Could This Be Love

  Could This Be Love

  Praise Him Anyhow Series

  Book 8

  Vanessa Miller

  To my great aunt, Ruby Knox. She spent ninety long years on earth, but left us for her new home. I will miss her, but consider myself blessed to have had her in my life for as long as I did

  Prologue

  “How could this have happened?” Well she knew how it happened, she just wasn’t so clear on how she, Raven Thomas, could have been so addle brained as to let it happen.

  The pounding on her door caused her to drop the object she had been holding. She rushed to the door and looked through the peephole. It was the Senator. Backing away from the door, Raven hollered out, “You shouldn’t be here.”

  “I won’t be ignored, Raven. I’m not leaving until you talk to me.”

  Fear crept into her heart. She’d seen firsthand what the senator was capable of so there was no way that she was going to go head to head with him on her own.

  “I’ll break this door down if I have to,” he threatened.

  Raven picked up her cell phone and dialed Joe Sparrow, one of the associates in her publicity firm. When Joe picked up she quickly told him, “I need you to be a witness to a meeting.” Then she flung the door open and said into the phone, “Senator Michael Allen is walking through my front door as we speak. Jot down the time and I will update you later as to how this meeting went.”

  “Do you want me to turn on the video cam I set up in your house?”

  “No, just jot down the time of his arrival. I’ll notify you of his departure time.”

  As she hung up the phone, Senator Allen barked, “Who was that?”

  “You don’t need to know that. But if I should come up missing, the person who was just on the phone will make sure everyone knows that you had something to do with it.”

  Taking off his gloves the senator glared at Raven. “I find it sad that after working with me for over a year, you could believe me capable of the things the lame-stream media has tried to pin on me.”

  “You’re forgetting that I researched the incident myself.”

  “Yes, and that’s what I’m here to talk to you about. When I saw you in the restaurant with your brother, I thought you’d at least have the decency to tell me why your organization has left me to fend for myself.”

  At fifty-seven the senator was almost twice Raven’s age, but the man didn’t look a day over forty. He bore a strong resemblance to Dennis Haysbert, that guy in the Allstate commercials. His voice was just as booming and authoritative as the Allstate pitchman’s, as well. But Raven wasn’t moved. She knew what the senator was and what he had done.

  Senator Allen’s eyes focused on the object Raven had dropped on the floor. He pointed at it. “Is that what I think it is?”

  Raven groaned as she realized the mistake she had made... a mistake that could cost her life. She rushed over to the spot and picked the pregnancy test instrument off the floor.

  Before she could dispose of it, the senator grabbed it out of her hands and looked at it. He then turned it so she could see it, as if she hadn’t already gawked at it a hundred times. “It’s positive.”

  She didn’t respond.

  “Is this why you suddenly decided to drop me as a client?”

  Raven snatched the pregnancy test out of his hand and then marched over to the door. She swung it open and said, “Leave my house now.”

  Senator Allen opened his mouth to say something, closed it, then with a look that said he knew exactly what the deal was he said, “This isn’t over, not by a long shot.”

  Raven closed the door behind the senator and then leaned against it with her heart beating so fast she wondered if she needed to call a paramedic. Looking at the pregnancy test in her hand, she shook her head in disbelief. “So it begins.”

  Chapter 1

  “So what’s up, Boss?” Joe Sparrow asked as he came into her office. “I pulled our people off of Senator Allen’s case and now he’s harassing you?”

  “No, he just wanted to know why I decided to end our contract.”

  “And did you tell him?”

  “I think I’ll leave that to the authorities. They should be gathering enough evidence to get an indictment soon enough. I just don’t think our firm needs to be associated with all that madness.”

  “Good call.” Joe sat down and propped his foot on her desk and then asked, “You really think he did it?”

  “Don’t you? You were the lead investigator. Every time you turned up new information, what did you tell me?”

