Chapter 24 Zeke Monday | 1037am
Zeke
My wrists were tied so fucking tight I couldn’t feel my fingers. Every time I tried to pull free, the rope burned deeper into my skin. My ankles were strapped down, too. Stuck in a metal chair, breath shallow, head pounding, my heart beating like it was trying to escape through my chest.
The room was cold: concrete walls, no windows. That flickering light overhead buzzed, loud enough to drive me mad. Blood tainted the air. I couldn’t tell if it was mine or dried into the floor.
Footsteps echoed slowly and heavily, and each one brought a chill to my spine. I tried to lift my head, but it felt like something had split open in the back of my skull. I tasted iron. My mouth was dry, and my lips cracked.
“Please,” I mumbled. My voice was hoarse. I barely recognized it.
A shadow stepped in front of me, but I couldn’t make out the face. The next thing I knew, a fist came down hard right across my jaw. My head snapped to the side. Stars danced in front of my eyes.
Another punch. Then another.
My ribs felt like they cracked. My shoulder went numb.
I begged, but they kept hitting me.
“Zeke.”
I shot up screaming so loudly my heart damn near exploded in my chest. Dodging liquid, my body jerked off the floor, gasping like I had been drowning. “Ahhh!! What the…”
Wiping my face, I blinked a few times, trying to get my bearings.
My shirt clung to me, soaked in sweat and something sticky.
My mouth tasted like whiskey and vomit. Then, I saw Evelyn standing over me with the empty tequila bottle still in her hand.
Her eyes didn’t flinch, and her lip curled up like I was something she wanted to scrape off her shoe.
“What the fuck, Evie?” I tried to sit up. “You… poured liquor on me?”
“You smelled like it already,” she said flatly. “Figured I’d make sure the outside matched the inside.”
I looked down at myself on the floor in the corner of my office.
I was still in the same clothes from yesterday.
My shirt was stained, and my pants were halfway unzipped.
I smelled like piss, liquor, and fucking failure.
Shame settled on me like a second skin. “Evie…” I started crawling toward her, reaching.
“Come on. Help me, baby. Don’t leave me like this. Please.”
She stepped back. “Don’t you touch me, Zeke.”
“I fucked up,” I said. “I know I did. But I didn’t mean to…”
“Yes, you did. You’re selfish and…”
“Please, Evie. Call your father. Lend me the money.” I dropped my head, my voice breaking as I spoke. “I am begging you. I don’t have anywhere else to turn, baby. Please.”
Evelyn let out a short, bitter laugh that had no humor in it at all. “You think my father wants to help you after the bridge you burned years ago? You burned every bridge and then stood there smiling like God would keep saving you.”
“I was fixing it,” I said. “I was trying… to hold everything together.”
“You weren’t protecting me,” she shot back, voice trembling with rage and heartbreak. “You only cared about your damn image, your pulpit, your secrets. Not me. Not our daughter. Never us.”
I pushed myself up onto my knees, my head spinning, my stomach turning. “Princess is gone because of me,” I said quietly. “I know that. I will carry that forever. But if you help me now, I can get her back. I swear to you, I will make all of this shit right.”
She crossed her arms and stared at me for a long moment. Her face was tight, her eyes hard, but there was pain there too. Deep pain that I had put there over the years. “You make a habit of swearing,” she said. “And you make a habit of breaking every single promise you open your mouth to give.”
“I know,” I said. “I know. But this time is different.”
“Because this time you finally ran out of room to hide,” she replied.
Silence stretched between us. I could hear my own breathing, uneven and desperate.
Finally, she turned away from me and walked toward the desk.
She rested her palms against it and bowed her head for a moment like she was gathering herself. “How much do you still need, Ezekiel?”
“Just under a million.” Her head spun around, and I exhaled deeply, hanging my head lower. “I owed two and a half.”
She sighed heavily. “I will get the rest of the money,” she said at last, her voice flat. “Not because I believe in you. Not because I trust you. I am doing it for my daughter and to rid myself of you.”
My head snapped up. “Evie, baby…”
She spun, her expression blazing. “Don’t you dare. When this is done, you’re nothing to me. We are finished.”
My phone rang before I could respond. It was on the floor by the couch. I scrambled for it, nearly falling. One of the deacons was calling, but I hit ‘ignore’. The text on the screen from Nyce about meeting at the church made my stomach drop.
Evelyn saw the color drain from my face immediately. She didn’t need to ask who it was. The disgust on her face was instant and sharp, like she had stepped in something foul. She shook her head slowly.
“Look at you,” she said. “A pastor drunk in his own filth.”
“I can be better,” I said, but there wasn’t an ounce of hope left in the words. My voice barely clung to life, trembling on dread.
She stepped closer, face inches from mine.
