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)
“Not talk about it here? Exactly.”
“We’re not.” She nodded.
“I’m just saying.”
“But Dad’s not going to play by the rules of society?”
“No.” I gestured all around us. “He’s got us here against our will like it’s what normal fathers do. He’s not even the same person I remember anymore. He’s dark and scary, and it’s hard to be around him longer than a few minutes.”
She rubbed her eyes, probably to catch a tear or two before it fell. “What are we going to do?”
“I have no idea.”
“What did Troy and you plan last night?”
“Nothing.”
“Jasmine?”
“I really don’t know.”
“Then what were Troy and you talking about in his room?”
“He told me about the results.”
“And?”
“You know how Troy is.”
Vivian leaned toward me and whispered, “If Troy tries to kill him, then he might die in the process. I can’t lose him.”
I said nothing.
Vivian continued in that low whisper, “And if something doesn’t happen to Troy and he’s successful ... Well, then I don’t know if I can lose him.”
“Benny?”
“Yes.”
“He’s a monster, yes, but—”
I sat up and hugged her. “I get it. I truly get it. It’s hard to even think about.”
“But we may have to do something.” She leaned her head on my shoulder. “If we tell the police, what will happen?”
No wonder Troy didn’t want her in the room when we were talking last night. She’s a wreck and she’s not getting the whole ‘people are monitoring us’ thing.
Several months ago, she’d tried to commit suicide over the heartbreaking news that Troy and she were siblings. Then we rushed off to solve the mystery of which one of Chase’s girlfriends wanted to kill me. All this time had passed, she’d seen some wicked things, and at no point did she get a chance to sit back and heal.
“Are you okay?” I asked her.
“What about the police. We could tell them—”
I got closer to her and lowered my voice. “Tell them what? We would be involved in a lot of those murders, at least the ones we know about. Anything else and it could touch Chase somehow. Not to mention Benny’s managed to not get caught for all of these years. Why would Troy or one of us win against him? You and I are just college kids. Troy isn’t a real killer.”
A boom hit the door.
We both jumped.
“Jasmine?” Benny’s voice sounded behind the door.
Did he hear us? He probably has someone listening to us. Did they tell him about what we were talking about?
Another boom hit the door.
“Jasmine?”
Silent, Viv and I stared at each other for several seconds before I finally cleared my throat and yelled out, “Yes.”
“Breakfast is ready. You see Vivian?” Benny asked through the door. “She’s not in her room.”
Okay. He didn’t hear anything most likely. If he had, he would’ve known she was in here. Or is he just playing games with us? I’m fucking paranoid right now.
“This is insane,” she said as I got up and rubbed my eyes.
“No, Vivian.” I grabbed my robe and put it on. “This is surviving.”
“Surviving? He’s crazy. He might end up flipping out one morning and trying to kill us all.”
I stopped and gestured for her to come over to me. She did. I glanced at the door one more time and hoped Benny had left.
I lowered my tone again. “If Benny thinks you and Troy are still messing around, then he’s going to do something to one of you, and I don’t think it will be good.”
“He said that?”
“Basically.”
“What were his exact words?”
“I can’t remember. I was just scared and I told him that he needed to have limits, that he couldn’t kill everyone.”
Vivian’s lips quivered. “He said he would kill one of us?”
“No, but I wouldn’t mess around with Benny. It didn’t seem like his solution would be nice.”
She hugged herself. “Killing us?”
I probably should have waited to say that. It probably isn’t that easy hearing that your dad confessed to possibly killing you as a solution.
I walked off. “Come on.”
“I can’t.”
“Vivian, you have to.”
She pointed to the door. “I’m supposed to pretend like this man is safe to be around?”
“You’ve already been doing that. You’ve been painting and—”
“That was because I thought he wouldn’t hurt us. That we were safe no matter what.”
“If it makes you feel any better, Troy would probably be the one he killed not you.”
“Don’t even say that.”
“Hey, I don’t like it either. It’s my freaking twin brother. But I’m just saying stay away from Troy and his room until we’ve figured out a solution.”
“We have to do something today.” She shook her head over and over. “I can’t pretend like everything is fine, when he’s fucking threatening to hurt us.”
“Right now, we just take this day-by-day.”
“No, we should start thinking up some clear solutions.”
“Shh.” I got closer. “If we go off on our own today, then maybe we can talk it over, but we have to be super careful.”