Lead Me On

by Victoria Dahl

  It was a man, but who? Her heart forced blood to race too fast to her brain, mixing her thoughts into a jumble. Should she jump up and run or stay quiet? Her lungs screamed for air, but she tried to keep her breathing slow.

  Was it the killer? Was he disabling her phone so he could take his time without worrying about the police?

  She couldn’t just lie there. There was another bedroom on the other side of her wall, but she couldn’t remember now if the owner had rented it out for the year or just for ski season. Regardless, Jane had to take a chance. The man stood between her and the door. Running was not the best option.

  Opening her mouth, she drew in a deep breath and watched the man’s face shift toward her.

  “Help!” she screamed as loudly as she could. “Help!”

  “Oh, shit,” the man barked, lunging toward her. The voice was familiar, but Jane screamed again.

  A hand slapped over her mouth, cutting off her cry.

  “Shut up,” the man growled. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

  Greg? Jane snapped at his hand, trying to bite him, but she didn’t catch any skin between her teeth.

  “Calm down.”

  She shook her head and grabbed for his arms, but Greg let his weight fall on top of her, trapping her hands.

  “Anh!” she screamed against his hold.

  “Shut up. Don’t scream and I won’t hurt you. Are you going to scream?”

  Jane shook her head, hoping he’d be dumb enough to let her go, but his hold stayed tight.

  “I’m not going to let you ruin my career over something that didn’t even happen, all right? Just take the recording off your phone, and I’ll leave.”

  She nodded and closed her eyes, waiting for his hand to ease off, but his fingers dug harder into her cheek.

  “Don’t try anything, Jane. That killer is still on the loose, you know.”

  Tensing, she frowned at him.

  “You don’t want to be written off as his last victim, do you?”

  Oh, my God, was he really threatening to kill her? No way did he have that in him. Then again, she hadn’t really expected blackmail or breaking and entering either.

  “You know who he is?” Greg asked. “A locksmith. And I used that spare key you hid on the side of the building. There’s no sign of forced entry. Everything will point to him.”

  Jane nodded, serious this time. She felt his hand slide off. For a few heartbeats she considered screaming, but his story about the locksmith sounded well thought out. Maybe he really would hurt her. When he brought the phone closer to her, she decided on a better plan. She’d already screamed three times anyway. Either neighbors had heard her or they weren’t going to.

  “Delete the message,” Greg demanded, holding out the phone.

  “This is ridiculous,” she said. “Do you think I won’t tell the police about the blackmail? Not to mention that you’ve broken in to my apartment and threatened me?”

  “It would be your word against mine. And I’ve got to tell you, your word just isn’t worth as much.”

  Jane grabbed the phone, but Greg snagged her wrist before she could push any buttons.

  “If your finger comes anywhere near the nine or the one, you’ll regret it.”

  “Fine. But I have to call in to the system. It’s not saved on my phone.”

  “I’m watching,” he warned.

  Jane pulled up her recent calls and quickly moved down to the one she wanted. It was a risk, but…

  The line opened and began to ring. Jane held her breath, and so did Greg. There was no sound but the electric tone ringing through the ether. Finally it clicked into silence.

  “Hello?” a deep, hoarse voice said.

  “Chase!” she yelled just as Greg barked, “Goddamn it,” and knocked the phone from her hands. “It’s Greg!”

  He slammed his fist into the phone, turning the screen dark. “You bitch,” he growled.

  “You’re an idiot,” she snapped. When he twisted toward her, hand raised as if he might strike, Jane punched him. Hard. But not as hard as she could, not from this angle.

  The feel of his jaw shifting under her knuckles freed some tightly controlled animal inside her. Jane pushed up to her knees as Greg sat back on the bed, both hands cradling his jaw.

  “Hey,” he whined. “You hit me!”

  Putting years of practice into every movement, Jane drew back her arm and envisioned putting her fist right through the dark oval of his face. When her knuckles hit his nose, bone crunched.

