“My daughter is perfect.” Roarke smiled. “And she will be perfect no matter who she takes after.”
She couldn’t help but feel a bit jealous of Roarke’s obvious happiness. She wondered what Ava was like. How she managed to handle two husbands. Ria couldn’t even find one man who wanted to stick by her for longer than a few weeks.
Connor leaned forward and pulled his laptop from the bag he’d bought with him, balancing it on his muscled thighs. “Right. I’ll recap. We all know Sophie was the one stealing from the club. But she was stealing was because she was being blackmailed, most likely by someone in the club since she had a conversation with her mom there about her ex. We figure from there the blackmailer did some searching around and discovered that Sophie was hiding from her ex. The first threat came while she was at the club. The notes were sent away to be analyzed for finger prints. Nothing came back.”
“Let’s just say it, Sophie is an idiot,” her friend muttered.
Ria turned to her, “Soph, that’s not—”
“No one is calling you an idiot, Sophie and I’m not going to allow you to do it, either.” Ajax’s low voice filled the room authoritatively.
Sophie turned to look at him over her shoulder. She was silent for a moment. Then she turned back. “Sorry,” she whispered.
Roarke leaned forward with a sigh. “Sophie, look at me please.”
Ajax moved closer to Sophie. He was tense. Like he was ready to pounce. Why? To defend Sophie? Did he think Roarke would hurt her?
Roarke looked up at Ajax. A smile played at the ends of his mouth. “Easy, man. I’m not going to hurt her. I remember what we talked about.”
“What did you talk about?” Sophie asked.
“Ajax told me everything that happened. He also spoke to me about the money that was taken—”
“I’ll pay it back, I promise. I know you won’t want me working there anymore, but I’ll get another job and pay back every cent. I’m so sorry, I know I should have taken another job to pay him off instead of stealing. It was totally wrong. I just—”
“No,” Ajax said coldly, moving around to stand in front of Sophie. Then he crouched, getting to her eye level. “What you should have done, little one, was come to me with the note.”
“But why? You were my boss. I didn’t think you would care.”
Ajax’s gaze seemed to grow deeper. “Now you know differently. This was not for you to handle on your own and even if you didn’t think I would care, you should have known I’d be furious over someone in my club doing this.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered to him. Then she looked over at Roarke. “All I can say is I’m sorry.”
Roarke nodded, his face kind. “I know you are, sweetheart. Ajax isn’t wrong, though. You should have gone to him.”
“I know. I made a mess of things. I can’t fix that.”
“You can.”
“By paying the money back? Will you not call the police if I do that? I mean, I won’t blame you if you do, I just please give me a chance to pay you back.”
“I’m not going to call the police, Sophie.”
Relief filled Ria, and she could only imagine how Sophie felt. She reached over and grabbed her hand. Ajax sat on the arm of the sofa next to Sophie.
“And you don’t have to pay me back,” Roarke told her.
“Because I will,” Ajax said firmly.
“No, neither of you will. The money doesn’t matter, and I won’t be taking any of yours, Ajax.”
“You will,” Ajax said stubbornly. “I’ve taken responsibility for her.”
“Nobody needs to take responsibility for me. I can take care of myself.”
“Previous actions suggest otherwise,” Ajax said coolly.
Sophie’s hand trembled in hers. “I suppose you’re right.”