Product Description“Urban erotica has never been hotter!”–Nikki Turner, author of Black Widow Have you ever been betrayed by those you love? Violated in the worst kind of way? And no matter how hard you tried to fight your way out of a trick bag, no matter how tall you tried to walk, did the cold streets of life lead you right back to your grimy destiny? The bestselling author of G-Spot and Candy Licker, Noire pens the intense tale of Eva Patterson, a tragic daughter of the ghetto who finds peril on the streets of New York. With an abusive mother and a heroin monkey on her back, Eva experiences a series of traumatizing events, forcing her to flee her Brooklyn tenement and seek refuge with her beloved cousin Fiyah in Harlem. But fate is not done wreaking havoc in Eva’s life yet. Poised on the brink of progress, Eva meets King Brody, a vicious Harlem drug lord who runs Bricks, the hottest rap club in town. Unbeknownst to Eva, her cousin Fiyah’s thirst for glory leads him to cut a killer deal with Brody. A trade-off is arranged: Fiyah gets a recording contract–and Brody gets Eva. The problem is, Eva already has a man: Ice Mello Williams, a hot Harlem rapper who has a bitter feud going with Fiyah and is determined to seize his recording contract. Torn between the man she loves and a violent kingpin, Eva becomes an unwilling pawn in a deadly game of cat and mouse. Can Fiyah and Mello help her elude the sadistic jaws of Brody, or will she end up losing her life in his brutal trap? Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.The Brooklyn housing projects were deserted as EvaPatterson took a shortcut through the buildings, tryingnot to get drenched in the pouring rain. It was unusuallycold for early fall, and all she had on was the corduroyskirt and Salvation Army sweater she’d been wearingwhen Rasheena kicked her out of their tenement apartment, but the temperature was the last thing on her mind as her eyes scanned the crime- ridden buildings in search of a safe place to go. “Sheena, please . . .” Their neighbor Iris had butt in onthe earlier drama as Rasheena cursed her daughter outlike she was a grown woman. Iris had puffed out hercheeks and held her breath between tokes of weed. “Stunt, stopfuckin’ trippin’. Eva’s a good girl. And young as she is, I knowyou ain’t . . . putting her out in the . . . street this time of . . .night.” It was a GreyGoose night, and Rasheena drunk was somebodyaltogether different than Rasheena high. The high Rasheenawould have been sitting in a corner somewhere. Getting her nodon and leaving Eva the hell alone.The drunk Rasheena had stoodover her daughter giving her a grimy look that said Eva could kissher ass. “What?!?” Rasheena had turned to Iris. “Fourteen is _grown! _Sheeit . . . my ass was on the ave gettin’ tricked when I wastwelve. Who the fuck took care of me?” Rasheena slurped a mouthful of Goose straight from thebottle, then chased it with a long swig of cranberry juice andexplained. “Look, I. If you lie you steal, and Eva is a thief. Agoddamn thief. There’s two things I ain’t ’bout to watch in myown goddamn house. My duji and my dick! Ya feel me? Evagrown enough to fuck with my man and dabble in my shit?Then she grown enough to let the doorknob hit’er in the ass onthe way out!” “Well damnnn,” Iris toked the blunt and muttered underher breath. “Y’all the ones who got her started on that shit inthe first place . . .” Eva had just sat there crying inside and looking forty insteadof fourteen. She had tried to dip in Rasheena’s stash, but she’dbeen sick all day and couldn’t go out and make no money. Evahated stealing from her mother. These days she hated takinganything from anybody, but she had a hungry monkey on herback. And Iris had it right. Eva wasn’t responsible for puttingherself on the gutter path to drug abuse, but neither did shehave what it took to get off of it. She hadn’t gotten a hit all day,and just thinking about having to get out on those cold streetswas enough to bring her jones down even harder. “_Don’t worry I got you,_” Eva’s stepfather Jahden put his handup to his mouth and whispered. He winked and grinned as Evaslunk into the tiny room she’d once shared with her cousinFuego, whose street- translated name was Fiyah. Eva missed hercousin real bad. But Fiyah’s mother had gotten out of rehab acouple of years earlier and he’d gone back to Harlem to livewith her. Even with all the grimy things they’d done togetherFiyah was down for her through thick and thin, and Evawished she could have escaped to Harlem with him. “And don’t you take a damn thing outta here that I boughtyou!” Rasheena screamed from the kitchen. Eva sighed. Theonly thing she was interested in taking from the room was themost important thing. Her works. Jahden grabbed her thin arm as she headed out the frontdoor. “Hold on, baby. I said I got you.” A mid- level drug dealer,Jahden specialized in pushing smack while most trap boys werebusy trading that rock. His hand slid around Eva’s narrowshoulders then fell to the small of her back. Eva stiffened as hisfingers crept down the lump of her ass and massaged hercheeks. A cold sweat broke out all over her skin. _If my real fatherwas here Jah wouldn’t be touching me like this, _she cried inside.This nasty pervert woulda been bodied by now. Eva bit hertongue, trying not to