My plan to get rid of Sharon Benton, once and for all…
Now things were beginning to make sense, Tara thought wildly. She slapped the book closed and wedged it tightly against her bosom. This trip was going to be one hell of an encounter.
CHECK OUT A SNEAK PREVIEW OF BOOK TWO AT THE END OF THIS BOOK.
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FROM THE DESK OF H.H.FOWLER
My wonderful readers, I am sorry to leave you hanging, but those of you who have read the Church Boyz’ series know my style. I love cliffhangers. Please, if you dare, join me in Church Gurlz II, In the Presence of my Enemy for the continuation. I promise you that it will be an adventuresome ride! Please visit my blogsite: www.churchboyz.org and leave your comments about my story. Huge appreciation to all for your support and encouraging words. Without you, the reader, we writers could not be successful.
In Church Gurlz II…
• What do you think will happen when Doreen finds out that Tara knows her secrets? Will Doreen allow her to get away with such sensitive information, or will Tara get the upper hand?
• Brian is excited about exploring his ‘feelings’ for Jasmine. And, it appears as if Jasmine is fond of Brian as well. Do you think they will end up together?
• Karl and Paul have been best friends for over thirty years. How do you think Paul will react when he discovers that Karl has not only stolen his wife, but also his son?
• With Wynton’s voracious sexual appetite in full swing, will he be able to remain faithful to Tara while she is in the Bahamas?
• Do you think Marcia’s sight will be restored? Will she receive the man that she is fervently praying for?
Other Books by H.H. Fowler
The Church Boyz’ Series
Rod of the Wicked – Book 1 – Synopsis
Imagine sharing the spotlight with a ruthless blackmailer, whose only intention, is to take all of which you’ve worked hard to achieve – your wealth, your fame, and your church of seven thousand members. For Pastor Leroy Paxton of Mount Moriah Baptist Church, this is no imagination. Five years ago, he committed a toxic sin and almost lost his life trying to cover it up. He now comes face to face with his past, which haunts him from the pulpit to his bedroom. And the only way out of this nightmare is to make a decision that could cost him everything.
When Things Go Wrong – Book 2 - Synopsis
The drama continues to unfold. Leroy Paxton, pastor of Mount Moriah Baptist Church, thought he had found a way to get rid of Shaniece once and for all, but had underestimated the power she uses through blackmail. With new secrets surfacing about his past, Leroy sadly discovers that Shaniece isn't going anywhere, anytime soon. She is determined to bury everything that he cherishes, including his marriage of twenty-six years.
My Last Cry – Book 3 - Synopsis
In My Last Cry, the race to the finish line is paved with suspense and intrigue. Determination is everything. Which side will win the battle between good and evil?
The Church Gurlz’ Series
Mother’s Black Book – Book 1
In the Presence of my Enemy – Book 2
The Aftermath – Book 3
Stand Alone Titles
Javier (urban crime/romance) - Synopsis
Three boys who can’t stay out of trouble on the streets of New York - Pedro, Caleb and the manipulative Javier, put Rachael Raymonds’ faith to the test, as she tries to save them from the unscrupulous Detective Macino and from themselves. She must resist the seductive charm of the sensual 17-year-old Javier, who could easily corrupt the household.
The opposing worlds of the Safe House Sistahs and the Gangsta kids collide under the one roof and sparks fly. Can the caring women at the safe-house bring their last-chance residents back to sanity? In Putnam County, the laws and codes of the rival gangs, Vipers and the Cobras, reach deep into young men’s hearts; the struggle for power that finally explodes in death and vengeance will leave Putnam County staggering.
CHURCH GURLZ – Book 2
In The Presence of my Enemy
A Novel
H. H. Fowler
Chapter One
Brandon View Baptist Church – Sunday Morning
“What is love? Could that word even be understood in such an obstinate generation as ours?”
Brian stepped down from the pulpit and paced until he was standing in the center aisle. The congregation admired his harmonious inflection, but they were more interested in hearing the answers to the questions he had just posed. Today, he had decided to ditch his cassock for a charcoal, single-breasted suit. A hot pink tie rested beautifully between the folds of his white shirt. The change in attire had little to do with boredom, but had everything to do with Jasmine Benton, who was sitting in the second row to his right. They had spent all of last evening together talking about the adjustments that life had produced.
When Brian mentioned his stint at Bible College, and that he’d graduated with distinction for having the best-prepared sermons, Jasmine was a bit dubious. The Brian Lakatos she had known back in the day was not excited about standing in front of crowds. Brian challenged her to attend Sunday morning service, where he happened to be the designated speaker. He would leave it up to her to decide whether or not he was as good as his talk.
“Is it just a mere emotion?” he continued sonorously. “A butterfly in the stomach? A force of nature? Hollywood presents us with a picture of lust, pleasure, and an unrestrained gratification for sex, which is often confused with love. But I believe that love is much more than we can ever explain. I believe that you cannot dictate the expressions of real love. It can strike at any time, anywhere, and with anyone. Love is unpredictable and it is independent of our ‘preferred’ taste. Love cannot be bought or sold. It knows no boundary and it cannot be quantified.
