Mercy, Mercy Me

by Ronn Elmore

  “Then you better get moving. I am so happy for you.” She hugged him.

  “And you don’t have to worry about our men’s ministry. I am as committed as I was when I agreed to do this.”

  Nina playfully punched his arm. “You better be. But I’m not worried. I know you, Dr. Grandison.”

  “Oh, you do, huh?”

  A rush of blood warmed her face. “We still need to agree on a time for you to watch a session,” she said quickly. “Maybe next week?”

  “Sounds like a plan. I’ll call you tonight and we can set up something when I have my calendar in front of me.”

  “Great.”

  She smiled widely as he walked through the door. It wasn’t until she no longer heard his footsteps that the smile completely disappeared. She slipped into the chair behind her desk. It appeared Ms. Beverlyn Boudreaux had found a way to ease into Dwayne’s life, after all. So what? It was a great opportunity and a perfect time for him.

  She tried to pull joy from deep inside, but she couldn’t shake the ambivalence that had underscored the news. She began shaking her head and hands vigorously—an acting exercise she learned years ago, to clear her mind for complete character immersion.

  I must have been out of my mind, she thought, remembering the smile that had lit Dwayne’s face as he talked about Beverlyn. That memory persuaded her fully. Emotionally she needed to return to where she was before she ever met Dwayne Grandison. Where she felt blessed with everything in her life: Omari, her growing role at New Covenant, and most importantly, the Lord.

  Besides, she had a much bigger battle to fight. It had begun five years ago with a recurring pain under her armpit. Omari was two and she’d filed for divorce just months before. She thought the stress of a failed marriage, wrestling with a two-year-old, working full-time, and taking courses for college credit had all taken their toll. But when she complained to the doctor of her symptoms during one of Omari’s routine visits, he arranged for her to see an internist, who immediately had her admitted to Cedars-Sinai, where they discovered a growth.

  Surgery to remove the tumor was scheduled, but the attempts of the surgical team were thwarted and the procedure aborted when doctors discovered that the tumor had connected itself to vital blood vessels and could not be removed. Hours later, Nina was given the grim news: The tumor was malignant.

  Devastated, she sought refuge with God at New Covenant, where Lafayette and Robbie took her under their wing, arranging care for Omari and emotional support during her hospitalization, as Nina had no family to speak of and few close friends, having been burned by people who’d said they were her friends—but instead took advantage of her—when she was a TV star. She’d at first reasoned that she deserved the cancer that was ravaging her then twenty-seven-year-old body for all the things she’d done wrong: the promiscuity, the drugs, the arrogance, and most of all the indifference to the God-fearing upbringing her parents, now deceased, had instilled at New Covenant Assembly in what seemed to be a lifetime before her discovery by Hollywood.

  And while Nina had become accustomed to living out her private pains in the public eye, thanks to the now-waning interest of the tabloids, she trusted that Lafayette and Robbie would keep her secret.

  Nina began chemotherapy: once a week for twelve weeks. Within one week, the tumor began shrinking. The chemotherapy was followed by five weeks of radiation therapy. Although the curative measures were deemed successful, the tumor and subsequent treatments had taken a toll on her body over a two-year period, causing her to make some major changes. She recalled crying at one point when she was so weak it took her an hour to eat a piece of toast.

  A distant aunt was enlisted to help care for Omari, then an overactive three-year-old. Then came another hit: Nina was informed she would have to have surgery to repair nerves that had been damaged by the tumor.

  With the success of the surgery, the hardest part had been put behind her. But tonight she was not so sure. Until she could celebrate five years in remission, it was as if a death sentence hung over her, never knowing from one moment to the next what was brewing inside her body.

  Still, she was grateful that a disaster had been avoided. She could only imagine what Dwayne had gone through with the loss of his wife. With all he’d suffered, didn’t he deserve more?

