by Kelly Favor
End of Book Ten
The Debt 11
Faith frantically tried to call Chase, leaving a message that it was very important he call her right away. And then she’d even typed “911” into text, knowing he’d likely be freaked out by the urgency of her attempts to contact him.
But what was she supposed to do?
Chase had been robbed. That man—he’d called himself Charles, Boogie, whatever—that man had taken a lot of money from Chase and Faith had done nothing to stop him.
She was still shaking, even half an hour later, as she once again peered out the window to the street, just to make sure “Boogie” wasn’t lurking nearby, waiting to do some new piece of nasty business.
Of course, he had no reason to stick around. He’d come into Chase’s home and gotten what he was after.
Money.
She could still picture the man’s hooded eyes, the wariness and slyness in his gaze, and the confidence of his gait. How old had he been? He’d moved with the ease of someone still relatively young, but his beard had flecks of gray and she’d noticed deep creases around his mouth and on his forehead.
He might have been thirty-five or even fifty for all she knew. The man had frightened her with the way he’d talked knowingly of Chase’s sordid past, “running the streets.”
Faith shivered.
She partly wanted to leave Chase’s apartment and go home—go somewhere safe. But what was safe nowadays? Between Club Alpha and now this new shadowy figure who’d entered the picture, Faith wasn’t sure that she could trust anything or anyone to keep her out of harm’s way.
And to think, just a short time ago she’d been basking in the glow of hot sex and the feeling of being loved. Chase had even said he was falling in love with her.
He said he was falling in love, which should have been something to celebrate. But instead she felt only dread and fear.
Faith sat on the couch, checked her cell, and waited for Chase to call her back, while she occasionally peeked out the window, just to be sure.
As she was waiting, her phone rang. Hopeful it was Chase was finally returning her calls—she glanced down and saw her sister’s number instead.
“Shit,” she muttered, but then figured it might keep her mind off her anxiety to talk to Krissi for a minute or two. Answering the phone, Faith tried to keep her voice light. “Hey,” she said.
“Is it true?” Krissi practically shrieked in her ear.
“Ouch,” Faith said, squinting and pulling away from the phone. “Try not to burst my ear drum.”
“I can’t help it,” her sister yelled. “People sent me pics from last night and they’re either crazy good at photoshop or you’re leading a secret life.”
Faith sighed, realizing that of course the news had made its way around town by now. “It’s true,” she admitted.
“It’s true? Are you serious? Chase Winters was really with you at the bar last night,” her sister said with disbelief.
Faith had to smile now. “Yes, he really was with me.”
And I’m even sitting in his home right this very instant, she wanted to say, but held her tongue. Especially since that might warrant her admitting that she’d been present while some strange and sinister man robbed him of potentially thousands of dollars.
“How did this happen? I feel like I’m dreaming,” Krissi said.
Faith laughed painfully. “Tell me about it. I know the feeling.”
“He’s, like, the most popular guy on the planet and he’s hot—and rich—and he’s got women everywhere who want him.”
“Right,” Faith said, her jaw tensing, “so why would he want to be with a dog like me?”
“That’s not how I meant it,” Krissi told her. “Come on, Faith. Don’t be mad. Tell me how you even met him.”
Faith scratched her head. “We met at the game the other weekend, when we all went to the VIP box. Remember how they brought me down for the meet and greet?”
“And he saw you and fell instantly in love,” Krissi said. “That’s romantic.”
No, it was more like instant sexual attraction. But Faith wasn’t about to admit that to her younger, impressionable sister. “Listen, Kriss, I just need you not to go running your mouth to anybody about this.”
“Everyone already knows.”
“Mom and Dad?”
“I was waiting until after I talked to you to tell them,” Krissi said. “I don’t understand why you care who knows. You guys were out in public together.”
“Yeah, but it’s…” Faith stared out the window again, losing her train of thought as she thought she saw Boogie’s threatening face passing by on the street. “It’s just a crazy time for me right now,” she muttered.
The stranger came more into focus as he passed by outside, and she realized he looked nothing like Chase’s old friend from Detroit.
“You sound upset,” Krissi told her. “Is everything okay?”
“Everything’s fine.”
“You’re dating Chase Winters. Everything should be incredible.”
“It’s not quite that simple,” Faith replied. Suddenly there was a beep on the line and she checked, seeing Chase’s number pop up. “I have to go, I have another call coming in.”
“Is that him?” Krissi squealed.
“My ear, you did it again,” Faith said, grimacing. “I’ll text you later.”
“Tell him—“
But Faith had already clicked over. “Chase?” she said, licking her lips, feeling anxious at what his reaction to the bad news might be.
“Are you safe right now?” Chase asked, his tone urgent.
“I’m okay.”
“Good, because with the texts and voicemail and everything, you had me worried, girl.”
“I’m not hurt, but something bad happened. This guy Boogie broke in—“
“Don’t say another word over the phone,” Chase told her.
She closed her mouth and waited.
He took a deep breath and she heard him exhaling into the phone. Faith could already picture him standing there in his workout clothes, hair slightly mussed, his eyes faraway as he thought about what to do next.