“You are gonna get up. You are gonna shower. You are gonna put on a clean suit. And you are gonna walk into that church like the man you have been pretending to be for years. I’ll make the phone call to my father.
” She turned and walked out, leaving me alone with the smell, the shame, and the ticking clock.
???
Monday | 12:00pm
The church was quiet when we walked in. I’d been ignoring my staff and congregation.
Shit was hectic, and this took all of my energy.
Inside, the sanctuary lights were off, and the stained glass looked dull without the sun pushing through it.
I carried the duffle bag in my right hand, and it felt heavier than it should have because my whole body was still in pain.
Evelyn walked beside me with her spine straight and her face set. She held a folded, already-signed check in her purse. In order for her father to release the money into the joint account we shared, she had to promise a divorce. In the position I was in, I couldn’t argue that.
“You’re late,” Nyce’s voice boomed from the pulpit. He leaned against it like my fucking sanctuary belonged to him. His posture was relaxed, but his eyes were sharp.
As Evelyn sat down in the first pew, I set the duffle bag down and unzipped it. Stacks of cash stared back at us. “That’s half.”
Evelyn handed me the check and said, “And this check covers the rest. Every single dollar.”
Nyce snatched the check from my hand and then looked at her. “Where’d you get this shit?”
“Does it matter? You want your money, and now you’ve got it. Where’s my daughter?”
I swallowed hard. Nyce leaned back and smiled once, slow and humorless. “I like your assertiveness.”
I cleared my throat. “This should settle it.”
Nyce stood up. The air changed when he moved. He stepped around the pulpit and stopped right in front of me. “You think money fixes disrespect?”
“I paid you,” I said. “I did what you asked.”
He hit me before I could blink. The pistol came out of nowhere. He cracked me across the side of my head with it, hard enough to send me stumbling into the desk. Pain exploded behind my eyes, and my knees buckled. I tasted blood.
“You played with me,” he said calmly. “You ducked me. You let other people think they could move on me.”
“Hell no,” I shouted. “I never…” He hit me again and I went down that time. My cheek slammed into the floor, and the room spun. I heard Evelyn scream my name.
“That is enough,” she said, stepping between us. “You have your money!”
Nyce looked at her, then at me, curled on the floor. “He got somebody killed,” he said. “He put my home at risk when he ordered the fucking hit.”
“Oh, trust me. I fully understand the magnitude,” Evelyn said. “And I do not care what you think of him, but this ends now. Where is Princess?”
Nyce studied her for a long moment, then tucked the gun back into his waistband with a devilish smirk. “Got more backbone than this muthafucka,” he said.
I tried to stand, but my legs shook. “I didn’t order a hit on your life! I told Don not to do a damn thing. I swear to God!”
“Swear to God?” Nyce laughed. “Funny. You use His name when it suits you, but you were never really worried about His judgment, were you?” The second he raised his gun, I saw my whole life flash before my eyes. My mouth moved before my brain could stop it.
“Take Princess. Keep her! I don’t give a shit anymore what Don wants. I just… please… don’t kill me! Keep her!”
Evelyn gasped. “Zeke!”
The words left my mouth before I realized what I’d said.
“You bastard.”
I froze, and we all turned to the corner where Princess stepped out of the darkness. She looked broken, pale, and betrayed. It was evident that she’d been inside the church the whole time listening to everything. “Princess…” My voice cracked. “Baby girl, I didn’t mean…”
“Don’t you dare,” she spat, rushing toward me.
“You were ready to hand me over like I was nothing!” Tears welled in her eyes, and I watched in horror as Evelyn ran to grab her.
Princess broke down crying in her arms. “Ma!” Evelyn held her like she had been holding her breath for days, and she cried into her shoulder like a child.
I reached out. “Princess, listen…”
“Shut the fuck up, preach,” Nyce commanded, gun still raised, and then his eyes traveled toward my wife and daughter. He watched them for a beat, then nodded toward the door. “Both of you, outside. Wait in the truck.”
Princess looked up, sniffling. “What?”
“Now,” he said.
Evelyn met his eyes. “I’ll be damned. She’s coming with me.”
“When I say so,” Nyce said. “Get in the fucking truck.” They left together, and Princess did not look back at me.
Then, he crouched in front of me. My head throbbed and my vision blurred.
“So, here’s how this is gonna go, preach,” he said.
“You’re gonna sell this entire estate. Sell your cars. Anything of value.”
“But… but you got your money. Please.”
“Consider this interest.”
“I can’t…” My voice cracked. “Nyce, please, this is all I got left!”
“No. The two who just walked out were all you had left.”
“I’m begging you. Please, son…”
That snapped something in him. He stood up straight, stone-faced and snarled, “I ain’t your son, nigga.” He turned, walking to the door and leaving me on the floor of my church, bleeding and exposed, with nothing left to hide behind. I was done.