What He Bargains (What He Wants, Book Nineteen) (110 page)

“Listen, it’s complicated,” Chase told him. “I had to come clean. About all of it.”

“You screwed a lot of people with this one,” the agent said. “Not just me. The league. Your team. Your teammates. But most of all, you fucked yourself. Nobody is going to touch you with a ten-foot pole, dude. You’re going to be a fucking leper in this industry and beyond. I mean, it’s over. They’re going to take everything from you. The money, the contract—flush it down the toilet.”

“I know,” Chase said calmly.

“You know? And you don’t care? Is this some kind of death wish?”

“I had to tell the truth.”

“So that shit they have you saying on the Vox website…You saw someone drag a girl out of an elevator? What the hell does that even mean? It’s crazy, Chase. This is pure insanity.”

Chase laughed a little. “I know it must seem that way.”

“It is that way.” The agent went silent and Chase did too.

There was a lengthy, stunned silence.

“I suppose this is goodbye,” Chase said. “You do what you have to do to get distance from this.”

“Are you fucking kidding me? You cover me and shit and then tell me to go take a walk, tell me to get distance. Well fuck you, dude. Fuck you.”

The line went dead.

Chase sighed deeply and looked at the floor. Then he went and got his clothes on. Faith didn’t say anything for a while.

When he was dressed, she went to him and wrapped her arms around him from behind.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

He took a deep breath, and his whole chest and back expanded. “Thanks,” he whispered in reply. “Because that sucked.”

“I know.”

They stood like that for some time.

L
ater
.

Eating pizza and laughing.

Chase throwing a crust at her when she made fun of his cheese sliding off and falling onto the carpet.

Faith trying to evade him, as he played at chasing her around the motel room. She pretended to dodge, fake left and go right.

As she went to run by him, Chase grabbed her around the waist and tackled her to the ground.

He was on top of her, pressing her arms to the floor, his weight on her as he grinned down at her.

“I love you,” he said suddenly, and his smile faded. “No matter what happens, I love you. And if you need to leave me—“

She struggled to sit up, pushing him off. “Why would I need to leave you?” she asked, feeling scared all over again.

He sat there, his mouth working and not saying anything at first. “Because my life is a wreck. And maybe you shouldn’t get caught up in it with me.”

“We’re in this together. Remember?”

“Yes,” he said, nodding.

“Chase,” she said. “Look at me.”

He met her gaze with his smoldering, dark eyes. “I’m looking, baby.”

“It’s you and me together. Promise me, Chase.”

“Okay. I promise.” He nodded and said it again, and then he reached out and grabbed her, pulled her towards him.

They kissed and touched each other as Chase’s cell phone rang and rang.

Finally, he shut the thing off.

She shut her phone off, too.

“We won’t check them again until after the interview,” Chase said. “It’s going to be too hot—way too hot—and it’s better to just sit tight for a day.”

“Agreed,” she said.

She didn’t want to be anywhere else but with him, anyway. They crawled naked into bed, under the covers, and snuggled with the lights off.

They whispered in the darkness, just talking to one another.

Chase’s voice had changed, Faith realized, as his warm arms wrapped around her naked body, his hands rubbing her belly, her breasts. His voice in her ear, talking without any pretense.

His tone had softened. He laughed more easily, and he said I love you more often.

“I like being under the covers with you,” she admitted, pushing her butt against his hips as he spooned her tightly.

“If only we could just travel around like this all day long,” he said.

“Maybe we could invent something. Call it the Travelling Bed?” she offered.

“Oh, I like it. Can I be your partner in the Travelling Bed Company?”

“I don’t know,” she sighed. “It’s going to be very big. What are you bringing to the table? Money for the first infomercial?”

“My funds are a bit low at the moment. Expecting some major lawsuits in the near future,” he quipped.

She laughed and lightly slapped his arm. “Chase. Don’t joke about that.”

“What?” he chuckled. “It’s fucking true. I’m about to get my ass sued about a thousand different ways.”

