“If he got to my .45, he would kill me. We writhed on the barroom floor, slick with beer and blood…” Just another day in “The Roughest Ward” in Houston, Texas. Officer Kenny Martin is disillusioned with life as he patrols neighborhoods filled with gangs, thieves, and hookers. But it isn’t witnessing inhumanity on the streets that wounds his soul enough to pick up his shotgun and contemplate two murders. Kenny finds another officer with his young wife…

Years later, mistrust and suspicion dominate Kenny’s life, even after marrying Virginia, a faithful woman who loves him.

At 18, Virginia has suffered the trauma of a date rape. For years she has clung to her work ethic to bolster self-esteem, but she loses ground after an unplanned pregnancy and abortion. After a second unplanned pregnancy, Virginia finds purpose in raising a beautiful daughter and chooses Kenny to be the father of her child.

But Officer Kenny Martin has hidden his Jekyll-and-Hyde persona. Unknown to Virginia, he has become a law enforcer unconsciously bent on self-destruction.

A universe away from their past, Kenny and Virginia Martin tell their stories of exactly how God gently yet forcefully changed Kenny, and transformed his family into a dynamic team that ministers to hundreds of people in Montgomery County, Texas.

____________

“Shock had thrown open the hood, and someone seemed to be tinkering. Depression broke off bolts and wrenched in places that shouldn’t be touched in a man’s mind, and I screamed an end to it. Booze didn’t numb me to the cold iron anymore.” Mechanic and businessman, Eric, lives in a haze of marijuana and booze. Generations of lust, greed, rage, and unforgiveness seem to live in his DNA and march against his “Core Value” like an army. But no forces can match God’s love for Eric. His family and church storm the gates of hell and secure his deliverance.

Of the seven stories in Unmasked, I wrote two stories: “The Roughest Ward” and “Core Value.”