SHAMELESS

  THE CHASE DUET

  BOOK 2

  KIMBERLY KNIGHT

  CONTENTS

  Note From The Author

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  Also By Kimberly Knight

  About the Author

  WHERE I NEED TO BE

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  No portion of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any print or electronic form without permission.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, any places, events or occurrences is purely coincidental. The characters and story lines are created from the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The subject matter is not appropriate for minors. Please note this novel contains profanity, explicit sexual situations, and alcohol consumption.

  SHAMELESS

  Copyright © 2023 Kimberly Knight

  Published by Kimberly Knight

  Photograph © Wander Aguiar

  Cover art © Indie Sage

  All rights reserved.

  NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

  Dear Reader,

  The story you’re about to read started before Blake and Stacey met. If you’d like to read what happened that summer, you can grab a copy of the short story for free here. It’s not required for you to read the prequel, but it might help you understand some of the references in Shameless.

  I also want to mention that there are multiple S names in this. When I came up with these names in previous stories, I had no idea Blake would be waiting in line for me to write his.

  Happy reading!

  To Rachel,

  Like so many who have supported me throughout my career, the Montgomery boys brought us together, but for us, it has led to an amazing friendship and writing partnership. I’m elated to be on this newfound journey with you and thank you for all your help with this duet.

  1

  Blake

  “What did you say?” I asked, hoping I’d misunderstood my brother.

  “Stacey isn’t coming,” he repeated.

  My gaze moved to Spencer’s. “What do you mean, she isn’t coming?”

  My sister-in-law frowned. “She told me she couldn’t go through with the wedding. She and Molly left.”

  “Why?” I growled. How could she leave without at least telling me why she couldn’t marry me? I thought things were perfect between us. Last night, we had talked about Cabo and everything we were going to do, which wasn’t much, considering we’d planned to be naked most of the time. How, in only a few hours, had it all turned to shit?

  “She didn’t tell me,” Spencer replied.

  “And you just let her leave?” I snapped. Spencer wasn’t the person I was angry with, but my blood was raging.

  “Hey!” Brandon interjected. “This isn’t Spencer’s fault. I know you’re hurt, but don’t take it out on my wife.”

  “I know,” I bit out and stalked to the door. When Stacey and I had toured the venue, we had been shown where the bridal suite was located; I headed there even though Spencer had said Stacey left. I needed to see for myself because I didn’t believe Stacey could cut me so deep.

  Maybe in the time Spencer had been talking to us in the groom’s suite, Stacey had come back.

  Maybe she had forgotten something at home and ran back to get it.

  Maybe it was all a joke.

  Not bothering to knock, I flung the door open. The room was empty, and I knew damn well Stacey’s mother and Molly should have been in the room getting ready.

  I took my phone out of the pocket of my slacks and hit the button to call her, only for it to ring once and then go straight to voicemail. I called again, but it did the same thing. Over and over I tried to get through, but it was clear she’d turned off her phone.

  In less than five minutes, my life had gone from damn near perfect, to spiraling out of control. How could Stacey leave me at the altar? We’d kept our fling going for years before making it official, and she was the first woman to work her way into my heart. There was only one other time I thought I’d loved someone, but even with Miranda, my high school girlfriend, it wasn’t the same as my feelings for Stacey.

  And now my heart was on the floor, flopping around like a dying fish.

  With my phone still in my hand, I slid down the wall behind me and hung my head as I tried to make sense of it all. Except, nothing added up. What had changed her mind?

  Unlocking my phone, I went to text her, only to stop when I read the last one from this morning:

  Can’t wait to marry you today!

  I’d replied:

  Not as much as me baby!

  Clearly, that was the truth.

  “Hey.” I looked up to see Brandon standing in front of me. “She really left?”

  “Seems so,” I whispered as I looked back down at my lap.

  “You tried calling her?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And nothing?”

  “Straight to voicemail.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  I looked up at him. “What can I do?”

  He crouched down next to me. “I know you’re hurting, but you need to tell everyone waiting for the wedding to begin that it won’t.”

  Another dagger twisted in my heart as I thought about standing in front of my family and friends and telling them. I knew they would have questions; since I didn’t have the answers, the mere thought of delivering the news turned my stomach.

  “I can’t.” I got to my feet. “I need to get out of here.”

  “You can’t leave,” Brandon stated.

  “Why not? Stacey did!” I roared. Were her friends and family waiting or had she given them a heads up and we were the suckers in this charade?

  My brother and I stared at each other for a few beats and then he said, “All right. I’ll take care of it.”

