The Three Queens

by C.N. Phillips

Genres: Christian Suspense

Synopsis

Beautiful, charismatic, and deadly, these three women are bound by blood to do whatever it takes to stay afloat and keep each other alive.

Aries: The oldest sister and reluctantly responsible for cleaning up her sisters’ messes. Before their father died from cancer, she made a promise to look out for them all. She is trying to juggle her career, a new romance with a charming stranger, and a war brewing in the streets with her family in the middle of it.

Kema: The middle sister and hot head. She takes after her father with her love for the drug game. When her father dies, she is sprawled in a game of tug of war with her cousin to take over the empire. 

Mynk: The troublemaker little sister. She has always been known to act first and think never. And that’s precisely what she does when she walks in on her older cousin conspiring to have Kema murdered. Now, her trigger finger has caused a war to be ignited b

Release date: January 21, 2025

Publisher: Urban Books

Print pages: 288

Sample

The rain started as my driver pulled into the parking lot of Brina’s Bundles, my favorite beauty supply store. Now listen, Brina’s Bundles might have been a little pricey, but it was well worth the coin. I only wore the best of the best, and when it came to providing the hair for my flawless installs? Miss Brina was the best.

After parking near the entrance, my driver exited my Rolls-Royce Cullinan and let me out of the back seat. His name was Jules, and he’d been my driver for years, so trust me when I say he knew how I felt about messing up my hair. He put an umbrella up for me to protect me from getting wet. I was wearing sandals and a nude, form-fitting maxi dress. Clearly, I hadn’t dressed for the rain. Clutching my Chanel bag, I took the umbrella from him.

“Thanks, Jules. I may be a minute,” I said.

“I’ll be waiting for you right here,” he told me.

I nodded, and he got back inside the car as I briefly walked through the rain to the double doors of the establishment. A cool gust of air hit me as I stepped inside, and the pleasant aroma of mahogany filled my nostrils. Miss Brina kept her store smelling good and looking better. The white walls made it seem even brighter, and the marble floors gave it a clean finish. Cinnamon, Miss Brina’s store manager and best friend, gave me a nod from behind the register as I walked to the back of the store. When I reached the door that led to the back offices, I was buzzed through. I’d been there many times and knew my way to the boss’s office.

I guess I could call Miss Brina an old family friend if being my dad’s baby mama could count as that. Back in the day, before I was even thought of, she had a fling with my old man. It was short-lived but long enough for him to give her the money to start a beauty supply business. It was also long enough for her to get pregnant with my big sister, Aries. Growing up with a daughter outside the house wasn’t ideal for my dad, especially when he married my mom and started a family with her. But he loved his children and wanted to be as active as possible in their lives. Aries was always at our house. She, our little sister Mynk, and I were as thick as thieves. Nothing could come between our sisterly bond. As I neared the open door, I could hear voices talking, and one of them belonged to Aries.

“It’s very unsettling of you to show up here like this, unannounced.” Her tone was soft yet assertive.

“Always the businesswoman, aren’t we, Aries?” a man’s voice sounded.

I stepped into the comfortably sized office and frowned when I saw Xavier Odell standing inside. Aries was looking fashionably sexy in business attire, but beautiful as she was, I could tell when she was not happy. She stood beside her mother’s desk as Miss Brina sat uneasily behind it. I crinkled my brow and looked at my sister with one question sprawled over my face. What the hell is he doing here? Aries shrugged her shoulders slightly, telling me that she didn’t know either.

I turned back to Xavier, and he smirked at me. I didn’t like him one bit, and the biggest reason was that he could be considered my father, Teddy Tolliver’s, archnemesis. The story I heard growing up was that there was a time when Xavier and my dad were close friends. But things changed fast when Daddy met a Colombian connect who changed his life. Daddy went from a low-level drug dealer to kingpin status. The friendship he once had with Xavier became strained before turning into competition. And it didn’t take long for that competition to become an all-out feud that claimed many lives in the streets and behind closed doors. However, no matter how often Xavier came at Daddy or his operation, nothing ever worked. Daddy was the king of Houston’s underworld, making his girls the three princesses.

“What’s he doing here? Daddy wouldn’t be okay with this. In fact, his gun would already be out,” I said.

“I don’t know. You said to meet you here for dinner, and I did,” Aries said.

“Okay, then, Miss Brina, what’s he doing here?” I shifted my gaze to her.

“Calm down, Kema.” Miss Brina put her hands up as if to calm me down. “He was just—”

“On my way out now,” Xavier interrupted and looked at her. “I’ll be in touch.”

What would he need to be in touch with Miss Brina about? I had no idea, and Miss Brina’s blank face didn’t give me any answer, either. She turned away when she noticed my eyes on her. Xavier had to pass me when he walked out, but as he did, he stopped in front of me.

