Bounty

by Aubrey St. Clair

  “Chase, darling,” I hear Denise’s annoyingly shrill voice before I see her. She sounds ecstatically happy until I turn around and she notices me as well. “Oh, and you brought your little friend.”

  “You remember Lila,” Chase says, standing up. Denise comes forward to give him a kiss but Chase backs up a step and shakes her hand instead. I watch her eyes flit down to his hand in surprise and a quick grimace darkens her face before she turns it into an obviously fake smile.

  “Of course. Lila, dear, there’s a coffee machine around the corner. Francesca can show you. I need to borrow Chase for a few minutes. House stuff, you understand.”

  I open my mouth to protest, but Chase beats me to it.

  “I see no reason why Lila can’t join us.” He reaches toward me and grabs my hand and I appreciate it. Especially when I see the look on Denise’s face. This time she has trouble hiding it as quickly.

  “Oh, of course. Fine. Well, if you’ll follow me then.” Denise turns on her heel with a barely audible huff and leads us to a conference room. She closes the door and passes some papers to Chase as we all sit down.

  “So what’s the big emergency?” he asked, as he flips through the papers in front of him.

  “Oh, there’s no big emergency anymore, I took care of it,” Denise replies casually. Both Chase and I look at her sharply, but she’s staring down at a copy of her own papers, carefully avoiding our gaze.

  “Excuse me?” I say, trying to keep my voice from being a shriek or yelling I told you so to Chase.

  “Denise,” Chase begins, raising a hand to me. His voice is more measured, but I can see that he is steaming as well. “On the phone you told me that something very serious had come up, and that I needed to come in right away to deal with it. We took the first flight out of Macau.” His blue eyes are like ice now as he continues to stare at his ex-girlfriend.

  “And it was important. Very. There was a problem with the inspection. But I handled it.” She looked up now and saw the icicles being directed at her. Shifting uncomfortably, she continues to try to explain herself. “I tried to call you back, but I guess you were already in the air. The inspector found some faulty wiring, but I have an electrician that does some work for me sometimes. I had him go over and take a look. He was actually able to fix the issue in a few hours and the current owners paid for it. I thought you’d be pleased.”

  I could see Chase’s jaw tense as he continues to stare at Denise. I want to say something, but I know I don’t have to anymore. Chase can finally see what I’ve always seen.

  “We were half way around the world.” The words are coming out slowly, as if he is chewing each one of them off and spitting them out.

  “Yes, I realize that,” she said, her gaze dropping down again as she fiddles with the forms in front of her. “As I said, I tried to reach you to tell you that I resolved it. It could have been a deal breaker. From what I understand, the way the wiring was at the fuse box could have been a fire hazard.”

  Chase is breathing heavily now, keeping his emotions under control. I wish he’d stop holding back, I really want to see him let her have it.

  “Fine,” he finally says. “Are we all set then?”

  “Yes, there are just a few things for you to sign. I’ve marked them on each page.” She slides a pen forward and he snatches it up. Without another word he begins to sign each page until he’s finished. I look over at Denise who meets my gaze with a smug little smile. If we were eight years old, I expect she would stick her tongue out at me.

  When he’s done, he pushes the papers back toward her. “Is that all?”

  “Yes, that’s it. With your acceptance of the inspection, all purchase conditions have been met. Other than waiting for your closing date, there’s nothing left standing in the way of you and this house. Congratulations.”

  Chase stands up and turns to the door. He’s still seething. “Fine then. Lila, let’s go.” He yanks the door open and strides out without another backward glance. I’ve never seen him this angry, and I’m only glad it’s not directed at me.

  This time it’s me who turns and flashes a smug little smile as I too get up to leave. “Looks like your little plan to sabotage us backfired again,” I snark.

  Denise purses her lips as she looks up at me. “I don’t need to sabotage anything, dear. Chase and I are inevitable. Unlike you, I can accept him for who he is, I don’t judge his lifestyle or his past. I’ve seen girls like you come and go from his life. You think the two of you are going to end up living happily ever after, but you still have no idea who he is. He won’t marry you. He can’t. So go and have fun. I’ll be here for him when you guys break up. He’s been mad at me before. It’ll pass. Just like you.”

  I open my mouth to respond, but instead just shake my head and turn away, walking through the door after Chase. She’s just trying to hurt me. I can’t let anything she says bother me or she wins. No one ever said anything about marrying Chase anyway.

  But what did she mean, he can’t?

  38

  “I know, I know, you were right.”

  We’re standing outside the real estate office, but Chase is pacing back and forth instead of getting into his car. I haven’t ever seen him this upset. His hands are tightly bunched balls and he looks ready to punch a hole through the brick wall next to us.

  “I’m sorry, Lila. We should have stayed in Macau, it was silly to come back for this. We can go back if you want. We can head right to the airport again.”

  The last thing I want to do right now is get back on another plane, but he knows that after a quick glance at my face. “I’m sorry,” he repeats.