  Greg screamed. Her phone began to ring.

  “You stupid, arrogant shit,” she muttered, reaching out for the light next to her bed. When it snapped on, she saw Greg dressed in a black sweat suit and black knit cap, but the hands cupped to his nose were bright red and getting redder by the second.

  He stood and backed away from the bed. “You broke my nose!”

  A few seconds ago she’d been scrambling for a plan to get away from him, but now Jane jumped out of bed and followed. His eyes widened. Before he could turn and run, Jane jabbed him in the gut. When his hands fell, she aimed an uppercut for his jaw.

  Greg fell backward, crying out in a high-pitched little scream that made her smirk.

  “Don’t you ever threaten me again.”

  Flat on the floor, Greg began to curl into a little ball to protect his body, but Jane was done with him. She grabbed her phone, which had finally gone silent, dialed 911 and strolled past Greg without even a twitch of nervousness.

  By the time the 911 operator answered, Jane had slammed the door on Greg’s whimpering and was headed downstairs. She filled the police in on what had happened, but her explanation came out in bits and pieces due to the constant beep of the other line.

  “I need to answer this other call,” Jane said.

  “Ma’am, please stay on the line until the police arrive.”

  “But my friend—”

  “Ma’am, the intruder is a continued threat. The arriving officers need to—”

  “I told you he’s incapacitated.”

  “Ma’am—”

  The phone beeped again, and Jane hung up on the operator, worried that Chase thought she was being murdered by the serial killer. Before she could click to the other line, the hot squeal of tires on the street outside interrupted. Funny, she hadn’t heard any sirens.

  Jane opened the locked front door and was nearly trampled by Chase.

  “Jane!” he yelled as his hands latched onto her shoulders. He was wearing gray sweats and nothing else. His hair, which she would’ve thought too short to get mussed, was lying in a funny direction on one side of his head.

  “I’m fine.” In fact, she felt fine, despite the throbbing in her right hand.

  “What happened?”

  “Greg…He broke in.”

  “He what?”

  “He threatened me earlier today, and I recorded it, and—”

  “What?” Panic widened his eyes. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “He said if I didn’t sleep with him, he’d interfere with Jessie’s plea, and spread the word about my past. But I recorded the conversation and told him I was going to get him fired.”

  “Oh, Christ,” he muttered.

  “So he broke in tonight and tried to make me erase it.”

  His gaze rolled toward the open door. “Is he gone?”

  “No, he’s upstairs, but—”

  He broke for the stairs so quickly that Jane felt the breeze on her pajamas. “I already took care of it,” she called out as she chased after him.

  She heard the door slam open before she was halfway there. Greg’s startled yelp of fear mixed with Chase’s low “What the hell?”

  “I said I took care of it.” She stopped at Chase’s shoulder, and he looked down at her in complete disbelief.

  “You did that?”

  They both turned to look at Greg, who had one hand to his still-bleeding nose and one held out to ward her off. Both eyes were already tur
ning black. “L-Look,” he stammered. “I was just leaving. This doesn’t need to…Oh, God, I think my jaw’s broken.”

  Jane shook out her aching hand. “That might explain why my hand hurts so much.”

  Greg cringed. “We don’t need to involve—”

  A siren wailed, cutting him off, mouth still open.

  Chase looked down at her again, carefully taking her hand in his. “Wow, Miss Jane. That is totally hot. Wish I could’ve seen it.”

  Rolling her eyes, she slid her hand out of his just as Greg darted forward. If he’d thought he was going to make a run for it, he was sadly mistaken. Chase shoved him back so hard that Greg went sprawling on his ass. New blood spurted from his nose when he landed.

  “Stay down, dickwad,” Chase muttered.

  “I need to let the police in,” Jane said, but then she heard a rush of footsteps in the entry. “We’re up here!” she shouted down.

  Two officers came up, guns drawn. As soon as they spotted Chase, they aimed straight at him and yelled for him to get his hands up.

