BooksBarbecue
Back Biding Time
Chapters (68)
  1. Biding Time
  2. Dedication
  3. Table of Contents
  4. Prologue
  5. Chapter One
  6. Chapter One
  7. Chapter Two
  8. Chapter Three
  9. Chapter Four
  10. Chapter Five
  11. Chapter Six
  12. Chapter Seven
  13. Chapter Eight
  14. Chapter Nine
  15. Chapter Ten
  16. Chapter Eleven
  17. Chapter Twelve
  18. Chapter Thirteen
  19. Chapter Fourteen
  20. Chapter Fifteen
  21. Chapter Sixteen
  22. Chapter Seventeen
  23. Chapter Eighteen
  24. Chapter Nineteen
  25. Chapter Twenty
  26. Chapter Twenty-One
  27. Chapter Twenty-Two
  28. Chapter Twenty-Three
  29. Chapter Twenty-Four
  30. Chapter Twenty-Five
  31. Chapter Twenty-Six
  32. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  33. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  34. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  35. Chapter Thirty
  36. Chapter Thirty-One
  37. Chapter Thirty-Two
  38. Chapter Thirty-Three
  39. Chapter Thirty-Four
  40. Chapter Thirty-Five
  41. Chapter Thirty-Six
  42. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  43. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  44. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  45. Chapter Forty
  46. Chapter Forty-One
  47. Chapter Forty-Two
  48. Chapter Forty-Three
  49. Chapter Forty-Four
  50. Chapter Forty-Five
  51. Chapter Forty-Six
  52. Chapter Forty-Seven
  53. Chapter Forty-Eight
  54. Chapter Forty-Nine
  55. Chapter Fifty
  56. Chapter Fifty-One
  57. Chapter Fifty-Two
  58. Chapter Fifty-Three
  59. Chapter Fifty-Four
  60. Chapter Fifty-Five
  61. Chapter Fifty-Six
  62. Acknowledgments
  63. Other Titles by Lyn Gardner
  64. Going on Red
  65. Choices
  66. Born Out of Wedlock
  67. Give Me A Reason
  68. Mistletoe

The dealers traded hasty looks, and the remaining color in their faces drained almost in unison. “Look, lady,” the hawkish one said. “This stuff ain’t ours. We go back with nothing to show, and the boss ain’t gonna be happy.”

Bennett leaned closer, wincing at the gruesome body odor emanating from the man. “Well, then I suppose you have a decision to make. You can either make me happy,” she said, placing her hands on their legs again. “Or you can make him happy. So…what’s it going to be?”

***

Doreen tore open the bag and poured the contents into a bowl. “Salad’s done,” she said, and snapping on the lid of the Tupperware container, she stuck it in the fridge.

“Gee, thanks,” Ruby said, looking up from the chicken she was sautéing. “I hope you didn’t break a sweat.”

“Not yet, but it is a little warm in here. Don’t you think?” Doreen said before taking a drink of her beer.

“Heat rises,” Ruby said, looking toward the back of her apartment. “And I forgot to crack open the window again. Sorry.”

“No problem. I got it.”

It was a task Doreen had done many times since Ruby had moved into the apartment a little over a year before. Between the downstairs neighbors liking it toasty and the lack of ceiling height, Ruby rarely had to turn up the heat more than a degree, so when Doreen opened the window, she welcomed the cool air as it rushed in. As far as Doreen was concerned, the windows were the only saving grace in Ruby’s Lilliputian apartment.

Located on the fourth floor of the brownstone, it had been part of the attic until the property management company, deciding to squeeze every last dime out of their rentable real estate, converted the space into two one-room studio apartments. Nearly identical in size, while Ruby had been the first and only tenant in this one, the other had had a revolving door of occupants. From what Ruby had told her, most had left because of the low ceilings, which were a mere four inches above Doreen’s five-foot-five frame, but being two inches shorter, Ruby couldn’t have cared less. This was her dream, and Doreen knew it.