  The first thing Dwayne noticed when the elevator doors parted on the eighteenth floor of the International Commerce Building were the two workmen putting up three-foot-high gold letters on the wall. “Beverlyn Boudreaux Ministries” was already plastered on the wall. Underneath, three letters, “JUB,” were set in place. Within a few hours, the opulent reception area would be aglow with the gold letters spelling out “Jubilee Network.”

  “Dwayne, I was hoping to meet you as soon as you arrived.” Beverlyn hugged him. Uncanny, he thought, that the perfume she wore was Yvette’s favorite, Tiffany.

  “I just got here.”

  “Let’s go to my office.” She squeezed his hand.

  They moved through the long carpeted halls, past workmen arranging furniture into cubicles and employees unpacking dozens of U-Haul boxes. Finally, Dwayne followed Beverlyn into a corner office with windowed walls overlooking Sunset Boulevard.

  “This is quite a spread.”

  “Yeah, I love this place. It’s much bigger than our offices in New Orleans.”

  “So you’ve moved your entire operation here?”

  She nodded. “We’ll be able to do so much more in Los Angeles. Why don’t we sit over here?” she said, sitting on the couch and patting a space next to her. “It’s less formal.”

  He hesitated momentarily before sitting down next to her and pulling a folder from his briefcase.

  “You’re all about business, aren’t you?” she said.

  “Well, I don’t want to take up too much of your time.”

  “Your program is our flagship, the most important one we’re putting on the air. So you don’t have to worry about that.”

  He opened the folder, but before he could say a word, she touched his arm.

  “Dwayne, I want you to know how happy I am to have you join us. The Lord saved my life,” she said soberly, “and I’ve always wanted to reach millions with the same message that delivered me. Your show is one of the ways I’ll be able do that.”

  “Not only my show, Beverlyn, but your entire network. You have a great vision and I’m pleased you asked me to be part of it. So how exactly is this going to work?” Dwayne pressed. “Am I correct in assuming that major decisions will be made by you and me?”

  “That’s true. As executive and senior producers, all roads lead to us. Believe me, this is your show, but it’s still going to take a team to put this program on. You know what they say about two heads. Well, what about ten? That’s how many we’ve hired to do production on the show. You’ll get to meet them at the first production meeting.”

  “There’ll be ten people in the meeting?”

  “At least. We’re putting everything we have behind this show, Dwayne. So tomorrow we can brainstorm with the team.”

  “I see.”

  “And it’s best if we do this with L.W. He’s going to be an executive producer on your show.”

  Dwayne raised his eyebrows. “I didn’t know that.”

  “It’s a formality. Speaking of which, I’ll buzz L.W. and he can bring the contracts in. I’m sure you’ll want to go over them with your attorney.”

  As Beverlyn phoned her uncle, Dwayne moved slowly through the spacious room. He thought his office was large, but two of his could fit into this space. Impressive, he thought, yet something was making him feel uneasy. He couldn’t pinpoint where the doubts were coming from. Maybe he hadn’t asked enough questions. Things that Beverlyn had never mentioned were now being revealed. But maybe that was the way the entertainment industry worked—constantly changing, moving fast. And the Jubilee Network was brand-new. Things were bound to change as they moved along.

  He paused at the window, looking at the
tower above the Capitol Records Building, and pushed his doubts aside. He wasn’t going to give room to the devil. His prayers had been answered. So he would make this work no matter what it would take on his part.

  “L.W. will be right down,” Beverlyn said, interrupting his thoughts.

  “Okay.” He returned to the couch and began putting papers back into his briefcase.

  “I hope you’re not planning on leaving already?”

  “Since we’re meeting tomorrow …”

  “I have an idea. I haven’t eaten yet, and I don’t know many places in Los Angeles. I certainly don’t know many people. Why don’t we have dinner?”

  When he didn’t respond, she continued nervously, “This would give us a chance to get to know one another—as executive producer to senior producer.”

  “Okay, let’s do it.”

  “Do what?”

  Dwayne and Beverlyn spun around at the sound of L.W.’s voice. L.W., it seemed, had been standing by the door for a moment.

  “Dwayne and I just decided to go to dinner.”

