nina leaned closer to her. “He blames himself,” she whispered, “and the truth is, none of this would have happened if Ikee had just gone to school and done as we told him.”

“That’s a lot of weight for one person to hold on his shoulders.”

“Your brother loves you. He’ll listen. So, instead of going over there and telling him what he already knows, maybe the two of you can figure out the good that can come from this.”

“Are you sure, Nina-Mama… I mean, I don’t want to make him feel worse than he already does.”

“You couldn’t if you tried,” Nina told her with the look of despair.

Iona didn’t know if she could help her little brother. He had done a lot and caused a great deal of pain. She was a daddy’s girl through and through. And if her daddy died because Ikee wanted to be a gang banger, she honestly didn’t know if she would ever look at Ikee the same way again. But Isaac Walker wasn’t dead. He was just getting some much needed rest; he would pull through, so she needed to help Ikee move past this.

She crossed the waiting room and sat down next to her brother. When he looked up at her with questioning eyes, Iona said, “I thought you might need a friend.”

Ikee scoffed. “Are you sure you want to do that? Being in company with me might get you exiled from this family. Even Mama doesn’t know what to say to me. And she always has words of comfort for everybody.”

“That’s not fair, Ikee. Donavan and Daddy are laid up in this hospital because of your actions. Nina-Mama is worried sick so, you can’t expect her to be all things to all people right now. You should be over there trying to hold her up. But you’re too busy feeling sorry for yourself.”

“Hey,” Ikee leaned back, eyeing his sister. “I thought you came over here as a friend.”

Iona playfully punched her brother in the arm. “I’m the kind of friend who tells it like it is.” Reaching over and hugging Ikee, she said, “Nina-Mama needs you to be strong for her. And I’ve got an idea. Why don’t you go over there and offer to lead us in prayer for Donavan and Daddy?”

Twisting his lips Ikee said, “They don’t want me messing up no prayers.”

“I don’t think you’d be messing anything up. And I think Nina-Mama and Diana need just as much support as you do right now. I can see how much you’re hurting, and I know that you love Daddy and Donavan and wouldn’t have wanted anything like this to happen to them. So, do the right thing now, Ikee. Go over there and help your mother to see that things will get better.”

He unfolded his arms and stood up. He slow walked over to where Nina and Diana sat. He stood there for a moment taking in the downtrodden expressions on both his mother’s and sister-in-law’s faces and then said, “I messed up real bad. I understand why Daddy didn’t want to talk about any of the stuff to me; being a drug dealer is nothing to brag about. But Iona and I were over there talking. And it seems to me that instead of all of us sitting out here feeling sorry for ourselves, maybe we should pray.”

