Free CHASE: Complete Series by Cassia Leo Page B

and grabbed my left hand. “Larissa Jacobs, I love you more than I ever believed I could love someone.”
My breath came in shallow gasps as the tears began to fall again.
“I know you must be very angry with me right now, but I’m asking you to trust that this is all going to work out. I’m asking you to trust me… for now and forever. Will you please marry me? Will you please let me love you for the rest of our lives?”
My stomach twisted inside me at the sight of him kneeling before me brandishing the ring I had picked out six weeks ago. Every piece of me wanted to scream yes , except for my shattered heart.
“You’re sending me away,” I said, gritting my teeth against this painful truth.
“I’ll be back for you very soon.”
“You said you wouldn’t let them hurt me. What happened? What changed in the last twenty minutes?”
He glanced at my feet for a moment before he slipped his phone out of his pocket. He played a video of the two of us together in the hotel room last night, which appeared to have been taken from the hotel across the street.
“Teddy got this earlier, when we were making love,” he said, the muscle in his jaw twitching as he stood.
“So this is plan B? Parade me in front of a horde of reporters then send me away to some remote cabin in Montana for six months. And I’m supposed to just wait for you?”
“Not six months.”
“Then how long?”
“Three or four months tops. We need to at least wait until a few weeks after the inauguration… for things to die down.”
Drew stepped forward. “Sir, the chopper’s here.”
I shook my head as I realized the chopper was there for me. “I can’t believe this.”
Chase squeezed my hand as he looked me in the eye. “Please let me put this ring on you.”
“Do I even have a choice or is this some kind of mandatory witness protection program?”
“Of course, you have a choice,” he replied with a glance at the ring.
I looked into his dark eyes, searching for a trace of deceit. Had I been wrong about him all along? Was this all a ploy to keep me loyal to him while I was in hiding?
No. He wasn’t lying. We were both being tossed by this violent ocean of lies—lies we had both told. Lies we had told ourselves.
Drew cleared his throat. “Sir?”
“Just a minute,” Chase replied, his eyes locked on mine as he awaited my answer.
I swallowed the fear lodged in my throat and nodded. “Yes. Yes, I’ll wait for you.”
He smiled like a boy with a new bike as he slipped the ring on my finger. “You’ll hear from me tonight.” He kissed me, a deep, urgent kiss. “I love you,” he said, as he rested his forehead against mine. “I’m going to make this up to you.”
My chest ached as I tore myself away from him. “I know.”
I turned away before I could change my mind and chased Drew up the staircase. A private elevator on the second floor of the penthouse delivered us onto the roof where a helicopter waited for us. I raced toward the helicopter, pushing aside worries about how I was going to get all my stuff to this secret destination. I climbed into the cabin and Drew helped strap me into the seat.
“Where are we going?” I shouted at him over the roaring squeal of the engine and the thwack of the rotors.
He shook his head before he strapped himself into the seat next to me. I didn’t know if this meant he didn’t know where we were going or he couldn’t tell me, but I was starting to realize it didn’t matter. Even if he knew, he wouldn’t tell me.
The helicopter lifted off the roof and swept across the sky toward the west. I gazed at my ring and the way the light refracted off the stone and onto the ceiling of the chopper. Suddenly, I couldn’t breathe. I tucked my hand under my thigh and turned my attention to the window. As I gazed at the Vegas strip below, I thought of California and my ex-roommate Shane. He said I hit the jackpot when Chase picked me out of all the girls at the escort service. Suddenly, I was beginning to