Renee

  Renee:

  All Hail the Queen

  Brandie Davis

  www.urbanbooks.net

  All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  About the Author

  Urban Books, LLC

  300 Farmingdale Road, NY-Route 109

  Farmingdale, NY 11735

  Renee: All Hail the Queen

  Copyright © 2019 Brandie Davis

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior consent of the Publisher, except brief quotes used in reviews.

  ISBN: 978-1-9458-5598-6

  eISBN 13: 978-1-945855-99-3

  eISBN 10: 1-945855-99-1

  This is a work of fiction. Any references or similarities to actual events, real people, living or dead, or to real locales are intended to give the novel a sense of reality. Any similarity in other names, characters, places, and incidents is entirely coincidental.

  Distributed by Kensington Publishing Corp.

  Submit Orders to:

  Customer Service

  400 Hahn Road

  Westminster, MD 21157-4627

  Phone: 1-800-733-3000

  Fax: 1-800-659-2436

  I dedicate this book to the love of my life, Donnell.

  My heart beats for you.

  Acknowledgments

  First and foremost, I would like to thank God for all my gifts and blessings. You continue to bless me and steer me toward my dreams, and for that, I am forever thankful. I love you. Donnell, I thank God for blessing me with you, and I am truly and deeply in love with you. Thank you for being who you are, and for always being by my side. Mommy and Daddy, your love has never gone unnoticed and is the reason my eyes have a twinkle. Thank you for all you’ve done.

  Crystal, my ace, my homie, thank you for always pushing me and believing in me. Chucky, because of you, I understand the importance of exercising my brain by reading. Mike, your kind heart is what always shines the brightest. Big Cory, you are not only my brother but also my friend. Gina, thank you for your shoulder and for always being supportive. Christian, the sky is the limit, and with your talent and potential, you will reach the stars. Lil Cory, you are the sunshine in my life. Angel, I am glad to call you my nephew. You make my puzzle of nieces and nephews complete. Kyra, my little diva, your personality and creativity are what this world is missing. Desiree, even before you were born, you had my heart.

  Chapter 1

  Nightfall is when New York comes alive and the city is at its best. Billboards and building lights shine so brightly, you’d never guess the sun is missing. The streets are jam packed with children of the night, loud and full of energy, ready to party the night away. This is the city that never sleeps. It watches everyone who steps foot in its concrete jungle and sucks them in.

  However, during this summer night, the city was surprisingly quiet and peaceful. Only a handful of people were out and about. Cars zoomed by but didn’t make a sound. It was eerie, as if the world had come to a halt and felt Renee’s rage.

  Like a queen, Renee sat on her throne and looked out at all of New York from her terrace. Her Manhattan penthouse supplied her with the view she needed to marvel over what was hers. Her eyes danced across the sky, then made their way down to the very streets she flooded with cocaine. Renee had entered a game labeled “boys only” and had taken it over with ease. Her rage and emotionless soul made it possible for her to enter a man’s game and conquer it without apology or regret. However, tonight it wasn’t about that. Tonight the betrayal she felt didn’t come from the streets, but from home.

  Her slender fingers were wrapped so tightly around the glass holding her Pinnacle and cranberry juice, it was bound to shatter. Renee looked into the night and wondered where the one man she had given her heart to was. After she had revealed to Julian three days prior that she had aborted their child, he’d cut off all forms of communication with her. He hadn’t been taking her calls, coming by, texting, or doing FaceTime with her. The way he’d cut her off, you’d think they had no history whatsoever.

  Renee finished the last of her drink and poured herself another glass of vodka, minus the cranberry juice, from the bottle at her elbow. She took it to the head. Liquor had been her best friend through college. The more Julian ignored her, the more anger surged through her and ripped her soul apart. Life wasn’t fair. It was cruel and hurtful, and all Renee could ask was, Why?

  Yes, she had aborted their child without his knowledge, but she didn’t understand why he was throwing such a tantrum. On many occasions, Renee had voiced that she didn’t want kids. She wasn’t mother material, and she knew it. Renee attended meetings with her connect, not with teachers. She flooded the streets of New York with the purest coke the state had ever seen, and no child deserved to have a callous queenpin as a mother. Motherhood entailed warmth and selflessness, things Renee didn’t possess.

  She had lost those good qualities a long time ago and, in the words of Omarion, had an icebox where her heart used to be. So why act as if she could be Clair Huxtable when she knew she couldn’t? Julian knew all of this, including the fact that Renee was a selfish individual who showed interest only in herself. So why be surprised that she’d had an abortion?

  Renee abandoned her glass and started to drink the vodka from the bottle. She thought about how true the saying “It’s lonely at the top” really was. Although she was cruel and insensitive, she cared for Julian. He had been there for her when the rest of the world had walked out, and he had remained loyal to her throughout the years. For that reason, his disappearance left a bitter taste in her mouth.

