Being Chased (5 page)

So
while he was laid up, he’d written a movie script about his ordeal that’d gotten picked up by an agent and sold to a major movie production company. It was now in its pre-filming stages with producers being courted, directors sought and actors being cast. Of course, most details of the mission were obscured because of its highly classified nature, but Hollywood loved that shit, so everyone benefitted.

Chase
couldn’t be any prouder of him.

“
Hey, Lay. How’s everything going?”

“
Good, can’t complain. Well, I could, but I won’t.” Layton chuckled. “How’s everything there? How’s school going?”

“
School’s going fine. Tougher than shit at times. But I’m hanging in there.”

“
Good deal. So what’s the problem?”

Layton
always knew when something was wrong. He was six years older than Chase and somehow had always read him like a book. When Chase was twelve and had snuck into Layton’s room, stealing one of his girlie magazines
 
to show his buddies, Layton had immediately known just from the look on Chase’s face. Nothing got past the guy. Chase had ended up doing a month’s worth of Layton’s chores, including having to clean out the attic in the middle of July and missing the Yankees-Red Sox game, just so Layton wouldn’t tell on him. Chase knew it was only fair because if their dad had found out, he would’ve lit him up. He’d taught his sons to respect women, not objectify them, and he knew his punishment would’ve been a lot worse from his dad. Too bad he hadn’t been smart enough to blackmail Layton right back with telling their dad. Oh, well. Live and learn, sucker.

“
Well, you know the girl I’m contracted out to, right? Julia?” Might as well get it all out there. “We, uh, we kissed a couple weeks ago but we haven’t talked since and now I think she has a boyfriend and I don’t know why but I keep thinking about her and I got so mad tonight I almost wrecked the fucking car and I kissed her again and she hates me even more now but I probably didn’t stand a chance anyway.” As he’d said all of this in one breath, he sucked in some air after baring his soul. And, damn it, this blew big time having to rehash all the details.

“
Slow down, Chase,” Layton said, knowing this was a big deal if Chase was getting involved with a client. Layton had worked for their dad a few times before he’d left for Los Angeles so he knew the ins and outs of the business. Knew this was serious shit. “So what led to all this?” Layton asked.

“
I don’t know. I mean, the first time I had to take her to a club and she looked so damn hot. She tripped getting in the car and I caught her, and we kind of had a, hell, I don’t know, a moment or something. Then we flirted all night while she was dancing, and when I dropped her off at her apartment building it just happened. Then today I’d decided to just say ‘Fuck it’ and she walks out with this guy, and she was acting so smug and full of herself, that it just pissed me the fuck off, and I couldn’t keep my big damn mouth shut but when she smarted off back at me, I couldn’t help but kiss her again.” He needed to remember to breathe.

“
So what’s the problem? Why don’t you just ask her out?”

“
Well, fuck, Lay, I need this job, it fits perfectly with my schedule and you know about the no-fraternization policy. Pop would fucking fire my ass, so it’s probably not a good idea to be macking on my goddamn client, ya think?”

“
It depends. What’s she like? You’ve never really talked about her before now.”

Chase sighed.
“She’s great. She’s a damn smartass but she’s so intelligent. Quick-witted. Gorgeous. Shit. I don’t know. I mean, I thought she was worth it. I was going to ask her out tonight then she comes out of her office hanging all over that fuckwit. What the hell?”

Layton
also knew this was a big deal because Chase hadn’t talked to him about a girl since he’d been with Tracy. They’d dated for two years, and Chase had even told Layton he thought she was “the one.” But they’d broken up because Tracy had wanted to “find herself” which Chase found out really meant she’d found another guy, one who had money and was willing to spend it on her. That’d been two years ago, and Chase had been devastated. Since then Layton knew that his little brother had overtly slept with every woman in sight the entire next year, obviously trying to move on from the debacle with his ex, not being one bit interested in having a relationship of any sort with any of them. Yeah. This was big.

****

While she waited on dinner, Julia sat at the kitchen bar reading an email she’d gotten from Paige, a good friend of hers from prep school who was a friggin' brain. She'd gotten a scholarship to Stanford to study chemical engineering and was just finishing up graduate school.

In her
email Paige told Julia that she'd met a really cute guy she'd been dating for a month now, and she'd also been hired by a well-known petroleum company in California. She was so excited and wanted Julia to come see her soon. Julia wrote back congratulating Paige on her new job and new boyfriend and telling her that she'd definitely make plans to visit. She also told her about what had happened between her and Chase, wanting to get Paige's opinion on it.

Women always did that, didn't they?
Asked their friends' opinions about "guy stuff"? Julia rolled her eyes as she hit "send" knowing Paige probably had no more of a clue than she did. But it did make her feel better just throwing it out there to be ruminated over. Hell, Paige was a genius. Maybe she'd have some new insight.

