Vexed 2

Genres: African American Urban

Synopsis

Two years of confinement in Leesworth Women’s Federal Corrections Facility have taken their toll on Jay King. Her incarceration has given her lots of time to think about her sins, especially her failed attempt to have her brother Zach murdered in cold blood. Jay has come face to face with the demons from her past, and her health is on the decline. Lonely, sick, and depressed, she reaches out to an unlikely source for help. Jay finds guidance and compassion in Pastor Gavin Monroe, the prison chaplain and counselor. He teaches her about forgiveness and restoration and sets her on the path of righteous living. But is Jay sincere about turning her life around, or is her newfound jailhouse religion just a scheme to get back into Zach’s good graces?
 
Thrilled by Jay’s spiritual transformation, Pastor Monroe is eager to nurture her budding faith. The bond they develop through scriptures and counseling sessions takes an unexpected turn, and life as they once knew it will never be the same. Jay’s secret life in prison has an earth-shattering effect on her family, and Zach is once again expected to clean up her mess. Only this time, it involves precious, innocent flesh and blood. Zach has an important decision to make, one that will affect the entire King family and others. Only time will tell if Jay’s faith in her brother will move him to do the right thing.

Release date: December 15, 2020

Publisher: Urban Books

Print pages: 288

Sample

“Do you truly believe that Jesus died for your sins, Jayla? Do you believe His blood has cleansed you from all unrighteousness?”

“Yes, Pastor Monroe, I believe it. I . . . I asked the Lord to forgive me, and I believe He has.”

“Hallelujah! You’re born again! All of your sins have been washed away by the precious blood of Jesus Christ.” The pastor wrapped his arms around his new convert.

“Thank you, Jesus,” Jay whispered through a steady flow of tears. She relaxed in the warmth of Pastor Monroe’s embrace and rested her head on his shoulder.

“Whatever crime you committed to bring you to this terrible place is no longer important. It’s in the past. From this day forward, you are a new creature. You’re no longer walking in darkness. You are a daughter of God’s marvelous light.”

Jay stepped backward to look into the pastor’s steel gray eyes. He held her loosely in his arms. “Thank you so much for praying for me, Pastor Monroe. I needed it. I’ve been very depressed in recent weeks, worrying about my health and missing my family. Two years in prison has taken its toll on me. Sometimes I feel like I’d be better off dead.” Jay’s voice broke as a fresh surge of tears spilled down her face.

“Shh,” the pastor whispered in her ear, pulling her closer in his arms. “You have no use for a grave. There is so much more here on earth for you to live for. God has great things in store for you in spite of your present circumstances. Let me help you find your calling, won’t you?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Great. I will speak with your correctional counselor to see if you and I can have private sessions. Until then, continue to read Scriptures daily in the Bible I gave you last week. You must pray often, Jayla. Talking consistently to God will give you strength to persevere during your darkest hours. Keep coming to chapel. I will always have a Word from the Lord for you and the other women confined to this facility. That is my calling. I’m going to help you find yours, even while you’re behind prison bars. Go in peace, my sister.”

Pastor Monroe hugged Jay once again before she turned to leave the small chapel.

“I saw you crying and waving your hands in the air the other night, acting like you had caught the Holy Ghost or something. What was that all about, King?”

Jay looked up from the ledger she was working on. She slid it to the side of her desk. “What are you talking about, Odette? Don’t tell me you ain’t ever been to church before.”

“Yeah, I’ve been a few times, but I’m not all that religious. But you were acting all sanctified.” Odette laughed.

“Laugh all you want, but that was a powerful service. I felt the Spirit, and I ain’t ashamed of it. Did you know my father was a Pentecostal pastor? I was born and raised in the church.”

“You were raised in the church, huh? Well, don’t the Bible say it’s a sin to be gay? And I know murder breaks one of them commandments. You’re serving time ’cause you paid someone to kill your brother.”

