Chapter 19
Miles
Pain radiated through my knuckles as I leaned over the sink in the ensuite to my office. Fortunately, I hadn’t broken the skin when I threw my fist into the mirror. Unlike the glass, which now had a crack running through its middle.
Raising my head, I met my eyes in the mirror, eyes that were too similar to Theo’s, and at that moment, it felt like my cousin was staring back at me. Guilt churned in my stomach, and I tore my gaze away, unable to look at my shameful reflection any longer.
What the fuck had I been thinking? I betrayed Theo, but worse than that, I stole Sofia’s virginity with such brutality that it made me sick remembering how fucking good it felt to smash through her barrier and claim her cunt.
She deserved better than a rough fuck over my desk for her first time. She deserved someone who would take their time, worship her body, and make love to her gently when she was ready.
Not what I did to her.
What the fuck was wrong with me?
She pushed and pushed, and instead of walking away, I just…
snapped. I should have had more restraint, but Kai’s words had been playing on a constant repeat since I woke up in my old bedroom this morning with a weed hangover, and I couldn’t help but tell myself that if the situation were different, I would want Theo to be happy, so why couldn’t I be?
That thought went out the fucking window when I pulled my cock from Sofia’s pussy, the bright red blood evidence of what I’d done, and like a coward, I couldn’t look at her. I had to get away.
I shook my head, disgusted at myself. Her first time, and I’d walked away without so much as a single word.
The least I could do was clear up my mess.
With a heavy sigh, I grabbed a washcloth and ran it under lukewarm water, the image of my come leaking from Sofia’s bloodied pussy flashing in my mind.
It was a first for me. I’d never fucked a woman without a condom. I wasn’t worried about pregnancy, but I didn’t want to catch an STD, and one of the rules in Exotique was that all male participants wore condoms.
Another first. I’d never fucked anyone without an audience. Even when I lost my virginity, it was on the stage with a woman whose name I didn’t know, after Theo had declared he knew what I needed to help my confidence with women.
He was right.
There was something addictive—thrilling, even—about being on the stage, watched by others, and as much as I flirted with women outside of Exotique and gave the impression that I had one-night stands, I never fucked anyone unless it was with an audience.
Until a few minutes ago.
When the cloth was damp, I returned to my office, ready to eat humble pie and apologize, but my scorching blood turned to ice at finding the room empty and the door ajar.
“Fuck.”
I dropped the cloth and grabbed my phone, tapping at the screen to bring up the tracking device. When the dot appeared, confusion furrowed my brow. Sofia’s phone was back in the city. There was no way she would have made it back that quickly, even if she were in a car.
I dialed Connor, who answered on the first ring. “Mr. Wolfe.”
“Is Sofia with you?” I snapped, running a hand through my hair and staring at the edge of my desk where streaks of blood and come stained it.
I swallowed, shame burrowing its way into the marrow of my bones.
“No, Sir. We were ordered by Mr. Wolfe…uh, the other Mr. Wolfe, to return to the city to deal with an incident.”
“What incident?”
My heart rate spiked. What the hell had happened while I was too busy burying my cock in Sofia? And if she wasn’t with her bodyguards, where the fuck was she?
A potent streak of jealousy surged through me when a little voice inside my head whispered that she’d headed back to the voyeur room to find someone else to fuck her.
My guilt and shame vanished in a heartbeat. I grabbed my jacket, hanging up on Connor without finding out what the incident was. Whatever had happened could wait. But if I found Sofia hooking up with some other guy, their death couldn’t wait.
Storming out of my office, red mist coated my vision as I practically sprinted to the door, bursting through into the heart of Exotique.
“Mr. Wolfe, is everything okay?” Jamie, the general manager of the club, asked, stopping me in my tracks as I stomped across the atrium.
“Did you see a woman leave the door to the staff area?”
His lips pulled into a grimace. “Yeah. She looked pretty mad.”
Fucking wonderful.
“Where did she go?”
“I think she left. She headed toward the exit.”
For a brief moment, relief rushed through me that she hadn’t gone to the voyeur room, only for my anxiety to flare again as what he’d said sank in. She left. Without her guards waiting for her.
Jamie barely finished speaking before I took off, reaching the door in seconds. “Where did she go?” I barked at Steve, the security guard I’d ordered to let Sofia into the club when I was informed of her unexpected visit.
