Page 13 of Sugar Baby
Resigned to the fact that we have to stop off at the city’s infamous bank for the rich and famous, I get my head out of my arse and start looking for threats, major or minor; it makes no difference. If it looks like a duck and swims like a duck, it’s usually a fucking duck and that dude over there with the hoodie on in this heat, looks like a bloody goose; he’s that conspicuous. I relax, though because we are still a few minutes from the bank, and we drive on by the youth without incident.
As we get closer, all appears normal. The streets are packed with pedestrians and workers; there are service vans lining the streets and taxis ducking in and out of the slow-moving traffic. Nothing seems out of the ordinary, but something just doesn’t feel right. I sit up and stare out of the window, trying to put my finger on it.
When we pull up to the bank a few minutes later, Sophia opens the door and starts to get out.
“Wait,” I mutter and climb out with her.
She glares at me out of those perfect green eyes. “You don’t have to come in.”
“You aren’t going in there alone. Something is off.”
“Like what?” she asks, looking around. “Looks like a normal Wednesday in London to me.”
“Well, it doesn’t to me.” I growl again, and this time I accompany it with a hand on her elbow. “Get back in the van.”
“No!” She tries to yank her arm out of my grip.
“Sophia, get back in the van.”
“No. I’m going to get those pearls, now you can either come in if you must, or you can wait here. It’s up to you.”
She pulls her arm free and stalks up to the bank’s front doors, with Nico right behind her, where a security guard opens them for her. Almost a littletooquickly.
I’ve just realised what is off here. There are three vans, all labelled up with the logo of the local water board, but the fourth one is blank. Just a white van, parked in the middle of the three vans. It’s not right.
I launch myself forward, determined to get Sophia back in the van. “Sophia?” I bellow, trying to get around the guard who seems intent on blocking my path. “Sophia?”
Shoving him aside, panic courses through me when I don’t see her. I can’t even see Nico, and he is pretty hard to miss.
The scent of vanilla wafts around me, as I scan the people in the bank. There are only a few customers and five or six employees.
“Nobody move!”
A man’s voice shouts above the quiet chaos inside the cool bank with its fancy grey tiled floor and big tinted windows that look out over the street.
“Get down on the ground, and no one will get hurt! We are here for something very specific and will be out of your hair the second we get it. Don’t be a hero.”
As everyone drops to the ground, I hear a door slam open, hitting the stopper loudly on the far side of the bank, but I catch a glimpse of a floaty pink dress before it bounces closed again.
My heart pounds in my chest, the blood roaring in my ears. “Sophia!”
ChapterTen
Sugar
“Come with me,” Nico’s quiet, deep voice murmurs in my ear.
“Nico,” I pant breathlessly as he bustles me through the administration-only door of the bank. “What is going on?”
“Shh.” He hushes me with a soft murmur and marches us down the corridor to a door on the right. He shoves it open and hauls me inside, scoping it out thoroughly, which only takes a second or two, seeing as it is small and relatively bare.
“Get under the desk,” he says.
“What? Why?” I query this instruction because what the fuck is going on?
He takes me by the shoulders and looks me dead in the eye. “Sophia. Please do as I say. Get under the desk.”
“Please tell me what’s going on,” I ask.
