Our regularly scheduled program, The Casablancas Legacy, is being pre-empted today by this one shot. What follows is my take on how Chase Graves of iZombie could possibly be Logan Echolls from Veronica Mars. It takes place after the closing events of iZombie 3 X 9, 'Twenty Sided, Die' and is consistent with VM canon through the end of the series, 3 X 20, 'The Bitch is Back'. Perhaps it's a bit contrived, forcing L & V into the iZombie universe, but I'm of the opinion that most universes could be improved with the addition of Logan Echolls so I'm not gonna apologize. :)
Thanks to Elliebear who reviewed this for me and reminded me of what happened to Chase's brother. I tried killing him off in a completely different way.
The Casablancas Legacy will return next Saturday with chapter 5.
"Your little friend should watch herself."
Peyton glanced over at her boss. He was looking a little disheveled since getting shot but Liv had settled him down and the bulletproof vest that was supposed to be a prop had actually come in handy. She wondered briefly if he'd orchestrated the event. Even without the vest, barring a head shot, the attack would never have been more than irritating, and she suspected he was going to end up with a lot of traction in the polls from the photos of him shielding his son from harm.
The room had mostly emptied after the extreme downer of an attempted political assassination but a few diehard partygoers remained, hobnobbing with the elite of Seattle and maximizing use of the open bar. The cops had cleared the guests one by one, taking statements and collecting bullet shells. Peyton had stuck around just in case there was something that needed a response from the District Attorney's office. Although the man himself was still present, she didn't want to leave him to answer on his own. And, she'd be lying if she didn't admit she was still looking for more information on the death of the dominatrix killer. There was something very wrong about the whole situation and she wanted to get to the bottom of it.
Barracas' attention was on something behind her and she turned to see Liv verbally tearing into a handsome stranger. Justin stood beside Liv, his face ashen with fear. A few of the people left in the room were looking at them with mild interest but a verbal spat didn't garner a lot of attention after multiple gunshots and a police investigation.
"Most important zombie on the planet," DA Baracas said, in a overbearing voice. "That's what I was told, at least."
That guy's a zombie? Peyton was seriously disappointed. She could climb that man like a tree. She wasn't tiny like Liv so she didn't get that impression from many men but this one...that chest. Even under the jacket, the inverted triangle of his torso was...inspiring.
She started toward the trio. Liv looked furious but the stranger was completely calm. The most important zombie on the planet, huh? She wondered what had set Liv off. Peyton reached the group and put a steadying hand on her best friend's arm.
"Liv?"
All three looked at her. Justin seemed relieved at the interruption. Liv was still angry but the distraction had accomplished its intended result: she stopped talking. The stranger merely looked at her with mild curiosity before looking back at Liv and taking advantage of the momentary silence.
"Ms. Moore, I will have to reserve the right to discipline my men as I see fit. However, I'll keep your thoughts on the subject in mind."
Justin still looked like he wanted to throw up but he reached for Liv's arm. "We were just on our way out. Thank you, sir. Come on, Liv. G'night, Peyton."
Liv took a step toward him but then looked back at Peyton. "Aren't you coming too?"
"Nah, I've gotta make sure the boss behaves himself." She jerked her head back toward Barracas. "We'll talk tomorrow."
Liv nodded, looking suspicious, but she focused on the stranger again as she tucked her arm through Justin's. "Okay, then, well, good night. I'm glad we had a chance to speak, Mr. Graves."
"Thank you, sir, good night," Justin repeated in a slightly shaky voice as he tugged Liv away.
"Night," Peyton said, the stranger echoing her as she watched them walk toward the entrance of the hall. After a moment, she glanced back at the most important zombie in the world—who would probably be a very intriguing underwear model—and saw that he was also watching Liv and Justin, shaking his head and chuckling before turning back to her.
"So thank you. You got me out of quite the tongue lashing."