  “Thank you.” I moved to walk past him, but his words stopped me.

  “Are you going to be okay?”

  I blinked, not sure how to answer his question. “Would you be?”

  “No,” he admitted and let go of me. “And that’s why I’m asking.”

  “I just want answers.”

  “I know. Go see what you can find out and I’ll handle the guests. Do nothing stupid, and call me if you need anything.” He drew me in for a hug. Having my brother’s arms around me and his support made me feel slightly better.

  But I knew everything wasn’t okay.

  2

  Stacey

  My phone buzzed in the passenger seat next to me as I drove Molly’s car. The poofy overskirt of my wedding dress made it hard to steer and see out the windshield. I knew immediately who was calling by his ring tone. Because I wasn’t ready to answer any of his questions—and also because I was a coward—I declined the call and then shut off my phone.

  A tear slid down my cheek and I let it drip onto the off-white gown. When I woke up that morning, I had no idea I wasn’t going to marry Blake. It was supposed to be the happiest day of my life and now I felt as though I was in some sort of alternate dimension. The moment Molly joked I was pregnant changed everything.

  “You need to go buy me a test,” I rushed out, my eyes wide.

  “Now?” Molly blinked. “The wedding is going to start soon.”

  “I have to know before I walk down the aisle.”

  “And what will you do if you are pregnant?”

  I shook my head and sighed, not knowing the answer. “Just please go.”

  “Okay.” She grabbed her purse.

  “And hurry.”

  “I will.”

  A few minutes later, my mom returned to the room balancing three mimosas the best she could. As she came near, I shook my head.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  I stared up at the ceiling, trying not to cry and ruin my makeup because if I wasn’t pregnant, I was going to marry Blake. If I was, I didn’t know what I was going to do. “Everything or nothing.”

  “What do you mean?”

  I looked back at her. “Well, Molls just left to get me a pregnancy test.”

  Mom’s eyes widened, and she breathed, “Oh …”

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay. A lot of women get pregnant on their wedding night or even before. So what if you are?”

  I kept shaking my head; that was all I could do. “No, Mom.”

  She set the champagne flutes down and wrapped me in a hug. “It’ll be okay.”

  “It won’t be if I am.”

  “Why’s that?”

  I pulled back slightly. “Because if I’m pregnant, it’s not Blake’s.”


  Her eyes widened again. “Whose is it?”

  I closed my eyes and whispered, “Eddie’s.”

  “Ian’s son?”

  I nodded.

  “Oh, wow.”

  “Yeah…”

  Mom was still dating Ian. They were living together again and would probably elope to Las Vegas soon. Since the 4th of July party, I hadn’t seen Eddie and thought we’d go our separate ways and forget about what happened in my childhood room. I’d expected holidays to be awkward going forward, but I never could have imagined he knocked me up.

  Except we had been reckless, and I only thought I could pretend it never happened.

  Molly came rushing in a moment later, pulling a small rectangular box from her purse. “There was a drugstore on the corner.”

  “Thank god.” I rushed to her and grabbed the box and went to the bathroom. Not wanting to take any chances, I peed on both tests to make sure and then set a timer on my phone. It was the longest three minutes of my life and when I turned them over and saw the two pink lines, I stumbled back and hit the wall.

  “Are you okay?” Mom asked on the other side of the door.

  “No.”

  “Shit,” Molly breathed, and I knew she understood why I said no.

  I had to get out of there.

  Opening the door, I hurried to my bags, putting the tests in my purse and not caring there was pee on them. “I need to go.”

  Both my mom and Molly opened their mouths to say something, but then there was a knock on the door.

  “I’ll get it,” Molly said.

  She opened the door and Blake’s sister-in-law, Spencer, was on the other side. My heart sank. What should I do? What should I tell her?

  “I’m leaving,” I stated in a rush.

  “What? Why?” Spencer questioned.

  “Just … I have to go.” I ran out of the building with Molly on my heels like the stereotypical runaway bride. “Give me your keys.”

  Molly blinked. “What?”

  “I need to go, please?”

  “Where are you going to go?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Okay.” She handed me her keys. “Theo and I will catch a ride with someone.”

  “Can you … Can you tell everyone for me?”

  “Seeing as I’m your maid of honor, I guess this is one of my duties.”

  It wasn’t, but I wasn’t going to argue with her.

  “Thank you.”

  I didn’t know where my mom was, but at that moment, I didn’t care. My only concern was getting out of there before I saw Blake, because there was no way I could tell him I was pregnant with another man’s baby.

