Bounty (55 page)

“
W
ho the fuck
do you think you are?”

I stood up from the chair as soon as I see Denise coming down the hallway, unsure what she is capable of doing. Obviously Chase has told her that he never wants to speak to her again, and she decided that I’m to blame. She gives me no chance to answer before she continues.

“You’ve known Chase for what, a couple of weeks and you’re already demanding that he break off friendships he’s had for years?” She turns to look at Chase who is standing behind her with a raised eyebrow. “Seriously? Don’t you see how this is some serious stalker type behavior, Chase? Who does that?”

“Denise,” he says, his voice starting off calm in the face of her storm but rising as he speaks, “don’t try to turn this around. This was my decision, it had nothing to do with Lila other than it’s become clear to me that you’re trying to sabotage my relationship with her, and I’m not going to stand for it. We were halfway around the fucking world on vacation and you told me there was an emergency.”

“And I handled-”.

“Bullshit,” he practically roars, cutting her off as all calmness flees his demeanor. From the corner of my eye I see the receptionist shift around in her seat, clearly uncomfortable at witnessing this. As much as I had wanted to see this myself earlier, I’m now regretting getting my wish.

She whirls back to me now, her eyes full of fire. “You little bitch, do you really think this is going to help you land a man like Chase?”

“I’m not trying to land anyone.” It’s impossible for her to conceive of the fact that I’m not after Chase for anything other than himself.

Now she throws her head back and laughs, but it’s a deep laugh, unlike the shrill one I’m used to hearing. “You’re so naive. You don’t know anything about Chase. You had no idea he was even buying that house, he told you it was his and you believed him.”

I shake my head, unwilling to let her goad me into a fight. I’m past the house issue. It’s not going to bother me. She’s not going to bother me. “I know about the house now, and I’m fine with it. Chase had his reasons and I get it.”

“Do you? You understand his reasons?” She spins again to face Chase. “Does she know the reason Chase? The
real
reason you needed a new house?”

“Denise…” Chase begins, his eyes flitting to me quickly where I see a flash of something in them that I haven’t seen before. Fear?

“You didn’t, did you?”

“I explained my feelings to her,” Chase says quickly. “She understands enough about how I feel to know the house is a symbol that I’m changing my ways.”

Denise laughs again, still the deeper throaty laugh. “Stop trying to shoot an angle here, Chase. You’re not at the poker table. Let me help you out. You obviously are very serious about your little girlfriend here, and I can see why. So young and pretty. But what relationship can last without complete honesty? I don’t think you’ve been completely honest with Lila here, have you Chase? So yes, let me help.” She turns back to me again, the smile on her face very disconcerting. I want to tell her that I don’t want to hear anything she has to say, that I know she’s only going to try to poison my relationship with Chase with whatever comes out of her mouth, but the words won’t come to my lips. Despite knowing that whatever she tells me is going to be twisted or designed to hurt me or our relationship, I still want to hear it. The fact that I saw fear in Chase’s eyes makes it even more important. It’s obviously something he’s worried about me finding out.

“Chase needed this new house, because he can’t take you back to his existing house.”

My brow furrows. Existing house? He has another one? My brain races around trying to figure out what that means before Denise can continue, before she can twist the truth around to make something innocuous sound worse than it is. Is something wrong with his last house? Why would I care? Is it a huge mansion and she thinks I’ll think he’s stuck up? Or is it tiny and rundown, with tenants living in it because he’s a secret slumlord? Whatever it is, I can’t imagine why I would care beyond wondering why he wouldn’t tell me in the first place.

“And he can’t take you back to his existing house, because someone already lives there, right Chase?”

Slumlord it is. Or something like that. Or maybe he’s got an old roommate there he doesn’t want me to meet, or could he still have been living with his parents? The possibilities spin through my head in the mere moments before she continues, making time seem to slow with each new piece of information she doles out. She’s clearly savoring this. Letting each bit hit me so she can watch for a response and build on the suspense. Everything she does is designed to manipulate and this is no exception. She’s trying to make something small into something big again as a last ditch effort to hurt us. But there’s nothing she can say at this point that we can’t get through.

“So tell me, Chase. When were you going to take little Lila here to meet your wife?”

Except that.

T
he look
on Chase's face tells me all I need to know. Even though I know Denise is trying to hurt me, and I can't trust much of what comes out of her mouth, I know she’s isn't lying about this. His mouth opens, but nothing comes out right away and I can almost see the wheels spinning in his head as he tries to figure out what to say. I save him the trouble, shaking my head. I don't need to hear anything else.

"You know what, stay here Chase. You two deserve each other." Before he can say another word I turn on my heel and storm out of the office into the bright Vegas sun.

