Perfectly Imperfect (Men of Whiskey Row Book 4) Read online

Okay, okay, ladies, now let's get in formation, cause I slay

  Okay, ladies, now let's get in formation, cause I slay

  Prove to me you got some coordination, cause I slay

  Sometimes I go off (I go off), I go hard (I go hard)

  Get what's mine (take what's mine), I'm a star (I'm a star)

  Cause I slay (slay), I slay (hey), I slay (okay), I slay (okay)

  All day (okay), I slay (okay), I slay (okay), I slay (okay)

  We gon' slay (slay), gon' slay (okay), we slay (okay), I slay (okay)

  I slay (okay), okay (okay), I slay (okay), okay, okay, okay, okay

  Teenage girls started to appear in a long row, wearing white tee-shirts and camouflage pants with white sneakers. Once they were all present, they began to step in time to the song. The crowd went berserk at the sight of the talented girls fluidly moving together in unity. Casey observed his surroundings and noticed the large crowd of easily three hundred people were women of all races and walks of life, breaking color lines and economic status to come together for this event. Suddenly, the music stopped and the girls split into two groups as they continued to dance their way off the stage.

  Then a woman wearing silver aviator sunglasses took the stage in a compact, one-person chariot being pulled by two extremely muscular men clad only in loincloths as they brought the chariot as close to the microphone on the podium. With her hands on her hips, she projected a confidence that touched each person in the arena, clad in a white tank top and camouflage pants as her long black box braids flowed down her back. Once she arrived at her destination, the men lifted her by each arm, and she preened as they set her in front of the podium. She rewarded them each with a smack on the ass with a flogger as she waved them off. It was meant to be degrading, dismissive, and empowering. And it worked, whipping the crowd of women into such a chaotic frenzy that Casey was pretty sure caused some of them to orgasm on the spot.

  The woman whom Sidra had been avidly watching on television earlier this week was none other than “Angela Woodrow”, the dynamically controversial motivational speaker and international best-selling author who traveled with a barrage of guards due to her inflammatory views and remarks about the male species that had earned her death threats from all over the world. Angela was also famous for hacking faux genitals off of male mannequins and placing them in a designer bag before prancing around the stage as she shouted for women to take back the control in their lives. She grabbed the microphone and tossed her long braids over her shoulders as she walked to the edge of the stage. Casey knew what she was going to say before she said it and braced himself. It wasn’t enough to soften the verbal blows, and he still flinched as if shot when Angela gave a mega-bright smile that shone in her heavily made-up face, whipped off her sunglasses, and roared her signature phrase:

  “MEN. AIN’T. SHIIIIIIT!!!!”

  Sidra smiled proudly at the stage, even as she placed a comforting hand on Casey’s clenched fist. With a sympathetic smile, she cheerfully said, “Welcome to the family, babe.”

  ***

  “Baby!” Sidra smiled as her mother squealed with joy. “I didn’t know you were coming tonight. I would have reserved a front row seat for you!”

  “Hey, Mom,” Sidra returned her exuberant hug and then kissed her cheek. “Great turnout tonight. You were amazing as always. We missed you at dinner.”

  Lena leaned against her dressing room vanity and suspiciously appraised Casey from head to toe. “And who is this? Does he work for the government? Sir, do you work for the government?!” She asked Casey sharply as she frowned up in his face. “He betta not work for the government, Sidra Jane! I don’t need Uncle Sam’s spies infiltrating my space and dabbling all in my shit, little girl!”

  Even though she was filled with dread and apprehension, Sidra managed to laugh at her mother’s warning as she grabbed Casey’s hand and pulled him forward. “Relax, Mom. I want you to meet someone very special to me.” She gazed into Casey’s eyes and felt all of his love, making her proud and confident enough to say the next words. “This is my boyfriend, Casey Sullivan. We’re very much in love and plan on getting married in the next two or three years-”

  “Actually the end of the year,” Casey corrected her with a wink, and Lena glared at him.