  Before I realized it, I found myself on Interstate 45 heading north, a highway I knew all too well. Was I seriously going to show up wearing a wedding dress? A wedding dress that I was about to marry another guy in? I had nowhere else to go since I couldn’t go back to the apartment I shared with Blake, and I couldn’t go to Molly’s or my mom’s because he knew where they lived.

  So, I drove three and a half hours and parked in front of Eddie’s condo. What was I doing? It wasn’t as though I thought he would take me back because I assumed I was pregnant with his baby, or that I even wanted him to take me back. I just felt lost and, honestly, scared. Still, as I sat in Molly’s car and stared up at the building, I knew a part of me still loved Eddie. Maybe the whole pregnancy thing was fate’s way of making sure I didn’t marry the wrong man?

  Or it was karma for sleeping with Eddie when I was engaged to Blake.

  Was I a horrible person for loving two men?

  Taking a deep breath, I opened the driver’s side door and got out. Straightening my dress, I made my way into Eddie’s building and up the elevator to his floor. With each step toward his door, my heart rate increased, my palms became clammy, and my head felt dizzy as though I was going to pass out.

  Before I could knock or turn to leave, the door opened and my stomach fell to the floor. “H … Hi,” I stammered.

  He drew his head back and blinked. “What are you doing here?”

  I swallowed. “Can we talk?”

  3

  Blake

  I couldn’t find her.

  I searched everywhere I thought Stacey would be, but it was as though she’d vanished. She wasn’t at our apartment. She wasn’t at the hotel where we’d reserved a room for the night, and she wasn’t at her mom’s or Molly’s. They both swore up and down they had no idea where she had run off to, but she had run and that was a total punch in the gut. In the wee hours of the morning, as I lay in the bed we were supposed to spend our wedding night naked in, I sent her a text saying:

  I’m staying at the hotel and I’ll be at the airport for our flight in the morning. I won’t be mad if you show and I hope we can talk it out in Mexico. Or if you want, call me and I’ll come to you. Just please talk to me

  I wasn’t sure if I was angry or hurt or sad or embarrassed about her leaving me at the altar. Or maybe I was all the above because I didn’t know what to think. It was like I was in a daze and not thinking clearly, or maybe I was living in some sort of nightmare.

  By the time I needed to leave for the airport, Stacey still hadn’t responded to me. I hadn’t slept a wink, hadn’t eaten, and instead, all night drank a bottle of Jack I got from a liquor store down the street from the hotel to numb whatever the fuck I was feeling.

  Still feeling a slight buzz from the whiskey, I grabbed my suitcase and dragged it behind me as I walked to the door. With each step, I wondered if Stacey was going to show up for our flight. Whatever had spooked her, I had to hope we could deal with it, even though she made me look like an ass in front of my family and friends.

  The rideshare I’d ordered was waiting as I exited the front doors of the hotel. After I put my bag into the trunk of the car, I slid into the backseat and greeted the driver with a tip of my head.

  “Airport, right?” he asked.

  I buckled my seatbelt and rested my head on the headrest. “Yeah. International terminal, please.”

  During the drive to the airport, I checked my phone countless times, hoping I missed a text, a call, an email, and praying I would hear from Stacey, but, of course, nothing. What the fuck was I doing? Who gets stood up at their wedding and still goes on their honeymoon? Who the fuck expects his runaway bride to show up and pretend nothing happened?

  Me.

  I was the idiot who held out hope, so I sent one more text to her as I waited at the gate:

  Boarding in 42 minutes

  Despite the amount of alcohol I consumed the night before, I headed to the bar for a drink before the flight took off. It no longer only numbed my confused state, but it also tamed the anger I knew would boil over if I sobered up and let myself feel.

  Draining my drink, my phone dinged with an incoming text and I hurried to see if it was Stacey who had messaged.

  I’m sorry

  I’m sorry. That was all she could say?

  My fingers itched to type out a response, but as I hovered over the letters on the screen, I knew no matter what I said, she wasn’t coming, and we were over.

  “Another?” the bartender asked.

  I turned my gaze to him and I sighed. “Yeah, man, and make it a double.”

  As he poured my Jack and Dr. Pepper, the gate attendant announced it was time to board. I quickly downed the drink, paid my tab, and made my way to the gate as a single man once again. I wasn’t going to focus on how angry I was with Stacey—even though I was. Instead, I was going to go to Cabo to have the best fucking time I could. Fuck Stacey and her two-word text. I would deal with moving out of the apartment and all that shit when I got back after a week in Mexico.