Silver and Chrome: A Bad Boy MC Romance (53 page)

Chapter Forty-Nine

By
the time we wake the next morning it’s almost noon.  Chase heads to the shower
and I pick up my phone to check my messages.  There are a few texts from
Harrison.  He's asking how I'm doing, if I want to get together for coffee.  He
heard about Evelyn and wants to know if I'm okay.

Of course, he has no idea I'm in Vegas, and
still doesn't know about Chase.  There’s really no reason for me to keep things
from him anymore.  It's been long enough, and I owe him some truth.  As shitty
as I think it was for him to wager our relationship, Harry's main problem is
gambling.  People say it’s an illness.  Maybe I can forgive him now that I've
moved on.  Maybe he couldn’t help himself, and I've been too hard on him.  Not
that it means I want to be in a relationship with someone like that, but after
the ups and downs I've had with Chase and the understanding I have now, that
each lie, half-truth or omission can't be judged the same and there are always
two sides to everything, it might be time to give Harry a break.

Besides, with Evelyn gone now, once I go
back home I don't have a lot of people to talk to.  Other than Harry and my
parents, all of my other friends fall more on the acquaintance spectrum.  I
guess if I spent more time with some they would become friends, but as of now,
going right back would be pretty lonely.  Maybe I Shouldn’t shut Harry out
completely.  I still don't know what I'm going to do with myself now that my
roommate
’
s gone and I have
no job.

I notice I also have a voicemail from
Evelyn.  I listen but it’s just a quick hello from her to say that she is
settling in and leaving me her new number.  I immediately call her back,
anxious to connect with my best friend again.

"Hey you," I say as she answers
the phone.

"Lila!  Are you still half way around
the world?"  She sounds happy and full of energy, but that's always been
Evelyn.

"Nope.  I'm in the same country as
you, actually.  Back in Vegas with Chase."

"How are things?  Still going
strong?  You patch everything up?"

For a moment I wonder how she knew about
what happened yesterday but then I realize she’s referring to what happened
back in Toronto after the house incident.  Either way, the answer is the same
but still reminds me how quick I am to judge.  I really should reconnect with
Harry.  I've ignored him for long enough.

"Yes.  Things are good.  Great, even."

"I'm so happy to hear that Lila. 
Chase seems like an awesome guy."

"He really is, Eve.  What about you? 
How's the new job?"

"Busy!  Already I'm swamped but it’s
actually pretty great.  I'm enjoying it so far.  But Edward keeps me on my
toes.  I'm at the office more than home so I haven't even had a chance to
unpack anything yet."

"Edward?"

Eve giggles nervously.  "Sorry,
that's my boss, Mr. Stonewall.  He has me call him Edward."

"Uh huh.  What's going on over
there?  Are you two...?"

"No!  I mean... not really.  I don't
know.  He's very handsome and refined.  Not what I'm used to at all.  Very
strict and business like at the office.  Some people think he’s a complete
ass.  But he’s not like that with me.  I don't know.  Shit, I gotta run actually. 
He just texted me."

Chase emerges from the bathroom just as
we're saying goodbye and promising to keep in touch.  I wonder whether or not I
should stop over in Chicago on my way back to Toronto, whenever that ends up
being.

"Eve seems happy.  I think she has a
crush on her new boss."

Chase smiles.  "Lucky man then. 
She’s a nice girl."

"Yeah," I sigh, already starting
to miss her.

"Listen, Lila..." Chase
approaches from the bathroom.  He's wrapped in a towel but he sits down on the
edge of the bed next to me.  "We haven't had a chance to really talk yet,
but I wanted to apologize for not telling you about Mirana.  I wanted to. 
Especially after... after the thing with the house and Denise.  We had that
talk and I know that you were hurt by the fact that I wasn't honest, but-"

"It's okay," I interrupt him.

He's peering into my soul again, his blue
eyes burning into mine as he looks for something.  He's probably trying to tell
if it really is okay.

"Are you sure?"

"I should have trusted you, Chase.  I
should know by now that if you're keeping something from me there’s a really
good reason.  I shouldn’t have assumed you were automatically trying to fool
me.  You're not..." I trail off, but he picks up my thought.

