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)
One night the guy tiptoed into my bedroom and lay on the bed alongside me. I pretended to sleep. He shook me, and without any hesitation, Troy stabbed a steak knife through his neck. I didn’t wake up my mom. Nothing got her up when she was high.
Like always, I called Benny and told him everything. He raced across town to our crappy housing project in the middle of the night with four men. My mom slept as they cleaned up all the blood in my bedroom, took the corpse away, and coached Troy and me on how to act and what to say if anyone asked questions. The whole time during the coaching process, Benny held us. His huge arms wrapped around our small shivering bodies and never let us go, unless it was to wipe our tears.
The next week, a homeless guy discovered the body behind an old abandoned building several miles away from our project. The cops never questioned Troy or me. No one discussed that night again. Benny and Troy never brought up the situation. Everything continued as if nothing ever happened.
Who was Benny besides the man I knew?
I never discussed this with Vivian, but I imagine he had connections with the mob or some sort of criminal organization. Weird things happened when Benny entered a problem. Benny was a lawyer, but he was something else, too. Thugs followed him around. Things disappeared when they caused Troy, Vivian, and me any harm. In fact, no one had seen Vivian’s boyfriend Noc after he had gone to jail for beating her; by now, he would have been released. Missing pictures were posted outside of Drunken Lyrics asking people to call the police if they knew about Noc’s whereabouts.
Chase interrupted my thoughts. “You’ll stay with me.”
“Not you, too.” I closed my eyes for a few seconds. The ache at my temples shifted to a pounding in my head. “You and Benny need to relax. I have guards, and I’m a grown woman. No one is going to order me around.”
“When I said you’re living with me it wasn’t a proposition, suggestion, or question. Someone tried to kill you.” He leaned forward until his face was a few inches away from mine. “As far as I’m concerned you’re either in my new condo or I’m staying with you and Vivian.”
“Neither.” I opened my eyes and he captured my lips, dipping his tongue into my mouth.
Something fluttered in my chest, but I wouldn’t cave that easily.
I tilted away from him. “I’m serious. I’m not staying with you.”
Knocking sounded from the door. Chase rose. A man I assumed was my doctor stepped in. “Good. You’re awake. Ms. Montgomery, how are you feeling?”
“I’m getting a headache, but I’m feeling better.”
“Before you begin,” Chase interrupted. “Dr. Scott, can you talk to me outside for a second?”
“About what?” I didn’t trust Chase right now. He’d said Benny was dangerous, but he also acted irrational whenever it pleased him. Additionally, he was only my. . .I didn’t know what Chase was to me anymore, boyfriend, guy I’m dating, or over-possessive-rich-guy-who-wouldn’t-let-me-go even if I could walk away from him, which I realized I couldn’t.
“I just need to talk to him.” Chase headed to the door.
Dr. Scott followed without even looking to me for assistance.
The doctor understands who’s paying the medical bills.
I sighed and prayed tomorrow would be a better day.
Chapter 4
TROY
How many men could say they were madly in love with their sister? Not many, thank the lord.
But I still wondered where one was and if I could ask him for advice.
I sat next to the love of my life with my hand wrapped around her limp fingers. Viv slept in the hospital bed. Her eyelids shuddered every few seconds. As the heart machine beeped, so did my heart. It boomed in my chest, reminding me of why we both sat in this predicament.
I shouldn’t have run from her. She deserved better.
But what she asked for, I couldn’t give her. In any other situation, it wouldn’t have been a question. When she was Viv my forever crush, my eternal longing, then she was home and hope all wrapped into one, then hell, yeah, I would’ve obliged and made love to her.
She’s not that Viv anymore. She’s your sister, dumbass. Sister.
She had begged me to make love to her, and I had run out of that apartment as if my life depended on it.
Sister.
It hurt to think of her that way, let alone whisper the truth for all to hear, but it was my reality from now on. I had to suck it up and deal with it.
Sister.
The first day I met Viv, I loved her. At six she was pink cheeks and blond pigtails. She punched me in the stomach for pulling one of the curls that dangled from the side of her face. It didn’t hurt, yet I fell down like an overdramatizing actor, screaming in agony. Jazz told her to ignore me and go play on the slides. Viv couldn’t. She saw what others didn’t, something special in me. Why, or how she saw it, I would never know. Most of my family only saw the worst in me and used those things to define who I was. If someone promised Mom a million dollars if she could name one good thing about me, she’d be speechless.