by Kelly Favor
A moment later, the engine revved to life.
The crowd was going insane.
People were jumping onto the hood and dancing. Someone kicked out his headlights.
Chase gunned the engine and the crowd dispersed a little, giving him just enough room to begin driving.
As he surged forward, people darted out of the way. But others were still spitting, throwing food and drinks, hitting and kicking the vehicle.
Just before they were able to get out of the parking lot, someone snapped off the side mirror on the driver’s side.
And then they were finally free of the crowd, which surged after them, but couldn’t keep up.
After a minute, the crowd was already being left in the distance.
Faith sighed. “I thought we might die out there,” she said.
Chase looked at her. “Are you okay? Did anyone hurt you?”
She shook her head. “I’m okay. Just a little rattled is all.”
They continued driving in silence for a bit. Chase pulled into a lot with an ATM. There was nobody else in the lot.
“Going to try and withdraw some cash,” he said. “I’m running low.”
Faith smiled, trying to appear brave. “Sure,” she said. “I’ll be right here, waiting.”
He gave her hand a quick squeeze and then left the car running, as he ran to the ATM. She watched him, her heart still pounding.
Faith was still taken aback by the ferocity of the people that had gathered outside the motel.
It truly had been an unruly mob. All they’d needed was torches and pitchforks to complete the picture.
How could they hate all him so much? Had his interview gone so poorly as that? Shouldn’t they have been sympathetic to what he’d gone through?
And then it hit her.
They don’t believe him at all. Nobody believes him.
They think he’s a liar.
It was a difficult moment for her when she realized that. Not only had Chase taken a huge risk in going on television and telling the whole truth about his past, but he’d also blown the whistle on the team trying to cover up Velcro Jones’s actions.
The man’s blatant assault of Monique.
And yet, in the end, nobody even believed Chase’s story. They just hated him more than ever.
She was still pondering this frightening idea when Chase came back to the car and got inside.
He looked at her with serious eyes. “My accounts are locked,” he said. “I’m broke.”
“Let me try,” Faith said. “I have a little money in my accounts.” She went into the ATM while Chase waited in the car.
Even as she put her card in and her pin number, she had a terrible feeling.
When she opened her account, she found everything had been taken out. She had no idea who’d done it, but someone had somehow gotten into her checking and savings and withdrawn all her funds.
She went back to the car and told Chase what had happened with her accounts. “Maybe we need to try and sneak into your house,” she said. “We can get the cash you have in the painting up in your bedroom.”
Chase was silent for too long. “I didn’t want to scare you, so I decided not to mention it before. But I got a text from my lawyer a few hours ago, informing me that my house was broken into and completely ransacked today. I texted back and asked him about the painting in the bedroom and he told me that it was found ripped open. So someone got that money and is long gone with it.”
Faith felt her entire body beginning to tremble. “Who’s doing this to us? Why won’t they stop?”
Chase didn’t seem to know what to say to that.
Instead, he put the car in gear and started driving.
Faith was on her phone’s Internet browser as Chase drove in the direction of her apartment.
They didn’t have enough money for a hotel or even a motel, and Chase figured that anywhere they went now would be similarly overrun with hostile crowds and the media within minutes of their arrival.
As they drove, Faith searched for news about the public reaction to Chase’s interview.
It was worse than she feared.
Some of the headlines she browsed through were downright horrifying.
LEAGUE CALLS WINTERS INTERVIEW A SHAM
OWNER OF NATIONALS VOWS LAWSUIT
“VELCRO” JONES’ FIANCE DENIES ABUSE
WINTERS A MARKED MAN, SAYS BLOGOSPHERE
#QBCRAPFEST IS TRENDING ON TWITTER
NATIONALS RELEASE WINTERS AFTER VOX 60 SPECIAL
EPIC RISE AND FALL OF THE MILLION DOLLAR QB
FAN POLL: 93% THINK WINTERS LIED
WINTERS GO HOME: STATE OF MASS REJECTS FORMER STAR
“HOTEL INCIDENT” NEVER HAPPENED, SAYS NATIONALS COACH
She didn’t even read the articles themselves, although she scanned one or two of them. It was just too painful, though, to see how everyone had turned against him.
Wasn’t there one reporter, one fan, anyone who believed his story?
Wasn’t there anyone who realized that what he’d done was an act of immense courage?
No, there wasn’t. And the reason for that was hideously simple.
Chase wasn’t considered a winner. If he’d still been winning football games and throwing tons of touch down passes, then people would have believed his story.
But the fans had decided that he was just a whining loser trying to throw his poor teammate under the bus.
It made her sick.
The fact that she had tons of missed calls and texts from a million different people didn’t even phase her. She was worried only for Chase, not herself.
She shut off her phone.
Meanwhile, they were getting closer and closer to her apartment. “Looks clear,” Chase said, sounding relieved. “Maybe you should go in first and I’ll follow in a minute. If we go in together, it might be too obvious.”
