Could This Be Love Read online

  When service was over Raven went to the minister and shook his hand. “I was supposed to be here today. Thank you for preaching the word of God and not being afraid to tell the truth.”

  “We have to speak out, my dear sister. Because we are losing believers to the enemy right and left. Some of them are so deep into their immoralities that we may never get them back. My prayer is that by lifting up my voice, I can save at least one person from going down the wrong path then I will feel as if I’ve done some good with this life God gave me.”

  As Raven walked away from the minister, she was struck by how much it meant to him that he used his life in service to God. When she first began her work in political public relations, all she’d wanted was to do some good for mankind, but then she decided that maybe the best way to do good for mankind was by first doing what was good and right for God.

  “Thank you for coming to church with me today,” Carmella said as they sat down at the table preparing to order their breakfast.

  “I’m glad you invited me. I have never heard anyone preach on this Phinehas person. It was fascinating and gave me a great deal to think about.”

  “God has a way of getting our attention when we least expect it. I’m glad you’re listening. Now, do me a favor and let God lead you wherever He desires to take you.”

  Getting defensive, Raven said, “You think I went against God when I decided on my career, don’t you?”

  Shaking her head, Carmella told her, “I didn’t say that. I can’t say that, because I don’t know what God’s purpose is for you. All I’m asking is that you allow God to reveal it to you.”

  They ordered their food and then Raven took a deep breath and said, “I need to tell you something. I don’t want you to freak out or to tell Daddy before I’m ready.”

  Carmella put her hand over Raven’s. “You can tell me anything. You know that. But I have to be honest with you, your father doesn’t like for me to keep secrets, so I can’t guarantee anything on that front. Can you live with that?”

  Before Raven could answer, her cell phone rang. Looking down at the caller ID she saw that it was Joe. “I have to take this,” she told Carmella as she excused herself from the table. Once she was outside of the restaurant she answered and asked, “Did you find her?”

  Raven had left town, but she wasn’t neglecting her duties to her firm. Joe hired a private detective to find Britney’s location and now she was hoping to hear some good news.

  “I had a bead on her, but Marcus must have known we were coming, because she was relocated last night. But the good news is that Britney is still alive. I showed her picture to several residents of the rehab center where she was supposed to be and they remembered her.”

  “Well thank God for small favors. But what am I supposed to tell Britney’s mother?”

  “Tell her that Britney is safe and getting the help she needs.”

  She heard the voice, but hoped and prayed that her ears were deceiving her. Raven slowly turned around and came face to face with the man she both loved and feared.

  Chapter 4

  “What are you doing here? Are you following me?” Raven was practically screaming.

  “Who is it?” Joe asked.

  Raven was still holding the cell to her ear. She quickly answered. “Governor Marcus Allen is standing in front of me. I’ll call you back later.” She hung up the phone and wrapped her arms around her chest as she glared at him.

  “I’m happy to see you, too,” Marcus said in a manner that indicated the opposite.

  “If you don’t want to be in my presence, why on earth did you follow me?”

  “You know why I’m here. And please don’t think you’ll be able to double talk your way out of this. I want answers and I want them now.”

  “I don’t owe you anything.”

  “I disagree.” He pointed at her belly. “Is it mine or not?”

  Caught off guard by his bold question and then angered by his assumption that someone else could be the father of the baby she was carrying, Raven started yelling at him. “How dare you follow me all the way to my hometown to accuse me of sleeping around. I leave all the cheating to you and ex-Governor Lewis, who suddenly remembered he had a family that needs him.”

  “Hey, don’t try to put Governor Lewis’ problem on me. I don’t have a wife and if I did, she wouldn’t have to worry about infidelity.”

  “Mmph, sure. You’re just the model of fidelity, just like your daddy.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It means that I saw you on the news with Denise Johnson, your fiancée. Remember her?” When she said the word fiancée, she put her fingers in the air and imitated quotation marks.

  “I’m not engaged to anyone, yet. And I’m not involved with Denise, either. I hope you believe me.”

  “Of course I believe you. You Allen men are born truth tellers.” She leaned back, studied him, and then hit him with, “Tell me, Marcus, have they ever found that woman who claimed that the senator was the father of her baby?”

  “I don’t have anything to do with that, either.”

  “Don’t you?” Raven was outraged that this man would come after her like she had no connections and could be disposed of as easily as the beauty queen his father had the affair with. “Your father sent you here to take care of me, didn’t he? I know how Senator Allen thinks. Now that you’re the acting governor, he’s not going to want anything in the way of you winning the next election.”

  “Nothing will be in the way.”

  “I don’t care how powerful your family is, I will not have an abortion. I never intended to get pregnant, but now that it’s happened, I will just deal with it.”

  “You mean, we will deal with it… right?” The look he gave dared her to challenge his rights as they related to a child of his.

  Leaning back and looking up at him she said, “All right then, Governor, what do you suggest we do about this?”

  “I thought you’d never ask… it’s simple. We call a press conference, announce our engagement and then do a quickie wedding.”

