by Vi Keeland
“The call at dinner tonight? It was the detective from Peyton’s case.”
I turned, propping my head atop my hands on his chest and looking up at him. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah. Since it’s technically an open case, she still comes around once a year and touches base. Told her I’d see her next week.”
“That must be hard on you.”
“Just odd timing. It had been a few years since I’d had a nightmare. Started happening again a few weeks ago. And then tonight she called.”
“Do they check in with you at the same time every year? Maybe it’s been in the back of your mind that it’s coming up, and that prompted your subconscious back into action.”
He nodded like it made sense. “Maybe.”
I crawled up his body and planted a kiss on his lips. “Thank you for sharing that with me. It means a lot.”
Chapter 21
Chase – Seven years ago
My phone buzzed on my desk. I picked it up and barked without saying hello. “You’re late.”
“Did you really expect me early?” Peyton asked. I knew she was smiling from her voice.
I shook my head and smiled back even though I wasn’t happy she was late. Again. “Where are you?”
“I got out later than I thought and had to make a stop. Go on without me. I’ll meet you at the restaurant instead of your office.”
For an actress, she really needed to work on being less transparent. “Where you heading, Peyton?”
“Just running an errand for Little East.”
“Running an errand or following Eddie?”
“Aren’t they the same thing?”
“No, they’re not. Please tell me you’re not heading uptown again to that homeless camp.”
She was quiet.
“Damn it, Peyton. I thought we agreed you weren’t going to do this shit anymore.”
“No, you told me I wasn’t going to. That’s not the same as agreeing.”
I dragged my fingers through my hair. “Wait for me at the coffee shop on 151st Street when you get off the subway.”
“I’m fine.”
“Peyton…”
“You’re being overprotective. Is this what it’s going to be like when we’re married? Are you going to expect me barefoot and pregnant, waiting with your slippers at the door?”
I’d proposed two days ago. It was probably not a good idea to tell her I’d love exactly that. At least then I’d know what the hell she was up to. I grabbed my suit jacket from the closet in my office and headed for the elevator.
“I’m on my way, you pain in the ass.”
Out on the sidewalk, I called my sister as I trekked to the subway to tell her we would be late.
“You’re going to be late to your own engagement celebration?”
“This thing was your idea, not mine. You look for any excuse to throw a party.”
“My little brother is getting married. It’s a big deal, not an excuse. God knows we all thought you’d die from some STD before Peyton came along.”
“This is not a discussion we’re having. We’re going to be late because my bride-to-be thinks she’s Columbo. I gotta go.”
“Who?”
“Forget it. I’ll see you in a bit. And thanks, Anna.”
By the time I exited the subway up on 151st Street, it had started pouring. As soon as I could get cell service, I called Peyton’s phone. She didn’t answer.
“Fuck,” I grumbled to myself and went to stand against the nearest building. Rain pelted down diagonally, and I had to cover my phone with one hand just to keep it dry. I hit redial and waited for Peyton to answer. She didn’t.
“Goddamn it.” I knew the makeshift homeless community wasn’t far, and I assumed Peyton hadn’t bothered to wait. Pulling up Google maps on my phone, I found the area of the park with the trestle. It was only three blocks away, so I started to walk in the rain. Every thirty seconds, I hit redial. I grew more and more anxious each time the ringing went to voicemail. There was a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach, and after the third unanswered call, something made me start to jog.
Another redial.
Another voicemail.
I turned the corner and saw the area under the trestle that Peyton had described off in the distance.
Another redial.
Peyton’s voice came on, telling me to leave a message at the tone.
Something felt off. Horribly off. My jog turned into a run.
By the time my phone vibrated in my pocket, my heart was pounding in my chest. Seeing Peyton’s face flash on the screen should have calmed me, but for some reason, it didn’t.
“Chase, where are you?” Her voice was shaky; I could tell she was scared.
“Where are you?
She didn’t answer.
“Peyton? Goddamn it. Where are you?”
The clank of the cell phone tumbling to the ground was loud in my ear. But it was what came next that would haunt me for years to come.
Chapter 22
Reese
I woke to the sound of Chase gasping for air. It was a gritty, raw, ear-splitting noise that felt like it should come after being pummeled in the gut. There was no hesitation before I woke him this time.
“Chase…wake up.” I shook him vigorously.
His eyes flew open, and he stared at me, yet I could tell he didn’t actually see me.
“You were having another nightmare.”
He blinked a few times, and his vision came into focus. “Are you okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine. But you…sounded like you couldn’t breathe. I wasn’t sure if it was a nightmare or you were really having some sort of respiratory distress.”
Chase sat up. His face was damp with sweat, and he wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. “Sorry I woke you.”
Just like yesterday, he got out of bed and spent ten minutes in the bathroom with the water running. When he returned, he sat on the edge of the bed again, so I followed suit and straddled him from behind—only this morning I was wearing a T-shirt.
“You okay?” I asked.
He nodded.
“Anything I can do?”
“You could take off the shirt. Your tits pressed up against my back does a lot to stop the nightmares.”
