His apology was grudgingly given until Alessandro ordered him to try harder, to say it like he meant it...
He left as quietly as he had been ordered to do. Then there was just the two of them, standing in a room that looked as though a bomb had exploded in it.
‘I’m sorry,’ Chase mumbled. Yet she was so glad that he had come because now she felt utterly safe. She moved to begin picking up some of her possessions from the ground, stacking them neatly on the sofa, very conscious of Alessandro’s eyes on her. ‘Why did you come?’ she asked.
‘You need something stiff to drink.’
‘I’m fine.’
‘Do you have any brandy?’
‘I’m fine.’ She finally met his eyes and hesitantly perched on the edge of the chair with her hands on her knees. ‘There’s half a bottle of wine in the fridge,’ she offered when he continued to look at her in silence. ‘It’s all I can do by way of drink, I’m afraid. I don’t keep spirits in the house.’ Shock was creeping over her. She didn’t want alcohol but she had to admit that she felt a little better after she had swallowed a mouthful from the glass he placed in her shaking hand a minute later.
‘I guess you want to know what all that was about,’ she said wearily.
‘Understatement of the decade, Chase.’
Chase stared down at her fingers. She’d been rescued by a man who had only returned to the scene to find out what was going on because he was like that—would never have been able to accept a brush off without demanding answers.
She would have to explain how it was that she knew Brian, how he had happened to be in her house. She would have to come clean about her background and know that he would be filled with contempt. Contempt for a woman who had lied about a fundamental aspect of her life and maintained the lie all through the time she had been seeing him. But there still remained a part of her that she refused to reveal, because to reveal it would be to lower herself even more in his estimation.
‘You’d better sit down and I’ll tell you. And then...’ She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. ‘You can leave and it’ll finally be over between us.’
CHAPTER NINE
SHE WAS STILL in her work clothes, the same dreary grey suit, except she looked...rumpled.
‘Did he lay a finger on you?’ Alessandro asked suddenly. ‘Did he touch you?’ This was as far out of his comfort zone as he had ever been. Even with parents intent on squandering their inheritance—parents who had been shining examples of irresponsibility; who had opened the doors of their various houses to artists and poets and playwrights, most of whom had been pleasantly stoned most of the time—through all that, he had never come into contact with the seedier side of life. The side of life that threw up people like the thug who had just been thrown off the premises. Even with diminishing wealth, he had still lived a sheltered, privileged life.
‘No. No, he didn’t.’ Chase could see the incredulity stamped on his beautiful face. He was shocked at what he had found, shocked that the woman he thought came from a solid, middle-class background could know someone like Brian Shepherd. ‘Although it’s not unheard of for Brian to lay into someone just for the hell of it, never mind if he thinks they’ve done something to him.’
‘How the hell do you know that guy, Chase?’ Alessandro frowned. ‘When you said that you couldn’t tell me why you needed the money, did you mean that you owed that creep money?’
‘No, I did not owe that creep any money. He just...’ She stood up, suddenly restless, but then immediately sat back down because her legs felt like jelly.
‘What, then...?’
‘If you would just sit down and stop prowling.’
Alessandro paused to look at her narrowly. ‘If you didn’t owe the guy money, then why would he have gathered half of your possessions and stuffed them into a bin bag?’ He sat on the chair facing her. Their body language was identical, both sitting forward, arms resting loosely on their thighs although, whilst Alessandro’s expression was one of intense curiosity, Chase’s was more resigned and reflective.
‘Brian and Shaun were friends,’ she said quietly, not daring to meet his eyes, fearful of what she would see there. ‘They were friends from before I met Shaun, childhood friends, even though Brian was older. They grew up on the same council estate.’
‘Which calls into question the type of man you chose to marry.’
‘When you’re young, it’s very easy to get drawn in to the wrong crowd.’