Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 94686 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94686 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
I stepped into my dress and yanked it up. Chase waited as I zipped the side. Once I was clothed, he opened the door.
“Mr. Stone, we have a problem.” A huge black man with a bald head leaned Chase’s way and whispered something in his ear. Chase’s calm face shifted to enraged in seconds. He formed his hands into tight fists as Oscar continued to say whatever he was telling him.
“Enough.” Chase backed up. “I don’t have time for this tonight. Get rid of them.”
“Get rid of who?” I leaned my head to the side.
“Don’t worry about it. This doesn’t concern you.” Chase bent down, grabbed my shoes, and handed them to me. “Oscar, tell the other guards to escort them back to their cars, and then take us out the back entrance.”
“Yes, sir.” Oscar stood next to the doorway and raised a small walkie-talkie to his mouth. “Please escort Ms. Benson and the others back to their cars.”
Ms. Benson?
“Isn’t that Dawn’s last name?” I asked.
A scowl plastered over Chase’s face. He picked up his shirt, wrenched it on, and glanced at his watch. “Is the car ready yet?”
“It should be by the time we go outside.” Oscar held the door open.
“Is Dawn outside or not, Chase?” I walked through.
Oscar averted his eyes.
Chase remained tight-lipped and placed his hand on the center of my back, guiding me down a dark hallway with a tiny red light near the exit.
“Are the chef and waiters still here?” Chase looked up at Oscar.
“No, sir. They left over an hour ago.”
“Go ahead and close up once we leave, and have someone deliver the title to Mr. Gabriel Jones.” Chase buttoned his shirt. “Do you have his address?”
Oscar nodded his head, shoved through the back door, and kept it open for us.
“So you’re really going to give the restaurant to Gabe?”
“A deal is a deal. I asked him to get you to me tonight.” Chase’s gaze swept over me. “And he definitely did that. I would give him a restaurant chain if he asked for it.”
Since he had stopped ignoring my questions, I decided to ask again, “Is Dawn here?”
He turned away. “Does it matter?”
A cool breeze hit my face and carried a foul odor my way, reminding me of the smell one got with decaying food and trash that had been out for days. Moonlight glowed over the alley, but still could not brighten the darkness that hovered over me.
“I don’t like this.” I placed my hand on my hip. “You’re avoiding a simple question.”
“No, I’m not.”
A beep came from Oscar’s phone. He put it to his ear, mumbled something into it, and turned to us. “Mr. Stone, the limo just pulled out and is turning the corner.”
“You didn’t answer my question.” I glanced at Chase.
“What question is that?” A wrinkle creased his forehead. He checked the alley from side to side and never looked my way.
“Is Benson Dawn’s last name?”
An exasperated breath left his lips. “Yes.”
“She’s here?”
“Correction. She was here.” He gritted his teeth. “Lucy and Wendy, too. They wanted to talk to us and asked Oscar if they could come in.”
“How did they know we were here?”
“I have a new assistant that Lucy trained. It would’ve been easy for either of them to simply ask him. I never told him to not say anything.”
“Your new assistant is a guy?”
“Yeah.”
Oscar’s walkie-talkie beeped again. He listened to the person on the other line and answered, “Yes? Good. Okay.”
The limo rounded the corner.
“Are they gone?” Chase asked when Oscar finished.
“Yes, sir. They all left in their own cars.”
The limo stopped in front of us.
Chase rushed to open the door.
“Jasmine!” a woman yelled at the end of the alley.
I twisted that way. A silhouette stood down at the opening. She wore a jacket, skirt, and heels. A hat covered her face. I couldn’t make out who she was, but I knew she was Caucasian. I wasn’t sure why; maybe it was due to this side of Oshane City’s being mostly populated by Caucasians.
Or maybe I spotted the color of her pale skin as she raised the gun.
A boom sounded.
“No!” Chase yelled.
Oscar dived in front of me.
Too late.
A bullet ripped through my right arm, traveling through my flesh, breaking apart the bone, and searing a new opening on the other side.
So much pain!
Crying out, I held my arm and slumped against the limo door. Blood coated the air, dripped on the ground, and spilled all over me. Pain blinded me. All I could focus on was the ripping burns that stabbed throughout my arm as if someone held a hot steak knife and sliced me open. Another shot boomed.
Oscar’s body ricocheted against me. Blood sprayed, but I wasn’t sure from where.
Heels clattered against the pavement as the woman ran off. Oscar raced that way with a gun in his hand, screaming orders into his walkie-talkie. I was glad he hadn’t gotten shot in the face or worse.