Page 72 of Sugar Baby
“We’ll leave you alone,” Quinn says. “Would you…?” He gestures to Francesca’s cuffed wrists.
Trent snorts and unlocks them. “This is a major clusterfuck.”
“Welcome to the Quinn/Calabrese pack,” Francesca says, reaching up to cup his cheek. “No hard feelings, but try that again, and Sophia will wonder what happened that you can’t mate with her anymore.”
“Cesca!” Quinn says, stunned as she giggles uncontrollably, breaking the tension.
Following them, Nico helps Enzo out of the kitchen, which leaves Carter, staring at us silently.
“I’ll go after Sophia,” he says. “Cain is…unpredictable.”
“He won’t hurt her,” I snap, defending my triplet regardless of how little I know him.
“I didn’t say he would,” Carter says with a frown and slips out, leaving Trent and me alone for the first time ever.
“Awkward,” I comment, staring at him.
“Little bit,” he huffs out.
“Maybe we should also go after Cain,” I say after a beat.
“I was just thinking the same thing,” Trent replies.
With that decided, the awkwardness dissolves, and we head out of the kitchen door, leaving the box burning the proverbial hole in the kitchen island. I always thought when I got my hands on it, I’d rip it open with or without the key. Now that it is in front of me, I want to leave well enough alone.
Funny, how that works.
“I’m not sure I want to look now,” Trent mutters.
“Same,” I mutter back as we follow the scent of vanilla back towards the woods.
We hear the sound of flesh hitting bark before we see them gathered a little way into the woods.
“Cain, stop!” Sophia says desperately. “You’re hurting yourself.”
“Go. Away,” he grits out.
“No.”
Carter is standing a little way from them, allowing Sophia to deal with this unless things go sideways.
“What did that tree ever do to you?” I ask, using the only tactic I know when things get mixed up with feelings and emotions.
“Fucked me over, like my parents did,” he quips quickly, but not giving up on his quest to destroy the poor tree.
“Ourparents,” I remind him.
That makes him stop. He drops his bloodied fist to his side, his shoulders slumping. “Why you and not me? Why was I the one that got fucked over by that bitch?”
“We all got fucked over,” I start but then slam my lips shut when he glares at me with fury in his eyes.
“Hmm, yeah. I bet Sir-fucking-Cavendish over there thinks the same.”
“Hey!” Trent snaps. “Don’t fucking blame me for where I ended up. I was left just the same as you, in a fucking box on the side of the road. Any one of us could’ve ended up with a different life. That’s not anything we can control, and it’s not any of our faults.”
“But it wasn’tany oneof us that ended up in an abusive home. It wasme.”
“We know,” I say going forward, although I have no idea how much Trent knows about how Cain grew up. I know very little, just what he has thrown in my face, along with what Quinn said in his office the other day. But now is the time we need to stand together. I glance at Sophia. “Can you give us some time?”
