Page 65 of Degrees of Acceptance
Message:Please make sure Ty doesn’t get close to her. We can talk when I get home.
Reply:Jay is on his way to pick you up. Matt and Sheldon will stay.
When I get home, Chase is lounging in bed working on his laptop. I undress and don’t bother with a nightgown, crawling into bed beside him.
He puts the laptop to the side and pulls me into his arms. “What is it, Baby?” he says, pushing my hair out of my face so he can see my eyes.
The dam bursts and I can’t control the flood of tears that I’ve been holding back all night.
His eyes are wild with concern, and he takes my face in his hands. “Katarina, tell me what is wrong,” he demands.
“When Jenny and Ty left the pharmaceutical companies called him, and they want their money back. She confronted him about what he did, and he just said it was his job to take care of the big businesses. She said he was in a nasty mood, but he’s never been violent before.” His eyes harden and his jaw tenses.
“What happened, Katarina?” he asks.
“Ty snapped tonight. He hit Jenny and tied her up, and he… he raped her, Chase. She’s got rope burns all over her arms. She said he meant to hurt her, and she must have struggled a lot.” I am sobbing now, and his face is livid.
“I couldn’t get her to go to the hospital, and she can’t go to the police because Ty has been using her company to launder money and will expose it, indicting her for it, if she does,” I explain, wiping my tears.
“Fuck,” he says, getting out of bed and pulling his jeans on over his nakedness.
“Where are you going?” I ask.
“To make this right,” he says, and I’ve seen the look in his eyes before.
“Chase, at least, tell me what you are going to do. I promised Jenny I would keep this in confidence,” I say.
“Katarina, she did not deserve what he did to her, and I’ll be damned if she lives with the threat of someone blackmailing her for the rest of her life,” he says.
He pushes a button on his phone before he walks onto the balcony. “Jay, this is Chase,” is all I hear before the balcony door slides shut.
Shit, shit, shit… What the hell is he doing?
When he comes back in, he is calmer, but his eyes are hooded, and he gives nothing away. He unbuttons his jeans, and I can’t help admire his body as he slides into bed with me.
“Talk to me, Chase,” I say.
“What do you want me to tell you?”
“Anything… just say something. Tell me what you are doing,” I plead.
“Katarina, you’re not going to like it, so why have me share this with you?”
“I might not like it, but I need to know, Chase.”
“I am having someone confiscate all his files, electronic and paper, from his office. Once we have those he will no longer be in a position to threaten Jenny. My guess is he has a lot of information to hide and is being paid quite well to launder it and bury the evidence. He was rash tonight and will be trying to cover his tracks come tomorrow. We’ll need to work on finding the compromised accounts and create a different money trail. Look at me, Baby. If we don’t do this, Jenny will be at his mercy for the rest of her life. Do you understand what that means? Anytime he decides he wants to rape her again, he can. He will have power over her,” he says.
“I never thought about it in that way, and I don’t believe she did either,” I say, lying next to him with my head on his chest. My heart constricts with the love I feel for him and the way he takes care of the people we care about. My phone beeps again reminding me of a missed message. I reach over to check the call and hit the button to play the message. Mom has talked to my dad, and I don’t think I imagine the excitement in her voice. Her message lets me know that she and Chase have spoken and that he is flying her to Chicago to see my dad for the first time in twenty-six years. There is so much running through my mind.
“The message was from my mom. You’re flying her here, tomorrow, to meet my dad?” I ask, puzzled.
“I am. She couldn’t reach you on your cell so she called me. She wants to meet your dad, and I told her he would be having dinner with us tomorrow and invited her to join us. She was going to book a flight, and I offered the plane,” he says as if it was the most logical thing in the world. We’ll head back home early tomorrow and can work from there until your mom arrives.
“So are you done working tonight?” I ask.
“I am except for a few calls later on. But for now, all the arrangements are made. Your mom should be landing around noon, and your dad will be here for dinner,” he says.
I pull him closer to my body, needing to hold him close and capture his lips with my own. He embraces me and holds me tighter.
