The Devil You Know Read online

  Also by Mary Monroe

  The Lonely Heart, Deadly Heart Series

  Every Woman’s Dream

  Never Trust a Stranger

  The God Series

  God Don’t Like Ugly

  God Still Don’t Like Ugly

  God Don’t Play

  God Ain’t Blind

  God Ain’t Through Yet

  God Don’t Make No Mistakes

  Mama Ruby Series

  Mama Ruby

  The Upper Room

  Lost Daughters

  Gonna Lay Down My Burdens

  Red Light Wives

  In Sheep’s Clothing

  Deliver Me from Evil

  She Had It Coming

  The Company We Keep

  Family of Lies

  Bad Blood

  “Nightmare in Paradise” in Borrow Trouble

  Published by Kensington Publishing Corp.

  The Devil You Know

  MARY MONROE

  KENSINGTON BOOKS

  www.kensingtonbooks.com

  All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.

  Table of Contents

  Also by Mary Monroe

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter 1 - Lola

  Chapter 2 - Joan

  Chapter 3 - Joan

  Chapter 4 - Calvin

  Chapter 5 - Lola

  Chapter 6 - Calvin

  Chapter 7 - Lola

  Chapter 8 - Lola

  Chapter 9 - Calvin

  Chapter 10 - Joan

  Chapter 11 - Calvin

  Chapter 12 - Calvin

  Chapter 13 - Joan

  Chapter 14 - Lola

  Chapter 15 - Calvin

  Chapter 16 - Lola

  Chapter 17 - Lola

  Chapter 18 - Lola

  Chapter 19 - Calvin

  Chapter 20 - Joan

  Chapter 21 - Calvin

  Chapter 22 - Lola

  Chapter 23 - Calvin

  Chapter 24 - Joan

  Chapter 25 - Lola

  Chapter 26 - Lola

  Chapter 27 - Calvin

  Chapter 28 - Lola

  Chapter 29 - Calvin

  Chapter 30 - Lola

  Chapter 31 - Lola

  Chapter 32 - Joan

  Chapter 33 - Joan

  Chapter 34 - Calvin

  Chapter 35 - Joan

  Chapter 36 - Lola

  Chapter 37 - Calvin

  Chapter 38 - Joan

  Chapter 39 - Joan

  Chapter 40 - Lola

  Chapter 41 - Calvin

  Chapter 42 - Lola

  Chapter 43 - Joan

  Chapter 44 - Lola

  Chapter 45 - Joan

  Chapter 46 - Lola

  Chapter 47 - Calvin

  Chapter 48 - Joan

  Chapter 49 - Joan

  Chapter 50 - Joan

  Chapter 51 - Joan

  Chapter 52 - Calvin

  Chapter 53 - Joan

  Chapter 54 - Calvin

  Chapter 55 - Lola

  Chapter 56 - Lola

  Chapter 57 - Joan

  Chapter 58 - Lola

  Chapter 59 - Lola

  Chapter 60 - Joan

  Chapter 61 - Joan

  Epilogue - Lola

  READING GROUP GUIDE

  DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  To the extent that the image or images on the cover of this book depict a person or persons, such person or persons are merely models, and are not intended to portray any character or characters featured in the book.

  DAFINA BOOKS are published by

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  119 West 40th Street

  New York, NY 10018

  Copyright © 2017 by Mary Monroe

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

  Library of Congress Card Catalogue Number: 2017944859

  Dafina and the Dafina logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

  ISBN: 978-1-6177-3810-4

  First Kensington Hardcover Edition: November 2017

  eISBN-13: 978- 1-61773-811-1

  eISBN-10: 1-61773-811-5

  Kensington Electronic Edition: November 2017

  This book is dedicated to Sheila Sims, Archie Belford, and Maria Felice Sanchez.

  Acknowledgments

  Selena James is an awesome editor and a great friend. Thank you, Selena! Thanks to Steven Zacharius, Adam Zacharius, Karen Auerbach, Lulu Martinez, Robin Cook, the wonderful crew in the sales department, and everyone else at Kensington for working so hard for me.

