After Raven had given John all the pleasure he could stand, she’d told him she had to get going. She’d then jumped in the shower, gotten dressed, and kissed him good-bye. Needless to say, he hadn’t wanted her to leave and had found the gall to ask her to spend the night, but she’d let him down easy. She’d explained how they still needed to be careful until she broke up with Kane. The good news, though, was that he was completely on board with helping her get whatever amount of money she needed. He had agreed without much coaxing at all, and what she now realized was how good she was at tricking men and getting them to believe everything she said. Kane, of course, was starting to doubt some of what she claimed and did, but once she paid off D.C., got rid of Porsha, and cut off John, she would make things right with him. She would give him her undivided attention, and if he insisted, she would finally marry him.
Now, though, Raven was in her car heading home and plotting out her next move. First, she would tell John that the simplest way to find her the two hundred thousand dollars would be to transfer it piecemeal from the least-used church accounts. That way, the chance of their getting caught would be next to none, and John could funnel all of it into one new account—an account that would be hers. To be safe, she’d also decided that she would tell him that the funds she was taking were only a temporary loan, and that she’d be paying it back over the next four months. This wasn’t true, but this particular story would also lead him to believe that her “loan” was nothing more than an advance she was taking against her normal income.
But even though she’d figured out that part of her plan, she knew John would need time to make this happen. Which meant she had to convince D.C. to give her a month’s extension. She knew he would still insist that she pay him now, but she was hoping that she’d found the perfect solution. She wasn’t sure he’d go for it, but she was calling him now to make her case.
Raven dialed his number.
“Hey, Rev,” he said. “Great sermon yesterday. You got my money?”
“That’s actually why I’m calling.”
“I hope you’re not still tryin’ to talk me into some petty payment plan, because for the kazillionth time, I’m not havin’ it.”
“Not even if I’m willing to pay you a little more than the two hundred and seventy?”
“Yeah, right. Heifer, you must think I’m a fool.”
“No, this is real. If you can give me a month, I’ll give you three hundred.”
D.C. laughed the way he always did when he thought she was trying to get over on him. “If you don’t have two seventy, how do you plan on gettin’ me three hundred?”
“All I’m saying is that if you give me thirty days, I’ll get you three hundred K.”
“Make it three hundred K plus you go online and clear Pastor Black’s name, and I might think about it.”
A wave of anger and nervousness swept through Raven’s body. She’d suspected all along that Pastor Black was the reason D.C. had decided to come after her. But when she’d asked him about it, he’d acted as though he didn’t know what she was talking about. Dillon had lied, too, and now he was using D.C. to get the revenge he’d been trying to unleash on her since their divorce.
“Helloooo?” D.C. sang, trying to be funny. “Do we have a bad connection?”
“I can’t believe you’re doing this. All because of Pastor Black?”
“Well, believe it, sweetheart, and you should’ve thought about that when you stole money from him and me. You also had no business makin’ that sick accusation. Pastor Black has done a lot of stuff over the years, but rapin’ women ain’t one of ’em.”
“How do you know that, D.C.?” she asked, just to see what his response would be.
“Because I know he didn’t. I also know you and what a lyin’, manipulative trick you are. You showed who you were nine years ago, and pretendin’ to be some holy pastor at a church hasn’t changed that. You’re just as sneaky and low down as you always were. You should be ashamed to step up in anyone’s pulpit, let alone your own.”
Raven wasn’t sure why D.C.’s words sort of bothered her, but they did. That was only for maybe two seconds, though, because she was still livid about this Pastor Black turn of events.
“So who made you do this? Pastor Black or Dillon?”
“First of all, nobody makes D.C. do anything. I decide what goes on with my business. But if you must know, I contacted you on my own—at first. Because when that video of yours started circulating around, I realized how cocky and dirty you still were. And I decided right then and there that you were going to pay me.”
“Well, if that’s true, then why are you all of a sudden saying that you’ll extend my deadline if I clear Pastor Black’s name? Is part of that three hundred going to him?”
“Nope. This is just part of our deal, plain and simple. Now take it or leave it.”
Raven wanted to slam her phone against her windshield, but she knew it wouldn’t change anything. “Fine. Three hundred it is.”
