Page 2 of Rein in the Night

“Keena.”

She gasped. “Steven? Where are you? I thought you were here at the church already. The music’s playing and—”

“Sweetheart, listen to me,” he interrupted. “I-I don’t know how to say this, but . . . uh, I’m not coming. I can’t. You see . . .”

“Give me the phone, silly,” someone said in the background.

Just before she came on, Keena placed the voice. That melody-smooth, made-to-bring-men-to-their-knees voice could not be mistaken, no matter how she might wish she had never heard it before. China, her half sister, came on the line.

“Look, Keena, I know you’re a big girl, so I’m going to tell it to you straight. Steven and I just clicked. We hit it off, so we’re running away together. You’ll move on soon enough and get over him. You’ve always been able to catch a man.”

Was she serious? Shock and pain radiated throughout Keena’s system. She sank to the floor, disregarding her dress as she foolishly kept the phone pressed to her ear while desperate that, in another instant, one or the other of them would tell her this was some kind of cruel joke. But Keena knew it wasn’t. This man-stealing behavior had been what China was all about, all her life. Even Aunt Delores’s claim that she should invite China to her wedding, to rub her face in the fact that Keena was getting married while no man in his right mind would put a ring on China’s finger because of her cheating ways, had not made Keena give in and send her an invitation. This was why. This heartbreak. China stole or attempted to steal every man who came sniffing around Keena. She’d thought Steven was different, that he was somehow immune to her half sister’s model-quality body and beautiful face. Keena didn’t believe for a moment that love was involved on China’s part.

“China, give me the phone. Let me tell her. You don’t know how to be gentle.” Steven sighed. “This is her wedding day after all, our wedding day. Baby?”

“You don’t get to call me baby,” she responded, her tone cold and unf

eeling, although she was far from it inside. “You don’t get to even say my name the rest of your miserable life, you coward!”

The music in the sanctuary grew louder when the door opened. “Stop that damn music right now,” Aunt Delores shouted, and the notes came to a rude halt.

Keena wished she could have laughed. Her aunt rushed to her side and took her in her arms, pushing Keena’s head down to her shoulder. Keena’s eyes, so wet earlier, were dry now.

“Give me that phone.”

Keena’s numb fingers couldn’t hold on to the small device when her aunt snatched it away. The dark brown eyes almost black, which matched both Keena’s and her mother’s, seemed ready to shoot fire.

“You listen to me, Steven Boyce. You get your little narrow butt to this church on the double, and you tell Keena to her face why you let her almost get to the altar rather than tell her you were a no-good cheating son of a—”

“How dare you?” Steven’s mother shouted.

The lobby all of a sudden filled with people, and more strained to see and hear what was happening from their positions inside the sanctuary. Keena wanted to sink through the floor to avoid all the drama. Her aunt ignored Steven’s mother and continued to yell at him at the top of her lungs. Dazed, with her heart cracking by the second, Keena wobbled to her feet and turned to walk straight out the front door. She didn’t stop until she came to the end of the block, and she only paused then because of the noisy traffic zipping along Madison Avenue.

Horns honked, women yelled to their girlfriends in greeting, and men whistled at others in their too-short skirts as they sashayed along the sidewalk. That alone reminded her of how she had been betrayed. The ache closed her throat, yet still she couldn’t cry.

“Oh, honey, you’ll mess up your dress.” An older woman next to her tsked. “The most important day of your life so far. I bet you’re excited.”

Keena tried to respond but couldn’t, and the woman nodded her head in understanding.

“Jitters. Don’t we all experience that? Well, you get back to that church, sweetie. You don’t want to keep your husband-to-be waiting. And don’t worry, I’m sure everything will work out just as it should.” With those wise-sounding but false words, she toddled off, leaving Keena standing there wondering if anyone would care should she step out against the traffic.

Seconds later, she snapped out of such train of thought and frowned. “That jerk isn’t worth me killing myself over him. He should be the one killed, and that whore China!” With fire she knew wouldn’t last, she hoisted her dress higher and hailed a taxi. When one stopped in front of her, she opened the door, got in, and watched to be sure that she didn’t catch her dress when she closed the door after her. The single reason for that was so she could sell the dress because she would never have a need for it again.

That beautiful dream she had of marrying and having six children was just that—a dream. On some level, she was happy she had awakened from it. The fact that she had failed on her promise to her mother hurt, but she had to believe her mother would understand. Men were worthless and deserved to be castrated the minute they hit adulthood. She would get along just fine without them if it killed her.

Chapter Two

Keena, curled into a tight ball, sobbed into her pillow while her aunt rubbed her back. The tears she’d been happy were absent while she was still at the church came with a vengeance once she was home. She hadn’t stopped crying for two weeks, and that damn Steven made it all the worse with his calls to see that she was okay.

“Why doesn’t he leave me alone? Doesn’t he know how much he hurt me?” Keena cried.

“He knows, and the guilt’s eating him alive,” Aunt Delores said with satisfaction. “My guess is he found out quick that what he thought he felt for Miss China was all lust, and when she showed her true colors, even that dried up. Hope she satisfied him for the price he paid.”

“Aunt Delores!” Keena spared her aunt a look of disbelief through the blur of her vision.

“What?” Her aunt waved a hand and sucked her teeth. “Well, he did pay, and he’ll pay a lot more if he comes around here because I will beat him to within an inch of his life and get Morty to handle the rest.”

Keena sat up, clutching her pillow to her chest. “What rest? He will have just an inch left.”

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