Never Say Never, Part Two (Second Chance Romance, Book 2)

Never Say Never

Part Two of

The Never Say Never Series

Melissa Shaw

Table of Contents

Never Say Never, Part Two

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Also by Melissa Shaw

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To my loved ones. Thanks for believing in me.

CHAPTER ONE

“What do you have to say about that, Chase?”
 

Two seconds had passed since Emily’s world had descended into a slow burning crumble.
 

Janet stood a few steps away from her and Chase closer than that, but he might as well have been in Boston for all it mattered.
 

“Why?”
That was his reply. His gaze was fierce with anger and pain.
 

Emily held her ground, glaring between the fiery red-head and the man she’d fallen in love with to her folly.
 

She’d been so stupid to believe in that fairytale.
 

“Why didn’t you tell me you’re with her?”
She pointed at Janet, and the other woman straightened with pride.
 

“I’m not.”
Chase shook from head to toe. He moved his hands behind his back and grasped them together until his muscles bulged under his shirt. “And even if I was, it’s none of your business.”

“You’re lying.”
 

“As opposed to what you’ve done?”
Chase let out a wry chuckle. “You’re a criminal. Funny how you managed to exclude that from our conversations.”
 

“There are things you haven’t shared with me.”

Chase strode away from her, placing physical distance between them to match the distance which grew in Emily’s heart.
 

“Ha! That’s a joke and you know it. I could have a third nipple and two more girlfriends and it wouldn’t come close to being a criminal.”
 

“Stop saying that.”
It had been an accident. She couldn’t have known how that night would end, or she’d never have started drinking.
 

Talking about this was too much. The memories associated with this conversation threatened to destroy her.
 

“Why should I stop when it’s true?”
 

“Because it’s not as simple as that. And how dare you accuse me of being a liar when you’re in a relationship with this bitch.”
Emily through up her arms and Janet dropped her shoulders.
 

“Watch it!”
The redhead lurched into action, but Chase stopped her with a glance.
 

“What did you do?”
 

“I haven’t done anything,”
Emily replied, snatching her purse up and striding up to him. She wouldn’t let him escape her gaze easily. He had to know how much this had hurt her.
 

This was worse than the stunt in the strip club. It would likely have the same outcome: her without a job and with a broken spirit.
 

She craned her neck up at him, sweeping back her blonde hair so he’d have the full effect of her ire.
 

“I haven’t done anything, Chase Newman, but you sure have. What were you thinking?”
 

“What are you talking about?”
 

“Is this woman your girlfriend?”
 

“Yes,”
Janet shouted sycophantically in the background. “Don’t deny what we were, baby. Don’t deny what we are.”
 

“It’s complicated.”
 

Slap!
 

He didn’t stop the hit or massage his reddened cheek afterwards, but the anger spilled out of his pores.
 

“You betrayed me. After everything we’ve been through and all that I’ve told you, you still betrayed me.”
 

“How can you say that when you withheld the most important slice of information from your past? You weren’t open with me. You hid the truth when you could have garnered my acceptance from the beginning.”
 

“I can’t have a past? I can’t have secrets?”
She refused to get on the defensive.
 

“Don’t shaft me for mine when you’re holding your own.”
 

“Fucking someone else is not a secret, Chase, it’s infidelity. It’s the scummiest thing a human being can do.”

“Apart from being in jail, of course.”
The reply came like a whip crack across her back. She was a slave to those words.
 

“Or killing someone,”
Janet interjected.
 

Emily ignored her –
she couldn’t know the truth about this.
 

“I told you enough. I told you about the kids, about the drugs.”
 

“Jesus, what were you thinking, baby? She’s a wreck.”
Janet strode up and down behind them, a caged weasel of a creature.
 

Chase talked to the woman for the first time since her ‘big reveal’. “I honestly don’t know.”
 

“I should have known, but I was too blinded by your dime store charm and your floppy do.”
She reached up and flicked Chase’s flawless hair with her forefinger.
 

It was a strange reference, flicking him the way he’d flicked her months ago. Hopefully it had the same effect –
revulsion.
 

“Don’t touch me.”

“Don’t contact me again,”
she shot it back at him, an arrow loosed from a rusted bow.
 

“You think I’d want to speak to you again after this?”
 

But the questions wouldn’t leave her alone. She walked to the kitchen counter, finally implementing that distance again, and leaned against it, exhausted from the conversation and the knowledge that this had been a farce.
 

