A Commitment to Love, Book 3 (16 page)

“Then why is she in here in the middle of the night?”

“We cuddle,” he mumbled.

“Excuse me?” I laughed. “Could you say that a bit louder?”

“Shut up. You heard me.”

“Stop cuddling with your sister.”

“Very funny, Jazz.”

I got up.

He came closer, grabbed me, and whispered quick in my ear, “She’s not our sister.”

I looked at him, and he backed away. “Says who?”

“Tests.”

“Are you sure?”

“Pretty much.”

How is this going to change things? Viv’s not my sister? Which one of us is related to Benny?

“We really need to talk,” he said.

Pretend like he didn’t say anything. Just in case there are cameras recording us.

“Yes we do.” I made a show of stretching.

It wasn’t like I didn’t want to deal with the situation. It was more that heartbreak hovered over me like a dark, gray cloud, threatening to rain down all over everything I’d planned. Any conversation that Troy desperately hoped to have with me, would be some stuff that I couldn’t wrap my head around. Because in the end, every path would end with murdering Benny. How could it not? He’d taken lives, and ruined ours. Now, he kept us close to him as if we were little kids, or even worse, his pets.

Benny had never been this bad. He kept a close eye on Vivian back in the day, but never serial killer focused. Now that Chase had revealed the true Benny to all of us, there was no need for my father to pretend. Benny had owned it all—his love for torture, his need to dominate with violent bullying, and his not so stable mental will.

I headed away.

Troy’s voice sounded behind me. “Tomorrow, Viv is dragging me to do the tourist thing.”

“Sounds great. You both take pictures.” I got to the door.

“We’re going all through Royal London.”

“Yippee. I don’t know what that means, but have a ball.”

“You should come.”

I grabbed the knob. “I just want to eat, drink, masturbate, and smoke.”

“You could’ve left the masturbate part out. Come do Royal London with us.”

“I just told you my list of to do things for this week.”

“Besides the masturbation, there will be plenty of the other stuff available. We are going with Viv. You know how she does.” He cleared his throat. “You really, really should come with us.”

Alrighty. Apparently, Troy is planning something and doing the tour is going to somehow move it along. Do I even want to know what this is? Let’s hope it is good.

“I’ll go.” I glanced over my shoulder. “But if I’m too drunk to walk by the afternoon, will you be carrying me home?”

“Don’t I always?”

“What the hell is Royal London?”

“Buckingham Palace and some other stuff. Viv said this area is called that because Queen Elizabeth II takes her route—”

“Blah, blah. Just have some weed and food around me.”

Troy shook his head. “God, I hate dealing with broken-hearted Jazz. She’s so rude.”

I flipped him off and left.

“Such a lady.”

“Blow me, Troy.”

“I’ve already got one sister begging for it, I don’t need another one.”

I yawned. “You’re such a gentleman, using incest humor during a very heartfelt family reunion.”

C
HAPTER
9

Chase

S
ophia
and I entered the first building. No one followed besides my five guards. They kept their guns in their holsters and their gaze on the crowd with each step. Tension thickened in the air. Only the squeaking of the door and our footsteps sounded in the air. The rest remained hushed.

I glanced at Sophia. She’d placed her glasses on her face—tortoiseshell frames with gold plated metal and rose-tinted lenses.
Those aren’t cheap. Is she getting other income besides the budget I gave her?
I’d seen Lucy buy a similar pair. She had a thing for tortoise shell.

As she strolled next to me, the crowd of angry faces flashed along her glasses. A huge smile spread across her face. She laughed, long and loud as if she was sauntering into a party held for her.

Are these faces really for me? Or are they actually for her?

If it was her, part of me wondered what she’d done to be so despised. The rest hated them and yearned to shoot them all down if they said anything disrespectful. In the end, Sophia birthed Jasmine. They would have respect for her mother, whether she deserved it or not.

Inside the building’s lobby, tiny doors to mailboxes decorated both walls. A few people opened the little, metal doors as we approached.

Two elevators stood in front of us, big metal green ones with a tiny windows in the center of each. Rust outlined the edges. The up and down buttons sat on the side with most of them cracked or burned. An
out of order
sign hung on the right one. I pressed the button for the left. The fractured surface scraped against my skin.

Rap music blared from an apartment near the elevators. The beat hit hard. I couldn’t help but move my head a little. Maybe it was the liquor.

“Hustle hard like a criminal, hungry and homeless.”
The bass boomed with the man’s voice.
“Robin hood. Steal from the rich and give to the hopeless.”

A chuckle came from my side. I turned to Sophia as she laughed some more.

“Stay ten steps ahead of the game, I’m focused. Dumbledore to these bitches. Hocus pocus.”

I nodded to the beat. “Apparently, he’s a Harry Potter fan.”

She lowered her sunglasses and winked at me. “Aren’t we all?”

Well, this morning is going great. Mom and I are bonding. Maybe a rainbow will appear and a unicorn will take a shit on my shoes.

It was difficult not to get even more enraged. Benny had Jasmine; he’d forced his will into my life. And her mother stood on my side, enjoying herself. Even worse, I had to walk with the woman, and go up to sick bastard’s apartment, all to get Jasmine back.

