Chapter 538 Toby’s Bodyguards
“Right away,” Tom replied solemnly, then left to carry out Toby’s orders.
Presently, Sonia lifted her arm to glance at her watch and saw that it was drawing close to 4.30PM. Letting her arm fall back to her side, she was about to bid goodbye to Toby when he beat her to the chase. “Well, if you’re going to sign off on the factory, then you should probably get going now. Go straight home as soon as you’re done, or it won’t be safe after nightfall.”
“Okay,” she agreed, rising to her feet. “I’ll be leaving now.”
Just then, he picked up his phone and stopped her. “Hold on. I’ll get someone to escort you back.”
“Oh, that won’t be necessary. I can drive,” Sonia said, turning him down with a cursory wave of her hand.
He looked at her gravely and pointed out, “I think it’s entirely necessary. I don’t like the idea of leaving you on your own; who knows if Tina will ambush you along the way?”
Upon hearing this, Sonia fell silent, and she pictured herself driving along the way and running into Tina. She’d probably step on the gas and crash into my car, then hope that the impact would be enough to kill me.
Sonia shuddered at the eerie thought of this and decided to take up Toby’s offer. Bowing her head in polite gratitude, she said, “Thank you.”
He nodded once, then sent out instructions through his phone. After that, he set his phone aside and announced, “Done. You can head down to the lobby now; the team I’ve arranged to escort you will be waiting for you there.”
She gave a small nod. “Okay. I’ll get going now, then.”
Toby gave a casual flap of his hand to dismiss her. “Go on.”
With one last glance at his bandaged ankle and a gentle reminder that he should keep the area dry, Sonia slung her purse over her shoulder and walked out of his office.
As she stepped out of the elevator and into the lobby, she indeed came upon the men whom Toby had arranged to escort her. These men were uniformed bodyguards who towered over her and boasted strong, bulky physiques, attributes that instantly made her feel a sense of security.
That being said, what surprised Sonia the most was not the bodyguards’ physiques, but the way they intended to escort her. She would be driving back with one of their cars tailing her and the other in front of her.
She had believed that Toby would want the bodyguards to be in her car while escorting her back, but as it turned out, he had thought differently.
Now that she looked at it, an arrangement like this was for the best in terms of security. With two cars escorting her, Tina would not be able to reenact her murderous scheme from earlier that afternoon, at least not without crashing first into either one of the bodyguards’ cars.
Warmth coursed through Sonia as she smiled to herself, a little surprised by Toby’s foresight in planning all this.
She suddenly realized how much attention to detail Toby paid to whatever he did or intended to do.
At the entrance of the newly built factory, Charles flicked his cigarette butt away when he saw Sonia’s familiar red car draw near and accused, “Took you a while to finally get here, baby,”
Sonia got down from the car and flashed him a quick, apologetic smile. “Sorry to keep you waiting, Charles.”
“Nah, don’t worry about it. I’ve only been here for half an hour,” he said with a grin. Then, he noticed the two cars that had escorted Sonia back and asked curiously, “Hey, what’s going on here, baby? Who are these people?”
She was being frank as she pointed at the other two cars and explained, “Those are Toby’s cars, and the ones driving them are Toby’s bodyguards.”
“And why did his bodyguards follow you here?” Charles pressed, frowning.
“It’s a long story, but basically, Toby dispatched them for my own safety, and they’ll leave once they’ve escorted me back to Bayside Residence later,” she elaborated, running her fingers through her hair to keep it in place.
Charles gave another pointed look at the cars, and he was about to say something when Sonia glanced at the time and said, “Okay, that’s enough for now, Charles. It’s getting late, and we have a factory to see.”
“Oh, right,” he said, snapping out of his thoughts when he heard this. He stored away his questions and fell in step behind her as she walked through the factory entrance.
It was 6.00PM when they signed off on the factory. The sky was gradually darkening, and Sonia was ready to leave after she had finalized the amendments and handed them to the construction team.
