Caught in a Hot Boy's Flame: The Baptist Brothers

By Teshera Cooper

The Baptist brothers are every woman’s dream and their enemies’ most terrifying nightmare.


Known in their hood for owning Smokin’ Kutz, the most popular shop in town, their successful business only represents a small part of who Iggy, Smoke, Kiyan and Flame really are.


As the leader and the oldest, Ignitus “Iggy” Baptist is the most dangerous of the Baptist clan. He moves stealthy and goes under the radar as the quiet one, valuing his time as priceless and keeping his focus on his money. He has no interest in love until one day leads to a reunion with a stranger from his past… the one girl that he always wanted but could never have.


The coolest and collected of them all, Shameer “Smoke” Baptist, struggles with his demons in private. When a beautiful woman waltzes into his life with her own baggage, Smoke feels that she’s exactly who he needs in his life. What he doesn’t know is that she has a past of her own and the secrets that she’s holding may lead to the end of his life.


Kiyan Baptist is on his way to becoming a successful surgeon, but while his career is flourishing, his marriage seems to be plummeting. After finding solace outside of his marriage, Kiyan’s life quickly spirals out of control. By the time he realizes the mistake he’s made, it may be too late, and he is left to pick up the pieces of his once perfect life on his own.


Like moths to a flame, women are drawn to Kindal ‘Flame’ Baptist, the most sought-after brother, in the same way. He’s the cockiest of them all but also the most skilled when using his ‘talents’. With one nagging baby mother in his ear and another who pays him no mind, Pia seems to be the breath of fresh air that he needs in his life. When Flame realizes that she’s the female version of him—wanting no parts of a relationship, just relations—it becomes clear that he’s finally met his match.


In this steaming tale of brotherhood and love, four women must decide whether they have what it takes to hold a Baptist brother down. The question is, can they handle the fast and furious lifestyle or will the secrets of the past that were meant to be forever buried, leave them all burned?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Royalty Publishing House
• Release date: Aug 20, 2019
• ISBN: 9781648402333

Book preview

Shameer Smoke Baptist

M an, that party tonight is going to be slammin’ and hopefully Carla lets me get a dance or something, Kiyan said, rubbing his hands together like he had the ultimate plan in motion to get Carla, who he had been pining over for months, but still got no play.

I just stood there smiling with my hands in my pocket because I was going to the dance to have fun, not for some bougie ass girls, but apparently my brother Kiyan had other things in mind.

Boy! Your big fo’ by fo’ head! That girl doesn’t want you, the youngest of the crew, Flame said, while laughing.

To be honest, I didn’t even know why Flame was even with us right now. He was thirteen years old while the rest of us were sixteen and fifteen, but he loved to follow us, while talking shit about stuff he knew nothing about.

Boy, shut up before I pop yo’ ass, Kiyan retorted back to a still laughing Flame. Everyone knew that Kiyan was a little sensitive over Carla.

I wish you would, Flame pumped his chest up as if he was tough knowing that Kiyan would beat the breaks off him.

How about both of y'all shut the fuck up! our big brother Iggy chimed in. Iggy rarely raised his voice so when he did, you knew that he was serious. He was the protector being the oldest, but he didn’t need to say much for us to know that he wasn’t playing. Iggy was so quiet that people often joked on him and called him slow, but he didn’t care what people thought because no one could match him in the hands department anyway.

Y’all talking about everything else, but the plan that’s going down tonight. We all eagerly listened as Iggy spoke. If we do this right, then we won’t have to worry about anything coming back to us, we all nodded.

Tonight, was the night that our plan would be put into effect and even though I was scared as hell, I had to ride for my brothers.

Iggy, Flame, Kiyan and I all lived at the Baptist home, a foster home. You wouldn’t believe all the shit that landed us there, we had truly been dealt some difficult hands. Ignitus Iggy Baptist, the oldest, grew up in a middle-class neighborhood with both his parents and his grandmother. Iggy was the happiest child, but that all changed when his parents and grandparents were involved in a fatal car accident when he was around thirteen. After the death of his parents, Iggy was bounced from foster home to foster home before he finally came to the Baptist house.

Iggy had been living with the Baptist’s for some time now since a lot of parents would rather adopt a baby versus a teenager. Though Iggy was quiet and introverted, he was smart as hell and valued time. Since the untimely death of his parents, Iggy cherished every moment that he had and didn’t allow anyone to waste his time.

Then there was me, Shameer Smoke Baptist. People sometimes don’t even believe my story and how I ended up at the Baptist's, but the shit went viral, literally. When I was just a little baby, my mom went into a 7-Eleven to grab something. I’m sure she pondered it back and forth in her head whether she should take me inside of the store with her, but she probably thought that she would be in and out and I would be fine. It turned out that when she came back to the car, I wasn’t there anymore. Tiesha and Jules Platte had kidnapped and raised me, but they weren’t my real parents. I didn’t have the slightest concern that we looked different once I got older or that their family sometimes referred to me as the other, because they treated me so good. I got everything that I asked for including love, but that all ended when I was ten years old and one of the Platte sisters went to the police about the situation. Apparently, the only reason she told that they had kidnapped me when I was just a baby was because she was mad at my mom, Tiesha. She was on some get back shit and didn’t even realize that she had just ruined my entire life. By the time it had hit the headlines that the kidnapped baby who had been missing for nine years was found, my real mother was too far-gone and wasn’t right mentally to raise me.

In my fifteen years of living, I’ve met my biological mother two times, and each time she was high as a kite and not ready to be a parent. My father was never in the picture, so I didn’t even wonder about him. Now, here I am at the Baptist’s where I’ve been for the past two years. All my life, I had been lied to so more than anything, I valued truth and anyone who lied to me would be cut off immediately like the Platts.