throw up. Jahden liked to cold sex her.He would do things to her that Eva’s young body just wasn’tready to handle. There was no end to his twisted demands, andearlier in the day he had forced Eva to sit on the floor andwatch him fuck Rasheena from the back while Rasheena got inIris’s pussy at the same time. “Check me out, Eva baby!” he had panted as his ass cheeksgyrated and pumped like a steam engine. Eva shuddered. Hermother was rotating her head in circles and lapping nookiejuice like that shit came in thirty- one flavors. Jahden laughed atthe look of revulsion on Eva’s face, then screamed on her as sheclosed her eyes and tried to escape the horrible scene playingout in front of her. “Bitch open ya goddamn eyes! You betta bea student and pay attention, dammit!” Eva had just sat there and cried. She was traumatized andsickened. She wanted to stick a knife in Jahden’s neck. Thesame way he’d stuck a fearsome needle in her neck a year agoand turned her into the scared, humiliated shell she was today.Although Rasheena had starved her child almost to skin andbones and done things to Eva that even the lowest dog- motherwould never consider, Jahden was the real reason her life was sofucked up and Eva hated him for it. Every other day she’dpromise herself that she’d kick dope cold turkey before she lethim rape her or get her high again, but her greatest fear had becomeher greatest joy, and Eva was helpless. Rasheena, who had held Eva down the first time Jahden shother up, and who had then stood by and watched as her boy -friend busted her young daughter’s cherry, had been acting realjealous. She got mad whenever it looked like Jahden wouldrather fuck Eva than fuck her, and she put her foot down anddemanded that from that day on Eva had to pay for her skagwith cold hard gwap just like every other fiend- head customer.Desperate, young Eva had taken to the streets to earn herdrug money the only way she knew how. On her knees and onher back. She’d been beaten by strange men, raped, stabbed,and almost strangled. She had cried out to God for help, beggingto know what she had done to deserve such a dark, treacherouslife. But as usual, there were no answers for Eva. Therewas only more destitution and misery. Only fear and morepain. And right now, standing next to Jahden while he rubbedall over her ass, she was hurting. Real bad. Hurting and scared.Seeing the disgust on her face Jahden grinned and reached inhis shirt pocket. He passed her a tiny foil- wrapped package andsqueezed her fingers when she tried to take it. “I got what you need, baby girl.” He cupped his dick andlicked his lips. “See how cool I am? Tonight I’ma let you get itfor free.” Eva burned with rage, but he was right. She feared what hehad, but she needed it too. She snatched it greedily and fled. Downstairs, Eva’s nose was runny and her entire bodyached. A deep pain gripped her as she was leaving her building,and it wasn’t just from anger or from her mother’s cruel behavior. Rasheena had once been a top clothing model for a highlysuccessful designer, but these days she was a common needlefiend who put her man, her drink, and her drugs way ahead ofher only child. She had also been an extremely beautiful andintelligent black woman who could have gone far in life. Talland shapely, with skin the color of brown sugar, she had wideeyes, stunning lips, and hips like sweet chocolate milkshakes.Back in the day she used to be known as the finest chick inBrownsville, but a fast life and a series of grimy men hadproven more than Rasheena could handle. She’d traded her exoticbeauty for one too many heroin trips, and these days shescrambled with the low- life Jahden because he not only paidher rent, but he also kept her head right. Having a junkie for a mother was bad enough, but thedrunken rages Rasheena flew into always cut Eva deep. Juiced,Rasheena would wrap an extension cord around her fist andwhip her daughter until Eva’s skin split open and she passedout from the pain. Eva’s starving body was a canvas of thick,ugly scars and fresh bruises that she’d picked until they wereoozing, infected sores. Her stomach, ass, and back would be socut open that her wounds bled through and pussed over andglued her undergarments to her skin. Her arms and legs hadtheir fair share of crisscrossed cuts and welts too, but Rasheenahad learned to chill on those areas after the school social workergot on her case and told her she’d make sure her black ass gotlocked up the next time she saw Eva with a fresh belt mark. It was hard for Eva to admit that she would rather see hermother mainline heroin than guzzle vodka and gin, but thatwas the way it was with Rasheena. Besides, Eva understoodduji. She respected that shit. Liquor was something elsethough. A smack head could find any old corner and cop aquiet nod, but a drunk usually got loud and abusive. Drunksliked to bully the weak, and that was Rasheena to a tee. Eva dodged rain puddles and hunched her narrow shouldersagainst the cold. It was after midnight, and the sixteen- storyconcrete towers of Howard Houses Projects were a mixture ofillumination and darkness. Rain curled Eva’s silky hair anddrenched her down to her bruised skin. Shivering, she tightenedher grip on the tiny package she’d gotten from ... Views: 66
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