The Million Dollar Demise

by RM Johnson Narrated by Kevin R. Free

Overview

Starting with a bang and never slowing down, this shocking novel concludes Essence best-selling author RM Johnson's provocative trilogy. Now that Nate Kenny has ex-wife Monica back in his arms, it's time to give marriage a second chance. Yet those plans are shattered when Nate and Monica are gunned down in their home. Nate recovers, but Monica falls into a coma. When she eventually regains consciousness, she awakens to a world of infidelity, duplicity, and scheming that could once again lead to spilled blood.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

The crazed conclusion of Johnson's Million Dollar trilogy opens with a literal bang. Freddy Ford shoots millionaire Nate Kenny and Nate's ex-wife, Monica, at Nate's Chicago mansion and kidnaps Nate's three-year-old adopted son, Nathaniel. The reason? Nate reneged on rewarding him for his part in a blackmail scheme that led to the arrest of Freddy's best friend, Lewis Waters, in the previous book, The Million Dollar Deception. Lewis was getting too cozy with Monica, whom Nate is eager to remarry. As a result of their serious gunshot wounds, Nate and Monica (who's in a coma) miss Lewis's hearing, at which he's set free. In a weird twist of fate, Lewis agrees to help Nate find Freddy, who's holding Nathaniel for $5 million ransom, if Nate will do Lewis a favor. Meanwhile, Nate's spurned lover, Daphanie Coleman, pregnant with another man's child, plots her revenge. The rushed ending suggests the duplicitous Nate could return to commit further mischief in a sequel. (Sept.)

Kirkus Reviews

Johnson ties up the loose threads of his fast-paced, thuggish trilogy. In The Million Dollar Divorce (2004) and The Million Dollar Deception (2008), Nate Kenny manipulated, interfered, bought off and blackmailed his way into the life he wanted; when wife Monica couldn't bear him a child, he hired Lewis Waters to seduce her so he could save his fortune in a no-contest divorce. But everything has repercussions, and this final installment opens with the appearance of Freddy Ford, Lewis' best friend, who has lost everything he loves thanks to Nate. Freddy shows up at Nate's house, shoots him four times, shoots Monica in the head (the two were reconciling) and kidnaps their adopted son Nathaniel. He leaves Chicago for Atlanta, killing a cop on the way, to hide out with old girlfriend Joni while he figures out what to do with the toddler in the back seat and the law on his trail. Against all odds Nate survives, and Monica lies in a coma with good chances for a full recovery. The story is complicated by Daphanie, Nate's girlfriend before he reconciled with Monica. Daphanie, pregnant by Trevor, tells Nate that the baby is really his in an attempt to woo him back while Monica is still out of commission. Lewis is trying to regain custody of his daughter Layla, who lives at Monica and Nate's house, though he is not sure he is her biological father. Deceptions, more killing, a budding romance between Lewis and a social worker-it's a lot of plot in one book. There are some strange, sad moments, as when Freddy and Joni reassure themselves they'd make great parents, and no one survives intact in this kind of modern pulp noir, driven by a nihilism that sees deception as the world's lingua franca. Theoverfed conclusion to an African-American soap opera.

From the Publisher

RM Johnson has set his sights on becoming one of the most daring and insightful novelists of his generation.”
—Colin Channer, author of Satisfy My Soul

“Engrossing. Johnson’s blunt, no-frills prose sketches a chilling portrait of an egomaniac who just doesn’t understand the high price tag of greed.”

—Publishers Weekly

“The Harris Men is a superb novel—profoundly written, deeply engaging, and long overdue.”
—E. Lynn Harris, author of Just Too Good to Be True and Any Way the Wind Blows

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171226053
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	01/15/2010
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

The Million Dollar Demise

1

Since he had been thrown out of his house, Freddy Ford had barely been able to hold anything in his stomach. He had lost almost ten pounds off of his already thin frame. The T-shirt he wore now hung loosely on him. His jeans dropped from his narrow hips, and his hair had grown long and unruly.

He looked over his shoulder again after ringing Nate Kenny’s doorbell. None of Mr. Kenny’s neighbors were around.

Freddy heard the door unlock.

He quickly reached behind him, pulled the gun from the waist of his jeans, and pointed it at the door. When it opened, Mr. Kenny stared straight into the barrel of the weapon.

“Freddy,” Mr. Kenny said, all cool, like there was nothing wrong. “Our business is done. I told you that three weeks ago.”

“Step into the motherfucking house,” Freddy said.

“Freddy—”

Freddy cocked the gun.

“Fine.” Mr. Kenny turned, walked back into the house. Freddy walked behind him, the gun pointed between his shoulder blades.

Images popped into Freddy’s head. He shut his eyes, trying to black out those images. He saw his mother crying, as the sheriffs had all their furniture dragged from the house and thrown to the curb. An image of his girlfriend raced through his head, her feet in stirrups, an overworked doctor in the middle of performing the abortion, slicing his unborn baby into pieces and sucking it out of her.

When Freddy opened his eyes, the stain of those images still soiled his thoughts.

It was this man’s fault, Freddy told himself, the gun shaking in his hand. He had to pay.

All of a sudden Mr. Kenny spun around. He was smiling. “I tell you what I’m gonna do.”

Without a thought, Freddy squeezed the trigger of his gun and shot Mr. Kenny in the chest.

Then he shot him again, in the stomach. There was something comforting about the gun going off in Freddy’s hand, something calming. Freddy fired two more times, his arms absorbing the shock of the small piece’s kick, a lifeless expression on his face— once in the thigh, and again in the chest.

Mr. Kenny staggered back, horror in his eyes, bloodstains blooming large on his white shirt.

There was a scream.

Mr. Kenny turned and yelled, “Monica, no!”

Freddy whirled around and blindly fired the gun.

A single bullet tore into the side of the forehead of the woman who was standing by the bedroom door wearing only a bath towel.

It was Monica, Lewis’s old girlfriend.

The towel fell, leaving Monica naked—her body dropped to its knees, then fell flat on its belly.

By then Mr. Kenny had fallen across the sofa. Freddy could see they were both dead.

Freddy hadn’t meant to kill the woman, but maybe it was for the best. After another moment, he turned and was about to walk out of the house when he heard movement behind him.

Freddy turned again, the gun pointed in front of him.

“Mommy. Daddy.” There was a small boy standing in the entrance of the kitchen. The child ran to his father and pulled on his bloody arm.

Freddy walked over to the boy, stood over him, and pointed the gun into the child’s face.

This must be Mr. Kenny’s boy.

The nagging image of Freddy’s unborn child forced its way into his brain again. If it wasn’t for Mr. Kenny, Kia never would’ve aborted their child.

Freddy moved the gun closer to the little boy’s face. The child was bawling and seemed oblivious to the gun.

An eye for an eye, a child for a child, Freddy thought, applying pressure to the trigger.

Freddy envisioned the bullet ripping through the child’s neck, dropping him to squirm in his own blood and die. He pulled on the trigger a little harder, but hesitated slightly.

“Do it, dammit!” Freddy grunted.

But he could not.

He lowered the gun, shoved it back into his jeans, then turned and walked out the door, hearing the sound of the wailing boy.

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