Page 141 of Master of My Heart

Chase kept his face neutral, but his mind already worked on a plan to keep his friends safe. His gut told him Liz and Jayson were safe. Sabrina was the one they wanted. Hopefully it was pretty clear that kidnapping someone else to get to her wouldn’t work, but just to be sure, he’d call his guys in and have the ballet studio monitored, as well as the areas around it. Maybe Richard could get some cameras up on the street so they could be observed more easily and Corey could keep an eye on them.

He glanced at Sabrina, who studied the quilt on the bed again, like she had been doing when he’d walked in. She looked like she was about to fall over asleep. “I’ll let you get some sleep so you can dance tomorrow, if you’re up for it.” Her eyes lit up at his words and he smiled, certain the excitement was from the idea of dancing, not sleeping. He stood. “Would you be interested in finishing our date on Friday?”

“Our date?”

Chase nodded. “Remember? You... left early.”

Sabrina blinked and her cheeks turned red. “I’m sorry for doing that, Chase. I put you through a lot of trouble because of it.”

“I hate that you went through all that, but good things have come from it.”

“Like what?”

“Like we know what’s going on now. We know someone is still after you, so we can start working on keeping you safe. Permanently.”

She nodded, but didn’t look happy.

“I believe all things happen for a reason and that good can result from them.”

She gave him a bewildered look as her head snapped up. “You think it’s good that all that stuff happened to me?”

“No, not that it happened, but good can come from it.”

She snorted. “How could something good possibly come from what I went through?”

Chase hesitated. He wanted her to rest, but he couldn’t leave the conversation like this. Maybe something simple and to the point. “Do you trust me?”

She frowned. “What?”

“When I first came home, I don’t think you trusted me. Am I right?”

“I suppose.”

“Do you trust me now?”

She blinked and swallowed. “Yes.”

He tilted his head. “I consider that something good,” he said softly. He leaned down and kissed her temple. “We’ll talk more about it on Friday.”

“Friday?”

“To finish our date from last week.”

“You really want to?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

She bit her lip and shrugged.

“Yes, I really want to. We’ll try a quieter restaurant, though.”

She gave him a shy smile. “I had a good time there.”

Chase grinned. He loved that shy smile of hers. “Well, then, maybe I’ll try something a little adventurous.”

“Okay.” She gave a small shrug.

“If you need anything, call me or ask Ethan, okay?”

---