The angry rapper continued,
“Mutilate genitals, until the blood flow quit, murderer of the rap game. Every song is a hit.”

“So apparently, this song is more of a résumé,” I said.

“Hip hop used to be about stories, now they’re just bragging.”

“Wouldn’t know. My ears have always remained in a capsule. I can’t seem to get away from 60’s and 70’s music.”

“Revolution, soul music, and the flower movement.”

“Good times.” I checked my watch. “These elevators are pretty slow.”

Sophia giggled again.

“What’s so funny?” I asked.

She pointed to the
out of order
sign. “I’ve grew up in the Chops all my life, and I don’t think this elevator ever worked. We’re going to have to walk part of the way to Benny’s spot.”

“Why’s that?”

“These elevators are skip-step.”

I checked behind the guards. Some of the people from outside now stared at us through the front entrance. Two young boys kept the doors open. More men had arrived. They didn’t look like friends.

Five guards. Five guns. That’s a lot of people out there. They can come in here right now, and we wouldn’t all make it out of here alive.

“Look at the elevator, Chase, not behind you at them. Don’t make them think you’re scared. That’s why they’re lurking like that. They think you’re shook. You’re not shook, right?”

I faced the elevators. “No, but I’m not stupid either.”

“You’ve never had to pretend, huh?”

“Pretend?”

“Yeah, pretend you’re not who you say you are.” She shook her head. “No wonder my daughter loves you. You say you’re the boss, and you are the boss.”

“I am.”

“Are you the boss?”

“What?”

“Are you?”

I pressed the button again. “Yes.”

“Good. Then act like it. Bosses don’t look back. They keep their eyes forward. Fuck these people.” She laughed again.

I placed my hands in my pocket. “When in Rome.”

“That’s right. When in Rome. Now back to the elevators. They’re skip-step. This one only goes to the even floors. The broken elevator goes to the odd. Benny’s apartment is on the top floor, eleventh. We’ll have to stop at ten and then walk up.”

“Okay.”

She giggled. “I would cover my nose, while walking through the stairwell.”

“Sounds great.”

“What’s wrong, Chase? You’re not enjoying your field trip to the hood?”

A low buzz came, and then a beep. The doors slid open with a ragged boom.

Jasmine, I am getting on a death trap for you. What did you put inside your pussy to make me go into insane?

Sophia stepped on.

Not happy at all, I followed in behind her.

She grinned. “Let the adventure begin.”

We said nothing else. Her behavior put me off. She grinned too much for me. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that from the very beginning she never played the worried and distraught mother. But if she had, it would’ve probably been too fake. In my dealings with Sophia, she’d appeared heartless and about her money, the complete opposite of Jasmine.

That’s why you hate me trying to take care of you, huh? How many men have you watched your mother take from? How was Sophia able to control Benny for so long? Did she have power over him? How can we use it against him?

Sophia took the glasses off her eyes and propped them on top of her head. “You’re thinking real hard over there.”

“I have a lot on my mind.”

“Just remember, stay focused.”

“And what should I be focused on, Sophia?”

“Why are you saying it like that?”

“Everyone has an agenda.”

“That’s correct.” She nodded. “So what’s mine?”

The elevator doors opened to the tenth floor. I stepped off. “You want Benny dead.”

“That’s right.”

I let her get in the front as she led us to the stairs, not even shocked that several men stood outside of their doors and glared. I was sure the whole building knew we were in there, and exactly where we were headed. Benny would know by the time I left. We had to hurry.

We entered the stairwell. Graffiti marked the walls, more scribblings and symbols, versus actual street art. Trash littered the steps. The rank odor of feces and urine lingered, no matter how much I covered my nose and sped up. Down below, a little girl screamed over and over for a few seconds.

The guards and I stopped as Sophia continued.

“What was that?” I asked.

The noise stopped.

“Who knows?” she said.

I leaned over the edge and swore I spotted a face staring up and then disappeared. “Somebody’s down there.”

“Most likely. This is a stairwell.”

“A girl just screamed.”

She sighed. “I heard. In the Chops, you mind your business.”

“A little girl just screamed.”

“Do you know how much you would be running around here, if you heard a kid scream? Sometimes it’s serious. Sometimes they’re in danger. And then most of the time, it’s a bunch of dumb ass kids yelling for fun. When I had my first two boys, I must’ve ran toward howling kids every damn day. After a while, I stopped. I was already busy with my own, making sure no one shot them by accident as they walked back and forth to school, making sure that the girl who cried out, wasn’t my baby down there calling for me, because if that little girl who screamed really is in danger, she’s already lost it all.”

The girl screamed again. Some metal booming sounded next.

Sophia returned to climbing the stairs.

I glanced back at one of my guards. “Go find out what that is. If someone’s hurting her, hurt them back.”

“Okay, sir.” He pulled out his gun and raced down the stairwell.

Sophia laughed. “I knew you were the hero-type. Jasmine always loved her some romance novels and princess stories. One time I told her to stop reading all those books. Pick up something else. I, myself, like mysteries. But anyway, I told her. I said, ‘Baby, life never ends like it does in the books.’ She must’ve cried the rest of the night in her room. She thought I didn’t hear her. Fourteen years old, crying about books like she’d just heard that Santa Claus didn’t exist.”