Ajax nodded. “Lenny was on the door. I’ll be talking to him.”
“Good,” she muttered. “When I saw Sophie was in trouble, I went to her aid. Connor and Rhett stepped in to help, and that’s when the fight broke out. You know the rest. Now if that’s all, I’m going to take Sophie home.”
“No, that is not all,” Ajax told her in a low voice. “I saw what happened with Sophie. By the time I got down there, she was behind the bar, with Vienna and the other subs. What I’m not clear on is why you weren’t there too.”
“That was where she was told to go,” Connor told him. Suddenly, he didn’t look so relaxed. In fact, he was glaring at her like she was at fault.
Ria crossed her arms over her chest defensively. She deliberately didn’t look at Connor. “I was going back to help.”
“Armed with a bad attitude and a chair?” Ajax asked. “I’m sure that would have gone well.”
“What did you want me to do? Stand by and watch while Connor and Rhett got beaten up?”
“Yes,” both men snapped in unison.
She huffed out a breath. “I’m no coward.”
“That wasn’t brave. It was foolish.” Ajax took a deep breath. “You should have waited with the other subs, Ria. You’re not indestructible.”
“I know that.”
Ajax just stared at her for a long moment. It was easy to see the frustration on his face.
“Don’t be mad at Ria, she was just trying to help me.” Sophie stood, moving her gaze from Ajax to Connor. Ajax turned to her and the look on his face softened.
“Don’t look so worried, sweetheart. You’re not in trouble.”
She bit her lip. “I’d really like to go home.”
“I’ll get Shane to drive you both home,” Ajax told them.
“I’ll drive her home,” Ria told him.
“Not sure that’s a good idea,” Connor said.
She moved her gaze to him. “Not sure it’s any of your business.”
The look of disapproval he gave her made her wish she’d bitten back the snarky words. But she was at the end of her patience. She didn’t appreciate being taken to task like a teenager who’d snuck out after curfew.
She put her arm around Sophie’s waist and led her to the door. The sooner she got out of here, the better. And not just because she was tired of being scolded. She started shaking. The adrenaline that had flooded her body during the confrontation was now dying off, leaving her upset and drained. She might act tough but the truth was, she wasn’t all that used to violence.
Connor opened the door as they grew close. He leaned in towards her. “Maybe I’m going to make it my business.”
She stared up at him, eyes wide, mouth open slightly in shock.
Say something, Ria.
“Good luck with that,” she told him. As a comeback, it was pretty pathetic but it was the best she could come up with.
“Oh, I don’t need luck, baby. Come along now. I’ll get you both safely home.”
“I said I could handle it.”
“You’re both shaking and upset. Can you imagine how Ajax and I will feel if you get into an accident on the way home? Knowing we could have prevented it?”
She glared up at him. Suspicious little thing. He wasn’t sure why she intrigued him. Maybe it was that she was so refreshingly honest. Even if there was plenty of snark injected into that honesty.
Hell, maybe he’d just worked for Hunter Black so long that he now thought sarcastic and prickly was normal behavior.