"Harrison?"

I shrug.  "Maybe I've been too hard
on him, too.  He has a gambling problem and although I don't want to date
someone like that, I don't think that makes him a bad guy.  He got carried away
at the table with you, sure, but he was probably just excited about playing
against the famous Chase Anderson.  Probably figured it would be a big story to
tell if he won, and as usual didn't even consider what would happen if he
lost."

"He's an asshole, Lila.  Don't fool
yourself into thinking otherwise."

"Why?"  For some reason every
time Chase puts down Harrison it bugs me and makes me rush to his defense. 
"I agree, he did a shitty thing and he lied a lot, but just about his
gambling.   Beyond that he wasn't that bad."

Chase is just shaking his head. 
"Just forget him, Lila.  Trust me."

"Why?  Because you know gamblers? 
The only difference between you and him is that you're a better poker player. 
If you were shitty at it, you wouldn’t be called the famous Chase Anderson,
you'd be called Chase Anderson, the addict."

"No, it’s not that.  He's just...
he’s not a nice guy, Lila."

"You barely know him.  You played
with him for what, a few hours?  I’ve known him for close to a year.  And might
I remind you that the whole wager for me was your fucking idea in the first
place.  You basically led him into it.  I'm sure he never would have thought of
that on his own.  Of course he should have said no fucking way and punched your
lights out, but still, who does that?  Who asks a guy to give up his girlfriend
in a poker game?"  The truth is, I've wanted an answer to that question
since the day we met.  It has always bothered me that Chase suggested it, and
the more that I've gotten to know him, the more out of character it seems.

Chase's lips are a thin line and turning
white he’s pursing them so hard.  It's as if he’s holding something back. 
"I explained that to you the first night," he finally says.

"Right, you took a chance and he
didn't value me, yada yada.  What aren't you telling me?  What made you think
he didn't value me in the first place?  Why do you have such a low opinion of
Harrison after just playing cards with him for a few hours?  I know you're a
fantastic judge of character, Chase, but even for you that borders a little too
much on the side of mystical mumbo jumbo.  Are you a mind reader, Chase?  Is
that it?"

"No."

"Then what?"

"Why does it matter?  You guys are
broken up.  Let's just drop it, okay?"

"No, I don't want to drop it. 
Practically every time I bring Harry's name up you have something negative to
say and all you know about him is he took the bait when you offered to play for
me that first night after he'd lost a lot of money to you.  I think lawyers
call that entrapment.  And you know what, Chase?  You're the last person to be
so judgmental about exes.  Not when you have Denise trying to break us up every
fucking five minutes."

Chase lets out a long sigh.  "I
didn't just play with him for a couple of hours the night we met..."

Chapter Fifty

"What? 
What do you mean?"

"Harrison came down to the poker room
the night before.  It was late."

That wasn't a big surprise.  I suspected
as much.  Harry lost money our first night and then I convinced him to stop and
come to bed.  But I woke in the middle of the night and he wasn't next to me. 
I had hoped he had just gone to the bathroom or something, but then I fell back
asleep waiting for him to return.  The next morning he was beside me, but I had
a suspicion that he had gone back down to play.  "So you played with him
the night before as well?"

"Yes.  We played for a little while
and he lost some money.  We talked a bit.  He said he was in town with his
girlfriend for a few days.  Then he lost some more and said he needed to take a
break."

"And then?"  There’s clearly
more to the story despite the fact that Chase stopped.  He's looking at me
strangely now, and he clearly isn't comfortable continuing but after I glare at
him he finally does.

"He started talking to some
women."

Now I'm staring even harder and I can feel
my own lips press into a line.  I nod for him to continue.

"They were... I know them.  Not
personally, but... they work... out of the hotel."

It takes me a minute but then I clue in. 
"They were hookers?"

Chase nods slightly.  "Harrison left
with them.  He was gone for a while, but when he returned he sat back down to
play again."

"Did he say anything else?"

"Eventually, yes.  He started talking
to some other guy at the table and the two of them began having a few drinks. 
Not long after that he began bragging to his new friend about how he left with
those women and had sex with them both.  Together."

