A Test of Love: Interracial Erotic Romance (Chasing Love) (4 page)

Must be some sort of signal between them.

“What happened between you and Vivian is a tragedy that both of you could’ve avoided,” he said. “I told you both many times not to talk to each other in that way.”

“What can I say? You make pretty kids. It was inevitable,” I said as a doctor headed past me and went into my sister’s room.

“You know there is no more relationship with Vivian, right?” Benny asked.

“Of course not.”

He opened his mouth, closed it, and then tried to speak before stopping again with a confused look on his face.

Just like Jazz does when she has something to say but too scared to spill it. Why didn’t I see that shit before? How much Jazz and Benny are alike.

“I could find you plenty of women if you needed it,” he had the nerve to offer.

“No. I’m straight. You’ve done enough.”

He waved me to him. I remained where I was. If he hadn’t had these men, I might’ve sucker-punched him. Sometimes I was just that stupid, letting anger get the best of me.

Benny could beat me all by himself. I can’t ever forget that shit.

Jazz watched him break a boy’s leg for sneaking into Viv’s room at home. I saw him beat the living shit out of one of my mom’s ex-boyfriends. I’d told Benny how the guy would threaten to burn me with the iron if I fucked up the crease on his work pants. Benny jumped out of the car, stormed into my mom’s crappy apartment, and bloodied that man. The dumb fuck was all blood and sores at the end of the night. I never had to iron for his ass again.

“How are things?” Benny asked. “You know I care about you, right?”

“Things are good.” I gritted my teeth.

“You working?”

“Yeah, security for Stone Industries.”

He said a curse under his breath. “You think that shit is a coincidence?”

“No. He did it for Jazz.”

“No, my boy. He’s doing it because of me. He’s been after me for a while and now he’s trying to get me through my kids.”

Interesting.

“What did you do?” I asked.

“Nothing.” That time he didn’t look me in the eyes. One thing about Benny, he couldn’t lie worth shit, just like Jazz. They both always darted their eyes another way or twisted something on their shirt as they spouted out the bullshit. But the difference between him and Jazz was that Benny could twist his answers just enough to leave you thinking you got all the truth. Like with him being our father, there was something else still unsaid, something that was probably worse than what we imagined. If he’d been a man, he would’ve let it all out. Not Benny. We’d have to dig if we needed to know more.

And I’m not sure I want to know more about anything dealing with him. Or do I?

“Why don’t you want me working for Chase?” I asked.

“Doesn’t matter, Troy. You shouldn’t be working for him. You’re more than security. You’ve got a quick brain like your sister. I don’t know who you both got that from, but you’re both smart. You read biology and astronomy like you’re getting paid to do it.”

“I’m also a black felon. My career choices are rap or construction.”

“You could go to college or. . .” Even Benny saw the bullshit in his sermon. “I just don’t like you working for him.”

“Why not?”

“He’s poison. People around him die or wither away.”

“I haven’t felt sick yet.”

“Your sister has been shot.”

“Who did it?”

“One of his women. I’m sure.”

“Hmmmm.”

“What?”

I gestured to the men around us. “These guys yours?”

“They’re my friends.”

“You always have friends with guns?”

“That’s the best kind to have.” He checked each one. “You’ve always been good with noticing things that aren’t out in the open.”

Chase and the doctor left my sister’s room. Chase spotted me. No joy rushed over his face, but he didn’t seem annoyed either. I couldn’t say the same thing for when he glanced at Benny. There was hate there. They emitted a
fuck you
vibe at each other.

What the hell is up with these two?

“Troy, right?” Chase asked.

I nodded.

“Can we talk for a minute?”

I ignored the agitated noise coming from Benny and shrugged. “Sure.”

“Dr. Scott, could you just give me a few seconds?” Chase patted the doctor’s shoulder and signaled for me to follow him. “I’ll be right back.”

I trailed behind Chase, not too happy to have a man like him guiding me along like a dog, but interested in what he had to say nonetheless. Out of all the guys Jazz dated, this one was the cream of the crop. He had his own shit and seemed to know how to treat her when he didn’t have those other broads around. But then that was the thing, those other broads. Viv and Jazz had kept that from me for a while. By the time they told me, it was too late to make him eat his own dick. She’d broken up with him, and I’d gotten the news that changed my life: Benny was our dad.

