by Cynthia Eden
“You mean when someone tried to kill her,” Chase corrected. “She was your chief suspect until some bastard tried to blow her up!”
“Yes, that’s what I mean. And, of course, there was the little matter of her rushing to you and trying to hire you.” He glanced over at Merik. “Appreciate you calling in that news immediately. Helped to speed things up for me. Let me get my head in the right place for the investigation.”
Chase whirled toward Merik. “You’ve been reporting straight to this asshole? Since when?”
Merik raised his hands and held them, palms out, toward Chase. “Look, man, I didn’t want to do it.” His guilt was plain to see.
“Merik used to work for me,” Dex revealed. “I got Eric to put him on the case because I wanted fast communication. A direct line into the investigation. Don’t be pissy, Chase. I don’t have time for it.”
Chase squeezed his eyes shut. “You just called me pissy.”
“Yes, I did.”
His eyes opened. He focused on Dex. “We need to be clear about a few things.”
Dex’s brow furrowed. “I thought we were clear. You got close to the target, you did your job—good show. Thanks for a performance well done. But, considering how I believe Vivian is currently feeling toward you, your services won’t be needed any longer. Merik can take lead from here on out. She doesn’t seem quite so hurt by him.”
Hurt. “I never wanted to hurt her.”
“The job is over.” Dex’s voice had turned flat. “I won’t be telling you again.”
“I’m not leaving her unprotected.”
“Uh.” Merik coughed. “I’m right here. I know how to keep a person safe. I will look after her, I promise.”
I am not leaving her. “I’m not off this case until—”
“What?” Dex interrupted. “Until your boss tells you to walk? Yo, Eric. Tell him to walk.”
Chase, Dex, and Merik all turned their focus on Eric.
Eric didn’t say a word.
Dex frowned at him. “This is the part where you tell him to walk.”
Eric shook his head. “I can’t do that.”
Dex opened his mouth. Closed it. Opened it again. “Excuse me? Don’t you own this company?”
“Sure do.” Eric nodded.
“Then you can tell your employee to step aside.”
“No.”
Dex’s hands flew into the air. “Why the hell not?”
“Because from what I can understand, Chase was recently hired—him, specifically—by Vivian Wayne.”
Damn, but sometimes… “I straight up love you, man,” Chase said to Eric.
Eric shrugged. “My wife says I’m highly loveable, but Piper tends to be biased.”
“Stop this crap!” Dex thundered. “Stop playing! This isn’t—”
Eric’s gaze had gone cold and hard. “I assure you, I don’t play when people’s lives are on the line. That’s not who I am.” His stare lingered on Dex as if to say…but I think that’s who you are. “If Vivian Wayne specifically hired Chase, then she’s the only who can tell him to walk. Not you. Not me. She picked him, then she can fire him.”
Dex laughed. “Oh, is that all?” He was all smirky when he turned back to Chase. “Piece of cake. The next time she sees your ass, she’s gonna tell you to get the hell away from her.”
“Don’t be so sure of that.” You don’t know me, and you don’t know her. “Now, either get out of my way or I will move you out of my way.”
“You and what army, tough guy?”
“I’m a fucking SEAL. I can handle you on my own.” But you already knew that if you read my files. Eric is right. You do play games. Chase wasn’t in the mood to play. “I won’t be telling you again.” Chase deliberately threw those words back at Dex. Then he added his own touch as he said, “I’ll just knock your ass out and when you fall, my path will be cleared.”
Dex grudgingly stepped to the side. “Got to say, with every moment that passes, you remind me more and more of a former agent I worked with. Same control issues. Same tendency to get over involved with the ladies in your lives.”
“Fuck off.” Chase grabbed for the door.
“Yep,” Dex’s mocking voice followed him. “I’m pretty sure that is exactly what Vivian will say the next time that she sees you.”
***
“Is that what you want?” Layla asked when the silence stretched for too long. “You want your relationship with Chase to be over?”
“I don’t have a relationship with Chase. He was lying to me and using me.” Saying his name caused pain to knife through her. It was okay. She’d get used to the pain. She’d lived with pain before.
Layla’s expression turned thoughtful. “When we were in Eric’s office, I thought you said something about hiring him?”
She’d been so foolish. “I actually believed he could help me. I asked him to take my case. I wanted him to help me prove my innocence.”
“From what Merik said, it appeared Chase did believe you were innocent.”
“Even innocent people can get sent to jail.”
Layla’s lips tightened. “Not on my watch.”
“Don’t suppose you happen to perhaps have the name of an amazing lawyer in case all of this continues to spiral straight to hell and I wind up taking the fall for everything?”
“Is that what you think will happen?”
“I have no idea.”
“Chase is a good man.”
I asked him to be good. “I wouldn’t know.” Because she didn’t know him. Her head lowered. She stared at the hands she’d twisted in front of her body.
“Ah, now, this is the part where I call bullshit. You have instincts about people. We all do. Chase’s instincts told him you were innocent. What did your instincts tell you about him?”
That I’d finally found someone I could trust. That he was different.
He’d been different, all right.
