Think Twice

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-three

Bennie screamed. The man clamped a hand over her mouth and shoved her against the wall.

She kicked him in the crotch. His eyes flared in pain. His hand fell off her mouth. The knife plunged down, cutting her shoulder.

Bennie screamed again. The man punched her in the mouth. Her head exploded in pain. She reeled backwards, dropping her purse.

“You’re dead, bitch!” the man said.

Bennie fell, then she remembered. She stuck her hand inside her purse, found her gun with fumbling fingers, and fired through the leather.

Crak! The gun went off. The purse exploded like a bomb. Pain shot through Bennie’s hand. She scrambled to her feet, backing away.

The man grabbed his thigh, which spurted an arc of fresh blood. He dropped the knife.

“Help!” someone shouted, from behind her. “Help, somebody! That guy’s attacking that girl!”

Bennie whirled around to see another man, hustling toward her. He wanted to help, but she had to get Alice. She took off, running away.

“Miss, stop!” the man shouted. “Stop!”

Bennie ran down one street then the next, not knowing where she was going, not daring to stop. She veered around a corner, heading downhill toward the business district. She darted across a narrow street. A car swerved to miss her, then a minivan. She kept running. A taxi shot out of nowhere, screeching to a halt.

HONK! went the horn, but she kept going, back on Bay Street.

The BSB bank was straight ahead.

Bennie took a right turn and ran hard.

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-four

Alice parked in the lot behind the BSB bank, took her messenger bag with the gun inside, and got out of the car. She was going to get Julie out of the backseat when she heard shouting. She looked up. A man was down the street, pointing at her.

“That’s her!” he shouted. “She shot a guy! Get her!”

What? Alice froze, stunned. How did he know? She’d killed Knox miles away.

“Police, somebody, help!” The man kept running toward her, joined by another guy.

“Help!” Julie jumped out of the car, screaming and running for the bank. “Help, Jonah! Floyd!”

Alice took off, running full tilt. She tore down the street, but she couldn’t outrun them. They were shouting, right behind her. She took a right, then a left, down one dark street after another, bolting across the road.

Honk! Honk! A bus screeched to a halt, but she kept running. She spotted an alley and ducked inside. The bus had screened her from the men.

She hid in the shadow, watching. In the next minute, the men raced past the mouth of the alley and kept running away, down the street.

Suddenly she felt something press into the small of her back. Someone lifted her messenger bag from her shoulder.

“Turn around slowly,” said a voice. “I knew if I found an alley with a view of the bank, you’d drop by.”

Alice recognized the voice.

It was her own.

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-five

Bennie aimed the gun and forced Alice backwards, to the wall of the alley. There was only one way this could end. She was finally going to kill her twin.

“Bennie?” Alice put her hands up and stopped, her back to the wall. “Bennie? Bennie!”

Bennie didn’t reply or waver. She advanced with the gun. Her hand was steady, her concentration absolute. The gun was still hot. She lined up its sight on her target.

“No, wait. What’s the matter with you? What are you doing?”

Bennie didn’t answer. Police sirens blared nearby. They would come soon. She didn’t have much time. She cocked the trigger.

“Aren’t you going to call the cops?” Alice burst into tears. “Please God, don’t kill me!”

Bennie couldn’t live unless Alice died. It was that simple.

“No, wait, please!” Alice fell to her knees. “Please, no!”

Bennie stepped close enough to stand over Alice. She aimed at her forehead. It wasn’t a murder, it was an execution.

“Please!” Alice raised her hands, begging. “Please don’t kill me! You can’t!”

“Yes, I can.” Bennie sounded matter-of-fact, even to her. “I have you in me, and you have me in you. That’s why you couldn’t kill me. And why I can kill you.”

“No, please Bennie!” Alice collapsed in tears, doubling over, her forehead to the ground.

Suddenly there was the sound of footsteps behind her, and Bennie glanced over her shoulder. The figure of a woman appeared at the mouth of the alley. Lights from shops across the street silhouetted her.

“Benedetta, no,” the figure whispered, like a prayer.

Bennie blinked. Her mother was the only person who called her Benedetta. The figure was small, about her mother’s height. She could have sworn it was her mother, standing there.

Bennie shook it off. She must be seeing things. It was the pills.

“No, Benedetta,” the figure repeated, with the Italian pronunciation, exactly the way her mother had said her name.

Bennie felt the words washing over her, resonating within her. Something came loose in her chest. Tears filled her eyes. The figure was backlit like an angel. Bennie wasn’t imagining her. Maybe it was a vision. Her mother was an angel, come to see her. To stop her.

Then the angel stepped into the alley.

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-six

But it wasn’t a vision, an angel, or her mother.

It was an older woman, the same size as her mother. She had a similar headful of dark hair, but her eyes glittered oddly. She must have been crazy, because she came all the way into the alley, ignoring the execution in progress.

“Go away.” Bennie lowered her arm, hiding the gun. She tried to blink her tears back. “Go. Leave.”

“You don’t know me, but I know you,” the woman said, her voice firm and strong. “I saw you tonight, earlier, at the airport. I couldn’t go home and turn my back on you.”

“Go away!” Bennie kept shaking her head, bewildered.

“I saw you the other day, too. On the sidewalk, yelling. You need help, and I am here to help you. My name is Fiorella.”

Bennie didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t kill Alice, with the woman standing there. She shook her head. The tears wouldn’t go away. She was thinking of her mother. She was feeling her mother’s very presence.