Page 87 of Master of My Heart

“... just got home this morning. He couldn’t wait to come over to see you.” Jayson sighed. “Is it his scar?”

“His scar?” She sounded shocked.

“Yeah. Is that why you ran away?”

There was a moment of silence. “Why would I run away from a scar?”

“He’s self-conscious about it. He got banged up really bad overseas.”

Thanks, Jayson. Why don’t you tell everyone that? Dumbass.

Sabrina didn’t say anything.

Jayson continued. “So he had to leave the army, but he recently started his own company. A private security firm. He’s pretty bad-ass.”

“He wanted to become a Green Beret,” she said in a soft voice. “He wanted to be like his dad.”

“He is. Craig was a good guy. Chase is just like him.”

“I’m sure he is.”

“Then why did you run away from him?”

Sabrina sighed. “Even good men have their limits. If he really is that good a man, he certainly won’t want to have anything to do with me.”

“What are you talking about?” Jayson exclaimed. “He’s never stopped hoping he’d be able to find you... to find out what happened to you!”

“That’s ridiculous, Jayson.”

Chase stepped into the doorway before he realized what he was doing. Sabrina lay on her stomach on her bed and Jayson was rubbing her back. Her cheeks were wet as she shook her head. Chase pushed away the twinge of jealousy from seeing Jayson comforting her.

“It’s true,” he said, stepping farther inside.

Jayson nodded encouragingly to him as Sabrina looked up at him, eyes wide, but not filled with terror anymore. Only a sadness that broke his heart.

“It would be better if you didn’t find out what happened to me,” she whispered, sitting up on her hip and looking away.

He walked over to her slowly, partially because of the pain in his foot and partially to not seem threatening to her. He knelt in front of where she sat on her bed. “Why?” he asked. “What happened?”

She shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut, as if in pain. “I’m not who I was when we met, Chase.” The despair in her voice sounded all too familiar. He’d heard it enough in his own voice when he found out he was to be discharged from the army because of his injuries.

She swung her legs around to the other side of the bed before gracefully standing and walking to her dresser. She opened the top drawer and pulled something out. She stared at it for a moment before returning to the bed, holding out her hand. It took him a moment to recognize the object she held. Something he hadn’t seen in five years.

His class ring from West Point. She still had it after all this time?

They both stared at it for a long moment, then she pushed it toward him with a shaking hand. “You should take this back,” she whispered, her voice squeaking slightly. “I know how much it meant to you.”

Chase frowned and stood, towering over her. “No. Not until you tell me what happened.” He crossed his arms, his jaw clenched and eyes hard.

She sighed. “You don’t want to know. Just—”

At that inconvenient moment, a knock sounded on the apartment door.

The three of them jumped. Sabrina dropped the ring onto the bed. “I have to go,” she whispered in a broken voice, then grabbed her coat and shoes and hurried out of the room. A moment later, the apartment door opened and closed.

Chase looked at Jayson. “What do I do now?”

Chapter Thirty-One

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