Dane took a quick look at her messy hair and snarled, “Do you know this piece of shit?” He kicked George again.
She nodded.
“Is he the one who…?”
Dane didn’t have to finish. She knew what he was asking. She hesitated for a moment, then nodded again. He’d find out sooner or later anyway.
“You son of a bitch.” Dane was on George again, his fists brutal. George had gone fetal and was pleading for mercy.
“Dane, stop, stop! He’s not worth it,” she said. She looked desperately at Chad. “Please.”
“Halfway agree with your man,” Chad said, but he stepped over and pulled Dane off of George. “Come on. This asshole’s done.”
The lights came on in the room. Sophia flinched at the sudden brightness. Iain stood there, taking in the scene, his mouth hanging open. “What the…? Are you all crazy?”
Other members of the family appeared–Ceinlys, Salazar…even Barron, whose loud complaints about the lack of water died an abrupt death. Sophia pulled inward, hugging herself and stepping aside. It wasn’t her fault that Dane and George were fighting, but if she hadn’t been here, they wouldn’t have. Or if she’d just let Dane come along with her to the vending machine…
Chad let Dane go and came over to her. “Hang in there, champ.”
She nodded absent-mindedly, but she could barely register anything with all the adrenaline surging through her body.
“What’s going on here? Who is this man?” Barron gestured with his hand. Confusion carved deep lines on his forehead.
“I’m George Grudin,” he moaned. “I had an appointment with Justin Sterling earlier today.”
“You have no idea what kind of trash that”—Dane gestured his bruised knuckles at George—“thing is. I’m going to make sure he never walks again.”
“Okay, Dane, time to chill. He’s not worth going to jail for,” Iain said.
“You’re wrong.” Dane started for George again, but Iain put him in an arm-lock. “Let me go! He attacked Sophia.”
Iain’s head snapped Sophia’s way, along with everyone else’s—except George and Dane—and his gaze sharpened as he registered her state. “Oh.”
“If that piece of shit had hurt Jane, you wouldn’t be so calm.”
A flush rose on Iain’s face. “You’re right…but I’d still want someone to pull me away.”
“For heaven’s sake, somebody get a nurse,” Ceinlys said, but nobody moved.
George turned until he was lying on his back, then choked back a laugh. “‘Dane’? You’re Dane Pryce?” He looked at Sophia without waiting for a confirmation. “You’re with him?”
“It’s none of your business,” Sophia said.
Amazingly, he began to laugh. “You stupid… This is the man who crippled you!”
Chapter Forty-Two
Sophia didn’t get it. Each word out of George’s mouth made sense separately, but together…
George chortled hoarsely. “The accident you had in Paris. He paid your daddy five million bucks to keep his mouth shut.”
The room seemed to tilt slightly. Dane couldn’t be the driver from Paris. He simply couldn’t. “You’re lying.” She turned to Dane, willing him to deny it. The muscles in his jaw tightened, but he said nothing. Salazar sighed and rolled his shoulders.
Suddenly her mother’s words came back to her: he owes us.
Now everything made sense. She remembered Salazar’s mild surprise at seeing her. Despite his off-hand explanation that he hadn’t been taking calls, the more likely scenario was that Betsy had forgotten, but he hadn’t let that minor detail get in the way. Not when he knew.
“What is this…person talking about?” Ceinlys said.
“There was a car accident in Paris seven years ago. It ended Sophia’s figure skating career right before the Olympics,” Dane explained, his voice wooden. He didn’t look at anyone, his gaze fixed somewhere beyond the wall in front of him. “I was the driver who hit her.”
“Why wasn’t I told?” Ceinlys said.
“You didn’t need to know,” Salazar responded. “Sophia, Dane didn’t know either. I was the one who dealt with the aftermath, and no one ever told him who the people in the other car were.”
But he obviously learned at some point. “How long ago did you find out?” Sophia asked Dane, staring at his face.
His expression was as barren as a cliff. “A few days before the wedding.”
She pieced the information together. “Is that why you were acting so strangely? Telling me not to come to work, then later getting me to transferred to UCLA?”