  L.W. moved toward Dwayne and stretched his hand forward. “Good to see you again, Mr. Grandison.”

  “Same here. Glad to be joining the team.”

  “Here’s your contract.” He handed Dwayne a manila envelope. “There are three copies. We’ll need your signature on all three and then we’ll give one back to you.”

  “I’ll need at least a day or so.”

  “Of course.”

  “I appreciate that,” Dwayne said as he tucked the envelope into his briefcase. Then he looked at Beverlyn. “If you have work to do, I can take a rain check.”

  “Absolutely not. I can’t wait to get out. L.W. has been working me too hard, isn’t that right?” She smiled at her uncle.

  Dwayne and L.W. exchanged silent glances as Beverlyn moved to her desk. “Just give me a minute, Dwayne. I need to make a quick call.”

  After a few more silent seconds, L.W. said, “I need to get back to my office.” He turned toward Dwayne. “Good seeing you . . . young man,” he added condescendingly.

  Dwayne’s eyes followed L.W. until he closed the door behind him. He didn’t know why but he just didn’t feel good about the man. He returned his attention to Beverlyn, who was winding up a phone call.

  “Thanks for understanding,” she was saying. “We can do dinner next week.”

  When she hung up, Dwayne said, “You already had plans?”

  “Not really. And even if I did, there is nothing more important than the two of us getting together, wouldn’t you agree?”

  Dwayne neither agreed nor disagreed. He simply smiled.

  L.W. sighed as he walked back to his office. He wondered why Dwayne Grandison made him uncomfortable. Maybe it was because he didn’t yet have the information he needed. He paused in front of his office and watched the young woman unloading boxes.

  “Are you sure all of the boxes that should be in my office are in there?”

  The young woman looked up. “Yes, Mr. Lejohn.”

  He opened his office door and stepped inside, and just as he was reaching to close it behind him, Kim Steele brushed in.

  “What are you doing here?” L.W. asked through clenched teeth.

  “You said you needed to talk to me,” she answered.

  L.W. marched to his desk. “Oh, yeah.” He shook his head.

  “So what do you need, boss?”

  “I told you about calling me boss. I can’t afford for people to put together that you’re really working for me and not Beverlyn.”

  “Sorry, L.W.”

  “I need some background information on a Dr. Dwayne Grandison.”

  “What kind of information?”

  “The kind one tends to keep in their closet. You know what I mean.”

  “Sure, I’ll get right on it. Give me a day or two.”

  “Make sure that nothing can be traced to me.”

  “You know me better than that. I’ll say we need it as part of due diligence with regard to high-profile personnel.” Kim slipped from the office before L.W. could say another word.

  L.W. finally relaxed, knowing he could count on Kim for results. Normally, he didn’t go to such lengths, but concerned that Grandison might prove to be a problem, it wouldn’t hurt to put together a backup plan.

  There was something about him with Beverlyn… something that made L.W. believe that Dwayne would be a threat to all he’d built. He, L.W., was the mastermind behind Beverlyn Boudreaux and it would remain that way. There was room for only one man in Beverlyn’s life, and if Dwayne Grandison ever had other thoughts, L.W. would be there to blast those thoughts away. He had worked too hard to have Grandison ruin things.

  No, he thought. He didn’t like the way Beverlyn played up to Dwayne.

  Chapter Eleven

  On Saturday, Kim had called Dwayne informing him of a special last-minute appearance she was able to arrange with KJLH to promote the new network. He and Beverlyn would be appearing on Aundrae Russell’s Spread the Word radio show. He agreed to the meeting, willing to do whatever he could to help get the word out about the Jubilee Network.

  Dwayne pulled up at KJLH just as Beverlyn’s limousine arrived. Outside, awaiting his arrival, stood Kim, who’d advised him that it might be better to meet at Beverlyn’s new offices so that they could arrive together at the radio station. But he decided against being part of Beverlyn’s entourage, opting to meet them there, telling Kim he had an engagement directly after the interview.