“What is love to you? Parents, think of your children. Children, think of your parents. Wives, think of your husbands, and likewise, the husbands think of your wives. What do you feel on the inside? Can you describe it? What memory comes to mind? Would you give your life for them? Think about it seriously. How much are you willing to sacrifice just to demonstrate how much you love someone?”
Jasmine began shifting in her seat as Brian’s questions tugged on her emotions. Love was complicated, she thought. Brian was asking all of the right questions, but Jasmine wondered how much of what he said came from personal experience. He wanted to know what memory came to mind when one thought about love. Well, Jasmine could dredge up a thousand memories that she’d accumulated over the years. But the one that had stayed with her throughout her twelve years in New York was the period when she had a miscarriage at eleven weeks.
It would have been her and Wynton’s ‘lovechild’ that they’d created at the age of sixteen. Would she have given her life to save the life of her child? Her response would have been a resounding yes. Even now, she could hear the voices of her past, climbing through the rafters of her mind. She loved her mother dearly, but they had shared some heated discussions – about Wynton, about the pregnancy, about everything that Jasmine felt that her mother was against. However, her mother was no match for Jasmine’s sharp tongue, which would have sliced anyone down to size…
“Mummy, it’s my choice if I want to be with Wynton! I don’t care what those people have to say at that stupid church! Half of them are doing worse than what Wynton and I did. You people are always preaching about fornication and adultery and all of the ‘big’ sins. What about hypocrisy? And gossiping? And being downright nasty to those who happen to fall away from the grace of God?”
“Don’t you dare blaspheme against the Holy Ghost!” her mother thundered. “You told me that you had been raped! That boy took your virginity –”
“Mummy, please!” Jasmine spat in disgust. “I’m no saint and you know that! Why are you afraid to accept me for wh
o I am? I never once told you that I had ever been raped! You took it that way because you have a negative perception of Wynton. Don’t blame me for you running your mouth to the whole congregation. Now everyone thinks that I was attacked and raped by the pastor’s son.”
Sharon wagged two chubby fingers at Jasmine and yelled, “You shouldn’t have let that boy within twenty feet of this house! You know his reputation. Why the heck you had to lower your standards for the filth he has been spreading around that church? What is wrong with Brian? Such a decent boy who is following in his father’s footsteps. He is nothing like his brother. All Wynton wants is your body and you are too naïve to see that –”
“Mummy, you are being judgmental, just like the rest of them,” Jasmine explained. “You don’t know Wynton and you’re not even trying to know him.”
“I know he is not good for you!”
“Well, the hell with what you or Daddy says. I will be holding his baby in my arms within seven months…”
Jasmine could never forget the look on her mother’s face when she announced that she was pregnant with Wynton’s baby. But back then, it did not matter how her words flew out of her mouth. She wanted her cake to be baked the way she wanted it. Her parents would see firsthand that she was ‘mature’ enough to handle her own stress. However, things did not exactly work out as Jasmine had so foolishly imagined. Her life was fast-tracked from that point on. Within a week, her father had packed up her belongings and shipped her to an all-girls boarding school in New York.
Now, as Jasmine listened to Brian conclude his dissertation on the word, ‘love’, she wondered if she had given her mother’s suggestion some thought, maybe Brian would have turned out to be an excellent husband.
“…however, no one can really show us what love is except the One who had created it,” Brian said, as he walked briskly back to the podium. “1st Corinthians, chapter thirteen reads: Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy, love does not parade itself, it is not puffed up. It does not behave rudely, it does not seek its own, it is not provoked, it thinks no evil…love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. And now abide faith, hope, love, but the greatest of these is love.”
****
The scent of hazelnut coffee was present in Paul’s office, which he had recently brewed for his friend Karl. The guilt that Karl had been experiencing since the loss of his wife made him want to drink something stronger. A bottle of Hennessey went a long way to numb the spikes of regret, but he would not allow Paul to see such variation in his character. Paul knew him as a man who had learned how to master his emotions.
If Karl began acting differently, from the image he had built over the years, there would be an immediate inquiry into his personal life. And, at this fragile stage in the game, Karl could not give Paul any reason to become suspicious. There were enough questions being raised about the death of his wife as it was. Paul digging for answers would be a nightmare, because it would only lead to more lies that Karl could not keep up with. If Karl and Doreen were to get away with Sharon’s murder, ignorance among the people around them was necessary – the less they knew, the less chance their secret had of ever coming to light.
“I’ve decided to sell the steel plant,” Paul announced suddenly. He moved his eyes away from the flat screen TV and stared at Karl for his response. “I cannot keep up with both the company and this church. My strength won’t allow me to do it.”
Karl, who had been quietly nursing his mug of hazelnut coffee, took his eyes away from the flat screen TV as well. They had both been watching Brian put the finishing touches on his sermon. The flat screen TV had been connected in Paul’s office for that very reason – to monitor the order of the service when Paul was not in the sanctuary. Brian’s sermon on love was so good that Karl wondered if he had been too critical about the young man’s ‘calling’.