  “I said it didn’t look good for the senator, but that doesn’t mean that I’m a hundred percent convinced that he did it... I mean, a pregnant ex-lover on your hands is one thing... murder is a whole ‘nother-other.”

  “Who else stood to gain from that woman’s death? It had to be the senator.

  “Aren’t we jumping the gun here? I mean, who says the mistress is dead? Maybe the senator paid her to leave town and go into hiding.”

  “I wouldn’t put it past the senator to pay a woman to go into hiding, but I don’t think it’s that simple. I’m telling you, Joe, I know Senator Allen and that woman is dead.”

  Joe put his feet back on the ground and stood in front of Raven’s desk. “And just how well do you know him? Because I’m wondering why he felt comfortable with going to your house. Our clients know that is against the rules.”

  Raven got up, turned towards the window, stood there looking out at the people as they walked the streets. Since she’d started her career in political public relations, Raven had dreamed of being in the place where politics threw down. The movers and shakers of the universe resided in Washington, D.C. and to be a success, she had to reside here, also.

  That had been what she’d told herself, but in light of what she’d allowed to happen, Raven wished she’d never left North Carolina and was still doing public relations for the city government. “I know him... let’s just leave it at that.”

  Shrugging his shoulders, Joe said, “You’re the boss.”

  Yes, she was. And the best thing for her to do now was to get the senator and his family off her mind and concentrate on work. “We have a new client.”

  “Great! We’ll be able to keep the lights on.”

  “You’ve got jokes.” Raven half smiled, half frowned at that. Because the truth was, her firm needed every client they could get. They’d been in business for three years, but it would take at least five for the firm to turn a serious profit. Raven knew she could make a success out of this business, she just needed the time to do it.

  “Who’s the client?”

  “Judge Linda Hartman.”

  “Isn’t she up for re-election next year? Does she want us to help with her campaign or something?”

  “Meet me in the conference room. Let’s go talk to her.” Raven picked up a file from her desk and strutted out of her office like a woman who was in charge, and very capable of handling her business.

  ***

  “We’ve got trouble,” Senator Allen said to his son.

  Marcus Allen, the third son of the great and powerful Senator Allen asked, “What kind of trouble?”

  “She’s pregnant.”

  Marcus stumbled backward. Grabbed hold of his father’s desk to steady himself. “How do you know?”

  “Never mind how I know. I just do.”

  “Okay, so now what?”

  “What do you mean, ‘now what’? You know what. We’ve got to do something. This family is on its way to the White House and I’m not about to stand idly by and let anyone get in our way. Not even Raven Thomas... do you understand me?”

  Marcus prayed that he didn’t understand at all. Because if his father was suggesting what
he thought was being suggested... “Let me look into this. You might be totally off base, so just calm down before you stroke out or something.”

  ***

  “Judge Hartman, how nice to see you again,” Raven said as she shook hands with the formidable judge. “Have a seat.”

  Judge Hartman sat at the head of the table. Raven sat on her right and Joe took the chair on the left.

  “I’ve watched you over the years, and I’d just like to say that you do this nation proud. I hope to one day see you as a Supreme Court judge,” Joe told her. No flattery involved, he meant every word.

  “Yes, Judge Hartman, we have a great deal of respect for you and your continued stance on Godly issues that are brought before the court. My step-mother has a great deal of respect for you, also. She says she prays for more judges like you.”

  “I’m humbled at the high praise, but I have been nothing more than a servant of the Lord for the past twenty years. I can think of no better way to serve Him than in my rulings on the bench. I get tons of grief from the media because of my principles. But they are what they are and as long as my constituents continue to vote for me, I’ll keep on doing what I believe to be right.”

  It was an honor indeed to be sitting in the presence of such a God fearing woman. When Raven was at home, her step-mother, Carmella Marshall-Thomas and her father, Ramsey Thomas provided all the Godly influences that she needed. But being in Washington, D.C., she was short on Godly influences and had allowed herself to forget who she was in Christ. She longed to get back some of what she had lost while in pursuit of her career.