  Jane put her hands up, too. “It’s not him. The guy’s in the bedroom.” The guns stayed trained on Chase. “This is my friend! The intruder is in my bedroom.”

  Chase backed up until his back hit the wall, because the police seemed hesitant to edge past him. When they got a look at Greg, one of them swung the pistol back toward Chase.

  “Seriously,” Jane said. “The man on the floor is the intruder.”

  They finally swooped down on Greg, who immediately began babbling about the D.A.’s office and who he knew at the police department.

  Chase reached out for Jane’s arm and tugged her toward him. “Why didn’t you tell me what was going on?”

  “You know why.”

  “Damn it, you can say I’m not your boyfriend, but you called me when you needed help.”

  The emotional part of her brain finally started working again. Jane felt her eyes burn with the start of tears.

  It was true. It hadn’t occurred to her to call anyone but Chase, and she hadn’t been thinking about how close his place was to hers. She’d been thinking that if she needed help, Chase would help her. “You’re a good guy,” she said lamely.

  “Jane…” he said as if he was about to lose his patience, but then the exasperation fell from his face like a mask and he snatched her into his arms to pull her close. “God, you scared the hell out of me. I thought…Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “My hand’s starting to throb a little, but…” She didn’t say anything more. The skin of his chest was so hot against her cheek, and he smelled warm and sleepy. She snuck her arms around his waist and just held on. Greg’s voice seemed very far away as he demanded to be taken to the hospital.

  Jane closed her eyes and listened to Chase’s heartbeat vibrate through her. They stood like that for a long time before the police began asking questions. Nearly an hour later the police were gone and she had to face him alone.

  “You want me to sleep on the couch?” he asked, but Jane shook her head.

  “You have to go. Greg is going to make sure everyone in town knows about my past now. And there have been flashing lights outside my place for an hour. My neighbors are already talking. I can’t have you sneaking out of here in the morning, adding fuel to the fire.”

  “I wasn’t planning on sneaking out.”

  She shook her head and crossed her arms. “Thank you for coming. Thank you for caring. But I can’t be with you, Chase. My reputation is going to be in shreds.”

  “And why do I detract from it? Because of my tattoos? Half the girls in this town have them, for Christ’s sake.”

  She crossed her arms tighter. “Do you have a record?”

  That shocked him. He pulled his chin in. “What?”

  “Greg said you had a record. Is that true?”

  He stared at her and said nothing.

  “Oh, my God,” she huffed. “I never asked because I figured you couldn’t get permits with a criminal record. This is unbelievable.”

  “I was seventeen. It was my first offense. My record was expunged after two years.”

  “That doesn’t mean it didn’t happen! What did you do?”

  Chase shook his head and shifted from foot to foot. “I stole a truck from my boss—”

  “Oh, perfect!” She laughed, throwing her hands in the air. “A thief! No wonder you fit in so well with my family.”

  “I wanted to go to Grand Junction for the weekend, and I didn’t think he’d miss it. He reported it stolen and I was picked up on my way home. My boss accepted my apology and the charge was lowered to criminal mischief. I did community service and paid reparations to the company. It was no big deal.”

  “No big deal? Then why didn’t you tell me about it?”

  Chase’s jaw dropped. “You’re kidding, right? After all the stuff you kept from me? Christ, you aren’t the only one who struggled through shit as a teenager. I was pissed off, too. And I figured I’d poured all my money into rent and groceries since my very first job, so I decided I deserved a little joyride. Get over it and stop being self-righteous.”

  “I’m not being self-righteous, I’m saying I want to be with a man who’s never seen the inside of a jail cell! Is that too much to ask?”

  Chase shook his head and sighed. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about it. I didn’t want to tell you about it.”

  “So you kept it from me on purpose.”

  “Yes. Do I look like a fucking idiot? I knew you’d use it as an excuse, and that’s exactly what you’re doing now. It’s an excuse, Jane. We’re good together, and you said yourself that I was a good guy.”