  In fact, he had a long-standing Sunday tennis engagement with Sean, whenever Sean was in town. And this week Sean was in town.

  As he got out of the Jaguar, Beverlyn approached in a tapered Donna Karan cream dress suit. They were running late and immediately entered the station, where they were met by Aundrae Russell and ushered to their seats in the studio.

  For the next hour, Beverlyn and he talked about the show, exchanged views on the Christian community with Russell, took calls from listeners, and engaged in Dwayne’s renowned Bible Jeopardy! quiz.

  Dwayne saw another side of Beverlyn, a more relaxed, down-to-earth evangelist who—for a moment—had let her hair down with him and Russell, trading jokes, coming out from behind her carefully constructed facade. As she talked more and more about her world, what she was saying was right on, and he felt a strange attraction; briefly, a childlike—and more feminine—vulnerability seemed to emerge from her.

  “It was uncanny,” he was explaining to Sean later that afternoon. “But I’m beginning to enjoy the prospect of doing the show.”

  “How’s Nina?” Sean snatched up a bottle of Evian as they put their rackets down and headed into the sprawling Beverly Hills mansion the singer had purchased a decade before.

  “Man, I can’t figure her out. I know she likes me—or at least, I think she does—but she’s holding back. Monique says she likes me. I can’t figure it.”

  “That’s surprising. I clearly picked up some interest when I was talking with her. Maybe something else is going on that has nothing to do with you.”

  “Yeah, maybe that’s it. How’s everything with you?”

  “Well for now. I’m doing really well. Just got to keep exercising, eating right, and living right.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Man, that’s good news.” Lafayette grinned widely as he placed the call on speakerphone. “What do you think the chances are that the deal with the station will go through?”

  “Looks good,” the voice continued. “We have yours. We’re talking to Evans and Bishop Taylor about getting their financing in the next two days, and in about a month, Los Angeles will have its first church-owned gospel radio station.”

  “I love it. Listen, I’m with you on booking more Christian and family entertainment events. The Forum will become the premier venue for them.”

  “That’s exactly what we have in mind.” The voice belonged to Bishop Kenneth Ulmer, whose church had made history with their acquisition of the Great Western
Forum, former home to the L.A. Lakers. “Look, man, I’ve got to take a call. Let’s talk tomorrow.”

  “You got it. Thanks again for the info on Beverlyn Boudreaux.” Lafayette hung up.

  The crease in Lafayette’s forehead became all the more pronounced as he sat in his office and prayed about Dwayne’s decision to join the Jubilee Network, imploring God to impart the discernment he was sure his younger brother would need. As he opened his eyes, Lafayette thought about the rumors he’d heard surrounding Beverlyn Boudreaux Ministries. Most of them had centered on what went on behind the scenes involving her business dealings—not those of Boudreaux directly, but those of L.W. Lejohn, the man whom they credited with pulling the strings. Several of Lafayette’s friends had not-so-pleasant run-ins with L.W.

  Additionally, while raking in uncounted millions, L.W. had been accused of financial indiscretions and yet had refused to open his books to the scrutiny of independent auditors in compliance with the standards mandated by the industry with regards to evangelists and nonprofit organizations. Beverlyn Boudreaux Ministries had operated with little interference—at first because of L.W.’s renowned vindictiveness and later because BBM had grown so successful that few in the Christian world would challenge it.

  Lafayette had always been wary of operations like hers. Glitzy, savvy, and highly commercial, they gave new meaning to the business of ministry, and in an era when high-octane scandals, plus scores of routine ones, had shaken public faith in televangelists, he was hardly excited about the prospect of his brother being linked to them. But with no hard evidence, and reports that Boudreaux herself was on the level, there was little he could say, so instead he stomached the foreboding that raged in his gut.

  He got up from the desk and proceeded toward Nina’s office for an update on how Man-to-Man was coming along.

  Nina pursed her lips as she turned the handle on her Rolodex. When she found the number, she dialed.

  “Dr. Grandison’s office.”

  “May I speak with Dr. Grandison, please?”