Chase's limo is still waiting outside for the two of us, and my bag is still in the trunk. I open up the door before his driver, Mark, even has a chance to get out of the car. It's time to test whether or not he'll take me somewhere without Chase.

"Please take me to the airport." I don't really have a plan, but it’s the only place I can think to run, even though I feel like I've been down this path before. When will all of the lies stop?

"Shall we wait for Mr. Anderson?" I can see the driver looking at me through the rear view mirror with a raised eyebrow. I meet his gaze, but I'm not sure what he sees in my eyes.

"No," I shake my head and take a deep breath. "Please Mark, can you just get me out of here?"

The driver stares at me for a moment before finally nodding, shifting the car into drive and pulling out of the parking lot. Whatever it was he saw in my eyes was enough to convince him to just go. Maybe he’s used to the women in Chase's life running from him and his secrets. Chase told me that Mark has been his driver for years, so he’s probably seen it all.

It burns me to leave Chase behind with Denise. In her mind, she probably feels like she’s won. For all I know, she and Chase are back there fucking on her big conference table, laughing at the foolish and naive Canadian.

"Hello?"

I look up at Mark, but I see him pushing headphones into his ear so that he can speak on the phone while he drives.

"Yes sir, we're on our way to the airport. Miss Hunter requested that I take her." He pauses for a moment. "Of course." He pulls his headset away from his ear and presses a button on his dash. Suddenly I hear Chase's voice coming through the car's speaker.

"Lila?"

"I'm tired of this, Chase," I say, cutting off his excuses before they begin. What can he possibly say this time. Unless Denise was lying and he isn't actually married, I don't really see any outs for him. Even if he’s split or getting a divorce or whatever, it’s certainly something he should have mentioned. He's always claimed to never have had a serious relationship, even Denise wasn't in his life romantically for very long. I think having a wife qualifies as a serious relationship that is important enough to mention. "Just tell me one thing. Is it true? Are you married?"

I already know the answer. I saw it in his face back at the office. But I still feel myself tense as I wait to hear him say it, praying that he'll tell me it’s just a big lie Denise made up just to fuck with us again.

"Yes, it’s true."

My heart sinks. I feel like I am going to throw up. "Then we really have nothing more to discuss. You're a liar and a cheat."

"Lila, it’s not like that."

There are so many ways for men to justify running around on their wives and girlfriends. Chase has a silver tongue and I don't even want to hear what he has to say. I don't want him to sway me. I can't believe anything he has to say about this. It will always be suspect.

"Please don't go, come back and let's talk about this. I can explain."

"I've heard enough from you. Unless you're planning on telling Mark to turn this car around against my will, I have no plans on coming back.”

"I wouldn’t do that." he says. I can hear the pain in his voice but as with everything else with Chase Anderson, I have no idea how genuine any of it is. "Mark will take you anywhere you want to go. I just wish you would
want
to come back here and talk about this."

"I'm done talking to you," my voice snaps like a whip and I hope he can feel the sting. I want him to hurt like I hurt right now. It's not fair that I'm always the one getting bruised in this relationship.

"Please hang up the phone," I say, leaning forward so that Mark knows I'm talking to him.

My voice must be harsher than even I realize because he doesn't even pause to wait to see if Chase has any objections. He just presses a button and silence fills the car.

I take a deep and steadying breath, letting it out shakily. Lies are one thing, and I hate them, but even worse is a cheat. Cheating in a relationship is the lowest of the low, in my opinion, and it’s unforgivable. I forgave Chase once before for his lies, but I can't forgive him for cheating on his wife. He didn't say ex-wife, so that means they're still married. And even if they're separated, she probably has no idea what he’s doing with his free time. For all I know, she thinks he’s off in Europe at a poker tournament. They might not even be separated. It's not fair to her any more than it’s fair to me.

"Mark?"

"Yes Ma'am?"

"Obviously you heard our conversation. You've known Chase a long time. Did you know he was married?"

Mark pauses. I can see even from the backseat how uncomfortable he is with the question. He fidgets a bit before answering. "I don't get involved in Mr. Anderson's personal affairs, Miss Hunter."

Men and their bro codes or whatever. Mark obviously doesn't want to rat out his employer, but I couldn’t care less. "I don't blame you, Mark. That’s not my point. I just want to know whether you knew he was married. Have you ever met his wife?

He pauses but then finally nods. “Yes."

“Have you ever driven her anywhere?”

He nods again. “Yes.”

"Fine. And did you hear when Chase said you should take me wherever I wanted to go?"

"Yes, I heard. Are we still going to the airport?"

"No," I say, drawing in a deep breath again. "I want you to take me to her place instead. Take me to see Chase's wife."

