Saint And Sinners (2 page)

For clarification purposes, there are more paperback versions of this series than
e-books. What that means is, the longer books had to be divided into Part I and Part
II so if you see a Part II or ANY of these books, unless you are purchasing the paperback,
you already have the entire book, so please don’t fret. There is no Part I or Part
II for your Kindle, Nook, iPad or other reader. You get the whole pie, versus it being
divided. If you are reading this from a hardcopy/paperback, please ensure that you
purchase Part I and Part II of this same title.

(I am clarifying this because there was quite a bit of confusion with the last book,
which was also so long, I had to split in two.) The previous installment/novel, entitled,
‘Saint’s Sacrament – Sins of the Father’, was divided into two sections for print
purposes due to the number of pages. Essentially, having a printed book over 600 pages
is a no-no, not to mention a pricing nightmare for the author and reader. It is also
heavy and cumbersome, so with all of those factors considered, I needed to break it
up and as you all know, that book was well beyond 600 pages.

Okay, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, pull up a chair please and let’s
have a quick chitchat about this book before you dive in. I promise not to keep you
long. I just want to talk to you, author to reader, for a moment.

This by far was the hardest book of the series for me to write for a myriad of reasons.
As I’ve said in many radio interviews regarding the series, I found Saint to be one
of my easiest, if not
the
easiest, character to write. The reason being—he practically writes the book himself.
His personality makes it ‘stress-free’, if you will, for me to get into character
and hunker down, take care of business. However, this year of my life was particularly
difficult. A slew of illnesses, ranging from bad colds to chronic allergy infections,
have run amok in my house. Of course, my husband was not as affected because apparently
he is not as allergic to pollen, ragweed, mold and the whole allergen kit and caboodle
to the same degree as his offspring and myself. That aside, I also lost someone very
dear to me, my beloved maternal grandmother—so consider all the grief and sense of
loss that entailed. She was a unique, creative, wise woman who had her own struggles.
I miss her so much it hurts, for she was so encouraging of my writing and so supportive
of me. Rest in peace, AppleSmith.

Additionally, there was repair work going on in my home, which prevented me from concentrating
due to hammers and drills going full gusto in my living quarters. Due to the illnesses,
sometimes brought home from the two little ones I dedicated this book to, I then would
get sick as well, which would render me at the mercy of OTC medications and prescription
drugs that would undoubtedly make me extremely sleepy in the evening—a time of day
that, for me, has always been the prime time to write Saint books. This caused literally
days at a time to go by when I could only get 10-20 pages complete, and for a book
that is 900+ pages long, uh…that’s a problem!

I refused to skimp however, and it was essential for me to keep this book as a love
story, first and foremost. Yes, Saint has magical powers, he is an Alpha, and he is
a mess sometimes. Yes, this is a paranormal however, Saint’s main mission on this
planet, in this lifetime, is about love, so if I lost that notion along the way, then
Saint’s true character would suffer. The third book of the series, ‘Saved and SAINTified’,
concentrated more on the paranormal aspects than the love connection between Saint
and his wife. Don’t get me wrong, the chemistry was definitely still there, but it
didn’t have the front row seat as in the previous two novels, and even the fourth.

This fifth story takes—in my opinion—the best paranormal elements from the third book
of the series, spins them into an urban ‘homecoming’ if you will, and mixes everything
with the strong, amazing love connection between Saint and Xenia—and finally, this
all-encompassing energy transforms into something new for them as well as for the
reader. All of the books, added together, have brought us to this very place. It was
high time I brought Xenia more to the forefront, so I did. We got to see parts of
Xenia that had not been revealed previously. Therefore, this book goes many steps
forward, giving her more dimension and allowing us to see just how far she’d go to
do what she needs to do, to be the woman that Saint had to have by his side. We saw
that Xenia has grown from the first book to the fourth, and now, it is time for her
to step it up another notch.

After all, she is his Queen, so she needs to
own
that crown and rock it like no one’s business. I can only hope and pray that I achieved
my goal in this book, for Xenia, in some ways, represents us, and through her, we
also can gain enlightenment, education and entertainment.

As in all of my books, this was a labor of love, but I am telling you, Dr. Aknaten
did not make this easy for me. Sometimes, he was asleep and I’d have to play a few
very loud Hip Hop tunes, namely Eric B. and Rakim, to wake his behind up. The few
hours I was able to write without the aid of meds, he was trying to do whatever he
does when I am not speaking to him and I simply could not have that. Once he was up
though and fully alert, he was off and running, so thank you Saint for being the Muse
that I needed to not only get this project complete, but done to the best of my ability,
and something that I’m proud of.

I am not going to even tell you what Mama Pam was doing… I’ll let you see for yourself.

All I can say is, her character really allows me to stretch my silly bone to the max
and I am thankful to her for allowing me to utilize her to bring a softer edge to
some of the passages. As I have stated in my Reader’s Group and online, Mama Pam is
based loosely off my paternal grandmother, who also passed away quite some time ago.

