Beautiful Chase Read online

  Beautiful Chase Copyright © 2015 MJ Nightingale

  Published by MJ Nightingale

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, including electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.

  This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it to the seller and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

  Published: MJ Nightingale January, 2015: [email protected]

  Editing: Keriann McKenna

  Cover Design © Melissa Gill at MG BookCovers

  Formatting by: Brenda Wright

  This book is intended for a mature audience of eighteen and older.

  ISBN-13: 978-1507642139

  ISBN-10: 150764213X

  To the ladies at IEZ!

  Being on this journey with you

  and having your friendship and support

  means everything.

  Keep Twirling!

  -MJ

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Prologue – The Nightmare

  Chapter 1 – Home Sweet Home

  Chapter 2 – Falling Apart at the Seams

  Chapter 3 – And So It Begins

  Chapter 4 – Lucky Breaks

  Chapter 5 – Good Deeds

  Chapter 6 – Chasing His Tail

  Chapter 7 – Car Trouble

  Chapter 8 – A Helping Hand

  Chapter 9 – Night Terrors

  Chapter 10 – A New Day

  Chapter 11 – Fall From Grace

  Chapter 12 – Run For the Hills

  Chapter 13 – The Proposal

  Chapter 14 – It Started with a Kiss

  Chapter 15 – The Morning After

  Chapter 16 – Fireworks

  Chapter 17 – Fourth of July

  Chapter 18 – Let the Fireworks Begin

  Chapter 19 – Betrayal

  Chapter 20 – Healing

  Chapter 21 – A Plan

  Chapter 22 – Finding Refuge

  Chapter 23 – One Day

  Chapter 24 – His

  Chapter 25 – The Marinos

  Chapter 26 – Parting

  Chapter 27 – The Waiting

  Chapter 28 – The Sting

  Sneak Peek: From Beautiful Regret – Book 3 of The Bounty Hunters: The Marino Bros.

  More Books by MJ Nightingale

  Coming Soon From MJ Nightingale

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  His heart pounded in his chest beating a furious tattoo. It was much later than normal for him to head to his fiancée Nicole’s apartment. She wasn’t expecting him tonight. He had a paper due tomorrow for his Constitutional Amendment Rights course and he told her he’d be working late. It was the last class he needed to ace in order to graduate with his law degree, and he was also cramming for his BAR exam next month.

  Nicole had been patient with him. For the last two years, their relationship was strained because of all the time he needed to put into his studies. But they had been together for four years, and he knew she was the one. Once he found a job with the Prosecutor’s office in Manhattan, he was planning to propose. It was just after one o’clock and he had been packing up to head to his apartment in the city when he received a strange text. It was a picture of Nicole dancing with someone. The picture revealed her kissing that someone, someone he recognized, and it floored him. It must be some kind of mistake. He had to ask her about this, and see what it all meant.

  Nicole was finishing her undergraduate degree and shared a small apartment with two other girls. They were both out of town this weekend, so he let himself into her apartment with the key she had given him.

  He was immediately struck by the sounds of passion. It shocked him, but the sounds he heard could not be denied—the sounds she made while making love with him. He knew that murmur of satisfaction very well.

  “Oh God, yes,” she purred. “Yes, baby, fuck me.”

  His heart that had been beating so fast, now began to slow, but he could feel the blood pumping in his brain. What the hell? It couldn’t be. Nicole, sweet and innocent when he met her as a freshman, and he a senior. He had fallen for her innocence immediately. Her southern charm, and wavy brown hair reminded him of photos of his mother when she was just married. His mom died six years earlier. He still felt the pang of her loss, and his father’s. They died together in the end.

  But Nicole. It just seemed so unreal as he crept down the hallway. He had been her first. Well, he thought that, but this picture told a different tale. A tale he hadn’t even suspected her capable of.

  Yes, she had expressed loneliness these past two years at times, but he thought she understood. He was working hard for their future together. But from what he was hearing, it was him who didn’t understand her at all.

  “Oh, Alex, baby, that feels so . . . so . . .” her voice trailed off.

  He couldn’t believe it. She was with Alex. Alex, a friend to both of them. He liked Alex right away when they met. They had become great friends. A serious student, here on scholarship, playing ball for the university. They met Alex at a party two years ago, and quickly developed a friendship over their shared love of the game, and the similar professors and classes they had taken. Alex was studying law too.

  He could hear his heart pounding as it tore into shreds. Not only was Nicole betraying him, but Alex as well. It was too much. He almost chose to turn and leave, but some sick perverseness overtook him, and he had to see it for himself. Had to see the woman he loved fucking their friend. He had to witness this betrayal.

  He walked down the hallway, and saw Nicole’s bedroom door slightly ajar.

  “Oh, Alex, so good. Yes . . .” she murmured. He couldn’t hear Alex at all, didn’t want to, but he still walked forward, as if in slow motion, towards that door that loomed larger as he got closer. His tunnel vision made it appear like it was miles away, yet he was just steps away from seeing her, seeing them together.