“Is that person you mentioned—are they still with you?” he asked her finally.
“They’re gone.”
“Okay, just hold tight. I should be back in less than an hour.”
“Chase….” She pursed her lips, feeling more and more like a screw up. “I’m sorry.”
“Just hold tight.”
“Bye,” she said, but her words went into a dead phone, as he’d already disconnected.
She waited for him, and it got harder as each second seemed to pass by so slowly.
He didn’t know about Boogie taking the money, he didn’t know the things Boogie had said to her, or the horrible feeling she had that Boogie was going to do even worse things before everything was over.
Would Chase blame her for the money being stolen?
She hated to think that, but he might. And maybe he would be right to blame her. Maybe she should have called someone—called Chase, for starters. But everything had happened so fast and she’d panicked.
Nothing could have prepared her for that ambush.
Faith waited for Chase to get home, pacing around the apartment, then sitting and thinking, then pacing some more. Watching as texts poured into her phone from friends and relatives as the gossip machine in her hometown worked its way through the community.
Faith didn’t respond to any of them, not even the phone calls that came in from her parents’ house.
She knew it would be her father, possibly drunk off his ass, making stupid statements that Faith wasn’t interested in hearing right then. She ignored his call and didn’t listen to the voicemail.
As for the texts from all her old friends, she didn’t respond to them either. It was all too strange. Last night it had seemed magical for Chase to come out and show himself, put his reputation out there and proclaim his interest in her.
>
But now in the light of a new day, she wondered if this wouldn’t somehow turn against them.
Perhaps Chase’s openness and willingness to call her his girlfriend would end up creating bigger problems than either of them had foreseen.
You’re just being a Debbie Downer, she told herself. But it didn’t feel like that to her right then. It felt like she was watching a train heading for a collision with another train, head-on, and she was just waiting for it all to happen.
It was just a matter of time before everything went wrong.
The first thing Chase did when he walked through the front door was take her in his arms.
Faith started to cry, mostly from relief that he wasn’t angry. But also, she realized, it was that she was finally safe again. After Boogie had broken in and taken the money, she’d been completely on edge.
It was only now that she could feel Chase Winters’s strong arms wrapped around her, that Faith could breathe again. Tears rolled down her cheeks and she buried her face against his chest as he hugged her tightly and kissed the top of her head. “Hey,” he soothed, “it’s okay. Everything’s going to be fine. I’m here now.”
After a long moment, she finally pulled back, laughing at her own tears and wiping her eyes. “Sorry, I got your shirt all wet.”
“I don’t give a shit about my shirt. What I’m worried about is you.” He was watching her intently. “Now tell me what happened.”
Faith, took a deep breath and let out the tension as she exhaled. “Okay. I got up and came downstairs this morning after you left. And someone knocked and said they were delivering a package.”
Chase put his hands on his hips and stared at the ground, grimacing, as he shook his head. “Oldest trick in the book.”
“And I fell for it,” she replied. “I guess that makes me an idiot or something.”
Chase’s eyes blazed as he looked up again. “I never said that.”
“I know,” she sighed. “I just feel awful. When I opened the door, he barged right inside. Said his name was Boogie or Charles. I wasn’t clear which.”
“Charles Bridges,” Chase said. “But everyone just calls him Boogie.”
“So it’s true, then. You do know each other from Detroit.”
Chase nodded, reached in his pants pocket and pulled out a pack of gum. “We know each other very well,” he said, as he took a piece of gum and popped it in his mouth. “Now tell me the rest.”
“Chase, he—he went upstairs and found money you’d hidden in your closet.”
Chase’s eyes widened and then narrowed again as he registered what she’d told him. “What about the painting? Did he find the painting too?”
She shook her head, her mouth open. “I don’t know.”
“Come on,” he said, his jaw flexing as he chewed his gum, and then he was taking the stairs two at a time as he went up to his bedroom.
Faith followed behind, her heart beating fast, coming upon Chase as he bent down and examined the closet. “Yup, he got everything from there,” he muttered, and then stood up and went to the large modern painting that was hanging above his bed. The thing was enormous, and it looked like nothing but a bunch of red and yellow paint splotches across a very big canvas.
Chase took it off the wall and flipped it over. Nothing looked strange about the painting at all, but Chase moved to a drawer in his nightstand, dug through it and grabbed a small screwdriver.
Then he began unscrewing a few small screws on the back of the painting, and before Faith knew what was going on, he’d peeled the backing from the frame and sitting inside it were stacks of hundred dollar bills, neatly arranged and packed tightly inside the painting.
She gasped involuntarily at the sight of so much money.
Chase glanced at her, half-grinning. “This was where the real money was hidden. I kept a stash in the closet, partly for real and partly as a decoy for people like Boogie. I figured if I put enough in a semi-obvious hiding place, they’d think they’d hit the mother load and leave without tearing the rest of the house apart.”
“So it worked, then,” Faith said, tension unwinding in her chest as she realized that the money Boogie had stolen wasn’t as significant to Chase as she’d feared it might be.
