Chase
“Yo, dude. You Chase? Jarett sent me.”
My head whips around like a spinning top. I told Jarett a hundred times to stop telling these fuckers where I work. I can’t have these people show up at my job like this. Thankfully, my boss is in the can. This time.
“We’ll talk outside.” I grab a rag to clean my hands and point at the bay doors.
The guy and I walk into the parking lot to conduct our business. When Jarett asked me to sell the last of his stash, the money was a little hard to resist. It’s tough to make a living these days. A man’s gotta do what he’s gotta do. “How is Jarett anyway? I haven’t seen him in a while.”
“He’s good. Ya know, dealin’ with the wifey and shit. Fuckin’ women, right, bro?” He laughs like his joke was funny. This guy sounds like he’s been punched in the head a few too many times. I peer in through the bay doors and see Jameson isn’t out yet. Time to get this shit over with and send this guy packing.
“What do you want?” I say, walking over to my car in the corner spot. It’s risky, but I keep the shit hidden in a secret compartment under my dashboard. You never know when some asshole is going to come calling, and I refuse to do this kind of business at my house.
“Fifty.” He reaches for his wallet and starts counting out the cash. We make the exchange, but he doesn’t walk away. Instead, he starts asking me a hundred questions about my boss’s car. I’m trying to be cordial and not piss the guy off, but I have work to do. Real work. Not this bullshit Jarett dumped on me out of the blue. I start to edge back to the garage when the door of his Mazda flings open, and a girl gets out and lights a cigarette.
“Are you fucking serious right now?” We both turn to look at her as she storms our way. “You promised me a fucking ride, asshole, and instead, you leave me waiting in your douche mobile while you’re playing with your little friend over here?” She motions to me, and I put my hands up innocently. “Now say goodbye, get in your fucking chick car, and drop me where I need to go!”
The guy looks flustered by her outburst. I think we both are. The vicious look on her face doesn’t make her any less smokin’ hot. Glossy pink lips twist up in fury, and black eyes narrow into slits. Well, I assume they both are. Technically, I can only see one, as the other is covered with a thick curtain of black and purple hair. She’s wearing a black T-shirt and tight black pants with these knee-high fuck-me boots over the top. I’m unsuccessfully trying not to check her out, but she doesn’t even notice me standing here as she continues her verbal assault on the guy she came with.
“Dude! No one is going to die if they can’t get a fucking rub down in the next thirty seconds. Calm the fuck down, and I’ll get ya there when I get ya there.”
Her mouth falls open and her nostrils flare. Guido struck a nerve with that one. She flicks her cigarette in his direction, and it bounces off his chest. If looks could kill, the dude would be dead, entrails unspooling onto the cracked concrete. “I already told you, you fuckin’ moron, I’m not a massage therapist!”
His meaty fist wraps around her skinny arm, and he wrenches her close to him. “Who you callin’ a moron, bitch?” he growls in her face, but the chick doesn’t seem like she scares too easily.
“Get your fucking hands off me, asshole!”
A sickening crack precedes a splatter of blood as the heel of her hand makes contact with his nose, snapping his head back. The dude hits the asphalt like a sack of bricks. “Thanks for nothing, dickhead!” A wad of spit shoots from her perfect mouth and lands on the guy crying on the concrete before she turns and storms away on her skyscraper heels. My jaw is on the ground, and my eyes are wide. I’m kind of pissed I didn’t record this shit for YouTube.
“You fucking cunt!” he calls, but she’s already halfway off the lot. Blood spills down his face and hands as he sits cursing and wailing about his broken nose.
I watch her hips sway with the wind as she hauls ass down the road. “Hey!” I take off after her, leaving the guy she was with bleeding in the parking lot. “Hey, wait!” I grab her arm, and she whips around, her angry face softening when she sees me. “Do you need a ride somewhere?”
She looks at me like I’m speaking a foreign language. “Look, I don’t want to get in the middle of whatever that was between you and your boyfriend—”
“He is not my boyfriend,” she shoots, the sun glinting off the purple streaks in her hair as it blows around her face. When she blinks her almond eyes, her lashes flap like bat wings.
“But I got the sense you have somewhere you need to be,” I continue. “I’ll take you, just hold on.”
“I can’t just get in your car; I don’t even know you. How do I know you’re not some psycho killer or something?”
“With all due respect, miss”—I grin — “considering the way you took down that other guy, I think I have more cause for concern than you do.” A smile tugs the corner of her mouth, and my stomach does a backflip. Goddamn, she’s pretty. It’s hard to believe a babe like this kicked some dude’s ass just a few minutes before. “Wait here.”
I jog back to the shop to get my car, and when I pull up, she gets in. “Where to?”
“Luxe Spa on the Turnpike.”
Whoa, swanky. I pull away from the curb and head in the direction of the spa downtown. “You got a name?”
“Oh, sorry. It’s Kat.”
I’m kind of afraid to ask her if that’s a real name or a bullshit one. It’s a little too perfect for her. She’s as exotic and graceful as a Siamese. Just as hostile, too.
“Chase.” I extend my hand, and she slips her perfectly manicured one into it. Black nails with purple sparkles, they match her hair to a T. I don’t think it was an accident.
“Chase, huh? That’s not a name, that’s a verb.” She flips down the visor and looks at her reflection. “Got a last name?” She digs through her bag and pulls out a tube of lip gloss. My gaze flickers back and forth between the road and her as she applies the light pink goo to her plump lips. There’s something about her. What is it? The way she moves, the hairpin bow of her lips, and the razor-sharp slice of her gaze. It’s all so familiar.
“Just Chase.” I make it a point not to share too much with people. It’s easier that way. Besides, my name is a total embarrassment.
“Alrighty then.”
A shrill chirp beeps from her purse. She pulls out her phone, and her lips turn down into a scowl. Clicking is the only sound as her thumbs move at lightning speed across the screen before she chucks the phone at the purse at her feet. She crosses and uncrosses her legs and shifts her body in the seat. Whatever that was shifted her aura dark again. I’ve known this chick for all of ten minutes, and she’s cycled through three different moods already.
I pull up in front of Luxe, and she opens the door. “Thanks for the ride, Chase. Good to meet a nice guy for once.” She leans over, smacks a kiss on my cheek, and jumps out of the car without another word.
This girl is by far the kookiest broad I’ve ever met. She’s moody as hell and reeks of trouble, yet I find something so intriguing about her. She’s a mess of gorgeous chaos.
The huge, fancy building swallows her whole as I swing the car around to get back to work. Jameson is probably freaking out. I left literally without even saying a word.
Another shrill chirp startles me as I pull into the parking lot of Morello and Tate. Searching around the floorboard, I find the source: A Samsung Galaxy wrapped in a blue and white striped case with a cross in the corner. Her phone must have bounced out when she flung it into her enormous purse. I have to return this to her, but I can’t leave work again to drive back to Luxe.
My gut twists with the notion of seeing her again, but it’s not the normal reaction a guy generally gets from seeing a pretty girl. It’s more than that. The long, dark hair, slender frame, and look of complete contempt marring her beautiful face. It hits me so hard I stop short.
She reminds me of her.