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)
Chase.
My man entered the room, and still I gripped my knife hard. Benny had just taken one of my most prized possessions from me. Troy. I wouldn’t let him take another. Too many people had guns in the space. Anybody could just do a quick turn, target Chase’s chest, and pull the trigger.
One person could start a war in that little room that already held coffins. Chase and I could die right there in the middle of bullet-riddled bodies, and never had known what it was to experience years of true love and happiness.
“Do we really want to do this here?” Benny asked out loud. “Someone shoots and anybody could die. I don’t think you planned this out. It only takes one stray bullet to hit my daughter.”
“Which is why you won’t have anyone use their gun.” Chase stopped by Bowler Hat and handed him a large stack of money. “Thank you. You’re really good at your work. Sorry that you couldn’t complete your tour for this evening.”
“Much obliged kind sir, but I believe I was well compensated.” Bowler Hat nervously scanned the area, grabbed the money, and booked it out of there as if Jack the Ripper himself had stormed through.
“Sorry I ruined the tour, Benny.”
“Make it quick, boy. What do you want?”
“Did you really think we were walking into a real doss house? Have you not gotten the memo that they don’t exist anymore?” Chase gestured at the space. “I got my people to make a warehouse look pretty close though. You described them all in your journals.”
Benny formed his lips into that wicked smile. “What’s your plan, little Stone?”
“I don’t know, old man.” Chase targeted me with his gaze. “What would Ripper do?”
“Kill with precision, and get in and out without being detected by the police.”
“Sounds about right.” Chase took his time walking over to me, so slow it ached. Each step that brought him closer made me tremble. I hadn’t realized how much I needed him.
Benny didn’t move. “You’ll die first, before you ever get Jasmine out of here.”
“Is that your goal for tonight?” Chase didn’t take his gaze from me.
“I’ve got men outside,” Benny continued.
“We both do. But for once, I have more.”
“If you get close enough for me to get at you ...” Benny chuckled. “Well, we both know what will happen with that.”
Chase slowly maintained his journey to me. A few men stirred around us. I didn’t know which of Chase or Benny’s men got nervous, but the tension in the space thickened. The place was a pot of hot water, ready to boil over and sear everything.
“She left you,” Benny said. “Are you unclear with the message?”
Chase stopped four feet in front of me. “Tell me something, Benny.”
“Oh, I would be happy to tell you many things.”
“Good.” Chase placed his hands in front of him and crossed them. “Do you think Ripper really fell in love with that last victim they found?”
“Of course.”
“So you think a madman is capable of love?”
“We all are, whether killer or normal man.”
“Do you think you really loved Sophia?”
“Is this why you came to destroy my tour?” Benny rolled his eyes. “To talk about love?”
“No, I’m just wondering why we’re really here.” Chase’s gaze traveled from the top of my head all the way down to my feet.
My body shivered.
It didn’t matter that I’d had the roughest day of my life, or that I’d lost so much, or even that a madman kept me in his abandoned castle for days far away from the only man I loved. Chase looked at me, and my mind went blank. All I could think about was running to his arms and escaping within them forever trying my best to forget it all.
Chase studied my body more and then returned to my face. That was the moment he licked his lips. Real slow with his tongue. In my mind, I remembered all the things he could do with that lovely tongue.
And then Benny’s voice shoved me out of my haze. “Why are we here, Chase?”
“Sophia.”
Chapter 23
Chase
Jasmine stood only a few feet in front of me and I couldn’t touch her. Too many guns lay in our presence. I wasn’t the type of man to let many things get in the way of tesoro and me, but a weapon was one of them.
Take your time. She’s almost in my arms.
Benny’s voice held venom. “Sophia?”
“The love of your life.”
“Make it quick, little boy. You’re talking on big man time now.”
“I’m sure you can see that Sophia put this together,” I said. “While she did not choose this gory setting as our battlefield, she definitely set the war in motion. She’s made our Jasmine, Helen of Troy. The face that launched a thousand ships. Are we going to play into that?”
“Your death is worth any game’s ending, even if Sophia is the master of it all.”