Page 58 of After the Chase

"He mentioned Chase, that was his death sentence, and remember I don’t work for you or take orders. You’re lucky I even asked questions."

Carlos almost smiles. "Fair enough."

Dima’s gaze moves to Chase. "You watched all of that, Chase?"

Chase's voice is steady. "Yes."

"And? Dizzy? Feeling sick or are you good?"

“I’m good. I understand why it was necessary."

‘Fucking hell, we have another crazy one,” Lev mutters before they all leave. Marcus and the others begin cleaning up the body as I move over to Chase. His face is flushed, his breathing quick and there's a visible bulge in his pants.

"You're turned on," I observe.

"Don’t highlight it to anyone, but yes I am."

"By watching me torture him?"

"No, it was watching you do this because of me. I’m so fucking vain, please don’t look at me."

I grab his jaw, forcing him to meet my eyes, enjoying the embarrassment he is feeling from being so honest. "Mine."

"You know I’m yours. Can we go now before I die of shame?" I smile at his discomfort, before releasing him and turning to Marcus. "We're leaving."

"See you both around."

I take Chase's hand and lead him out of the clubhouse. In the car, neither of us speaks, but the tension is electric. By the time we reach the hotel, Chase starts to talk.

“Noah, why were you taking photos of that man? Was it for evidence?” Chase asks as we stand in the elevator. I look over to my side at him and take out my phone, finding the album called “Beauty of Art” and pass it to him.

“Holy shit, there are hundreds of pictures here, Noah. You took all of these? Why?” he says, his voice wary like he is unsure if he wants the answers.

“Because I see the beauty in it. Look at them, Chase, look how perfect they are now that the soul has gone and all of the lies have been taken away.”

He looks down and scrolls before swallowing hard and passing the phone back to me.

“I don’t understand why you would see anything beautiful about that, Noah. It’s awful.”

The elevator stops at our floor, and I pull him out by the hand, toward our penthouse.

“You don’t have to see it. It only matters that I do.”

As we go inside the penthouse, Chase doesn’t move from the doorway as we come inside, his eyes are wide with no doubt more fucking questions.

“There are hundreds there, Noah. Hundreds. How many have you killed? How many have you hurt since we’ve been together?”

I shrug. “I don’t know.”

I stand in front of him and gently run my hand through his hair and he leans into the touch, closing his eyes.

“It’s not a big deal, Chase. You already know what I do.”

“Not to this scale I didn’t, it makes it more….I don’t know…crazy.”

“Thats only because you are stepping out of the denial, baby. Embrace the beauty like I do.”

“This is fucked up, Noah. So these pictures, are they like tokens to you?”