Текст книги "Worth the Chase"

Автор книги: J. L. Beck

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Текущая страница: 8 (всего у книги 10 страниц)

The beer in my hand was cold, reminding me of where I was and what I was doing. I hadn’t taken a drink yet, I didn’t want to be drunk or even have a buzz when she came up those stairs and I got to claim her as my own in front of everyone here tonight.

I watched Chance in the corner as he sat on the marble counter in the kitchen, his own red solo cup in hand. I wasn’t sure what he was drinking, but I knew he needed a little pick me up, so I got up to go and get him a new drink and it was then that I heard her.

I turned around, facing the direction of Gia’s laugh as my eyes met hers. Everything seemed to slow down for one second as I watched her take her first step across the floor. She was decked out in tight leather black pants that showed off every inch of her body. Whiskers were painted on her cheeks and pink smeared across her nose while a tail dragged behind her on the floor as she made her way towards me.

The short sleeve, all black shirt that she was wearing molded her luscious breasts. ‘Let me see your kitties’ was written across her chest, causing a deep laugh to escape my throat.

“That’s some outfit,” I paused, scratching the back of my head. “I mean you look hot as hell.” I pulled her into my body, her scent mixed with her warmth made me weak in the knees.

“Well, thank you. You are looking hot as hell too, but I was wondering if you wanted to see my kitties?” she whispered, her soft lips right next to my ear. I could practically hear every single one of her desires as the question fell from her lips. Her breath fanned against me and it took everything in me not to turn around, grip her by the back of her legs and throw her over my shoulder. I resisted, though, I didn’t want to go all caveman on our first night as an official couple.

“No question needed, I’ll definitely be seeing those kitties. Hopefully with my cock sliding between them, though.” I pulled away winking at her, only catching a glimpse of a shy look that cast across her face as she bit into her bottom lip.

“Dammnit!!” Taylor screeched, breaking me and Gia out of our moment as she bent down to fix her shoe. I looked over at Chance, catching his eyes glued on her as if there was no other place his eyes rather be.

“I told you not to wear those heels,” Gia added, moving towards Taylor and bending down as well to help with the strap on the heel.

“Well a girl has to look good, these happen to make me look good and since I wasn’t blessed with mile-long legs, I have to do what I have to do.” Taylor’s voice was full of agitation as she stood up.

I could sense the shift between the two girls, but I could also feel something else. It was similar to how people who truly cared for one another acted and reminded me of me and Chance.

“Is everything okay?” I asked concerned when Gia came to stand back beside me. I might want her all to myself, but I didn’t want to leave Taylor on her own if she needed someone. I knew all about feeling alone and that was a feeling I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.

“Yes, everything is fine,” Gia whispered, pulling me away from everyone and closer to the stairs.

“There’s something going on between her and Chance,” she whispered the words into my ear when we came to a secluded spot. I had already discovered there were feelings on both sides. Now it was all on them. Taylor needed to push Chance to the point where my brother couldn’t resist, and Chance needed to give in and simply give Taylor a chance.

“I know, let’s just hope they work it out.” Unable to stop myself any longer, I brushed a few strands of hair from her face and stared into her eyes. I could see the trust and apprehension in them. I understood why it was there, but there was no need for it any longer. I was hers, completely and utterly.

“You’re so beautiful,” I whispered as I swooped in, my lips skimming against hers. They were soft and succulent, making me want to sink my teeth into them.

Gia’s unique taste and distinctive smell was everywhere, consuming me as her warm body pressed up against mine. She was my heaven. I was so wrapped up in her I hadn’t realized that this moment was actually the calm before the storm.

“This is adorable, really and truly.” Simon’s bothersome voice boomed loud around us while his clapping echoed off the walls, drawing attention to us throughout the party. Why couldn’t he go the fuck away?

“Adorable would be if you didn’t watch people kiss like a fucking creeper, even more so if you left my house before I had to make you.” Venom fell from my lips with each word said. I wasn’t even thinking about the packed house full of people, I was only thinking about saying whatever needed to be said to get him to shut the fuck up and leave. Every single time I saw him, it reminded me that I had failed to beat his ass the way he needed it to be beaten when he hurt Gia. I had stopped only because the pleading in her voice broke something inside of me. That something wanted to console her and not continue to hit Simon.  I wasn’t so sure though if things turned left again if I would be able to stop myself. I had too much pent up anger inside of me towards him, and it wouldn’t go away until I got it out completely.

Simon smiled, causing a frenzy of emotions to form inside my head. Did I want to risk the chance of the police being called, of Gia having to deal with all of this? Or did I want to show Gia I could change and just walk away?

