Page 26 of Sugar Baby
Pulling over onto the side of the road after about half an hour of driving, I slam my fist on the steering wheel. Cursing myself, Nico, her, and the earth, I pull the phone out again and delete the video. Sending this to Quinn will do her no good. It will hurt her, and I’d rather see my plans shot to hell than do that to her. I will deal with Nico’s double cross myself, and I will whisk Sophia off her feet and treasure her in the way she needs to be.
Chucking the phone on the passenger seat, I set off again, shifting from first into second and going around a sharp bend in the road. I slam on the brakes behind a van with its hazard lights on, and slide the window down to peer out to see if I can see what’s going on.
“Sugar!”
I frown and flick my own hazard lights on.
“Sugar!”
Climbing out of the car, I slam the door. Striding past the van, I pull up short. Cain is frantically opening the doors to a smashed-up van, yelling at the top of his voice.
My gaze drops to Nico, shot in the middle of the road.
Narrowing my eyes, I drop to my knees and check his pulse. It’s there, weak and erratic, but he is still alive.
Cain spins towards me, his face a mask of fury and fear. He stops dead when he sees me, and I rise, hands folded in front of me.
“What the fuck?” he demands, his gaze flicking back to the van.
I don’t need to check to know that Natalia is in there being held back by one of Nico’s fellow security team members. The other one is already on his phone, no doubt calling Quinn.
It’s precisely what he is meant to do, but I can see that Cain is torn between yanking the phone out of his hand and hanging up, and trying to find out who the fuck I am.
“Atlas Philips,” I state, getting that out of the way. “Your brother, obviously.”
His face goes ashen before his expression turns to one of disbelief.
“Where is Sophia?” I ask calmly before he can say anything, moving closer to the van so I can peek inside to see if my missing item just so happens to be laying around.
It’s not.
The lockbox has been strewn all over, but no sign of the piece I’m after.
“How do you know Sophia?” His instant question is more important than who the fuck I am. That tells me all I need to know about howhefeels about her, and well, let’s just say I’m not surprised by it either.
ChapterNineteen
Cain
Itake in this arsehole with my face.
Brother.Twin, obviously. I can’t say that I’m shocked beyond it all after the whole Sophia thing,butit does surprise me. I mean, where hashebeen this entire time? And the bigger question is, how does he know about me before I know about him? He has had more time to process this than just today.
I can’t help the small, painful voice inside me that wonders if he grew up in a better home than I did.
“Your man is alive, but he needs a hospital,” Atlas points out.
“It’s on its way,” the other alpha with the phone mutters. “Quinn is livid,” he adds worriedly.
I let out a frustrated huff. “Did you have to ring him?”
Franco gives me a death stare. “Sophia is missing, and Nico has been shot and left for dead. If we didn’t report this immediately, he’d have all of us killed. Still might. You as well.”
I can’t help the snort when he includes Atlas in this scenario.
“I had nothing to do with this,” Atlas says.
“Well, that’s a pile of shit,” I inform him. “There’s a woman in there who looks just like Sophia that I’m pretty sure was going to rob her safety deposit box. And she thought I was you…so you are up to your neck in this steaming pile of horse manure as well. Care to share?”
