Taking Chase

  Shane nodded and put the pills back on the tray. “There you go. You don’t forget that, either. Take that fury and hold it close, use it. It is you or him and damned if I want you to apologize for wanting it to be you. If you’re in pain, take the damned pills. I have ibuprofen for that if you’d rather. If you get to a point where you can’t function through the panic attacks, take the damned pills. But yes, defend yourself and your life. I will too. We can do it together but, Cassie, please, I’m begging you right now, please move in here.”

  “I will not be a burden or a charity case!”

  “Oh shaddup. Seriously. I want to fuck you on demand. It’s a lot easier if you’re here. I wake up, roll over and bang, you’re right there. Easy access. What more can a man want? Plus, honey, you are a shitty cook, I can keep you from wasting away after all that strenuous sex.”

  She rolled her eyes at him but at the same time, she realized she was an idiot to resist what she wanted anyway.

  “I’ve been asking you for months now. It’s not like this is a last-minute pity request.”

  “Are you sure? Because I’m still going to be a pain in the ass you know. I won’t be managed just because I live here.”

  “Darlin’, perish the thought of you being managed in any way.” He grinned and she swatted him playfully.

  “I’d like that. Thank you.”

  He let out a long breath. “Whew. That’s a relief. My brothers offered to help pack your stuff and get it over here. With your permission of course,” he added with a sexy wink.

  “Heaven save me. You’re some smooth operator, Shane.”

  “Cassie, I was empty before you came along. You fill me up. I love you.”

  Tears stung Cassie’s eyes. “Me too. When I saw you last night, I knew it was okay. I knew I was safe. Even there on the side of the road with broken glass in my hair I felt safe. Thank you.”

  “You wreck me, darlin’.” Gently, he pulled her down to snuggle against his side.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Brian came and went back to Los Angeles after he helped with the move. He wanted to stay longer but he had to get back for a case and there wasn’t much he could do anyway.

  There’d been no conclusive evidence that the person in the SUV had been Terry. No witnesses to the accident or the theft to begin with and it remained quiet with no contact.

  Spring came and heated up the landscape. Cassie realized she didn’t miss much about LA except for the ocean and they could drive down to the Gulf for that if they wanted to.

  Cassie’s life became Cassie and Shane’s life and it wasn’t scary anymore. She loved him and loved waking up to his body next to hers each morning. Loved coming home to their big house every evening. They’d sit out on the back deck and look at the water or have friends and family over for barbecues.

  As May approached, Cassie began to believe that the accident in February was just that, an accident. Nothing more than a stupid coincidence. Still, she set the house alarm every time she came and left, went shooting at the range twice a week with Shane and took judo classes with him. She was moving forward and arming herself for the eventuality where Terry did find her. It gave her a measure of control in some sense.

  Walking into Penny’s backyard on June first, Cassie halted at the unexpected sight of thirty people clapping and cheering. Brian stood next to Shane, and Penny beamed as she stood in Ryan’s arms.

  “Happy birthday, Cassie.” Shane approached her and pulled her into his arms.

  “Oh my goodness. A surprise party? Where did everyone park? I can’t believe you did this and I didn’t know it.”

  Brian pushed Shane out of the way and hugged his sister, kissing her cheek. “Shane’s been planning this since the end of February. We all parked at the Chases’ and came over in just a few cars that are tucked all around the neighborhood. Now come on in, there’s cobbler and cake and food galore.”

  “And presents?”

  Brian laughed. “Yes, doofus, lots of presents.”

  Shane watched, a wide smile on his face, as Cassie accepted hugs from everyone with ease. Gone was the woman who winced or trembled if someone she didn’t know well hugged her. She still got spooked from time to time but she’d grown into an effusive person who loved to touch as much as be touched. It gladdened his heart to know he had a part in that.

  Once seated at the head of a large table, she dug into the pile of presents. He’d noticed that she loved presents. Big or small, cheap or expensive, it didn’t matter. It was the ripping of paper and ribbons, the surprise that she loved.

  The day was a good one. The kind of day that memories were made of. Cassie wouldn’t forget the smell of the cobbler and the sound of the salt and ice crunching in the old-fashioned ice cream maker or the taste of fresh, homemade vanilla ice cream. She wouldn’t forget the way it felt when she’d seen all her friends and the people who’d become her family stood there, smiles on their faces as they shouted Happy Birthday!

  The sun shone on the water, the day was warm and clear and absolutely perfect. Shane had given her something wonderful yet again, a memory to replace the bad ones.

  They all cleaned up as the sun went down and Cassie looked up when Brian called out to her.

  “What?”

  “Your phone is ringing.”

  She trotted over to her bag and dug through it, wondering who the heck it could be since everyone she knew had been at the party.

  “Hello?”

  “Happy birthday, Carly.”

  Nausea bolted through her as she lost her legs, her knees hitting the ground as she heard Terry’s voice.

  Brian’s eyes widened. “Cassie? What is it?”

  “Are you having a good day? I hope so. This is the last birthday you’ll ever see.” With that same laugh he used as he’d berated her, the line went dead.