A completely inappropriate thought about his tongue and where she'd like it lashing flitted through her head and colored her cheeks but she threw it to the back of her mind. Geez, only a week without Blaine and I'm thinking things like that about total strangers?
"Liv's a little on edge." She lowered her voice. "It's been a very busy week in the brain business."
His eyebrows rose and she hoped she hadn't said too much. "Please don't hold whatever just happened against her. Or Justin. I don't know him well but he definitely seemed nervous about that whole conversation."
He laughed. "Yeah, I noticed that. As it happens, I have a soft spot for tiny, feisty blondes so Justin will be fine." He put out his hand. "Chase Graves. And you are?"
"Peyton Charles. I'm one of the Assistant District Attorneys for King County." She took his hand and noticed immediately that the giant paw engulfing her hand—oh why does this guy have to be a zombie?—was discreetly checking her pulse and not finding it to his liking.
"Another human in on our secret? Did she take out an ad after she turned?" For all his calm earlier, now he looked furious and Peyton didn't appreciate the slight against Liv.
"No, she did not. She broke her engagement, quit her job, and basically went into hiding from everyone who cared about her, just to keep her secret. But she's my roommate and when a zombie broke into our apartment to try to kill her, he found me instead. She showed up and saved me, but in the process, they both kinda hulked out in front of me." She gave him a thin lipped smile. "No more secret."
"Holy hell," he said, his eyes widening in surprise. "What did you do?"
She shrugged. "Umm, what any normal human would do, I think. Ran away in terror. Didn't come back for a while."
Chase barked out a laugh. "Yeah, that seems like a reasonable reaction. So, how long have you known?"
"Probably longer than you have," she replied. Even with the thaw in his demeanor, she was still a little irritated at the implication that she was some kind of weak link.
"Okay. I get it. Things have been a little different here." He gazed down at her intently. "I apologize if I insulted you. I'm still a little...overwhelmed by the responsibility for all these people. I wasn't supposed to be in charge. My brother got me into the military side of the business when I needed focus for my life. I never had any desire to run the whole business and I certainly never wanted to be responsible for a bunch of people's actual lives. There was a time I could barely manage my own." He looked uncomfortably at Peyton. "Sorry. Didn't mean to spill my guts."
Peyton wasn't much into sharing feelings herself, especially with a complete stranger, so she was a little surprised by her next words. "It's okay. Seems like maybe you need an outlet. You already know I can be discreet. Hell, I'm an attorney, gimme a dollar—we'll call it a retainer and everything we talk about will be protected under attorney-client privilege."
Chase threw his head back laughing, the most relaxed she'd seen him since she first noticed him. He took a step closer to her, resting his hand on her arm.
"My wife says exactly the same thing," he said in a very low voice.
Wife? That was unexpected.
He reached inside his jacket, going for a wallet, she assumed, but quickly pulled his hand back, still empty. "Sorry, I don't have a buck on me. Can I owe you?"
"Well, I don't know," Peyton answered, a little disappointed another married man was hitting on her. Not that anything could happen anyway, him being a zombie and all. Maybe she'd misread him? "I was offering an ear because you didn't seem to have one, but if you've got a wife, then I was mistaken."
"No, she's in California, at least that's where she's supposed to be." The smirk on his face suggested that maybe she wasn't actually there but he looked amused rather than irritated. "I've been begging her to stay with the kids in Ventura. She's safer there. I mean, look at this mess tonight. She finds trouble more easily than anyone I know so I'm very nervous about her getting up here. Especially with what just happened to Viv. I don't want her getting caught up in whatever is going on here."
Peyton nodded. She knew firsthand how ugly things had already gotten. Adding the zombie truthers to the mix added to the danger.
"You said she's an attorney?"
Chase smiled. "She's actually an ADA, too, for Ventura County. She's been doing as I asked and staying put while I was overseas, but I've been back stateside for a couple of weeks. I expect it's not gonna be too much longer before she shows up here, no matter how logical my arguments for her staying away. She tends to do what she wants. And truthfully," his voice lowered again, "I'm going nuts without her."