  “It doesn’t—”

  “And you were right about one thing. Nothing’s changed. The way you feel about me hasn’t changed, and I still love you. But that doesn’t mean I have to take this kind of shit. I’m going to go, and you can call me when you’re ready to talk like a grown-up, all right?”

  “No!”

  “Put some ice on that hand, Sugar Ray.”

  “Chase…”

  He gave her a perfunctory wave and walked out. After a moment of stunned silence, Jane locked the door and checked all the windows. The police had already found the key in Greg’s pocket, thank God. Jane wasn’t planning on calling a locksmith.

  Still, she felt nervous as she walked around. Her eyes drifted toward the sofa where Chase had offered to sleep.

  She’d made the right decision. They needed a clean break. There was nothing she could do about the past, but she could damn well do her best not to get it mixed up with her future.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  HALFWAY THROUGH THE WEEK, Jane couldn’t stop thinking about Chase. She’d thought of him a lot during their fling, but now it was pathological.

  She wanted to call him. Wanted to call and say, “My mom is at my house!” But then she’d have to explain that her mom had never been to Jane’s condo before, and that would sound awful, considering she lived twenty minutes away.

  Jane poured two glasses of lemonade and went to sit next to her mom on the couch.

  “So Jessie looks good?”

  Her mom nodded. “He does. Really good, actually. And if he keeps up the good behavior, his lawyer says he’ll probably be out in six months. That’s not so bad.”

  “No, it’s not.”

  “Are you gonna go see him? He can receive visitors until eight on Thursdays. You’ve still got an hour.”

  She looked into her mom’s hazel eyes, noticing how deep the lines were getting beyond the mascara. “I don’t think so, Mom. I sent him a letter a few days ago, though.”

  “He told me he got it. And thanks for paying for the attorney. She was real good. I’ll try to pay you back someday.”

  “Please don’t. I wanted to do it.”

  “Thank you. But I’ll still try.” Her mom sipped her drink and looked nervously around. “It’s real pretty in here, Jane. Like something on TV.”

  “Thank you.”


  Her mom’s neon-pink nails plucked at her skirt and Jane felt her gut lurch. Her own mother was nervous in her house. She had no idea what to say to Jane, and Jane didn’t know what to say, either. This was ridiculous. And shameful.

  “Oh!” her mom said. “I knew there was something I wanted to tell you. Do you remember Mrs. Jackson? She used to live next door? She stopped by to see me.”

  Jane nodded, hiding her anxiety about what was coming next.

  “She said she’d heard how well you were doing for yourself now and she was just tickled pink.”

  Jane ducked her head. The stories were starting already.

  Though Greg had been charged with breaking and entering, it hadn’t made it to the papers. Probably the D.A.’s office was trying to keep everything quiet. They’d fired Greg immediately, and Jane had been relieved to hear he’d left town to go stay with his parents.

  Still, his departure didn’t really change things. He’d made sure to spread the word about her before he’d left. Mitch the dentist had already called to ask if everything was okay. Lori had come by the office just today, having heard some of the story from Quinn. Lori had brushed off Jane’s concerns and taken her out for lunch without batting an eye.

  But it hadn’t been enjoyable. Jane had spent the lunch wondering whether she knew the other diners and what they might think of her.

  There was no hiding anymore.

  Her mom smiled and patted her hand, seemingly oblivious to Jane’s worries. “You remember Patricia, her daughter? She was younger than you. Only twenty-one years old and she married an Egyptian man and moved all the way over there. Can you imagine that? Married to a man from such a different culture? And so far away.” She gave a disapproving hum.

  Amazing that marrying an Egyptian man at twenty-one would shock Jane’s mom. She’d married her first convict at nineteen, after all. That was only three years older than Jane had been when she’d gone off to party with three strangers.

  Though her mom kept talking about Mrs. Jackson’s recent visit to her daughter in Egypt, Jane’s thoughts were on the past.

  Her mom had made some really bad choices, but she’d had no one around to pull her out of them.