Page 25 of Captured Pawn
It didn’t.
“Why the hell were you out there naked in the first place?”
That wiped the smile off her face.
“Duh? I have nothing with me… not even my phone. You ripped the one and only dress I had off me, like the barbarian that you are, so when you demand I go out to the pool, and I have no clothes, I go naked. Don’t like it? Take me home.”
Frustrated at her logical answer, I grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her toward the door. I took wide strides, forcing her to jog to keep up with me.
“I have a shitload of work to do. I don’t have all day to babysit you. Let’s go.”
I knew I was being an asshole, but I couldn’t stop myself.
She yanked her arm, trying to get free as she fearlessly argued back, “I have a shitload of work to do, too, but I don’t see you listening to me and taking me home… or to the shop so I can open. Maybe you have plenty of money, but I actually have to work hard to scrape by.”
Her words made me stop in my tracks. She’d been rushing so fast that she crashed into my back. I spun around, squeezing her biceps to make sure she didn’t try to escape again.
“What the fuck are you talking about, little girl? You should be doing much better than scraping by.”
“What do you know about my business?” she snapped defensively.
“I know you and Matt inherited a robust business when your father died.” I left off the part that it had been my father who’d bankrolled the start-up security and lock company decades before, mainly so he could be the beneficiary of the locksmith services for his own underground business needs.
“He died over twelve years ago! I was eleven. And you knew my brother better than anyone other than me, so you know damn well Matt never took running the security shop seriously. He was too busy chasing after you and Knight family business.
“I did the best I could, but he only showed up one or two days a week if I was lucky. Not to mention, I had to fit going to college in there at night and on weekends and have the huge student loans to prove it!”
Guilt was an emotion I almost never experienced, but for the umpteenth time since Matt’s death, a fresh wave of it blindsided me. Remorse stole my words, and I stood there like an idiot, looking into the wounded eyes of my captive.
The words, “I’m sorry,” sat like a weight on the end of my tongue. I swallowed them down like a sour pill, finally spitting out, “Let’s go,” instead.
Pulling her back into motion, I beelined it back to the pool’s edge where Pops was sitting in a chair under an umbrella, playing a game of Candy Crush on his phone.
Shoving her harder than necessary, I watched Sophie plop down into the chair next to her bodyguard.
“She’s all yours, Pops. Put the damn phone down and keep an eye on her.”
I was halfway back to the door to the house when she shouted at my back, “I’m not a child, you know!”
Oh, baby, I definitely noticed.
CHAPTER11
Sophie
I’d poke my own eye out before I’d ever admit it out loud, but I’d needed a day lounging around the pool—napping, swimming, and tanning. Every once in a while, the memories of Matt’s death had flooded back in and threatened to ruin the day, but I’d tried to think of all of the good memories instead. It had helped that several of the men assigned to guard me had shared their favorite stories of their time with Matt.
As nice as the stories had been, it was hard not to resent them and this whole damn place, knowing that my brother had chosen to spend so much time with them here instead of with me at the shop or our townhouse in the city. But knowing Matty like I did, I couldn’t really blame him. The only thing he’d loved more than the sea and nature was a good adventure and based on the stories regaled by Pops and Stevie, he had gotten his fill here.
I’d just plopped down on my bed after returning to my prison, er… room, when an unexpected shudder ran through my body. I’d love to have blamed it on the too-cool air conditioning, but I knew it was from the memory of the Knight brothers each paying their visit to me poolside.
Nicholas Knight was intense enough, but his brother Nathan took intense to a whole new level. I’d never admit it to him, but I’d been relieved when Nick had shown up, throwing the bathing suit and other clothes at me. I’d only gone naked at the pool to prove a point to him—that he was holding me prisoner here without even one single item of my own now that he’d torn away the few meager belongings I’d arrived with.
The second Nathan’s body had shadowed over me at poolside, I’d known I’d made a mistake. The dark look in his eyes had scared me in a way Nick never had. Maybe it was because Nick felt some allegiance to me because of Matty, but it was abundantly clear in that one short encounter that Nathan did not suffer from the same loyalty. And that could be a major problem.
The sooner I could get the hell out of here, the better.
Raised voices outside below my balcony pulled me out of my memories of the day. With so few things available to capture my attention, I pushed to my feet and went to the window, looking through the sheer curtains that Margaret had left open.