All of a sudden I feel dizzy and sick.

Chase stands up and moves closer to me. 
"Are you okay?  I didn't want to tell you..."

"I wanted to know.  It's not your
fault.  I just..."  I never suspected that.  I never would have guessed. 
But now that he’s told me I know immediately that it’s true.

"So you offered to play for me... to
break us up?"

"I didn't know what he would say if I
made that offer, but I had a feeling he would agree.  It wasn't really my place
to tell you what happened, and you didn't know me anyway so I didn't know if
you would believe me.  But I thought that if I made a proposition like that and
he took it, you might see him for the type of person he was."

"Why didn't you tell me?  I mean
after?"

"I don't know.  I thought Harrison
was in your past and so it didn't matter.  I didn't see the upside to telling
you.  I just thought it would hurt you to know and since you weren't planning
on going back to him, I figured there was no point in putting you through
that."

I close my eyes as I let it all sink in. 
It's only because we’ve been broken up for a couple weeks now that this news
doesn't completely devastate me.

And although it’s another secret that
Chase has been keeping from me, it’s also another one that I can't even fault
him for.  He was saving me from mistakes of my past both that I've made and
that were made against me.  There’s no doubt now.  Harrison was a mistake.  But
Chase helped fix that before I even really knew him.

When I open my eyes he’s looking at me and
the concern on his face is obvious.

"Every time I question you, it seems
like I'm the one making the mistake," I say. 

Chase chuckles softly.  "Don't worry,
I've made my share of them as well."

"I don't even know what to do with
myself now, Chase.  I have nothing waiting for me back home.  Eve is gone,
Harry is a complete ass.  I have no job, no plan."

"You have me."

I shrug and smile.  "I know.  And I
appreciate that.  But your life is here.  My life is... well, I guess my life
isn't in Toronto anymore.  But I'm not going to just sponge off of you for the
rest of my life.  That’s not who I am, Chase."

"I know," he agrees, nodding.
"Which is one of many things I love about you.  You aren't after my money
or my fame.  That much has always been clear and it’s a big relief.  If I
wanted that, I'd have stayed with Denise.  Vegas is full of women like
that."

"So what do we do?  What do I
do?"

"Well, I had some thoughts about
that."  Chase leans away from me now, using one of his muscled arms to
prop his body against the bed.  "My foundation is still in the early
stages, and although I'm not bad at organizing poker players and their
donations, I'm learning that I'm not that great at setting up the actual
foundation - securing the space, hiring staff, etc.  I could use someone to do
all that.  Someone that might have experience in the non-profit industry."

I raise my eyebrow at him.  "Wait,
what about Mirana?  I thought she was going to run the thing?"

"When it’s up and running, yes.  But
putting the whole thing together is beyond her as well, and in between raising
Diego and volunteering at the shelter, something she needs to continue to do to
get the experience she needs to run things eventually, she doesn't have the
time to do it anyway.  I need someone who can make it their focus.  There’s
money in the budget to hire someone, I just hadn't gotten to it yet.  And a job
offer like this would certainly come with a work visa so that you can stick
around for as long as it takes."

"I... I don't know..."

"And I also know of a really nice
house that will be vacated very soon that you can stay in.  The rent is super
cheap.  Almost non-existent..."

"Almost?"

"Well, you certainly wouldn’t have to
pay in cash, anyway.  I hear the owner is willing to accept all sorts of
methods of payment."

"Oh really?"

"Well, not for just anyone of
course.  There is a very strict screening process."

"Go on..."

"For security, it might require a
strip search, to start."

"Uh huh..."

"In fact, it might be a good idea to
start the process now.  It can be quite lengthy and... in depth."

"Well, I'm pretty busy at the moment
but I might be able to... squeeze you in."

We both laugh and fall against the bed as
his lips brush against mine. 

"Are you okay then?" he asks,
pulling away for a moment to look at me with his deep blue eyes one more time. 

"Yes," I whisper.  My head tilts
forward until I
’
m close enough to
feel his breath against my lips.  "Because of you, I think I finally am.
”