Page 29 of Hacker Revelation

I had never understood why people feared Antonio. He was like a giant, sexy teddy bear I enjoyed stripping naked. I wanted to know who he was talking to.

“Can either of you read lips?” I waved my hand in Asher and CJ’s direction. They both shook their heads. “Have I ever mentioned that I don’t like being kept out of the loop?”

Antonio hung up the phone after ten minutes. By the time he returned, my mind had run a million scenarios. One scenario that scared me a lot was that something had happened to Sophie.

Antonio reached up to wipe his eye, then sat down and pulled me into his arms. “What was that call about?” I asked, my voice shaking.

Something had happened. Something spectacularly bad. He didn’t reply, just pulled me in tighter to his chest.

Neal chose this moment to come up to the patio with Daisy following behind. He stopped and surveyed our faces before he dropped down into the last seat. Daisy took her place on his lap.

“What’s going on?”

“There’s been an accident,” Antonio gritted out.

The only way Antonio would be this upset about an accident was if it involved someone close to him. Otherwise, he would have told everyone what happened the second he got off the phone. Instead, he pulled me into his arms and kissed the back of my neck.

“Was it Sophie?” I choked out.

Antonio gripped my waist tighter.

“Was it Sophie?” I yelled.

Guests turned our direction to see what was happening.

Antonio moved me off his lap. He stood up, looked at Asher, and nodded. When he looked toward the back patio doors, there was a mixture of weariness and remorse in his eyes, and I hated it. I needed him to say the words. His shoulders slumped, and he ran a hand across his brow.

Asher and CJ were on their feet. Everyone seemed to be on high alert, and Antonio still hadn’t told me what had happened to my sister.

“What happened?” I demanded again.

His eyes shifted to the side of the crowd. Asher must’ve picked up on the cue, because he took off in the direction Antonio indicated. I didn’t pay much attention to where Asher was going. I just wanted to know what happened to Sophie.

Antonio’s eyes pinned me, making dread come to the forefront.

“There was an accident.”

It was bad. Whatever had happened was really bad, and it was about me or Sophie, or he would’ve told me the second the phone call ended.

“Please tell me,” I begged.

“You’re going to be mad at me for what I’m about to tell you,” he whispered.

“Fucking tell me!” I needed the words to be said out loud. I needed Antonio to tell me what had happened. If the accident was bad, he would have led with that.

“Sophie was killed in a car accident.” Antonio spoke each word slowly so I could process it.

From the look on his face during the call and afterward, I had been prepared for him to tell me something had happened to Sophie. But when the words hit me, the hot, humid Florida air left my lungs. Sophie had become my best friend again. Who was going to be Ant’s aunt? Zane would be devastated. I needed more details. “How?”

“She and Zane were driven off the road. She died on impact, and the paramedics pronounced her dead moments ago.”

My knees went weak. It took everything in me to stay standing. Nausea rolled around in my stomach.

“Antonio, what are you doing?” CJ asked. “This isn’t the place to tell her something like that.”

Antonio said something, but my mind couldn’t comprehend the words. The only thing my mind could do was recall pictures of my perfect sister. She hadn’t deserved to be killed.

Juan needed to be destroyed. I would draw his death out for days and make it painful and cruel.

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