It seemed to be a joyous reunion for Sonny and Remi, but Sonny was hiding his resentment for his childhood friend, angry that Remi seemingly always landed on his feet – despite Remi’s friends doing their best to explain that Remi had endured his fair share of hardship since arriving in Summer Bay back in 2022.

Having befriended fellow car enthusiast Theo (Matt Evans), Sonny aired his frustration that Remi lives a “charmed life”, and that “when he falls, there’s always a bucket of money and a beautiful woman to catch him.”

He set about making full use of Remi’s millions, treating Salt’s clientele to rounds of free drinks, and when Remi handed over his credit card, Sonny began to take advantage. Before long, he’d spent thousands of dollars of Remi’s money.

As Sonny bonded with Remi’s girlfriend Bree (Juliet Godwin), he mistook her friendship for something more, and leaned in for a kiss – seemingly wanting to steal some more of Remi’s happiness.

Bree pulled away, and when Remi discovered what Sonny had done, he cut him off immediately, and ordered him out of the house – their friendship was over!

Sonny soon came to the realisation that he was the one in the wrong, and set about trying to make it up to Remi, starting with paying him back everything that he’d spent.

However, without a job or any other source of income, that would be easier said than done.

Enter Gage, the River Boys’ latest leader. The two met as Sonny drank at Salt one evening, and Gage told him that if he ever wanted to raise some quick cash, he should give him a call.

In his short time in the bay, Sonny had also befriended Theo as they bonded over their love of cars. After calling Gage to find out more about his tempting offer, Sonny took Theo along to meet him, and they found themselves at a compound filled with modified cars.

Spotting Gage’s ‘Blood and Sand’ tattoo, Theo quickly realised that he and his mates were River Boys, and knew that he and Sonny needed to make a swift getaway.

However, Theo then caught sight of Lacey, who was working on a car in the compound. Some flirty banter later and Theo’d had a change of heart – maybe it was worth seeing what Gage had in store for them after all.

Theo was clearly impressed by what was in front of him: “There’s some major horsepower underneath that hood.”

“I doubt you could handle what’s underneath here,” Lacey flirted.

“Wouldn’t stop me from trying,” Theo flirted back, as his interest moved from the car to Lacey herself.

Gage tasked Theo and Sonny with fixing the engine of one of their cars, which they were obviously using for illegal street racing, and despite Sonny’s reservations, Theo set to work.