  “MARRIED??? The hell you are! Ummm, excuse me, but did you just disrespect my baby by correcting her like she doesn’t know her own mind???” Lena demanded, and Sidra’s eyes squeezed shut for a moment because she knew what was coming next. “Oh. Hell. No. Baby, don’t take that shit from him! Especially after all of Nero’s bullshit that we’ve been through. You’ve come too far to be disrespected by some fool who looks like a door-to-door salesman!”

  “Mom, enough! That’s not what he was doing,” Sidra corrected her firmly and gave Casey an apologetic look. “Sorry about that. It takes her a while to come down from her ‘stage high’.”

  Casey mumbled to her, “Are you sure it’s not another kind of high?” before he turned back to her mother, “My apologies, Ms. Barton, that wasn’t at all what I was tryin’ to do. I’m just eager for Sidra and I to move to the next stage of our relationship, that’s all.”

  “Yeah, well, “no” means no; got that?” Lena grilled him threateningly, and Casey gave her a tight smile.

  “I am very aware of the definition of the word no, Ms. Barton,” he assured her through gritted teeth. So, this is where Sidra got the chip from. They’d certainly come a long way from those days, thank goodness.

  “Good, because let me tell you something, young man. I built my empire from the ground up from my hatred and anger of myself for being left weak-willed and weak-spirited by a man who never deserved an iota of mine or my daughter’s love. I’ll be damned if I let you come in here and destroy what Sidra and I have managed to build from that fire. I don’t trust any damn man! Y’all can’t do shit for a woman but give her kids, heartaches, diseases, and heartbreaks. There ain’t a man alive who is worthy of her in my opinion, and I don’t approve of nor endorse this relationship. You need to know I’m not going any damn where and will be all up in your business to the point that I’ll know when you need to take a shit. Got it?!”

  “Got it,” Casey said coolly as Sidra squeezed his hand tightly, and as pissed as he was, he squeezed hers right back. Who the fuck did this woman think she was???

  “So, what do you do for a living?” Lena demanded brusquely, and Sidra spoke before Casey could answer.

  “He’s a drug dealer,’ she said, and Lena gave Casey another once-over with approval. “He’s damn good at it and turns a really good profit.”

  “Hmmm. I can see him working the college crowd and exercising his white privilege. Posing as a teacher’s assistant and moving weight. Getting over on good old Uncle Sam,” Lena cackled. “Heeey now!”

  “What the hell is wrong with the two of you?!” Casey wondered aloud in disbelief. “I’m not a damn drug dealer! I’m a lawyer, dammit, and proud of it!”

  “A LAWYER?! Oh, Lawdy, Lawdy, the child is slipping into the light!” Lena hollered out in distress as she grabbed a lighter and lit the incense, waving it around Casey and Sidra. “Devil, you won’t take my child today! Get thee behind us, Satan! Out I say! Out! You won’t take my baby! Black Jesus be a fence and protect her!”

  “If she starts with “look into the light, Carol Anne!” I am so out of here,” Casey whispered out of the corner of his mouth to Sidra who looked pained at her mother’s ridiculousness. Calmly, he plucked the incense stick from Lena’s waving hand and amidst her protests, took it into the bathroom where he turned on the sink faucet and doused it underneath the running water. He came back out and placed the stick on the vanity.

  “Now, who would have thought bein’ a drug dealer would be worse than bein’ a lawyer?” Casey asked in wonder. “Listen, Ms. Barton, there’s a couple of things you need to know about me. I’m a lawyer, yes, but I’m a man first. A damn good man who loves your daughter with every breath and bone in my body. I�
��d marry her tomorrow if I could. I’m a law-abidin’ citizen and love my family with all I’ve got. Soon, I’m goin’ to marry your daughter, and when that time comes, I’ll hope that I’ve erased all your doubts of me, the institution of marriage, and your personal issues to want her happiness first and foremost. Now, if you will excuse me, I think I need some fresh air; this damn patchouli incense and your bitterness are killin’ me.”