Peyton smiled again, relieved. Boasting about your wife wasn't exactly normal pickup talk for a guy looking to hook up with someone else. "Why aren't they all up here in your little Fillmore Graves compound anyway?" she asked. Knowing the super hot zombie had a wife he was pining for actually made interaction with him easier. "It seems like they'd be more secure up here. Safety in numbers, you know?"
"Well..." He looked around them and Peyton did too, suddenly concerned about prying eyes and ears since he seemed so worried. The room had cleared out even more. "The company party, where everyone was infected? I was the only one of us there."
Her eyes widened. The Fillmore Graves people had a huge burden with all of the employees and their families infected but the fact that they were all together seemed like one good thing in the whole terrible situation. Peyton remembered when Liv broke off her engagement to Major after she'd been turned, before anyone else knew. It had been devastating for them both.
"Oh, I'm so sorry. That must be so..terrible for you."
"It's okay. We just didn't want the kids up here. They're safer in their regular environment, where a squabble over a toy in a playgroup won't turn them into the Walking Dead." He gave a grim smile. "In a way, it was a playgroup that kept them home that weekend. Our oldest picked up the chickenpox from a playmate and he passed it on to his baby sister. Veronica stayed home with them but Vivian was insistent that I attend and Veronica made me come up. She always makes—made—me do whatever Harrison, my brother, wanted me to do. She said she owed him for keeping me alive for her."
Peyton blinked in surprise. "I haven't really looked into the Fillmore Graves history but I'd heard your brother is deceased. Did he die from the infection?"
"No, he got caught up in this zombie on zombie violence that's been happening here," Chase said, a scowl on his face. "From what I was told, he was killed by a brains dealer. Can you believe it? Who would think of that? Sociopath as entrepreneur."
Peyton grimaced. Oh God, please let it not have been Blaine...
"That's one of the reasons we've pushed to keep the brain paste available for everyone. Less chance of getting caught up in the crossfire of the unscrupulous. Plus, the part about taking on personality traits? That can be very hard to deal with in a larger community."
Peyton nodded ruefully, imagining Liv's erratic behavior spread over a large group, including kids. "I can certainly see that. I'm very sorry to hear about your brother. Were the two of you close growing up?"
Chase shook his head. "Thanks. And no, I didn't meet him 'til I was twenty. He was the second unknown half brother I learned about. Since then, I've realized there's a third but he's someone I actually knew from high school and I wouldn't claim that drug dealing son-of-a-bitch if my life depended on it."
"Wow. That's dramatic. How do you discover unknown siblings? Should I be checking into something?"
He shook his head again; his smile wry. "Probably not. Most people aren't cursed with a father like mine, although it's true that there has turned out to be more of us poor unfortunate souls who can claim him than I ever would have guessed growing up. Veronica figured out the first one; there was a lot more money disappearing from my bank accounts than even my ridiculous lifestyle could explain and I thought my accountants were ripping me off. Veronica figured out it was an arrangement my father had reached with one of his mistresses to support his son. Things went a little off-track then, there was a reporter impersonating this new brother, and I thought Charlie—my brother—sent him, so I outed him on Larry King to keep my own life from hitting the tabloids again. That brother still doesn't talk to me."
"You went on Larry King? Who are you?"
Chase smiled and shook his head. "Nuh uh. We no longer speak that name. After Veronica left town and I fell down the rabbit hole, I figured out that Harrison was out there. That one was on my terms and, lucky for me, he was actually welcoming. I was kinda a mess back then. He hooked me up with his military group and made something out of me. Dear old Dad would never have believed it."
"Okay, this is like a soap opera," Peyton said, shaking her head. "I hope you're ready to talk because you need to tell me how this happened. We've got the IOU for the buck that's keeping my mouth shut. Veronica left you but now you're married. How'd that happen?"
