At first she had no intention of reading it; he had seemed so impolite while he was writing it. But maybe it was something important that he wanted her to tell her own lawyers. She brought the folded paper below the table into her lap and opened it up before looking briefly down at what he wrote:
As soon as I get you alone, I don’t know what I’m going to do first, but at some point, I’ll be saying “This is going to hurt me more than it does you.”
I am so not going to mean it.
Amanda’s face remained completely impassive. She looked back up, and her attention resumed to focusing on what the attorneys were saying around her. Chase did the same, calm and composed as he ever was. Then, when both were confident they could pull it off and perfectly timed, they looked directly at each other. Her eyes widened playfully and his pupils dilated predatorily. They looked away from each other in the nick of time, preventing one from directly blowing the other’s cover. She shifted in her chair and recrossed her legs. Discreetly folding the note, she stuck it in the inside zippered compartment of her handbag.
She considered it a binding contract to her personal happy ending.
CHAPTER 18
CHASE WALKED BRISKLY in the underground parking garage with security keeping up, preoccupied and too impatient to wait for them to bring his car. The gradual buildup of tension surrounding his wedding had taken a turn toward drama, and they still had three weeks to go. It was to be a lavish winter affair, taking place in the small window of time falling between New Year’s and before they left for spring training. One for which the Coles spared no expense. Amanda insisted she not burden his only relative downtime and did her best to leave him out of the planning as much as she could. He trusted her judgment regarding cake tastings, menu planning, invitations, and flowers. He knew she could handle their wedding party getting to the size of a philharmonic orchestra with aplomb. Both Rupert and Catherine came from large families, and his mother’s invitation list was long as well. But he saw trouble on the horizon when Amanda moved back into her own place, citing some old folklore about how it would add to the proper nuptial buildup. What rubbish. It wasn’t a prizefight he had to reserve his stamina for; it was a marriage. And a month before the most important day of his life was no time for her to go all virginal on him. When she called earlier that morning to make the final decision on their honeymoon he could tell she was stressed out and scattered. But instead of being supportive, he spat back.
“I don’t really care where we go, just make sure the room is nice because by the time this shindig is over, we’re not going to leave it.”
Amanda hung up abruptly after grouching that he sounded more like a drill sergeant giving her marching orders, and she was going to go “man up.” The whole episode left him with a rotten taste in his mouth. As he picked up his pace in the cold garage, Chase considered blowing off his lunch meeting and tracking her down. But what good would that do when his only solution would be to try convincing her to sex him up until they both felt better?
Chase didn’t notice the black sedan accelerating and coming toward him until Jack and his partner started taking affirmative action and rushing in front of him. The car’s brakes squealed, a sound made louder by the echo created in the garage, and the car fishtailed, then spun halfway around before stopping a few yards away from the trio. Even with the half-empty garage, it was still a tight maneuver.
The men stared in stunned silence as Amanda jumped out of the backseat and rushed up to them, her hand secure in the pocket of her beige trench coat. She reached out with her hand firmly ensconced within the coat, the outline of her pointer finger and thumb protruding from the top and side of the coat’s pocket as if brandishing a revolver.
“Stay back and no one gets hurt,” she ordered, jerking the hand in her pocket toward the running car. “He’s coming with me.”
Upon recognizing her, the two security guards marginally stood down. Still with their hands on their own holstered weapons, they looked briefly at each other and then at their boss, who was smiling broadly.
“Better do what she says, boys. That finger looks pretty serious,” Chase said, already moving in the direction of Amanda’s getaway car.
“That was easy,” Amanda remarked, taking her hand out of her pocket and heading back to the car. She briefly turned back to the silent guards, who had broken into small grins, even Jack, who wasn’t known for smiling. She added, “I’ll have him back in three days, make sure they clear his schedule?”
Both men gave a single nod. Amanda and Chase got into the backseat of the car.
“Hey, Ricky Bobby,” Chase said good-naturedly in reprimand to the driver as he slid into his side behind the man. “That’s my fiancé you almost smashed into another car.”
“Sorry, sir,” said the driver, a man of about thirty, who grinned sheepishly after making eye contact from the rearview mirror. “She told me to make it dramatic.”
“No surprise there,” Chase drawled as Amanda closed her car door after taking her seat beside him. He took her hand. “Okay, I’ve come along quietly. What’s this all about?”
Amanda leaned over and kissed him quickly before settling back in her seat and saying victoriously, “You’ll see.”
The car sped out of the parking garage and into city traffic. With a third person in the car, Chase and Amanda refrained from further conversation. He continued his grasp of her hand, absently playing with his ring on her finger. He leaned his head back against his headrest and closed his eyes, but couldn’t stop smiling. He had given up control without having a clue where they were going, yet he couldn’t remember ever being happier. In a matter of minutes he was sleeping.
When she woke him, the car was on a tarmac at what he assumed was Teterboro Airport. A short distance away, a Learjet was awaiting their arrival. The driver popped the trunk of the car and handed over an overstuffed backpack to Amanda before leaving.
“I do have my own plane, you know,” he told her, intercepting and taking the heavy backpack from the driver as they made their way to the stairs of the open hatchway to board.
“What kind of kidnapper would I be if I used your own stuff to kidnap you?” she asked.
They took their seats and were given glasses of champagne while the flight crew began preparing for takeoff.