Chase Part 3: A New Adult and College Billionaire Romance (Chase Me Billionaire Romance Series) Read Free Page A

her service. One customer backed down when Jeff came over. They had eaten everything on their plate and then said they weren’t satisfied. Jeff saw right through him and demanded payment. He was an enforcer tonight, and for once, Meaghan was grateful.
    “That was a first,” Jeff said. He seemed surprised her by genuine gratitude.
    “I’m glad you’re here.” She smiled at him. “Thank you for being so understanding. This has been the shift from hell, and I’ve still got the whole day to go.” She sighed. “I don’t know what I would have done if it had been someone else running shift today.”
    “Was it like this all morning too?” he asked, stepping closer to her as she filled a customer’s coffee mug.
    “Yeah, it was. A lot of problems walked in today.”
    He ran his hand through her hair again. She was afraid this would happen.
    “Don’t, Jeff.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because I said no.”
    “All you need is a real man to take care of you when you get home at night. Then you won’t feel as stressed when you’re here.”
    “That’s not your place to say, Jeff. I’ve told you already. You’re a nice guy, but I’m not interested.”
    She walked away and pulled herself together at the other side of the servers’ area. Breathing deeply, she dropped her head to her hand, wondering if it was worth it at all. As she walked over to serve her next customer, she saw Chase stepping through the front door of the restaurant.
    ***
    Chase spotted Meaghan. He couldn’t stay at home anymore, and he couldn’t keep this to himself. The thought of talking to her about this face to face for the first time in weeks was terrifying. Meaghan deserved to know. It was time he came clean.
    When he walked through the front door of the restaurant, their eyes met. Meaghan lifted her hand to him, signaling for him to wait. It was probably not a good idea to do this where she worked, but he couldn’t hold back any longer. When she walked back to him, her apron was off.
    “Hi honey,” she said, throwing her arms around his neck. “What are you doing here? Came to rescue me?”
    “It very well may be so,” he answered. “Can you spare a few minutes?”
    “Sure. I told the manager I’m taking my lunch break now. I’ve got thirty minutes. Let’s go, Chase. I could use a walk, or just being somewhere else. Anywhere else.”
    They left and walked to a coffee shop nearby. Chase ordered their drinks while Meaghan found them a table.
    “How’s your day going?” she asked him when he brought over their drinks and sat down.
    “Meaghan. We need to talk.”
    “Oh. This sounds serious.”
    “It is. And I’m sorry I kept it from you for this long.”
    “Kept what from me?”
    “There’s no easy way to tell you this.” He looked away and gathered his thoughts before continuing. “I still need to get answers from my mom, but…the mechanic shop is a chop shop.”
    Meaghan just looked at him. There was no shock on her face, only disappointment. “When did you find out?” she finally asked after a few moments of silence.
    “I had my suspicions for a few weeks. But I found out for sure that night I worked really late this week.”
    “I hate to say this, but I knew it, deep down.”
    “I’m sorry I didn’t just come out and tell you. I was hoping I was wrong…It’s really bad, Meaghan.”
    “Of course it’s bad. They steal cars, break them down and sell the parts.”
    “No Meg. It’s worse than that. They’re involved in other things.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Let’s get into it when we’re not out in public like this, okay? I actually came to talk about something worse.”
    “What’s that? What could be worse than that?”
    “The call I got last night was from Jose.” He leaned to her and whispered in her ear. “The police raided the shop last night. We can all be in trouble.”
    “What?” she almost shouted. Thankfully, the café was quite busy, with the noises of other patrons drowning out her