  Thanks to Lauretta Pierce for maintaining my website.

  Thanks to the fabulous book clubs, book stores, libraries, my readers, and the magazine and radio interviewers for supporting me for so many years.

  To my super literary agent and friend, Andrew Stuart, thank you for representing me with so much vigor.

  Please continue to e-mail me at [email protected] and visit my website at www.Marymonroe.org. You can also communicate with me on Facebook at Facebook.com/MaryMonroe and Twitter @MaryMonroeBooks.

  Peace and Blessings,

  Mary Monroe

  This is the third and final book in my Lonely Heart,

  Deadly Heart series

  Chapter 1

  Lola

  March 28, 2015

  THE MAN I WANTED TO SPEND THE REST OF MY LIFE WITH HAD NOT even proposed yet. But I was so determined to marry Calvin Ramsey I tried on a wedding gown yesterday and I already picked out a name for our first child. After three dates, I was convinced that he was the only man for me.

  I didn’t care that I had met him on the Internet. Friends with Benefits: Discreet Encounters was an online dating site that had been created for horny adults interested in having casual sex. I’d gotten that and much more when I hooked up with Calvin. In addition to being a fantastic lover and owning his own home in a middle-class neighborhood, he was handsome, had a wonderful personality, and had a good job as a long-haul truck driver. The list of his good qualities was a lot longer, but these were the things I cared about the most.

  When I was a girl, I used to fantasize about having a fancy church wedding. I was no longer a girl and I was tired of just fantasizing about being a bride. Too many years and men had slipped away, and so had most of my patience. I had to move fast because my time was running out. I was going to be thirty-three in October, and my biological clock was ticking like a time bomb.

  My best friend, Joan Proctor-Riley, had called me at eleven-thirty a.m., ten minutes ago. After we had chatted about a few mundane things, I eased Calvin’s name into the conversation. “I know Calvin is going to be a good husband and a wonderful addition to my family, but I hope they never find out where I met him. They’d cook my goose to a crisp.”

  “I don’t think you need to worry about that until he asks you to marry him.” Joan snickered. “Besides, I’m the only one who knows where you met him and I’m sure not going to blab, because my goose and yours are in the same oven. In the meantime, don’t be in a rush to get married. Once a dude puts a ring on your finger, the party’s over. Keep dating other men because you might find a better prospect for a husband. Like that hot army doctor from Uganda you had so much fun with last month.”

  “And live in the same house with him and his four wives? No thanks.” I chuckled.

  Joan and I had several dirty little secrets, but being members of an online sex club was the “dirtiest” one of all. Discussing our dates was one of our favorite subjects.

  She suddenly began to whisper. “Um, if Reed gives
you a call between four and five p.m. today, tell him I’m on my way home. If he asks anything else, make up something. Call me, or send me a text to let me know everything you told him.” Joan had already told me that she was going on a date in a few hours and needed me to cover for her. She had told her husband that we were going shopping.

  “I’ve had your back for years. Don’t you think I know how to handle your husband by now?”

  “You should. But I still like to remind you. A woman can never be too careful. Reed is convinced that I’m cheating on him.”

  I gasped. “Hello? You are cheating on him!”

  “Well, I don’t have a choice. Sleeping with him is like sleeping with a log. The last time we had sex, he actually fell asleep while he was still on top of me! Dating other men is the only thing that’s keeping me from losing what’s left of my mind.”

  I sighed. “Sleeping with a log is one thing I won’t have to worry about with Calvin.” I got misty-eyed just thinking about the man I was in love with. I didn’t have any pictures of him yet, so when I wanted to look at his handsome, bronze-toned face and well-developed body, I visited his online profile and gazed at him until my eyes watered. I couldn’t wait to introduce him to my family and everybody else. “Once I get Calvin locked in—as in marriage—I will never sleep with another man again. I plan to be with him until one of us dies. . . .”

