My Time in the Sun Read online

  Kari looked at the Koi swimming around each other. The place was peaceful and one of her greatest escapes—besides the arms of her husband.

  “When he called for me to come to his bedroom, the little girl wouldn’t let me go without her,” she said. “I whispered to her that everything was going to be fine and she should wait outside the door. Daddy said, ‘I might’ve wanted the new piece to join in, but I see you want me all to yourself.’”

  She didn’t. And then again, she did.

  “You don’t have to tell the rest if it’s too much for you,” Tony said, pushing a wayward strand of hair away from her face.

  “I need to tell it, to take away its power to haunt me,” she admitted, but couldn’t make eye contact with him. “He was sitting on the edge of the bed and gestured for me to get on my knees in front of him …”

  He unzipped his pants, leaned back and closed his eyes. He never saw the knife because it was in her waistband and covered by her top. Kari slid it out and sliced him across his genitals.

  Daddy’s sharp intake of breath had been a welcome sound for Kari. But it was the little girl’s scream and the fear of what would happen if Daddy got off that bed that spurred Kari into action. He wouldn’t wait to send her to the slicer. He would do the dirty work himself.

  “I aimed for his knees the second time,” she said. “To make sure he couldn’t walk out of the room. Then his arms. And I kept going until his screams brought the others running.”

  Daddy’s agony had brought them all—Tangie, his bottom girl, all of the new girls, the ones who’d lasted a while, as well as the ones he said had lived past their usefulness and were awaiting purchase by men who were angling to have them as permanent sex slaves. They congregated at the door, peering in at her handiwork.

  “I cut him so many times that I lost count,” Kari admitted.

  Tangie had yelled for the others to pull her off him. No one made a move, and Kari kept slicing. Finally, Tangie dragged Kari off the bed and still no one moved to help. The blood. There was so much blood and still it wasn’t enough to signal that his life had ended and he would never, ever touch another girl again.

  Kari locked gazes with Tony. “She might’ve saved his life, because I would’ve kept going until there was nothing left.”

  Chapter Ten

  “You were wrong as two left feet,” Aridell said, shaking her fist at Terrence and his cronies. “There’s a proper way to do things, and this wasn’t it.” She gave a sideways glance at Leesa. “Must run in the family.”

  “I have every right,” he shot back. “This church has been in our family for nearly one hundred years.”

  “And it would have been back in the family in a matter of time,” she countered, seething at his senselessness. “You needed to work under Pastor Baltimore, learn how he does things. Then you’d be able to run a church. You don’t blindside a man and try to jack him for his congregation just ‘cause you don’t want to wait your turn,” she roared. “The man built this congregation from a storefront to a building of our own. You and your minions waited for him to do all the hard work. And now you want to step your tired behind in and take over? That’s not how it’s done.”

  Applause rippled through the congregation and Terrence scanned the members for some sign of support. He had lost a few more.

  “Every last one of you,” she said, waggling a finger at the board and deacons. “Mark my words. When things aren’t done in God’s timing, it’s not gonna work.” She turned, positioning so she could glare at her nephew. “Be honest, you’re not trying to lead these folks because you’ve been called. You want to be the pastor because the money the church is bringing in is calling you. Well, I don’t have time for your madness.” She faced the board and deacons, raising a brow at their grim expressions. “I’m going to Pastor’s house to make this right.”

  Terrence glanced at the board members, shoring up some courage before focusing on Aridell once again. “I don’t care what they said,” he shot back, gesturing toward the choir members and the Faithful Few. “He can’t come back here. Him or his who—wife. His wife.”

  “If I was him, I wouldn’t want to,” Aridell quipped with a hand on her fleshy hip. “Ain’t nothing but heathens trying to run this camp.”

  Murmurs and quiet conversations followed that statement.

  “You want to judge that woman like you got a right. Like what she did in the past matters to who she is today.” Aridell swept a stony gaze at Terrence’s supporters.

  He swaggered forward, lowering his head to look at her. “You’re telling me that you’re going to side against family that’s been in this church all these years?”

  “I’m not siding against anybody,” she countered. “I’m on the side of what’s right. Same way those twelve misguided disciples of yours should be. Y’all didn’t do right by that woman, letting this knucklehead spill that filth and call her out of her name. That wasn’t right. And that’s something you’re going to answer for.” She eyed a scowling Terrence. “I really want to club you upside the head with Vera’s cane.”

  Terrence didn’t have a comeback for that. Sister Vera extended said cane just in case. Aridell hesitated, gave that wooden weapon a thoughtful once-over then shook her head so the woman would put it away. Sister Vera did so, begrudgingly, but gave Terrence the “evil eye” for good measure like she’d oblige if she had a chance.

  Aridell noticed that the choir members were adjusting their robes. “Go on, take them off,” she commanded, and they quickly complied. “It’s obvious we’re not having morning service around here today.” Some murmured their thanks and others shot her grateful glances.