“That’s in the past. I’m not that person anymore. Anyway, don’t you have some mopping or dusting to do? I’m trying to balance the supply budget for the warden. I can’t do it with you in here harassing me.”

“All right, Ms. Business Lady. I’m sorry I disturbed you. Not everybody can sit behind a desk and do easy work in prison like you. Some of us have to do the hard shit. I’m out.”

Jay rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “Close the door behind you.”

Crunching numbers and balancing budgets was easy to Jay. Her Howard University master’s degree in business had come in handy before prison, and it was benefitting her on the inside as well. Years ago, when she had worked as the executive manager of a five-star resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica, life was sweet. Back then, she had plenty of money, designer clothes, expensive jewelry, and more women than she had time or energy for. Those were the good ol’ days. If only Jay had stayed on the island and not moved back home to Atlanta, she would’ve been a free member of society. Leaving Jamaica with her former lover Jill to take a job in her hometown was the beginning of her decline.

Jay frowned and closed her eyes at the painful memories. Jill. It was her betrayal that had caused Jay to lose touch with reality. Her brother, Zach, was the other backstabber. He and Jill had carried on a secret affair behind Jay’s back. No sister deserved to be humiliated and disrespected by the big brother she’d once looked up to. Blood was supposed to be sacred. Zach had had no right whatsoever to touch Jill, because she was Jay’s lover. Brothers didn’t betray their little sisters in the neighborhood they came from. They were expected to be their protectors and confidants. Zach used to be Jay’s hero. Now he wanted nothing to do with her. It felt like she didn’t even have a brother anymore. To Zachary Sean King, Jayla Simone King was dead.

“I don’t wanna hear it, Aunt Jackie. Didn’t I tell you the last time Jay wrote you a letter that I wasn’t interested in anything she had to say?”

“But she sounds so remorseful now. She’s not the same person, Zach. Jay has accepted Jesus into her heart, and she attends chapel twice a week. The prison chaplain has been counseling her.”

Zach ignored his aunt. He loved her like crazy, but he didn’t share her feelings for his sister. Zach wasn’t even sure if he had any feelings for her. Jay had paid a man, whom she’d thought was a professional killer, to put a bullet in the back of his head. What the hell kind of feelings was he supposed to have for a sister who would do some evil shit like that?

Yeah, Zach had betrayed Jay in the worst possible way. He had slept with Jill while they were still in a relationship. And they had conceived their son, Zachary Junior, as a result of the affair. Then they got married. Zach acknowledged his sins and asked Jay to forgive him, but she’d refused. She became bitter and vengeful, and she ultimately ordered a hit on him. That was why Jay was now serving time in federal prison. Thank God the dude she had hired to take Zach out was an undercover cop. Otherwise, Jill now would have been a widow, and Zachary Junior would have been fatherless. Zion, their baby girl, never would have been born.

If Jay had suddenly found jailhouse religion, Zach didn’t give a damn. He still wanted nothing to do with her. She had caused him and his family more pain than he felt they deserved. He, Jill, and their two children had moved on from their nightmare of Jay and her evil deeds.

Aunt Jackie was still flapping her gums about Jay’s spiritual transformation, and Zach continued to block out her words. He was watching his children play with toys and ABC blocks in the middle of the floor of his den. Jill was doing her thing in the kitchen. The aroma drifted into the den, causing Zach’s stomach to growl.

“How much longer until dinner, baby?”

Jill poked her head into the den. “It’ll be ready when it’s ready.” With a smile and a wink, she disappeared into the kitchen again.

“Zachary Sean King, are you ignoring me? I delivered a personal message to you from Jay, and you haven’t said a word. She says she loves you and misses you very much. What do you have to say about that?”

“You don’t wanna hear what I’d like to say to Jay, Auntie. Plus, I can’t curse in front of the kiddies.”

