“Any news on that drug deal?” We’d never gotten to the bottom of that, and the fire had consumed our attention over the last few days. The fact Ricky had never come back to us on the deal was of concern.

Scott pulled out his phone. “Let me call Ricky and find out where he’s at with that.”

“I’ll be back in a minute,” I said and headed out of the office. It was just after nine pm and the club bar was busy with members blowing off steam. I was working on rebuilding relationships so I spent some time chatting with the boys. I was also trying to get a feel for who might be causing problems for Scott and King, but I had no luck on that front tonight.

When I entered Scott’s office again, he’d finished his call with Ricky. “What gives?” I asked.

“Apparently it’s going to take place in four days. He won’t tell me where so we need to get some eyes on him. I wanna tail him and see who the fuck it is. He’s still adamant his source is saying it’s us, so someone is screwing with us, brother.”

“Agreed.”

“Can you round Nash and J up for that job?”

I nodded. “Consider it done.”

“Tell them I wanna know everything Ricky does – who he sees and where he goes. I want confirmation that he was the one who gave the orders for the fire and once we have that, we’re not holding back on him.”

“I’ve increased security at all our premises, too. We can’t afford to have any more businesses closed down.”

“Good thinking, brother.”

The last thing we needed was Storm to lose its sources of income.

13

Sophia

The sounds of the office reverberated around me, and the headache I’d had since I woke up this morning intensified. It was the first day back at work since Christmas and I wasn’t feeling it. The pool party yesterday had worn me out – between the alcohol and the sun, I’d been exhausted last night. Sleep had actually been my friend for the first time in ages, and I’d slept right through until six this morning. But now, at eleven thirty, I was ready to call it quits. Pity I still had another five and a half hours to go.

“Sophia, have you finished that design for the Dawson job yet?”

I looked up from my computer to find my boss, Andrew, standing in front of my desk looking at me with demanding eyes. He was always demanding something, and I was almost at breaking point with him. There was something to say for manners and office etiquette, but sadly he’d skipped that lesson in his work life.

“Yes, I emailed you the info about ten minutes ago.” Take that, asshole.

“I should have had it half an hour ago.”

Oh my, God. Seriously?

My face burnt as the anger moved through me. Clenching my fists so that I didn’t give him the finger, I said, “You’re interrupting my time here, Andrew. I’m almost finished with the next job so if you want that on time, I’d recommend you leave me be for the afternoon.”

His eyes widened. “There’s no need for snarky comments.”

“I beg to differ. You throw out nastiness like it’s going out of fashion, and I’ve put up with it for years now. I need you to know that starting from today, I’m not putting up with it any longer.” I maintained eye contact with him and stood my ground. He couldn’t fire me, but he could make my work life more of a misery than it already was. And I guessed, he could talk to his superior and she could fire me. So this was a risky move, but screw it, I’d had enough.

Anger rolled off him as he said, “We’ll see about that.” As he stalked to his office, I wondered what that meant, but I wasn’t wondering for too long because my phone rang, diverting my attention.

Magan.

“Hey sis, what’s up? It’s not like you to call me in the middle of the day.”

“Sophia…” Her voice cracked and my skin prickled with apprehension. Something wasn’t right. “It’s Mum.”

I frowned. “Who? Your foster mum?”

She was silent for a beat. “No. Our mum.”

My heart dropped to my stomach and my hand curled tighter around my phone. “What do you mean? I don’t understand…” My thoughts ran through my mind uncontrollably and my throat turned dry.

What the hell does she mean, ‘our mum’.

“I mean, our mother needs us. She’s sick in the hospital and has asked for both of us to go to her,” she snapped, anger clear in her voice. “Can you come pick me up so we can go and see her?”

I hadn’t seen my mother since I was nine. Twenty years was a long time not to see or hear from the woman who was supposed to love you forever and teach you everything you needed to know to navigate life and love. The thought of seeing her today terrified the hell out of me and I wasn’t sure why.

“Sophia, are you there?” Magan’s voice had an urgency to it and I realised she was desperate to see our mother.

“What’s wrong with her? And how do you know this?” I asked. My brain was scrambling to make sense of it all, but I was coming up short today.

“They think she’s had a heart attack. Sophia, she asked for them to call us.”

I ignored the part about Mum asking for us, grabbed my bag and said, “I’ll come pick you up now.”

“Thank you,” she said and I could hear the relief in her voice.

I ended the call and left the office without informing Andrew. I didn’t need one of his high and mighty lectures about putting work first…not today.