Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 129571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 648(@200wpm)___ 518(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 648(@200wpm)___ 518(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
“You know what the solution is. You know it. You’ve been trying to fix this, since you all came back from Italy. You think I don’t know what’s going on? I know a lot more than you. Trust me. You thought Benny was done. No. He was just starting.”
“And now you decide to say something?”
She wagged her finger at me. “This is my daughter. You brought her into this beef with Benny. Don’t blame your dilemma on me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“But do you know the solution?” she asked.
“I think I do. Get her back.”
“No.”
“That’s all I want.”
“You need to concentrate on the bigger picture. Jasmine will come back, if who’s dead?”
“Benny.”
Heat glazed over her eyes. “Then why is he even alive?”
“I tried.”
The heat left her gaze and she smiled. “I’m sure you did. I just can’t believe you never came to me. I’ve been waiting for months. You never did. Sometimes, your moves are hard to guess.”
My moves?
The cognac had begun to do its job. A chemical euphoria drifted over me. I rubbed my face and promised to drink some more, once Sophia left.
She captured my attention. “I can help you kill Benny.”
Silence hung in the air for almost a minute as we stared at each other, her with confidence, me dumbfounded.
“What?” I asked, as if unsure I’d already become drunk and was simply imagining everything.
“I can help you kill Benny.”
This is too convenient. Too well-timed. What’s going on?
“How can you help me?” I asked.
“I know him. I know how he thinks. I read everything he writes and—”
“He writes?”
“He does these weird ... journals. It’s notebooks and notebooks of his studies, nightmares, memories, and just jumbled thoughts.”
“Journals? How do you know all of this?” I paused. “Look, Mrs. Montgomery, I don’t think—”
“Chase, be quiet.”
Now I see where Jasmine gets the bossiness.
“Benny is complex. He has a set system of traditions in his head.” She tapped her own. “I don’t even know how to explain it. He has ideas of customs and rules of society, and when he thinks they’ve been violated, he kills. He’s the type of guy where, if you step on his shoe in the train, and don’t say sorry, he is liable to follow you out of the train, stalk you for days, and then late at night, while you sleep, choke you until there is nothing left inside of your body. That is a true story by the way.”
I had nothing left to say.
“I understand Benny better than he gets himself,” she confessed. “How the hell do you think I’ve been able to stay alive around him for so long?”
“I thought you two were maybe a fling or—”
“Let’s not lie.” She frowned. “I know what you’ve heard. I stripped and met Benny there. We had sex, and he felt bad and returned to his happy little wife. They lived wonderfully together, but then him being such a good man, well he couldn’t just let me starve with his kids inside of me, so he spent his years taking care of two households.”
Sophia took another gulp. “If I didn’t have this glass in my hand, I would’ve clapped. He’s full of it.”
“There’s another story?”
“Doesn’t matter. You need to worry about your story, and whether it ends a chapter or three too soon. Jasmine is my daughter, but she’s stupid. All that money he spent at Harvard. It was wasted.” She rolled her eyes. “Book smarts don’t punk street smarts. And everybody, rich or poor, got to walk these streets. Isn’t that right, sweetie? You’re walking those streets right now, looking for your lady. So I ask you, what’s the solution?”
“Kill him.”
“And who can help?”
“You.”
“Good.” She strolled over to me and clicked my glass with hers. “To killing the bastard once and for all.”
She finished the glass with that same odd elegance. Now I figured out how Jasmine had beguiled me so much. She was a younger and more luxurious model of her mother. Sophia may have thought Jasmine was stupid, but that wasn’t the case.
I may need Sophia’s help, or I may not. This could just be a play for something else, more money, whatever. She loved Benny. I’m sure of that. Why would she help kill him? For her daughter maybe? That made sense. Was she scared of him? I can’t picture her being scared.
Sophia possessed this addictive merging of grace and toughness. There was no denying she’d had a rough life. Although her skin and complexion were clear and appeared silky to the touch, her eyes and expression said ‘Don’t fuck with me.’
I remembered the first time meeting her. Jasmine had raced away from me, and I was trying to do anything I could to get her back. I got in touch with Sophia, took her and those seven grandkids out of the South End ghetto, and moved them into the suburbs. I placed the children in private school, hired a nurse to help Sophia with her disabled grandchild, and made sure a cleaning lady came three times a week.