The blue lights sweeping the road outside told Justin the police had arrived. He didn’t stop to ponder who had called them and why. His focus was all on Sophie – his aim to get her to his car and straight to the hospital. No one was going to stand in his way. No one!

Pulling her protectively closer in his arms, he shot a warning glance at an officer approaching him, who stopped uncertainly a yard off.

‘Get an ambulance here, now!’ someone yelled. Taylor. Justin kept going towards his car. Even as Taylor’s car careered to a stop alongside him, he was determined to keep going.

‘Justin!’ Taylor called. ‘Climb in.’

Justin didn’t pause.

‘For God’s sake, man, climb in!’ Taylor yelled. ‘We’ll get to the hospital a lot quicker with blue lights.’

Justin stopped. His breath short, his chest thudding, he watched Taylor spill out, yanking the back door open and gesturing him inside. Nodding shortly, Justin made up his mind, turning towards the car to ease Sophie carefully into it and then climb in beside her.

Taylor threw himself into the front passenger seat, slamming the door closed behind him. ‘Go!’ He turned to the driver and then twisted to face Justin. ‘Is she all right?’ he asked, glancing at Sophie as Justin slid across, wrapping an arm around her as she burrowed again into his shoulder.

No, she’s very much not all right. He looked down at her. ‘She will be. We’ll all be, hey, Pumpkin? Together.’

A slight nod told him Sophie was hearing him. She understood his meaning. He was her father. He would always be there for her.

Radley. His mind went to him, briefly. Should he just leave him? If the police presence here was anything to do with him, wouldn’t they already be up there, rather than here? Justin shut it down. Not now. He needed to focus on his family. ‘Alicia,’ he said gruffly. ‘I need to call her.’

Guessing he couldn’t access his phone in his pocket, Taylor nodded, twisted back around and pulled out his own mobile. ‘Number?’ he asked him, keying it in as Justin reeled it off. ‘Alicia?’ he said a second later. ‘I have Justin with me. He has Sophie.’

Turning back, he handed the phone to Justin.

‘Sophie?’ Alicia asked, incredulous, her voice choked, as if she was squeezing the word out through all the pain she’d been holding in.

‘She’s here,’ Justin assured her. ‘She’s—’

Hearing the wretched sob that escaped her, he stopped and waited. ‘She’s all right, Alicia,’ he said softly, after a second. ‘She’s right here.’

Sophie eased her head up as he spoke. ‘Mum?’ she asked, her beautiful chestnut eyes, dulled by drugs, seeming, at last, to focus.

Justin nodded. ‘Hold on,’ he said. ‘Alicia, she wants to speak to you.’

Cradling Sophie, he held the phone gently to her ear.

‘Mum?’ Sophie said, and caught her breath. ‘Mum? I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t get it. I still don’t get all of it, but—’

‘Hey, hey.’ Justin squeezed her closer as she, too, broke off with a sob. ‘No apologies, Pumpkin. They’re not necessary. We’ll get through this. I promise you we will.’

Pressing the phone back to his own ear, he spoke to Alicia. ‘We’re on our way to the hospital,’ he said. ‘Just to check Sophie over,’ he added quickly. ‘She’s okay, I promise. I’ll meet you there.’

‘Okay,’ Alicia managed emotionally. ‘How?’ she asked. ‘How did you know where she was?’

Justin hesitated, his gaze flicking towards Taylor. ‘Jessica gave me his address. I went there to talk to him,’ he said, hoping it sounded feasible to Taylor. Whatever happened, he wanted to keep Alicia, and the fact that she was supposed to be seeing Radley, as far out of this as possible.

Taylor held his gaze for a long, hard minute, the look in his eyes dubious at best. ‘Strange coincidence, that,’ he said. ‘We were just about to pay a visit to Mr Radley’s apartment too. We had a 999 call from this geographical location. Cut short, unfortunately,’ he went on, as Justin eyed him questioningly.

‘Me,’ Sophie said. ‘That was me.’

‘Ah.’ Taylor nodded and smiled – for Sophie’s benefit, Justin guessed. ‘Well, that clears up the mystery. Don’t worry, Sophie, we can have a chat later, when you’re feeling better. We’ll be having words with Mr Radley in the meantime. I have officers on their way there now.’

Shit! Justin squeezed his arm around Sophie a fraction tighter.