“Well I don’t see you being able to be a partner in the Travelling Bed Company with all of your lawsuits and negative publicity.”

He groaned. “Damn. I can’t even be part of a startup anymore. I’ve fallen fast.” They laughed together, and then he kissed her neck, and she felt his hardness sliding between her legs.

“Are we going to defile our prototype?” she moaned, as he inserted himself into her, sliding deeply in.

Fitting perfectly.

“Not defiling. Testing. Product testing.” He grunted as he went all the way inside her.

And then they were fucking, and he was kissing her, sliding in and out, and he felt so good. Better than ever.

Better than ever.

And she was coming, and so was he.

T
hey slept
in the next day.

When she woke up, Chase was climbing out of bed and doing rigorous calisthenics. Faith watched him from the comfort of the bed as he did so many pushups, crunches, and squats.

She couldn’t believe how many repetitions his powerful body was capable of doing in such a short amount of time.

When he was done his morning workout, she asked him what he wanted to do for the rest of the day.

“Be with you,” he told her.

She smiled. “That’s exactly what I was thinking.”

They decided to brave the outside world for a short time, and snuck over to the diner across the street.

It wasn’t all that busy, but just in walking from one end of the diner to the other, Chase had already garnered plenty of wide eyed stares from the other customers.

He sat down in the far corner, out of the way of the rest of the tables, sat with his back against the wall, held the menu in front of his face, reading it.

She slid in across from him, trying to ignore the stares of the regulars at the counter.

“This is awkward,” she said softly.

“We’ll be quick,” Chase said. “Unless you want to leave?”

“No,” she said. “I don’t care.” It was a lie, but she didn’t want to admit that this was terribly awkward.

Everyone in the room was staring and whispering.

Soon the phones would come out, and the filming would commence. It was a vulnerable and gut wrenching feeling.

The waitress came over and took their order. She tried to act natural but it wasn’t very believable.

Chase ordered a stack of pancakes, eggs, bacon and home fries.

Faith ordered two scrambled eggs and a bagel.

They both got coffee.

“I hope this doesn’t take too long,” Faith told him, as he sat back in the booth and tried to keep out of view.

“Yeah. Can we get a rush order on that?” Chase joked.

“Thank God you’re keeping your sense of humor,” she told him.

“It’s all I got left.”

“Besides me,” she reminded him.

He smiled, but it was a tight, unconvincing grin that resembled a grimace.

And now she realized that Chase was starting to feel the pressure of everything—and that he must feel completely alone in this.

The truth was, she could walk away if she wanted to. She could go back to being anonymous, and nobody would ever know.

But Chase was locked into this path and he was stuck. Everyone knew him, everywhere he went. There was no hiding from the course he’d taken.

She grabbed his hand over the table and squeezed. “I’m here,” she told him.

Chase nodded his understanding, as the waitress brought their coffee to the table. The waitress was nervous and fumbling, and ended up spilling most of Chase’s coffee onto the table and needing to wipe it up with a white rag.

“So sorry,” the waitress said.

“It’s fine,” Chase told her.

“We don’t get many big stars around here,” she said. “Can I have your autograph?”

“Sure,” he said.

Faith bit her tongue. She wanted to tell the waitress that now wasn’t the time.

But he signed his autograph on her order pad, and then she went and got their breakfast.

They were busy eating the food, which was decent but on the greasy side, when one of the old men at the counter stood up and loudly said, “You’re a disgrace.” He was holding up a newspaper with a headline that said, “
Winters Storm Threatens Nationals Franchise
.”

Chase was chewing his food, and he laid his fork down. “Thanks for your opinion,” Chase told the man.

“Disgrace,” the old man said again. He threw the paper onto the counter. “In my day, we would’ve rounded up some boys to take care of you but good.”

“I’m right here,” Chase told him.

“Punk,” the old man said, pointing. “No loyalty. No loyalty. Just a rich punk.” The old man, muttering, left the diner, stomping out.

Chase sat forward and looked at the other staring customers. “Anyone else want to get something off their chests?” he said loudly. “Because I want to finish my meal in peace. So if you have an opinion, just get it out now.”

