Lead Me On by Victoria Dahl Page A

in memory.
    “Okay,” he murmured as she slid into a booth. “Wait right here. I’ll talk to Arlo. You want a drink?”
    She shook her head and Chase rushed off to assure Arlo that he’d assumed responsibility for Jane. The bartender seemed relieved to hand over the burden and happily donated two Cokes to the cause. Chase added a couple of burgers to the order.
    “All right,” he murmured as he slid into a seat opposite Jane. “Spill it.”



CHAPTER EIGHT
    J ANE TRIED TO HIDE the shaking of her hands by wrapping them around the glass he handed her. She was totally exposed. Physically, yes, but it was more than that.
    For years she’d ignored the background static of her life, pretended that she was simply somewhere else. In high school she’d put her head down and plowed through her classes, ignoring the insults of the boys she’d once chased and the girls who’d never liked her. She’d smiled her way through graduation when her mom had worn a tube top that prompted catcalls from her classmates. After school she’d dyed her hair back to its natural brown and changed her name and taken a job in Aspen, and that had been the end of it. She’d been done.
    Except that it wasn’t done. Jane had started over, but she hadn’t gone far enough.
    She should have moved to Denver. New York. London.
    Why hadn’t she gone farther?
    She knew why. Arrogance. John McInnis Architecture had been her very first job. It had been a stepping stone. A way to save money for college. But she’d been good at it. Really good. She’d worked her way from file clerk to receptionist to personal assistant to Mr. McInnis. It had been invigorating, being good at something. Being respected. Being deferred to. Pride had filled her like a drug.
    She’d worked for Mr. McInnis for three years before he’d retired and recommended her to help start Quinn Jennings’s new office. Then her fate had truly been sealed, because Mr. Jennings had given her a small stake in the company as a starting bonus. Her transformation had been complete. She’d become a businesswoman. An office manager. A partner .
    And if she occasionally ran into people from her old life, it didn’t matter. They didn’t see her. She wasn’t that girl anymore. She’d let herself be lulled into thinking she was safe. The static had been reduced to a faint hum. The sound of a television turned on in the next apartment.
    Until now.
    Chase watched her patiently. She didn’t want to tell him. But even dressed as she was, he didn’t seem to recognize the truth about her. He didn’t point and call her a slut. To him, this person was the disguise.
    She took a deep breath and blurted out, “My brother Jessie’s in trouble.”
    “Jessie,” he said, frowning, as if he’d never heard of her brother. Thank God.
    “He’s in trouble and I’m trying to help him out of it.”
    “What’s going on, Jane?”
    She bit her lip, thinking. “You can’t tell anyone.”
    “I’m the soul of discretion.”
    Jane glanced nervously around. Jessie’s two best friends were still there, living it up, totally unconcerned with their friend’s incarceration. What jackasses. They were a little blurry to her, but she could clearly see the way they laughed and pushed each other and hooted at every girl who strolled past. Within thirty seconds of approaching them, Jane had been propositioned in the least appealing way. Hey, you ever taken it from both ends at once ?
    Good God. There wasn’t an ounce of subtlety between them. They didn’t seem capable of stealing car stereos, much less dealing drugs.
    “My brother Jessie’s been arrested. I think the police are trying to set him up for something he didn’t do.”
    “Seriously?”
    “Yes. I was hoping his friends might know something. Or I thought they might give something away. They’re obviously Dumb and Dumber.”
    Chase craned his neck to see where she was looking. “Those two guys you were dancing with?”
    “Yes.”
    “You want