  The wind was knocked out of Raven. Had she heard him right? No man had ever asked her to marry him. She’d been the bridesmaid for both her sisters and a few friends. She’d imagined that she’d have to be content with her career, because she didn’t have anyone in her life… and then she’d met Marcus.

  Her eyes traveled the distance as she gazed up at him. At six feet five inches, he was a whole foot taller than her. At one point in their wayward romance, she had enjoyed looking up at him. His height and solid build put her in the mind of that old fable, John Henry, the hammer wielding man. Being born with a silver spoon in his mouth, Marcus never had to do such menial tasks, but the way he was built, he could do more than wield a hammer, if need be.

  Snap out of it, she told herself. Every woman in Virginia knows how fine Marcus Allen is. She wasn’t the first woman to crush on him and she certainly wouldn’t be the last. “I can’t marry you,” she snapped her fingers, “just like that.”

  “Why not? If it’s my baby you’re carrying, I would think you’d welcome marriage.”

  Raven glanced around. They were standing outside the restaurant and she prayed that no one heard Marcus’ loud mouth. “Can you keep it down?”

  “Oh, am I too loud for you?” He glanced around just as she had done. “What? You don’t want anyone in your hometown to know about me?”

  “You shouldn’t want them to know, Governor,” she said, trying to remind him of who he was and all that should mean to him. “And besides, who said I’m pregnant by you, anyway?”

  He laughed at her. “If you’re pregnant, then the baby is mine. I know that for a fact. I only asked it if was mine to mess with you, because I’m still angry that you left without talking to me.”

  “How come you’re so confident?”

  He didn’t answer.

  Raven’s eyes widened as she realized… “You had me followed?”

&n
bsp; “Not me. But let’s just say there’s a reason why my father is up in arms about your pregnancy.”

  “Your father is the devil. I should have known he was having me followed.” She lifted her cell phone and punched in Joe’s number. When he answered she said, “Can you have my apartment swept again?” They swept their places once a quarter. With the type of work they did and the high profile clients they had, Raven liked to ensure that her clients’ information would be kept confidential, no matter where it was discussed. But the last sweep had occurred over three months ago... time for another one.

  “I’ll get it done tonight. Why don’t you ask the governor where he stashed Britney?” Joe said before hanging up.

  Putting her phone back in her purse, she did exactly what Joe suggested. “Judge Hartman wants her daughter back home. What did you do with her?”

  Marcus shook his head. “Sometimes I wonder why you even slept with me, because you obviously have a very low opinion of me.”

  When Raven didn’t respond, Marcus said, “Relax, tell the judge that Britney is somewhere safe and very discreet. No one will leak her whereabouts or her condition to the press. So, her election should go off without a hitch.”

  “I’m sure that Judge Hartman is worried about more than just her re-election.”

  Laughing, Marcus said, “Please… she might be holy and sanctified these days, but she still bleeds red, white and blue, just like my family.”

  Raven opened her mouth to tell Marcus just what she thought of his family and their privileged attitude, but the restaurant door opened and Carmella came out. “Hey, what’s taking you so long? Your food is getting cold.”

  Raven outwardly groaned. The last thing she wanted was for Mama-Carmella and Marcus to come face to face. The Allens would do anything to get what they wanted, and Raven feared that Marcus might harm a member of her family just to get at her. Actually, if she was telling herself the truth, she didn’t fear what Marcus would do, and didn’t believe that he would harm her family, but his father was another story. She didn’t want Senator Allen knowing anything about her family, and therefore, she needed to keep Marcus’ nose out of her family’s business. “I’ll be right there, just go back inside, okay?” Raven implored Carmella.

  Carmella gave her a strange look but turned and went back inside.

  Raven then tried to walk away from Marcus but he grabbed hold of her arm. “We’re not done.”

  “Oh yes we are,” she told him as she pulled her arm out of his grasp. “Don’t come near me. Just stay away.”

  “I’m not about to leave you alone until we settle this matter between us. I’ll come to your parents’ home if I have to. Is that what you want… for me to come to your parents’ house and give them a blow by blow of what we’ve been up to?”

  “I am telling my family myself this weekend. I don’t need you running your mouth about anything that concerns me.”

  “Then you need to make time for me.”

  “All right, all right. I’ll meet you later tonight. I’ll text you with the location.”

  “You better show up tonight, or you’ll regret it.”

  “I already do,” Raven told him as she opened the restaurant door and left him to watch her walk away.

  ***

  Raven plopped down on the couch in her parents’ family room. Marcus had tracked her to her hometown and that was just too close for comfort. She didn’t want them involved with any member of the Allen family. When the Allens got involved, people came up missing.

  She needed to find out where Marcus was hiding Britney, so she was going to keep her meeting with him tonight, but she didn’t want to come up missing or have anything happen to her family, so she was going to leave Raleigh first thing in the morning.

  “You look like there’s a million things on your mind,” Carmella said as she walked into the room and sat down next to her.

  Sighing, Raven said, “Yeah, I need to get back to work.”

