Thrill of the Chase (Dangerous Love) (22 page)

N
o good deed goes unpunished.
Her mother must have used that saying hundreds of times throughout her life. And now Erin knew exactly what she had meant.

Erin had come to work to clean up her files and finalize any outstanding projects for the person who would be taking over her position. She couldn’t imagine just dumping all her work onto someone brand-spanking-new. But within minutes of being in the Montclair Building, Erin knew that coming in to work today was a huge mistake. Everything reminded her of Chase. Knowing that he was only a few flights up produced a level of anxiety that she wasn’t prepared for.

Get in and get out.

Her first order of business was the resignation letter. Erin knew that if she completed that task first, she wouldn’t change her mind about leaving her job…and Chase. She inserted a flash drive into her desktop, pulled up the document entitled “Resignation” and attached it to an email addressed to Chase’s personal secretary. Her finger hovered over the
SEND
button.

Just do it. Finish this.

She tapped the
SEND
button and logged out of her email account. It was done.

Erin immediately started on the files and the process of finalizing her reports. If she blocked out all distractions, including the voice screaming in her head, telling her to follow her heart and find Chase, she could be finished and out of the office for good in a little over two hours. She was halfway through one of her lengthier reports when she heard a knock at the cracked door. Erin looked up from the pile on her desk to see Andrew in the doorway.

“Everything alright, Andrew?” Erin looked over his shoulder, but it appeared that he was alone. It was unlike Andrew to disturb her while she worked. He typically remained out of sight, though she always knew that he was near if she needed him.

“Yes, Ms. Whitley. But I have a Dr. Morris to see you. He said it would only take a moment.”

“Sure. No problem. Thanks Andrew.” Andrew disappeared into the hallway and returned only seconds later with her visitor.

Confused, but pleasantly surprised that Dr. Morris would come pay her a visit, Erin stood to greet her old mentor. But it was the younger Morris who entered her office. All those happy feelings faded at the sight of Scott, though she had no idea why his mere presence made her uneasy. Regardless, Erin forced a smile on her face.

“Scott, this is a surprise.” she said, not knowing how to begin a conversation with someone she barely knew. But her fake smile faded quickly as he walked over to her with slumped shoulders and tired eyes. Scott looked exhausted, a far cry from the arrogant and smooth-talking man from the benefit. “Are you okay?” Erin asked.

He ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. “I’ve been better.” He bowed his head. “I would have stopped by to see you yesterday, but I think I was still in shock.”

Erin’s heart began to race. She had a feeling that she was going to hear something dreadful. Erin’s hands began to tremble, her trademark when she was nervous or afraid. This time, both emotions were at play. “Scott, what happened?” She moved toward him, and though that uneasy feeling still lingered, she felt the need to touch his arm.

He rested his hand upon hers. “It’s my dad, Erin. He’s dead. His housekeeper found him over the weekend…lying at the bottom of the stairs. Police said it appeared that he had fallen and severed his spinal column.” Scott looked up at her with tears in his eyes. “I knew he wasn’t feeling well at the benefit. I shouldn’t have left him.”

Erin couldn’t believe that the elder Dr. Morris was gone, though she clearly remembered how pale he had looked at the benefit. But there was no way Scott could have predicted this horrific outcome. She felt bad for herself, but it was obvious that the man in front of her was suffering a thousand times more. Erin could definitely relate. The sudden loss of a parent was a traumatic experience, one that she didn’t wish on anyone.

“I’m so sorry, Scott,” she said, hugging him.

He returned the embrace and after a few moments, he stepped back and wiped his eyes. “I’m sorry. It was selfish of me to come here.”

Erin shook her head. “No…I’m glad you came. Your father was always so kind to me.”

“I would often hear him bragging about the ‘firecracker’ he had shadowing him at the hospital. He was so proud of you, Erin.” Scott smiled, but his warm words did not comfort her. Instead, he had just confirmed how much of a disappointment she was to those she cared about.

But it was neither the time nor the place to wallow in her sorrows. Scott had already lost his mother this year, and now his father. Both of them…gone. Scott was grieving and she knew exactly how he felt. Erin swallowed back the tears and asked, “Is there anything I can do? Can I help you make the arrangements?” There was a great chance that she was overstepping her bounds, considering she wasn’t family, but she had to offer.

