Page 18 of Knot your Princess
“Yes, I knew.”
Okay, well, duh, Sugar. If he’s seen them both, then he knows they’re twins, you daft cow.
“Humph. Can you at least tell me whathewants with me…or again, is it about my dad?”
“It’s always about your dad, Sophia. Your father is the head of the London mafia. He is a powerful and deadly man. He ran over a gang a while back, incorporating them into his territory, even though it was technically outside his patch. It’s been a bone of contention between rival gangs for a while now, and the discord is spreading. The IPP is determined to end it once and for all. Atlas is going to use you and anyone else he can.”
Chewing the inside of my lip, I glance over at the envelope on the seat next to me. Reaching out, I pick it up, peeking into it cautiously. I pull the gun out and place it on the seat next to me, just in case. Then lift a pretty pearl necklace, admiring the exquisite colour.
“So he knew I’d be there at the gallery, and someone left his envelope for him and the gun. Who? Do we know?”
“Wedon’t know jack.”
Going back to the envelope, ignoring Nico’s boorish behaviour for a moment while I try to process everything I’ve just learned, I pick through the remains of the items. Some cash, a fake passport, but something catches my eye.
Frowning, I reach in for it, and then grunt when a skid of tyres breaks through my thoughts, and a car that jumped a red light, slams into the side of the van, sending us spinning off the road and up the curb. The contents of the envelope fly off in all directions as I scream. My head hits the window as we jolt to a stop halfway up the pavement and facing the other way. Going dizzy, my eyes close as I hear someone shouting my name.
ChapterSixteen
Sugar
“Sophia.”
Nico’s urgent tone cuts through the fog of having my head smashed against the van window. I force my eyes open to see him on the seat next to me. He is pushing my hair out of my face with a concerned expression.
“What…?”
“The gun, Sophia, where is it?”
“Uhm…the seat…it was…” I look around, but everything went flying when we spun around.
He catches sight of it on the floor and picks it up with a blood-stained hand.
“Are you hurt?” I mumble.
He shakes his head and rips the pocket off his black jacket. He wads it up and presses it to my temple. “Hold that there.”
It’s all I need to know that it’s me that’s bleeding.
All I want to do is close my eyes, but I’m startled out of it when the van door slides open with a bang, and we are confronted with several large alphas, all growling and aggressive. I don’t recognise any of them, so that doesn’t help to know who did this to us.
Nico covers me by sitting in front of me; his massive frame blocks me from their view.
“Give us the girl,” one of them says in a thick Italian accent.
“Not a chance,” Nico growls back, levelling the gun.
“Nico,” I mutter.
We are outnumbered. There is no way we can get out of this without further assistance.
“Move away from her,” the alpha says.
“Not a chance. You know better than that.”
Shit. Fuck.
I can smell the testosterone all around me. A mingle of scents that are making me feel light-headed and nauseous. Nico’s is the strongest, a purely masculine scent of a log fire that suddenly smells much more potent than it usually does.