  “It’s not your fault,” I shrug. “How could you know?”

  “You knew.”

  “I suspected.”

  “You knew. I’m sure the whole story about the inspection is a load of crap. Denise has really gone too far this time.”

  “So what are you going to do?” I know what I want him to do, but it can’t come from me. Not directly. Anyway, he offered it in the past. Back in my apartment in Toronto.

  “There’s no point in waiting anymore. The house doesn’t close for another couple of months, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to give her that much time to think of new ways to fuck with our relationship. This needs to end now. She can have some other agent in the firm handle the house details until it’s over. Let them argue over who gets my commission.”

  I hold back a smile of satisfaction because I know the whole thing pains him. I know he has no romantic feelings for Denise, but he definitely saw her in a different light than I did, and it hurts to find out that a person you care about wasn’t really who you thought they were. Harrison was a different kind of person than Denise, but it still hurt when he cast me aside so cavalierly. I had known we were having problems before that, but it was still a shock to watch him gamble me away out of the blue. Denise has always been a bitch, as far as I can tell, but Chase always refused to see it.

  Were there signs that Harrison thought so little of me before he gambled me away that I missed as well? Love truly is blind.

  We turn around and go back into the building, stopping in reception as we’d done the first time. This time, Chase is the one to ask me to stay behind instead of Denise. “I think this would go over better if I do it alone,” he says. I know he’s right, but I would still love to see her reaction when he tells her. Instead, I resign myself to just being satisfied that she’ll finally be out of our lives for good and I take a seat back in the comfortable leather chairs of the waiting area.

  Chase walks past reception on his way to the conference room we had just left and the woman behind the counter looks up as he passes. “Sir, do you have an appointment?”

  “We just left our meeting with Denise Parks. Chase just forgot to tell her something important,” I explain with a genuine smile. Very important.

  The woman pauses and then nods, returning her attention to her computer.

  A woman like Denise
likely won’t accept what Chase has to say without an argument. I wonder whether or not I’ll hear her yelling from where I’m sitting, and then I wonder whether or not I would enjoy it if I did. On the one hand, the bitch deserves it. On the other, who can really blame her for wanting Chase all to herself. I can totally understand that.

  Still, I would never stoop to the level that she’s gone to, and that’s what sets us apart. I may understand wanting to hold onto a relationship that you think is worth holding on to, but at some point you have to accept when something is over. Harrison still hasn’t truly accepted that he and I are over, and I probably owe it to him to tell him I’ve moved on and there is no chance the two of us are ever getting back together. He may claim his texts and phone calls are just being friendly, but I know him well enough to tell he’s trying to slowly worm his way back into my life. I wonder whether it would have worked if Chase and I hadn’t come together that first night. I’d like to think it wouldn’t have, that I would have had enough pride in myself to walk away from him completely. But there’s no denying that getting into a relationship right away with Chase made leaving Harry behind a lot easier.

  There really never was a future with Harrison. We fought almost from the first day we met, and sometimes I wonder whether or not we were simply with each other while we were looking for someone better. Chase is certainly someone better, and I can see a long term future with him much more clearly than I ever did with Harry. Not that I have been considering marriage yet. Hell, we’ve barely started to say we love each other, so it’s far too early to think about marriage.

  Yet since Denise brought it up, now it’s in my head. Can I see myself marrying Chase Anderson? Could I live this lifestyle of chauffeured cars and exotic travel, with hotels and room service and spas? Even though a smile touches my lips as I think about it, I know that I would actually get tired of all of that if that was all we ever did. In a way, the trip to Cuba was what finally made me realize how much I really did care about him, how truly right he is for me. Not just because the two of us got to spend a week together alone, but because I got to see a side of him that I only got glimpses of when we were back here. He has a good and generous heart, and that’s much more important to me than money. That’s why Harry and I would never have worked out.

  But then, what was the crack that Denise made about him never marrying me? What did she mean saying that he can’t? It’s hard to take anything the woman says seriously, since anything could simply be a ploy or plot to drive a wedge between us. To implant some bothersome thought that would eventually cause stress and arguments between us. Still, there must have been some reason for saying it, and I can’t help but wonder what it was.

  “You!”

  My thoughts are interrupted by the shrill voice of Denise coming from down the hall. I look up to see her storming toward me, eyes ablaze with anger and Chase following closely behind.

  39

  “Who the fuck do you think you are?”

  I stood up from the chair as soon as I see Denise coming down the hallway, unsure what she is capable of doing. Obviously Chase has told her that he never wants to speak to her again, and she decided that I’m to blame. She gives me no chance to answer before she continues.

  “You’ve known Chase for what, a couple of weeks and you’re already demanding that he break off friendships he’s had for years?” She turns to look at Chase who is standing behind her with a raised eyebrow. “Seriously? Don’t you see how this is some serious stalker type behavior, Chase? Who does that?”

