A Commitment to Love, Book 3 (29 page)

He’s grown up too soon and I don’t know what to do about that. I could show him the way I’ve survived or I could let him find it out on his own. He’s a smart one, too, but he’s got my rage.

Already hates his mother, just like I did at that age.

That rage has grown in his chest like a flower in the spring, and every now and then I can see petals pushing out of his skin. He’ll be a rose bush of thorns by the time he’s eighteen, and never let anyone get near him, for fear of cutting their skin.

I got to South End in no time. Scar and his buddies got rid of the body in Jasmine’s room.

Troy got him good.

Sophia lay passed out on the couch the whole time. The kids thought she’d taken something. You should have seen the way Troy looked when he said it.

Anger radiated off of his little frame. “She was high and asleep on the couch, when Jasmine started screaming.”

So my boy had to take care of it. Sophia was lucky she had passed out.

But the shit didn’t stop raining from the clouds, once the body was gone.

The worst part of the whole evening happened right as I carried a sleeping Jasmine to my car. Troy followed us with two bags full of their clothes. When Sophia decided to come back to consciousness, she’d have to look for them.

Let’s see how long it takes her to realize the kids are gone. Since when has she been a bad mother? I’d seen her do trifling things to other people, but never to her kids. She destroyed mountains for them, but never put them in harm’s way.

Or was that wrong?

Was she always this bad?

Her older boys had a name in the streets, and if I asked too much about them, people shut their mouths. No one talked to me about them. Word had been put out on the street to keep Benny out of the Montgomery boys’ business.

“Benny.” Scar’s voice cut through the cold night.

I set Jasmine down in the car and shut the door. “Troy, go into the passenger seat.”

Troy ignored me, leaned against my hip, and held my hand. Since it was the first time he’d let me get that close, I left him alone.

Scar looked down at Troy. “What I got to say, the boy shouldn’t hear.”

“Say it.” I tightened my hold on Troy’s little hand. “He’s not a boy anymore. This one is a man. He killed the guy.”

“I know.” Scar studied the boy too much and then glanced through the window at Jasmine. I never liked to bring Scar around the kids. He stared at them too much, it made me want to shoot him right in his forehead.

Scar stuffed his hands in his pockets. “That guy the boy stabbed. It doesn’t make any sense how he was in their house in the first place.”

Scar was using a lot of words that didn’t put me at ease. The more he had to say, the more chances I would want to kill someone. “What doesn’t make sense?”

Scar rubbed at the puffy gash under his neck. “You said that the kids told you Sophia has been dating him?”

“Yeah.”

“That can’t be true.”

I looked down at Troy. “Is it true or not?”

“Yes, sir.” Anger skittered across Troy’s face. “He started coming around for a few weeks. Mom brought us to him and that Omar was her new boyfriend.”

I tensed at the name. “Omar?”

Scar frowned with me. “That’s right.”

But Troy had more to say. “The first night he stayed over, he snuck into our room. Jazz told me that he just peeked in, and she was afraid to say something. I went to Mom. She said it was fine. He did it again and again, but she said it was fine. Then he would wait to come home in the evening, when Jazz had to shower. Mom said I was worrying too much, that Jazz don’t have nothing for no man to be sneaking over to look at.”

Rage bubbled underneath my skin. “Troy, go ahead and get in the passenger seat.”

Scar and I waited for him to do as I said. He did, but I could tell the boy would’ve rather stayed right next to me. Troy’s love calmed me down a bit.

When he shut the door, I stared back at Scar. “Is this the same Omar that I had you look into years ago?”

“Same one. When I walked in the house, I recognized his face. I don’t have the brains like you, Benny. I’ve never tried to pretend to be smart, but Sophia was up to something tonight.”

“Talk to me.”

“Omar ran South End. And almost everyone in South End doesn’t like him, not because of the drugs, but because he’s a fan of candy strippers.”

I grimaced.

Around these parts, people called candy strippers the little girls that sold their bodies in the front of the neighborhood corner store. The only men that bought from them were the vilest sort. Half of those girls were barely fourteen. Most were found in dumpsters by the time they reached eighteen.

“So Omar is a pedophile?” I asked.

“Yeah, and everyone knows.”

“So then why would Sophia bring him into her house?”

“Sophia doesn’t make mistakes.”

“No.” I glared back at her apartment. “She plans everything.”

“There’s news all over the block right now.”

“What’s the news?”

“Omar is dead. His people are scrambling around to see if that is true. Everyone is saying that only the Montgomery boys will be providing highs in South End from now on.”

“Only Sophia’s boys.” I wondered why I hadn’t seen Neil around the house. Sophia’s two oldest sat in jail, due to get out in a few weeks for small charges. Still, it was so late in the morning, Neil should’ve been tucked away in his bed.

“Anybody know where Neil is?” I asked.

“Someone said he shot up a supplier’s house tonight.”

“Omar’s supplier?”

“Yes.”

“Anything else before I lose my shit.”

“I’m not sure.”

“Do they think Sophia is involved with Omar’s missing status? I don’t want any more problems for Jasmine and Troy.”