  “Oh-oh,” her cries of pleasure were coming faster and getting louder. He could hear her thrashing about on the bed. He could envision her there, gripping the twisted sheets like she did when he pleasured her, and it sickened him. How could they destroy them all with this act?

  Just one more foot to go and he took that final step as Nicole cried out her final release. “Oh fuck me. Yesssss!” He was standing in the door, and now there could be no denying it. There she was, Alexandra Martin, at the foot of the bed on her knees, licking Nicole’s pussy, sucking her clit, while she climaxed and reached her pinnacle. Nicole’s brown waves were splayed across the sheets just like he imagined, as she gasped for breath, and Alex crawled up her body taking her nipple into her mouth and suckled at the rosy peaks. Breaking free of her nipple, Alex whispered to Nicole, “I love you, Nicky. Always.”

  Nicole reached a hand upward to take hold of Alex’s auburn hair, and in her dainty fist grasped it pulling her closer. They began to kiss, and soon Nicole used her body to turn Alex onto the bed.

  Blaze took a step back in that moment, back into the shadows of the hallway, but not before Alexand
ra saw him. Releasing a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, he turned without saying a word. He walked down the hallway, and out the door, closing it softly behind him. He took the stairs two at a time, not wanting to wait for the elevator. He just had to get out. Out of the building, and out of the city. At twenty-five when he thought his life was just about to really begin with a family of his own, he realized that it simply wasn’t. His faith had been tested before, but now he had lost it. This betrayal and the image of the two of them together would be burned into his mind’s eye forever, into his soul in that moment. Happily ever after wouldn’t happen for him. Not now. Not ever, he thought bitterly as he made it to the bus stop just in time to catch the city transport.

  And four years later, when he woke up from that nightmare it was like he had lived it all over again. It was the reason he agreed to move from New York. It was the reason he didn’t trust woman. It was the reason he took what he needed, and walked away. That was how Blaze felt, and there wasn’t anything, or anyone, who could ever change his mind again.

  Andreas was packing his suitcase when there was a knock at the door. Another job done and he was ready to go home. The door swung open before he had a chance to look up.

  "I used my key. You ready?" Blaze asked his oldest brother who still hadn't bothered to turn around.

  "Almost," he muttered while methodically replacing his belongings into the compact case. Everything was placed carefully and neatly.

  "Gio left for the hospital?" he asked, snapping the lid shut.

  "Yeah, he took Ronnie over there now. Said to tell you have a good flight," Blaze responded, still standing in the doorway.

  He and Andreas would make this trip home alone. Gio would wait until their other brother Nikko, the youngest, was released from the hospital. It had been the first time any of them had been injured while working a case. Luckily, Nikko had pulled through with no complications resulting from his gunshot wound. It had been a clean shot through the shoulder.

  "It'll be good to get home. These damn black flies here in Maine. Shit, I look like I’ve got chicken pox.”

  Andreas laughed even though his face didn't look like he found it amusing. "You’re just so sweet," he teased his younger brother.

  Andreas was thirty-four, and Blaze was nearly eight years younger at twenty-eight.

  "Ha ha," Blaze mocked deadpan. Although Andreas was the most serious of the four Marinos, Blaze was a very close second. "Well, I can't wait to get back to Florida. I’ll take the sunshine any day."

  Zipping the second case closed, and grabbing the handle, Andreas finally turned to face his brother looking down on him. They were alike in so many ways. Andreas’ dark brown hair was cropped short though, military short. Blaze pushed back his black hair away from his eyes. He liked to keep his a little longer. A different generation, he guessed.

  "I'll feel better when Gio and Nikko return; we've got business back home to take care of." Andreas began to sweep the room one final time while Blaze remained standing, waiting.

  "Yeah, me too. I'm tired of twiddling my thumbs and playing chauffeur to Ronnie. She's nice and all, but damn, Nikko will have his hands full with her.”

  Unlike Gio, who would have made a crack about the size of her breasts, Blaze was simply referring to the girl’s personality. Nikko had fallen in love with Ronnie; she was also the reason he got shot, and she was the last case they worked on. He did like the girl, but falling for a bounty, well, that had just made the case even more precarious. It was bad for business too, he thought wryly. But, he had to admit she was a good girl and would make a nice addition to their small family. She could also keep his younger brother in line like no one else. They were perfect for each other.

  "She loves him," Andreas replied, making a sour face.

  Andreas didn't believe in love. At least not for him—not anymore. The man kept one hell of a thick layer of ice around his heart when it came to the ladies, and Blaze was like him in this way too.

  Gio was the comic relief in the family, and Nikko, well, he had been the playboy. That's not to say the other Marinos weren't able to find willing partners when they wanted too. They were all tall, dark, and devastatingly handsome. They all had the Marino blue eyes, and roman features inherited from their Italian ancestors.