Scott reached up and brushed his hand against her cheek. It was an innocent gesture that was over in two seconds, but that was all it took to make her arms go all goose pimply. “No, but you’re sweet to ask. I took care of everything. The service will be this Wednesday at St. Mark’s Church.”

She dismissed that peculiar feeling and chalked it up to her body’s response to hearing that her mentor had died so suddenly. “I would like to come…I mean…if that’s okay?” It occurred to Erin that some people reserve such a solemn occasion for family alone. She cringed at her impulsivity.

“The way he spoke of you, people could easily have mistaken you for the daughter he never had.” He smiled. “I would like it if you could come, and I think he would have wanted you there as well.”

“Then I’ll be there,” she said. Erin hated funerals, and for good reason, but she had to face that particular demon. Dr. Morris was a gentle soul who had taken her under his wing and shown her what compassion looked like on a daily basis. She had to go to that church and pay her respects.

“Thank you.” Smiling, he took her hand, gave it a light squeeze, and walked out of the lab.

Scott Morris might have left, but Erin had the feeling that she wasn’t alone. She looked up at the camera for a moment and then walked back to her workstation. This day couldn’t get any shittier.

“He’s gone, Mr. Montclair.”

“Why the fuck did you let Scott Morris get near her?” Chase growled into the phone.

“I was not aware that he was prohibited from speaking to her, though I was within ten feet of her the entire time.” Andrew’s voice did not waver.

Chase wasn’t pissed at Andrew. He was furious with himself. No man should be talking to Erin, especially a pompous prick like Scott Morris. Chase had no idea why he had formed such a negative opinion of Scott Morris in just one meeting, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off about him.

“Just…stay with her, Andrew. Don’t leave her alone.”

“Yes, sir,” Andrew said.

Chase watched Erin on the TV screen. Still unnerved by Erin’s recent visitor, Chase buzzed Lydia over the intercom. “Lydia, please get Sam on the phone.”

“Of course.” Lydia paused and then continued. “Mr. Montclair, I received a resignation letter from Ms. Whitley this morning.”

He felt the floor give way beneath him. This was absurd. She wasn’t taking his calls or responding to the hundreds of texts he had started to send the second after she had left his apartment three nights ago. Now she was quitting her job! Let her dismiss him when he was standing right in front of her!

“I’ll call Sam myself,” he grunted.

Chase was relieved to hear Sam pick up on the second ring.

“Sam, I need another background check. His name is Scott Morris, oncologist, here in New York City.”

“Hello to you too,” Sam said in a sarcastic tone.

Chase didn’t have time for pleasantries, even for one of his oldest friends. “I need this as soon as possible.”

Sam must have gathered that Chase was in no mood for games. “Does this involve Erin?” he asked, his voice full of concern.

“Everything involves Erin.” Chase felt his heart ache as he looked over at the woman on the TV monitor. “Call me as soon as you know something.”

Chase hung up the phone and headed for the elevator.

S
he was kidding herself.

Between her breakup with Chase and Scott’s news about his father’s sudden death, there was no possible way she was going to be able to concentrate enough to produce a report that was worth submitting. Erin waved the invisible white flag and decided to cut her losses. It was time to leave Montclair Pharmaceuticals and Chase securely behind her. Erin reached for her purse, but the phone within started to vibrate. She withdrew her cell phone and read the text:
“I can forgive you, Angel. Just prove to me that you’re not a filthy girl.”

Erin felt her stomach churn. He was threatening her, giving her a crystal-clear picture of what he would do to her if she fell from grace, if she was no longer his Angel. Filthy girls were not worthy, filthy girls died untimely deaths, filthy girls were snuffed out so the world was no longer infected by their existence.

“How?”
she typed.

Erin didn’t know what possessed her to ask such a loaded question. But before she could theorize about why she felt the need to converse with him, he responded:
“Say good-bye to Chase Montclair.”

That innate hatred of being told what to do prompted her next text:
“And if I choose to disappoint you?”

The back and forth with her rapist was beyond surreal. She couldn’t wrap her head around the fact that she was having a conversation with the monster.

Her cell phone buzzed:
“Though I have no desire to see you cry or look on as you mourn the loss of Chase Montclair, I will do what is necessary. So, choose wisely, Angel.”