  She looked up at her brother as he went to his knees. Dimly she heard someone call for Shane and then his feet pounding the earth as he came to where she was.

  “Cassie? What is it?” He looked confused at Brian and then her.

  “It was him.” The phone dropped from her nerveless fingers.

  “Him? Terry? Terry just called you? What did he say?” Brian demanded.

  Shane grabbed up the phone and flipped it open. “Caller ID? There’s a number here.”

  Cassie watched numbly as Shane went into cop mode and called the number on the phone and then hung up shortly. He then called into the state police and spoke to some people who told him within moments that the number was one from a disposable cell phone that could be purchased anywhere.

  “Cassie, darlin’, what did he say?” Matt helped Brian get her into a chair and Shane knelt before her, touching her face.

  She told them.

  “How did he get the number? It’s...”

  “What?” Shane looked up sharply at Brian.

  “It’s in my name. I didn’t want to chance putting it in hers when I bought it for her last year. I’m an idiot. I’ve put her in danger.”

  Shane squeezed his shoulder as Cassie shook her head vehemently. “Brian, you didn’t. Don’t you see? He doesn’t have to know her new name if you had this phone in yours. All he had to do was find out your phone information. He doesn’t necessarily know she’s here. You kept her safe by doing that.”

  “He called me Carly.”

  Shane looked back to her. “Okay, that’s a good sign. He probably doesn’t know your new name.”

  “He would have used it if he did, just to fuck with me. He doesn’t know my new name and I’m betting he doesn’t know I’m here. Don’t you see, that means it probably wasn’t him on the road in February.”

  “Oh honey, one step at a time. Could you tell where he was? Think carefully, any details at all could be important.”

  She shook her head. “No. It was loud h
ere, people talking and laughing. All I heard on his end was his voice and that laugh.”

  “Okay, sweetie, let’s get you home, all right? I bet you’d like a stiff drink and a shower.” Penny put her arm around Cassie’s shoulders and looked worriedly at Shane.

  Once home Cassie stood on the top step and looked down at Shane and Brian and Shane’s brothers. “Do not talk about me when I’m gone. We’ll plan together. I won’t let this happen to me. I will have a hand in this or I’ll go crazy. Please.”

  “Of course we’re going to talk about you when you’re in the shower. But I promise to have you in on the plans when you come back down here,” Shane negotiated back.

  She exhaled and narrowed her eyes at him. “I will not be handled, Sheriff.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Go and shower, woman. I need to talk about you while you’re gone.”

  “Honestly!” Throwing up her hands she walked toward their bedroom, mumbling.

  “She’s going to be okay if she can still get pissy about being managed,” Shane murmured to Brian who chuckled.

  “You two know each other pretty well. Now, what the hell are we going to do to protect her?”

  “We don’t know that he knows where she is. She seems to think he doesn’t and she knows him better than I do. Only that he’s tracked down this number.” Shane held up the phone. “I need to call the California authorities to get a warrant so we can set up a trace on this phone. That’ll be complicated, we’ll have to get a warrant for her own company and then one for whatever company that handles the phone he calls from next. That means it may be a matter of days or even weeks once we find out who he’s used on his next call and he’ll have time to jump to a new location. But it’s something. I also want to get someone to keep a watch on the house here.”

  “I’ll hire someone to bodyguard her.”

  “Don’t you think you should ask her?” Maggie walked in with Liv and Penny, and an agitated-looking Cassie brought up the rear.

  “Yeah, I hear she gets really pissed off when people try to manage her life the minute she steps out of the damned room.” Cassie put her hands on her hips and glared at the men in her life.

  “Of course I was going to ask you. It doesn’t have to be invasive, I know you’d hate that. But I can hire someone to drive by the house here a few times a night. Nothing major.” Brian’s tone was calm but firm.

  “And you know as well as I do that a trace on the phone is a good idea.” Shane’s jaw was set in a hard line.

  “Look, I’m not arguing. But I am not a piece of furniture either. You can’t just make plans about my life and my safety without including me.”

  “You’re not arguing?” Brian looked surprised and Cassie sat on the couch beside him.

  “I’m not an idiot, Brian. I just don’t want other people making my decisions and choices.”

  And so they planned. Shane worked with the California authorities to get a warrant in place for a tap on her cell phone and they’d be ready to move on a warrant for the records from that company when and if Terry called again. That done, Brian arranged with Shane to have a local security company drive by the house every hour each evening after Cassie got home from work.

  It wasn’t foolproof, there was a lot left up to chance and it made Shane uncomfortable but it was all he could do short of keeping her with him every moment of the day and neither one of them would survive that.

  * * *

  Later that night in bed after everyone had left or gone to sleep, Shane turned to Cassie. “Are you all right?”

  “At first I lost it. I couldn’t deal with hearing him, with him being a reality in my life again. But I have a plan to focus on and I feel better. I feel safe with the precautions you and Brian have set up.”

  “I’m not going to let anything happen to you, Cassie. I love you.”

  “I know. But you should show me. You know, just in case I forgot.”

  “Are you sure? I’m...well, I’m not sure I can be gentle right now. I’m so damned angry and worried for you. I hate seeing him do this to you. I hate not being able to stop it.”

