Second Rate Chances

by S. C. Stephens

  Makayla had to swallow at the look in his eye, the sincerity in his voice. Her heart was beating faster when she whispered, “I know, I feel that way too sometimes.”

  Chance smiled, then cleared his throat. “Well, I’ve been wanting to ask you since Monday, but I didn’t want you to think that it was just some…elaborate plan to sleep with you…because…that’s not…I wouldn’t ask…I wouldn’t rush…I didn’t expect you…to do…anything you weren’t ready for…and I don’t know…if we’re ready to…to…”

  As he was cutely stammering over his words, Makayla let him off the hook and leaned in to kiss him. Cherishing the warmth of his mouth, the taste of his tongue, Makayla felt a flood of emotion hit her. Sure, his method was completely twisted, but the sentiment…it made her stomach flutter.

  Pulling away from him, she cupped his cheek. “That is the sweetest excuse for robbery that I’ve ever heard.” Chance smiled, showing her that impossibly attractive grin. Sighing, she shook her head. “As nice as that sounds, we still need to return your brother’s property.”

  Chance sighed and nodded. “I’m sorry about this…I just wanted to impress you.”

  Leaning back in her seat, Makayla cocked an eyebrow. “You doing the right thing today impresses me far more than horses and quilted beds.”

  Chance chuckled as he started the car. “Don’t be so sure…” he playfully lifted an eyebrow, “the B&B beds are really comfortable.”

  Makayla smirked at him, then laughed as well.

  Back at the pawn shop, Chance asked Makayla to stay in the car again. Well, it was more like pleading, at least it seemed so in his eyes anyway, so Makayla sighed and decided to stay where she was. This was already costing Chance a bundle, she didn’t want to mess up even more and have the guy go back to his original request of three grand. Makayla shuddered. That was a lot of cash to come up with on the fly.

  Chance came out of the store ten minutes later, looking glum but holding his hot property. Makayla leaned over and kissed him, just to perk him back up. Chance smiled over at her and Makayla’s chest squeezed tight. She just loved being able to make that look appear on his face. Putting a hand on his knee, she tilted her head at him. “Should we go see your brother now?”

  Chance’s face paled and he immediately shook his head. “No, no way, Makayla. I’m not letting you get anywhere near him.”

  Makayla frowned and began to tell him that she’d stay in the car this time, but Chance shook his head again. Jaw tight, he cupped her cheek. “No, I don’t want you around him…he’s dangerous, Makayla…”

  Swallowing, he examined her face for a moment, then leaned in to kiss her. There was an edge of desperation in his kiss, like he was genuinely afraid for her safety. Makayla made a vow as they moved together…she would someday put Chance’s brother behind bars. Then Chance would never have to be afraid of Garrett again. And maybe then, Chance could truly be free.

  Chance eyed her face as they pulled apart. “How’s your head?” he whispered, his face concerned.

  Makayla cringed at the memory of smacking it yesterday. It hurt less than her hip, though, so she thought that was a good sign. Even the headache she’d had last night was gone. “Fine…all better.”

  Chance looked worried and guilty, so Makayla gave him as bright a smile as she could. “Don’t feel bad, I’m fine…it’s not your fault.”

  He looked down. “Yes it is, Makayla, and you know it.” Looking back up at her, Chance shook his head. “Don’t erase my flaws because you have feelings for me. I messed up…and you paid the price. Don’t let me off the hook for that.”

  His eyes seemed to be pleading with her again, begging her for forgiveness so intensely, it stole her breath for a moment. Seeing the well of grief in his eyes, almost near despair, Makayla pulled back and removed his hand from her cheek. She held his palm in hers, giving him strength. “I fell, Chance…that’s really all that happened.” He swallowed and Makayla searched his stricken eyes. “What is it? You look like, I don’t know, like you want to start groveling or something.”

  Against her will, suspicion started to bloom in her belly; it filled her with so much dread, she felt ill, her stomach churned. Minutely, she pulled away from him. “There’s something else, isn’t there?”

  Chance stared at her for a moment longer, then seemed to gather himself. Chuckling, he shook his head. “No, no, you know all of my dirty little secrets, Makayla.” Sighing, he looked out the window. “There’s just so much that I’ve done in the past…”

  Makayla grabbed his cheek, pulling his gaze back to hers. “Don’t let your past define you. We can choose who we want to be…everyday.”

  Chance grinned. “That…should be on a Hallmark card.”

  He chuckled and Makayla smacked his arm, then chuckled as well. “Just drive us home…thief.”

  Still lightly laughing, Chance drove them away from the seedy little pawn shop. As he was switching lanes of traffic, an offhand remark he’d once made popped back into Makayla’s brain. “You know, you made me an offer once…and I think I’ll take you up on it.”

  He rolled his head around to her, his attractive grin loose and easy. “And what’s that?”

  Twisting in her seat, excitement shot up her spine. “Show me how to tail someone without getting caught.”

  Chance lifted a brow. “Really?” he drawled.

  She nodded. “Yeah, that’s a skill that I can see myself needing one day.”