Nobody said a word.

C
hase was
different after the diner.

His smile went away.

Faith tried to make things light, tried to joke around like they’d been doing previously. But it didn’t seem to work anymore.

She couldn’t really blame Chase for being down, not after what had happened in the last day or so.

In the course of twenty-four hours, Chase had found out who killed his mother, realized that man was someone he’d been friends with…and then he’d gone and spectacularly torpedoed his own career by doing a no-holds barred interview where he’d gone on record speaking out against a beloved teammate and the team’s front office.

It was a lot to process.

None of that even included being attacked by the Club Alpha maniacs and having to go hide out in a dingy motel to wait for everything to blow over.

Back in the room, Chase turned on the TV and watched old movies that were playing on one of the basic channels.

He sat in one of the creaky old chairs, legs stretched out, eyes staring straight ahead, arms folded across his chest.

“You okay?” Faith asked him.

“Never been better.”

“All right,” she said, knowing it was better not to push right now. Let him have some cooling off time.

She lay on the bed and watched the movies too.

Eventually, she dozed off.

When she woke up again, he was peeling back the curtain and looking out the window. “Anyone out there?” she said.

Chase turned and looked at her. His face was pale. “No,” he said.

She sat up in bed. “I’m getting worried, Chase. You seem really upset.”

He shook his head. “Everything’s fine. What could be wrong?”

“Just talk to me. I want to help.”

He laughed. “You can’t help me. I’m totally finished. Over.”

“That’s not true, Chase. Don’t say that.”

“Maybe you’re right. I guess I shouldn’t mind that I tried to log into my bank account from my phone and I got a message saying I need to contact the bank because there’s a hold on my funds.”

She felt a chill run up her spine. “It could be a coincidence. Maybe it’s not what you think.”

“I checked my messages,” he said. “My lawyer’s been trying to get in touch with me all morning.”

“We knew it was going to be difficult for a while,” Faith told him. “Remember?”

“I know that,” Chase said. “But the more I think about it, the more I think you shouldn’t stick around for this.”

Faith felt her cheeks flush. “You’re kicking me out? Breaking up with me?”

Chase’s jaw twitched as he watched her. “You see what it’s like now. Everywhere I go, I’m hated. People screaming at me. Attacking me. They’ll come after you too, because you’re with me. You’ll be a target. I can’t have that, Faith.”

“But I want to be here with you. I want to be together no matter what.”

“I love you too much to let you go down in flames because of my mistakes.” He watched her solemnly. “I think maybe it’s time to part ways.”

“Part ways?” She snorted, got off the bed. “That’s one way of putting it.” She felt the tears come, hot and fresh and salty. They poured down her cheeks, unbidden.

“Just for a little while,” Chase said. “Until—“

“No,” she said, pointing at him. “You know that it won’t just be a little while, because this is going to go on and on. If you make me leave now, it’s over.”

Chase looked down. “It’s for the best. For your own good.”

“Don’t tell me what’s best for me,” she yelled. She walked towards him until they were nearly touching. “Look at me, Chase.”

He finally met her gaze. “I see you.”

“You told me you loved me. You said you did that interview because of me.”

“That’s all true,” he said softly.

“Then why would you end it? Are you a coward? Are you what they say? Afraid? Trying to commit career suicide?”

His skin went paler still and his dark eyes grew black with intense fury. “You know that’s not it.”

“So tell me the truth. Tell me why you’re trying to end things with me when I’m here with you. I’m not running anywhere, but if you’re going to get rid of me, I need the fucking truth.”

Chase’s entire body seemed to collapse inward. “I can’t let you see me like this, baby. I’m so weak. I’m nothing. I’m nothing.” He slowly sank to the floor of the motel room.

“That’s not true,” Faith said, and she knelt down right with him, and grabbed his hands as she looked into his eyes. “You’re the strongest man I’ve ever seen. The strongest person. I’m proud to be with you, Chase. So proud.”