A Commitment to Love, Book 3 (40 page)

A man raised his hand. “Two hundred dollars.”

“Sir, this was 1888.” The guide tipped his hat. “We’ll need to go lower.”

With a wicked grin, Benny raised his hand. “Four pennies.”

“It seems we have a time traveling pervert on our tour.” Bowler hat gave him a thumbs up. “Four pennies is correct, and for some women, they offered their bodies for a loaf of bread. And let me tell you, a lot of these women were aged well beyond their years, full of disease, and not the prettiest ladies to walk on the street. In October 1888, police documents reported over twelve hundred prostitutes in the small district.”

Bowler hat pointed to the abandoned building behind us. “This used to be a doss house. Think of several tiny coffin beds full of fleas and disease, cramped with as many people that could fit, all coughing and sleeping in the same space together. Sort of like a Motel 6 in America.”

The crowd roared with laughter.

What’s his hang up with the States?

The guide turned to Benny’s frowning face and cleared his throat. “So anyway. We believe that our first victim slept in this very doss house. Let’s go in.”

“We’re going inside,” Benny whispered to me. “I had no idea we would get to go inside one. I doubt the other tours have gotten to go inside. I wonder if they recreated the doss house.”

The tour guide opened the gate for all of us to follow him toward the sad little building.

It took five minutes to get the small group inside. Benny tried to grab my hand. I stepped aside and let a bulky man get between us.

“Come on in, everyone.” Bowler hat gestured for us to hurry. “Come on. Don’t be shy. Ripper is not here with us.”

Only two small lamps hung in the large room that stunk of mold and depression. Shadows dominated the dim lighting. A hushed silence traveled along the space. Around thirty boxes lay next to each other in three separate rows. It seemed odd that women could be comfortable enough to sleep in them, but I understood firsthand what poverty forced people to do. Scattered blankets sat on top of a few of the boxes, probably more for effect than the actual ones used so long ago.

We all lined the walls, surrounding the coffin beds. One big square room outlined by people.

Bowler hat walked into the center of the space and put his hands together. “And here’s where things get interesting.”

The man between Benny and I drew a gun and pointed it at Benny.

What the fuck? Is this a part of the tour?

A guy yelped from across the other side of the room. As noise of more movement came.

Everything happened so fast.

Gun after gun appeared from tour attendees. Apparently, bowler hat and I were the only ones who hadn’t planned ahead. Every other person in that room pointed their weapons at another person. It looked like a war between two gangs, except that they’d all worn the same casual street clothing. An eerie silence flowed in the air. Everybody must’ve waited on their command because all they did was point and wear scary expressions on their faces.

“Interesting.” Benny laughed and didn’t even grab his own weapon that I was sure he had, though two guns targeted him.

I had no idea what was going on, but I knew for certain, Chase orchestrated it all.

I squinted at the faces in the low lighting and recognized a few of the signature scars that Benny’s guards tended to wear, as if a person couldn’t sign up with him unless he’d been branded by a battle.

A creak sounded behind Bowler hat man. I leaned to the side and realized there was a door behind the guide.

Chase.

My man entered the room, and still I gripped my knife hard. Benny had just taken one of my most prized possessions from me. Troy. I wouldn’t let him take another. Too many people had guns in the space. Anybody could just do a quick turn, target Chase’s chest, and pull the trigger.

One person could start a war in that little room that already held coffins. Chase and I could die right there in the middle of bullet-riddled bodies, and never had known what it was to experience years of true love and happiness.

“Do we really want to do this here?” Benny asked out loud. “Someone shoots and anybody could die. I don’t think you planned this out. It only takes one stray bullet to hit my daughter.”

“Which is why you won’t have anyone use their gun.” Chase stopped by Bowler Hat and handed him a large stack of money. “Thank you. You’re really good at your work. Sorry that you couldn’t complete your tour for this evening.”

“Much obliged kind sir, but I believe I was well compensated.” Bowler Hat nervously scanned the area, grabbed the money, and booked it out of there as if Jack the Ripper himself had stormed through.

“Sorry I ruined the tour, Benny.”

“Make it quick, boy. What do you want?”

“Did you really think we were walking into a real doss house? Have you not gotten the memo that they don’t exist anymore?” Chase gestured at the space. “I got my people to make a warehouse look pretty close though. You described them all in your journals.”

Benny formed his lips into that wicked smile. “What’s your plan, little Stone?”

“I don’t know, old man.” Chase targeted me with his gaze. “What would Ripper do?”

“Kill with precision, and get in and out without being detected by the police.”

“Sounds about right.” Chase took his time walking over to me, so slow it ached. Each step that brought him closer made me tremble. I hadn’t realized how much I needed him.

Benny didn’t move. “You’ll die first, before you ever get Jasmine out of here.”

“Is that your goal for tonight?” Chase didn’t take his gaze from me.

“I’ve got men outside,” Benny continued.

“We both do. But for once, I have more.”

“If you get close enough for me to get at you …” Benny chuckled. “Well, we both know what will happen with that.”

Chase slowly maintained his journey to me. A few men stirred around us. I didn’t know which of Chase or Benny’s men got nervous, but the tension in the space thickened. The place was a pot of hot water, ready to boil over and sear everything.