There were times in life you had to be the bigger person. This was one of those times. At least for her.

“You’re not fucking worth it,” I stated as I turned and grabbed her hand. The warmth from her skin soothed me slowly as we started to move, leaving Simon there alone to make an ass of himself. Before we could get far enough away from him where he wasn’t threatening the last piece of my sanity, he took a cheap shot at me. My body lunged forward from the momentum of his shove, pushing me hard into Gia’s body and causing her to fall on the ground. Blood pumped through my veins fast, all I could see was red. The impact of a fist landing against my skull pulled me from my haze. My angry eyes collided with Gia’s concerned ones. She had to know that I wasn’t going to let him get away with it this time.

“Bad motherfucking mistake.” The loud boom of my voice could be heard throughout the house I was sure, but it didn’t matter to me. If the cops were called, then they were called. Hopefully, Gia would know I did this to teach him a lesson because he wasn’t going away until he learned one.

I didn’t give Simon time to make another smart ass remark or get another cheap shot out of me. I pulled my fist back and landed it against his nose. A loud cracking sound met my ears as blood seeped from his nose.

He wiped it away with the side of his hand as he steadied himself. “Is that the best you got, Winchester?” He smirked, the fucker actually smirked.

“No. This is.” I pulled back my fist again, but he blocked it. His own fist came flying at my face, landing with a hardness against my cheek. The ache radiated through my temple, but nothing could stop me from laying this guy out.

“Someone call the cops!!” I heard someone scream off in the distance as I grabbed Simon by the neck and threw him onto the ground. My fists rained heavily on his 4.0, I’m better than everyone else fucking face. I felt every bruise that formed on my knuckles as I continued to slam my fist against his body.

“Chase, stop!” Someone was pleading with me. Begging me to stop, but I couldn’t, I wouldn’t. He had hurt her twice now, he had disrespected me and everyone here in my home. If he didn’t learn his lesson this time, then he never would.

My fists came to a halt as I looked at them covered in red, before dragging my eyes up to his. Simon’s face was a bruised, swollen, bloody mess that covered his flesh. Looking at him like this, I realized just how much I truly hated the fucker.

“Get on the ground!!!” Loud, authoritative voices called out while the stomping of feet surrounded me. Students were running towards the doors fleeing for what seemed like their lives. I had just pulled myself off of Simon when a body collided with my own.

“I said ON. THE. GROUND,” the officer bellowed in my ear.

“Please stop. It’s okay, he was just defending me.” Gia’s voice was frantic as she spoke to another officer who was swinging his flashlight around the room, counting heads with each swing.

“Ma’am, please take a step back. We’ll be with you in a second,” the officer stated as he looked around the room.

“I didn’t do anything,” I huffed out, the weight of the officer on my back making it hard to breathe.

“It didn’t look that way from the doorway,” he smarted off in my ear. It didn’t matter if I was doing the right thing or not. I might have been defending Gia, my house and the people in it, but once her parents and mine found out about what happened− shit was going to hit the fan.

“Sir, you’re currently under arrest. We’re going to be taking you down to the station to have a talk. Matthews, come read him his rights and I’ll take the guy who was also in the altercation’s statement here and the girl’s statement down at the station. Let’s go. Everyone else, get out before we call back up for you.” The cuffs tightened around my wrist and as they pulled me up off the ground, I caught a shit eating grin on Simon’s face. I almost lost it again, until I realized that shit-eating grin was missing a front tooth.

I paced the floor in front of the desk at the local police station. They had Chase detained in one of the interrogation rooms, and I wasn’t having any of it. He wasn’t going to go down for a crime that he didn’t commit. Even if it looked as bad as it did.

“You need to sit down. I’ve told you three times now that the officer will be with you shortly,” the burly policewoman yelled at me over the counter. I forced myself to a chair, willing my heart to stop racing out of my chest. Chase and I were supposed to be on a new path in our lives, preferably one that didn’t involve the police.

“Gianna King?” I raised my head in acknowledgment the moment my name was called.

“Yes, that’s me! Can I see him now, is everything okay?” I heaved the questions at him, my breath coming out in pants. The officer skimmed over the clipboard he had in his hands and my eyes wondered down to his badge. His name was Ryan. Maybe I could I play the ‘my dad is an FBI agent’ card if things didn’t go my way.

“If the ‘him’ you are referring to is Chase Winchester, I cannot give you any information.” His eyes were dull and uncaring, his voice not missing a beat as he spoke.

