Page 101 of Chad's Chase
Long silence.
“I have a house in Los Altos Hills,” Chad said, pointedly changing the subject. “JK and his wife are staying there for the weekend—that’s what the keys were for earlier. He def won’t approve of us showing up there, what with all the shit chasing us right now, but…I don’t feel like driving back home tonight.” He raised a mischievous brow at me. “Do you?”
I was a little bummed that he’d outright change the subject to elude talking about himself, but at the name JK…That asshole? Oh, pissing him off would be my damn delight tonight. “Nope.”
Eyes lighting up, Chad grinned, wide, because he knew I knew he played me right into that one.
I’d envied Ricardo’s house—thought it was the most beautiful home I’d ever seen. But Ricardo’s house was like a box from the projects comparing to Chad’s place in Los Altos Hills.
More of a one-man villa and less of a ‘house’, it was a pompous, stunningly grotesque, stone-faced meet between Mediterranean and futuristic. Like something a drug lord would own. I half-expected to see tigers prowling about the undulating acres of hilly lands accompanying the place.
“Wow. This place is…wow…” I said as Chad drove carefully up a steep hill and through the gates, the car almost skidding backward. These hills were no place for sports cars.
“Yeah?” He finally had the car on a leveled pathway leading toward the front of the house/villa.
“Of course, yeah.” My head turned to him. “You don’t acknowledge this?”
With a non-committal sound, he shrugged. “I bought it on a whim a couple years ago. But I’m rarely up this side. JK and his wife are in love with it. They want to buy it. But”—another shrug—”I can’t seem to find peace with selling it.”
“Don’t sell it. I love it!” I knew I sounded like a girl here, but I didn’t care. I liked being a girl with Chad. “And I haven’t even seen the inside yet.”
Chad gave me a weird look. “I’m surprised you have such a material eye. I’d read you as the indifferent type, but I guess there’s an excited little girl in there, huh?”
Little girl???Okay, so maybe I was actingtoomuch like a girl, after all. Dropping my shoulders and leaning back in the car seat, I shrugged, feigning nonchalance. Anything that’ll deter Chad from seeing me as Tweety Byrd anymore. I was Jhay now. Gun-busting, bad biatch, straight-for-Chad Jhay. “Nope. I’m just learning to appreciate the finer things in life, with the odds that I might not live to see twenty-three.”
Sliding me a side glance, he opted to keep quiet, easing the sports car between a black Phantom and a red sports bike.
Keeping my lower lip clamped between my teeth, I silentlyooohedandahhhed—lest I be deemed an excited “little girl”. We got out of the car and headed up a couple of steps to the entrance. I bet this place looked like paradise in the daylight.
Just as we mounted the last step up, the front door swung open. JK and his wife stepped across the threshold, shocked at the sight of us. Well, the wife was shocked. JK was downright pissed.
However, while I’d planned to revel in ruining his night, that enjoyment went on pause as my mouth dropped open. “You’re married toSaskia Day?”
Saskia Day looked exactly how you’d expect someone sitting famously on top of the world would: glimmy, glammy, glowing, in a rebellious, all-black kind of way. This girl—remarkably beautiful, with envious curves, striking cat-gray eyes and wild blonde curls—I never really had the leisure of following her career to know who she was fucking, where she bought her panties, or where she had lunch on a normal Monday afternoon, but I did own a few of her albums because she sang some seriously kick-ass songs. Some were a bunch of sappy, lovey-dovey shit that I didn’t care for, but her best works were her bass-pumping rock songs.
Ignoring me altogether, JK narrowed his gaze on Chad, while his wife narrowed hers on me.
“We need somewhere to crash for the night,” Chad said without apology.
“Is there a reason why you’re staring at me like you want to throttle me?” I asked the famous superstar, lost on me how she could immediately dislike me without even knowing me… “Oh, I get it, this is about me grabbing JK’s dick, isn’t it? Just so you know, I didn’t—”
“Whut?” the superstar snapped out, full-on glaring now, her British accent lathery thick. She turned to her man with a scowl. “Whut’s she talking about, love?”
Oops.
Slowly shaking his head, JK transferred his glare from Chad to me, and held up an open palm. “Five.”
“Five?” What the hell did that even mean?
“Yeah,” he said, voice low and unkind. “I liked you as a ten before, but now you’re a five.”
“Huh,” I hummed, turning my mouth down at the corners. “That’s comforting, considering I don’t like youat all. On any scale or on any level.” Forming a circle with my thumb and forefinger, I gave him a saccharine smile before I mouthed, “Zero.”
Glare vanishing, JK’s golden eyes smiled at me, and as one corner of his lip began pulling up, he quickly bit down on it.
The superstar folded her arms and glowered at her loathsome husband. “Is there something going on that I need to know about, Jahleel?”
“Breathe easy, Sassy. We’ll talk on the way,” he returned in reply. “Why don’t you go wait in the car. I’ll be there in a min, okay?”
