Page 48 of Fierce Hearts

"Gray, maybe you should?—"

"Meredith, I need to find out what's going on, I'm not thinking things are good with what I've learned lately," I cut her off.

"They aren't, and she was going to call you to talk," she said, her voice strained.

"Why? What do you know?"

The pause on the other end was heavy. "I think it's better if you two talk. It's between you both, I know you two are close, she told me."

So Sofia had told her about our time together?

"What did she tell you?" I asked again, refraining from shouting at her for answers.

"She'll tell you. But maybe you should wait until Ernesto has left and she calls you, she seemed very worried about him, wanted me gone through the back door."

"He's bad news, as are the Ferences," I muttered.

"You know about them?" she asked quietly. "How bad are they?"

"I know that they're no good to their women for the most part," I said, my stomach twisting into knots. "Is she the one engaged? She told me she wasn't, but I feel like she was lying."

Meredith's silence was answer enough, and I slammed my hand on the back of the front passenger seat. Thankfully, my driver, Daniel, barely flinched.

"This is not right, Mer. Sof would never agree to that," I spat.

"I know."

So there was more to this than we knew for fact. Ernesto was manipulating her, probably with threats. "I'll say I'm there to see Sofia about something. Ernesto won't recognize me, not until he looks up my name. I'm not as high-profile as Leo. But maybe that'll be enough to get him to back off."

"Gray, do you think that's smart? Maybe you should wait."

"I'm not waiting, Mer. Sofia is family, she's like a sister to you, we can't let this happen," I said, knowing I was going against what Leo had told me to do. I couldn't just let this die. Not unless it was truly what Sofia wanted.

Even then, I wasn't sure if I could.

Meredith sighed unhappily. She wasn't the only stubborn one in this family, and she knew when to not try to fight me. "Okay. But please be careful. And keep me updated?"

"I will," I promised before ending the call.

Five minutes later, we pulled into Sofia's driveway, spotting an unfamiliar black sedan parked out front. I straightened my tie as I climbed out, instructing my driver to park down the street before I walked to the door with purpose and rang the doorbell.

When Sofia opened it, the sight of her sent a wave of mixed emotions through me. Relief that she looked unharmed, unease at the entire predicament, and a sliver of delight at just seeing her. I'd been dying to see her again, to hold her, and now, it was just a mess, nothing like what I'd hoped.

"Are you okay?" I asked as I looked past her and into the house. "I know your uncle is here."

"Now isn't a good time." She looked unsettled at the sight of me as she glanced over her shoulder.

Understandably, given the situation.

"Sof, I need to know what's going. You're keeping things from me, just tell me the truth," I said, and her gaze returned to mine. She was trying to mask her emotions, but I could see the mix of them warring behind those dark eyes.

There was so much going on that she wasn't telling me, and I was getting far too concerned about it all.

"I'll call you later, okay?" she said in a sharp whisper. "I need to figure all of this out."

Meredith had pretty much confirmed my belief, but now, with how she looked, the strong, confident Sofia I knew, now uneasy and looking so lost, I knew for certain. She was being manipulated, her options probably a small handful of varying levels of hell.

I wanted to pull her into my arms and tell her everything was going to be okay, I just needed to know what was going on, what she wanted, and get a feel for what I was up against. Who I had to deal with.

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