Page 32 of Chasin’s Surrender

When her hand in mine tensed, it appeared I’d been an extreme bitch.

“Bobby, honey, sit down.”

“Sit down?”

I felt my lips start to tip up at the sound of Bobby’s shrill tone.

Roberta Layne might be a tiny little thing, with wild blonde hair and more tits and ass than any one woman needed, but when she was on a tear, watch out. The woman could rant. I mean rant for hours. She could also get loud. And when she started, the pitch of her voice rose the more furious she became. Judging by her current octave, on a scale of one to ten—ten being the most pissed I’d ever seen her—she was at a five. The closer she got to ten, the more she hit a falsetto register. When she started channeling Freddie Mercury singing “Under Pressure,” that’s when I knew she’d hit meltdown and was going to blow.

So, with Bobby being halfway to falsetto, I needed to calm her down.

“Bob—”

“No. Fuck no. She lied to me. To us.”

“I know she did. And we’ll figure out how we’re going to deal with that, but you need to calm down first.”

“Calm down? The bitch lied, Viv. And this is not the first time.”

“Babe, you’re getting close to blowing. When that happens, your answer for everything is to burn the house down. I need you calm so we can discuss our options. We also need to call Dom and ask him about my contract and what my options are.”

“Your contract?” Bobby breathed. “You can’t—”

“Yeah, I can. I can do anything I want. But before I tell Leslie to shove her contract up her ass, I need to know first, if that’s what we want to do, and second, if legally I can do that without being sued. But I can’t do that while I’m worried you’re gonna have a stroke. So please, sit down and let’s talk this through.”

Bobby’s eyes were still wide, but it likely had less to do with me holding her hand and more to do with me entertaining the idea of severing my business relationship with B&B—something that Bobby had suggested years ago when we’d caught Leslie in her first lie. But at the time, I was so happy to finally get a break I overlooked the omission, even if it was a big one.

“Are you talking about Dominic Fitzpatrick?” Chasin asked.

“Yes. My attorney.”

“I’m gonna ask that both of you hold off on making any calls. Including to Dominic but especially to Leslie,” Chasin requested.

“Okay, but why?”

“Right now we keep what we know quiet. If you talk to Leslie, she’ll talk to her brother. If you talk to Dominic, he might talk to Leslie, which again means she’ll go straight to her brother. That can go one of two ways. Either we’re accusing an innocent man, which means Leslie would be pissed at the accusation and that could fuck up your business relationship. Or, Chad Briggs is a sick motherfucker, Leslie tips him off, and he makes a desperate play, something at the moment we don’t want him to do. We control the flow of information, we control the plays, which means we control the board and keep you safe. Both of you. Hate to point out the obvious, but stalkers don’t like to be cut off from their obsession. And they don’t like the people who are doing the cutting off.”

“Is Bobby in danger?”

“Possibly. If he feels that Bobby’s the reason he can’t get to you. That she’s the obstacle between you and him, then yes, Bobby’s in danger.”

I shot to my feet, jolting Bobby as I stood, glad that my friend hadn’t sat down as I’d requested, because now it would be easier for me to drag her out of the room, march her upstairs, and lock her in a bedroom.

“What are you gonna do about making sure she’s safe? I want a bodyguard assigned to her.”

Chasin slowly got to his feet. The movement couldn’t be called graceful, he was too big for that, too muscular, but it was fluid—confident, controlled power. Once he was standing, some of the irritation he’d worn on his face when he first came into the sunroom was gone. He wasn’t smiling, but the hardness was gone, and now that it was I realized how guarded he’d been. Then it hit me just how much I didn’t like him hiding from me. I didn’t like cautious withdraw.

Chasin wasn’t cautious, he wasn’t withdrawn, he wasn’t unsure. He was too honest for that. He felt something and you knew it. He told you straight out, there was no guessing what he was thinking or feeling. Except for that morning—he’d given nothing away.

“Another reason why Jonny’s coming over. He’s got someone in mind, guy named Vaughn. I’ve never met him, so I can’t say much except to say, if Jonny thinks Vaughn can do the job, I trust him. So you should, too.”

“I don’t need a bodyguard,” Bobby protested.

“You’re getting a bodyguard,” I returned.

“We’re not wasting resources on me. Everyone needs to be focused on you.”

My body jolted and my hand tightened in Bobby’s which meant I jerked her arm and her body swayed.