He looked bemused. "You really don't want to hear this whole thing."
"Oh, you're wrong about that," she said with a laugh. "My grandma and I were very into our stories when I was young. Let me buy you a drink so you can spin your exciting tale."
He laughed and motioned her ahead of him toward the bar. "Pretty sure I paid for this to be a hosted bar but sure, why not."
"Well, you got your money's worth. This was probably the only crime scene ever with an open bar."
They ordered their drinks and Peyton moved to a small table.
"Okay, so, let's see," Chase began, a teasing smirk on his face. "First year of college, we were together again, and it was troubled, to say the least. At the start of the next school year, I heard from her best friend, step-brother now, that she'd gone off to Stanford. She'd deferred her acceptance the year before and they took her for sophomore year."
"She didn't even say goodbye?" This was like a soap opera.
"Nope. I got a card for my birthday the next year. She missed me but we were toxic. I was her oldest friend and someday we'd be able to make that work but right now, we needed to get ourselves together."
"Oh, that's harsh." Peyton wrinkled her nose. She may have just met this guy, but she was enjoying his company a lot, and she really wasn't sure she liked his wife.
"Maybe, but she was right. I just couldn't see it yet. Partway through the next year, I figured out that Harrison was out there and got her dad to help me hunt him down."
"Her dad? How'd that happen?"
"He was a private investigator. Veronica worked for him through high school. She was a great investigator. That summer between freshman and sophomore years of college, she did an internship with the FBI. That's how good she was." The pride in his voice made Peyton grin.
"But you said that she was an ADA in Ventura, not a cop." The server came up then, a Lemon Drop for Peyton, Scotch on the rocks for Chase.
"That messed up freshman year of college I mentioned, some of that was because of investigations. She kept getting herself into situations; I was going nuts with worry. At one point, I hired a bodyguard to follow her around and he scared her worse than the actual rapist she was pursuing."
"A rapist?"
"Serial rapist, yeah. Turned out to be a friend of mine. Good times." He took a drink. "So, I was high-handed, she was dismissive, and we were both too broken on our own to help each other heal. She was right to leave."
"And then you found your brother?" Peyton prompted. She didn't entirely share his opinion on Veronica's actions but it wasn't for her to say.
"Yeah, and he saw pretty quickly that I was spinning out of control. So he hooked me up with his private army division and I went through their basic training. Shockingly, I made it through and decided that maybe there was something to be gained from that life."
"What did Veronica think?"
"She didn't know. I was in boot camp for my birthday the next year. Her card got forwarded to me by my old roommate. She still missed me. She thought she was figuring out how to live her life without hurting anyone else. She hoped I was doing the same."
He paused, resting his hands on the table and lacing his fingers together. "That message was a big part of why I stuck with Fillmore Graves' private army operations. I did feel like I was figuring out how to live my life. I couldn't quite say without hurting anyone else—private mercenary operation and all—but even with that, I felt like I was becoming a better person. By the next year, I was commanding a unit. The birthday card found its way to me and she was doing great. She'd gotten her act together, she was graduating from Stanford that year, and she was heading to Berkeley the next year for law school. She hoped I was well."
Chase's voice trailed off and Peyton peered at him. "Why do you make it seem like things aren't going the right way? That sounds good to me."
"She was gonna be a Berkeley lawyer. I was a mercenary. Do those seem compatible to you?" He swirled the last of his drink in the glass. "I decided then that I was going to become this other person, once and for all. I'd been using my mother's maiden name but I asked Harrison if I could legally take his name." Chase downed the last swallow. "He was amazing. Told me he'd be proud to share his name with me. He made me feel more wanted than anyone ever had in my entire life. So I formally made the change. Logan Graves."
Peyton's eyebrows shot up. "Logan Graves? I thought your name was Chase?"