****

“So, do you know who this guy was? You really think it was her boyfriend?” Layton asked Chase.

“
The way she was clinging to the asshat, I just assumed it was. Guess I totally misread how she acted toward me. I thought she was flirting with me, but looking back at it, maybe she just wanted to be friends and was talking to me because she’s a nice person and I’m just ‘the help.’” Chase sighed realizing there may be nothing more between him and Julia. She’d just been trying to be polite by talking to him. God. Why’d he have to be so egotistical all the time?

“
I think you should talk to her about it. Get this shit out there so you’re not questioning everything. If friendship’s all she wants, then at least you’ll know and not be driving yourself crazy. If she’d like a relationship, then there you go.”

Layton
always knew the right thing to say. Chase felt much better after they hung up, resolving to talk to Julia the first chance he got which, hopefully, would be in the morning. There were no two ways about it. He would ask her on a date, not giving a shit if Haha Dude was her boyfriend or not or whether he’d lose his job, and she’d either say yes or tell him to get lost. Either way, things needed to be resolved.

****

Julia’s lasagna turned out perfectly and the French bread she had with it was great. Peggy sure knew what she was doing when it came to cooking. After finishing and cleaning up, Julia got back on her laptop and out of curiosity Googled Chase. And wasn't that a great idea. At first she found an article about his class from NYU that showed he’d graduated summa cum laude, which shocked her. She knew he was sharp, but, damn, she didn’t know he was that intelligent. Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. Next, she found a couple of items mentioning awards he’d received in martial arts. Wow. She realized there was a lot about him of which she had no clue.

She looked through pictures of him
at some fight studio wearing the white suit with a black belt that had some stripes on it, knowing that had to have some significance as to the level he was. Wow. There were some action shots of him too that took her breath away. There were also some shots of him guarding various celebrities and political figures. How could she not know all this?

But
as she scanned through more, that’s when the real shock hit. Pictures of Chase showed up from a woman's Facebook page, uh, Tracy something or other, and this Tracy girl was hanging all over him and vice versa. And she was gorgeous. Beautiful. Julia’s breath caught and her face got hot as she viewed him in tons of pictures with this woman, holding hands, kissing, laughing together, looking so happy.

She sat there stunned.
He had a girlfriend. He’d lied to her! So what the hell was he doing kissing
her
? As her stomach dropped, her hurt turned to disgust toward him. She slammed her laptop shut and went to bed resolving to put him out of her mind once and for all.

****

The next morning Chase had a newfound vigor. He was going to lay it all out there to Julia and see if they couldn't get something worked out, find out if she was interested in him then go from there. He felt better than he had in weeks, ready to apologize to her and maybe start a relationship with her. He couldn’t wait to see her.

But when he picked her up and she looked at him like he was trying to convince her that Spam was what all meals should be centered around, he decided against it. J
esus. Guess she really was mad that he'd kissed her again. They rode in silence as usual, he dropped her off, and she snapped a "thank you" at him as she got out of the car. Well, that didn't go as planned. Fan-freaking-tastic.

Since
it was Friday and he'd be off that night, he took the car back to the garage, swapping it out for his own then headed to class. Great. Another entirely too long weekend to deal with the Julia bullshit in his head.

Julia was upset as she sat at her desk looking at a report that she was finding hard to stay focused on. In her mind she kept seeing the pictures of Chase and his girlfriend and how happy they'd looked. She knew she should just get over this and move on, but for some reason she was having a tough time doing that. Though she'd tried acting all 
I'm okay, you're okay
 around him at times, she realized she had feelings for him and didn't know what to do with that fine tidbit of information. 
You kissed twice, Julia
. Twice.
That doesn't mean you have a relationship or anything. Jeez
. 
Let it go and move on, stupid
. 
He has a girlfriend who he’s happy with for crying out loud! So stop thinking about him and get your shit together.

Holy hell. Internal dialogue was
 
so Girl, Interrupted
. She shook her head at herself and dove into her work, cursing quietly under her breath.

****

Chase sat in his Antitrust Law class trying to stay focused. The professor was talking about a computer software company, using it as an example of a company that'd had a monopoly in an industry, and how the Antitrust Act had come into use because of it. He was telling how Senator John Sherman of Ohio had authored the Sherman Act, and blah, blah, blah.

Chase
shook his head a little to wake himself up. He'd never let a professor's lecture go into the "blah zone" and it totally unnerved him. He’d been daydreaming about kissing Julia like some love struck teenage boy. Good God. And what really rattled him to the core was the fact that the professor had given an assignment and he had no clue what it was. Holy shit. What the hell was wrong with him?

And now
he felt all kinds of dumbass inside. Seriously? What was he, like, thirteen with his first damn crush? Christ.

