by Tiana Laveen
Saint And Sinners
The King Angel Child of New York
Written by Tiana Laveen
Edited by Natalie G. Owens
Cover Design by Travis Pennington
*
Copyright © 2014 by Tiana Laveen
Nook Edition
Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 (five) years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.
Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Blurb
Dr. Saint Aknaten’s very soul is screaming to return to the city of his origins—New York. After living many years with his wife and three children in Los Angeles, he has grown weary of the west coast lifestyle. He goes back to his roots, where it all began, believing he and his family can have a fresh go of it, and that good times will be promised to them from here on out.
Little does Saint know, his hunger for the concrete jungle is not steeped in mere nostalgia and home sickness… No, there is a much larger picture at play and the artists painting the landscape are ones he simply can not say ‘No’ to.
He is thrust into an assignment, one that causes him serious pause, but in typical Saint fashion, he realizes he MUST step up to the plate. In doing so, he uncloaks the city’s dirty, hidden secrets—underground workings of Good and Evil—and unbeknown to him, he is seated in the center of it all. Worst of all, the alleged enemy knows more about Saint than Saint at times knew about himself. All the while, his family is going through tremendous changes and challenges that seem to have no end in sight.
His children are maturing in age and their gifts, sometimes receiving painful life lessons. Meanwhile, Xenia tries to keep her head above water at the side of her soulmate, her husband, her lover and the father of her children—an Angel Child named Saint. This time, however, being by his side is just not enough. The challenges roll in harder and more brutal, forcing Saint’s Queen to step out in front of her man and take control of a situation that threatens their marriage, as well as the safety of the entire state…and even the world.
New York raised Saint, gave him a heaping helping of tough love, and now he realizes it was better to have loved and lost, than to have never had the Big Apple kiss him at all.
When it is all said and done, who will wear the golden crown? Saint extinguishes one cigar after another, but his soul lights the entire city on fire in a ferocious blaze. When the smoke clears, who is left standing, and who is lying six feet deep? And most importantly, is his Queen still there to give him the love that he wants and needs? Jump into the fifth novel of the “Saint series” to find out!
*
This Book Is Part Of A Series
PLEASE NOTE: This book can be read as a stand-alone; however, the reader is at a tremendous disservice if the previous books of the series are not read in chronological order.
They are as follows:
1. The Naughty Sins of a Saint
2. When Saint Goes Marching In
3. Saved and SAINTified
4. Saint’s Sacrament – Sins of the Father
5. Saint and Sinners – The King Angel Child of New York
*
Warning
For those not familiar with the ‘Saint series’, please be advised that abundant profanity, adult themes/situations and explicit sexual encounters are included in this book, in full detail. Additionally, topics of race, racism and, on occasion, religious beliefs are considered. The main character, Sain Aknaten, is a psychic and part of a world that is associated with Angels, demonic forces and deities as well as other religious/spiritual concepts; thus, these topics come into play rather frequently in this novel. Nevertheless, this is an ADULT novel in every sense of the word so if that is not something you wish to explore further, this serves as a flaming red, neon, burning hot, super duper ‘CAUTION’ sign so that you may avoid delving into something that you may find unpleasant.
…Oh, you’re’ still here? Bravo! Then please continue.
*
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my son and daughter. Thank you for being so understanding while I wrote this book, sweet peas. This novel, by far, was the most challenging, most time consuming of the entire series and therefore, one that I hold especially dear. There were too many evenings to count that kept me in my office writing when I should have been playing tea party with my sweet two year old daughter, or indulging in a riveting shapes and mathematics matching game with my four year old son. So, I tried to balance it all out by playing ‘England crumpets’ in the afternoons, and ‘Find the Octagon’ soon thereafter. We got it done though, didn’t we, kids? The timing was just a bit wonky. Regardless, you let Mommy work more times than not, so for that sacrifice, I am truly grateful. Now that I’ve written ‘The End’, let’s go play! I love you, my sweet babies!
Now and forever.
*
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Blurb
Warning
Dedication
Word To The Reader
Prelude
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Author Biography
Book Club Questions
Word To The Reader
Greetings!
First and foremost, I would like to thank you for purchasing a legal copy of the fifth novel of the Saint series, ‘Saint and Sinners – The King Angel Child of New York.’
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, y
ou 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!
*
Prelude
Koki 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 9th 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.