“It worked for now,” Chase said, replacing the backing to the painting and screwing it in once more.
She stared at the painting, wondering just how much money was in there. She couldn’t even begin to guess, but perhaps it was a few hundred thousand or more.
Chase hoisted the painting onto the wall again and repositioned it, making small adjustments to balance it so that it was hanging perfectly.
When he was done there, Chase moved back to the closet, kneeling down and putting the small piece of false flooring in place and covering it with shoes.
Faith couldn’t help but stare at the painting hanging on his wall. “Why do you keep so much cash in your house?”
Chase froze for a moment, as he placed the last shoe on the floor. He seemed to be deep in thought, before finally glancing over his shoulder at her. “You don’t want to know the answer to that.”
A chill ran through her body. “If it’s illegal—“
“Just stop,” he said, getting to his feet and straightening up. “This stuff doesn’t have anything to do with you. It’s my problem, my shit, and I know what I’m doing.”
Faith just stared at him as the enormity of the situation hit her full force. Chase was still involved in criminal activity of some sort, and nothing she could do would change that.
And he was basically asking her to look the other way, to pretend that things were fine. Except that now she knew nothing was fine. And however bad it was, she could only guess, because Chase refused to come clean.
He stood there, watching her mind spin, while he chewed his gum, looking at her with a strange half-smile on his face. “Don’t stress over it,” he said. “Boogie came and took some money from me that I would’ve given to him if he’d asked me for it.”
“Why would you give that guy money, Chase?” she asked, shaking her head. “He’s a creep. Even I know that.”
Chase walked closer to her. “I owe him a lot. He took me in and showed me the ropes. He was kind of like a Dad to me, and I pay my debts.”
“I don’t think you should have anything to do with him,” she whispered. “He’s bad. Really bad.”
Reaching out, his hand grazed her cheek softly. “I don’t like it either, but it’s just how it is.”
“How much have you paid him over the years?”
Chase’s eyes grew cold. “I’m not sure.” He seemed suddenly mistrustful. “Don’t judge me, Faith. If I wanted to be judged, I’d tell the world my business. But this is my life and I need to handle it the way I see fit.”
Feeling guilty for judging him—which she was, and couldn’t help—Faith stepped forward and put her hands on Chase’s hips, looking into his eyes. “I care about you. I’m sorry if I made you feel judged.”
His shoulders dropped and his expression softened. Chase’s hand reached out and caressed her hair, and then her cheek, making her stomach flutter. “I don’t really care about the money,” he said softly. “I can make more money. I only was worried about you. If he hurt you, I’d kill him.”
Faith laughed. “He didn’t touch me.”
“If anyone hurts you,” Chase said, his jaw setting as he thought about it. “If anyone so much as looks at you the wrong way—I’ll make sure they fucking regret it.”
“Don’t get yourself worked up. Save your energy for the game tomorrow.”
“I’ve got energy now—and it’s for you.” He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her closer, leaning down and in, his lips on her forehead, delicately kissing. And then she tilted her head up and he bent lower, until his lips were touching hers, softly kissing.
He tasted like gum, and he smelled good—masculine, fresh—his cologne was distinctive and more than pleasant in her nostrils. Chase Winters was sex pe
rsonified, and he was touching her, pleasuring her, and she was more attracted to him than ever before.
Maybe it was the relief of being safe in his arms and knowing he didn’t blame her for the robbery—or maybe it was simply that his presence was the most important thing in her life suddenly.
And despite everything he’d hinted at about his secrets, and despite what she suspected about his criminal activity—Faith knew that in the end she couldn’t walk away from Chase Winters.
Whatever it was, her entire body relaxed and she felt a surge of sexual excitement well up from deep in her core and wash through her, making her nipples stiffen, her pussy moisten, her breath come quicker.
“Fuck, you taste so good,” Chase whispered, after he broke off from the kiss.
She looked down at his crotch and saw the huge outline of his cock through his pants, and without warning, she took hold of it. “I want to suck on it,” she told him.
He looked at her. “If you start this, I might go crazy,” he warned. “The day before a game, I’m intense. I’m like a caged animal and you don’t want to let me out of my cage right now. I don’t think you can handle it.”
As she stroked her hand over his cock, through his pants, she smiled, licking her lips. “I can’t help it if you break out of your cage, though.”
“Shit, that feels good.” He slid his pants down over his hips and freed his enormous, thick manhood. “I want you to put your mouth on it, baby. Right now.”
Chase was so tall that Faith could actually crouch down just a little and suck on his dick. And she did just that, bending over and taking the large, swollen head of his penis into her mouth, sliding her tongue over it, and hearing Chase groan as she did it.
Her tongue swirled again and again, sliding over his smooth cock, as her lips widened and she sucked his shaft further inside her mouth.
“Oh man,” he said, throwing his head back and closing his eyes. “Oh fuck, that feels good. Baby, you’re going to drive me insane.”
She wanted to drive him insane. She wanted to feel his strength, his energy, to know that he had that much passion and need for her.