Sophisticated DIVA: Queen of Cons Book II

By Joe Allen and C. J. Land

Novis West is an exotic beauty from the affluent suburbs of Cleveland. She is the sole survivor of a brutal home invasion that left her unborn child and fiancé Deshawn dead. After hunting down the three men responsible for the atrocities committed on her family and brutally killing them. She goes on the hunt for Nyeesha, the devious, conniving, murderous woman, who sent the three killers to her home. She is consumed with rage fueled by pain from the devastating loss of her soulmate. The overwhelming sadness for her unborn child who was stomped to death in her stomach is unbearable. Novis needs closure, the kind that only street justice could provide. Revenge is a dish best served cold. Novis would have her revenge.
Darius Javon, a handsome charismatic conman was Deshawn's best friend. The two men had grown up in Cleveland's dangerous Garden Valley housing projects. He wanted revenge for his friend's death as much as Novis. But having been raised in the violent streets of 'The Land' he knew better than to come at Nyeesha without a solid plan. He convinced Novis to stop hunting Nyeesha and to get on a 'paper chase' with him under his tutelage. Novis proved to be a natural con artist and with her stunning beauty and gift of gab, money fell from the sky. She swiftly became a master of the game laying the groundwork for a million-dollar con. That would be her masterpiece and earn her the coveted title 'Queen of Cons' in the criminal underworld.
Nyeesha, the drug lord of Cleveland's Westside heroin market, and Deshawn's ex-girlfriend knew that Novis and Darius would never stop hunting for her until both of them were dead. So, she became the hunter looking for them placing a one hundred-thousand-dollar open contract out on their life. In the hard streets of Cleveland money talked.
A three-book series of love, betrayal, murder, and revenge.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Nov 28, 2025
• ISBN: 9798317814021

Joe Allen

Carol (C.J.) Land was born hard of hearing in Waterloo, Iowa, and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. She has three children: two daughters who are also hard of hearing and a son. Carol is a strong advocate for issues affecting the Deaf and hard-of-hearing community. She plans to bring her novels to life on the big screen.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Fayetteville, NC -The Plan

Novis West strutted through the luxurious lobby of the Hilton Hotel, with all the grace and exotic beauty of a black panther. There was not a man in the hotel’s lobby whose head did not turn to follow the progress of this dark and lovely creature.

With flawless ebony-toned skin the color of a black panther and the tall curvaceous body of an Amazon. Novis was truly a sight to behold. Every man’s fantasy and a threat to every woman’s dream of a happy home.

Although her dazzling beauty drew men to her like a magnet. One glance into her mysterious hazel eyes was enough to discourage all but the lion hearted. It is said that the eyes are the windows to the soul. If this is true.

Then her beautiful hazel eyes spoke of profound sadness and death. They told a tale of unparalleled personal loss and tragedy. Lastly, her eyes showed an almost inhuman level of determination that was so emotionally deep it bordered on madness.

Even though she was young, having recently turned twenty-five, the lethal grace with which she moved gave an unspoken warning to all. Like the black panther that stalked fearlessly through the jungle, a person instinctively knew this young woman was dangerous. Like the black panther, she stalked boldly through her own jungle.

The concrete jungle of the streets. Although, it had not always been that way, nor was it by choice.

Novis was the sole survivor of a brutal home invasion that left her unborn child and fiancé dead. Three-armed men pissed on her fiancé before shooting him over fifty times. Then one of the men viciously stomped and kicked the baby inside her stomach to death. Before raping and sodomizing her, then savagely beating her with the steel barrel of a .45 semi-automatic until she was believed dead. Yet not dead.

The three-armed men then fled her house with a gym bag full of money, secure in their knowledge that there were no witnesses to the atrocities they had just committed. It would prove to be a fatal mistake on the three men part.

Although, she had wished for death with the sincerity of one who has lost all will to live. It was not to be so, and death eluded her. For three months Novis had languished in a coma forgotten by all but the few who loved her.

While lying in a coma floating though the spirit world of the near dead, her unborn child appeared before her with a message. You must go back. The spirit of her daughter said. Your time has not come. Go back.

Then like the mythological phoenix bird, Novis rose up out of the ashes of death and despair. She opened her eyes, discovering she was in a hospital bed. Alive with a single thought burning fiercely in her mind. Revenge!

Yet to seek revenge in the shadowy underworld of criminals, she would have to pay a price. A price that would make her an integral part of the criminal underworld, while ultimately taking a piece of her soul. Though some would say she had already lost her soul with the rape and cruel deaths of her unborn child and fiancé.

Novis plunged headfirst into the criminal underworld and was introduced to the con game by a born pimp. A smooth young hustler who was a pimp by blood. After her initiation into the elusive world of cons. Where everything is not what it seems, and reality is a figment of your imagination. Novis emerged a serious playa in the game. A professional con artist. A force of one to be feared and respected by all who made their living in the elusive world of cons.