“How’s the old man doing? I haven’t seen him around lately,” he asked.

“He’s fine. Better than you’ll ever be.” The words came out of my mouth like hot venom.

“Right. Well, people are talking.”

“People are always talking, Xavier.”

“Well, I hope everything is good with him. You know he did have that . . . cough.”

I kept my expression blank, but I felt a coldness wash over my skin. There was something about the way his cold brown eyes pierced mine . . . I couldn’t help it. I turned away. He gave a tiny chuckle before leaving the office. When he was gone, I shut the door behind me. Aries and I shared a glance before we moved in on her mother’s desk.

“Mama, what are you doing having a conversation with Xavier? You know how Daddy would feel about that,” Aries asked incredulously.

“Your daddy don’t run me, girl. He hasn’t even had the decency to return any of my calls.”

“Mama, are you fuckin’ Xavier?”

“Excuse me? Who taught you how to use that language with your mother?”

“I’m sorry, Mama.” Aries let out a breath. “But for real, what is it that you and Xavier have going on?”

“Nothing like that, but also nothing you need to worry your pretty little head with.”

“You sure?” I asked, and Brina cut her eyes at me.

“Yes, I’m sure. Now, don’t the two of you have dinner reservations?” Brina asked, shooing her arms at us. “Go on. Get out. I have a business to run.”

She stood up and swept us out of her office with her arms. When we were in the hallway, she shut the door in our faces. I had an unsettling feeling in my stomach, and when I looked over at my sister, she too had a troubled look on her face.

“I need you to find out what that was about,” I said, and she nodded.

Since we wouldn’t get any more answers to any questions we might have had, we left. When we got back outside, the rain had stopped, and I didn’t need my umbrella anymore. Aries went to her car, and I walked over to where the Rolls-Royce awaited me. Jules stepped out and prepared to open the door for me, but I shook my head.

“I’m going to ride with Aries. Did you see—”

“Xavier walking out looking like he owns the place? I might have.”

“Something isn’t right about that.”

“Nothing is right about that. What was he doing here?”

“I don’t know. That’s what I need you to find out.”

See, Jules was more than my driver. He was also the person my father put in place to protect me. Jules advised me, watched my back, and would find out anything I needed to know. He’d die for me, but more importantly, he’d kill for me too.

“I’ll see what I can scrape up. He doesn’t know about your father, does he?” he asked, and I shook my head.

“Nobody but those who need to know knows about Daddy. Miss Brina doesn’t even know, and after today, I’m glad she doesn’t.”

Aries honked her horn in the distance, and I knew that meant she was ready to go. I waved goodbye to Jules and hurried across the parking lot to where the blacked-out Jeep awaited. When I got in, Aries was getting off the phone, and the irritated look on her face said it all.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Change of plans. We’ll have to do dinner another time.”

“Why? You know I wanted to try out that new seafood place.”

“Too bad. We have to go get our badass little sister out of jail.”

I watched the Jeep drive off into the distance and let out a long sigh. Seeing Xavier walk out of Brina’s Bundles was unsettling for many reasons. One, unless Xavier was shopping for beauty supplies, he had no business in the shop. Especially since it was in Boss’s territory. And two, I didn’t like the random pop-up during Boss’s downtime. It had been a while since a flare-up between the two men occurred, and the last time resulted in many bodies dropping on both sides. I shuddered to think about Xavier plotting something while our camp was off our square.

I started working for Teddy in my early twenties. I graduated from being an errand boy to being his most trusted hitter. He had never been one for friends and had never had what most called a “right-hand man.” I guess one could say I was the closest to it. Being a kingpin, a person could only imagine the riches that came with it. However, there were many horrors as well. I’d been shot, stabbed, and almost died many times, making sure the crown stayed on Teddy’s head.

“You’re why I made it home to my family many nights. Now, I need you to make sure my child makes it home to me,” he’d said the day he put me in charge of guarding Kema.

I always knew his daughters would be special simply because they were a product of his greatness. Aries with her wit, Mynk with her quick thinking, but Kema? Kema walked the same line as her father. She was as fearless as she was ruthless. Not only that, but she also had the stomach to rule. The others preferred to live in the light cast up from the underworld. But Kema could thrive on either side. It was an honor to be her protector because I knew she would one day wear the crown.

It took every part of me not to go inside Brina’s Bundles and bash Sabrina’s head in to get information. If only she knew that her being Aries’s mother was the only protection she had, but if I found out foul play was going on, nothing would stop me from protecting the Tollivers—nothing.