I narrowed my eyes in anger. When we arrived at the station, the police officer that arrested Chase had done exactly what he said he was going to do back at the house. He took my statement, and escorted me to the waiting area before disappearing. I hadn’t seen Chase since we arrived here over an hour ago, so to say I was losing my mind was an understatement. I wanted answers and I wanted them now. After all, he was only protecting me. I don’t know why they couldn’t see that.

“If you don’t tell me what’s going on with Chase Winchester right this second I will be calling someone down here that can have you removed from your job so fast your head will spin, you sorry excuse for a−”

“GIANNA KING!!!” The rumbly deep voice was one that I knew very well. One that when I had gotten in trouble many times, had struck fear in me straight to the core. I swirled around, unsure if he could really be standing there or not.

“Dad?” My words hung in the air, as an astonished look crossed my face. There he was standing in the flesh, dressed in black with his FBI badge proudly displayed around his neck.

“I’ll take it from here, Officer Ryan. Thank you.” His voice was calm, but his eyes promised death as he gestured for me to follow him. I had only ever seen that look once in my life and I was lucky to have lived through it. I firmly closed my mouth and bit my tongue. I had so many different things I wanted to say, so many things I wanted to explain to my dad, but I also had a ton of questions and knew that I would never disrespect his authority, especially in front of his peers. Instead, I followed him down one of the halls, my face cast at the ground. The only sound that could be heard was my shallow breathing and the beats of our feet across the tiled floor.

“You know better, Gianna,” he mumbled under his breath just as we came to a stop at one of the doors off to the right. His hand reached out for the doorknob, relief hitting me the moment my eyes landed on the person sitting in the room.

“Chase!!” I exclaimed as I all but ran into the room, though it was short lived because my dad interrupted our reunion before our bodies could even collide into one another’s.

“Take a seat, Gianna.” My dad’s tone was serious, one I did not want to go up against right now.

“You both have major explaining to do. Not only that but you, Chase, could be facing assault charges. Don’t even get me started on the disrespect I witnessed pouring out of your mouth, Gia to Officer Ryan. Maybe, I should let both of you spend a night in jail.” His eyes shot to Chase in a more than angry manner.

“Sir, I told you before, Gia had nothing to do with this.” I could hear the heartache in his voice as he tried to explain what was going on to my father, and if anyone knew or understood what that was like it was me.

“We didn’t do anything wrong. In fact, this whole situation is stupid. The cops got called for no reason. It was just a little scuffle.” My father cast a look my way that said shut up, causing a groan to escape my mouth as a reply.

“Oh stop it! Seriously, Dad? If anyone has explaining to do it’s you,” I spat at him. Chase looked at me cock-eyed and my father seemed to grow angrier.

“I have nothing to explain to you!” he replied as he slammed his fist against the table.

“Oh, yeah? Well, neither do I! I’m an adult, and I don’t see why you just happened to be here when all of this was going down,” I stated with a raised eyebrow. His demeanor shifted from FBI mode to dad mode in a blink of an eye as he sat there trying to come up with an excuse.

“I know that work didn’t bring you here because Mom would have called and told me.” Chase seemed lost, his facial features turning from a frown to a look of confusion quickly.

“Alright! I asked to be assigned here. Uncle Devon and I thought it was a good idea. First it was for Taylor, to make sure she adjusted easily and no one tried anything on her because she was a freshman. You don’t know how many cases of assault on females we hear about because some inexperienced college girl was date raped. And you know how Taylor is, she is so much like your Aunt Tegan. So trusting in nature. Since you happened to be here too, I was looking out for you as well. I knew when the call came in from your address this evening it was something bad. I was worried, and then when I arrived here and saw Chase, your boyfriend in here… you can imagine what I was thinking.” The hurt was evident in his eyes. I understood why he did what he did, but there was no need to be spying on us.

“It’s wrong, Dad. We don’t need a babysitter.”

“I can disagree with that given the situation that transpired tonight,” he shot right back at me, forcing me to roll my eyes.

“Sir, it’s really not what they are making it. Shit went down before this and I was simply sticking up for your daughter,” Chase confessed. My stomach twisted in knots thinking back to that day that Simon had hit me. It may have been an accident, but it still happened.

“What went down before this?” My father’s eyes darkened as they zeroed in on Chase’s.

I could hear the inhale of air enter Chase’s body as he heaved in breath after breath. “The guy that could possibly press charges against me is Simon. He has money and family ties in the school, so he is always walking around like he owns it and thinks he can do whatever and get away with it. I know he had a thing for Gia, hell a lot of guys did since our freshman year. I always thought she was too good for me, that I was never good enough for her, so I stayed away until I couldn’t anymore. But that’s not the point. The point is, one day after class I saw him and her together. He had his hand on her waist and her hand was trying to move his, but he wouldn’t let go. I went up to him and told him to let go of her which led to him running his mouth as usual. Gia tried to diffuse the situation so no one would get hurt or in trouble. She got caught in the middle of us, right when he decided he was going to hit me, and instead his fist came down and landed across her cheek.” His words were venomous, and I watched as my father’s hand went straight to his gun holster.

