Product Description

The bestselling author of Gettin' Buck Wild and The Sisters of APF gives new meaning to the term "office party" in this exhilarating and boldly erotic novel about the passion of business -- and the business of passion.

Most corporations hand out bonus checks or gift certificates for Christmas, but Wolfe Industries hands out drama. Skyscraper chronicles the week before the annual Christmas party at Wolfe Industries, an African American-owned automobile manufacturer.

The week leading up to the Wolfe Industries annual Christmas party is unforgettable, as the lives of four people who have barely interacted with one another in the past begin to cross paths in the most disturbing ways. By the time the party is over, they will be lucky if the skyscraper is still standing.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #173691 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780743457040
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
Zane is a professional African-American woman in her early thirties and the author of several books, including THE HEAT SEEKERS, SHAME ON IT ALL and THE SEX CHRONICLES.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Friday, December 15th

Washington, D.C.

Chico

"Chico, you better get your behind out that bed, boy!" Momma yelled through my bedroom door because she couldn't open it. I always kept it locked because I grew tired of her invading my room without a courtesy knock first. Besides, I was nineteen and that made me a man. Even though I was residing at her crib, a man is still a man. "Chico, do you hear me?"

"I hear you! Damn!" I yelled back at her.

I glanced at my alarm clock. Shit, it was after seven-thirty and I'd slept through the buzzer again.

"Chico, don't you dare curse me, boy! And you have the audacity to do it right here at Christmastime? Don't forget who brought your behind into this world. I brought you into it and -- "

"I'll take you out," I said, finishing the tired ass sentence for her.

I hopped out of bed and yanked my door open. Momma took a step back like she'd seen a ghoul or goblin or something. There wasn't a doubt in my mind that I looked jacked up since I'd hung out the night before with Razor and Miceal. We'd kicked back watching a tape of the Felix Trinidad/Fernando Vargas fight. It was a great ass fight, too. Both of the brothers meant serious business. Talk about having heart; they had heart and then some. That tape is one of those things you can watch over and over again to get inspiration to do the damn thing with your own life. Too many people give up too quickly, but not the kid. I'm going to be somebody major and my word is my bond.

"You look horrendous," Momma told me like I wasn't aware of that already. "Chico, have you been drinking again?"

"What if I have? I'm over eighteen. Besides, like you said, it's Christmastime. It's a time for celebration."

"Last time I checked the drinking age in this country was twenty-one. You have no business breaking the law."

"Momma, it's a crying shame that I'm old enough to go to war and get my head blown off for this country but I can't go into a bar and order a beer. If downing a few with the boys is going to get me locked up, then so be it."

Momma smirked and then laughed. "Chico, you wouldn't last five minutes in jail."

I didn't like her implication that I was weak. I didn't like it at all.

Momma straightened up a couple of figures in a Nativity scene she had displayed on an antique table with three legs in the hall. I'd broken the fourth leg off -- it was the first thing I could get my hands on -- to chase off a bill collector who didn't understand that broke meant fucking broke. Thank goodness Momma had finally stopped mixing secular and religious decorations together. My friends would tease me mercilessly as a child when they'd visit and see a reindeer in the manger, elves chilling with the three wise men, or a statue of Santa seemingly in deep conversation with a statue of a black Jesus.

"God help me! What am I going to do with you? I didn't raise you to hang out at all hours of the night doing horrid things."

"Momma, drinking a beer or two isn't horrid. It's called being a man and relaxing. Going out and robbing banks and jacking cars is horrid. Do you really expect me to sit around acting like a punk while my boys do their thing? Huh? Do you?"

Momma stormed off down the hall toward the kitchen. "You need to start going back to church. That's what your behind needs to be doing. Reverend Stevens has been asking about you every week. I'm sick of making up excuses for your trifling behavior. I don't like nor appreciate having to form my mouth to speak lies to a man of the cloth."

"Then why don't you just tell him the truth?" I asked. "Tell him that I'm not in church because I have better things to do than put on pretenses like ninety percent of the other people there."