“Okay,” she agreed, as he pulled the car into a spot next to the curb.
Both of them were on high alert, looking in every direction as he turned the car off. So far, the coast was clear.
Faith couldn’t wait to get inside her apartment—just the two of them, and nobody yelling or shouting or saying horrible things.
Peace and quiet, if only for a short time.
She got out of the car and started walking toward her building. The front entrance was in sight, and she was getting closer.
When she got within a few feet of the front stoop, Faith heard Chase yelling out. “Get back to the car!” he yelled. “Come back now!”
Faith turned to see a group of photographers coming towards her, taking pictures and shouting. And people across the street were staring, a crowd forming already.
She ran as fast as she could, while Chase had started the car and drove to meet her in the street. She hopped into the car just as the first paparazzi ran up, sticking his arm out and taking dozens of shots, the flashbulb popping rapidly as the photographer attempted to get a picture of them driving away together.
Chase gunned the engine and got them out of there as fast as he could.
“They must’ve been camped out, waiting for me to come home,” Faith said. “How do they even know who I am and where I live?”
“These people know everything about me, now,” he replied, shifting gears and driving faster as if someone might still somehow be following them. “And that means they know everything about you.”
“Now what?” she asked. She was still breathing heavy, and sweating from all the running and anxiety.
“I have no fucking idea,” Chase mumbled.
They drove for a long time before Chase pulled into a Wal-Mart parking lot. The lot was less than a third full, and he parked far away from any other cars.
“What are we doing?”
“I just need a second,” Chase said. He pulled out his phone and scanned through his contacts list. “Hope I have his number,” he muttered. And then the phone was to his ear and he was talking. “Hey, it’s Chase
Winters.”
There was a long pause. And then Faith heard the response from the other end. “Are you serious?”
“Yes, I’m serious. I know it’s late but I’m having major problems,” Chase said.
“I should think so,” came the reply piping from the phone.
Chase rolled his eyes. “My accounts are frozen. I can’t take any money out.”
“Yeah…well…I tried to call you,” said the man.
“Why? What did you want to tell me?”
“I was trying to let you know that the league and the Nationals have already filed lawsuits and injunctions against you. They’re disputing the payments they’ve already made and the money you’re supposed to receive in the future. A judge put a temporary hold on the account until a hearing in three days.”
“Three days with no money?” Chase said. “I’m dead fucking broke right now.”
“I don’t know what to tell you. My hands are tied. Do you have someone who could give you a loan for a few days?”
Chase looked at the phone like he wanted to reach into it and throttle the man on the other end of it. “In case you didn’t notice, I’ve sort of become public enemy number one around these parts. And everywhere I go, angry mobs form.”
“You should probably leave town for awhile.”
“And go where?” Chase said. “I have no money. People are stalking and harassing me and my girlfriend. They’ve stolen all her funds from her checking accounts.”
“I hate to say it, but what did you really expect, Chase? I mean, you screwed with a bunch of crazy billionaires who are used to getting their way. What did you really expect to happen?”
Chase hung up the phone and sat in silence for a long while. “Some accountant,” he said. “I still remember when I first hired him. He literally said ‘I’ll be there whenever you need me.’”
“At least he took the call,” Faith said.
Chase gave her a look, but then a slow grin crept over his lips. “See, now, that’s why I love you, girl. Even in a shit situation like this, you still make jokes.” He grabbed her hand.
“I love you too,” she told him.
That night, they slept in the car.
It wasn’t comfortable, not even close to it. They put their seats all the way back and held hands over the gearshift.
Chase fell asleep before she even did. He was clearly exhausted from everything they’d been through the last few days.
For a long while, Faith watched him sleeping, his face finally slackening, looking peaceful after so much pain and frustration.
In that moment, she thought he was the most beautiful, sweet soul she’d ever lain eyes on. And she felt protective of him. As large and strong and powerful and confident as Chase Winters was, he was only a man.
He was human and he was being wronged. Terribly, terribly wronged.
If she could’ve taken it all away right then and there, put it on herself even—she’d have done it.
Thinking those thoughts, she began drifting. It turned out she was nearly as tired as he was.
And then she slept so deeply that it felt like mere seconds before she startled awake, her neck crooked at an uncomfortable angle and her every muscle sore from falling asleep in the car.
She lifted her head and saw that the Wal-Mart parking lot was nearly empty.
But near a street light, a man in jeans, shirtless, was doing what looked like karate. He was throwing punches at the air, kicking, and then pacing back and forth.
At first, she was a little frightened.
What if he was insane? What if he approached their car?
What if he had a weapon?
But after a little while, she realized that whoever the man was—he wasn’t a threat. He seemed drunk, actually.
And comical.
She started laughing, as quietly as she could—but still managed to wake Chase.
He stirred, opening his eyes slowly at first. “What?” he said. “What’s up?”
“Go back to sleep,” Faith said, patting his arm, still giggling. She looked out the window and saw the strange karate man do what looked like a cross between the electric slide and some form of martial arts routine.