Yo, Iggz, there go your bae, Kiyan said, pointing to the group of girls that were approaching us. It was Beauty and her crew. They all were fine as hell, but none of them compared to Beauty and even though my brother Iggy wouldn’t admit it, he had the biggest crush on her. She walked up popping that gum like New New from ATL with her hair in a big ass puffball.

What are y’all over here doing? Y’all got y’all outfits fresh for the dance tonight? Beauty asked, walking in between us, with her cheerleader uniform on.

Iggy just stood there chillin’ in the cut, but his eyes never left Beauty.

Yeah, you know we ready, Kiyan boasted popping his collar for Carla.

Well anyways, Beauty said, blowing a bubble with her gum. Why is it always so many cars at y’all house every night? My daddy and me rode by and there were at least six. It be nice cars too. Y'all rich or something?

Mind your business, bitch! Iggy finally said, while staring at her intently. That must’ve scared her off because she jumped a little and backed up.

Well, we out of here. No one has time for IGNIIITTUUS and his attitude, Carla said, emphasizing Iggy’s government. The girls then walked away.

Man, why you always got to be mean to that girl? Kiyan chimed in. He thought he was a lady’s man and had high regard for everyone just getting along.

Kiyan Baptist had been in the system all his life. The story was that his mom got pregnant with him when she was fifteen and her parents forced her to give him up at birth. Kiyan never knew the true meaning of family because he had been bounced from foster home to foster home since he was born. He did get adopted once when he was two, but it was short lived when the parents simply changed their mind about wanting to be parents. Ever since then, Kiyan valued Family; he had never had one of his own but hoped to one day. Kiyan had been with the Baptists’ longer than all of us, five years.

Man, I’m not mean to that girl, but she talks too much, Iggy spoke.

Only if I were a little bit older, she fine as hell, Flame commented, and we all started laughing. Flame was the youngest, but he had had it the worse out of all of us at such a young age.

Kindal Flame Baptist had both of his parents at one point, but they weren’t meant to be parents. From the day he was born, he was abused and mistreated. He was only a welfare check to his parents, and they would starve him, beat him, and lock him up in the basement for days at a time before a concerned neighbor finally called Child Protective services. When CPS came to get him, he was unclothed, unfed, soiled and suffering from pneumonia and malnourishment. Flame was in the hospital for a month before he finally got well and from there he too, went from home to home before ending up at the Baptist’s home. From everything that he had been through, Flame valued Freedom the most. He was an unruly child and certainly wouldn’t be tamed not even by Iggy. Flame had been in the system since he was five years before finally coming to the Baptist’s.

The boys and I started to walk back to our home discussing the specifics of a plan that was to go down tonight besides the dance. Neither one of us knew what we were getting ourselves into, but we knew that something had to change in our lives, and we would be the one to enforce it. Tonight, would be the last night of the past and the first night to our new beginning, but we just didn’t know that the past would always find a way to reveal itself.

Kiyan Baptist

Eight Years Later…

Isnapped my cuff link and brushed a piece of lent from my Armani slacks. I gave myself the once over in the mirror and once I was satisfied, I grabbed my lab coat and headed out. Before I could even get down the stairs, I was hit with the faint smell of fresh coffee brewing. Coffee was my weakness and I was trying to give up caffeine, but today wouldn’t be that day. Yeah, I could just go decaf but decaf just wasn’t the same.

I walked into the kitchen to see my wife, standing over the Keurig, tapping her fingers impatiently as if that would speed the coffee up. As always, she noticed my presence even though her back was to me.

Good morning, my love, she walked up to me and placed a delicate peck on my lips before smiling and walking back over to check the coffee.

Good morning, Faye Faye, I faked my enthusiasm while she poured coffee into my mug and handed it to me.

Fancy and I had been together since our sophomore year in college and ever since then we had been connected at the hip; I eventually popped the question after we graduated, and we have been married for three years now. At first, I loved the shit out of Fancy, not that I don’t now, but I find myself bored with her. These days Fancy has no mind of her own and just goes with anything that I say and to be honest it’s a turnoff. A brother like me likes a woman with a little feistiness, who does not just go with the flow, but she is the flow. That just wasn’t Fancy anymore and I didn’t know how to tell her that I was no longer satisfied, so I would stray.

I could hear my baby brother Flame now, just boot that hoe. I smiled at how reckless his ass could be at the mouth.

What are you over there smiling about? Fancy asked, catching me.

Nothing at all, I said, briefly.

Okay, well what do you want for dinner tonight? I may stay a little late at the office tonight, so I want to take it out now.

Whatever you want Faye.

No babe, what do you want? That was just like Fancy, she couldn’t even decide on something as simple as what to cook for dinner without me. I wondered when she became this person.

Salmon, I said, and then headed to the door without so much as a goodbye. The sooner I got away from Fancy the better. Fancy was smart and very well educated, the daughter of the District attorney for Eastern Virginia and not to mention fine. She had this buttery soft skin, the color of desert sand and standing at 5’8". She sorts of reminded me of that actress Lex Scott Davis from that Superfly remake. Yes, she was flawless from the beauty marks that decorated her face to the way she rocked a tailored suit, but that wasn’t enough for me anymore. I wasn’t sure if I wanted too much, but hey, a man who knows what he wants demands what he wants.

I hopped into my Jaguar while placing my things on the passenger seat. Today would be a busy day at the hospital and after I would be meeting with a business partner as I was at the beginning stages of developing a beard care line for men all while completing a residency to become a surgeon. While my brothers ran the most popping barbershop on the block, I was the brain behind marketing and producing new products affiliated with the barbershop. My days were spread super thin with everything that I was doing, but in the end, I knew that it would be worth it. Business was booming while my marriage was shit.

Smoke Baptist

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