There were tears in Nina’s eyes as she stood and embraced her son. “You are so right. We have no business moping around this hospital as if we have no hope. Let’s all pray and let God take care of the rest.” With that said, Iona, Nina, Diana and Ikee held hands and went to God with their petition.

~~~~

Prayer changes things… They were back in Donavan’s room about an hour after the prayer when the nurse burst into the room to inform them that Isaac was woke. Nina kissed Donavan and said, “I’ve got to go see my man. You all stay here.”

But Ikee held onto her arm. “Let me come with you, Mom. I have to see him.”

She nodded, and the two of them left Donavan’s room and rushed down the hall to Isaac’s room. Nina pulled back the curtain and as she stepped into the room, her husband was laying down with his hands behind his head. He grinned at her, showing off those dimples.

And it was as if she were still that young college girl, being swept off her feet all over again. This was her love, forever and a day… until the sun set for both of them. That’s how long their love would last. “I was so worried about you, baby. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t come back to me.”

His voice was groggy as he said, “I’m here, baby… not going anywhere.”

“I don’t know about that,” Nina told him, “because I’ve had my fill of this city. Moving to the suburbs wasn’t far enough. So, the minute you get out of this hospital, we are packing up. Maybe it’s time for us to move to a little farming community. I bet Keith and Cynda would be game for something like that… just us and some chickens.”

“That sounds good,” Isaac said.

Ikee came into the room and hugged his father. “I love you, Dad. I’m so sorry you got hurt.”

Isaac waved that off. “That little bump on the head wasn’t nothing. Believe me, son, I’ve experienced much worse.”

“But still, if it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have gone through any of that stuff with Lou. So, if you and Mama want to move, you won’t get any argument from me. I’ll go wherever you say and I’m going to make you proud. You just wait and see.”

“I’m already proud of you, Ikee. Look at how you cared more about Candy’s life than your own. That was powerful, son.” Isaac turned to his wife. He reached out for her hand. Nina put her hand in his as he said, “You are still the most beautiful woman on the face of the earth to me. I’d like nothing more than to ride out and raise chicken or rabbits or whatever you want, but I can’t do that, baby.”

She snatched her hand away and told Ikee, “Give me and your daddy a minute, okay?”

“Okay, but don’t be too hard on him, Mom. He did just wake up from a coma.”

“Yeah,” Isaac pointed toward his son as Ikee left the room. “What he said… don’t be too hard on me.”

Nina wanted to understand her husband, but as much as she loved him, she couldn’t make sense out of what he was saying. “I have been here for you all these years, Isaac, but I’m tired. I can’t live like this anymore… scared and wondering when the next vendetta will show up.”

“I feel where you’re coming from, baby. All I ask is that you hear me out.”

Nina sat down next to her husband’s bed, preparing to listen. But honestly, this was more than she’d signed up for. When Isaac had given up the life and gone into the ministry, Nina had foolishly thought that their lives would be smooth sailing from that point on. But their lives had been anything but. She wanted out.

“We have been attacked a few times by people from my past, so I can see why you would want to just run away. But I guess you can say I was communing with Jesus while I was knocked out or in a coma as Ikee said. Anyway, the Lord basically showed me that I have moved so far away from my original mission that I’m allowing too many souls to enter hell… souls that don’t have to ever see that place.

“Now, I know that you think you’ve been on my vision all these years, but I allowed you to move us to the suburbs so that Ikee wouldn’t be around any of the things we grew up around. And I guess I took my cue from that, and stopped going out into the community to minister to the very souls that need the kind of healing I know about personally.

“Bottom line, God wants me back on my mission. And I’ve got to do what God has called me to do. That’s the only reason I’m not dead yet. Because as much as I’ve gone through, we both know that I should be dead.”

“And what if one of these thugs finally manages to finish the job and then I’m left without a husband?”

He grabbed her hands again and pulled her closer to him. “If that should happen, then I will wait for you to join me in heaven. But baby, please understand that I have to do the will of God.”

Tears ran down Nina’s cheeks as she listened to her husband. She had been ready to take her family and run, feeling as if they had given enough for the cause. But Isaac was saying that God felt as if they hadn’t done enough yet. And the truth of it was, Nina knew he was right. There is no retirement when a person signs up to be in the army of the Lord. You endure and you fight on until the end.