  “Wasn’t it Bertice Berry that said, ‘There are two kinds of people. Ones that show up before the party to help out and the ones that show up after all the work’s been done. Never confuse the two’?” Aridell leaned in, pushed an index finger in Terrence’s chest. “I know exactly who you are. And just because the Bible says we’re sheep doesn’t mean we can’t recognize when the wolf walks in.” She sized him up with her dark-brown eyes, then peered around him to the men moving in to flank him. “Shame on you. Listening to this fool whisper sweet nothings in your ear. Well, he ain’t sweet and he ain’t been about nothing.” She lifted her hand in their direction. “Y’all just scared and trying to bring a minister in here that’s not going to make y’all do some real work. Pastor Baltimore wants us to get out in this community and do something to make a difference, not just come up in here every Sunday bragging about how holy we are.”

  Brother Matthew broke away from the others to say, “We’re not equipped to go out there and deal with them thugs, drug dealers, and pimps.”

  Aridell held out a hand for her purse, which Sister Terry passed to Sister Vera, who promptly supplied it to Aridell. She rifled through the contents and pulled out her trusty gun. “I am.”

  Several gasps echoed off the walls.

  “The Qur’an says ‘Trust in the Lord, but tie your camel.” She slid the weapon back into her purse.

  “We’re not Muslim,” Brother Matthew growled, wisely putting some space between them.

  “And we’re not stupid either,” Aridell shot back, grinning at the fact that he was trembling a little. “The Bible tells us to put on the whole armor of God. Well, sometimes you have to carry the kind of armor that people understand.” She patted her purse, conveying at least one piece of the contents was worth mentioning. “And this right here starts a conversation or ends one. Now let’s be about business instead of hiding behind this brick wall, while the police and those thugs go on killing our people with surprising regularity. Innocent kids are getting gunned down every day. People sitting in their homes and minding their business get shot by stray bullets.” She shook her head. “Chicago’s the deadliest city because we’re not out there trying to make it the Godliest one.”

  A few “Amens” and “That’s rights” followed those words.

  “Pastor Baltimore wants us to do wha
t we can to change all that,” she said, sauntering up the aisle. “And I’m with him. Y’all can sit here and go down in flames if you want to. But I’m going to be out in those streets, where the real ministry’s happening.”

  “So now you’re a community leader,” Terrence taunted, to the laughter of the men nearest him.

  “Better than being a bottom feeder.” She gave him a pat on the cheek and walked toward the Faithful Few, who followed her out the door along with Vera, Ricky—the nerdy teen, nearly all of choir members, and the musicians.

  Chapter Eleven

  “Going through all that made me sure God would never be able to love me anymore,” Kari said, tempering her emotions. “You have to remember, I grew up with a father who was always talking about sin and shame, fire and brimstone. Our preacher said over and over again that the Bible says we’re just dirty dishrags in God’s sight.”

  Tony held a hand up, halting her next words. “See, that’s why it’s so important for people to read the Bible for themselves. It says that our righteousness is as filthy rags, not that we are like dirty dishrags. Simply put, that scripture revolves around the fact that God isn’t pleased by, or impressed with, our self-righteousness because we can never do enough good to blot out our sinful nature. Only God’s own righteousness can cleanse us.”

  “Well, the God they introduced me to was just waiting for us to make a mistake so we could be punished. No mention of a God of grace and mercy that I hear you teach about.” She sighed, and Tony touched her cheek to bring her a sense of calm. Then he led her to the swing and settled her beside him.

  “When I ran away and found myself being sold to men, raped, and beaten, I could just picture this mean old God looking down from heaven and saying, ‘You deserved everything you got.’”

  “No,” Tony said, shaking her a little. “That’s not the kind of God we believe in.” His green eyes softened, became glossy with unshed tears.

  “I saw and experienced things no one, especially a child, should ever have to,” she confessed. “And I wondered how God could turn a blind eye to that and all the other hurt and pain in the world. I was so mad at Him. So very mad.” Kari tensed in his arms, because truthfully, she was still angry with God. “It was a blonde policewoman who saved what little life I had. She called in a lawyer who worked a deal so that I wouldn’t serve a day behind bars if I testified against Daddy. It didn’t come to that. They used me to force Daddy to cut his own deal and give up the names of his contacts and clients to save himself from a lifetime behind bars. And when the trial was over, and they’d brought several of those men to court, do you know what that woman did?”

  She took her husband’s hand, opened it up, placed an imaginary object on his palm, and closed his fingers over it. “She gave me a handful of twenty-dollar bills. Bus fare back to Chicago, enough for food and to keep me going for a while.” Kari felt a small smile flicker across her face. “She said since the day she took the knife out of my hand, she’d been praying I would find God and get a chance at a full and satisfying life. But I stopped trying to find God a long time ago,” she admitted. “I didn’t want that God I grew up with.”

  “But God was with you. Believe me.” Tony traced a finger across her jawbone. “He turned your life around the same way He did mine. And look at what you did with your second chance. Got your GED, went to community college then a university, got your bachelor’s—”

  “Then fell in love with a man who wanted to be a minister of all things.” Kari laughed, but there was no joy in it. “Me, who still had serious doubts about God.” She gave him a sideways glance.

  “That’s why you kept trying to break up with me?” He clamped his mouth shut and shook his head as those green eyes lit with understanding.