  “How can we help you, Your Honor?” Raven asked.

  “This isn’t easy to talk about,” Judge Hartman said as she hung her head, displaying the shame she felt. “My oldest daughter, Britney has always been a bit of a problem child. I’ve tried everything I can think of to help her, but she rejects all my efforts. Now she’s missing and I have no idea what has happened to her. My opponents would love to find her and humiliate me with whatever she has gotten herself involved in.”

  “Don’t worry, Judge Hartman, we will find Britney and we will be discreet about it,” Joe assured her.

  Judge Hartman stood, shook Raven’s and Joe’s hands. “I thank you both for your help with this matter. My family means everything to me. I’ve just never been able to convince Britney of that fact.”

  As they walked toward the door, Raven said, “To get started we’ll need every morsel of information you can give us: Who she hung out with, places she frequented, the last person you saw her with.”

  Judge Hartman stopped walking and turned to Raven. “I don’t know much about my daughter’s life these days, but I do know who she was with before she simply vanished.”

  “Great, who was that?”

  “Marcus Allen. They were high school sweethearts. I thought Britney was attempting to rekindle the flame, but after their date, I never heard another word from her.”

  When Judge Hartman said ‘Marcus Allen’ the blood drained from Raven’s face. She quickly recovered her composure before Judge Hartman noticed any sign of the turmoil going on inside of her. “We’ll check with the Lieutenant Governor to see what he has to say about the night he and Britney went out on a date.”

  “Thank you, Raven.” Judge Hartman hugged her. “I knew you were the right person to turn to with this matter. I met your mother and father at a fundraiser last year, so I know you were raised with good, Godly values. The same that my Britney was raised with.”

  As Raven walked back toward her office thinking about the kind of impression her Holy-Ghost-filled step-mother Carmella Marshall-Thomas must have made on the judge, she almost burst out in tears at the judge’s last comment. Because even though she and Britney had been raised in Godly homes, it was obvious that they both had strayed away from the values they had grown up with.

  “Speak of the devil,” Joe said as he held his hand over the phone receiver. “The Lieutenant Governor is on the phone for you.”

  Raven knew that Joe was talking about Marcus, and in no way shape or form did she want to speak with him at this point in time. Shaking her head vigorously she rushed into her office. But as it had been lately, God had not made a way of escape for her, because Marcus rang in on her cell. She ignored it and then flipped open her computer to jot down a few things that were on her mind.

  Her computer’s home page was CNN.com and before she could switch to another site, Raven’s eyes gravitated to a big bold headline which read, ‘Happening Now. Multi-Millionaire Ronald Thomas is being airlifted from the scene of a horrific car accident’.

  Raven wanted to scream. Her life was truly spinning out of control. She already had enough to deal with and now her brother was being airlifted. She clicked on the link as she grabbed her cell phone and dialed her parents.

  Her dad picked up. “Hey, Raven, how are you doing?”

  “Not too good, Dad. Are you somewhere with a television?”

  “Yeah, there’s one in this room.”

  “Turn it to CNN. I think Ronny is being airlifted to the hospital.”

  Ramsey started stuttering, something about Carmella having a premonition.

  “What’s wrong?” Raven heard Carmella ask.

  “Turn on the television. Put it on CNN,” Ramsey told his wife.

  Once the television was on, Ramsey told Raven, “We’ve got it on. Why do you think the person they’re airlifting is Ronny?”

  “The news reporter ran the plates on the car. The car is in bad shape but it looks like Ronny’s Jag.”

  “Oh my God.” Carmella’s hand went to her mouth. “My boy has got to be okay, Lord. He’s got to be.”

  “Ronny was just here last week. We had lunch. I can’t believe this is happening,” Raven said.

  With a shaking voice, Ramsey asked, “Can you come home, hon? I think you should be with the family right now.”