Jay fumbled with the buttons on her ugly prison-issued blue shirt. The absence of the tips of two fingers on her right hand made the simple task difficult. The nurse had told her that the results from her blood work would be back from the lab in five to seven working days. Life with low-functioning kidneys and a diseased liver was rough for a chick in prison. Jay was on a lot of medication, and she had to limit her liquid intake. The staff doctor’s goal was to delay dialysis for as long as he could, but eventually Jay would need it in order to live. Years of excessive drinking had caught up with her. Her quality of life was slowly depreciating.

The reality of Jay’s medical condition weighed heavily on her mind. She was only a few months shy of her thirty-fourth birthday, yet she was in the early stages of cirrhosis of the liver, and her kidneys only functioned at 30 percent. It was quite depressing, but Jay had recently found hope in the kindness of Pastor Gavin Monroe.

The man had committed himself to helping her with her problems. Because of the charismatic Pentecostal pastor, Jay didn’t have very many thoughts anymore about Zach and Jill or what they had done to her. She seldom thought about her ex-lover Venus and their daughter, Nahima. There had been a time when Jay constantly envisioned the day she’d be free so that she could make Zach, Jill, and Venus pay for how they had treated her. But since she had been attending Bible study and prayer meetings regularly in the chapel with Pastor Monroe, and having one-on-one counseling sessions with him, things had changed for the better. Jay’s desire to get even with her brother and sister-in-law was gone. She actually missed Zach. The other day she’d started writing him a letter asking for his and Jill’s forgiveness, but she didn’t finish it. Mr. Callahan, the warden, had sent for her to make some changes to the inmate payroll account.

Jay would finish the letter to Zach, but not now. She was on her way to the chapel. It was her job to place the Bibles and hymn books in every other chair before service. Because of her budgeting expertise, there had been enough money in the prison’s miscellaneous fund for the purchasing department to buy sixty new Bibles and hymnals for the inmates.

“Psst, King, tell me about Pastor Monroe. He’s one sexy-ass preacher. Maxwell said he’s the real deal. That chick swears he ain’t fake. Is he really holy and tight with the Man Upstairs? Or is he freaky and slick like Bishop Long or Reverend Haggard?”

Jay closed her Bible and eased to the end of her cot to whisper across the narrow hall. “Pastor Monroe is a genuine man of God. He ain’t fake. It’s not about getting rich or laid for him. His mission is to save souls. That’s it.”

“Well, he’s fine as hell. And I like me some white dudes. They be all sensitive and shit. Maybe I need to put in a request for some counseling so he can lay hands on me.” Shanika laughed. “I want his good-looking ass to lay hands all over me, chile.”

“Like I said, he ain’t like that.”

“How do you know, King? You ain’t into men. I bet if you offered the pastor some pussy, he’d be all up in you. Can’t no white man—preacher or not—resist some wet, hot chocolate pussy. It ain’t natural. Since slavery, crackers have had a weakness for black women. That ain’t gonna ever change.”

“I’m not interested in sleeping with Pastor Monroe or any other man or woman. You shouldn’t be thinking about anything sexual either, Shanika. Fornication is a sin. Besides, Pastor Monroe is a happily married man. He ain’t about money or sex. The man has been called to save worthless sinners. That’s all he’s interested in.”

“You mean to tell me you ain’t ever noticed how tall he is? Dude obviously works out, ’cause he’s got some tight biceps and a six-pack. I wanna run my fingers all through his thick black hair. Woo, Lawd! His mustache and beard turn me on. I bet he’s got hair everywhere. I like hairy-ass men.”

“I’m done with this conversation. You keep that nonsense over there in your cell. I’m about to read my Bible.”

“You go right ahead, Mother Teresa. I’m about to get my freak on with my vibrator. But in my head, I’ll be fucking that sexy white preacher with all that pretty hair.”

“Vibrator? How did you get one of those up in here?”

“That’s easy. Captain Floyd will turn his head and close his eyes to anything as long as you suck his dick every once in a while.”