“And a new video. By tomorrow evening before midnight.”
“What? I need more time than that. I have to figure out the best way to fix this.”
“Then I suggest you get busy. I’m already bein’ nice to you as it is, because I could make you record that video tonight.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” she said, trying to stand up to him.
“No, you’ll either do it or our deal is off. And when you finish, that video had better leave Pastor Black lookin’ like a saint.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
“You’d better not be playin’ games with me.”
“I’ll get it done.”
“And my money?”
“I’ll get you that, too. In thirty days.”
“For your sake, I hope you do. Because if I have to contact you again…well, let’s just say you know how I do. And I don’t make promises without keeping them. I softened up a little before you went to prison, but not this time.”
Raven tried to toughen up her tone, acting as though she wasn’t afraid of him. “Like I said, you’ll have your money in thirty days.”
“And it better not be a day later.”
D.C. hung up, and Raven wanted to cry. Not because she was hurt, but because she was outraged. The reason: Pastor Black was no longer a blackmail option for her. She’d been thinking that if she continued making accusations about him, he would eventually become so worried about his reputation that he would pay her whatever money she asked for. Worse, if she told enough lies, he might think he was facing prison time and he would pay her an even larger sum. But now, Pastor Black and D.C. had beaten her at her own game, and she had to switch her plot to plan B.
She was now going to blackmail Porsha. Actually, this scenario would work out better for Raven, because with Porsha there wouldn’t be any repercussions. When it came to Pastor Black and Dillon, however, if she’d tried to blackmail them, they would play a tit-for-tat war with her for years. She would end up doing something awful to them, they would do something worse to her, and the saga would continue. But with Porsha, Raven would only have to make her demands and wait for payment. And there wouldn’t be any negotiating, either. Porsha would simply pay Raven three hundred thousand dollars, plus sign over all her rights to anything relating to New Vision Ministries, Inc.—including her ongoing 50 percent profit—or Raven would leak that sex tape. She would send that raunchy video of her and Dillon to every local and national media outlet she could find, and she knew Little Miss Goody Two-Shoes wouldn’t want that. She would never allow something like this to happen, not when it seemed as though she was trying to become some new devout Christian. When Raven had viewed that mini message of hers last week, she’d seen something different about Porsha, and she’d also noticed the same thing when she’d watched her message from yesterday. Raven didn’t know where this sudden change in Porsha’s personality was coming from, but it wouldn’t stop her from kicking Porsha out of her church.
Then, once Raven received the three hundred thousand from Porsha, she would pay D.C. as promised, but she would still get John to transfer the original two hundred thousand she’d already planned for—plus another three hundred. Because the more she thought about this, why shouldn’t she get paid right along with D.C.? Why shouldn’t she walk away with five hundred thousand dollars free and clear, so she could finally build her dream home? The house she wanted to construct would run anywhere from seven hundred fifty thousand to a million dollars, anyway, so a half million would make the perfect down payment.
Just thinking about the way this whole next month would play out got Raven excited, because not only would her debt to D.C. be paid in full—which meant she would no longer have to live in fear—but she would also be five hundred thousand dollars richer. It was so interesting how Porsha’s money would be saving her life, and John’s financial expertise would fatten her personal bank account like never before. The whole scheme was brilliant, and now Raven wasn’t as sorry as she had been about D.C. showing up at Bible study last week. Because if he hadn’t, there was a chance Raven might not have had the courage to blackmail Porsha. Well, maybe she still would have at some point, but she wouldn’t have made an attempt this soon—not to mention she likely wouldn’t have discovered a much easier way to oust Porsha and keep all the profit from the ministry for herself. Raven also wouldn’t have risked losing Kane, which was exactly what she was doing by sleeping with John. Although, it was like she’d been thinking all along: She did love Kane, but he didn’t take priority over her ministry. It wasn’t like she was going to get caught with John, anyway. So once D.C. became history and Porsha did, too, Raven would end this charade of a relationship with John. He would certainly be hurt, because she could tell how in love with her he was, but he would have to move on and find someone else. What he needed was someone who was more noticeably on his level—a plain Jane, so to speak—and Raven would get back to being the powerful woman that Kane deserved. She would reap multiple rewards and become wealthier than ever. She would have everything she wanted.