Page 50 of Captured Pawn
“This is what happens when I stay up all night worrying my only brother may bite the dust.”
I wasn’t used to Nathan showing any emotion, especially concern for me and my wellbeing.
“Yeah, well, you aren’t gonna get rid of me that easy. Thank God security must have detected Angela’s break-in and arrived at the cottage in time to put her down.”
The smile that broke out on Nathan’s unshaven face was so rare, I almost didn’t recognize him.
“Security fucked up. They didn’t even know we had a breach until that little hellcat of yours called Stevie for help.”
Hellcat? Sophie?
My brother must have seen my confusion as he supplied more details. “Seems after you were shot, Sophie fought off Angela until she got the upper hand and put a slug directly in Angela’s heart. She bled out before we even made it to the scene.”
“Sophie? Shot Angela?”
“SophiekilledAngela and saved your ass. Hell, she saved all of our asses.”
She’d impressed me so much on the mission to my enemy’s estate, but this? It didn’t seem possible. Angela had six inches and a good thirty pounds on Sophie.
Before I could formulate a response, Nathan dismissed the nurse. Once we were alone, he spoke quickly.
“We only have a few minutes before Sophie gets back. I sent her to take a shower and rinse off all the blood.”
“Blood? Was she—” I blurted before he cut me off.
“It was your blood. Angela’s blood. She’s uninjured. But…”
I didn’t like the pained look on Nathan’s face. He was one cold sonofabitch. What the fuck could have him looking like he’d swallowed something sour?
“Spit it out,” I ground out, my headache still pounding.
“The guys got careless last night. After the doctor got the bullet removed and you were stable, I went back to the main house to change my clothes. I was only gone about fifteen minutes, but when I got back Sophie looked like she’d seen a ghost. Then she started asking a lot of uncomfortable questions.”
I waited for him to expand on what he meant by uncomfortable, but when no explanation came, I prodded him with, “What kind of questions?”
“About her father.”
It took a second for his meaning to register.
“Fuck. They didn’t tell her the truth, did they?”
“Not directly, but they were clearly talking about things they shouldn’t have been. And you know her. She’s not stupid. I think she’s putting things together, or at least becoming suspicious.”
“Dammit,” I cursed. I’d love to fire the assholes who were careless enough to talk about the ancient family history, but considering my employees had no clue that Sophie was in the dark, I couldn’t really blame them.
My mind raced with how I could possibly explain things to her without having to hurt her, but my headache wasn’t helping.
Nathan suggested, “It’s time to tell her the truth.”
“There has to be another way. It will hurt her,” I pushed back, yet the ugly truth was that I wasn’t sure I could ever truly keep her safe, and that terrified me.
“Hurt we can deal with. It’sdeadwe are trying to avoid.”
“Do you know how upset she’ll be when she finds out the truth?” I countered.
“More upset than you lying to me?” Sophie asked from the doorway of the bedroom.
Shit.