  ***

  “So, how was the wedding? I bet Avery was a beautiful bride,” Lena stated as she removed her makeup with cotton balls. It was like peeling off layers of dead skin and revealing a new person who greatly resembled Sidra. Her heavy makeup, which she was never seen publicly without, was meant to somewhat disguise her features and allow her to enjoy anonymity every now and then.

  “It was perfect if you disregard the fact that Nero and Nina showed up,” Sidra made a disapproving face at her mother in the mirror as she wrapped her braids in a flowered head wrap.

  “Get the fuck outta here!” Lena’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Tell me his bitch of a daughter took a spoonful of ‘act right’ before she came.”

  “No, Mom, she sure as hell didn’t,” Sidra replied grimly. “I had to administer that shit in the bathroom and then talk to Nero. Normally, I wouldn’t go there, especially on my friend’s big day, but she left me no choice.”

  “Ummph, I could never understand why Nero could never get his ass up from the punk bitch section he’s been sitting in and insist her uppity ass have several seats. Who goes to a wedding and thinks ‘This is a good day to act a fool and get my ass beat’? Is this whole thing contained baby, or do I need to get involved?” Lena raised an eyebrow at her daughter.

  After Lena cut Nero off, they negotiated a deal where he paid her a ‘comfortable’ sum to keep her mouth shut because he was so worried about tarnishing his precious reputation. Lena shed her ‘ready, willing, and waiting for her man’ persona and changed overnight. She took the money and built her M.A.S. empire with it, using an alias because of her controversial views. She held pep rallies where she talked to single mothers and abused women about how a man shouldn’t mistreat his queen and how he wasn’t about shit if he did. These rallies of five turned into fifty, then two hundred, and eventually, in the thousands. She’d been on Oprah, Good Morning America, CNN, Howard Stern, and Wendy Williams as she projected her voice. Soon, she was an international figure who was banned in the Middle East, China, and Russia.

  Although she was proud of her mother’s three-sixty turn from doormat to dominant, it could be extremely draining on the female family members who were interested in dating. There was high turnover rate of boyfriends after they met Lena, and she broke them down one by one with her scathing looks, commentary, and observations about how awful men were. She took pride in it. Even Tonya’s ex, Sampson, an extremely successful real estate magnate with millions in his bank account and women throwing themselves at him left and right, had broken down like a baby after he tried to compliment Lena on her outfit. Sidra had been scared shitless that Casey would take one look at Lena and drive away forever. She’d seen it happen time and time again in her family. Every time “Angela” was on television, he always had something to say in response to her combative verbiage. Sidra knew from the storm clouds gathering in his eyes that he’d really wanted to lay into Lena, on her outrageous behavior. Now he had to think about her being his mother-in-law and judging from the vicious gleam in Lena’s eyes, she planned on giving it her all in driving him off. Sidra could only pray that he didn’t change his mind about them on the way to her place.

  “No, you don’t. But may I ask what was so special about him, Mom? I just don’t see his appeal as a man or even as a human being. Did you ever try with anyone else?” Sidra asked curiously, watching as her mother’s face took on a faraway expression.

  “Chile, Nero is so charismatic, people are just drawn to him. He has a way of looking at you and making you feel like you’re the only person that matters. I liked the way he was with me. He couldn’t get enough of me, and he used to tell me about his hopes, dreams, and fears. All the things he couldn’t tell Cecelia.” She ran a hand over her face tiredly but reached back to clasp Sidra’s hand. “It was wrong of me to take up with a married man and I regret everything, except for you. I was young, arrogant, and cocky, thinking diamonds fell out of my pussy whenever I opened my thighs. I told myself that it was a good thing I wasn’t his wife because I would’ve run his ass ragged. But I was just fooling myself. Your daddy’s number one priority, as much as it kills me to say it, is himself. You have to know that I would never have sent you to visit him if I knew he was acting so foul.”

  “Yeah, well I’ve never been blind to him the way you and Nina have been,” Sidra said seriously. “When people show you who they are, you should always believe them; otherwise, you’re just disappointing yourself, Mom.”