****

Julia had looked at numbers for so long her eyes were almost crossing. She got up from her desk, putting her hands on her hips, stretching her back. She'd been sitting for two hours straight without a break, so she headed to the bathroom.

After coming back into the office, she grabbed a cup of coffee and sat back down at her desk.

"Julia Cooke," she replied when she picked up her ringing phone.

"Hey,
Jules! Lunch today?" Lily asked.

"Sure. Thirty minutes?"

"Okay! See you soon, raccoon!" Lily and her stupid little sayings. Julia rolled her eyes.

She looked back at her work, grabbing the tablet off to the side and just about lost it.
"What the hell?" she mumbled to herself.

On the page that she'd used to calculate numbers, she'd written all kinds of idiotic drivel everywhere:
 
Julia Murphy; Julia Cooke-Murphy; Julia Sinclair Murphy; Julia Sinclair Cooke-Murphy. 
Holy mother of God. She'd subconsciously written this foolishness and had had no clue. Oh, she was a goner for sure.

"I
can
not
 believe this. No way," she murmured.

"Can't believe what?"
Audrey, one of her coworkers who happened to be walking by, asked.

"Oh, nothing. It's nothing. Just talking to myself."
Julia laughed halfheartedly as she flipped the page so nosy Audrey couldn't see to what she was referring.

"You know that's the first stage of insanity, right?"
Audrey looked down at her condescendingly, eyebrows raised, turning her head to the side.

"Um, what's the first stage?" Shit! Had
Audrey seen what was written in the tablet? Julia realized when she'd left her desk the page had been exposed. Great. She looked up at Audrey trying to keep her panic from getting the best of her.

"Talking to
yourself, silly!"

Julia
exhaled the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. Yeah, it'd be all she needed for Ms. Meddlesome herself to broadcast to the entire office that "Julia had a cru-ush." Julia could hear Audrey giving two syllables to the last word.

"Oh, well, I guess I'm on my way to the funny farm then,"
Julia said, chuckling.

Audrey
shook her head, a look of pity on her face, and left Julia to deal with her mental issues alone. Every office had an Audrey, and this Audrey was just such an, um, well, an Audrey. Everyone was always watching their backs when she was around.

Julia
tore the offending page out of her tablet and put it through the shredder just in case. She was infinitely mortified at what she'd written. What was really strange was she'd done it without realizing it.

I am so totally screwed.

****

"What's up,
Murph? Wanna go out tonight? Got the night off from guarding that broad who owns fifty dogs and thinks it’s my job to walk them all," Brock said when Chase walked through the apartment door.

Chase snorted. Brock’s current client was an eccentric old woman who owned half of Manhattan. Brock had been on call all hours and was getting sick of it. Chase realized how lucky he was wi
th the job he had and decided right then and there he had to cool things with Julia. For good. A job like Brock’s would just fuck things up majorly for school. "Where you going?"

"Clancy's. G
uys from CEP are meeting there around nine."

Chase thought for a second before answering. God knew he could use a break from all the studying.
Not to mention his constant condition of Julia on the Brain. And hanging with the hard-drinking crew would cure his brooding for at least one night. "Sure. I can beat your ass in darts again." Chase snickered, knowing Brock would just get drunk and be unable to shoot straight.

"I can't help it if Jack Daniel's takes over my throwing arm. Besides, it
 
seems
 as if I'm playing good," Brock said laughing.

"Yeah, I'm sure it
 
seemed
 that way the last time when you threw a dart that stuck in that chick's ass."

"I know. If she'd been
hot, I'd have been happy to kiss her boo-boo. But since girl was fugly, damn, I thought the he-she was gonna whip my ass." Brock shuddered.

God,
Brock truly was a barbarian.

****

Jacob called Julia telling her to meet him at Clancy's at ten, which would be a welcome diversion from the crap day she’d had.

"What? You're not going to come
pick me up? I'm hurt!" she whined.

"Now, baby. I've got to run by
Blake's first then I'll meet you there. Call Lily and Claire too and see if they want to come. I've missed them. Oh, and can you bring that button down I left at your apartment last time I was there?"

"Let's see. Call the girl
s. Bring your shirt. Haul my butt there. Jeez. Why am I so good to you, huh? I'll bet I'm the best girlfriend you've ever had."

"You are and you know it!"

"Okay, got it. I'll see you in a bit."

"Okay, sweetie. Love you.
"

"Love you too."

Julia called the girls who were more than happy to go out. She told them she'd have Sam swing by and pick them both up on her way then she dressed in her favorite Hudson jeans, a cute, dark green strapless bustier top with a jade-colored, sheer, off-the-shoulder top over it and black Jimmy Choo pumps, excited to have a night out with Jacob and her best friends.