“That’s what I thought,” Layla murmured. “He went against all the evidence he had, he went against orders, and he was trying to find proof that you were innocent. I know you’re hurting, and I’m not saying this because he’s my friend—but, he kinda is—Chase isn’t the villain. He had a shit hand growing up, something that I don’t think he talks about with anyone…”
Vivian’s head whipped up. Chase had talked about his childhood with her. But had he been telling her the truth? Or more lies?
She wasn’t sure what to believe any longer.
“He grew up hard and, as fast as he could, he left to join the Navy. Flash forward, and he’s a SEAL. The man has a hero complex. He wants to make the world safe. He doesn’t want to destroy innocent people. Something tells me that he definitely doesn’t want to destroy you.”
A hard fist banged into the door.
Vivian jumped and spun toward the door.
“I’m coming in there!” Chase yelled.
“It’s a ladies’ room!” Vivian shouted back as her hand flew to cover her racing heart.
“Like that’s going to stop me! You can’t hide from me, Vivian. We need to talk.” Another pound. A stark pause. Then… “Are you decent?”
“No,” she yelled back. “I’m running around naked. Do not come in.”
Layla laughed. “That’s gonna make him come running in here, you know.”
The door inched open. “Vivian?” Chase’s voice was way more subdued. “We have to talk. Now.”
Layla cocked her head. “Want me to stay?”
“No. I’m good.” Lies were getting easier.
The door opened fully. Chase stood there. He looked all tall and strong and sexy and…
Sad? For a moment, she could have sworn something like sadness filled his golden gaze, but then he blinked, and she couldn’t read him at all.
Layla sauntered for the door. Just as she stood next to Chase, though, she paused, and glanced back at Vivian. “I get the same instinct about her that you do,” she said to Chase.
His jaw tig
htened.
Layla waved toward Vivian. “Kendrick Shaw.”
“I—what?” Her gaze had gotten stuck on Chase. Dammit.
“If the shit hits the fan, if you find yourself behind bars and needing the best attorney out there, Kendrick Shaw is your man. I’d trust him with my life.”
Then she walked out.
Chase stared at Vivian for a moment, not moving.
I was starting to trust him with my life.
Finally, Chase spoke. “Yeah, so, the bathroom isn’t quite the best place for a discussion. Want to come with me to my office? We can be alone there. You can scream at me in peace.”
“I have no intention of screaming at you.”
He scraped a hand over his face. “God, I wish you would.”
She couldn’t figure him out. “I don’t understand. Why would you want me to scream?” Vivian didn’t move from her position near the sink.
“Because then you’d get out some of the rage that you have to be feeling.” He stalked toward her. “I know you’re furious.”
“I’m not.” Was she supposed to be furious?
He gaped at her. Then his eyes closed. “Oh, hell. It’s worse than rage.” His eyes opened. “You’re disappointed.”
“I’m not disappointed.” Dumbass. “I’m…” But she stopped. She’d already revealed more than enough to him. He had enough secrets. All that he’d get from her.
His fingers caught hers. Twined with them as he tugged her toward the door. “Come on. We’re going to my office.”
She dug in her heels. “You give orders a lot.”
He stopped. Looked hard at her. “Can we please go to my office so that other people don’t burst into the restroom while I am begging your forgiveness?”
“Is that what you intend to do?” Now she was genuinely curious. “Beg? Because I have a hard time imagining that scene.”
“Come with me and find out what I’ll do.”
Not like she could stay in the bathroom forever. Not like she even wanted to do that. “You don’t have to hold my hand. I assure you, I can manage to walk on my own.”
His gaze fell to their joined fingers. “But I like holding your hand.” He sounded uncertain. “I like touching you.” His golden stare lifted and pinned her. “I like you.”
“Stop lying to me.” She didn’t wait for him to lead. She yanked her hand away and hurried right past him. Threw open the door. Marched past the guards. Wait. The guards. She stopped near one of the guards. If they worked there, she figured they knew Chase so… “Which way to Chase’s office?”
The guard pointed to the left.
“Thank you.” She strode to the left. Turned down the hallway.
Chase jogged ahead of her and threw open the third door. She went in with her head up and her shoulders straight.
The door closed very softly behind her.
There was a framed photo on the wall. A group of guys with their arms slung around each other’s shoulders. Sand was in the background. A desert? Chase’s hair was shorter. A much more military-type cut.
“Some of my friends from back in the day,” he explained when he caught her staring at the photo. “All retired now. Well, not so much retired as doing other business ventures.”
Like he was.
There were no other pictures in the office. There was a baseball and a battered glove on his desk.
“I like to toss the ball around when I’m thinking.” He’d obviously followed her gaze.
There were lots of papers. Files. Sticky notes.
“You want to sit down?” Chase offered.
She glanced back at the door. “Where are the others?”
“Probably getting ready to take you away.”
Her gaze swung back to him. “Take me?”
“Dex wants to take you to a secure location.”
“And I’ll go.” Because Layla had been right. She couldn’t risk someone else getting hurt. “If the person after me is willing to plant a bomb—one that exploded on a city street—I have to leave. I can’t have someone getting hurt during an attack that’s aimed at me.”