  “Denise,” he says, his voice starting off calm in the face of her storm but rising as he speaks, “don’t try to turn this around. This was my decision, it had nothing to do with Lila other than it’s become clear to me that you’re trying to sabotage my relationship with her, and I’m not going to stand for it. We were halfway around the fucking world on vacation and you told me there was an emergency.”

  “And I handled-”.

  “Bullshit,” he practically roars, cutting her off as all calmness flees his demeanor. From the corner of my eye I see the receptionist shift around in her seat, clearly uncomfortable at witnessing this. As much as I had wanted to see this myself earlier, I’m now regretting getting my wish.

  She whirls back to me now, her eyes full of fire. “You little bitch, do you really think this is going to help you land a man like Chase?”

  “I’m not trying to land anyone.” It’s impossible for her to conceive of the fact that I’m not after Chase for anything other than himself.

  Now she throws her head back and laughs, but it’s a deep laugh, unlike the shrill one I’m used to hearing. “You’re so naive. You don’t know anything about Chase. You had no idea he was even buying that house, he told you it was his and you believed him.”

  I shake my head, unwilling to let her goad me into a fight. I’m past the house issue. It’s not going to bother me. She’s not going to bother me. “I know about the house now, and I’m fine with it. Chase had his reasons and I get it.”

  “Do you? You understand his reasons?” She spins again to face Chase. “Does she know the reason Chase? The real reason you needed a new house?”

  “Denise…” Chase begins, his eyes flitting to me quickly where I see a flash of something in them that I haven’t seen before. Fear?

  “You didn’t, did you?”

  “I explained my feelings to her,” Chase says quickly. “She understands enough about how I feel to know the house is a symbol that I’m changing my ways.”

  Denise laughs again, still the deeper throaty laugh. “Stop trying to shoot an angle here, Chase. You’re not at the poker table. Let me help you out. You obviously are very serious about your little girlfriend here, and I can see why. So young and pretty. But what relationship can last without complete honesty? I don’t think you’ve been completely honest with Lila here, have you Chase? So yes, let me help.” She turns back to me again, the smile on her face very disconcerting. I want to tell her that I don’t want to hear anything she has to say, that I know she’s only going to try to poison my relationship with Chase with whatever comes out of her mouth, but the words won’t come to my lips. Despite knowing that whatever she tells me is going to be twisted or designed to hurt me or our relationship, I still want to hear it. The fact that I saw fear in Chase’s eyes makes it even more important. It’s obviously something he’s worried about me finding out.

  “Chase needed this new house, because he can’t take you back to his existing house.”

  My brow furrows. Existing house? He has another one? My brain races around trying to figure out what that means before Denise can continue, before she can twist the truth around to make something innocuous sound worse than it is. Is something wrong with his last house? Why would I care? Is it a huge mansion and she thinks I’ll think he’s stuck up? Or is it tiny and rundown, with tenants living in it because he’s a secret slumlord? Whatever it is, I can’t imagine why I would care beyond wondering why he wouldn’t tell me in the first place.

  “And he can’t take you back to his existing house, because someone already lives there, right Chase?”

  Slumlord it is. Or something like that. Or maybe he’s got an old roommate there he doesn’t want me to meet, or could he still have been living with his parents? The possibilities spin through my head in the mere moments before she continues, making time seem to slow with each new piece of information she doles out. She’s clearly savoring this. Letting each bit hit me so she can watch for a response and build on the suspense. Everything she does is designed to manipulate and this is no exception. She’s trying to make something small into something big again as a last ditch effort to hurt us. But there’s nothing she can say at this point that we can’t get through.

  “So tell me, Chase. When were you going to take little Lila here to meet your wife?”

  Except that.

  40

  The look on Chase's face tells me all I need to know. Even though I know Denise is trying
to hurt me, and I can't trust much of what comes out of her mouth, I know she’s isn't lying about this. His mouth opens, but nothing comes out right away and I can almost see the wheels spinning in his head as he tries to figure out what to say. I save him the trouble, shaking my head. I don't need to hear anything else.

  "You know what, stay here Chase. You two deserve each other." Before he can say another word I turn on my heel and storm out of the office into the bright Vegas sun.

  Chase's limo is still waiting outside for the two of us, and my bag is still in the trunk. I open up the door before his driver, Mark, even has a chance to get out of the car. It's time to test whether or not he'll take me somewhere without Chase.

  "Please take me to the airport." I don't really have a plan, but it’s the only place I can think to run, even though I feel like I've been down this path before. When will all of the lies stop?

  "Shall we wait for Mr. Anderson?" I can see the driver looking at me through the rear view mirror with a raised eyebrow. I meet his gaze, but I'm not sure what he sees in my eyes.

  "No," I shake my head and take a deep breath. "Please Mark, can you just get me out of here?"

  The driver stares at me for a moment before finally nodding, shifting the car into drive and pulling out of the parking lot. Whatever it was he saw in my eyes was enough to convince him to just go. Maybe he’s used to the women in Chase's life running from him and his secrets. Chase told me that Mark has been his driver for years, so he’s probably seen it all.