“She took off that way,” he replied, knowing instantly who I was referring to.
My gaze flew to where he pointed down the street. Dusk had fallen, but there was enough light for me to see that she wasn’t anywhere in sight. Either she was walking at a swift pace or…
No, I refused to consider or.
Thanking my lucky stars that my keys had been in my jacket pocket, I fished them out and unlocked my car, which was parked outside the club, quickly taking off.
It was fucking typical that on the night Sofia chose to run off, her guards hadn’t been waiting outside the club. What the fuck had happened for Kai to call not just Connor and Rob away, but the rest of the entourage? Something I’d get to the bottom of as soon as I found my wife.
Adrenaline pumped through me as I turned the corner, and a sigh of relief left me at finding the figure ahead, her strides long with determination. I shot past her, pulling the car across her path to stop her from going anywhere, and jumped out of the driver’s seat.
“Fuck, Jailbait, you can’t just run off like that,” I snarled, rounding the car to move in front of her.
“Like you give a fuck,” she hissed, but despite her fury, her eyes shone with unshed tears. “Leave me alone, Miles. Just let me go home.”
“Get in the car.”
She could be pissed at me all she liked; I deserved it, but as long as I knew she was safe. That was all that mattered.
“No,” she huffed, folding her arms over her chest.
I muttered a curse. “What are you going to do? Walk all the way back to the house? It’ll take you hours.”
“I’d rather be walking for days than be stuck in a car for even a minute with you.”
Stubborn, stubborn little brat.
I ought to have bent her over the hood of the car and spanked her ass again.
I ground my teeth, resisting every urge to pick her up and throw her into the car, and reminding myself that I was the reason for her anger.
Taking a deep breath to calm the way my cock twitched at that image, I summoned all the patience I possessed.
“Please. Can you let me take you home? It’s not safe for you to be out here unprotected. ”
She jabbed me in the chest, something she seemed to do too often, and yet, I’d never stopped her. “You want to talk about unprotected? How about the fact that you just had unprotected sex with me, huh? Who knows what disease you’ve given me!”
A flash of anger vibrated through me at her insinuation, but before I could even think of a response, a dark SUV rounded the corner, its windows blacked out. It stopped further up the road with its engine running and lights on full beam, preventing me from seeing the driver.
At the same time, another SUV appeared at the other end of the road, mirroring the position of the first with its lights on. I didn’t recognize either car, and my gut told me that there was nothing innocent about them.
My gut was rarely wrong.
I went to grab my gun from my holster, realizing that in my hurry to get to Sofia, I hadn’t put it on.
Shit.
“Get in the car.” I grabbed Sofia’s arm and pulled her the few steps to my car.
She didn’t protest; her eyes wide as she looked between the vehicles. Throwing open the door, she allowed me to shove her into the passenger seat before I hurried to the driver’s side.
Who in the fuck was in the SUVs? It seemed too much of a coincidence that Kai had pulled Sofia’s security away to deal with an incident, and now two cars were watching us.
Was this the cartel finally making their move? Or was whoever Adrian Powell had worked for before I killed him about to attempt to kidnap Sofia a second time?
Whoever it was, they wouldn’t lay a finger on her.
Whichever direction I went, we’d have to pass one of the cars. My vehicle was bulletproof if whoever was inside decided to shoot at us; that wasn’t my worry. It was if they decided to ram us. But I didn’t have a choice; if we stayed put, we’d be sitting ducks.
Weighing up my options, the tires spun, flicking the gravel as I hit the gas, and opting to head away from the city.
I knew the roads surrounding Exotique better than the back of my hand, I could try to lose them by heading deeper into the forest. Worst-case scenario, there was a location we could head toward if we needed somewhere to lay low.
As we sped past the second car that had stopped, I held my breath, anticipating them to meet us head-on, or at the very least, lower their windows and take aim at us. But the car didn’t move as we drove by.
I stared through the window, trying to catch a glimpse of whoever was in there, but the windows were too dark.
The brief thought that maybe I was overreacting entered my mind, only to be squashed when my gaze flicked to the rear-view mirror in time to see the SUV spin around.
It began following us, quickly joined by the one that had stopped further along the road.
My heart rate kicked up a notch, and keeping one hand on the wheel, I tapped at the computer screen on the dash, finding Kai’s number and pressing the connect button.