The questions Brian had asked about love had struck home, forcing Karl to face the issues that he wanted to bury for the rest of his life: Did he love his wife? And, if he had loved her, why didn’t it stop him from sending her to an early grave? Did he love his daughter, whom he had shipped to New York against her will and had kept her from the only man she truly cared about? Did he love Doreen, Paul’s wife, with whom he had been sleeping right beneath Paul’s, big white nose? Karl’s thoughts had become convoluted. To him, love was evasive – an impractical notion reserved for fools. The real question to ask was: Had he been a fool all these years?
“What is your response?” Paul prodded. “I’ve just confessed to a truth you’ve been trying to point out to me for years. Now, you’re not enthused.”
“I will do whatever you want of me, Paul,” Karl finally said to his friend. “Put your offer on the table – whatever it is – I will not give you a hard time about it.”
Paul’s grey eyes pierced Karl suspiciously. “You’re not going to gloat over who had been right?”
“No,” Karl said succinctly and then released a tired smile. “My wife’s death has reminded me that life is too short. We are growing older, Paul, and I wish to focus on the things that matter.”
Karl was five years younger than Paul, but Paul decided against making a comment about it. Doreen, however, would keep Paul burdened over the fact that Karl was more youthful-looking and more robust of the two men. She harped continuously over Paul’s lack of desire to shed the pounds around his ‘unattractive’ gut. Paul often wondered at his wife’s unreasonable demands: How could he compete with a man like Karl – who seemed to be blessed with the healthiest genes given to man? Karl ate what he wanted and did not spend hours in the gym, but he was as fit as a bison.
“…I agree with you – the load is too heavy to man both the church and the business,” Karl was saying. “However, for the sake of your sons, I don’t think you should hand over the controlling interest of your company. As partner, I will take the active role.”
“For the sake of my sons?” Paul chuckled bitterly. “My sons don’t have the slightest appreciation for what I have built.”
Karl brushed Paul’s irritation aside with a smile. “You’re impatient,” he said. “Give them some time to come to their senses. This generation of young people doesn’t want to be bogged down with too many responsibilities.”
“I wish that was the case,” Paul said. “My sons’ perspectives are entirely different from my own. Just look at the direction of their lives.”
“Paul, I will admit for the first time that I had enjoyed Brian’s sermon today. It was better than most of what you come up with.” Karl stood to stretch his legs and then pinned Paul with a direct gaze. “You must accept, my friend, that Brian and Wynton are not you, and they will never be. Let them discover their worth to this ugly world. Is this not what you preachers spit out to your seeds?”
Paul suddenly slammed the desk with his fist and yelled, “I don’t want my sons to be like me, doggone it! I want their appreciation! They owe me that much!”
Karl raised a brow in surprise. Paul’s unexpected outburst brought on a deafening silence. It was almost surreal that a man of such strong character was now showing signs of degeneration. The silence, however, was short-lived, as Karl’s cell began ringing. He had left it on Paul’s desk while they were going over the new architectural plans for Brandon View Baptist Church.
“Just let it ring,” Karl said quietly, sensing that his friend needed his undivided attention.
The ringing stopped, but soon it began blaring again, without a second of rest. Paul, already annoyed, snatched the phone to silence it. His eyes ‘inadvertently’ studied the telephone number of the person who was calling. When Karl saw the change in Paul’s expression, he knew immediately that it was not something good he wanted to hear.
“My wife is in the Bahamas,” Paul said to his friend. “Why on earth is she trying to reach you on a Sunday afternoon?”
Karl, who had already honed his acting skills for such uncomfortable moment
s, stared blankly at Paul and said, “Who cares who she’s trying to reach. Doreen never calls anyone except when she is in some kind of trouble. You have even said so yourself.”
Paul spat viciously, “Well, if that is the case, let the phone ring until it cracks.”
“You can’t mean that, Paul.”
“I mean every word of it! I’m tired of that woman’s disgusting capers!”
It took every nerve in Karl to lock his composure in place, because he knew from experience that Doreen should not be ignored. He could imagine the expletives flying from her mouth. But what could I do, Doreen? Karl thought. Your crazy husband has my blithering phone clenched between his fingers. There has to be another way…
“Excuse me,” Karl said. “I will be right back.”
“Where are you going?” Paul inquired.
“Do you wish to share a urinal with me? I told you that I will be right back. Just keep in mind: Doreen is your wife and her safety should be of your utmost concern. Don’t live to regret it, like I have.”
Karl strutted normally out of Paul’s office, but the second that door had closed behind him; he sprinted out of the exit, toward the parking lot. There was a phone in his Audi A4 that he kept attached to his Bluetooth Interface, which he primarily used as a backup. He should be thankful that he had found a way to reach Doreen, but his insides quivered in fear. It was a familiar feeling that told him that there was trouble in the camp and that he had better prepare for the impact.
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