Never Say Never, Part One (Second Chance Romance, Book 1) Read Free Page B

counted them. She’d scored $500 that night, which was about average at the club, but it was nowhere near enough to cover her debt, especially when she had bills to pay and a mother in an old age home.  
    Initially, she’d owed Big Nick an even $1000, but over time that amount had gained ‘interest’ and it wasn’t like she could take him to the cops for threatening her. What would she say? ‘Hi, I owe this guy $1000 for my cocaine habit, but he’s trying to charge me 10 times that’. Unlikely.  
    The injustice of it made her irate. She’d yet to meet a man who hadn’t tried to use her in some way.  
    Emily stirred the cooling noodles with her fork and bit her lip. Maybe she had a little extra in her wallet.  
    She pulled her bag across the table and rummaged around in it. Her hand closed around a cold and flat oblong piece of metal. What was this?
    It was the drunk suit’s smartphone. She slapped a hand to her forehead. She’d slipped in her bag without thinking and that was yet another felony to add to the list: stealing.  
    Emily placed it on the tabletop and stared at it for a while.  
    Intrigue prodded her. He was probably a banker or accountant, out for a night of drunken pleasure whilst his wife waited at home. What a slime ball. Or was he?  
    What if he was broken hearted or in financial dire straits?  
    Her fingers itched for answers.  
    Maybe if she took a sneak at his messages she’d discover the truth. He’d invaded her privacy, with the nipple flicking and so on. It was fair that she got a peek into his private life.  
    She’d have to find a method of getting the phone back to him. A contact of his, probably.  
    Emily snatched the phone up and unlocked it with a smooth swipe from her thumb. Excitement and anxiety turned her stomach into a valley of wild butterflies.  
    She clicked the messaging icon and the phone’s screen lit up with a flashing face of a woman with long blonde hair and lush red lips.  
    “What the – ”  
    Incoming call.  
    “Oh my God.” Emily jumped back slightly and the phone slid from her grip. She caught it again before it could fall and shatter.  
    “Uh, hello?” She answered without thinking.  
    “Who is this?” A cold female voice demanded on the other end of the line.  
    “Emily,” she paused and frowned, then hit back, “who’s this?”  
    The woman cleared her throat. “Hello Emily, I’m Chastity. I believe you’re in possession of my brother’s phone.”  
    Emily glanced at her watch in disbelief. It’d been two hours since he’d been whisked off in an ambulance. Chastity sure didn’t waste time.  
    “That’s correct. Assuming your brother is the guy who got beaten up outside a strip club.”  
    “Chase.”  
    “Huh?”  
    “His name is Chase, and I’d like his phone back.”  
    That was a nice name. Better than Chastity, at least. “Sure, no problem. Would you like to meet up?”  
    “At the restaurant Daniel at 6 pm.”  
    It sounded like a showdown out of a western. Draw!
    “All right.”  
    Click. The line went dead. No goodbyes, no thank you, nothing. It seemed bad manners ran in the family.  
    Daniel. That was one of the most expensive restaurants in New York, and it was on the Upper East Side. She’d been there in another life and she wasn’t pleased about having to go back again.  
    Emily rolled her shoulders and stood up slowly, studying that phone.  
    This Chase guy had turned out to be worth a lot more trouble than the $100 bill he’d slipped in her thong on stage. Before the groping of course.

CHAPTER FOUR

    Blackness surrounded him, coated in calm except for a whisper of scratching.  
    “Chasey.”  
    Anger split the darkness down the middle. He hated that name. That was the cheesiest nickname he’d ever been given. Who’d used it on him, again?
    “Chasey, wake up sweetheart.”  
    It was a girl speaking. No, a woman. No, this was definitely a girl.  
    “Chasey, the doctors say