I pointed out the obvious. “Umm…you’re already awake. I don’t think that would help with this morning’s nightmares.”
“Maybe not, but there’s always tomorrow.”
I smiled, leaned back, and lifted my shirt over my head. Pressing my bare skin to his, I asked, “Better?”
“Sure is.”
We stayed like that for a good ten minutes, our breaths synchronizing in the quiet, dark room.
“Peyton’s dad took off when she was little, and her, her mother, and her two sisters ate all their meals in a shelter for a while. When Peyton got older, she wanted to give back, so she volunteered at a few local soup kitchens. She made friends with this one guy, Eddie. He had issues with people coming too close to him, so he refused to sleep in the shelters. Eddie was being harassed by a group of teenagers. They’d show up at night at a homeless camp—where a lot of people who had nowhere else to go slept—and start trouble. It was a game they played. Every few days he’d come in with a gash on his head or bruises.”
“That’s horrible.”
“Yeah. Peyton went to the police, but they didn’t do much. Eddie didn’t speak more than a word or two here and there, and Peyton couldn’t let it go. She started following him at night to see where he was staying, thinking if she gave the police more specifics they might look into it further. I told her it wasn’t safe, but she didn’t listen. The day of our engagement party, Eddie showed up at the shelter with a broken nose and two black eyes. Peyton had figured out where he was staying, and went down there that night to see if she could pry more information out of others since Eddie didn’t talk much. She was supposed to wait for me at the train station.”
“Oh God.”
<
br /> “I found her a few minutes too late. Eddie was cradling her and rocking back and forth, sitting in a pool of her blood. Knife wound. She must have gotten in the way of their game of beating up homeless people.” He took a deep breath in and out. “She was gone before they got her in the ambulance.”
My throat burned, and tears stung my eyes as they slid down my face.
Chase must have felt the wetness on his back. “Are you crying?”
The passage from my chest to my lips was clogged. It was hard to speak. “I’m so sorry that happened to you, Chase. I can’t even imagine what you went through.”
“I didn’t tell you to get you upset. I wanted you to know so there’s nothing between us. I hate that the nightmares came back at all, but this is the first time I’ve felt anything more than physical for someone since Peyton, and I don’t want to screw it up before it even has a chance to get started.”
“You’re not screwing things up—just the opposite.”
Chase turned, pulling me from behind him onto his lap. Pushing a piece of hair behind my ear, he said, “I’m not the hero your brother is.”
My eyebrows drew together. “What are you talking about?”
He shook his head. “I didn’t keep Peyton safe.”
“Keep her safe? What happened wasn’t your fault. How could it be?”
“I should have been there with her.”
“Chase, that’s crazy. You can’t be with someone twenty-four hours a day to protect them. It’s not like you put the knife in the killer’s hand. People need to take responsibility for their own protection. That’s why I’m the way I am. My own experiences have made me even more aware of that. ”
Chase looked into my eyes, like he was searching for sincerity. When he found it, which of course he did because I’d meant every word I said from the bottom of my heart, he nodded and kissed my lips gently.
He exhaled, and I actually felt the tension leave his body. Checking the bedside alarm clock, he said, “It’s not even five o’clock. Why don’t we try to get some sleep?”
I wasn’t sure if it was appropriate or not, but I wanted to make him feel better, get his mind off of the sadness of the past. Neither one of us could change what had happened in our lives, but we could leave it there and move forward and continue to live. My eyelashes fluttered before I spoke from beneath them. “I’m not sleepy.”
“No?”
I shook my head back and forth slowly.
The timbre of his voice dropped. “What did you have in mind?”
“Maybe a little of this.” Dipping my head, I kissed his pectoral muscle. Working my way up, I alternated between gentle licking and sucking until I reached his jaw. My tongue trailed from one end of his beautiful mouth to the other, planting a soft kiss at the corner of his lips.
Turning his head to catch my lips with his, Chase kissed me deeply. The kiss felt different than the others we’d shared—more intense, more passionate, more meaningful. If our kisses were each a story, this was the one where the hero got the girl, and they rode off into the sunset.
For the next hour, we shared more than just our bodies. The sun had begun to rise, casting a golden hue across the room as Chase slowly moved in and out of me. It was beautiful and tender, and I felt it in a place I never knew another human being could touch—my soul.
***
We had an evening flight home after the second day of focus groups wrapped. After working side by side during the day and sleeping wrapped in each other’s arms, a feeling of melancholy washed over me as we drove to the airport. I looked out the town car window, lost in thought, as Chase spoke on an overseas conference call with one of his manufacturers.
He covered the phone and leaned toward me, pointing to a large billboard up ahead. “You want to go, don’t you?”
It was an advertisement for the Wizard of Oz Museum.
After he hung up, he surprised me by reaching over and hauling me snugly against him. “You’re awfully quiet.”
“You were on the phone.”
“You’ve been sitting as far away from me as you can possibly get and staring out the window. What’s on your mind, Buttercup?”
“Nothing. Just a long day.”
“You sure?”
