Hard To Love

HARD TO LOVE A BEROTTE FAMILY BOOK MONICA WALTERS CONTENTS Introduction Foreword Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Epilogue From the Author… Other Titles by Monica Walters INTRODUCTION Hello, readers! Thank you for purchasing and/or downloading this book. This work of art contains explicit language, lewd sex scenes, violence, moments of grief/depression, and other topics that may be sensitive to some readers. It also contains urban elements, which is why it is listed as a genre category for this book. This is book fourteen and the final book of a new family of books… The Berotte Family (pronounced Bee-Rot). It starts with the father, and the following books trickle down to the kids and their friends. This book is about Rondo, Shavozz’s (married to DJ) brother. You first became acquainted with him in book seven, Don’t Fight the Feeling. It’s highly recommended that you read the previous books of this family series before indulging in this one, because it typically picks up right where the last one left off and updates ongoing issues that I don’t go into great detail about. Love On Replay Deeper Than Love Something You Won’t Forget I’m The Remedy Love Me Senseless I Want You Here Don’t Fight The Feeling When You Dance I’m All In Give Me Permission Force of Nature Say You Love Me Where You Should Be Also, please remember that your reality isn’t everyone’s reality. What may seem unrealistic or unrelatable to you could be very real and relatable to someone else. But also, keep in mind that, despite the previous statement, this is a fictional story. Rondo and Dinalee’s story is a beautiful one, despite the adversities at the end of book thirteen. Again, issues from previous stories are resolved, and new issues have surfaced and been resolved as well. So I hope you enjoy the ride this story is going to take you on. Monica P.S.- There may be a couple of words typical of dialect from people in southwestern Louisiana. Sha means baby. FOREWORD Thank you, Rondo and Dinalee, for allowing me to use your images and names to craft and promote this story! Your excitement about it means the world to me, and I will never forget it. PROLOGUE RONDO “You a evil ass muthafucka.” I was standing on the patio at Jungle’s house in Houston. When I saw her at Jamel and Sandrene’s wedding with him, I almost lost my shit right there during the ceremony. I was normally a laidback nigga. I went to work, took care of my daughter, fished and hunted, smoked and drank occasionally, and minded my fucking business. But this shit… This shit had me ready to commit murder. This bitch had the audacity to stare at me like she was the one that had been taken advantage of. My heart was hurt. We were supposed to be working shit out. My downfall was loving a muthafucka that didn’t give a shit about me. I trusted her. She was frequenting Houston for some fucking class, supposedly, about starting her own call center. “I’m not evil. Jungle is. He had my cousin tortured and killed. He needs to pay for that shit.” “Maybe I need to call him back out here so you can take that fucking attitude with him, ’cause it looks like you got yo’ ass handed to you. Apparently, they didn’t take too kindly to your reasoning. He said that he wasn’t even the one calling the shots. Yo’ fucked up cousin raped his sister. So who the one that’s evil? This shit wasn’t about revenge. What was your point in trying to work shit out with me? Things could have stayed the way they were.” “Whether you believe me or not, I love you.” I slid my hand down my face and turned my head as DJ stared at me. I was glad he was out here with me, because every demon swirling around inside of me right now was telling me to finish fucking her up. Abusing women wasn’t something that was in my DNA. I always did my best to love, respect, and uplift women, especially black women. I had a mother and sisters that I wanted niggas to treat like queens. There was no way I would treat someone else’s mother, daughter, or sister in a way I didn’t want my own family treated. Kennedy had changed all that shit. That thought process was shot to hell in this moment, and had my brother-in-law not pulled me out of her face, I would have crossed the line without a problem. “Why the fuck you after Jungle?” She looked away from me and refused to respond. I stepped closer to her and grabbed her face, forcing her to look at me. I knew that shit hurt because I could feel her jaw shift beneath my fingertips. She released a groan, and I only squeezed a little harder. “You don’t tell me the shit I wanna know, you’ll never see Sunni again. I plan to take my daughter, but if you don’t come clean, visitations will be out of the fucking question. Real shit.” She tried to jerk away from me, but I didn’t release her until I got good and ready. She was trembling from the pain, and that gave me joy. That was how my heart felt. Knowing that she was this evil had caught me by surprise. She wasn’t perfect, and neither was I, but I thought we were doing well. We hadn’t argued in nearly the entire year we’d been working to get our good thang back. To know that all that shit was fake was tearing me apart inside. “Money. Darlena said that she had millions from Slice’s death. She wanted Jungle gone because of