“Are you with me?” he asked.

Nina could see that even as he asked the question, he was confident of what the answer would be. Did he think that she was so tired that she could actually ride out without him? “I guess we’re going to do this thing until the wheels fall off.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Epilogue 

 

And that’s what they did. No sooner than Isaac and Donavan had recovered from their injuries, did the Walkers plan a tent revival, right smack dab in the hood. Isaac and Donavan took turns preaching each night for seven days straight, while Nina, Iona and Ikee passed out tracts.

“How does it feel?” Nina asked her son.

“How does what feel?”

“To be passing out something that can change a person’s whole world, rather than the poison you once passed out on these streets?”

“I can’t lie, Mama. I thought I wanted to be a gang banger. But helping people to get off this stuff, feels so much more right. Bobby-Ray used to call me choir-boy whenever he saw me on these streets, as if to tell me that I didn’t belong here, but that’s not true is it, Mama?”

Even though Nina had once wished it was so, Ikee was right, the Walkers belonged on these streets, because it was their job to let the inhabitants know that Jesus came to set them free.

Isaac stood behind the podium; he was getting ready to preach. But just before he began his sermon he yelled the same thing he’d been yelling since the revival started, “That’s right y’all. Isaac Walker is back… I’m running these streets again. Me and Jesus. Now, who’s bad enough to mess with us?”

 

The End…

 

Coming in April 2015… RAIN in the Promise Land

 

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Books in the RAIN series

Former Rain (Book 1)

Abundant Rain (Book 2)

Latter Rain (Book 3)

Rain Storm (Book 4)

Through the Storm (Book 5)

Rain For Christmas (Book 6)

After the Rain (Book 7)

Rain in the Promise Land (Book 8… Rel. April 2015)

 

 

RAIN FOR CHRISTMAS

 

A Christmas Novella with your favorite characters from the Rain Series

 

 

Sample Chapter

 

 

by

 

 

 

 

 

Vanessa Miller

 

 

.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prologue

 

“You’re the kind of woman I could see myself marrying.”

Diana Milner put her index finger against Donavan Walker’s luscious lips. “Don’t say things like that if you don’t mean it. I’m here, so I’m already yours. You don’t have to lie to me.”

“Oh, so now I’m a liar. You weren’t saying that a few minutes ago.” Donavan began tickling her. “Take it back,” he demanded.

She was wearing Donavan’s black and gray bath robe and nothing else, so she had little defense against his tickles,. She grabbed hold of the towel encircling his waist as if she was prepared to yank it off and said, “Who’s going to make me?”

“You think I care if you pull that towel off?” He stepped back, lifting his hands in the air to give her easy access. “I mean, you’re going to be my wife and you’ve already seen me naked once anyway. So, have at it.”

“No fair,” she giggled. “I can’t fight against an exhibitionist.”

“Why don’t we both show our exhibits?” Donavan slithered toward Diana with his fingers dancing toward her robe.

She wrapped the robe tighter around her body and screamed, “Don’t you dare,” as she took off running and giggling through the house.

Donavan ran after her. As he caught up with her, pulled her into an embrace and kissed her mouth, her cheeks, her forehead and chin. Just as Diana was getting into the kissing game, Donavan pinched her and said, “That’s for calling me a liar.”

Diana’s mouth hung open for a moment. “Oh no you didn’t. You’re going to pay for that Donavan Walker.”

Donavan was enjoying himself with Diana. She was the only woman he’d been with that could make him laugh about nothing. He was getting tired of the way he’d been living his life… a youth pastor by day and a hound with the ladies by night. Donavan loved being in ministry. His father was the pastor and he had entrusted him with the youth ministry. Donavan wanted to settle down and take his Christian walk much more seriously. He was thinking that Diana could be the one to rescue him from himself.

Donavan was the picture of a happy man as he smirked at Diana and said, “Come and get me, baby. You’ve got to catch me before I’ll ever pay for anything.” He turned and made his way towards the living room, laughing all the way.

Diana wasn’t about to let Donavan get away with taunting her. She ran behind him, tackling him from behind. As they fell to the ground Diana landed on top of Donavan, she pinched him and then said, “I gotcha. Now what are you going to do about it?”

The two were having so much fun that neither of them noticed Donavan’s front door open, nor did they see the man standing just outside the door.