She had her baptism by fire when she masterly orchestrated the kidnapping and slaying of the three men responsible for the deaths of her family. She had personally tossed each man into a dark basement full of hungry sewer rats and watched as they were eaten alive by hundreds of rats. To her it was poetic justice. A fitting end for three niggas, who were nothing but vermin anyway.

However, the woman who had setup the fatal home invasion. The woman who had sent the three men to her home had vanished, before Novis could find her. Yet there could be no closure for her, as long as this woman lived. She would find her...and she would kill her. Only then would she have peace knowing justice had been served for her child and fiancé.

That was four years ago and almost a thousand miles away from where she was now. However, she would be returning home to Cleveland, as soon as her business was concluded in the mountainous state of North Carolina.

Dressed from head to toe in Versace, she purposely walked through the extravagant hotel lobby ignoring everyone and everything. When she reached the bank of elevators she waited until one opened and then rode up to the eleventh floor. Stepping out of the elevator into a lavishly decorated hallway lined with crystal chandeliers down its entire length. But after four years of running cons across the country and living in fancy five-star hotels. She had become immune to the elegant settings of all hotels.

Novis had come to the small town of Fayetteville for one reason. That reason being to con a multi-millionaire out of his money. Say a million dollars of his money. If the con was successful, her fame would spread throughout the entire criminal underworld like wildfire. The elite criminal masterminds, the masters of the game of deception and trickery, would bestow on her the most coveted title of all female hustlers.

The Queen of Cons.

Novis stuck a magnetic keycard into the slot on the door and walked into her hotel room. Her mind deeply engrossed in various plots of intrigue that would bring her one step closer to a million dollars.

The young white girl that was lounging on the loveseat in the room already knew not to disturb Novis when she had that look on her face. She wisely continued playing video games on the hotel’s flat screen. Novis would reveal her plans when she was ready.

Novis flopped down on one of the queen-size beds in the room, her mind still deep in thought. Finally, she glanced up at the white girl as if noticing her for the first time.

One more time Lexi. Tell me everything you know about Mr. Edward Rubinstein. Don’t leave out nothing. Novis ordered.

Alexus stared at her for a moment wondering how many times she would ask her the same question. Since the drive down from Cleveland this had to be at least the tenth time. Even though, Novis had explained to her that she was searching for any weaknesses or vices that could be exploited.

Alexus still had no idea what more she could tell her. So, she just repeated everything she had said for the eleventh time. Like I said my mother was a maid in his mansion and my father was the gardener. When I was a child, he was like a favorite uncle. Always bringing me candy and toys and putting me in his lap bouncing me up and down. I was ten years old before I realized what he wanted and what he was doing. I had felt his erection under my butt for so many years I really thought it was a part of his leg. Lexi stopped talking for a moment making a face at the naiveness of an innocent child.

For a while I let him feel me up and stuff. A lot of times right in front of my mom. She was the real naive one. But he was rich and bought me anything I asked for. Eventually when I was twelve years old, he started demanding more. Wanting to stick his hands under my clothes and trying to get me to touch him. That’s when I stopped sitting in his lap and started hiding whenever he came around. He left me alone for a long time and then on my thirteenth birthday. He tried to rape me. The son of a bitch tricked me into a room by telling me he had a very special gift for me.

Although, it had been seven years since the attempted rape, to Alexus it was just like yesterday. The fear and humiliation were still fresh, and her anger still burned red-hot. Novis felt every inch of her pain and understood the misplaced guilt, and the need to strike out at something. Though she had never revealed to Alexus her own tragic history. She had promised her that she would make the sick perverted bastard pay.

Anyway, my mom caught him in the act, and he let me go. That next day he fired my parents claiming someone had stolen from him. My mom blamed me. Every day we would argue, and fight and my dad started calling me names and stuff. I couldn’t take it anymore knowing I had done nothing wrong. When I turned fourteen, I ran away, Lexi said, in a resentful tone of voice.

You said he made his money in the stock market, right? Novis asked. Not waiting for her to answer. He’s a gambler then...and he’s willing to take huge risks. Hell, any grown man that touches little children is a gambler. They’re gambling with their life for a few minutes of perverted pleasure. Suddenly, Novis leaped up off the bed, her mind spinning a web of deception and duplicity.

I got it! She exclaimed excitedly. Greed and sexual perversion...That’s his weakness. His muthafuckin Achilles heel. He wants what he wants. When he wants it. Be it a little girl or a million dollars. So, let’s give this piece of shit something he can’t resist.

I’m not fucking him. If that’s what you’re saying, Alexus growled fiercely.