  “I stopped messing around with him after that,” Lena confessed, laughing at Sidra’s skeptical look. “I really did! Haven’t been back for a taste since. Craved it once or twice because a woman has needs, but nope. Not since he did you dirty.”

  “Ewwwww!” Sidra exclaimed with a horrified laugh. Laughingly, Lena covered her face and peeked at her through her fingers. The laughter faded as they stared at each other, glad to know they’d been able to move past their anger and hurt. It had been touch and go for a while, but they’d survived it with a newfound appreciation and love for each other.

  “Real talk, Sid. I couldn’t be with a man who hurt and disrespected my child that bad,” Lena said softly. “But let’s not talk about that anymore. How’s work going?”

  “It’s going good. I love being in the studio and learning new things with Dominick,” Sidra made a face. “Casey’s not too crazy about him, though. He thinks my boss wants me for himself.”

  “And does he?” Lena asked idly. “You’re a very beautiful woman, Sidra, and the two of you have a lot in common. Is the theory so far-fetched?”

  “Yes! I don’t want anyone but that man sitting outside,” Sidra vowed, blushing as her mother looked at her with appraising eyes. “I know what I have at home and I am not trying to fuck that up. Though, I have been thinking of expanding to corporate deejaying. I have a meeting with Ian, Noelle’s godfather, about branding myself with his firm, and I’m going to do it. The last year and a half has been fun traveling, but now I want to travel with Casey and see it through his eyes as well. What about you?”

  “Things are going…well,” Lena hedged and squeezed her daughter’s hands lovingly. “All that matters is that you’re happy, Sidra. It’s all I ever wanted.”

  “Then you need to understand that Casey makes me insanely, Mary freakin’ Poppins happy, Mom,” Sidra stared intently at her mother. “I am going to be his wife. Don’t stand in our way when the time comes. Please just accept it gracefully, okay?”

  “Baby, I don’t approve at all and have no qualms about saying so. You can do bad all by yourself. You lied to me about being in a relationship, which you’ve never done. What else are you willing to do for him? And that man carries so much pain, I’m surprised you can’t smell his infected wounds,” Lena warned. “It will make or break you if it’s not addressed. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  ***

  Lena waved at Sidra and her man as they drove off. She could honestly say that if her daughter had to go and get herself a man, one who looked at you like the sun rose and set on your ass wasn’t a bad choice. But Casey Sullivan made her nervous. That man watched Sidra with an intensity that made her uneasy. He might have everyone else fooled with his model looks and southern charm, but not her. Casey would destroy anyone that got between him and Sidra, and Lena didn’t know whether to be relieved that Sidra had someone like that in her corner or to file a restraining order against him on her daughter’s behalf.

  She walked back into her dressing and room and grabbed her phone, dialing a number she never thought she would again.

  “Hola, Lena,�
�� Nero’s lowered voice was still as smooth as velvet and apparently he thought it still worked on her. Lena rolled her eyes at his vanity.

  “Nero,” she replied curtly. “How are you?”

  “I’m well. I take it you’ve seen our daughter, and she’s told you of our meeting?” Nero inquired.

  “The only thing mentioned was a confrontation with your oldest daughter ending in results that even Stevie Wonder could have seen coming,” Lena snapped. “Keep her on a short leash before I come pay her a visit. And I won’t be as nice as my baby. Did you try to talk to Sidra?”

  “I tried but got nowhere. I would like to get to know her if she’ll let me,” Nero said cautiously. “Maybe you could set something up? I could come to you…”

  “Let me guess, in the dark of night? Same old Nero,” Lena bit out. “Still too worried about what others think to publicly acknowledge your child.” She gave him a chance to deny her observation, but he said nothing, and for a moment, her heart hurt for her daughter but knew she was better off not being contaminated by him. “When are you gonna realize all things done in the dark come to light? Sidra is fine. If she wanted anything from you, she would’ve asked you herself. In her silence, you’ve found her answer regarding having a relationship with you. So just let it be.”