Charles, on the other hand, was sitting in Sonia’s car as he eyed the bodyguard’s car up front, then poked his head out of the window to peer at the other car following them. Suspicion filled him as he prompted unhappily, “I think it’s about time you explain to me why Toby sent two bodyguards to escort you, baby.”
He hadn’t wanted to ask back at the factory, not while Sonia had been busy checking through the construction work. However, now that they were already making their way home, he figured she had no reason to avoid his questions anymore.
Next to him in the driver’s seat, Sonia was unfazed by Charles’ curiosity. Knowing him, she knew that he would not relent until she gave him all the answers he wanted.
With her hands on the steering wheel, she began unaffectedly, “Well, if you must know, something happened this afternoon…” She told him about the incident where Tina tried to kill her in a car crash.
Having heard the end of the story, Charles looked aghast as he exclaimed, “What the hell? I didn’t know something as dramatic as that went down!”
“Yeah, and out of concern for my safety, Toby dispatched two bodyguards to escort me. He’s just worried that Tina might ambush me again,” Sonia said, glancing at the car behind her through her side mirrors.
Charles couldn’t bring himself to be unhappy with Toby after this. After all, Toby was taking all the necessary measures to keep Sonia safe. If I start protesting over something like this, then I’d look downright petty.
“By the way, baby, didn’t you say that Toby sent someone after Tina? If he’s having these bodyguards escort you home, does that mean Tina got away?” Charles asked, his brows knitted tightly together.
Sonia hummed in response. “They were close to cutting off her escape route, but she had back-up and got away. Now, Toby’s looking into her potential connections to see who’s been helping her in the shadows, and once he finds out, he’ll let me know.”
“Damn!” Charles slapped his thigh in a fit of anger. “I don’t get it. How could anyone still back Tina up after all the mess she brought onto herself? What kind of connections does she have?”
Sonia lowered her gaze in thought, looking somber as she said, “Who knows? But no matter who her connections are, I won’t let her get away that easily!”
He nodded at this. “Obviously.”
Without adding anything more to the conversation, Sonia pursed her lips and grew reticent. At the sight of her grim expression, Charles left her alone and began to scroll through his phone in silence.
They pulled up at Bayside Residence half an hour later, and the bodyguards who had done their job bade Sonia goodbye before leaving in their respective cars.
Watching their cars drive into the distance, Charles rubbed his chin pensively and pointed out, “To be honest, baby, I think you should hire a couple of bodyguards to follow you around at all times like those two did, seeing as Tina is still lurking in the shadows and probably getting ready to ambush you.”
Sonia did not object to his suggestion and merely laughed good-naturedly. “I’ll consider doing just that.”
Then, she opened her side of the door and got down from the car while Charles followed suit.
She rounded the front of the car and walked up to the passenger’s side where Charles was standing, then said, “Why don’t you take the car tonight and pick me up here tomorrow morning? There’s a meeting at Paradigm Co. tomorrow that you could sit in for.”
“Okay,” he answered readily with a grin, then walked over to the driver’s side of the car jauntily.
Having done so, he held the door open and waved goodbye at Sonia. “Guess I’ll be leaving then, baby.”
She hummed in response, but just as Charles was about to duck into the car, she suddenly thought of something and spun around to call out to him, “Hey, wait a minute, Charles!”
“What’s wrong?” Charles was already halfway behind the steering wheel when he heard her and ducked out from the car.
Toby’s words echoed in Sonia’s mind, and she parted her red lips as she stammered, “Uh… Charles, do you think you could maybe stop calling me ‘baby’ from now on?” She found herself agreeing with Toby that the term of endearment was far too intimate to be appropriate for a friendship like hers and Charles’.
The grin on Charles’ face slipped when he heard this, and he demanded in bewilderment, “Did you just ask me to stop calling you ‘baby’?”
“Yes,” she replied with a firm nod.
“But why?” He slammed the car door shut and closed the distance between them with a couple of long strides, seeking an explanation from her.
She looked up at him and said, “Because I don’t think it’s appropriate.”
Confusion dawned upon him. “How is it not appropriate?”