I thought for a minute. I wasn’t the least bit tired; that’s not what was casting a shadow of gloom over me. So why was I lying? Why hide what I was thinking about?
I turned to face him. “Actually, no. I’m lying. Something’s been on my mind all day.”
He nodded. “Okay. Lay it on me.”
“Well…I enjoyed my time here with you.”
“I enjoyed my time inside of you as well.”
I laughed. “Not exactly what I said, but let’s go with it. I guess…I’m concerned about what happens when we go back to reality.”
“I thought we’d already discussed that. Bending you over my desk, underneath it on your knees, conference room table—you have a full schedule once we’re back in the office.” He tugged at the material of his slacks. “Fuck. I can’t wait to get back to work. Maybe we should go in when we land tonight.”
I playfully nudged his shoulder. “I’m serious.”
“So am I. I treat fucking you with the utmost sincerity.”
“Well, utmost sincerity or not, I don’t think any of it should be happening in the office.”
His face fell as if I’d just told him there was no Easter bunny. “No office sex?”
“I’m not sure it’s a good idea that anyone finds out.”
“I’ll close the blinds.”
“It would probably be safer if we kept our distance at work. Obviously, we’ll be in meetings together at times, but no inappropriate touching.”
“Safer for whom?”
That was a pretty damn good question. “Me?”
“Are you asking me or telling me?”
“I’m new. I want to earn people listening to what I have to say, not have them nod their head because I’m screwing the boss. And…when…you know, we aren’t together anymore, it’s going to be weird enough between the two of us. Having the entire office watching our interactions would just make it worse.”
Chase grew quiet. He looked out the window, and the distance between us widened, even though we were sitting side by side. “Whatever you want.”
Arriving at the airport, we breezed through security and had more than an hour to kill before we boarded our nine p.m. flight, so we went to the first-class lounge. Chase had gone to the men’s room while I ordered us drinks at the complimentary bar. A nice looking, young guy walked up next to me as the bartender opened a new bottle of Pinot noir.
“Can I buy you a drink?”
I smiled politely. “They’re free.”
“Damn. I forgot. I’ll buy you two then.”
I laughed. “I’m good. But thanks anyway, big spender.”
The bartender set my glass of wine on the bar and went to work making Chase’s drink. I studied the electronic flight board hanging above the bar to check that ours was still on time.
Watching me scrutinize the chart, the guy next to me said, “My flight’s been delayed twice already. Where you heading tonight?”
I was about to respond when a deep voice behind me beat me to it. “My house.”
The guy took one look at Chase, who stood close at my back, his hand wrapped possessively around my waist, and nodded. “Got it.”
Taking our drinks, we sat at a quiet booth in the corner.
“I didn’t take you for the possessive type.”
Chase looked at me over his drink as he sipped. “I’m not usually. Yet I feel very greedy when I look at you. I don’t want any other man to even come close.”
Our eyes met. “Is that why you’re upset with me? Because you’re feeling territorial, and I don’t want anyone in the office to know about us?”
“No.”
“Then what is it? You’ve been quiet for the last half hour, ever since we talked in the car.”
> Chase looked away, his eyes roaming the room as he collected his thoughts before he looked back. “You said when, not if.”
I furrowed my brow.
“In the car. When you were talking about how you didn’t want things uncomfortable in the office, you said when we aren’t together anymore…not if we aren’t together anymore. You’ve already planned our breakup in your head and how it will impact you at work.”
“I did n—” Oh my God. He’s right.
I’d skipped right past the relationship part and was already worried about how our demise was going to affect me. Talk about not giving something new a chance.
“You’re right. I’m sorry. It’s just that I don’t exactly have a good track record with relationships. And I left a job I loved over my last office romance. I guess I’m using my past to set expectations about the future.”
Chase watched me intently. “No expectations, no disappointment?”
I don’t know why, but admitting that as the truth made me embarrassed. I looked down. “I guess.”
Chase leaned in. Touching my chin, he gently lifted. “Give it a chance. I might be the one who doesn’t disappoint you.”
Chapter 23
Reese
Predatory. That was the only way to describe how Chase looked at me when I walked into his office. We’d been back at work for a week, and he’d been good about keeping his distance, keeping things professional during the day like I’d asked. But the butterflies in my stomach as I watched his heated eyes follow me told me that was all about to go to shit. Evidently five days was his limit.
Thank God there were other people in the room. Josh was talking as he flipped through blown-up glossies from last week’s photo shoot. The woman in the shots wore sexy, white, lacy lingerie with garters and stockings, yet Chase wasn’t paying one bit of attention. Lindsey, who sat to the left of Josh, pointed to one photo and compared it to another while Chase tracked my every move. I set a binder his secretary had handed me down on the glass table at the other side of the room and put some distance between us by sitting on the adjoining couch.
Chase’s eyes were mischievous when he casually got up from his desk, walked to the little refrigerator built into the credenza, and pulled out a few water bottles. He placed one each in front of Josh and Lindsey as they continued to speak, and then walked over to hand one to me. His eyes blazed as our fingers brushed. He leaned in, clearly not caring if anyone was paying attention.