Page 31 of Chasin’s Surrender

There was a lot I needed to talk to Bobby about and Chasin was one of those things. I was just worried that with the strain on our friendship, she’d shut me down, which was why I was procrastinating. But before I asked about her opinion on Chasin, I needed to apologize—and I was really afraid she’d shut that down.

I’d spent a good amount of time last night lying awake thinking. Most of what I was chewing on was Bobby and me. Everything she’d said to me was right. All of it was my fault. I’d pulled away. I was a coward and did what I always did and retreated. She needed to know that.

When I wasn’t mulling over what I’d done to Bobby, I was thinking about Chasin’s mother.

The woman wasn’t just a bitch, she was a bitch. Cheating in general was a shitty thing to do, but blatantly doing it in front of your child in your family home, who did that? Talk about a twat.

I understood childhood scars; I wore my own. My heart went out to Chasin. Intellectually, I understood his reaction to hearing me on the phone with Bobby. I just didn’t know what to do with this new information. I was totally confused and wished I could rewind my life two years, grab Bobby, and spend the day dissecting my conversation with Chasin the way one could only do with their BFF.

Five minutes later, I looked up from my laptop when the man himself walked into the room. God, why couldn’t I stop thinking about him? Why did seeing him walk into a room make my heart race?

“Hope you’re not busy,” he started. “I need to talk to you and I asked Bobby to join us.”

Those were the first words he’d spoken to me all morning, even though I’d seen him twice since I’d woken up. Then again, I hadn’t said anything to him, either.

“I’m not busy,” I told him and closed my laptop.

With a curt nod, he sat in the farthest chair from me, not next to me like he’d done last night. He also wasn’t smiling. I didn’t know if that was because he’d spoken to Nixon again and gotten bad news or if he was pissed at me. Why that mattered so much, I didn’t know, but it did.

“Everything okay?” I asked, proud my voice sounded surer than I felt.

Before Chasin could answer, Bobby came into the sunroom looking like a knockout, though she always did. My friend was gorgeous. We were opposites in so many ways—Bobby was light to my dark, outgoing to my introvert, loud to my quiet. Part of why we’d worked so well together, she was the front person and liked it there, while I preferred to stay in the shadows. The only time our roles reversed was when I was on stage. The rest of the time, Bobby handled everything.

“Jameson Grant’s on his way over to install the alarm. You haven’t met him yet and you need to, so before you get to work I’ll introduce you,” Chasin informed me, but didn’t answer my question.

A ball of uncertainty landed in my belly and sat there like a lead weight.

“And the new locks?” Bobby asked.

“I’ll change the locks while Jameson’s working on the alarm. Also, I’m heading out for a few hours.”

I tried, I mean I really tried, not to react. I even clenched my teeth to stop myself from vocalizing my panic. Unfortunate, because when I spoke, it sounded like I was gritting my teeth—which I totally was—but I wished that Chasin and Bobby didn’t know it.

“What? You’re leaving?”

Chasin’s gaze swung my way, and the instant it did, he lost some of the hardness but none of the curiosity.

“Alec’s coming over with Jonny Spenser. Jonny’s a local cop—good guy, smart guy, totally trustworthy. He’s going to talk to you and Bobby. He needs to be kept up to speed about what’s going on in his town. You’ll have all three of those men here with you while I’m gone and Jameson won’t leave until I get back. We won’t leave you unprotected, not even after the alarm’s in and the locks are changed.”

That made some of my tension ebb, but the vast majority of tightness hadn’t left my shoulders, and no matter how hard I tried to relax back into the couch, I couldn’t. I was freaking out because Chasin was leaving, then I was freaking out because I was freaking out. Why did I care if Chasin left? I shouldn’t have but I did—a lot.

“Nixon called, McKenna ran Chad Briggs. Did Leslie disclose her brother had been arrested on assault charges?”

“Yeah,” Bobby answered and I looked at her. “He was on the job when he was arrested. But Leslie said the charges were dropped once he explained to the cops who he was and what he did for a living,” she added.

My eyes cut back to Chasin to find him studying me and doing it closely. He was also frowning, which was worrisome in and of itself. But there was something else there, too. He looked angry. Not pissed but angry, angry.

“What’s wrong? If he was arrested on the job—”

“If that’s what she told you, then she lied,” Chasin cut me off.

“What?” I asked, and at the same time Bobby added, “That’s exactly the story she told me.”

“Chad Briggs wasn’t arrested on the job. Not even close. He was arrested outside of the bar where he beat the shit out of his ex-girlfriend’s fiancé. That was after he’d stalked the guy for weeks beforehand. After the arrest, the guy refused to press charges and he and Chad’s ex moved fifty miles away.”

“What?” Bobby screeched and immediately moved across the room to my side.

There it was, Bobby always moving in to protect me. I reached out and grabbed her hand, her head dropped to our hands, and her wide, startled eyes came to mine. Had I been such a bitch that my BFF would actually look shocked that I was grabbing her hand?