  Chapter 2

  Joan

  LOLA RARELY TOOK ADVICE FROM ME, BUT I STILL OFFERED IT. WE were the same age, but I was much more mature and sensible. As much as I loved my girl, there were times when she annoyed me with some of her unrealistic goals. She was fantasizing about marrying a man who had never even given her a single reason to think that he was in love with her. This foolishness completely blew my mind.

  “You need to be more realistic. For all you know, you may never even hear from Calvin Ramsey again. If you think he’s so hot, a lot of other women must think so too. With all those wealthy older women in the club, one just might hook him up to be her boy toy and get him to stop dating other club members.”

  “What are you trying to tell me, Joan?”

  “I’m trying to tell you to slow down and get to know Calvin better. What if he turns out to be like Reed, or worse?” I was in our guest bathroom, where I usually went when I wanted to use my cell phone to have a private conversation. I could hear Reed in the living room talking to somebody on the landline. I cursed under my breath when I heard him say, “Six this evening. I’ll make sure Joan makes plenty of gumbo.” I had no idea who he was talking to. And I had no desire, or even the ingredients, to make some damn gumbo this evening!

  Reed and I had been married for fifteen years and I’d told him hundreds of times not to make plans for us without checking with me first. But he still did it anyway. There was just no telling what kind of bullshit get-together he had agreed to this time. The cookout that he’d dragged me to at his parents’ house in Monterey earlier this month had been pure torture for me. Dealing with my obnoxious mother-in-law and some of her uppity friends always put me in a bad mood. It seemed like no matter what I wore around them or how I behaved, it was always inappropriate. It gave Mother Riley another reason to remind me that I was from “the hood.” Most of Reed’s friends annoyed me just as much. It was no wonder I was leading a double life. It had become complicated, but I was having a good time and that was all that mattered.

  “Lola, I have to hang up. It sounds like Reed is cooking up some shit that could derail my plans to get out of the house today,” I hissed as I turned off my cell phone. I slid it into my bathrobe pocket and cursed under my breath again before I joined Reed in our elegantly furnished living room. He had ended his call. “Who were you talking to?” I sank down next to him on the couch.

  He frowned as he looked me up and down. “Didn’t I tell you to dispose of that shabby flannel bathrobe? How come you stopped wearing that silk one I gave you for your birthday?”

  “It’s too small.”

  “I’m not surprised. It would still fit if you’d stop going to those greasy low-end restaurants with Lola. You may not care that you’re losing your shape, but I do. At the rate you’re gaining weight, you’ll be as big as the rest of the women in your family by the time you’re thirty-five. The sight of flab and cellulite makes my flesh crawl,” he said gruffly.

  “Oh really? In case you don’t remember, your mother weighs almost three hundred pounds,” I shot back.

  “That’s different. At least Mother can blame her weight gain on menopause and other things common among women her age. You can’t.”

  I rolled my eyes and playfully punched the side of Reed’s arm. “Who were you talking to on the telephone?” I asked again.

  “We’re going to play bridge with Dr. Weinstein and his wife this evening. Meg is making spoon bread to go with the gumbo you’re going to cook—”

  “No,” I said, interrupting Reed with my hand up to his face. “I told you last night that Lola invited me to go shopping with her today!”

  “So? You should be back in plenty of time. Mitch and Meg aren’t coming until six.”

  “I don’t know if I will be back in time. You know how Lola likes to lollygag and drag me into every store in the mall. Besides, we don’t have any gumbo mix or crab legs.”

  Reed looked at his watch and then at me with a shrug. “No problem. I’ll go with you and Lola so I can make sure she doesn’t drag you into every store. We can stop by the market on the way home and pick up everything you need.”

  “Look, Reed, you know damn well Lola will not want to go shopping with me if you come,” I said, already rising. “The sooner I get up out of here, the sooner I’ll be back. I’ll let her know that we have plans for later today so she won’t expect me to stay with her too long.”