  She drank the last of the vodka and stood up to get a better view of the city. She looked far out into Manhattan, until she could see nothing but buildings and darkness. She ran her fingers through her hair like a comb. Renee was losing her mind, but her pride wouldn’t allow her to break down and feel the pain she was really experiencing. She would sleep in an empty bed that night, and even though she would never acknowledge it, that was what scared her the most. A lone tear threatened to fall from her eyes, but she fought against it. No tear had touched her cheeks in five years, and they weren’t about to now. She stood there, frozen in place, while her blood ran cold and her nails dug into the railing. What Renee wanted was a normal, healthy life, but she found it difficult to admit this even to herself. She longed to have a husband and kids one day, but more importantly, she wished for the ability to let go of what had dam
aged her since childhood. Obtaining pure happiness would be her happily ever after, but it was conquering her demons that made it all unattainable.

  He’ll be back, was all she thought. He has to.

  Chapter 2

  Three half-dressed females in their mid-twenties stood in front of Barnes & Noble and watched as Jared left the bookstore and headed toward his truck. The women couldn’t stop staring at the six-foot-three, muscular brown-skinned brother with tribal tattoos running from the left side of his neck all the way down to his wrist. His serious, thuggish appearance made women want to sink in their claws and bite him.

  “Damn, he’s fine,” one of the females said, loud enough for Jared to hear.

  He paid them no mind. He jumped in his truck and threw the two anger-management books he’d purchased on the passenger seat. He could spot a gold digger a mile away and steered clear of them all. Jared didn’t believe in paying to play. If he didn’t have enough game to win a female over without going for broke, she wasn’t for him. After he looked down at his wristwatch and saw it was time for work, his eyes darted over to the tattoo across his wrist that read JANAE and he sucked his teeth.

  “I got to get this shit removed,” he mumbled to himself. Jared placed his watch higher up on his wrist so it completely covered the tattoo.

  The car door across from him flung open just then, and a skinny dark-skinned dude with a baby face and a head full of waves flopped down in the passenger seat and landed right on the books. Feeling the hard covers beneath him, he jumped up and tossed the books on the backseat.

  “Damn. You see them fine-ass females over there?” he asked as he eyed the threesome.

  Jared didn’t bother following his friend’s stare; he knew he was talking about the females posted in front of the bookstore.

  “Leave them alone, Waves. They’re nothing but paper chasers.”

  “Those are the best ones. They’ll do anything for a dollar.” Waves nearly broke his neck while trying to get a better look at the females. One of the girls, whose shorts had once been a pair of pants and who wore no bra, blew him a kiss. He nearly went wild. “Scratch that. Make that fifty cents.”

  Jared laughed and started up the truck. There was never a dull moment with Waves. The two had grown up down South and had been best friends since junior high. Since as far back as Jared could remember, Waves had been a comedian. He lived off being the center of attention, so he was always cracking jokes and making people die of laughter. In high school, he had been crowned class clown and had worn his title with pride.

  The joy Waves brought others was the distraction he needed from his pain. It made it possible for him to survive in a world he felt abandoned in. At the age of ten, his mother had walked out on him and his father. It had torn him apart and had made him feel like a motherless child. Five years later, she had turned her life around and started a brand-new family. She had remarried, had had a baby, and had landed the job of her dreams. She’d had everything she could ever want, but one thing had been missing from this fairy-tale life: Waves. So she’d tried to step back into his life and make him feel a part of her new family by taking him on vacations with her new family and flying him out to New York whenever she could.

  Waves was thrilled to have his mother back in his life, but deep down inside, he resented her for leaving in the first place. He’d welcomed her back with open arms, but he refused to live with her. That was something he just couldn’t do.

  Waves got comfortable and watched the world go by while he and Jared drove through Brooklyn. After a while, his stomach started to growl, so he focused his attention on an approaching Burger King.

  “Yo, let’s head to Burger King right quick.”

  “Nah, we got to get to work.”

  Waves looked down at his Rolex, then back up at Jared. “Oh, hell no! Listen, I know you want to fuck Renee and shit, but I ain’t going to her house earlier than I need to. We have an hour till we’re due at her crib, so if we ain’t gonna eat, I suggest we hit up a strip club or something.”

  Jared shook his head. There wasn’t a day that went by where Waves didn’t mention how mentally unstable he believed Renee was or how he knew Jared had a thing for her. Working twelve hours a day, six days a week, as Renee’s home security guard had caused Waves to form a negative opinion of her. To him, she was a cold woman with no conscience or emotions. She never smiled, never laughed at anything he said, and never even bothered to speak.

  Waves and three other men, including Jared, were on her home security team. Jared was the only one who looked at her with lustful stares tinged with romance. Jared always denied his attraction to Renee, but Waves knew the truth. His best friend’s eyes revealed that he wanted more than just sex; he wanted to give Renee his heart.