"Chase Graves? What kind of psycho would actually choose a name like that?" He laughed, then signaled the waiter, holding up two fingers. "No, Chase was more like a call sign, like Maverick and Goose, ya know. It just stuck, and it does provide more distance from who I used to be."
"Call signs have stories," Peyton said in a teasing voice. "Spill."
He shrugged, rolling his eyes. "Not long after boot camp, I got caught up in an operation that unfortunately ended up with me 'chasing' down a target through a marketplace in Saudi Arabia. The locals weren't exactly on my side and I had just about anything you can think of thrown at me during that pursuit."
Peyton burst into laughter. "Like...what? Vegetables?"
"Vegetables yes, fruit, baskets, several live chickens. It was not pretty."
"And after that, you were Chase."
"You got it. When I petitioned for the formal name change, it was only of my last name. But nearly everyone called me Chase by then and everyone I worked with seemed to think that 'Chase Graves' was the height of irony for our line of work so it got to the point that no one even remembered that my name was actually Logan. Except Harrison, of course."
"Okay then. New name, new career. When the next birthday card came, what then?"
"Returned to sender. I was overseas by the next birthday and the guy that card was addressed to...he didn't exist anymore, so no forwarding address. I didn't even realize that it was my birthday on the day; I was hip deep in a muddy bog, doing security for a herd of elephants."
"What?" Peyton choked out.
"Poachers were wiping out a herd of elephants, harvesting the ivory. We were...discouraging them."
"That's awesome! Is that true?"
"Oh yeah. Turns out there was more risk from the elephants themselves than from the poachers. We took the poachers out with no serious casualties on either side but between the mud and the elephants, I had two guys end up with broken legs."
"Oh no," she said, trying not very successfully not to laugh. The waiter showed up then with another round of drinks. "So you get back from the elephant project and then what? Did you remember that you should have gotten a birthday card?"
"Yeah, but I didn't seek her out. It was kinda the test. I knew she could find me if she wanted to. I was finally okay on my own but I knew that if I sought her out, and she still didn't want to be with me, it was gonna leave a mark. By leaving it hanging out there, a what could have been, I didn't have to face that maybe it was really over."
"So how long did it take?"
"It was three months 'til her first year of law school was over and after that, she came looking. She got my best friend to bankroll her and it took her almost half the summer but she tracked me down in Bangladesh."
"And then what?" Peyton asked, excited.
"We had a giant fight."
"Oh."
He laughed at her. "Yeah, foreplay. It's how we roll. We came back to California in time for school to start and, by then, her last name was Graves too."
"Oh yay!" Peyton cried, gleefully rubbing her hands together and grinning. A moment later, she rolled her eyes and shook her head at her own silliness. "I can't believe I got so caught up in this. I'm not this type of girl."
"Eh, we're very entertaining people. And I learned how to captivate an audience at my mother's knee. You didn't stand a chance." They both laughed.
"Okay, so, you come back home, you're married, she goes back to school; what did you do?"
"I kept doing the same thing I'd always done. I couldn't just wait for her to come home from law school and pay attention to me. I had a career, a life of my own. Going back to a life circling her wasn't going to be good for either of us. Luckily, we both understood that by then."
He paused, a faraway look in his eyes. "So I'd leave for weeks at a time, come back for a while, get my Veronica fix, and then go out on another assignment. It worked for us through the end of law school. After she graduated, our oldest, Nick, was born in the three months between graduation and sitting for the Bar, and then she took a job with the DA in Ventura. I cut back on the international assignments after that. Harrison didn't want me away from my family any more than I did. Aly was born almost two years later."
"After that, we lived almost like normal people for a couple years. Then, the infamous Fillmore-Graves company party. The entire employee base and their families, and me, infected with God knows what. Harrison and Viv immediately went into crisis-mode, pulling everyone together into seclusion, scientists working on whatever was happening to us. The brains thing...that became apparent fairly quickly. Some rumors about things that had been happening in Seattle started to trickle in. Finally, about three weeks after the party, they finally let me go home. We'd already realized that the military operations were going to be even more effective out in the field with this undead thing going on, and I'd committed to my brother that I'd take the lead in that. Veronica was okay with that; she knew it was important to me."