Momma looked like she wanted to slap me silly. Instead, she just turned her back to me.

I rolled my eyes at her back -- I may be a man but I'm still not stupid enough to roll my eyes at her to her face -- and headed into the bathroom. One glance in the mirror and I almost jumped myself. I looked like shit; literally. My curly, jet black hair was kinky as all get out and I was sporting a big ass pimple on my right cheek. That's the only thing I hate about being light-skinned -- other than the fact that dark-skinned brothers have suddenly gone back in style. The slightest breakout and the entire world knows about it. I used to try to burst the pimples when I was in junior high but that was the absolute worst. The blotches on my face would run most of the sisters in the opposite direction when they spotted me and you could see the big ass marks they left behind a mile off.

I was attempting to take a dump in peace on my throne when Momma started banging on the door. She definitely had a door-banging fetish.

"Chico, you only have twenty minutes before you need to leave for work. Don't fool around and be late again. You need to keep that job; for both our sakes."

"Okay, Momma." I prairie-dogged a turd, hoping she would walk away so she couldn't hear me drop the bomb.

"I made you some breakfast. Brown sugar bacon, grits, and scrambled eggs. You have to make your own toast because I've gotta run. The elementary school kids are putting on a Christmas program at the nursing home and I promised your grandma I'd be there before it starts."

"Okay, Momma." I could hear her still standing outside the door. I knew what she was waiting on. "Thanks, Momma."

"You're welcome."

She finally made some moves and I was able to finish getting rid of the beer and buffalo wing mixture that was ripping up my stomach. I heard the front door slam a few minutes later while I was climbing into the shower. I didn't feel like going to work that day. Then again, I never did. The only thing righteous about working at Wolfe Industries was that Razor and Miceal worked there also. We had all gone down there six months prior and filled out the applications together. We had been there and done that fast-food gig and it was not the way to live. Shit, I got burned by the fry machine three times at Mickey D's and that crap hurt like all hell.

College was never an option for me. My grades weren't good enough for a scholarship, I was too lazy to play sports by the time I'd hit seventh grade, and Momma definitely couldn't afford tuition. I could've taken out a loan but I have some friends that will still be trying to pay their shit off when they're in their fifties. My grades were fucked up for all the wrong reasons. I was one of those kids who didn't feel challenged and so I didn't do the work; even though I'm smart as hell. As typical in the hood, my teachers didn't care enough to encourage me and I was rebellious against my mother. I wished that I could take it all back because I would have probably been in college on a full scholarship somewhere the hell away from D.C.

My daddy ran off with one of our neighbors when I was eight. She was married also but the sex between them must have been off the chain. Daddy walked away from a wife and one kid, but Dena -- the whore in question -- walked away from a husband and four kids. Her husband moved away in embarrassment. The entire neighborhood knew the deal but Momma said she wasn't leaving her space. She said people were going to talk whether we left or stayed. She was struggling with this gig as a customer service rep for Amtrak. The pay was mediocre and that was not a good thing. The cost of living in D.C. is so high that most people have to end up living with their parents until they're in their thirties or forties. Shit, sometimes even their fifties.

Miceal, Razor, and I were all hired on the spot at Wolfe and started clocking hours as soon as we passed the required drug testing. Apparently, they had a high turnaround of clerks in the mail room so they were anxious to fill the positions. Two hours after we started on a Monday, it was clear why the turnaround was so high. The supervisor of the mail room, Donald Coleman, thought he was the CEO, COO, or HNIC or something. You ever work with someone that stresses over their job so much that you can see the veins popping around in their head half of the day? That's the way Donald rolled. Damn shame, too, because none of the higher-ups even paid attention to him. I had seen him try to do some serious ass-kissing when the real CEO, Tomalis Wolfe, strutted past us in his two-thousand-dollar suits. Mr. Wolfe just kind of waved Donald off every time. I didn't blame him either. Not only did Donald have a fucked-up attitude, he was also in dire need of a bar of soap. No, make that four bars of soap. His ass was just that stank. I mean, damn, soap is about the cheapest thing in a store. Razor, Miceal, and I always talked about his body odor. When he came into the mail room, it was like that movie Backdraft. All the air seemed to be sucked out of the room and all you inhaled is stench.