He exhaled. “I’m sorry I lied to you.”
Her head tilted. “Is this the begging part? Because it doesn’t sound like begging.” She paced away from him. Fiddled with the baseball.
“I know you’re mad.”
“I’m not. We went over this. I’m—”
“Hurt.”
Her shoulders stiffened.
“You think I don’t see the pain in your eyes? Baby, I do.”
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t use endearments. Don’t pretend. You had to get close to me because you were undercover. You’re not undercover any longer.” She spun the ball, sliding it around on his desk. “You don’t need to keep pretending with me.”
The floor creaked as he moved closer to her. “You think I was pretending to want you?”
She was afraid that he had been. “Just like you were pretending to be my new neighbor. Only I guess being a neighbor wasn’t good enough, so you stepped into the role of wanna-be boyfriend.”
“There’s fucking nothing wanna-be about it.”
She stopped spinning the ball. “Excuse me?”
His hand curled over hers. He was right behind her. He’d moved those last few feet silently, and now he surrounded her. She could feel his heat, his strength, and her whole body tensed.
“I wasn’t faking,” he growled. His breath blew lightly over her neck. “I saw you, and I wanted you.”
“Sure. You took one look at me when you were fake moving into my apartment building, and then you instantly—"
“Wanted you in my bed?” Chase finished. “Hell, yes, I did.”
“Let go of my hand.”
He let go.
She turned toward him. He hadn’t moved back. Their bodies brushed.
“The job was in the way,” he said. “I wanted you, but I was lying to you. That meant I was a Grade A bastard.”
“You are a Grade A bastard.” Her quick agreement.
“I am sorry.” He said each word clearly, as if he wanted to be sure she understood. “Hurting you wasn’t something I wanted. The more time I spent with you, hell, the more I liked you.”
Her heart ached. “I’m supposed to believe that?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Why?”
“How do I know you’re not lying to me right now? After I left Eric’s office, how do I know you and your buddies didn’t immediately come up with a new plan? Maybe the new plan involves you continuing to try and seduce me. Maybe it involves—”
“I didn’t want to take you to bed while I was lying to you. I wanted you like mad, wanted you more than I’d ever wanted anyone else, but I was holding onto my control.” His breath sawed in and out. “Because when I did get you in my bed, I didn’t want lies between us. I wanted nothing between us.”
Chapter Eleven
Her gorgeous eyes widened, then narrowed. Or, rather, her eyes turned into tiny, angry green slits.
Shit. He’d said the wrong thing. Made the situation way worse. Just when he’d thought that wasn’t even possible.
“I don’t remember inviting you into my bed.” Her voice was incredibly crisp and cold. Cold enough to ice a man.
“You didn’t,” Chase muttered.
“Then I don’t see the problem.”
“I’m the problem. I want you too much.”
Vivian looked away.
“You think I was faking my response to you? Ba—um, Vivian,” he corrected quickly because he was trying hard not to piss her off. “I’m a good actor, but not that good. When I was in the elevator with you—”
“OhmyGod.” She seemed to go pale. Her shoulders hunched.
“What is it?”
Her lower lip trembled as she hauled her gaze back to him. “Did you do it?”
He wasn’t following. “Do what?”
“D
id you sabotage the elevator so that it would stop?” Her hand gestured to the stack of files on his desk. “Was that fact in there somewhere? Did you read a tidbit about me that told you when I was six years old my father tried to use me on one of his jobs? Only when a security guard came by, my dad told me not to make a sound and he left me there.” Her breath heaved as her fingers moved up to smooth across the tiny scar that cut across her left eyebrow. “Did you know that? Did you set up the scene in the elevator so I’d be terrified and need you?”
She hated him. Fucking hated him. He could see it now. If she thought… “No.” Chase cleared his throat. “I get that you don’t have a lot of cause to believe what I tell you, but I swear, I didn’t sabotage the elevator. I didn’t know anything about your fear of the dark and enclosed spaces. I wouldn’t hurt you that way.”
“But you broke into my apartment—”
“I made it look like there had been a break-in so that you would need me to…” He stopped. “Fucking semantics. Yes. I’m sorry. I was doing a job. It doesn’t make what I did right. Doesn’t mean you can hate me less. I did it.” He’d learned early on that you took responsibility for your actions. His father hadn’t. Everything had always been someone else’s fault.
The fact that Vivian was staring at him as if he was a stranger?
That’s on me. “I can show you who I really am.”
Her hair slid over her shoulder. “What?”
“I’m not your enemy. That’s not who I ever want to be. If you believe nothing else about me, know this—”
A hard knock sounded at the door. “Your time is up, Durant!” Dex called. “You’re done. We need to move!”
Chase swore. Leave it to that prick to interrupt. “I’m not done!” Chase yelled back.
Vivian’s gaze flickered to the door. “What does he mean that your time is up?”
“He wants you moved to a new location.”
“Yes, I got that before, but—”
“I’m sure he wants to question you. The bastard probably also wants to use you to catch the bad guy.”
A slow nod. “I figured all of that.” Her breath came faster. “But why is he saying you’re done?” Her gaze was steady on his.