“You got issues.” Jay frowned and shook her head. “I’m gonna pray for you.”

Jay added the final numbers and hit the equals key on the calculator again. She blew air from her cheeks and massaged her temples. Something was definitely wrong with the quarterly financial report. She had crunched the same numbers five times. They just did not add up correctly. The amount of inmate labor hours and the total of daily wages they’d been paid did not match. According to Jay’s calculations, the women had not received their fair share of money for the work they had done. Someone in the accounting department at Leesworth Women’s Federal Corrections Facility was padding the books. They wanted it to appear as though the inmates were earning fair wages for their labor.

Didn’t they realize that a simple audit would quickly uncover the shoddy accounting? Maybe they did, but they weren’t concerned because the errors would all be charged to Jay. She would be blamed for falsifying financial records. That could mean more criminal charges. Jay wasn’t feeling that.

She added the numbers one last time and got the same results. What was she going to do to cover herself in the event of an audit?

“I wish you could attend one of the services at the prison, Holly. Some of the women have a thirst for the Word. I’ve watched them grow spiritually. There’s one young lady named Ivy Maxwell. She has an anointed voice. She leads the praise and worship music before my sermons.”

“What is she serving time for?”

“You know I don’t know that, sweetheart. I’ve chosen not to ask the women what crimes they’ve committed. I don’t want to give the devil any room to cloud my mind with judgment. I’m their spiritual leader, not their judge.”

Holly Monroe pushed her wire-framed glasses up the bridge of her narrow nose. With great concern, she studied her husband’s face across the dinner table. He was the love of her life. She and Gavin had been inseparable since the day they met over twenty years ago on the campus of Oral Roberts University. It was love at first sight for Holly Elizabeth Blake. Her public speaking classmate had been clueless about her crush on him. Gavin was fascinated with her incredible oratory skills. It was the magnet that drew them together. Gavin had only wanted a friend, but Holly was in search of love from a godly man.

“Don’t be naive, honey,” Holly warned her husband. “Those women are con artists, violent robbers, and murderers. They can be deceitful.”

“God knows their hearts, Holly. He knows mine, too. I only want to do for those women what I couldn’t do for Sandy. All she needed was the love of Jesus and her family. I wasn’t there for her. And because I wasn’t, she left this world without ever knowing Christ as her Lord and Savior.”

As great an orator and debater as Holly was, she could never win points in a discussion about Gavin’s late sister. Sandy was a sensitive subject she treaded very lightly upon. She had died of a heroin overdose after many years of battling multiple addictions. Sandy had been six months pregnant at the time she’d injected herself with the lethal dose of drugs. Gavin was pastoring his first church fresh out of seminary. His older sister had reached out to him the night before she’d robbed their grandmother at gunpoint in order to buy her final supply of drugs. Gavin was preparing to preach a sermon at his church and had promised to call Sandy after the service. The following morning, when he made the call from his home in Scottsdale, Arizona, it was too late. Sandy’s lifeless, pregnant body was already at the City of Atlanta morgue.

It had been fifteen years since Sandy’s tragic death. Yet her loving brother, Pastor Gavin Monroe, was still trying to rid himself of the guilt he carried. He was seeking redemption by helping other women who reminded him so much of Sandy. The pastor’s primary ministry was his church, Marvelous Light Pentecostal Church, in northwest Atlanta. However, his passion was the prison ministry he had established at Leesworth two years ago. He had founded Another Chance Women’s Fellowship with memories of Sandy in mind. She had been in and out of prison for the better part of her life due to drug addiction and chronic depression, which caused her to do the craziest things to earn money to support her drug habit.

Gavin believed he could have saved Sandy if he had been home in Atlanta. Instead, he had been in Arizona, fully immersed in his church. His costly mistake, according to him, was that he had confined God to a building with a steeple and stained-glass windows. Gavin admitted that he’d forgotten to evangelize outside of the boundaries of church, especially to women with issues. They needed God the most.

