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)
“You had to use my father’s gun. Didn’t you?” I walked a circle around her. “Was it some sort of sick message to me?”
“Your father’s gun? What are you even talking about?”
I stopped right in front of her. “My dad has many guns, Dawn, but there’s only one that you and I have a history with.”
She swallowed down hard.
“Do you know what gun I’m referring to?” I asked.
“The First President,” she muttered.
“Yes. That was your name for it, right? Why didn’t you bury it that night on the beach?”
“I was scared and. . .who knew what Benny would do to you or me or even our fathers. Dad taught me many things, but one thing was always have a foot up against your enemies. There was no way I would just let anyone get it.”
“So you never buried it?”
“We did. I went right to that space we’d been kissing in. I dug, put it there, and covered the spot with several red rocks.”
“Red ones?”
“Lucy had bled so much. All the rocks near her had been covered with her blood. I grabbed those and piled them over the place I’d buried the gun. Then the next day, while everyone went sailing. I returned and placed the gun with my father’s gun collection for the trip back to the states.”
“And here all this time, your father thinks you’re a ditzy little woman.”
“Most men underestimate me.”
“I damn sure did.” I sighed. “So why use the gun on Jasmine?”
“W-what?”
“Why use the First President to shoot Jasmine in the arm?”
She shook her head. “But how do you know it was that one and not—”
“There’s special bullets and powder that must be used.” I raised my hands in the air. “Unique in every way. Unique enough to be traced. You had to know that. In fact, I bet you were counting on it. What did you think? That because it was that gun, I wouldn’t file any reports? Did you assume that I would be afraid to go to war with you, because you thought you had something on me?”
Silence passed as she stared at me. She could’ve been a statue, one carved from fear. All that earlier confidence evaporated in front of my eyes. What stood before me was a woman falling. She released a breath that made me think she’d been holding it for as long as she could. Shaking her head, she inched away from me. “Something is wrong. Chase, that can’t be the gun. It just can’t be.”
I leaned my head to the side. “Why not?”
Side to side, she moved her head and backed up into the wall. “None of this is making sense. That was the gun used? Are you sure? That means that a gang didn’t have anything to do with it.”
Who knew that Dawn considered herself an actress? Are you changing your song because you know you’ve been caught?
Her eyes jumped around in her eyelids. Questions seemed to dance on her face. If she was acting, I was impressed, but I couldn’t let on.
“Chase. . .is Jasmine okay?”
“Did you use the gun on her?”
“No. Never.” She wagged her hands. “I couldn’t. I would never. . .Chase you have to believe me. In fact. . .”
“What?”
“I didn’t even have it,” she whispered and gave a quick glance to the stairs as if worried someone would be listening. “I haven’t had the gun for three years now.”
“Who had it?”
“I gave it away as a sort of. . .gift of commitment.”
I gritted my teeth. “To whom?”
She quickly shut her mouth.
“Dawn!”
Troy got between us, right as I stalked her way. She could’ve been lying, but I wasn’t sure. She kept checking the stairs as if worried Wendy or Lucy had heard her.
“Dawn? Who did you give the gun to?” I didn’t walk around Troy because I couldn’t trust myself to be too close to her. She had answers that I needed. Even if they were lies, I had to hear them. Anything to keep Jasmine safe. Any little fact or detail to get me closer to the end.
I calmed myself down and took great care in asking the next question. “Who did you give it to?”
Dawn checked the stairs again. “Quiet, Chase. Just let me see—”
“No. You don’t get to see anything. Who did you give the gun to?”
“I won’t be bullied by you.”
“You’ll do whatever I fucking want until I’m happy.”
“I’m not your gutter trash.” She stabbed the air. “When you talk to me, you speak with a proper tone!”
“You’ll have to earn it, Dawn!”
Turning around to face me, Troy tried to hold in a smile but it exploded on his face anyway. “Maybe you should calm down, man.”
“I need answers,” I said.
“I’ll give them to you as soon as I talk to her.” Dawn seized the opportunity to rush away.
“Where are you going?” I hurried after. Troy grabbed my arm. I shoved him away.