*
***

Chase
and Brock arrived at Clancy's and as was tradition, each guy would order a round to start the evening. Boone Streeter ordered his usual shots of bourbon, which the men drank down fast, then slammed their glasses on the bar. John “Oz” Osby bought tequila shots next. Chris Quaid would follow that with a beer chaser next. Chase would chip in then with his usual scotch and Brock always came through with the Jack Daniel’s. Needless to say, they’d all feel pretty decent after that, which was exactly what Chase needed. He didn’t go out with the guys too often, knowing he’d be sporting a huge hangover the next morning, but tonight it was well worth it.

As
usual when Chase hung with these guys, they were liberally ogled by the women in the place. What woman could resist all the hotness that came with this group? Each twenty-something guy stood well over six feet and sported at least two hundred pounds of muscle. Size was a prerequisite to being hired by CEP. Nobody wanted to be guarded by a five-foot-tall ninety-eight pound weakling. And most of those whom Hank hired had military backgrounds, although it wasn’t mandatory. He just claimed they were better disciplined, which Chase could understand.

“
Yo, Dog Boy, you buying next?” Oz asked Brock when it was his turn to buy as the guys snickered about his latest assignment.

“Fuck you, Oz,” Brock replied
with a sneer.

“Hey, a little hair of the dog never hurt anyone,”
Quaid said with a snort.

“Think they have Puppy’s Breath here? Maybe Old
Leghumper?” Boone added.

They all laughed when Brock
, with middle finger extended in their direction, bypassed his usual JD to order Red Hydrants for all.

They
ordered their own drinks next, Brock not disappointing by getting himself Jack Daniel's then they all stood around talking about their jobs, sports and women. Chase downed two quick glasses when the latter topic came up. He didn't have anything to say and was grateful that Brock kept his mouth shut.

Quaid
and Oz went to play pool and Boone was hitting on a group of women at a table so Chase and Brock started warming up at darts. Jack had already done its job on Brock so Chase knew he’d have to keep an eye on his roommate. And any unsuspecting person who happened to be walking by when Brock’s turn was up.

****

All three girls entered Clancy's finding a table toward the front, ordering drinks then toasting to friendship and finding some hot men, all three laughing at the last part that Claire had thrown in.

Jacob and
Blake finally showed up thirty minutes later, looking a little disheveled.

"
What've you two been up to?" Julia snickered.

"Listen, girlfriend,
with me across the country for work, we haven't seen each other in almost a month. You expect us just to bolt over here ASAP? Uh, right," Jacob said with a chuckle.

"Yeah,
Julia. You, my dear, get to see your bodyguard boyfriend every day, whereas I don't get to see mine. So I expect a little 'sumpin sumpin' when I 
do
 see him," Blake explained, putting his arm around Jacob, leaning over and kissing the side of his head.

"First of all,
Chase is 
not
 my boyfriend," Julia said glaring at Jacob for relaying to Blake what she'd told him about her encounters with Chase. "And second of all, I haven't had a boyfriend since I broke up with Josh two years ago, so I've forgotten how it is."

"Oh,
Josh. God, he was hot! I couldn't believe you let him go!" Jacob said, shaking his head at her.

"Um. Well, let's see. I found out he had a girlfriend on the side. He never had money to pay for things when we went out.
And, oh, yeah! He stole my credit card out of my wallet and charged over $2,000 on it on an online gambling site. So, yeah, he might've been hot, but he was an asshole!" Julia huffed.

"Forgot about that stuff," Jacob replied
quietly.

Julia
just rolled her eyes.

****

"Dude! Let's get this shit started!" Brock yelled at Chase.

"Alright. Get ready to have your ass handed to you."
Chase was slightly inebriated but nowhere near the level Brock was. Yeah. This ought to be a good game of darts.

They both threw one dart.
Chase’s was closer to the bull's eye, so he went first and scored a 68.

"That s
core's the equivalent of a blowjob for me and an IOU for the chick!" Brock snorted.

Chase
just shook his head as Brock took the darts to have his turn. But when after a few minutes he didn’t go, Chase glanced at him to see that he was staring toward the front of the bar.

"Check out the legs on that skirt,"
Brock said, whistling low.

"
Seriously, dude? Did you just call a woman a ‘skirt’?" Chase asked, shaking his head again. He looked to see who Brock was gawking at then did a double take. Julia. He looked back at Brock ready to beat him to a pulp.

"Damn, would I love to bang
that."

Chase’s hands fisted at his sides. “Who’re you talking about?
"

"
The blond in the black leather skirt. Holy fuck, she’s hot."

Relief flooded over
Chase, which made him wonder why that was. Did it matter who Julia dated? Hell yeah, it mattered. He knew it shouldn’t but it did. “Think she’ll give you the time of day?”