After my shower, I hauled ass down to the bus stop with a bacon and egg sandwich wrapped in a napkin. When I got there, the K-4 had just taken off. It was two blocks away but the exhaust fumes still kicked into my nostrils.

Damn, I missed it again!

I plopped down on the bench and glanced at my watch. Being on time was no longer a possibility. That meant going through some Donald drama. I dug into my sandwich -- cold already because the wind was kicking ass that day -- and winced when I bit down on something hard. It turned out to be part of an eggshell. Momma couldn't even scramble an egg right. Shame on it!

When I got to the office building, there was a stream of black company cars lined up out front dropping off executives. Those lucky motherfuckers were living too large. Too bad they didn't send a sedan to pick me up every morning. Too many damn freaks on the bus and besides, I could've clocked mad babes chilling in a ride like that.

I was in the mailroom all of two seconds when I smelt Donald behind me.

"Chico, you're late again."

I turned around and stared him in his beady eyes. "I missed my bus. My bad, Donald."

"Your bad? Your bad? What kind of English is that?"

"My kind of English."

"Humph, must be Thug English because it's surely not the kind I wa...

Customer Reviews

She Does It Again
Now we as readers have come to expect a certain amount of talent from Zane, and in Skyscraper she DOES NOT LET US DOWN!! Zane writes with the same style and enthusiasm that drew us in, captured, and has had a tight hold on our support since book one!! Skyscraper is a FANtastic read!!!

Can you say "No More Drama?
Zane has done it again. She has written a drama-filled novel with a whole bunch of colorful characters that you would not want to forget. With all the mess going on you wouldn't believe that this novel spans the course of one short week!

Zane's, Skyscraper was a page-turner from beginning to end, with well-rounded characters.

The novel recounts the drama that unfolds at the Wolfe Industries corporate offices the week building up to the mega company party of the year, The Annual Christmas Party. Everything that you could possibly think of unfolds throughout this novel.

The story is told from the eyes of four main characters.

First we have Chico. 19 years old, fresh out of high school and just knows he has a handle on life until he gets caught up with Zetta Wolfe. And she is determined to teach him what being a man is all about.

Then there is Diane the frustrated Executive Assistant to Bradford. She is raising twin 13-year-old boys on her own. Trying to get over the hurt that their father caused, she is determined to keep men out of her life. She is pretty successful doing that until she meets Edmond, the parking attendant that turns out to have more skills then she bargained for.

Then there is Anastasia, one of the many typists in the secretarial pool. She is determined to move onto greater things, but is going about it one bed at a time. Can we say no more?

Last, but not least, there is Tomalis Wolfe, owner and founder of Wolfe Industries. Tomalis is a very strong character that kept everyone else on his or her toes and let everyone know that every hoochie will have her day. If he had anything to say about it.
Readincolor Reviewers
Cynthia

Zane is the best
Zane is just off the chain. That is all I can say. I love everything she writes. This book was entertaining and a good easy read. Its hard to tell about the book without giving to much away. I hate when people give away the book in their reviews! I don't know how Zane took such a simple plot of four employees of Wolfe and made it so interesting and exciting. Zetta is off the chain. Diana can't get trying to get over losing her man years ago, Tomalis is rich and poor at the same time, Chico is seduced by the boss' wife, some employees are trying to sleep their way ahead,.......Like I said, Zane is just bad. It is so much drama leading up to the Christmas party. I am a fan of her erotic stories, but the story is good without the sex. She is so funny,and the story unfolds like you would not believe. I read the book in 2 days. I love when I get a book that I can get into to the point where I don't want to stop reading. I hate reading those books that I have to push myself to finish. Zane is my favorite!