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)
Benny held up his hands. “Let’s give Jasmine some space so she can get used to her new surroundings. Later, we can play the game you all so love, Blame It on Benny.”
Troy got up from the wall. “When can we leave?”
“In a week.” Benny headed back to the door he’d pointed out as his room. “Just give me a week, and I’ll give you three all a plane ticket to wherever you want to go.”
“You said that last week,” Vivian countered.
“Now, Jasmine is here. The countdown starts over.” Benny shrugged.
“You can’t do that,” Vivian said.
Benny raised his eyebrows. “I can’t?”
Troy and I didn’t respond, while Vivian continued to go back and forth with him.
It almost reminded me of old times. She’d always had the balls to yell back at him. Granted, he’d only been her dad, while Troy and I had just been grateful to be in their lives. Now things were different. We sort of had the right to argue with him, too. However, we understood the monster inside of him. Vivian had only learned about it months ago. Perhaps, she’d forgotten, or maybe hadn’t truly come to grips with it all, because she wagged her hands around and yelled out several insults, before he escaped into his room and slammed the door.
She turned to me. “He can’t do this to us. He can’t just make us stay here. You know that, right?”
Tired of the long journey and still down about Chase, I blurted, “Then why are you here? If he can’t do that, then leave.”
She parted her lips, but no words came out.
Troy opened his door and waved for me to come in. “Jazz, let me speak to you for a minute.”
“I’m coming,” Vivian offered.
“No.” Troy shook his head. “This will be quick.”
Viv’s angry expression faltered. “What the fuck? We’re all in this together.”
“Just give us a minute, Viv.”
“Why?” she asked.
I yawned. “How about when you both figure it out, you all come to my room.”
“Really, Jazz?” Troy grabbed my arm and escorted me into his bedroom. “I know you’re pissed over Rich Boy, but don’t take it out on us.”
I reluctantly walked in, not caring what Troy had to say. Whatever plan he had, I wouldn’t try it until I was sure Chase was safe. Once some time had passed, and Benny had taken the target off of him, then I’d be ready to do whatever it took to get rid of Benny.
Can I even hurt that man? God, is there another way?
“What about Chase?” Shock passed over Vivian’s face. “What the hell is going on?”
“The less you know the better.” Troy shut the door behind him. “Come in my room, Jazz.”
I checked out his room. The walls were white, the ceiling black and full of silver stars done in various constellations. I couldn’t guess them all like Troy could, but I spotted Orion, the hunter. The long rectangle of four bright stars represented his shoulders and knees. A diagonal line of stars belted him in the middle. Three stars hung from his belt and served as the sword. A triangle of stars formed his head while his right arm raised a club and the other pointed a shield toward Taurus the Bull. Although Troy claimed it wasn’t a shield, but lion’s skin.
“Who painted the ceiling?” I faced Troy. “Benny?”
“Naw, Viv. It gives her an excuse to be in my room.” He tried to display annoyance, but the lie radiated from his eyes. He loved her attention. “We need to talk about her.”
I walked over to his huge king-sized bed, covered in a blanket of green and yellow triangles. “What’s up with the décor?”
“Who cares, Jazz? This isn’t our home. Why are you here, anyway?”
I sat down on the bed. “Benny killed Lucy.”
He flinched, but it wasn’t in surprise. Troy could lie with a straight face, but when guilt flowed inside of him, it radiate from his face—his eyes blinked several times like something was in them.
“That’s not an answer,” he said.
“Did you know Lucy was dead?”
“Chase told me.”
My body tensed at the name. Pain bloomed in my heart and I just wanted that damn response to stop. “When did you talk to him?”
“Yesterday morning.”
I bit my lip. “How ... how did he sound?”
“Like a drunk lunatic.”
I blew out a long breath. “Was he—”
“Get off of Rich Boy for a minute. I need you to focus. Why did you leave?”
“Benny threatened to kill more of the people around us, if Chase and I continued to be together.”
He snorted. “So you sacrificed yourself for the greater good?”
Ignoring him, I laid back in the bed.
Troy plopped down next to me. The bed shook under his big body. “Benny will probably still kill him.”
I didn’t even want to think of that. “Benny promised he wouldn’t.”
“That doesn’t mean shit.”
“He promised.”
“I’ve lived with murderers in jail. One thing I know for sure, none of them can be trusted. The ones that make death their living, their income, those guys have their own belief system, and when things get shady, they bend those beliefs.”