  Andreas grabbed his kit, containing his tools of the trade in the bounty hunters business, and whipped it over his shoulder even though it may have weighed forty pounds. He had almost everything he needed in it, all except guns. He hadn't been able to fly with those, and they were flying commercial on the way home.

  "The doc said Nikko would probably be released in a few days, so I expect they'll all be joining us soon. Let's go."

  He took one last look around to ensure he hadn't accidentally left something in the suite, and was satisfied he hadn't. His only regret was leaving his gun. He had more at home, but he hated leaving this one behind. The local cops had threatened his license when they found out the men brought weapons into the state. Very illegal, and he had known that. But when he thought his brother and the woman he loved was in danger, well, he had thrown caution to the wind, and they all carried a piece and an extra for Nikko on the private plane they chartered coming here. Detective Alexander, the cop assigned to their last case, promised to bury the reports and see what he could do to get their weapons back to them. Andreas hoped so—the thirty-eight special had been his Father’s.

  ***

  As soon as the plane hit the ground, Andreas and Blaze were up and moving. They grabbed their bags, and the kit containing their tools of the trade sans the weapons, and passed the few people from first class who had been able to exit the plane before them. They descended the escalator at Tampa International Airport, and walked straight outside where cars waited in an orderly fashion to pick up arrivals.

  The four Marino brothers had been living in Florida for nearly two years, and Blaze loved it all. A blast of sunshine hit him as soon as the glass doors slid open, and despite the wall of heat, Blaze was glad to be home. The sun, the beach, and the girls in bikinis when he had the urge, all appealed to him. New York, although it held fond memories from his childhood, before his parents were murdered, had too many other memories—bad ones, for him. Tampa had been a fresh start in many ways, and it hadn’t just been the climate that changed for him. It had been his career, his lifestyle, and his attitude.

  The brothers founded Marino Bros. Bail and Bonds. They were doing well. With his law degree and police training, he was well suited for the job, the paper work, and the legal issues. His elder two brothers had been detectives in New York when they made the move, experts in undercover work as well. Then, when his younger brother decided to enter the police academy after his graduation with a degree in forensic sciences following in their footsteps, and those of their father before them, Andreas had called them all in for a family meeting. He wanted out of New York. At first he and Nikko had balked, but Gio was on board with Andreas. It was two to two.

  When Nikko graduated from the academy, Andreas announced the new business was a go, he already brought a property in West Tampa, and he was planning on leaving in a few months. It took six months, but eventually Blaze came around too. With the three oldest on board, all burned, all ready for a change, it was only Nikko who was still reluctant, but knowing the four brothers were practically all each other had he finally succumbed. An aunt in Florida and a cousin was the only family they had, and that was it. When their Aunt Mary was having health issues, and their cousin, Victor going through his own troubles, the decision was made. It was time to circle the wagons.

  The business had taken off immediately. With each of them having their own expertise, they had done well. Nikko, although not having much field experience, had the gift of gab and charm, and had been able to land them several high profile cases.

  They hadn't needed any other employees other than a receptionist/accountant. Andreas had hired a spitfire Italian woman, another New York transplant who lived in
the area with her husband and three children, whose mind was sharp as a tack. She was like a mother hen to them, although only in her forties. Not only did she run the office, she gave them advice, and made sure they went for check-ups, and even made their dental appointments. She was a true gift. Her name was Angela, and she kept the books in order, and ran the office as smooth as butter as she liked to put it.

  And there she was, Angela, waving at them, standing on the running boards of one of the company SUVs to pick them up from the airport.

  "Ang," Andreas nodded at her, approaching the vehicle and popping the hatch on the back, placing his bags inside.

  "Nice to see you too," she answered smartly, rolling her eyes at the grumpiest of the Marinos. Although he hired her, she couldn't be anyone but herself. Their relationship at work was professional, but Angela was the only one who ever called him on his temper. She was perfect.

  "Hey, Angela," Blaze offered much more enthusiastically. "What's doing?" he asked as he handed his bag off to Andreas and approached Angela giving her a warm kiss on the cheek.

  "It's been crazy actually," and at Andreas’ scowl, she quickly added, "but nothing I couldn't handle until this morning.”

  Blaze climbed into the back seat watching his brother come round to the passenger side. Angela returned to the driver’s seat and immediately pulled out into traffic. Airport traffic cops were eyeballing them and they needed to move out of the pick-up line. "What's going on?" Andreas asked once his door was shut.

  Angela wasted no time in answering Andreas, but not before reminding them both to buckle up. “We got another runner."

  "Fuck," Andreas sputtered angrily. "We just got back."

  “I’m sure the skipper didn’t realize that,” was Angela’s quick retort. It was Andreas’ turn to roll his eyes.

  "I'll go," Blaze offered even though he'd been hoping to get a little R & R, and soak up some sun. The damn black flies in Maine had tortured him, but he resisted scratching. He had nothing if not good self-control.