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Other books by Mary Monroe
God Ain’t Through Yet
God Ain’t Blind
The Company We Keep
She Had It Coming
In Sheep’s Clothing
Red Light Wives
God Don’t Play
God Still Don’t Like Ugly
Gonna Lay Down my Burdens
The Upper Room
God Don’t Like Ugly
Borrow Trouble (with Victor McGlothin)
Published by Dafina Books
Deliver Me From Evil
MARY MONROE
KENSINGTON BOOKS
http://www.kensingtonbooks.com
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My acknowledgments would be as long as this book if I thanked each person individually for my success. And even then I am sure I’d overlook somebody. The last time everybody except my ex-husband wanted to know why I didn’t thank them for something. My mechanic pouted for days.
So to make everybody happy this time (I hope) I’d like to thank all of the following for helping me make it to the New York Times bestseller list: My relatives, friends, former co-workers, ex-boyfriends, former bosses, former teachers, neighbors, my dry cleaner, my paperboy, my cellmate during my “visit” to juvenile hall a gazzillion years ago, my former classmates, my eye doctor, my gynecologist, my bartender, my mailman, my pharmacist, the waitresses at Nellie’s Soul Food restaurant in Oakland, my writer/sister Debra Phillips, and especially my mechanic.
To Andrew Stuart: You are a super literary agent! Without you I’d probably still be collecting rejection slips.
To Karen Thomas: Thank you for editing my previous books so well. You turned my ugly ducklings into swans.
To EVERYONE at Kensington Books: You all continue to make me feel special and appreciated. In some ways you feel more like family to me than my real family. (I know that a lot of my relatives are going to chastise me for saying this, but it is true.)
To L. Peggy Hicks at Tri-Com and all the wonderful folks who work with you: Thank you for arranging my fun-filled book tours, interviews and public appearances. I hope I don’t sound greedy, but a few days in Hawaii on the next tour would be nice (hint, hint …).
To the book clubs and bookstores: Your support is sincerely appreciated. On last year’s tour my flight from Houston to Dallas was several hours late, making me miss my reading/signing at Black Images Book Bazaar—or so I thought. When my driver took me to the bookstore anyway to sign stock, I was surprised and pleased beyond belief to see that the audience had waited all that time for me anyway. Support like that is priceless.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention some of my local bookstore supporters. Blanche Richardson at MarcusBooks in Oakland is one of the most important people in the business, and if you are lucky enough to have her in your corner, you are truly blessed! Jerry Thompson at Cody’s Books in Berkeley is and has always been a very special person in my life. Bernard Henderson at Alexander Books in San Francisco is such a rich and colorful character, I’d like to be the one to write his biography.
Please visit my Web site at www.Marymonroe.org and sign my guestbook and/or send me a personal e-mail at [email protected].
Peace and blessings,
Mary Monroe
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER 39
CHAPTER 40
CHAPTER 41
CHAPTER 42
CHAPTER 43
CHAPTER 44
CHAPTER 45
CHAPTER 46
CHAPTER 47
CHAPTER 48
CHAPTER 49
CHAPTER 50
CHAPTER 51
CHAPTER 52
CHAPTER 53
CHAPTER 54
CHAPTER 55
CHAPTER 56
CHAPTER 57
CHAPTER 58
CHAPTER 59
CHAPTER 60
CHAPTER 61
CHAPTER 62
CHAPTER 63
CHAPTER 64
CHAPTER 1
A crude tattoo on his right bicep told the world that his name was Wade. I recognized prison artwork when I saw it, but he didn’t look like a thug. At least not like any of the ones I knew. There were no grills of tacky-looking gold teeth decorating his mouth like stale corn. There was no thick gold chain wrapped around his neck like a noose. With his neatly trimmed jet-black hair; smoky gray eyes; sharp, handsome features; and a thin T-shirt and tight jeans hugging his well-developed body, he looked like a low-income Lenny Kravitz.
Between sips from a can of Coors Light, he puffed on a thick blunt. A strong haze swirled around his head like a halo. It was some pretty good shit, too. I welcomed the immediate buzz I got from inhaling the secondhand smoke. I hadn’t smelled weed this strong and sweet since I was a teenager, more than ten years ago. But within seconds that halo around his head turned into a dark cloud and was moving in my direction.