Page 35 of Lead Me On
“Um…” She looked down at the fry she was holding. She’d never thought about it before, but she supposed she did have a fry hierarchy. “I like the short ones first. They’re perfectly crispy but tender on the inside. Then the long ones. Still crispy on the edges, but maybe too soft toward the middle.”
“Then what?”
“Then I move onto the long fries with narrow, crunchy ends. If you break the ends off, they’re fine. After that, it all breaks down according to my desperation. How do you choose fries?”
“Me?” He leaned forward, eyes narrowing with concentration. “I study the pile…”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“And then I eat all the ones on top first. The ones on the bottom come last.”
She rolled her eyes. “That’s pitiful. You’ve got no standards.”
Chase shrugged. “I like my fries like I like my women—hot and ready to be eaten.”
“Oh, God.” She managed not to spit out her mouthful of fries, but after a quick sip of Coke, she looked at Chase and found him wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. Then she was lost. She laughed so hard she snorted and had to hope the sound was lost in the guitar solo screeching through the speakers. They were protected a bit by the high backs of the booth, but not nearly enough. She might not have outgrown her taste for men like Chase, but she’d definitely outgrown her love of guitar rock.
Once her laughter died, she threw a hopeless look toward Jessie’s friends. She hated to walk away from this scheme, but knew she had to. “You want to get out of here?”
“Now?” Chase asked. “Well, I’d file an official complaint about the length of this so-called date, but I’ll give you a pass, considering.”
“I’m sorry. I just want to go home and change.”
“It’s fine,” he said. “Let’s get you out of here.”
She took his hand thankfully and let him lead her out. Even over the music she heard one of Jessie’s friends shout, “Hey, babe, where ya going?” Chase squeezed her hand tighter—offering comfort or just feeling pissed, she couldn’t tell.
The darkness surprised her when she stepped outside. It was later than she’d thought, and Jane was damn grateful for Chase’s presence when she was forced to stroll past a rough-looking group of guys. These were real bikers, not guys who liked to ride Harleys on the weekend. She recognized the skull insignia on the jackets, marking them as a gang from Grand Junction.
The men stared at her bare thighs but didn’t say a word, and Jane didn’t protest when Chase walked her across the dark parking lot toward her car.
“Jane, what are you planning to do?”
Her shoulders tightened. She had no idea what she was going to do. Who could she turn to for advice? Chase was the only one who had even a clue who she really was.
They stopped next to her car, and Jane cleared her throat so she could speak past the rising anxiety. “No one knows about my family, Chase. I…” Disloyalty was an ugly feeling, but she wasn’t going to deny her flaws. “I love them, but I’m not like them. I don’t want anyone to know. I don’t want my brother’s legal problems affecting my career.”
“I won’t say a word.”
She glanced up at him, wishing he could help her in some way. Wishing she were the kind of person who knew how to ask for help.
“You can trust me,” he said.
She shook her head against the warmth of his words. “I hardly even know you.”
Though his expression was hard to make out in the dark, his shoulders cast a big shadow when he shrugged. “You know what you know.”
Well, that sort of meant nothing, but he was still right. So far, he’d been a really good guy, despite his tattoos and boots and fascination with explosions. He might not recognizeDon Quixote,but he did know how to worry over a woman’s safety.
Jane crossed her arms and leaned against the door of her car. “You don’t know anything about the law, do you?”
He was quiet for a moment. His boots scraped against the gravel when he shifted. “Not much, no. My dad was a cop a long time ago.”
“I don’t know what to do.” Saying it should have made her feel weak, but somehow she felt a little better. Or maybe that was the way Chase’s shoulders got bigger when he shifted toward her.
“I can’t say I know, either, but you’ve got to have at least one person you can talk to.”
“Like you?”