“She left you,” Benny said. “Are you unclear with the message?”

Chase stopped four feet in front of me. “Tell me something, Benny.”

“Oh, I would be happy to tell you many things.”

“Good.” Chase placed his hands in front of him and crossed them. “Do you think Ripper really fell in love with that last victim they found?”

“Of course.”

“So you think a madman is capable of love?”

“We all are, whether killer or normal man.”

“Do you think you really loved Sophia?”

“Is this why you came to destroy my tour?” Benny rolled his eyes. “To talk about love?”

“No, I’m just wondering why we’re really here.” Chase’s gaze traveled from the top of my head all the way down to my feet.

My body shivered.

It didn’t matter that I’d had the roughest days of my life, or that I’d lost so much, or even that a madman kept me in his abandoned castle for days far away from the only man I loved. Chase looked at me, and my mind went blank. All I could think about was running to his arms and escaping within them for days, trying my best to forget it all.

Chase studied my body more and then returned to my face. That was the moment he licked his lips. Real slow with his tongue. In my mind, I remembered all the things he could do with that lovely tongue.

And then Benny’s voice shoved me out of my haze. “Why
are
we here, Chase?”

“Sophia.”

C
HAPTER
23

Chase

J
asmine
stood only a few feet in front of me and I couldn’t touch her. Too many guns lay in our presence. I wasn’t the type of man to let many things get in the way of tesoro and me, but a weapon was one of them.

Take your time. She’s almost in my arms.

Benny’s voice held venom. “Sophia?”

“The love of your life.”

“Make it quick, little boy. You’re talking on big man time now.”

“I’m sure you can see that Sophia put this together,” I said. “While she did not choose this gory setting as our battlefield, she definitely set the war in motion. She’s made our Jasmine, Helen of Troy. The face that launched a thousand ships. Are we going to play into that?”

“Your death is worth any game’s ending, even if Sophia is the master of it all.”

“You’re letting your hate for my family control your moves.” I studied Jasmine some more, imprinting her every detail in my mind. She held a small knife and had the blade out, probably ready to gouge someone’s eyes. Something about her being in warrior mode made my cock stiffen a little.

Focus. Now’s not the time.

“Boss?” the scarred man on Benny’s left mumbled. “What do you want us to do?”

Benny’s dark voice raised in volume. “Did I tell you to say anything?”

Silence served as the response.

Getting a bit jumpy, are we, Benny?

I decided to help the poor guy out. “What your boss is trying to tell you, is that he’s close to crapping in his pants. He’s in somewhat of a tight bind. Sure he has guns and I have guns and he has guys and I have guys. We’ve played this game before. It’s rather boring right now. But what your boss has noticed that you didn’t, is that not one gun is pointed at me. Ten guns are targeting him. Which only leaves his three men, who are defending their lives by focusing their own guns on my guys in front of them. I’m in a rather convenient position right now.”

“That could change,” Benny said through clenched teeth.

“Awww.” I wagged my finger. “No. No. It won’t because lucky for me you love Jasmine as much as I do. We both understand that if someone makes a play to shoot me, then my men will go for you, and so on and so on, until tons of bodies lay on the ground and sadly … one of those victims just might be our dear Jasmine. Isn’t that right, Benny?”

“Get on with why you came and then leave.”

I turned to him and stared right through the evil fuck. “I came here for my treasure.”

“Your treasure?”

“Jasmine.”

Loud laughter fled Benny’s grimy lips. “Your treasure? Is she now a box full of coins? You’re objectification of women has no limits.”

“Your sickness has no limits. I saw your garden. I walked through the madness that is Benny. I read your journals. I know the things you’re scared to whisper out loud.” I could barely contain the rage in my chest. “I hope none of those journals end up in police districts where you’ve committed the crimes that I’ve read.”

“I’m not worried.”

“You should be.”

“I own cops like you. The whole legal system around this world is corrupt and your father and me helped it right along to destruction. There’s not many chief of police that will go after me. So get on with it, little boy! What do you want?”

“I’m shocked you’re even asking.” I took another step closer. My phone rang in my pocket. “Excuse me for a minute. I have an important phone call. It will be quick.”

Benny growled. Or was it a groan of disgust?

I held the phone up to my ear. “Yes?”

My guard’s voice traveled over the line. “The helicopter has landed on the roof, sir.”

So goddamn close, I can feel her already in my arms.

“And the house on Bishop’s Avenue?” I asked. “How did everything go?”

“All the guards are dead in the mansion. We only found the woman. There was no trace of the man you identified.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, sir.”

Should I wait until they figure out where Troy is, or should I try my luck and go for what is mine?

I gazed at Jasmine’s trembling hand as she held the knife in front of her and muttered, “Okay. We’ll be there shortly.”

Benny growled, “Bishop’s Avenue. How did you know?”

“We’re done talking, Benny.” I hung up. “Jasmine, can you do something for me?”

She parted her lips and scanned the madness around her. I’d had ten of my men book the tour. Benny had only three. We’d guessed they were with him, when their identities came up as fake. My security had checked all the ticket buyers out hours before the tour began. Benny gave fake names for Jasmine and him. Mrs. and Mr. Prockett. I hadn’t been sure if it was them until my people spotted her in the crowd.