  “I was afraid,” she replied, looking away from him. “How could I love and support a man who believed so much in something I didn’t believe in myself? That was wrong on so many levels.” She bit her bottom lip, thinking back to many years ago. “When you received that offer from the church to become the pastor, I tried to leave again. You deserved a better future wife than me. But you wouldn’t let me go.”

  “Not then,” he said, tightening his hold on her. “And certainly not now. People are going to come at me every which way but loose, and I want to handle it with my woman by my side.”

  Kari didn’t have the words to respond to him. Tony was so steadfast in two things—his love for God, and his love for her.

  “The way you love me is beginning to help me understand how God could love me,” she whispered, and closed her eyes to still the emotions warring within. “I wasn’t there to witness the miracles of Christ in the Bible. But I’m here to witness how you do things. And that, to me, is a miracle.”

  She angled her feet and pushed off, giving the swing a slow rhythm. She laid her head on his chest, as his arms wound about her shoulders. “I started watching you, listening to you; learning from you. And for me, you became an example of what God’s love could be like. I mean, you said you weren’t striving for perfection, only to feel complete. And you know what? Completion is as real as I thought it could get for me.”

  Tony’s hand lowered until it landed around her waist. “I’m glad something I’ve done brought you closer to God,” he said with a brightness in his eyes that faded as he dryly added, “I only wish I could have done the same for my congregation.”

  “You didn’t fail, Tony,” she said, placing a hand on his massive chest, but also not addressing the fact that he was taking a harder line than she expected when it came to those who had the misfortune to hang their hat with the Henderson crew. “Those members who sided with him, they’re just human.”

  “But they’re supposed to be striving to be non-judgmental; not to be … that way. They were so quick to believe him; so quick to judge you. Without any proof other than his word.”

  There was a lot of truth in that. “I never trusted him,” she confessed, laying her head on his shoulder once again. “But the board wanted someone with the family name as assistant pastor.”

  “Well, they have him, all right,” he said with a nod. “But a lot of good that’s going to do.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “That you and I are going to do what I’ve been talking about for the past year. Chicago is at a boiling point. We’re taking God to the streets.”

  Kari’s heart filled with so much pride. Her husband was consistent if nothing else. She liked the idea of starting something of their own instead of trying to fit a square peg of dreams into a round hole of outright opposition.

  “Earlier, you asked me what kind of ministry we should be in. I think it should be one that helps women and children who’ve been victims of sexual abuse and sex trafficking.”

  “I can get with that,” he said, brow furrowed in thought. “But that can happen a little later. We need to focus on us right now. Get our thing tight. So that no one can come at us again the way Terrence did.”

  Buoyed by a sense of hope, she slid off the swing, extended her hand, and led him inside.

  Kari wrapped her arms around her husband, deepening the kiss they shared, feeling the same heat she’d felt the first night they made love. A kind of heat and passion she’d never thought she would ever experience. She felt it with him, only him, and loved him for the gentleness and care he had taken with her from day one.

  The first time Tony came over to her apartment in Mermaid Towers of South Shore, she had breakfast waiting for him, even though it was close to midnight. He said breakfast was his favorite meal—homemade biscuits, cheese grits, eggs, and bacon—simple things. Between his two jobs, there was only this short window of time where they could be face to face.

  He’d eaten every bite as they chatted about his work and a little about her Plan B of becoming a freelance paralegal while she pursued her goal of becoming a lawyer. She had taken that money Nancy had given her and the rest that her lawyer sent from the FBI as “resettlement” funds since she re
fused to enter their witness protection program. Both were used in a systematic approach to make it go as far as possible and achieve the new goals she set for herself.

  After Tony polished off the last of the cheese grits, he was silent a moment, brow furrowed in thought. A small sense of alarm went through her.

  Tony went on to give her a condensed version of his background, and she listened intently without making any comment.

  All she had known was that he’d been trying to live his life on the right edge, working at the restaurant during the day and pulling the evening shift in the document services department of an advertising agency. For a moment after his confession, newspaper reports of women who unwittingly invited a monster into their lives flitted through her mind.

  Truthfully, if he’d wanted to hurt her, he’d already had ample opportunity. And she didn’t get that vibe from him. But she’d been wrong about Daddy, too. At least this one was honest about his sins up front.

  She glanced at him, and raised a questioning brow. Then, like a shot in the arm, a thought entered her mind. Kari put her focus on him, reflecting on his words, and how vulnerable he’d been to share so much with her so early in this, this whatever it was. She searched for the one thing that was an instant deal breaker—domestic violence. Sexual assault. There could be a lot of things that hadn’t made it into print, so she glanced at him again, and voiced the one question that could also end things before it started …

  “Have you ever … hurt a woman? Raped her?”

  Chapter Twelve

  “That went well,” Tee Wilson taunted, causing several pairs of eyes to shift her way. She shrugged, unwilling to be bullied because they knew she spoke the truth. What happened at Sunday morning service was some next level mess she still couldn’t believe had taken place. And the grown folks were supposed to know how to handle business, but she certainly couldn’t tell. Now she understood why so many of her family members had been called to come out to church today in support of Terrence becoming Pastor. A total set-up.