Her worst fears about this man had come true. Her beliefs had developed on a base of deceit. This was the end of her need for love and acceptance.
 

This was the beginning of her rage.
 

Janet had sat down on the couch to enjoy the show and swigged beer from Emily’s half-full bottle. She spotted her watching and grimaced.
 

“Hopefully I don’t get any hooker diseases from this.”
The disgust turned into a mocking grin –
several of her teeth were skew.
 

Why her?
 

“Why, Chase, why her? Why this milk sop of a ginger bitch?”
 

Janet gave a kitty hiss and stomped her foot, slopping beer onto it.
 

“She’s my ex.”
 

“You never told me you had an ex-girlfriend.”
But she didn’t let him answer her. “Man, how stupid am I not to have picked that up? You have me working for her. Working for her!”

“What choice did I have? Tell you and have you freak out. You’ve been on a knife’s edge ever since…”
he trailed off and his eyes widened. “I don’t have to justify anything to you. You’re a criminal. You lied to me.”
He thumbed himself in the chest.

“I might have omitted the details of my past, Newman, but I’ve never betrayed you.”

“A lie is a betrayal.”
 

There was no making him see sense or apologize. He believed she was the one in the wrong, and her words kept falling on deaf ears. This was over.
 

Emily let out a pained laugh and Janet pouted. “I’m leaving.”
 

“Don’t come back here.”
Chase threatened, tugging at his shirt needlessly.
 

“She should move out of your apartment, babe.”
Janet hopped up and strolled to him, slipping and arm around his shoulders and leaning in to plant a kiss on his cheek.
 

Rage built again.
 

“Apartment?”
 

“It’s mine, not my friend’s.”
 

“Another lie.”
So much for the backpacking buddy in Europe. She’d been staying in his apartment, sleeping in his bed. This was the last straw. “Don’t bother answering. I’ll be out by the end of the week.”
 

She had enough money to find a new place anyway. A new job would be trickier.
 

“I was wrong about you,”
she said, it was her parting shot, her turn to lash out instead of being attacked, “you are just another jerk. And I’ll forget your face in a New York minute.”
 

That was a lie.
 

Chase didn’t answer her but stared, mouth open slightly, frozen by her words and the coldness which had replaced their usual heat and magnetism.
 

Emily turned and walked to the door, she didn’t look back, but Janet’s laughter followed her down the hall outside his apartment.
 

She’d have to focus on anything else. Getting her kids back, finding a new place. Anything but Chase Newman.
 

Emily reached the street. She ran. But the tears wouldn’t leave her alone, and neither would the pain.

CHAPTER TWO

She hated the pole-dancing classes. They reminded her of the club and Big Nick and everything that had gone wrong.
 

Hell, they even reminded her of Chase.
 

At least these classes were more about the art of it, than the sleazy act of entertaining horny dudes.
 

She clicked over to the mp3 player in her stilettos and switched on Elastic Heart by Sia.
 

The women in the class nodded their heads in time to the song.

“Anyone seen this video?”
 

Several of the students nodded with knowing smiles.
 

“The dance in this video is art and that’s what you have to replicate when you pole dance. Forget images of strippers and smoke-filled rooms,”
she paused and gave a sigh, “instead, focus on making your body speak the words your heart is screaming.”
 

Her heart had screamed enough. Chase’s name over and over again until her chest hurt from the hoarse throb of the break.
 

But she had to focus on the kids, on getting out of Janet’s studio and getting them back. She’d been a fool to fall for him and his special brand of narcissism. He’d pretended to care, when really he’d been looking out for ‘number one’
all along.
 

“Stand beside your pole and grab hold with your right hand.”
 

The class followed her instructions and she matched them as well.
 

Every time she danced, the pain got less and then worsened. Would it ever go away? Man, she just wanted to finish up the day, get home and start an apartment search.

The music swayed past her ears and into her soul. Her skin was thickened by the anger she held for what had happened and what she’d allowed.
 

“Now, hook your leg like this,”
she said, demonstrating, “pivot and swing.”
 

Emily did circles and landed deftly on her feet again.
 

“Always remember to keep your core strong and your center balanced whenever you’re dancing.”
 

She wished she could say the same about her emotions.
 

“All right, let’s get it going.”
Emily encouraged the students and they began practicing. She walked amongst them, correcting where it was needed and pausing to show them again.