We got to the end of the hallway, far away from Jazz’s room and Benny’s curious ears.

“I need your help,” Chase said.

“With what?”

“Finding out who shot your sister.”

“I’m not a private investigator, man.”

“No, but you’re smart and have been protecting her all your life.”

“True.”

“And you’d do anything to keep her safe?”

“Even take my own life, if it meant hers.”

“Then help me, please. I can’t trust the men on my team. They’re too close to my . . . ex-girlfriends.” The muscle in his jaw twitched. “I need someone who has Jasmine’s best interests in mind and can keep it all a secret.”

Still not sure where this was going, I shoved my hands into my jeans pockets. “What do you want me to do?”

“Everything.”

“What the fuck does that mean?”

“I don’t know what’s coming in these next days, but I need someone who’s ready to do it all for her.”

When a man talked like this to a man like me, he never meant legal stuff. Chase needed a guy that wasn’t scared to go where others couldn’t. He wanted a thug. I just wasn’t sure if I was that person anymore. Nothing about jail made me yearn to go back.

“I’m on probation.”

“We could fix that.”

“How?”

“I have friends, ones who look the other way when I need them too.”

“Then you should have friends to do the jobs you need done.”

“I do. I just don’t know if I can trust them.” He sighed. “Look. You’re Jasmine’s brother. I wouldn’t put you in a situation that I couldn’t get you out of. She’d kill me if she knew.” He gestured behind me. “And then Benny would eat up the scraps of me that she left over.”

“I doubt that.”

“Trust me. He would.” He held his hand out. “Join me.”

I stared at those manicured fingers of his. My older brother, Sherman, always told me to never trust a man who got his nails done. They were tricky cats, he said.

“Can’t no one catch a tricky cat when he doesn’t want to be trapped.”

“What am I joining?” I asked.

“A witch hunt.”

“Who’s the witch?”

“That’s what I need you to help me find out.”

“This witch shot my sister, right?”

His face darkened to rage. “Yes. Did it in the dark where I couldn’t see her and then ran.”

I shook his hand. “Let’s hope for her sake, I don’t catch her.”

Chapter 5

CHASE

Jasmine slept within my arms. Her fingers twitched a lot when in deep sleep. At times she mumbled things that I strained to hear. I needed any clue as to who she was, anything to point at and understand why she’d captured me so easily.

All the women in the damn world who’ve hunted me, and I lose my brain over this one. What is it about you, Jasmine, that has me so crazy?

Sure she loved food and was passionate about others. None of that triggered the blood to rush through my veins or head to fog with only thoughts of her.

What is it? Those lips, that fat cunt between your legs, or the way you make me scream your name? Can it just be the sex?

She stirred against me. I checked to make sure she didn’t put her weight on her injured arm. I breathed her in.

How fitting that Jasmine smells like jasmine. I should get the most expensive perfume with this scent. Would that please her?

Gifts always worked with the girls. Dawn loved money or anything that spoke of wealth. With each year, her birthdays and Christmas were settled with ease. I simply walked into any of her favorite boutiques or jewelers and asked for the top item in the space. Wendy didn’t need as much money spent on her versus my attention. Although she pretended to be self-sufficient, she competed for my attention most of all. It was suffocating to be with her, so I tried to keep her occupied with things. Since she’d been raised poor and was barely loved by her family, I adorned her with jewels, spoiled her with lavish vacations, and kept her bar stocked with top-label bottles. I’d met her father and mother a few times, paying for them to come along on some trips. They’d given me the creeps, always inquiring about the state of my health and how much money I held in my accounts.

And then there was Lucy.

She hated my gifts, but received them just the same. Loved being in my presence, but asked me never to touch her in any way. I understood, and to be truthful with myself, never truly saw Lucy in that way. Out of all three, Lucy represented the one person I could talk to and be myself with no expectations for money or time.

Then Jasmine changed the entire game. How can one woman come into my life and replace all three in just a few weeks?

