“Don’t be sorry. Like I’ve been told, the only ones to blame are the Spatafores. Let’s get back to Franco.”
Jade nodded. “Franco asked to take me to breakfast at Canyon Café over on Pikes Peak Avenue so that I could help him understand why I’d left the Springs in secret and where I’d been. I said the reason for the secrecy should be obvious and that I had already eaten breakfast. He said he was hungry and suggested I could have a cup of coffee.”
“Were you planning to tell him the truth?”
“Yes.” Jade nodded. “I hoped the truth would make him so angry he’d go through with breaking my contract. I figured being in a restaurant, I’d be safe. I saw him lose control once when I refused to shed my white bikini and pose nude for a photo. Once was enough. I told him I never wanted to see him fly into a rage like that again.” She shuddered and said, “Just so you know, I would not have implicated you or the Triple C Ranch by name.”
“He already knew my name and had a tracker on my car when he abducted you,” Chase said. “Fly into a rage is the exact language a private investigator named Lester Bisbee used when he came to my ranch to deliver a message about you from Franco.”
“A private investigator?” Jade shook her head in confusion. “What did he say?”
“I’ll tell you about that later too.”
“I think we can assume my contracts are broken.” Rubbing her temples, she gave Chase a small smile. “Later than sooner.”
“Better late than never.” He nodded. “Are those fingerprints on your right wrist?”
“I guess so.”
Chase’s jaw clenched, and he gritted out, “Did Franco do that to you?”
“Yes. I’ve got a headache and pain everywhere, like I’ve been beaten up. But I wasn’t touched except for my wrist,” Jade assured him. Continuing, she admitted, “I was dealing second by second with Franco. Chase, I’m remembering a lot of my thoughts, people, and events as I say these words out loud to you.”
“You’re doing great,” he praised, keeping his anger under control. “So, did he take you to Canyon Café?”
“No. He drove straight to his house.”
“Of course, he did.”
“When we got there, he escorted me to his home office. A woman named Greta served us tea instead of coffee. That’s the last thing I remember about the first day until I woke up that night in a strange bedroom with Margo sitting beside me.” Jade wished she had something to lessen the hammering in her head just as a corner drugstore came into view. She pointed and asked, “Can we stop so I can run in and get something for this pain?”
“Yes, absolutely,” Chase said. He slowed the Hummer and pulled into a parking space at the drugstore. “I’ll go in. What do you want?”
“You can’t go in with blood all over your shirt.”
“You can’t go in with pain all over your body,” he said with a smile.
Seeing his face straight on, now that they were stopped, she asked, “Chase, how did you get that bruise near your left eyebrow?”
“Ragsdale. Nothing to do with you,” he told her. “We both have enemies.”
“But now you have the Spatafores as enemies too.”
“We have cowboys and bikers as friends.” Chase winked at her, and she bit her lip as more tears stung her eyes. “I know the people who work here.” He nodded at the store and then indicated his arm. “They’ll think I was hurt on the ranch and getting something for the pain.”
“Ibuprofen is fine.” She reached for her purse to pay for it.
“No.” Chase placed his hand on hers. “I’ve made sure we aren’t being followed. But promise me you’ll still be here when I get back.”
With his touch, every part of her body erupted in razor-sharp twinges and bee-like stings. She slipped her hand from under his to her lap. “I promise.”
CHAPTERTWENTY-SIX
Chase grabbed two bottles of water and the ibuprofen. When he’d parked outside the Lusso Lane gate, he’d been prepared for a confrontation with Franco. Sleep-deprived, he thought his mind was playing a trick on him when a blonde materialized out of the darkness at the crack of dawn. He’d exited the Hummer, hardly believing his eyes, when, from behind a stone-cold statue, stepped a flesh and blood woman.
But the moment he had touched Jade at the gate he’d sensed something was different. Even so, he hadn’t expected Jade to pull her hands out from under his. Then, when he’d reached for her in the car, she had responded by gripping her purse instead of taking his hand. He reasoned that after all she’d been through, she was in shock. What else had happened to her within the Spatafores’ walls? He paid the cashier and wasted no time getting back outside. Seeing Jade inside the Hummer, he breathed a sigh of relief and joined her.
“This should help.” Chase uncapped the ibuprofen and tapped a couple into her hand. Then he downed two tablets for the pain in his upper arm.