Instead, I got into the Cullinan and drove away before the itch got the best of me. I had other ways of finding out information. When it came to most crime families, they fought on the same side. Love and loyalty were law, but that wasn’t the case when greed was involved. As I drove, the raindrops hitting the windshield drifted me to a deep memory—the memory of when my fate changed.

“Jules, catch!”

I caught the AK-47 my cousin Corey tossed in my direction in midair. It was just after midnight, and the two of us, along with four of our other cousins, were preparing for war. If I’d known I’d be spending my twenty-first birthday riding out, I wouldn’t have worn white shoes. I was sure they’d be painted red by the night’s end.

Corey was about five years older than me but was as thorough and sharp as they came. We were in one of our older cousin’s stash houses, making last-minute preparations before hitting the one and only Teddy Tolliver. It was a mission we’d been charged with, and it was a dangerous one. Teddy wasn’t the average dude. He was kingpin status. And to me, that meant he knew he’d always have a target on his back, which also meant he was always prepared if he was as thorough as they said.

“Man, give that gun to somebody else. Jules’s bitch ass can’t handle all that power,” my older cousin Darius said.

I glared at him, feeling his insult hit me in the chest. He’d said it with so much conviction one might have thought he believed it. Although I was the baby in our group, I was anything but a little dude. I was 21 and six foot two of pure muscle. I wasn’t afraid of a little mayhem.

“Chill,” Corey warned Darius.

“Man, whatever, but don’t say nothing when he’s the reason we get killed.”

“Fuck you, Darius!” I puffed my chest out.

We shared another evil look before I went back to getting ready. He and I both knew the reason for his hatred, and it wasn’t because he thought I couldn’t handle an assault rifle. When we were growing up, speculation abounded on what side of the swing Darius swung on. Rumors of him messing with a few gays on the block circulated, but there had never been any proof . . . until recently.

The day in question, I’d decided to do a drop-off early, so I could take a beautiful chocolate honey to lunc and hopefully get busy later. When I got to the house to leave the money, I heard strange noises from the back room. Thinking something bad was happening, I pulled out my gun and crept back there, but what I saw wasn’t what I expected. Darius had one of the dope boys who ran work for us bent over and was ramming his booty-hole like it was some cat. I was so shocked that I gasped, and when he looked up and saw me, I jetted out before anything else took place.

He’d probably been waiting for me to go back to Corey and run my mouth about the incident. As funny as it would have been for everyone to know that Darius liked playing in men’s dookie shoots, it wasn’t my business to tell. I wanted to burn the memory from my mind, but I couldn’t. Me knowing the truth clearly wasn’t sitting right with Darius, and I knew to watch my back.

“All right, listen up,” Corey barked, getting our attention. “This shit gon’ sound simple but note that it’s dangerous as fuck. We’re gon’ try to get back in one piece, but this is Teddy we’re talking about. Security will be high, especially at his crib. We go in, grab the kids, and get out.”

“What?” I asked, genuinely confused. “I thought we were going in to get rid of Teddy for big cuz.”

“Plans change,” Corey told me. “Xavier told me that he now wants Teddy’s daughters. For leverage, I suppose. Or maybe to make a fool of him in the streets. Nobody’s untouchable.”

“Is X gon’ kill them after we get them?” I asked, and Corey turned up his nose.

“Who gives a fuck? That’s our job, and we’re gonna do it. Got it?”

I didn’t say anything. I was a lot of things, but I’d never been a kidnapper or child killer. That was crazy work. Hell, I was barely a drug dealer. I never wanted that for myself, But my drunk of a father went into debt with Xavier, his nephew, and gave me to him to work off the debt when I was 17. The debt had been repaid tenfold, but there was no getting out once Xavier had his claws in you.

“I said, do you got it?” Corey asked me with fiery eyes.

“Yeah . . . I got it.”

I had to force myself out of the memory when I arrived at my destination. Sometimes, I let it take over me as a reminder of who I was. Some called me a traitor for switching sides, especially my family. But those who knew my story knew that family wasn’t blood in my case.

I parked the Cullinan in the driveway of a nice, one-story home. When I got out, I strolled to the front door. There weren’t many cars out front, but I could smell the aroma of a charcoal grill sneaking around from the fenced backyard. I recognized the loud, boisterous laugh coming from the back, followed by other voices. I didn’t plan on interrupting the party for too long.

I rang the doorbell and stepped back, waiting for someone to answer. I heard the same boisterous laugh sound again as someone neared the door. It abruptly stopped. I assumed someone looked through the peephole and saw me standing there. A few more moments passed before the door opened, and I was standing there staring into the face of my cousin, Corey. There was no hint of laughter on his face as he glowered at me with his one good eye. The other had a patch over it. He had wrinkles all over his brown face and grays sprinkled all over his head. Other tha. . .