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)
“Yes. Why? Where is she? Did you send her back?”
“No. I wasn’t sure if I would need her here.”
“Need her?”
“She helped me get here. Granted, she helped all of us get here through her plotting, but I still owe her for putting me on the path to you.”
“You owe her nothing.”
“I’ve got you.” He pulled me back to him. “I owe her the world.”
“Troy believed that she had a lot to do with—”
“She did.”
“You didn’t even know what I was about to say,” I said.
“It doesn’t matter. Trust me. I know a whole lot more about that woman than I should. Whatever Troy thinks she did, most likely it’s true.”
“Meaning?”
He tapped his finger against my side. His signature nervous habit.
I raised my eyebrows. “What?”
“Now’s not the time to discuss her. You have to mourn. We have to take care of Vivian. In the morning, I’m going to need to have my legal team deal with London’s police. Back in the States, they’re still fending off the police for Lucy’s death.”
“They suspect you?”
“I’ve heard nothing yet, but if they’re smart, they’ll come looking for me. That being said, we deal with Sophia later.”
I eyed him suspiciously. “You’re hiding something.”
“What?” He tapped at my side some more. “You’re completely ignoring my advice about taking every minute at a time.”
“Fuck a minute, Chase. What did Mom do? What has she done?”
“Enough to put her in hell, tesoro.”
“You’re going to have to give me more detail.”
“You don’t want to hear this.”
“I do.”
“She’s plotted more than Benny ever could. Half of his kills deal with her.”
Jasmine bit her lip.
“She even got us together. It was all her plotting.”
“Us? How could she have done that? You spotted me at that silly Garden Party with the atrocious food.”
“Now wait a minute, I happened to think the dishes weren’t all that bad.”
“The chicken was dry.”
“It wasn’t.”
I waved the comment away. “Okay, let’s just get back to what you were saying.”
“Exactly, it doesn’t matter. Your mother got you to go there.”
“But, I didn’t even know about that party until Vivian got that invitation. We figured Benny forwarded it to us. He was big on us networking more, once we graduated. We thought it was his attempt to have us make connections with rich people.”
“And wasn’t she there, the day Vivian received it?”
I thought for a minute and faintly remembered her stopping by. She didn’t do it much often, but I was pretty sure she’d popped over that day or at least that week. “Maybe.”
“It’s not a maybe, tesoro. She brought the invitation over herself. She confessed to it, and was pretty damn happy with herself.”
“She got us together?”
“Yes. Well, it wasn’t all her. You captivated me on sight. I hunted you and won. For that, I’m thankful, but she’s hurt you, too. She’s caused you more pain than any person should have to deal with.”
“What are you talking about?”
“It’s all in Benny’s journals.”
“What’s all in there?”
He moved his hand away and raked his fingers through his chestnut curls. “I think we’ve had enough for today. Let’s get you home and—”
“What?”
“Jasmine.”
“Now it’s Jasmine? Not tesoro. The news must really be that bad. What is it?” I moved away from him. “Just give it all to me now. Next week, we’ll go off far away and get drunk off expensive champagne until I heal from my brother and all of this, but tonight, we get it all out. Tonight, we hide nothing from each other.”
“Benny thinks that ...” He rubbed his eyes and blew out a long breath. “Benny has always believed that the guy that Troy stabbed in your bedroom ...”
“No.” My mouth dropped open.
“Benny wrote about the guy, and it was pretty convincing. Your mother had been trying to get Benny to kill him. His name was Omar—”
“I know ... I can never forget that name.”
“Well, Omar owned half of the drug game in South End.”
“No. She isn’t that low.”
“Omar had a reputation for messing with children.”
“No.”
“Do you want me to finish, tesoro?”
“Yes ... go ahead.” I climbed back into Chase’s arms, went limp, and closed my eyes. “Tell me more.”
And he did, Chase told me everything that he’d read. Each sad detail. It was hard to swallow. Difficult to believe that my mother craved power so much that she would put Troy and me in danger. After he finished telling me everything, I just lay against him and listened to his heartbeat as the helicopter’s blades sliced through the air.
Like a gentle hero, Chase didn’t push me to talk. He just ran his fingers through my hair and kissed my forehead every few seconds. I took his advice and focused on each minute’s task. I counted his heartbeats, the moments he touched my scalp with his soft fingertips and then slipped them through my strands. The sweet gesture soothed me, delivering calming waves through my body.