Page 73 of Lead Me On
“Do you know where he is?”
“No. Maybe he’s set it to voice mail.” Head down, she tapped out a text message with her thumbs.
“What do you want to do?” Chase asked.
“I don’t know. Let me call Grandma Olive and my mom, and see what they know.” Five minutes later she’d talked to both women, but the lost look hadn’t faded from her face. No one knew anything.
Though he was fairly sure it was a bad idea, Chase offered the only solution he had. “Do you want to try Ryders?”
She didn’t hesitate for even a heartbeat. “Yes. Will you take me? Please? I’ll get changed.” Jane disappeared up the stairs, calling out “Thank you!” as she ran.
Chase put on his brand-new shoes and shrugged into his coat, cringing at the thought of going to Ryders looking as if he’d raided George Clooney’s closet. But this was the kind of thing a man did when he was falling for a woman.
And he was falling for her, no question. A dangerous proposition, falling for Jane Morgan.Complicateddidn’t even begin to describe her. She’d seemed so simple at first: an uptight secretary with an innocent curiosity about a tattooed bad boy.
Ha. He couldn’t have been more wrong. Now he was embarrassed to think he’d planned to add a little excitement to her proper life. Instead, she’d left him reeling. Jane Morgan was the female equivalent of dynamite. Innocuous and harmless…until it found a spark and exploded.
Chase was doomed.
When he heard her footsteps, he looked up, wondering which incarnation of Jane he’d find. She hadn’t dressed for Ryders this time. She wore jeans again, and heeled boots and a pretty red sweater. They looked like a real couple actually, and Chase found himself smiling despite the circumstances. “Ready?”
She grabbed her coat and they dashed to his truck.
“So,” he said after a few silent minutes on the road. Jane looked up from her cell phone. “How did you pick ‘Jane’?”
Her gaze sharpened, and even in the faint light of the dashboard glow Chase could see her replaying their earlier conversation. Yes, he’d agreed not to ask about her teenage years. No, he hadn’t promised not to ask any questions at all.
Grimacing, she faced the windshield again. “I chose the most vanilla name I could think of.”
“Good job. It’s pretty vanilla.”
“Thank you.”
“And Morgan?”
“It’s my mother’s maiden name.”
“I like your hair now,” he said. “It’s pretty.”
Jane reached out and poked her finger at the stereo. “Isn’t there a local news channel? There’s an AM station, isn’t there?”
“I think so.”
“I’m worried. Don’t you think… Don’t you think something bad might have happened?”
“Another woman?”
Jane nodded and began scanning stations. “And where the hell is Jessie? I swear, he’s got the self-control of a five-year-old. He was supposed to stayhome.”
Chase eased the truck up to a higher speed, aware that Jane was frantically tapping her foot. “I’ll call my dad,” he volunteered. “Maybe he’s got a contact at the department.” He glanced at the clock, wondering if it was hopeless. Ten o’clock. Surely Dad was passed out by now.
He answered on the fifth ring, voice hoarse, but words only slightly slurred. Chase explained the situation, and his dad volunteered to call a friend with the sheriff’s department.
They pulled up to Ryders and Jane jumped out before he could get around to open her side. He caught up at the front door, and noticed that snowflakes stuck to her eyelashes. “Where are your glasses?”
“I must have left them at home.”
“You don’t need them?”