Donavan reached up and pulled her into an embrace. He kissed her again. As her wet hair fell across his face, he inhaled. “I love the way your hair smells after a shower. Woman, I definitely could get used to you.”

“Son!” Isaac shouted from the doorway. “What are you doing?”

Donavan jumped up, eyes bulging out of his head as he looked into his father’s shocked and disappointed face. Donavan didn’t know what the rest of his life would be like, but he knew one thing for certain, he would never forget the moment his father found out the kind of man he really was.

 

 

Former Rain

 

Book 1 in the Rain Series

 

 

Sample Chapter

 

 

by

 

 

 

 

 

Vanessa Miller

 

 

 

 

 

Prologue

 

July, 1998

Nina Lewis had the key in the lock of Marguerite’s 1990 Chevy Cavalier when she noticed the white Cadillac with tinted windows parked a few feet away. She squinted in the thick darkness of the night as she tried to read the license plate number. The street light in front of Joe’s Carryout had been broken for several weeks. A sign tacked to a raggedy old fence across the street read, “Tax dollars, hard at work.”

The Cadillac’s door swung open. The key jammed in the lock of the Cavalier and refused to yield. She frantically searched for any sign of help. A leg stretched out of the Cadillac and touched the ground. Fear clenched Nina’s heart. She dropped the grocery bag. The dozen eggs Marguerite needed to bake that sweet potato cheesecake splattered in the street. The Reese’s cup she had been craving for a week violently connected with the ground and her heel, as she ran like the wind. Tears streamed down her face, as she thought, So this is my destiny; to die like a dog in the street.

***

The ringing of the telephone cheated Elizabeth out of much needed sleep. She turned over in bed and glared at it. “Somebody better be dead!” she growled, reaching for the receiver. Then again, at one in the morning, if someone were dead, she could do nothing about it. So she turned back over in bed and as her shoulder-length hair swished across her mocha-chocolate face, she resolved to let the answering machine pick up the call.

The salutation seemed a bit long this morning, and the beep was a tad loud. But the noise that bellowed from that little box on her night table was the most annoying of all. “Hi Liz, it’s your big brother. You’ve been so heavy on my mind that I couldn’t get to sleep… Where are you?”

“Lying right here listening to you, bonehead!” she shouted at the answering machine.

“Well, call me when you get in. Let’s do lunch or something, okay kiddo?” He hung up.

“Not if I can help it,” Elizabeth grabbed Kenneth’s pillow and covered her face. Ever since Michael became a minister he was always preaching, always telling her that she was a sinner. The way he talked one would think she was a complete heathen who never set foot in a church building a day in her life. Didn’t she take her kids to church almost every Sunday? Didn’t she sing in the choir and lead most of the songs? Hadn’t her pastor told her that he was glad she was a member of his church? As far as Elizabeth was concerned, she was all right, and there was no way she was going to lunch with Michael to have him tell her everything she was doing wrong. Hmmph, no way! Mister Holier-than-thou could just find someone else to preach to!

The phone rang again. Elizabeth sank deeper into her bed and screamed, “Why me?” The answering machine picked that one up also.

“It’s one in the morning, Elizabeth,” a sultry woman’s voice announced. “Do you know where your husband is?”

As the line went dead, Elizabeth looked over at Kenneth’s side of the bed. It was empty.

 

***

 

“He’s out there!” Nina screamed. She ran the entire two blocks from Joe’s Carryout. A gallon of two-percent milk was on the hood of the car, which was still in the grocer’s parking lot. “I saw him! He followed me.”

Marguerite Barrow quickly opened the screen door and peeped around the corner. It was so dark she could barely see past her porch. The street was quiet and full of inactivity. That was one thing for which she could praise God. The neighborhood dope pushers must have checked in early tonight. “There’s nobody out here.” Marguerite grabbed Nina’s shoulders and turned her around to face the emptiness of the night. “See, you’re safe, baby. Nobody’s following you.”

Marguerite’s comforting voice was not enough to reassure Nina. She fell down at Marguerite’s thin ankles and wrapped her arms around her as if her life depended on the tightness of her grip. “He’s going to kill me, Marguerite. He thinks I betrayed him. He said that nobody gets away with what I did to him.” His exact words were more along the lines of, I believe in an eye for an eye, Nina. You aborted my baby – you gon’ wish you were aborted.

“You’re here now, Nina. You’re safe - stop worrying. Lord Jesus, give me the strength to help this child,” Marguerite prayed as she lifted Nina’s limp body from the ground. Marguerite had been Nina’s caregiver and protector for several weeks now. “Come on in here and sit down.”

