Dino and Nikki: After Redemption

It was supposed to be a marriage made in heaven when Nikki Lucas, a former street hustler from the wrong side of the tracks, captures the heart of the superfine Dino Cochran, a former nightclub owning bad boy and now powerful church CEO. But less than three hours after their heavenly nuptials, hell goes in session and changes the game, taking their happy union and thrusting it into a downward spiral of mistrust, lust, and pain.

First, they postpone their honeymoon to the south of France for a detour to Detroit, where Dino has to handle a series of devastating crisis’ that threatens to destroy everything he has worked years to build up. Then Nikki is blind-sided by female drama after female drama when beautiful, successful women refuse to accept that Dino Cochran is no longer on the market and that a female with Nikki’s obvious lack of sophistication and breeding could have succeeded where
they had failed. They scheme and connive and become so hellbent on ending a marriage that has only just begun that Nikki wonders if a life with Dino is worth it, after all. Soon Nikki herself develops an attraction to a bad boy whose jealousy of Dino makes him bound and determined to destroy everything Dino holds dear, especially his most precious possession: his young, brand new bride. It is a destruction that nearly costs Dino to lose all in a fit of rage and revenge that
makes him question the kind of man he has allowed himself to become.

After Redemption is the story of an unlikely love affair that pits two very different people against a world of love, lust and betrayal that will challenge them to the breaking point and will require every ounce of their faith to withstand the onslaught.

EXCERPT:

“I didn’t fall for him!” Nikki said, sounding too defensive. “What are you talking about? I’m married to you.”
“And you’d better start remembering that, Nikki. You’re married to me and I’m a bishop and you’d better start acting like you understand that fact. Going into some crack house with Beau Riley? I nearly died where I stood when Shelly told me where you were!”
“Shelly?”
“Yes, Shelly. She may be a lot of things and have a lot of issues, but she always has my back.”
“Yeah, her and Ida Fox and about a hundred more of your so-called lady friends.”
The doorbell rang just as Dino was about to light into Nikki again. He even moved swiftly to the door to burn off some steam. When he opened it, and saw that it was Mike Long, he shook his head.
“Not now, Mike,” he said. “I’ll have to talk to you later.”
“It can’t wait until later. We’ve got a problem, Dean.”
“If it’s about Douglas—”
“It’s not about Pastor Douglas. I wish to God it was, but it’s not. It’s about you.”
“Me? What about me?”
“A young lady claims that a week ago Friday, you, Bishop Walter Dean Cochran, her boss and our Chief Executive Officer, brutally raped her.”