Latter Rain by Vanessa Miller Page A

so and sos. He’s going to kill them with his bare hands.”
    Donavan had nothing to contribute to this conversation. He stepped off the back porch and left. As he walked around the neighborhood, Donavan realized that he was a chump. Three hundred dollars wasn’t worth this kind of stress. He couldn’t even run away with that little bit of money. He might as well go buy himself a Sean John outfit and wait to die.
    After all, according to those guys in the back of that house, Mickey Jones was looking for the so and sos that robbed him.

13
    Cassandra had decided to join his church rather than Pastor Marks’s. Isaac was happy about that. He found himself smiling when he saw her again, which of course, was at Wednesday night Bible Study. Actually, he saw her on Tuesday also. He told Cassandra that he and Keith were going to be working late. She showed up at his office with smothered pork chops, cabbage, mac & cheese and some peach cobbler. A brother got fed good.
    Now she was walking over to him with some of that left over peach cobbler. Service had been good. Bishop preached well, but none of that compared to Cassandra’s peach cobbler.
    Keith had told Isaac that he needed to watch out. He thought Cassandra was being too good, too fast. Well, Nina wasn’t trying to be good to him. Nina was jumping the broom with some other dude. Cassandra could be as good to him as she wanted.
    â€œJust let me know if you have to work late again. There’s no sense in you having to worry about dinner. I’ll bring something to you,” Cassandra told Isaac with a smile on her face and a look in her eyes that told Isaac all he needed to know about how she was feeling about him.
    Isaac sat in the kitchen in the back of the church wolfing down peach cobbler and thinking how sweet it was to be treated like a king again. He gave Cassandra a smile that showed off his dimples. “As good as you cook, you can hook a brother up, even when I’m not working late.”
    Cassandra stood next to Isaac, silent, but pleased.
    Bishop Sumler picked that moment to rush into the kitchen. “Isaac, get your bags packed, he said without acknowledging Cassandra.
    â€œWhat’s up, Bishop?” Isaac swallowed his last bite of cobbler.
    â€œWe need to get over to my church in West Virginia. The members are calling me right and left. They say they’ll all leave, if I don’t fire their pastor.”
    â€œPastor Marks?” Cassandra asked with a puzzled look on her face. “Why would the congregation want to get rid of him?”
    Isaac knew Pastor Marks, and had a pretty good idea why the congregation wanted him fired. But he wasn’t going to tell Cassandra all that he knew. Pastor Marks’s reputation was another reason Isaac was glad that Cassandra decided to join his church rather than Marks’s.
    Bishop put his arm around Cassandra and looked at Isaac with a smile on his face. “So, I hear that my goddaughter has been feeding you real good.”
    Isaac stammered. “T-this is your goddaughter? You didn’t tell us that.”
    Patting Cassandra on the shoulder, Bishop said, “Cassandra doesn’t like to make a big deal of the fact that she’s my goddaughter. But, take my word for it, she is something special,” Bishop said to Isaac then turned to Cassandra. “Can you give us a few minutes to talk?”
    Like an obedient child, Cassandra said, “Sure, Bishop. I’ll sit at the table over there,” she pointed to the left of them where a group of women sat, “and get to know some of the women at your church.”
    When Cassandra was gone, Bishop turned back to Isaac. “This thing with Pastor Marks needs to be solved.”
    Some of these preachers reminded Isaac of street hustlers. Isaac knew exactly how to deal with hustlers and he also knew that that was the reason Bishop wanted him to go to West Virginia with him. Isaac truly did want to