  “I don’t need you to be gentle right now. I need you to make me feel alive, Shane. And you can do something for me, you can touch me.”

  With a deep groan, Shane moved his lips to hers, crushing them in a kiss filled with desperate need to make everything all right.

  Feverishly, his hands roamed her body and pushed her tank top up and out of the way, work-roughened palms finding her nipples hard and begging for his touch. His mouth swallowed her gasp as he pinched the nipples between thumb and forefinger.

  Her fingers sifted through his hair, holding him to her, drinking in his kisses, the passionate need in him. She was his refuge more than he could ever tell her. She often said he gave her so much but in truth, she gave him more. Gave of herself and made him whole.

  He would not lose her. Would not lose this battle with her psycho ex.

  She writhed restlessly beneath him as he rolled onto her body after getting rid of her panties one handed. Her thighs slid up his rib cage, keeping his torso nestled there against her. His hands moved to bracket her body as he rolled his cock, the heat of her pussy nearly scalding him even through his boxers. Her hands were cool as she reached around their legs and bodies to pull his cock out and stroke him.

  He loved the way her thumb slid through the slick of pre-come on the head. She knew him, knew how to touch him in small ways that totally devastated him.

  With a gasp of his own, he broke the kiss and looked into her eyes. “I love you, Cassie. So much.”

  She nodded. “I love you too.”

  “Are you wet for me?”

  He noted the catch in her breath, loved it. Loved it even more when she nodded, wordless.

  Putting his weight on one elbow, he reached down and slid a fingertip through her pussy, finding her ready. Superheated, slick and desire swollen. For him. He pressed two fingers up into her and she moaned, her grip tightening slightly around his cock.

  “Let’s get this party started, shall we?” he murmured. “First the appetizers and then the main course.”

  Latching on to a nipple with his mouth, he slowly thrust his cock into her fist while he moved his thumb up and over her clit in time with his fingers sliding in and out of her body. Her clit bloomed beneath the pad of his thumb and he knew it wouldn’t be long before she came. And oh how he loved to make her come! It was like her body was tuned to his own, her responsiveness made him crazy with need.

  Her back arched, pressing her nipple deeper into his mouth as she gasped. The muscles inside her clenched around his fingers and he felt her climax.

  Without pause, he extracted himself from her grip and pressed deep into her pussy in one thrust. Back straight, he looked down at her, spread out below him, her hair a spill of midnight around her head, gaze locked with his. “So beautiful. You’re so amazingly beautiful.”

  A smile curved the corner of her lips as her palms slid up his abdomen and the wall of his chest.

  “You’re one to talk. Look at you, all big and bad and masculine. So damned tall and broad-chested. I’ve never seen a more handsome man. That first night when I looked up from the steering wheel and deflated airbag and I saw you walking up my heart stopped for a moment. Part of me was screaming, cop! But the rest of me was like, hello there!”

  His chuckle vibrated through them both. “Okay, the talking portion of the show that doesn’t include, oh fuck me harder is now over.” With that, he dragged out and pressed back into her, delighting in the flutter of those inner muscles around his cock.

  “Oh fuck me harder!”

  Laughing together, he set a rhythm as he thrust into her body, her hips rolling to meet him, take him back inside her as deeply as possible. The smooth skin on the inside of her thighs stroked against the hard muscle of his hips as she wrapped
her legs around his waist, locking her feet at the small of his back. Each time he was inside her like this, the hot flesh of her pussy pulling at him as if she couldn’t bear to let him go, her body there laid out before him as she gave of herself, he knew he was home.

  Cassie still had trouble believing this man was hers but he proved it to her every day. She hadn’t exaggerated, he was the most handsome man she’d ever clapped eyes on. His size had been daunting at first, Terry was very tall as well. The similarities were scary in the beginning until she realized Shane would never use his size against her, not physically and not mentally to threaten her. They’d been in some heated arguments and he’d never made a move that scared her even when he was clearly losing his temper.

  But this? His size dominating her as he sliced into her body with his cock? It was delicious and touched parts of her she was sure were long dead. She loved it when he took her hard and all she could do was hold on. Loved it that he desired her so much his eyes glazed over and his muscles bunched as he wrestled for control. It made her feel beautiful and special.

  She’d never loved sex so much in her life. Simply put, she could not get enough of Shane. Except for those rare times when one didn’t feel well, they made love at least once a day in some way. All he had to do was look at her and her body responded.

  He’d chased away the demons and helped her slay them. Yes, the threat was still there but her response was different. When she’d first heard Terry’s voice she’d lost it but by just a few minutes later she’d recovered and had a plan. The old Cassie—no, Carly—would have hidden and fallen apart because she didn’t know what else to do or experience, Terry had taken all emotion and response from her but fear. But Shane had pushed that away and helped her remember love and hope and courage and she’d be damned if Carly would come back now.

  “You’re thinking. Is that good or bad?”

  His voice was low, nearly a growl and it caressed her skin. “Good. But it wasn’t a fuck me harder thought so I’ll save it for later.” She grinned.