Chapter 6

JASMINE

Hours later. Darkness cloaked the space. The bed vibrated. An engine hummed below as a muscular arm clamped possessively around my waist. ’A hard body smoothed against my back and behind. Beatles music drifted in the air, so I knew it was Chase, but even if I hadn’t realized it, I would’ve caught his intoxicating scent. It covered me like a warm blanket, and I loved it.

“The music is too loud.” I yawned and blinked as my eyes adjusted to the darkness. “You’re going to get us kicked out of the hospital.”

“We’re not in the hospital.” He nuzzled the back of my neck and inhaled. “God, you smell so good. One would never know you’d been through so much in the past twenty-four hours. Are you hungry?”

“Of course.” I stretched my legs and flexed my toes. “Wait. What do you mean we’re not in the hospital?”

My last memory was of Dr. Scott looking at my arm and doing a few quick observations—checking my vitals, the usual stuff, and then giving me something to help me rest before he left. Chase held my hand the whole time.

“If we’re not in the hospital, then where are we?”

“We’re on my plane,” Chase said as if it was the most logical answer to my question.

“Excuse me?” I struggled to sit up. “You’re playing with me, right? And where the hell is the light? Why is it so dark?”

“Relax.” He let me go. Something beeped. Lights turned on. The master bedroom on his private jet came into view—all cream walls and soft carpet.

“You’ve lost your damn mind!”

“Don’t yell,” he said.

“Don’t yell?” I placed my hand on my chest as I continued to take in the room as if eventually I’d wake up and realize it was all just some twisted dream. He had the nerve to have a picture of him and me in a gold frame next to the bed. In Paris during a beautiful bike ride, Chase stopped a kid and gave him a couple dollars to snap the image. I’d forgotten all about the picture. Too bad I had no time to enjoy the photo as fury rushed through my veins. “You kidnapped me?”

“I can’t steal away a woman who’s already mine.”

“I haven’t even decided if I’m going to get back together with you or not.” I scooted out of the bed. A red silk gown clung to my body.

There he goes dressing me again.

“You already decided that you were mine.” He seized my unhurt arm.

“No. I actually did not.”

“The moment you let me make love to you in the Lan. You returned to me.”

“That was just sex. Now let go of my arm.”

“Where are you going?”

“To the pilot.” I yanked my arm away. “I’m going to tell him that if he continues to fly me to wherever you ordered him to take me, then he’s an accessory to a crime.”

“Put some clothes on first.” His gaze lingered to my breasts as he lay back down. He wore no shirt, just black pajama pants that formed around an erection pressing against the silk.

“That’s all you have to say?” Rage built in my chest. “Put some clothes on.”

“Jonathan, the pilot you’re going to bother, will nod and smile at whatever you have to say, but he’ll land where I tell him to, and that’s it.” He adjusted himself under the material. “Meanwhile, your food will be cold, and I’ll be pissed that you’re away from me.”

“I don’t give a damn if you’ll be mad.” I stood up and swayed a little.

“You’re weak.”

“I wonder why.” I put my hand on the night stand to help me balance my weight. “Maybe it’s the drugs that the honorable Dr. Scott gave me.”

Chase sat up and pressed an intercom button on the wall. “Tell Chef Roberto Dubois to prepare dinner for us. Ms. Montgomery is up.”

“Chef Dubois?” I crossed my arms around my chest. My right one throbbed from the movement. Thick bandages coated the whole arm. “
The
Chef Dubois from the television show
Combat Cuisine
?”

“I figured you’d recognize him.”

Chef Dubois is going to cook for me? Focus! Do not let good food drag you off the path of whipping Chase’s behind.

Clearing my throat, I spotted my slippers and put them on. “So I’m supposed to just get over the whole abduction situation because you have a celebrity chef on the plane?”

“That was one of my theories.”

Chef Dubois spent his career introducing the world to exotic foods. Where other food maestros created dishes with typical meats—steak, lamb, chicken, and fish, Dubois put the high-end into game meat. His signature dish was grilled giraffe. The lucky people who could pay a hundred dollars for the dish in his New York restaurant boasted in interviews and on food shows of how it was the most tender meat they’d ever sampled. The foodie in me idolized him. Whenever he appeared on the TV screen, I dropped what I was doing, focused, and drooled.