“He hit her?”

“Yes, sir. He hit her. So I took him down. Gia got me to let him go and the situation was dead to me, though I admit I was waiting for another opportunity to get him. Tonight he presented that chance when he showed up to our Halloween party. He pushed me into Gia, making her fall down onto the ground. That was all I needed.” Chase’s eyes locked onto mine, there was a sadness deep inside of them that made me want to jump into his lap and wrap my arms around him.

The room grew quiet, my father’s deep breaths meeting my ears as I stood from my seat and found my back up against a wall.

“I could kill that little bastard. How dare he touch my daughter?” His gun came down on the table, the sound of metal against wood filling the room.

“Exactly. Now you see why I knocked the fucker’s tooth out. He can take his charges and shove them up his uptight ass,” Chase stated.

I ran my fingers through my hair trying to find a way to calm my father down as he begun pacing back and forth in front of me and Chase. I didn’t know what he was going to do next, all I knew was that the anger he was feeling was radiating around him in a ball of fury.

Dad paced the floor for a few more seconds, before reaching into his back pocket and pulling out a key. He walked over to Chase and undid his handcuffs in complete silence. The moment the cuffs came off of Chase’s wrists, he rubbed circulation back into them and my father walked around the table, over to where I was standing against the wall.

“You’re my daughter at the end of the day and nothing outside of that matters more to me. If this Simon guy hurt you, laid a finger upon you as Chase has said then his life is now in my hands.” His face showed the hurt he was going through. I knew he would beat himself up over this, feel as if he should have protected me more, which is why I had never said anything to my mother or him.

“What’s going to happen now?” Chase asked my father just as he turned on his heels to face him.

“Now, I take care of business. The charges will be dropped, I’ll be sure of it because now we have leverage over him. If he refuses, then we press charges against him, but don’t worry about anything. He won’t refuse.” Chase’s eyes grew wide with understanding as a smirk formed on his face, his smile was just as sinister as the one spread wide across my father’s face.

“Chase!” I exclaimed.

“What? At least you know your dad cares enough to put some asshole in his place and handle him for hurting you.” He shoved from the chair he had been sitting in since I entered the room and headed straight towards me, but as soon as his hand touched mine my father stepped between us.

“Remember those words you just spoke, Chase. If you hurt my daughter, I’ll take that personally and I’ll dig your grave myself right in my backyard.” I stood there with my dad in between us and guilt weighing heavily on my chest.

My dad was a protective man, who believed in family above anything else. It may not have seemed like that big of a deal when I had first lied to him about Chase being my boyfriend, but at this moment as I saw the love he had for me flood his eyes I knew that it truly was.

“I have to tell you something, Dad.” I paused, waiting to hear or see what his next move would be. His eyes met mine, the look on his face holding me still.

“Go ahead,” he calmly said, almost a little too calm for my liking.

“When you first saw me and Chase together…” I cleared my throat. “We weren’t really together. I lied to you, hoping that you wouldn’t get mad at me for having some random hook up. I mean I’ve heard the lectures so many times. I knew you not only wanted me, but AJ, Michael, and Brendon as well to wait for the right one. I’m sorry if I disappointed you by not waiting, but most of all I’m sorry for not being honest with you.” My cheeks flamed like someone had struck a match against them. A smirk pulled at his lips, and I let out the breath I had been holding since the moment that I had lied to him.

“I know, sweetie. Your mother told me. I had made a promise to her not to say anything. I knew all along, I was just waiting for you to come clean. Like that time you and Taylor destroyed your mom’s flower garden riding bikes and told us that the neighbor’s dog did it.” Dad chuckled before getting serious once again, “I was just hoping that you could work things out with this guy and that maybe I would be seeing him at Thanksgiving. Something about him makes it hard not to almost like him.” Relief filled every orifice of my body as my dad winked at Chase.

He had known all this time. A strangled laugh left my throat.

“Thank God. I thought he was going to kill me,” Chase mumbled under his breath as sweat clung to his eyebrows.

“I still will if you hurt her.” My dad added right before placing a kiss upon my cheek and walking out of the room. I had never been so happy, relieved, and excited in my life. Now nothing could hold us back from chasing our dreams together.

A passion deeper than hate had brought us together, fate had played its tricks on us, but a need deeply rooted in love had refused to let either one of us walk away.