Nina dragged her frail, shaken body over to the couch as Marguerite closed the door and sat down in the chair opposite her. Watching as Nina stared off into space, she asked, “Can I get something for you, honey?”

Nina jumped. A quick death is too good for baby killers like you, Nina. When I’m done, you gon’ be the feature story on Unsolved Mysteries. “No, nothing.”

Marguerite’s eyes misted over as she watched this young woman battle her demons. She clasped her hands together and asked, “So, did you have any luck finding a job today?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Don’t give up, Nina. I know you’ll find something soon.”

Nina looked up this time. A pained smile crossed her face. Her voice was whisper soft. “Yes, ma’am. Thanks for letting me use your car. I’ll get it back here in the morning. I promise.”

“Don’t worry about the car. I’ll go get it myself.” Marguerite rose and walked into the kitchen mumbling something about washing the dinner dishes. Just as she entered the kitchen, Nina heard her say, “I just wish that child could find some peace.”

But peace was inconceivable to Nina as she sat on the couch rocking back and forth. Scared to die, yet at the age of twenty-five she could only think of one reason to keep on living. Life is really funny, she thought. A few years ago she was just three-quarters shy of graduating from Wilberforce University, with a degree in Journalism. She was going to become a world-famous novelist. And out of nowhere, in stepped Isaac Walker.

Sweet-talking, million-dollar Isaac. He had it all, or so Nina thought, and he promised her the world. Only trouble was, she didn’t find out until later that it was his world he was promising. His world, with his rules and his game board. Isaac always had the checkmate, while the rest of the players stood around as pawns, waiting to be plucked out of the game.

In the beginning, he took special care of her. Dressing her in designer clothes, expensive purses and Italian leather shoes. He even took her to nice restaurants; Not like those college bums she dated. They loved to talk about their future payday while having it their way at every Burger King within walking distance. Nina was sick to death of the “I have a dream” brothers she had been dating. That was one reason she fell so quickly for Isaac. The first time she saw him he was wearing a cream-colored Armani suit that hung on his body like it was made strictly for his frame – and what a frame. Make a sistah wanna SCREAM!

Nina and some of her friends decided to leave the college scene and check out a party on the West side. She had worn her black leather jumpsuit that fit like a second skin and accentuated the curves of her voluptuous boom-boom bootie. The two-inch heel on her black leather knee high boots added extra depth to her five-foot frame. The strobe lights moved over her olive skin as she stepped into the crowded room. The men and women turned to stare as her hazel eyes glistened in the light. Her friends headed toward the dance floor. Nina sat at the bar and ordered a Long Island Iced Tea. Cigar smoke assaulted her nostrils as King Puff seated next to her blew cancer into the air.

Mr. Armani inched his way toward her. His diamond bedecked hands glittered in the air as he sauntered. His suit jacket curved nicely over his muscles.

“Mmmh, mmh, mh,” she said while running her French manicured fingers through her short-layered hair, Nina turned slightly in his direction to put out the welcome mat. His pace quickened, and before long, he stood looking down at her.

Honey oozed out of his chocolate-coated mouth as he asked, “Have you been waiting long?”

She looked into those deep chestnut eyes. Eyes that seemed to read her every thought and intent. Lord, have mercy. “Waiting for what?”

“A man. Someone to take care of you, like you deserve.”

Although a little too bold for Nina’s taste, he spoke just the right words to appease her vanity. Most guys never seemed very appreciative. She deserved better. Yeah, she thought, I have been waiting a long time. “So are you here to rescue me?”

“Why don’t we get to know each other a little better first.” He pulled up a seat next to her. “Then we’ll see if you’re worth rescuing.” He flashed a dimpled smile.

Nina thought that smile of his must have driven countless women wild. And she was no different.

 

“If only I had known then what I know now,” she said as she sat lightly rubbing her belly, tears rolling down the side of her face. “What are we going to do? How am I going to take care of you?”

She rocked back and forth, trying to come up with an answer. When none came, she put her head in her hands. “If only I hadn’t let myself get so caught up.”

“Hush child,” Marguerite said, walking back into the room. “No since wishing yesterday back when tomorrow has enough pain of its own.”