  “I guess I can agree to that,” he muttered.

  I sprinted back to the bathroom and took a quick shower. Then I darted down the hall to the master bedroom and applied a minimal amount of makeup and pulled my hair into a ponytail. Since I was supposed to be going shopping, I couldn’t make myself look too glamorous. I put on a pair of jeans, a plaid blouse, and a pair of low-heeled, black pumps.

  “I’ll see you in a few hours,” I told Reed as I strutted toward the door with my purse in my hand. I didn’t even have to look at him to know that he had a puppy dog expression on his face.

  “I sure hope so,” he whined. “I don’t want to disappoint Mitch and Meg like we did the last time we invited them over.”

  “Then ‘we’ need to learn how to plan better.” I still didn’t look at Reed. I rushed out the door and trotted down the hall to the elevator.

  Thirty minutes later, I arrived at the Hyatt hotel in nearby San Jose where I planned to spend a few hours with John Walden, a club member I hooked up with quite frequently.

  John was a handsome and very successful attorney originally from Jamaica. He had resided in England most of his adult life, but now he lived in Phoenix with his Italian wife and their three children. Like me and thousands of other members in the club, he had joined Discreet Encounters for the same reason: to have discreet, no-strings-attached sexual encounters.

  John must have been standing in front of the door, because he immediately snatched it open when I knocked. “You’re early,” he greeted. Before I could speak, he jerked me into the room, wrapped his arms around me, and gave me a quick but very passionate kiss.

  “Um, I can’t stay but three or four hours,” I managed, licking my bottom lip.

  “I’ve heard that before,” he complained. “Look, I don’t get to see you as often as I’d like to and—”

  “John, my husband invited some people over for dinner this evening. If I don’t get home in time to prepare it, he’ll go ballistic and the night will be a disaster for me. Now, be reasonable. If he starts keeping closer tabs on me, it’ll be even harder for me to see you.”

  “Then I guess we shouldn’t waste any time,” John said, giving me a hungry look. He sco
oped me up into his arms and carried me to the bed.

  Chapter 3

  Joan

  I’D BEEN WITH JOHN FOR LESS THAN AN HOUR. HE SAT ON THE SIDE of the bed clutching his cell phone as he talked to his wife. In the ten minutes since he’d placed the call, he had told her one lie after another about how bored he was and how much he wished she’d come to California with him. When he stood up and started pacing back and forth, frowning and shaking his head as he talked, I knew it was going to be a long conversation.

  We had already made love once, finished a bottle of champagne, and were both still naked. The more encounters I had with John, the more I enjoyed his company. As well as everything else about him. He’d grown a goatee and lost a few pounds since our first date so he was more handsome than ever.

  I had clawed his smooth, copper-colored back and left so many scratches, it looked like a road map. But it didn’t matter because according to John, his wife was such a prude; she never looked at him when he was completely naked. He winked and threw me a kiss. Rolling his eyes, he told his wife that she was the only woman he loved and that he had never even looked at another woman since he married her. On that note, I rolled off the bed, retrieved my phone from my purse on the nightstand, and slipped into the bathroom. I needed to check in with Lola.

  “Thank God you picked up. Where are you?” I said when she answered on the second ring.

  “I’m having lunch with Elbert at Denny’s.”

  “Oh. Did I know that?”

  “I told you when we talked last night, and I told you when we talked this morning.”

  “I guess it slipped my mind. Elbert is so easy to forget.” Elbert Porter was a nerdy guy who’d attended high school with us. He was the divorced son of one of Lola’s stepmother’s friends. He was as cute and harmless as a puppy, and he adored Lola. She would never admit it, but I knew she only spent time with him because she felt sorry for him. It was certainly not because he was good in bed. He was so religious, he didn’t believe in sex outside of marriage. But with her crazy life, which was probably crazier than mine, she needed a straitlaced man like Elbert to keep her grounded. “Can you talk for a few minutes?”