  As her father was asking her to come home, Joe was holding up a piece of paper that told her Marcus was still holding and refusing to hang up until he spoke with her. “I’ll be there, Dad. I need to get away from here anyway.”

  Chapter 2

  Raven went online and booked herself on the first flight out of Washington, D.C., headed to Raleigh, NC. She then went home and threw a few items into her suitcase and rushed to the airport. She was glad that she hadn’t procrastinated and taken the time to get things in order before jumping on that plane because when she arrived at the hospital, Raven was greeted with the news that Ronny had internal bleeding and had been rushed into surgery.

  He was in recovery now and they were all just sitting around his room waiting for his bed to be wheeled in there. “I just can’t believe this is happening. Ronny is so full of life. He’s got to pull through this.”

  “He will,” Renee, her younger sister said as she put an arm around Raven’s shoulder.

  “Yes, of course he will,” Ramsey assured his children. “Carmella and I have just spent several hours in the chapel praying for Ronny and Jarod. And we know for a fact that God answers prayers, so everything will be all right.” Carmella squeezed his hand as he finished his statement.

  Raven whispered to Renee, “Who’s Jarod?”

  “Nia’s son. She’s the woman Ronny brought to town to start a business with Mama-Carmella. I think Ronny has eyes for her,” Renee said.

  Ram, their oldest brother walked over to them and said, “No thinking about it. Ronny is over the moon for the woman.”

  Before anyone else had a chance to comment on Ronny’s love life, the door to his room opened and the guest of honor was wheeled into the room. Ram and his wife, Maxine, Joy and her husband Lance, Dontae and his wife, Jewel, Renee and her husband Jay, Raven and RaShawn stood around the bed looking down at their brother, while Ramsey and Carmella stood back, wiping the tears from their eyes.

  Ronny cleared his throat as he told his family, “You all look so beautiful to me. I know I have neglected to spend time with each of you througho
ut the years, but when I was stuck in that car and thought I was dying, you all were in my heart and my thoughts. I love each of you.”

  “We love you, too, Ronny. We don’t care how busy you are. We know where your heart is,” his father told him.

  Ronny slowly turned toward his father. “How is Jarod?”

  “He’s doing fine and waiting for you to get better so you can go on a pirate adventure,” a woman who’d just entered the room answered.

  Raven figured that she was getting her first glimpse of Nia, the woman Renee and Ram thought had stolen her brother’s heart. Not bad, big brother, not bad at all, Raven thought as she noted the love shining brightly through the woman’s eyes.

  Ronny’s head swung around. She moved closer to his bed. “I prayed for Jarod right before I blacked out.”

  “Thank you,” she said, trying to stifle her tears but having a hard time doing so as the tears drifted down her face.

  “You were right,” he confessed. “I thought I did it all. I didn’t think I needed God, but I see now that I would have nothing without Him. God kept me alive and I will never forget Him again. I have finally realized that I love God and I love you, too, Nia Brooks, and I don’t care who knows it.”

  Her brother’s confessions of love shocked Raven to the core. It wasn't just his love for this woman that shocked her but his confession of love for God. She had felt that way about God for most of her life, but she’d gone off to Washington and had forgotten her first love. Raven had no clue how she would ever get that feeling back in her life, but she wanted it, more than anything.

  She went over to Nia and introduced herself, “Hi, I’m Raven, Ronny’s sister.”

  Nia hugged her. “It’s so nice to finally meet you. Ronny talks about his family so much I feel as if I already know you.”

  Raven smiled, but inwardly she was wondering what Nia’s secret was. How had she been able to get a man like Ronny to fall in love with her. Nia was beautiful, anyone could see that, but Raven had been told on countless occasions how beautiful she was, and yet, no man had ever fallen all over himself to love her. Maybe, instead of asking Nia, she should ask her sisters. Each of them had someone to love, but all Raven had was her career. But now she had the baby that was growing inside of her. Raven decided that she would love her baby and let that be enough.