  “Somehow I don’t think it’s work that’s on your mind.”

  Why she ever thought she could fool Mama-Carmella, Raven didn’t know. It was as if the woman had a direct line to God and He fed her information about the family on a daily basis.

  “Does what you’re worried about have anything to do with what you wanted to talk to me about at breakfast before you took that call?”

  No sense in lying, God had probably already told Mama-Carmella to start knitting some baby booties. “Can we go up to my room?”

  Carmella stood. “Lead the way.”

  When they were in her room with the door closed, Raven thought that confessing her misdeeds would be easier. After all, she was a fully grown woman with a business of her own. She was living away from her parents and paying her own bills. But right now she felt as if she were about to confess that she’d been caught up in a bribery scheme and the feds were about to bust down the door and arrest her… she felt like coming back home pregnant without a husband was just as shameful as being a corrupt politician.

  Her mouth felt as if it were holding molasses because she couldn’t open it. Raven Thomas, the girl who didn’t just run a business, but one in the heart of D.C. politics and could stand toe to toe with the best of them, was now afraid of what her mommy would say about her pregnancy.

  Sitting down next to Raven, Carmella began rubbing her back. “Who was that man you were talking to earlier?”

  Tears began forming in Raven’s eyes. Sighing deeply, she said, “His name is Marcus Allen. His father is Senator Allen.”

  Carmella looked away for a moment, then snapped her fingers. “I just saw something about him on CNN. They’ve been looking for him to get a statement. That man just became acting governor of his state and he’s down here chasing behind you? What’s going on, Raven? You know you can tell me anything, so I don’t understand why you’re hesitating.”

  Wiping the tears from her face, Raven put her big girl pants on and blurted out, “I’m pregnant.”

  Carmella’s hand went to her mouth. When she uncovered it she said, “I think I knew that already.”

  “What?”

  “Of course,” Carmella said. “You’ve been so tired and then the throwing up… your dad asked me if I thought you should see a doctor and to tell you the truth, at that moment I thought to myself… she doesn’t have anything that nine months won’t cure.”

  “Why didn’t you say anything? I’ve been torturing myself, trying to figure out a way to break this news to all of you.” Raven shook her head. “I should have known that God had revealed it to you. So do you already know what else I’m dealing with?”

  “I can’t put that one on God. I’ve been pregnant twice and watched all of Joy’s and your sisters-in-law carry their babies. I thought I knew, but I wasn’t sure.”

  Putting a pillow in her lap, Raven said, “Still, I wish you had said something to me.”

  “You’re a grown woman, Raven. I don’t think it’s our place to pry into your and your brothers’ and sisters’ lives. Ramsey and I just pray for each of you and trust that God is able to see you all through anything that comes your way.”

  “Well God must have been asleep on this one, because I’ve gotten myself involved in something that I can’t see a clear way out of.”

  “Is the new governor the father?” Carmella asked with no judgment in her voice.

  Raven nodded. “I messed up big time.”

  “Why was the governor here? Is he trying to get you to hide the fact that the baby is his?”

  “His father would rather me and my baby be aborted than the political aspirations he has for his son be halted. But Marcus wants to call a press conference and announce our engagement and then do a quickie marriage.”

  “So what’s the problem?” Carmella asked, looking confused. “You do love him, don’t you?”

  “I think I fell in love with Marcus the week after we met. But that in itself is the problem. Since everything happened so fast, I had no clue just how evil his
father is and no idea of the plans that he has for Marcus.” Shaking her head, Raven told Carmella, “I just can’t be a part of that.”

  “Well,” Carmella exhaled. “All I can tell you to do is to pray real hard. Marriage is serious business, and you would be joining yourself to their family. You need to figure out if you’re ready for that.”

  “I can’t believe that you’re not screaming at me, or pounding me over the head with the Bible. I’m thirty years old and I was still afraid to come home and tell you that I am pregnant.”

  Carmella put her arms around Raven and hugged her. “I don’t have any stones to throw at you. And neither will your father, I guarantee you that. You were raised right, so I truly believe that even though you’ve made a mistake, if you put it in God’s hands, He’ll turn it around and make it work out for your good and His glory. Who knows, you might be carrying a future president in your belly. One that will call the people back to holiness instead of all this ungodly stuff that we are enduring now.”

  Chapter 5

  “I didn’t think you were going to show up,” Marcus said as he greeted Raven.

  “I reserved this room, why wouldn’t I show up.” After talking things over with Mama-Carmella, Raven contacted a restaurateur she knew in the area and arranged to rent out his private dining area. She was, after all, meeting with a very new governor, discussing some delicate matters.

  “As usual, your public relations expertise is paying off.” He pointed towards a buffet table that was lined with fruits, vegetables and chicken and steak. Pitchers of water and iced tea were already at their table. “You thought of everything.”

  “I didn’t want to take the chance of anyone coming in and out of the room and taking pictures or filming us.”

  “Like I said, you thought of everything. My father would be pleased. But I guess that’s why he hired you in the first place.”