“I will attend service with you one day soon, honey. The moment I find a break in my schedule, I’ll go with you.”

“Thanks, babe. It would mean a lot to me. I want you to meet Ivy, Erica, Sophia, and my favorite inmate of all, Jayla. She’s the one I’ve asked the women at our church to collect personal items for. Her family isn’t very involved in her life. She’s dealing with some serious health issues, also. The poor soul is depressed and ill, but her faith is strong.”

“Like I said, once my students get settled, I’ll go to the prison with you.”

“Oh, so you think I’m wrong?” Zach stared at his best friend, Dex, through the thick clouds of steam.

“Nah, I don’t think you were wrong for refusing Jay’s phone call. But why did you have to send her letter back to the prison unopened? I can understand why you and Jill didn’t wanna read it, but you could’ve simply thrown it away. Sending it back was kinda crass for a dude like you.”

“I want Jay to leave us the hell alone!” Zach lowered his voice when two gentlemen joined him and Dex in the gym’s steam room. “Now that I returned the letter and refused her phone call, maybe she’ll stop trying to contact me. I’ve moved on, Dex. Life is good. There is no room in my world for Jay.”

“I feel you, but—”

“But what? You think I should’ve spared Jay’s feelings? Did she spare mine when she paid that dude to smoke me? Did she give a damn about Jill’s feelings when she kidnapped her in Jamaica and was seconds away from blowing her damn brains out?”

“Nah, Jay didn’t care about anybody back then except herself.”

“And right now, Zach only cares about Jill, our children, and the people who truly love us.”

“I’m sorry, Jayla. I know this is hard for you, but you mustn’t lose your faith. God is able to heal all diseases, and He is a comforter.”

“Why is God punishing me, Pastor Monroe? I’ve confessed all my sins and repented.” Jay wiped her tears with a flimsy tissue. “I reached out to my brother. He won’t take my phone calls. Look at this.” From her breast pocket, Jay removed the unopened letter Zach had sent back to the prison. “He didn’t even open it!”

The pastor pulled a distraught Jay into his arms. “I will pray for reconciliation between you and Zachary. But right now, your health is more important.”

“I know. The doctor prescribed a new medication for me. He wants to do some more blood work and testing in two weeks to see if my kidneys have responded to the new treatment. I don’t wanna die, Pastor. I want God to heal me.”

“He will if we only believe. Bow your head, Jayla. I want to pray for you.”

Pastor Monroe prayed for Jay with her still nestled in his arms. With each soothing word, she felt a semblance of relief. Her tears subsided as she envisioned the doctor giving her good news about her health in the weeks to come. But in the midst of the spiritual moment, thoughts surfaced of Zach and how he had rejected her genuine remorse. How could he have been so cruel? She had forgiven him and Jill for their betrayal. Why were they still holding on to the past and what she had done to them? They had unforgiving spirits. Jay was serving a total of seventeen years in prison for ordering a hit on Zach and escaping from jail. Wasn’t that punishment enough?

“God bless you, Jayla,” she heard Pastor Monroe say. He dropped his arms to his sides.

“Thank you for your listening ear and a shoulder to cry on. And most of all, thanks for praying for me once again. I always feel better after one of your prayers.”

The pastor smiled, and for the first time, Jay noticed how handsome he was. Shanika was right. For a white dude, he was delicious eye candy. Jay couldn’t remember the last time she had been attracted to any member of the opposite sex. It was probably way back in sixth grade, when she’d had a crush on Tyrone Williams III. That was a long time ago. And she had never had sexual intercourse with a man in her life. Jay blinked and shook her head to redirect her thoughts. Satan was causing her sudden attraction to Pastor Monroe. He was tempting her.

“Are you all right, Jayla? Should I call for the nurse?”

“Yes, sir. Um, I mean, no, sir.” Jay closed her eyes and shook her head again, totally confused. “I don’t need the nurse. I’m fine.”