Bitch relax! I would never dream of asking you to sleep with that pervert. Not even for a million bucks. But you will be part of the bait I use to trap his ass, Novis declared, with a relentless frown on her lovely face.

Alexus peered at her and shuddered at the raw determination she saw in that face. She could see why Novis had earned the nickname, Black Widow. The woman was a ruthless manipulator of deception, duplicity, trickery and con. The con game had become an innate part of her, and she played it for keeps. A master of the game.

Novis sat back down on the bed mentally contemplating the various plots and ploys of the scam; they were going to run on Mr. Rubenstein. She had decided to use a con as ageless as time itself. A con that was as old if not older than prostitution.

The Drag Game.

The con would have to be a masterpiece in simplicity. So easy in fact that a child could see through it. While at the same time appearing to be an elaborate maze of details meant to misdirect and confuse the mark.

The initial setup would be tremendously bigger than she could handle alone. She would have to recruit other con artists from across the country. Novis smiled as she punched the first phone number on her cellphone. Hey Darius, she purred excitedly when a deep male voice answered.

What up sweetness, he said, wondering what had prompted her to call. Although, he was more than happy to hear her voice.

She immediately told him where she was at and what she was planning to do. She gave him a brief outline of the ‘Drag’, she was going to play on the mark. Then she asked him. Do you want in?

Darius laughed softly into his cellphone. Jazzy ass ho of course I want in. I wouldn’t miss it for nothing in the world. I’ll be there in the morning.

Novis gazed breathlessly at the phone wishing he did not have the power to make her heart flutter like a schoolgirl. Darius had taught her the con game from A-Z. He had helped her exact revenge against the monsters that killed her family. And then he had set her free to become a force of one. A woman who could stand alone in the criminal underworld and demand respect from the hardest men in the game.

Yet he had also done something else to her and that was a matter of the heart, which neither of them was ready to deal with. Hearing his voice also brought other emotions to the surface of her mind. Cold rage and anger momentarily shook her entire body with its intensity.

Her desire for revenge against the woman who had dared to harm her unborn child and man was never far from her mind.

Novis was well aware of the old saying. Revenge is a dish best served cold. And most likely the stank ho probably thought she had gotten away clean. But little did she know she was living on borrowed time, because one-day Novis was coming to collect on the debt owed. And the only payment she was willing to accept was the worthless bitch’s life.

However, first things first, she thought punching another number into her cellphone. Novis made various calls around the country to other hustlers, and then she called a few local realtors. Finally, when she had done all she could that day, she kicked back and relaxed thinking about Darius. The man who had put her on to her first...Paper Chase.

Chapter 2

Cleveland, OH.

Nyeesha listened carefully to Dave as he gave the five young men their final instructions. She gazed profoundly into each man’s face as if she was trying to memorize them in her mind. She knew some of the young men would not live to see the coming sunrise of that day.

Strangely, they would be dying for her. The men were all soldiers from her personal army and not one of them had celebrated his twenty-first birthday yet. All five were young hard street niggas with a fierce loyalty to Nyeesha. She hated having to send them to war, but she had been given no choice in the matter.

Her life and livelihood had been threatened and in the streets there wasn’t but one way to respond. Anything less would be seen as a sign of weakness by the brutal predators that watched her every move.

It had taken her four years to cultivate and build the heroin empire she now controlled. She would be damn if she would allow some mop head gungi smoking Jamaicans, to take over her territory without a fight.

The Westside of Cleveland was pretty much exclusively hers. She controlled all of the heroin that was sold on the streets. Except for a very small Hispanic area that the Mexican mafia dominated, and she had no desire to go to war with the amigos. There was just too many of the bean eating muthafuckas to mess with.

However, the Jamaican posse was an entirely different matter. The arrogant bastards had waltzed into the Rocky River housing projects, aka Da Rock, and set up shop with a deadly efficiency. They had ruthlessly executed eleven of her soldiers. Then sent her a message by a dope fiend. Da Rock be ours mon. Blood clot! Go away bitch or die.

Nyeesha had been livid with rage telling Dave. If them fucking banana monkeys want a war they got it. Send all our soldiers right now. We’ll smash their ass like a roach. The fiend that had brought the message fled before her wrath could be turned on him.

Dave quietly shook his head before speaking. Baby you’re not thinking you’re reacting. Dats probably exactly what dem niggas want is for us to rush in without planning our move. Right now, it’s hot as fuck in Da Rock. Police are everywhere. Even the Jamaicans are laying low. Dat gives us time to plan our attack. Then we hit dem niggas hard and fast.

Nyeesha had glared daggers at him still considering gathering her personal army of sixty street niggas strong and rolling on the Jamaicans. But Dave was not only her lover. He