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)
“Chase you’re not going to kick him out.” I shook my head and then faced Benny. “And you have to calm down. I’m fine. Vivian will be fine. All will turn back to normal.”
Benny raised his eyebrows. “Are you back with Chase?”
“I’m not sure.” Unease lodged in my throat. The line in Chase’s jaw twitched.
I averted my eyes. “We have. . .some things to work out.”
“Things?” Benny laughed. “Is that what you’re calling his mistresses? Things?”
“I’m not in the arrangement anymore.” Chase glared at Benny. “Not that it’s any of your business.”
“So you broke up with your bimbo squad and Jasmine gets shot tonight while she’s with you.” Benny’s voice rose to a roar. “I don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to solve this case.”
“Benny, please lower your voice,” I said.
“One of his bimbos is trying to kill you?” Benny asked through clenched teeth.
“Maybe,” I admitted. “It was definitely a woman.”
“I have investigators looking into this.” Chase pointed his finger at Benny. “Keep your friends out of this.”
Friends?
“One of these bimbos tried to kill my daughter.” Benny dug his hands into his pockets. “Phone calls have already been made.”
Chase shot up from the chair. “I’m handling this. No one has to be hurt—”
“You’ve been handling this psycho for years by cuddling and taking care of her!” Benny argued.
“Okay.” I raised my good hand in the air. “I can’t deal with any more arguing. A lot has happened tonight. I need to rest, Benny.”
“Are you asking me to leave?”
“Yes.”
He frowned. “I’m saying the things that need to be said.”
“I understand, but I’m just stressed out and exhausted. Give me a day to process everything.” I pushed some hair out of my face. “And check on Vivian. If she’s up, tell her I love her so much and that she better not do anything like that again.”
“Okay, sweetheart.” Benny’s shocked expression changed to a neutral mask. He leaned my way and landed a peck on my forehead. “I’ll be back in the morning to discuss your living arrangements.”
Oh, god. He’s not going to give up.
Benny headed to the door, stopped, and peered over his shoulder at Chase. “You still don’t know which one of them is doing the killing? Do you?”
“Stay out of it. Call your friends back.” Chase’s hands shook at his sides. “I have a new investigator looking into who shot Jasmine and reviewing all the reports from the other murders.”
I remembered the envelope Benny had given me today with information on Chase’s dead girlfriends. The first one committed suicide with sleeping pills. Chase found her on the bathroom floor.
Someone poured chemicals into a pool while the second one swam. The stuff burned her skin and lungs. She died immediately.
As for the last woman, a person attacked her as she left Stone Industries late at night. During all three killings, Chase had been near; in each case, it had been a date night with the victim.
“But which one do you think tried to shoot my daughter?” Benny asked.
“I don’t know which one of them is doing it,” Chase admitted.
“Well, you had years to get it together. You were dumb enough to get my daughter involved in your crap.” Benny stood in the doorway, smiling. “Now I’m in it, and frankly it doesn’t matter to me which one did it. For Jasmine’s safety, if they’re all dead, I won’t lose any sleep.”
The door slammed behind him.
A shiver of fear crept up my spine.
If they’re all dead? He couldn’t possibly mean he’d have them all killed. I have to talk to him by myself. I need to find out who these friends Chase and he are referring to and what are his plans for finding the killer.
“You’re not staying with him.” Chase disrupted my thoughts. “He’s too dangerous.”
“Dangerous how?” I shuddered.
Chase clamped his mouth together and seethed. “Just trust me. Benny isn’t just a lawyer on Stone Industries’ corporate staff. His friends and he have been doing business with my father since he started his first company. Once Dad retired, I took over and found myself dealing with them.”
“His friends?”
“If he gets involved with this, a lot of people will be hurt.”
I wasn’t stupid. I’d known Benny all my life. He would pick Troy and me up, take us to school, and drop us back off. If I had really thought about how weird it was for a first-grade friend’s father to show so much interest in his daughter’s friends, I might’ve guessed that Benny was really my dad. But, it never seemed odd. He was just always around, helping us out.
Benny did more things for me then my own mom, things beyond the average person’s expectations. He even hid a murder for me years ago. Troy killed one of Mom’s boyfriends when we were twelve. While she was passed out on the couch, the guy would corner me in the hallway after I took showers, tell me to open my towel and be quiet or he would kill my mom. So I did it. By then my older brothers were incarcerated in the juvenile center. It was just Troy and me. When I told Troy about the towel incidents, he slept under my bed, scared that the guy would sneak in and try to rape me.