Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 109178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 546(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 546(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
“Parton… yes, I know.” He chuckled as he reached down and zipped up his pants. “I like a good music concert, too. I just didn’t want Dolly or Parton to have to sing alone.”
“Oh, don’t you worry about that, baby. I can carry a tune, too. In fact, it can be a trio.”
“As impressive as you are with some heat, it could never be a trio because you only have two hands.”
“Oh, it’s always a trio when I have my girls with me, honey. I can fight. I can bite. I’m handy with a knife and can turn almost anything around me into a weapon. That rain did more than just soak me the night I was attacked. It prepared me for the future. Hard knock life. You are part of my future, Len.” She placed a sweet kiss against his lips, and he rocked her in his arms, squeezing her tight. “A big part of it. I’m not allowing a damn thing to come between us. Can’t nothin’ make me walk away from you unless you do me dirty.”
“We’ve waited too long to be together, been through too much to get where we are, so that definitely won’t be happening.”
She nodded in agreement.
“If Grandpa Wilde wants to watch me from a distance, Lennox, then I plan to put on a show that he can see up close and personal. I’m the wrong one to sneak a peek at, because Nadia and Velvet ain’t free. All mothafuckas, except my man, gotta pay. I take payment in cash, credit, or blood, and you best believe I’ll be paid in full…”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The Final Dance of the Jezebel
…Later that evening
Nadia stood in a black and silver see-through bra with red lace trim and matching G-string with diamonds around the waist. Thigh high black leather boots gripped her legs like a vise. She paced around her small dressing room that smelled of roses from over a dozen farewell bouquets as music thumped from the walls and vibrated her soul. ‘Demons,’ by Doja Cat. She sat down for a moment and reapplied her matte dark red lipstick. This moment in time was bittersweet. Like chocolate with a touch of lemon. It would be her last time on that stage…
She glanced in the direction of her closed dressing room door. The curtain drawn taut. Her name was written on the wall in bright pink nail polish, along with the names of a host of other girls that had come and gone before her. Twirling a strand of her cherry-scented hair, she fell softly into a daydream.
No more pounding, sexy music. No more dizzying flashing lights. No more gyrating for a crowd full of sexually crazed men who have money to spend and fantasies to unfold.
But it was time. Time to dig up the pain and heal. Time to bury the hatchet. Time to forgive Daddy and create her own sense of closure. Time to show Mama how to love and forgive her for not loving her in the way she and her brother needed. Time to absolve herself of her bad decisions. Time to get revenge when warranted, and have no regrets. Time to allow love into her life—and she did. Love’s name was Lennox…
She went over the conversation she’d had with her man before coming into work and read the writing on the wall—only it wasn’t written in lipstick or fingernail polish. It was written in the smolder of gun smoke. She was no fool.
Nadia reached for a glass of sparkling water with a wedge of lime floating atop it, and took a meager sip.
Mothafucka thinks he’s slick. Lennox wanted to double check that I could defend myself and wasn’t just talkin’ shit. See it with his own eyes.
In fact, as soon as she drove into that parking lot, she knew the fuckery was about to commence, and that Lennox was burdened with a doozy. Once he told her the reality of the situation, she refused to admit to him that she was a little unsettled by the prospect of this powerful, ruthless White man who used guerilla and gangster type tactics to get his way, and stay in power. She tried with all of her might to exhibit a brave face, but she wrestled with the information. A knot formed in her gut.
If Lennox is the good guy, as violent and crazed as he could be, what would that make Grandpa Wilde? Life is lifing…
She shook the thoughts out of her head and came back into the moment when she heard a new song begin: ‘Enough,’ by Cardi B. She got to her feet, shook imaginary dust off her shoulders, and made her way out of her dressing room to get blinded by blue and purple spinning lights. To her left she saw someone practically hugging the wall. She turned and met eyes with ‘Lady Lick’, AKA, Lydia, one of the young women she’d taken under her wing. Lydia stood there in a bedazzled navy-blue leotard with the tits and crotch cut out, her long black curly hair clipped up in the back, and beads of perspiration and glitter covering her shoulders and breasts.