shut, allowed herself to pretend that he loved her, taken the test as soon as she thought that she was pregnant and–
Spent the rest of her life hating herself for settling for something that she didn’t want. She honestly wasn’t sure how she’d expected her life to turn out, but she’d never imagined that she would end up like this. God, if she could go back…
She would have made the same choices, Sloane realized with a sigh. Even knowing that Chase wasn’t in love with her, she couldn’t regret falling in love with him no matter how much this hurt, and god, did this hurt. She knew that it was only going to hurt worse when it finally sank in. She really wasn’t looking forward to that.
The sound of the door opening had her wondering what else could go wrong. When she felt a cold bottle pushed against her arm a moment later, she absently mumbled, “Thank you,” as she dropped her arm and found herself staring at Chase as he sat down across from her.
“What are you doing here?” Sloane asked as her gaze flickered toward the door, noting that it had been left open and even as she had to wonder what the hell was going on.
“I called in a favor,” Chase said, drawing her attention back to find him watching her.
“What the hell are you talking about?” she asked, unable to help but frown.
“I couldn’t let you leave.”
“So, you had me detained by Homeland Security?” Sloane slowly asked, trying to make sense out of what was going on here and failing miserably.
“It seemed like my best option at the time,” he said, shrugging it off like it was no big deal.
At her blank stare, he added, “I couldn’t take any chances that you’d get on a plane, so I asked Hunter for a favor.”
A sinking feeling had her asking, “You called my boss, didn’t you?”
Nodding, he said, “You really didn’t leave me with any choice.”
“You got me fired, asshole,” Sloane snapped, shaking her head in disgust.
“You’re welcome,” Chase said with a heartfelt sigh.
“Oh, my god, are you insane?”
Frowning, Chase asked, “How else was I supposed to make sure that she fired you?”
For a moment, she could only stare at him and then, finally, common sense kicked in and had her heading for the door, muttering, “Asshole,” as she went.
“You’re pregnant?” he called after her.
“Yes,” Sloane bit out evenly as she leveled a glare on the men that had helped the asshole currently following her.
“Were you planning on telling me?” Chase asked as he caught up with her.
“And take that honor away from the men that had me thrown in a holding cell? I would never dream of doing such a thing,” Sloane said dryly as she followed the exit signs, only pausing long enough to grab her bags.
“They didn’t know that I didn’t know,” Chase said, at least having the good grace to wince.
“Well, now you know,” Sloane said as she quickened her pace, deciding that she’d deal with this later, much later, when she no longer had the urge to kick the large bastard that had just ruined her life.
*-*-*-*
“Shit!” Chase muttered as he struggled to keep up with her.
“Just leave me alone, Chase.”
“I’m afraid that I can’t do that,” Chase said, doubling his efforts to catch up with her as he ignored the pain shooting up his legs and back. He should have taken a fucking muscle relaxer before he left.
“Oh, and why’s that?”
“Because I’m never letting you go,” he said, reaching for her.
“You already did,” Sloane said as she stepped away from him and kept going.
“And I don’t plan on making the same mistake twice,” he said, rushing to catch up with her only to mutter, “Shit!” when he was forced to walk faster.
“I heard what you said,” she said, not bothering to glance back at him this time.
“What?” he asked, biting back a wince as more pain shot through his legs, threatening to drop him on his ass.
“Last night. I heard what you said. I was worried about you because you’re a stubborn pain in the ass that refuses to use your cane, so when you didn’t show up after a few minutes, I went looking for you. I heard you tell him that you didn’t love me,” Sloane said, making him realize just how badly he’d fucked everything up.
“It was a mistake,” Chase said, somehow managing to catch up with her, again.