  Chance gave her a warm smile, then turned his attention back to the road. It was late afternoon and several cars were on the four lane road, heading back and forth to destinations unknown. Makayla was suddenly struck with the curious desire to know where each set of tires was headed. Were any of those mystery drivers as interesting as her mystery driver?

  Chance lifted his chin up, indicating the sea of color around them. “Pick one.”

  Beaming, Makayla scanned the road. After a second, she pointed to a vehicle three or four cars ahead of them. “That one.”

  Chance looked back at her with his lips twisted. “A yellow Hummer? Really? I couldn’t lose that tank if I tried.” Shaking his head, he motioned to the road again. “Pick again…something not so flashy this time.”

  Makayla frowned and scanned the road again. She couldn’t help but be drawn to the flashy one, but he was right, if she was naturally drawn to it, she could easily follow it. She needed a generic car. Something that could disappear on her…

  Smiling, she found a different one and pointed it out. “There, the white Camry.”

  Chance smiled at her choice. “Good. Now the trick of it is to follow the car without doing what the car does. We don’t need to change lanes every time he does, and we don’t need to do it when he does. All we need to worry about is making the correct turns and watching for stops.”

  Makayla nodded, understanding the principle. Implementing it though, now there was the real trick. But Chance didn’t seem to have a problem eyeing the vehicle as it swerved around a slow moving truck. He didn’t change lanes with it, just kept his eye on it. When it finally made a right turn, Makayla tensed. Surely they’d lose it around the corner? Chance didn’t seemed worried though as he casually turned right a few vehicles after the Camry. Surprisingly, the car was going straight along the road and they easily kept behind it.

  “How did you know it wouldn’t turn right away?”

  Chance peeked over at her and shrugged. “I didn’t. But the odds were good, since we’re not in a residential area, that it would go straight. If it didn’t, glancing down the side streets is easy enough.” Keeping his eyes glued on the car, he added, “Usually rapid turns like that only happen if the suspect knows you’re tailing them. If they don’t know, they usually drive pretty predictably.”

  Makayla smiled and leaned back in her seat. “Where’d you learn this stuff?”

  Chance grinned as he made another turn. “My d…” His voice trailed off and he frowned. Starting again, he said, “My brother and I us
e to follow people around for fun when we were younger.” He sighed, his frown deepening. “We weren’t always so different.”

  Makayla furrowed her brow. Her quick head had caught that he’d changed what he’d been about to say. He’d started with a D sound. It didn’t take a genius to realize that he’d been about to say my dad, before he’d switched it to his brother. Interesting. Was his dad not entirely on the up and up either? Maybe criminal behavior ran deep in his family. Quite interesting, given that his mom worked in a federal building. The lone upstanding citizen in the family. But, no, when he’d been talking about his parents, he’d said they’d both been fed up with him…they’d both given up on him. His brother too, she had to assume. He must have been going somewhere else with that sentence.

  Curious, she asked, “What was your dad like?”

  Chance stared over at her, his eyes wide. He probably thought she hadn’t caught his slip, but she had. He slowly shook his head. “He…” Chance’s eyes flicked back to the road and he swore. The Camry was gone.

  Chance slowed down and started eyeing the side streets as they passed them. He found the car at the far end of a road and turned left to follow it. “Rule number two…never take your eyes off the mark.”

  Makayla raised an eyebrow at the way he’d phrased it. Mark…not suspect. Interesting. But she supposed it was fitting, considering that he was used to trailing people for scandalous reasons, and not justifiable ones. It was the same thing really, but with very different intentions…two sides of the same coin.

  Chance was quiet as the car they were following turned on a blinker. They both glanced up at the huge building the car was stopping at…a shopping mall. Chance let the car turn without following it. Breezing past it, he smiled at Makayla. “There you go. Your potential bad guy is heading to Macy’s.”

  Chance chuckled as he looked over at the driver. Makayla looked and chuckled as well. A frazzled mom with two screaming kids in the backseat was in the white Camry. Bad guys indeed. Chance picked another car, and Makayla let their conversation slide, so he wouldn’t be distracted. She put a tack in her brain, though, a reminder to ask Chance about his dad at a later time. There was something there, some answer to the riddle that was Colton Burke…she was sure.

  After three or four successful trails, Chance hopped out of the car and let Makayla have a try at it. She was nervous at first…it felt really wrong to follow someone who wasn’t aware that they were being followed. At least, it felt wrong when you were following an innocent person. Following Chance on the night he’d stolen from her had felt so right, it had only confirmed her career decision.

  She picked a car that was a nondescript gray, and did what Chance had told her to do, followed without mimicking. It was nerve-racking. She was afraid at every corner that she was going to lose the vehicle. Every instinct inside of her wanted to ride the car’s ass. But that was entirely too obvious, so she trusted her gut and held back.

  Once she was more relaxed, Makayla found that she could anticipate the car’s moves. She even correctly guessed when the car was going to turn and changed lanes a split-second before the car did. Chance whistled. “Nice…” he playfully bowed to her, “and so the student passes up the teacher.”