  “We’re going to Renee’s,” Jared announced.

  Waves looked at his friend and shook his head. “Real talk, I can understand why you’re feeling shorty. She’s bad as hell. But, son, she ain’t for you.”

  Jared looked at his friend from the corner of his eye. When Waves saw he had Jared’s attention, he continued speaking.

  “With all the shit you went through growing up, you need yourself a good girl, not a woman who outranks you and whose government name you can’t tell your parents.”

  Jared stopped at a red light but kept his eyes on the street. He didn’t like what he was hearing, but he understood it all. Renee was not your ideal woman. Men didn’t flock to women who hid behind an alias and could have them killed in the blink of an eye. In the streets, Renee was known as Jordan, a man no one saw, but everyone feared. Jared knew that everything Waves had said was the truth. He had lived a hard-knock life and needed a good girl. Something as simple as having a crush on Renee could send his life spiraling out of control. However, it was too late. He had feelings for her, and he was already in too deep.

  Twenty minutes later, Jared and Waves arrived at Renee’s penthouse and knocked on the door. For five minutes, they waited in the hall for someone to answer. They were heated when a fat brown-skinned dude, with so many diamonds on that it was blinding, opened the door with a toothpick in his mouth. He looked at Jared and Waves, flung the door all the way open, and walked away.

  Jared’s hands balled into fists. He had never liked Slice, and on countless occasions, he’d wanted to punch him through the wall. Slice had a slick mouth and thought he could say any and everything to anyone and get away with it. If it were up to Jared, he would be dead and stinking by now. But because Slice was third in command and had been Renee’s close friend since high school, Jared let him live. So until Renee gave the word, Jared would sit in the cut, watching his prey.

  After closing the door behind him and Waves, Jared watched Slice make his way over to the living-room couch and continue playing NBA 2K19 on PlayStation 4. Jared followed him into the room, sat down on the love seat, and cracked open one of the anger-management books he had purchased not even two hours ago. Massaging his temple with his left hand, he looked at Slice and knew he would need to soak up every word the authors wrote.

  He was on page five on the first book when Renee stormed down the stairs. Her Chinese red silk robe flowed in the air as she quickly passed by the men in her living room without bothering to speak. Jared’s eyes followed Renee until she disappeared into the hall. When he turned away, he saw Lyfe, the O.G. of the crew, staring at him. He hadn’t noticed Lyfe when he walked in. Then again, no one noticed Lyfe.

  Waves walked into the living room just then, chomping down on a bag of Lay’s potato chips. He flopped down on the couch, and half of his body landed on Slice. Slice paused the video game, and with a screw face, he pushed Waves off him.

  “Fat boy, what you do to Renee? Why she so pissed?” Waves asked as he munched on a potato chip.

  “Fuck you, you skinny bastard! I ain’t do shit!” Slice un-paused the video game and continued to play. He couldn’t stand Waves. In his eyes, Waves played too much and purposely tried to push his buttons.


  Waves sat beside him and watched the steam leave Slice’s head. He took pleasure in making Slice miserable. “Nah, seriously, fat boy, why she so pissed?”

  Slice didn’t answer right away; instead, he held himself back from strangling Waves. “I don’t know why, you piece of shit,” he finally spit. “You know Renee don’t say shit about anything. It probably has something to do with Jay. He hasn’t been seen in over two weeks.”

  Jared’s eyes got low, and he started biting the inside of his cheek. He didn’t want to admit it, but he disliked hearing that Julian was the reason Renee was in such a funk. Their relationship had brought Jared to a dark place and had made him despise Julian twice as much. His eyes darted around the room. When they landed on Lyfe, Jared saw that he was staring at him again.

  Lyfe knew exactly what was on Jared’s mind. He never spoke, but he noticed everything. There was a time when Jared didn’t understand why the old man was still in the game. Really, what could he do? He was frail, and his hair was damn near all gray. He looked so fragile, you’d think one touch would break him. However, after working with Lyfe for only one week, Jared had realized why Renee had him on her team. He was a beast, and he had no problem laying his murder game down.

  Lyfe had been in the game since Jared was in diapers. For years, he had worked for Renee’s close friend Metro, a kingpin who had handed down his crown to Renee when he retired. Because Lyfe hadn’t been ready to leave the game alone, and probably never would be, Metro had put Lyfe on to Renee. Metro had believed she needed someone experienced and trustworthy on her team. The streets were what Lyfe was good at, so going from a kingpin to a queen had not been an issue.

  Jared was torn out of his thoughts concerning Julian, Renee, and Lyfe when Renee came storming through the living room again. As quickly as she came in, she left and headed up the stairs. Seconds later she slammed her bedroom door. Jared couldn’t help but think how gorgeous she looked in her silk robe. Whenever she wore it, he’d steal a look at her legs. They were always shiny and looked so soft. Things like that made showing up to work worthwhile.