“I could stay a little longer with you. We can read some Scriptures.”

“I would like that.”

Jay was excited about her visit from Aunt Jackie. It had been over six months since she’d last made the trip to the North Georgia prison. Her aunt was the only person other than Pastor Monroe who was on Jay’s visitation list. Her father, Reverend Wallace F. King, had requested to visit her several times during her early days at Leesworth. Each time, Jay had refused to put him on her visitation list. Since her spiritual conversion, she had written a letter to her father in Raleigh, North Carolina, asking for his forgiveness for the many years she had hated him because of her mother’s death.

Reverend King had killed his wife of ten years by putting a bullet in her heart, but it was a mistake. Belva Jayne King had been accidentally killed by her husband in an act of jealous rage. He had discovered his wife having sex in a hotel room one afternoon with his best friend, Claudius Henry. The good reverend had every intention of wounding his lowdown friend, but not his wife. The first lady was shot by accident.

Over the years, Jay had heard the story of that tragic day many times from family members. They’d all told her that her father had not intentionally killed her mother, but she had harbored hatred for him in her heart anyway. She had no memories of her beautiful mother. Jay had been only 2 years old when she’d died. Nearly thirty-two years later, she was ready to release the bitterness she had for her father and establish a relationship with him. It was time to let go of the past and move forward.

“King, your visitor is here. Let’s go.”

Jay snapped from her thoughts about her estranged father and left her cell with the guard. She followed the white stocky dude to the visitation area.

Aunt Jackie was hard to miss. She was a full-figured chick, but she had great fashion sense. Dressed in a bright orange jogging suit, her flawless coffee complexion glowed. Her salt-and-pepper sister locks had grown down her back. That pretty smile Aunt Jackie always had for Jay whenever she visited brought tears to her eyes.

“I’m glad to see you, Auntie. You look so good.” Jay hugged her aunt tight and kissed her plump cheek. “You smell good, too.”

“Thank you, Jay. I’m glad to see you too. How are you, baby?”

“I’m hanging in here as best I can. Let’s sit down.”

Jay and Aunt Jackie found a table in the middle of the crowded visitation room and took seats. They talked nonstop for the first hour of the two-hour visit. Aunt Jackie brought Jay up to speed on Uncle Bubba, Aunt Hattie Jean, Aunt Bertha, and a few other relatives. She didn’t mention a word about Zach, Jill, or their children. She didn’t speak about Jay’s daughter, Nahima, either. That precious child had become an off-limits subject over the years.

“Someday, I hope to have a relationship with Zach, Jill, and my niece and nephew. I’m praying for their forgiveness. I would also like Nahima to know who I am when she gets older. She’s my daughter no matter how much I’ve denied her. I was such a fool.”

“You can’t change the past. All we have is today. When Nahima is older and mature enough to handle the truth, it’ll be up to Venus and Charles to decide if she should learn anything about you. They are her legal parents. As far as Zach and Jill are concerned, it’s gonna take a miracle to bring you all back together.”

“Well, I happen to believe in miracles.”

“You are a miracle. Everything about you has changed. If God changed your heart, He can do anything. You even look different. I love how you’re letting your hair grow out. It’s pretty.”

Jay raked her fingers through her naturally wavy hair. For many years she’d worn it cropped and tapered close to her head. Today it rested on her shoulders in a mass of thick black waves parted down the middle. “I don’t trust the bootleg barbers and hairstylists here. I manage my hair on my own.”

“Well, I like it. How is your health? Is the new medicine working?”

“I’m not sure. I feel okay today. I’ll see the doctor next week. Say a prayer that he’ll have good news for me.”

“Nooo!” Jay screamed and sat straight up in her bed.

She looked around her cell, shaking and breathing like she’d just run a marathon. Tears blurred her vision as she stared into the darkness. Jay bit down on her lip to hold back her sobs. The thin prison sheet clung to her body, drenched wit. . .