  Makayla giggled, her adrenaline on high. When the car started heading out of the main block of the city, to the residential area, Chance put his hand on the wheel, preventing Makayla from following as it turned. Makayla frowned over at him. Twisting his lip, he shook his head. “Residential trailing is different, and can be dangerous. Hiding is near impossible, and we really don’t know who that guy is. If he spots you…well, the police suddenly pulling you over could be the least of your problems.” He raised an eyebrow to make his point.

  Makayla sighed, then smiled. “Hey, you want to grab some food and go back to our bridge? We could have a picnic?” It wasn’t the warmest outside, but it was clear and the wind was low. As Chance was always saying, you had to take advantage of opportunities as they arose.

  Chance leaned back in his seat; the grin on his lips was the beautiful one that had first grabbed Makayla’s attention. “Yeah, that sounds great.”

  They went to a grocery store on the edge of town and grabbed some snack-like food. Makayla even picked up a basket, since it wasn’t a proper picnic without a proper basket. Chance rolled his eyes, but smiled warmly at her. Tucking in a small bottle of wine, they purchased their meats, cheeses, a long baguette and a container of strawberries.

  They slowly made their way back to the covered bridge and parked along the edge of the road. Zipping up their jackets, they walked down to the bank of the lazy river below the bridge. Finding some relatively dry rocks to sit on, Chance opened the wine while Makayla spread out their food choices. Chance seemed to eat pretty healthy, which Makayla appreciated, since it helped her with her diet as well. He’d picked out chunks of turkey and a cheese so deliciously flavorful, only a few bites were needed to enjoy it. As healthy as it was though, when they finished off their meal with a handful of berries, Makayla suddenly wished that they’d picked up some chocolate to dip them in.

  Chance seemed to understand her desire to dunk and plopped a berry into the plastic cup holding his wine. Makayla smiled as he brought it to her lips. “Here, try this.”

  She closed her mouth around it and growled an approval. The berry absorbed and enhanced the flavor of the wine. The wine sent warmth through her body, blocking out the slight chill in the air. The combination was sinfully delicious.

  Chance’s eyes widened at her response, then they flashed to her mouth. He swallowed as he watched her. Makayla finished the fruit and reached out for him. Drawing his face to hers, she gave him a series of light, teasing kisses. His breath quickened with each one.

  “Good?” he murmured, his hand reaching up to thread through her hair.

  “Amazing,” she whispered back. Pulling away from him, Makayla bit her lip. “You avoided my question earlier?’ He bunched his brows, tilting his head and Makayla shrugged. “When I asked about your dad…”

  Chance immediately looked away. Tucking his arms around his legs, he shrugged. “I don’t really talk about him, Makayla.”

  She put a hand on his arm. “Why not?”

  Chance let out a weary exhale, then looked back at her. “He’s not worth talking about.”

  By the flatness of his tone, Makayla could hear a deep scar there, one that would burn if opened. She was torn. She wanted to know him, really know him. Maybe if she did, she could understand what had led this seemingly normal man into living such an abnormal life. But…she also didn’t want to cause him pain, or push him into revealing his grief-filled past any faster than he was comfortable with. He’d already opened up so much…but there were still some aches there. His dad one of them.

  She laid her head on his shoulder. “It might help to talk about it?”

  Chance sighed again and kicked a rock with his foot. “He…he just didn’t turn out to be who I thought he was. Nothing turned out to be what I thought it was…” He sniffed and stopped talking. Looking at the rigid way he held his jaw, Makayla could tell he wouldn’t say any more about it. Whatever hurt was between Chance and his dad, it wouldn’t come out today. His cryptic sentence was all Makayla was going to get.

  So she kissed his shoulder, and gave him an out. “I’m sorry, Colton.” Looking over at her, he finally smiled.

  Chapter 12

  Change of Plans

  Now this was getting really dangerous for Chance. He’d screwed up so many times today he could barely keep track of them all. There was just something about Makayla that lowered his defenses, let bits and pieces of his real personality come out. It was a little surprising to Chance. At times, his real identity seemed to be the fake one. At times, Chance forgot who he really was. But that was a common problem when you were always playing someone else.

  Maybe being Colton Burke was the problem. Colton’s persona was too close to his own. Their stories, while completely different
in the details, were too similar in the sentiment. Colton’s suffering opened cracks into Chance’s…and real emotions were slipping out. Chance was a con man. He didn’t do real emotions…ever.

  Sniffing, Chance decided that he’d never use Colton as an alias again. This was the last job Colton Burke would ever pull. Then again, this may be the last job Chance ever took. His heart just wasn’t in it anymore. Too much had changed this past year; he’d suffered to greatly and he wasn’t quite the con man that he used to be.

  Chance shifted to his side and stared at the empty pillow where Makayla had been sleeping just a few hours ago. They’d had a rousing kissing session last night, once they’d crawled into bed after their adventurous day, but it hadn’t gone any further than that. They were getting closer, both nearly ready, but she was holding off and Chance was happy to let her. Timing was everything. Chance shifted over and put his head on her pillow, imagining her blue eyes right before him. He still couldn’t believe she was letting him stay with her. Her willingness to help someone in need was mind-boggling. Chance hoped she kept that trait after this was all over; she’d be a better officer if she still had it.