She had been wrong, not about the threat, but whom it was directed to. Erin didn’t have any delusions when it came to her rapist’s intentions. He had proved that he was more than capable of getting to someone, maybe even making some misguided young lady’s death look like a suicide rather than a homicide. Chase was in danger and she couldn’t risk his life any longer.

Her eyes gravitated to the mounted camera. She knew Chase was watching, but it didn’t occur to her that the voyeur was in the same room as her.

“I didn’t betray you, Erin…not with Gabrielle…not with any woman. There will never be anyone else.”

Erin squeezed her eyes shut, praying to the powers that be to give her the strength to hold it together just long enough so she could leave without giving anything away. She didn’t want Chase to know that she had just made a deal with the devil. Her compliance for Chase’s life.

But he still deserved to know that she believed him. She owed him that much. “I don’t know why you went to California, but I believe you. I know you would never hurt me like that,” she whispered.

“Then why are you running?” Chase asked.

Erin knew that if she didn’t get far away from him in that moment, she would morph back into the sloppy, crying mess who had taken refuge under a blanket on Paul’s couch for days on end. “I’m not running. I just can’t…I can’t be with you.”

Chase locked the door behind him and took three steps toward her. Panic set in. She couldn’t be left alone with him. Her body ached for his touch, and it was just a matter of time—like a few seconds—until her hormones took over. She needed to get out of the lab, but to do so meant that she would have to walk past him. Erin held her breath so she couldn’t take in the scent that was all Chase, and headed toward the door. Her hand was on the doorknob when she heard and felt both his hands slam against the wooden door. Trapped between his arms, his groin against her rear, her resistance was fleeting. His warm, minty breath on the back of her neck was draining the last of her reserves.

“Are you seeing Scott Morris?” he whispered, his lips just millimeters from her heated flesh.

The abrupt change in tone allowed her hormones to fall in line. She had control over them, at least for a moment. The thought crossed her mind to lie. Maybe if Chase believed she was dating someone else, he would leave her be. Erin quickly dismissed it, knowing that Chase would see right through that piss-poor plan.

“No,” she said, turning around to face him.

“Then why was he touching you? Why did you hug him?” Chase asked, his voice laced with obvious disdain.

“Dr. Morris, his father, died over the weekend. What you saw on your monitor was me consoling him.” Erin couldn’t help but sound defensive and more than a little pissed off. If he wasn’t spying on her, then he wouldn’t have had to theorize about why she was in the arms of another man for maybe a total of two seconds.

Chase’s expression changed from one of anger to pure perplexity. “Mitchell Morris is dead?” he asked, backing away from her.

“Yes. Scott said that his father fell down a flight of steps in his home. Dr. Morris didn’t look well when we saw him at the benefit. He was pale and appeared nervous for some reason. I can’t help but wonder if that had something to do with his fall.” She shook her head. “The funeral is Wednesday.”

Chase’s confused expression mutated back to a look of disgust. “You will not see Scott Morris again,” he commanded.

“And you have no right to tell me who I can see.” Who the hell did he think he was? “I will talk to whomever I damn well please.” Erin stood erect and stared into eyes, consumed with rage.

“I forbid you to see him,” he seethed.

“You forbid me? Do you hear yourself?”

Anger was a good thing, as it would make leaving him that much easier. She also thought about the threat to Chase’s life, and she found herself uttering words that were meant to hurt him, but instead caused her own already-fragile heart to shatter to pieces.

“We broke up, Chase. I’m not yours…anymore.” The last word had barely spilled over her lips when he came rushing toward her. Erin’s back flew against the wall as they collided, and his mouth came over hers with grave urgency. Chase kissed her so deeply and with such force that she was already breathless.

“You will always be mine,” he said, between labored breaths. “Always.” He groaned into her mouth. God, she needed him. God, how she loved him…

That realization gave her the clarity she needed. Shaking her head and crying for what had to be the fiftieth time in three days, Erin tore out of his arms. “You have claimed my soul, and my heart. That will just have to be enough!” she screamed. Erin didn’t wait for him to respond and she didn’t dare look for a reaction to her raw admission. “Good-bye, Chase.”

Erin unlocked the door and hurried down the hallway. Only when she was on the elevator with Andrew standing quietly at her side did Erin realize that Chase had allowed her to leave with not so much as a word of protest.