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)
I placed my hands in my pockets. “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.”
I’m not thinking we’ll be inviting any of our family for the holidays. Not mine or Jasmine’s. What am I saying? Will she even come back to me, when I go to her? What other choice does she have? No, I’ll have to handle Benny first. Kill him. Finish this shit so I can show Jasmine that her mother was wrong. There are happy endings.
We exited onto the eleventh floor. No one hung around on that level, and unlike the other floors a fresh coat of gray paint decorated the hallways.
“Benny has rented every apartment on this floor. He does different things in each one.” She gestured to the cameras above each door and waved. “He has some computer nerds watching the place. The few smart kids in the building. They monitor and report to his main man, if there’s a problem.”