Read Online Ties That Bind by Brenda Jackson - Free Book Online

weren’t street thugs, but highly educated individuals who had gotten sick and tired of the government dragging their feet to do what was right by black people.
    When Randolph picked her up for the movies, Jenna asked him what he thought of the group. “I think that like a lot of organizations, they started out with a really good cause but now their ideology is questionable, especially with the group on the West Coast. Rumor has it that one of its leaders was arrested for the assassination of a police officer. I don’t know if it’s true or if the group was framed. If I were your friend Johnny, I would be very careful before thinking of joining. I hear J. Edgar Hoover’s men are watching them like a hawk, just waiting for them to make a wrong move.”
    Jenna nodded, hoping Johnny was doing as Randolph suggested and thinking things through before joining the group.
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    The following weekend Randolph and Jenna went to the concert and afterward met with some of his friends for dinner. The more they were around each other, the more they enjoyed each other’s company.
    â€œSo, Jenna, you and Randolph have been dating for a couple of weeks now. What do you think of him?” Leigh asked her one night while they were still awake, lying in the darkness listening to the soft music playing on the radio. Ellie claimed she was staying out all night
with a friend. Both Jenna and Leigh had a feeling that friend was Tyrone.
    Jenna smiled. “I really like Randolph, Leigh. I like him a lot.”
    â€œOh, is that all?” Leigh said grinning. “I was hoping it was a little deeper than that.”
    â€œWe’ve only known each other for three weeks, Leigh. We’re trying to take things slow.”
    â€œWhy bother taking things slow?”
    Jenna raised her eyes to the ceiling. She knew Leigh was only teasing but she felt the need to answer her anyway. “Because we don’t want to rush into anything. We want to make sure what we have and what we feel is right.”
    â€œTrust me, Jen, it is. I think of how right it is every time I see the two of you together. You and Randolph make such a cute couple. Nearly as cute as me and Noah.”
    And with Leigh’s statement they both laughed.
    â€œLeigh, can I ask you something?” Jenna whispered hesitantly, a few minutes later.
    â€œSure. What?”
    â€œWhen did you know that you loved Noah?”
    Leigh smiled as she lay in bed thinking. “I think it was the first time my brother Zachary brought him home with him from school. I was twelve and they were about fifteen. I thought he was so—so cute and I developed a crush on him then. As I got older, things got worse but I kept my feelings to myself. When I was fourteen he left home to come here for college and Zachary entered the police academy. After that I only saw Noah when he came home for the holidays since he always made it a point to drop by the house to visit with Zachary. Then when I turned sixteen and was in the eleventh grade, Zachary was killed in the line of duty. Noah’s family got word to him and he came home immediately.”
    Leigh rubbed the goose bumps she felt on her arms as she remembered that time. “Noah took Zachary’s death real hard, but so did everyone else, especially me. He was the big brother I adored. After the funeral Noah asked me to go for a car ride with him. He said he
wanted to talk to me about something. What he did was share with me the last letter he had gotten from Zachary. In that letter, which Zachary had written a week before he’d died, he asked Noah to look out for me if anything ever happened to him.”
    Leigh inhaled a deep gulp of air as she fought the tightening she felt in her throat. “It was as if my brother had known he would be dying or something. After Noah told me about the letter, I fell apart and he tried to comfort me. Somehow we started kissing and couldn’t stop. He finally