"
U
m
, are you sure about that?" Mark asks, clearly uncomfortable with the idea. He's not a stupid man, and he heard our conversation. He probably knows, when Chase said to take me wherever I wanted to go, this wasn't one of the places he had in mind. Yet, at the risk of offending me, he obviously wasn't prepared to just pick up the phone and call Chase back. I'm not sure how long that politeness will last, though. He might have second thoughts.

"Of course. I know all about her, Mark." I decide to try a bluff. Chase might be a poker player, but I'm willing to gamble that his driver doesn't have his same skills at reading people. Especially as I have the advantage of Mark's eyes and attention being mostly focused on the road and not me and my face. "Denise told me everything. I just wanted Chase to confirm if it was true. But now that I know, Chase knows I'm going to want to meet her. For obvious reasons." Let Mark decide what those reasons are. "It's not far, is it?"

Mark pauses, clearly considering what I'm saying. Finally, he turns the car around and we start heading in the opposite direction as he answers me. "It's about 20 minutes from here."

"Okay." I pause, wondering how far I can push my luck with him. "Have you known her long?"

I see him glance at me in the rear view, clearly still uncomfortable answering my questions. He pauses longer this time, and I wonder if he’s re-considering whether or not this diversion in our route is a good idea. If he decides to call my bluff and check with Chase, I have a feeling this trip will be cut short. "I think they had just gotten married right before I first began working for him, must be close to two years ago now."

"Oh, that's right," I agree, trying to sound like that fits with the information I already know. It's clear by the way Mark keeps looking at me that he’s still unsure about this, so I decide to abandon my plan of trying to bluff him and instead stare out the window to avoid his gaze. Hopefully he'll read that as me being unconcerned and conclude it must mean that Chase really doesn't mind me going to visit her. I'm not sure what he’s thinking, but he doesn't turn the car around again or try to call Chase, so I consider that a win.

As we continue driving, I try to think about what I'm going to say to Chase's wife. How will I even introduce myself?
Hi, I'm your husband's mistress
, seems a bit harsh. It's probably better if I figure out their exact situation first, before I say anything, but how would I do that? I had hoped to get some of that information from Mark, but I dare not ask him any more questions. He's the only chance I have at getting there in the first place. Without even her name, I would be dead in the water.

I'm devastated by this latest revelation, but I don't really feel like it has all sunk in yet. Chase is married. To someone else. A third woman, not Denise. Thank god for that, at least. The only thing that would make this whole thing worse was if he had been married to Denise.

Of course, we all have a past and our right to it, but this isn't the past. She’s not his ex-wife. And regardless of whether they're separated or have an open marriage or whatever, I'm not okay with this. This is someone who Chase had significant enough feelings for that he married her, someone who was even more important to him than Denise, and he never mentioned her. That alone is enough to make me suspicious. She might be just as in the dark about all of this as I am, and if so, I feel like it might be up to me to let her know. I'll decide after I get there and talk to her. Hopefully I'll be able to figure it all out. Once I do, I'll head to the airport and this time I won't be coming back.

The car drives through a residential neighborhood with houses that are big, but not ridiculously so. The houses seem average sized, certainly not as nice as the house Chase is trying to buy now. How can he be trying to buy a new house and get serious with me when he has a whole other house and wife somewhere? It just boggles my mind. I know the man is cocky, but this takes it to a whole other level. I'm beginning to feel like a fool again, for all of the nice things I believed about Chase. This would have been the last thing I expected of him. He had me completely conned.

I wonder again what Chase and Denise are doing right now. Whether he’s still there at the office, with her, or whether he left to go back to his hotel. Or maybe he’s hailed a cab and is racing to the airport to make one last effort at convincing me to stay. Spending the whole ride there coming up with some new story, some new lie, to keep me from leaving again. To explain away the fact that he’s married. Why he never mentioned her. That Denise knew, as she seems to know everything, but I didn't. Of course Denise was fine with it. She would be. That woman would probably put up with just about anything to be able to be with Chase. It blows my mind that he took so long to admit that. Or maybe he knew all along, and it was just another lie that he told me.

We continue to drive, passing through the neighborhood and turning enough that I'm completely lost. Stop signs and speed bumps keep us from moving very fast, protecting the various children we see playing in yards from injury. Finally we pull up in front of a modest size house.

"This is it," Mark says. "Did you want me to wait?"

"Please. I won't be long."

I gaze up at the house. Chase used to live here. With his wife. Maybe he still does. There’s no white picket fence, but everything else seems completely perfect. The lawn is well manicured; the house seems to be in good repair and is freshly painted. There’s a single car garage, and a long driveway that leads down to the street.

And at the foot of the driveway is a red bike, lying on its side. Dear god. I hadn't even considered that.

He has a kid, too.