Peyton suddenly had a thought that seemed too personal to voice. She frowned down at her martini glass, wondering how much she wanted to know what happened next. Her head jerked up at Chase's laugh.
"Why am I sure that I know where your mind just went?"
"You're pretty sure you know what I'm thinking when we met less than an hour ago?" She raised her eyebrows at him.
"Pretty sure. The science division was working overtime on what was happening, trying to see if there was some kind of cure, what could sustain everyone, whether there was any cognitive deficits showing in the children. What you've gotta remember is that everyone in the population being studied was already infected and we were not generally interacting with the outside world. No one was paying attention to further transmission."
Yeah, he does know what I'm wondering about.
"The rumors of bites and scratches had come through from the original boat party so when I got home, I actually wore gloves. I was not going to infect my family with whatever this was. They'd stayed safe for a reason and I wasn't going to change that. I couldn't stay away; I knew it might be the last time, but I had to be with them once more."
"I am so sorry," Peyton said. "This has been really hard on Liv; she's mostly estranged from her mother since she couldn't donate blood when her brother needed it without being found out and it's been terrible but your wife...and your kids...to have to keep your distance like that. I can't even imagine. But you know now, as long as you don't go full-on zombie and you're careful, you don't have to be apart from them. Some limitations obviously..."
"Yeah, you're right. But Veronica took matters into her own hands before I realized one of the ways that the condition could be passed." He colored slightly, under his spray-on tan.
"What do you mean? Did she know that...you could infect her by...you know?"
"She was pretty sure. Like I said before, our scientists weren't concentrating on transmission. She's brilliant though, and it's not a big leap to get suspicious that sex is a common way to transfer infections of whatever sort. Like she said after, if nothing happened, then we knew that was safe. And if it did, well, I wasn't going to have to do anything noble and stay away forever." He shook his head, his eyes rolling. "Outsmarted again."
"And the kids?"
"No. We've taken every precaution with them. The rest of the Fillmore Graves' kids seem reasonably healthy but it's been too recent to know if they're continuing to grow normally or if they're staying at whatever level they were at when they were infected. Nick will be five in a couple of months and Aly just turned three. They're adorable at this age but we don't want them to be pre-schoolers forever. We want them to grow up, be fifteen and thirteen, twenty-five and twenty-three, give us grandkids, you know? Experience life. So no, there will be no efforts to change them. Veronica's dad and stepmom moved into the gatehouse on our property. We've already made them the kids' legal guardians, even though everything's still being handled the same as always. We just were concerned that if something changes and we become...unstable...we didn't want Keith and Alicia to have any legal troubles getting them out and away from us. We can't know that there won't be some deterioration and we might not be in the state of mind to go along with what's best later on."
"You don't have any concern that they'll just take them anyway?"
"No," he said emphatically. "I would trust both of them with all of our lives. They won't just take Veronica's kids away from us unless there's a good reason. Now, it is true that Keith's pissed as hell at me—again—for Veronica's situation but that's nothing new. He's been mad at me off and on since we were twelve. She keeps insisting that she's the one that orchestrated her change, but she's his precious, and I'm just that pesky kid who's broken her heart repeatedly but won't go away and leave her alone." He shrugged. "I'm used to it by now."
Peyton chuckled. "It sounds like you're all making the best of a bad situation." She took the final drink of her martini and put the empty glass on the table. "I can't believe you've told me all this but, as weird as this is going to sound, especially since we just met, I'm honored that you shared with me. I appreciate you trusting me with this."
"Attorney-client privilege, right?"
