Page 26 of Sutton and the CEO Forever

“Ready for more, Mrs. Williams?”

“Always,” I replied and got ready for round two.

Only just then, my phone rang. I nearly ignored it, but something told me this wasn’t a call I wanted to miss.

“Just let it go to voicemail,” Mark said, nipping at my belly.

“It will just take a second,” I replied, grabbing my phone and answering in a hurried tone, “Hello?”

“Sutton!” Candice’s panicked voice came on the line.

Sitting up fully, I yanked the phone closer to my ear. “Candice, what’s wrong?”

“Sutton! The car, something is wrong with the car!”

Candice’s words were so rushed that I struggled to understand what she was trying to say. A scream ripped through the receiver.

“Candice!” I tried to speak calmly, even though my heart was hammering against my chest. “What’s going on?”

“There are no brakes. The car doesn’t have brakes!”

Mark took the phone out of my hands and began to talk to Candice.

“Candice, I need you to try the emergency brake,” he said in a calm voice. All the while, he was gathering his things and dressing, as was I.

“It’s not working!” I heard her yell.

“Try and downshift into a lower gear and safely get off the road. Is that a possibility…”

The rest of the conversation was cut off as the line went dead.

“Fuck!” Mark yelled, nearly throwing the phone. Then thinking better of it, he used it to call Brian. He quickly explained the situation and then said, “She’s not in her car. She has Sutton’s. She borrowed it at lunch. Whoever did this had full intention of hurting Sutton, perhaps killing her.”

I hadn’t even realized how hard I was shaking until Mark wrapped me in his arms.

“It’s going to be okay,” he whispered soothingly against my hair.

“They went after me but got Candice instead,” I said with a sob. “If something happens to her, what will I do?”

“Hey,” Mark cut me off with a soft kiss. “Nothing will happen to her. Brian will find her, I promise.”

I knew he would find her. I just hoped that she would be alive.

13

Sutton

“Ihad just turned up the radio and started to sing along,” Candice said in a gruff voice. Her body was bandaged and bruised, and she was awaiting X-rays to see what was broken. But she was okay, and that was all that mattered to me.

“The radio was a little loud, I guess. I didn’t hear the car behind me until it bumped the back of the SUV.”

“What kind of car was it?” Brian asked.

“Black, I wish I could remember more, but I just saw black. My body flew forward, but thankfully I was wearing my seatbelt. I tried to speed up to get away from them, but they kept bumping me, trying to get me off the road.”

“What did you do?”

“I was panicking. The car behind me revved his engine as if he was going to come after me again. The windows were too dark to see inside, but it was an expensive car; I could tell that much. Another nudge and I jerked the wheel to keep from going off the road. Shots rang out from the car behind me, and the back window shattered. I screamed and didn’t realize that my hands had slipped from the wheel. With a loud crunch, I hit something, maybe a tree, but it didn’t stop the car.”

---