“News is that Sophia could never get rid of Omar. He has strong connections to a Cartel. They’ll definitely be up here to find out what happened, once he’s gone missing. No one thinks a regular person would’ve killed him. Nobody in South End has the resources like that to mess with the Cartel.” Scar ceased with talking.

There wasn’t anything else to say. It all came together in my mind. I couldn’t pinpoint every step Sophia had played, but I knew damn well, she’d executed clear moves to make sure I had a hand in getting rid of Omar.

Who else could go up against the Cartel? I would be the only person she knew. I had contacts all over. In fact, I probably had Omar’s head boss on speed dial. If they had something to say, I’d smile, put my gun in their mouths, and pull the trigger.

She brought Omar into my house and pranced my kids around him. She waited for something to happen, so bad that I’d come down like a fucking deadly knight in shining armor and take his life away.

Neil gunned down a supplier tonight. That wasn’t a coincidence. Sophia had planned this entire evening. Probably even got herself so high she couldn’t intervene. I’d tried myself to wake her up, and all she did was mumble out incoherent words and roll over.

“Wrong move, Sophia.” I spat on the ground.

“I could …” Scar licked his lips. “I could go in there and deal with Sophia.”

“No. Jasmine and Troy just saw dead bodies for the first time tonight. They don’t need to bury their mother this year.”

“Is she a mother?”

“We kill her next year. Let some time go by.”

Scar stared at the house as if his cock was hard and on fire. “Can I do it?”

“No.”

The kids stayed with me the rest of the month. I gave no reasoning to them, and they didn’t ask. Only Vivian bothered me with questions. “Are you going to adopt them, Daddy?”

“I don’t know, sweetie.”

“Can we please, Daddy? I don’t like them being over there.”

“Me either, sweetie.”

A few more weeks passed. Sophia called and told me to bring them back over. She didn’t even say thank you or apologize. In those silent weeks of my taking care of the twins, Sophia had given me ample time to think about all that she’d done. And frankly by then, the woman scared me.

I’d thought I was the villain until I met Sophia.

She’d placed my kids in danger. She knew Omar liked little girls, brought the man into her home, and waited for him to do something so bad that I couldn’t deny her asking to kill him.

What father would deny that?

She’d almost gotten Jasmine raped for the sake of gaining more power.

That scared me.

I had limits.

Rules.

That time I finally realized, Sophia had none.

She just had a large web of deception and lies, and like a spider’s home, I lay there stuck to the pattern, unable to break free.

I couldn’t kill her, not my children’s mother, not the love of my life.

I couldn’t kill her.

And that, dear journal, is what made Sophia a very scary person indeed.

Chills ran down my spine.

“Mr. Stone, would you like anything?”

I shut the journal. “Something strong, brown, and on the rocks.”

Sophia’s laughter came from behind me as she walked my way. “Strong, brown, and on the rocks like you love your women, huh?”

I widened my eyes and stared into the eyes of the only person that Benny feared on this earth. She scared the shit out of him. And frankly, that didn’t comfort me at all. Especially, since she now stood right next to me on my own plane, high above the earth.

“What are you reading?” Sophia asked. “More of Benny’s memories?”

“Yes.”

“Be careful with memories. Sometimes they can get you killed.”

More chills ran through me.

C
HAPTER
16

Jasmine

I
n
a decaying mansion, I danced in front of Troy and Vivian.

Outside, rain stormed against the property’s battered wood and crumbling stone. Inside, nature continued to battle with the massive palace. The raindrops’ song served as my rhythm.

“She’s losing it,” Troy whispered to Vivian. They lay next to each other, not touching, but so near that their arms and legs came close to rubbing against the other once or twice.

When we returned from the boring tours of Royal London, we’d smoked all day. It wasn’t like the area didn’t symbolize splendor and history. It was just something about having a serial killer on the trip with us that made everything dull and uninteresting.

All we talked about was ways to hurt Benny. Half the time, Troy discussed possible details as Vivian and I cringed. Once we smoked, all discussion ended and I resorted to dancing away my boredom.

“Yep, she’s lost it,” Troy said.

“Did she ever have it before?” Vivian rolled another joint and licked the ends. “I mean, this is your sister after all.”

“You’re correct.” Troy nodded. “Carry on with your off-rhythm dancing, Jazz. I’m actually the one who’s lost it.”

I bopped my hips. “You both don’t want to see me in a dance contest.”

“Yes!” They both raised their hands.

“I agree with that statement.” Vivian lay the rolled joint next to her to dry. “I do not want to see you in a dance contest.”

“Or dance against me,” I added.

“Hear, hear to that, too.” Vivian laughed.

“This trip isn’t a party, Jazz. Stop dancing.”

“This trip isn’t a trip.” I clapped twice and twirled. “This trip is a psycho’s prison. This trip is bigger than all of us. This trip is insanity.”

“And you’re a trip,” Vivian added.

“And you admitted that he’s a psycho.” Troy beamed.

I groaned and continued my dance of hysteria.

After a long day of tours, crowds, and average food, I’d dragged them back to Bishop’s Avenue. Billionaire’s Row of rotting mansions.

Benny hadn’t returned. That news didn’t calm my fears. Chase searched for me, somewhere out there, and I would’ve rather had Benny close, than him looking for my man.