I will also warn you…there are some hard moments in this book. Sometimes, I had to
step away. My characters feel real to me, because I become
them
in order to write the stories. In some moments, it was painful to write a certain
scene and I literally had to take five, but it was important, so I pushed through.
I want to thank my readers and fans for that. If it were not for your continued support,
it would be much easier for me to say, ‘I’m not doing this’ and walk away. But I know,
from someone else’s’ pain, fictional character or not, a lesson can be learned—food
for thought—and I can help others through the words on the pages. So that alone makes
it all worthwhile.

So, without further ado, I bring you the fifth book of the series, ‘Saint and Sinners –
The King Angel Child of New York.’ Let’s get into it!

*

K
oki Suzuki placed
the alkali cigarette butt to his lips. He donned a stupendous grin showcasing his
pearly whites as he placed it onto an adjacent clear ashtray shaped like a crescent
moon that rested on a nearby tin colored table. In one hand, he gripped the damn handwritten
letter, and in the other, he massaged the split, dark red leather of the barbershop
chair as Lyle, his weekly groomer, meticulously cut his hair into an even, dark buzz.
Like the time before, and the time before that, hair fluttered to the ground around
him like sooty angel feathers coming undone amidst a botched flight. Some of it lined
his white cape while the buzz of the razor danced dangerously close to his fine-tuned
ears. Two of his homeboys were waiting anxiously for what he had to say—evident by
the tight expressions on their faces. Pablo even hopped from one foot to another in
his blue and white air Jordans, his sad light amber eyes filled with defeat before
they were even up at bat.

“Now look,” Koki said coolly after he collected his fragmented, cloaked thoughts.
“Didn’t we already know the chances of this were rather…how shall I say it? High?”
He kept his expression impassive, refused to shake it loose no matter how angering
the news. Lest he admit it, a sticky dollop of worry stirred in the pit of his tumultuous
gut, too. “Just pull yourselves together. It is what it fucking is.” He shrugged his
shoulders. “So be it.”

“What tha fuck you mean, so
be
it?” Ataru piped up as his brows dipped low and his forehead wrinkled in angst. The
man’s ghostly, pale skin against his shoulder-length black feathered hair reminded
Koki of the walking damn dead. The man’s eyes were long slits of black with barely
an eyeball to be found in the abyss of night, his lips a mere whisper of the color
pink. He was the lightest Japanese man Koki had ever laid eyes on, but, he was still
kin, his younger brother, nurtured from the same demonic lip service. “If he finds
us, then we will end up like the ones
before
us. He could only be here for one reason and one reason only. I’m not trying to get
into any bullshit with the likes of him.”

“Ataru, relax,” Koki dismissed as he leaned leisurely back in the chair, crossing
his ankles and placing the note on his lap. If no one were around, he’d make the damn
thing combust right then and there; the words inside were already etched onto the
spot where his soul should have resided. No need to keep any evidence.

“You always over-react,” Koki said coolly. “You’re too high strung, and that’s why
your ass isn’t in charge. I tell you what.” He scratched his ear and looked lazily
out the storefront door, noting the traffic was getting thicker than usual on 9
^th
street in East Village, Alphabet City. “I will send Zoo over to find out a few things,
and then, we can decide what to do next, okay? Besides.” He threw his hands up, his
smile growing a bit wider as he forced his way through the shit. “We don’t know him.
We only know what we’ve
heard
. All that shit is speculation.”

…I could never get close enough to him to find out more.

“Yeah, and what if the rumors are true, huh? What if he really
did
take down Egypt singlehandedly? Word is, he snapped that joker’s neck, and no one
previously dared to fuck with Nizsm. No one had the balls. But that motherfucker went
there
alone
, in goddamn Egypt, the epicenter, and fucked…him…up! Who does that shit?! Everyone
was talking about it! What if he
does
have all this clout, all this power? That’s an unfair advantage. The shit is supposed
to be level.”

Koki grew weary of his brother’s antics and shot him a death glare. Ataru was the
only person he allowed so much leverage, and he was growing fatigued of the public
displays of disrespect, things that should have been discussed behind closed doors.
Ataru had lost the fine art of dignity. There was a
way
to be born, a
way
to live, and a
way
to die. There was also a way to conduct all aspects of business, and Ataru made him
nauseous with his negative attitude.

“Stop being such a fucking wimp, Ataru, Jesus Christ! Do you bleed? Huh, man?! Do
you have a period once a month? Shit! Pussy ass mothafucka…” He picked up his cigarette
and tapped it anxiously against the ashtray, determined to never let a motherfucka
see him sweat. “Even if that
is
true, that whole shit in Egypt was different. There is no comparison. This is New
York. This is
my
city, my turf. He hasn’t been here in fucking forever. The world changes every damn
millisecond. And besides, he knows how this works.”

“What makes you think he can’t just come in here and turn everything upside down?”
Ataru huffed.

Still in that ‘run for your lives’ zone. Despicable, fucking disgusting.

“Anyway, Look, just chill, for real.” Koki rolled his eyes. “You are fuckin’ up my
high, killing my vibe with all of your anxiety… and you!” He glared at Pablo. “Stop
bouncing around like that, like a fucking jack rabbit on hydraulics!” The man immediately
stopped and looked down at his shoes, refusing to make eye contact, as if suddenly
ashamed.