Chase rubbed his eyes and looked out the window, following her gaze. “What the hell is that?” he said.
Something about the sheer disbelief in his voice set her laughing even harder. “I have no idea,” she gasped, still laughing.
“He’s doing karate,” Chase said. “At four a.m. in a Wal-Mart parking lot.”
They sat there watching the man a little longer, until he seemed to tire. Then he put his shirt back on and wandered away.
“That was…interesting,” she said.
“I think we just found the one person in the state more pathetic than me,” Chase told her.
“Hey,” she said, turning to him. “Don’t ever say that about yourself. You’re not pathetic, Chase Winters. You’re the most amazing man I’ve ever met.”
He stared into her eyes for a long time, and then she saw his expression change. It was subtle, but very apparent.
At first she thought maybe he wanted to have sex.
There was a look of need and desire and intensity that made her butterflies start up again, sent chills up her spine.
He grabbed her hand tightly with both of his large, strong hands. “Faith Connor, I need to ask you something right now. And I know the timing might be strange, but it’s the right time as far as I’m concerned. Because if we can laugh and have fun and believe in each other during a night like this, then I don’t think there could ever be a time in my future when I want to spend a single moment without you.”
Faith felt her eyes well up. “Oh, Chase,” she whispered.
“Faith, will you do me the single greatest honor of my life, and agree to marry me? Will you be my wife?”
She swallowed, and her tears overflowed and she could hardly speak. “Yes,” she finally said. “Nothing would make me happier than being your wife.”
Chase kissed her then, and the kiss was as sweet as any they’d ever had. In it, she tasted him, and his love, his passion. Everything they’d been through and everything they were going through now.
Everything they’d go through in the future.
But always together.
She broke off the kiss, smiling so wide she felt giddy. Drunk with love and elation.
“I wish I could take you somewhere to celebrate,” he said.
“I’d rather be in love in this car in the middle of the Wal-Mart parking lot, than arguing with you and feeling distant in the Four Seasons penthouse suite.”
He stroked her cheek gently. “I want to take you away from all this.”
“You already did,” she smiled.
They sat in the car and talked awhile, both of them drowsy but still euphoric from their new bond. Mostly, they talked about the future.
Planned for better times. Living in a house somewhere, with a couple of dogs and maybe even a baby.
Chase wanted kids someday. She hadn’t known that, but she did now.
As the sky brightened, it was time to make decisions on what to do next. They had to do something—go somewhere.
“We can’t spend another day and night in this car, hiding,” she told him.
“I know,” Chase said. “I just wish I could think of a plan.”
As they were discussing what to do, a car entered the lot and circled them. It wasn’t just a car. It was a limousine.
And it was parking next to them, when there were plenty of other spots to use. The enormous lot was still mostly empty.
“Who is that?” she said.
Chase turned the engine on and put his hand on the gear shift. “I have no idea.”
The front door of the limo opened and a driver with a cap got out, walked to the back door of the limousine and opened it.
Faith and Chase stared, transfixed, wondering who could be in there.
When the man stepped out, Faith tho
ught he looked incredibly familiar but she couldn’t quite place it. He was handsome as all get out, and built like an athlete. Wearing a leather jacket, slick, with perfect hair and a strong jaw. Those eyes, she’d seen them before somewhere.
The man folded his arms and waited for them to react to his presence.
“Who the hell is this guy?” Chase muttered.
“Maybe we should ask,” she replied.
“I don’t trust it. Maybe this is some sort of trap.”
“I know him from somewhere…” she said, wracking her brain. She’d seen him somewhere recently. And then it hit her like a ton of bricks.
As the man walked over and rapped his knuckles on the window of their car, Jake started to roll down the window. “Back off,” he told the stranger darkly.
“You’re Jake Novak,” Faith said, as the light bulb went off in her mind.
He smiled. “I am. Nice to meet you. Faith, is it?”
“Ye—yes,” she stuttered.
“I don’t know who that is,” Chase said. He turned to her. “Is he an ex-boyfriend of yours or something?”
She laughed and felt her face flush. “No. He’s a huge rock star. I just couldn’t place him because it’s so weird to see someone that famous in person.”
Chase turned and gave Jake an assessing glance. “What the fuck do you want?”
Jake laughed. “I suppose your charming personality is part of why you have so many fans in this town.”
“I’m only going to ask you one more time,” Chase said, his tone edgy and mistrustful. “What the fuck do you want?”
“Get out of the car,” Jake said.
“If I get out, you might not like what happens next,” Chase said.
“I’m not too concerned.” Jake grinned easily.
“Be nice, honey,” Faith cautioned, touching Chase’s leg with her hand.
He seemed to relax, but Faith knew his fuse was still short. Chase didn’t trust anyone easily, and certainly not after everything he’d been through lately.
She couldn’t blame him, either. Why was a big star like Jake Novak here and how had he found them? Had he been sent here for some reason?