"Well, I am still waiting on that buck." They both laughed and then rose from their chairs. "You know, I think that your science people should meet up with Liv's boss at the morgue. He's been concentrating on a cure but the prime ingredient that he needs isn't available any longer. I have a feeling your resources might be more substantial than his. Together, you might be able to fix this problem and then 'D Day' can go back to just being a historical reference. And you can go home to your family."
"That would be the best case scenario." They headed out toward the parking lot. "Do you have a card? I can pass it on to our Director of Health Services and you can hook them up with your friend."
"That would be great. I've got business cards in my briefcase in my car." Peyton lead Chase to her car where she opened her trunk and dug her business card holder out. "Here, take a few. If the boss wins this election, they'll be changing anyway with a new DA and I've got a ton of these."
She handed the cards to Chase and shut her trunk. As she turned back toward him, she noticed a short blonde woman in blue jeans and a dark jacket approaching.
"So, I get to town and first thing find you chatting up statuesque brunettes. Is this a piano wire situation?"
Chase's face lit up and he pivoted toward the woman. "Bobcat!"
He was next to her in a flash, lifting her in his arms and twirling her in a circle, kissing her like it had been a year since he'd seen her last. Peyton leaned back against her car, watching the reunion with satisfaction. Chase finally let the woman slide back to her feet, but he continued to gaze down at her with a smile on his face that Peyton hadn't seen all night, stroking her cheek softly. The presumed Veronica gazed back up at him with similar adoration but only for a moment before she focused her attention back on Peyton.
"So, the statuesque brunette?" she asked, her head tilted like a cat ready to pounce.
"Hi," Peyton said, stepping toward them with her hand outstretched. "Peyton Charles, with the District Attorney's office. It's great to get to meet you."
"You say that like you already know who I am," the woman responded.
"I may have kinda talked about you a little," Chase said, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear then kissing her temple.
"Oh really?" The fond exasperation in her voice was palpable. "Don't tell me...gimme a buck and you've got attorney-client privilege."
Chase laughed, glancing over at Peyton with an embarrassed look. "Works for you and Weevil."
"Yes, but Weevil actually pays me in those situations." Veronica looked at Peyton with her eyebrows high. "But I would bet a lot more than a buck that you didn't pay her."
Peyton laughed. "You're right, but I swear, you can both trust me. I know how important secrecy is right now." She squinted at the couple, trying to figure out how the woman had figured out that no money had actually changed hands. "How did you know that?"
"He's rich," Veronica said flatly. "Rich guys never carry lowly dollar bills. He's got like seven credit cards in his wallet but the smallest bill will probably be a fifty." She dug into her front pocket and handed a crumpled dollar bill to her husband. "Pay the woman, Logan." He ducked his head and peered up at them both from under his eyelashes.
Holy crap, he's hot and adorable.
"Fine. Ms. Charles, your retainer." He held out the wrinkled dollar, then grimaced and tried flattening it against his leg before holding it out to her again. "Where'd you get this thing? Loretta Cancun's g-string?"
Peyton had been reaching for the bill, but at those words, she pulled her hand back rapidly and Veronica pealed out a laugh.
"Well, Cliff did come up to see Dad and we might have engaged in some poker so, let's just say I liberated that dollar bill before it made its way into Loretta Cancun's g-string." She smirked at Peyton. "Lucky little dollar." Peyton looked at her, still a little concerned about where the dollar might have been, but she took it from Chase and held it gingerly between her fingers.
"Okay then, we're all good. Be sure to have your science folks call me and I'll set something up with Ravi right away. I think there's a good chance that with your resources and his brain, the one in his head, that is, we might be able to get everyone back to normal."
Veronica's head jerked at those words but she was silent.
"Absolutely, first thing tomorrow. It was great talking to you, Peyton. We'll chat again soon." Chase raised his hand in a quick wave and Veronica smiled at her as they turned and walked toward a limo. Peyton grinned as she watched Chase pull Veronica against him, kissing the top of her head repeatedly as they walked.
"Have a good night, guys," she said in a low voice and stepped into her car.
