Page 26 of Lead Me On
“No way,” Chase insisted to himself. No way was Jane Morgan at Ryders. She was a hotel-bar kind of girl. Maybe even karaoke on a wild night.
But his foot eased off the accelerator.
“It wasn’t Jane.” His voice sounded sure, but Chase was remembering the way she’d licked his tattoo.
Could it be that Jane had some sort of…bad-boy fetish? Was he just the latest notch on her bedpost?
That was ridiculous, right?
“Right,” he said aloud. And then promptly threw his truck into a gravel-tossing U-turn.
The engine roared as he sped back toward the bar. If it was Jane… Well, then maybe she’d come to Ryders looking for him. It seemed like the kind of place he might hang out. If he drank. Except she knew he didn’t drink. He did like to play pool, though, and it wasn’t as if he’d never set foot in the place.
Oh, great. Now he was being a little girl again. Awesome.
His shoulders had tied themselves into knots by the time he started down the hill toward the bar. Halfway there, he could see that the white BMW was gone.
Aware that he was treading very close to a certain line, Chase popped open his phone and dialed her number.
“Drop it, Chase,” he ordered himself as the phone began to ring. This was ridiculous. It hadn’t been Jane, and it was none of his business even if it had been. “Drop it.”
Suddenly the line opened up and Jane answered. “Hello?” Even on the tinny connection, he could hear the strain in her voice.
“Jane, it’s Chase. I don’t want to pry, but did I just see you coming out of Ryders?”
Silence stretched between them for several heartbeats before she spoke. “Um… Ryders? No! Of course not. No.”
He frowned. It seemed as if her correct response would have beenWhat’s Ryders?“Well, I was driving past and I was sure I saw you. It’s kind of a rough place. Are you in some sort of trouble?”
“No, I…” She cleared her throat in a quick little cough. “No, I’m fine, of course. Everything’s fine. No big deal.”
What the hell? Chase took the phone away from his ear and glanced at it. Now she wasn’t even denying it. “Jane—”
“I’m sorry,” she interrupted. “I’ve got to go.”
He grabbed at his last chance. “I was hoping to take you out to dinner tonight.”
“Oh, I can’t. Not tonight. I’ve got something to do.”
“Tomorrow, then?”
“I’m not sure about tomorrow either. Things are a little crazy right now. I’m not trying to blow you off, though. Really.” She was starting to babble now. “I’m not backing out. Maybe later in the week everything will be better.”
There was nothing he could do but give in gracefully and let her hang up. Nothing he could do tonight, anyway.
* * *
PACING ACROSSher stepdad’s living room, Jane wanted to stomp her feet and pout, but she was grown-up and reasonable now, so she crossed her arms tightly instead. “You had no right to do that.”
Mac crossed his arms, too. “Oh, yeah?”
“I wasn’t doing anything wrong, Dad!”
“Right. Crawling around a biker bar asking questions about a crime. That seemed like a good idea to you?”
“I—”
“Going to Ryders looking like a damned plain-clothes detective…that seemed like a good idea?”
