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Uncle suddenly cocked his head to the side, taking Austin in for the first time

“You want to step up to ht before a snake kills “I protect what’s mine You want to question that? Then I’ll be sure to send you Hector’s cock on a silver fucking platter”

My eyes widened not expecting his response

He killed Hector?

“It was my warehouse Next ti job I don’t like wiping up shit, especially if it didn’t co ass,” Uncle warned

I looked back and forth between the

“No one fucks with me, Austin And if you don’t step the fuck back, you will find out why”

“Austin…” I grabbed his ar it would help

It took hi his stare off my uncle

“Briggs, next time you want to be a cock tease, make sure it’s not with soht you better than that,” he warned, stepping towardhis eyes at me

“Judging fros spread out on the table,” he paused, letting his words linger “I’ht state of mind today Which tellsbusiness Pack your shit You’re co home with me”

He looked over at Austin and sneered, “You’re not fucking invited”

Austin opened hisanywhere without hio and vice versa, Uncle”

I could see it in his eyes, he wanted to tell me no He wanted to order irl that lived under his penthouse roof

“We’re going back toback to your home,” I simply stated

I fucking hated that penthouse

It wasn’t my home

It never was

He leaned in close toit your way, peladita,” he breathed out Turning around he left

Leaving me to wonder what the hell he just meant by that

Chapter 22

Austin

It had been three days since we flew back to New York and we had yet to talk about what happened in Columbia To be completely honest, we barely talked at all I was still pissed about the situation and how everything went down The fact that she never fucking told me that Martinez was her uncle Not that I ever asked, but who the hell would ask so like that It never even crossedabout him

He was irrelevant

The signs were all there I just didn’t pick up on the

I was too caught up trying to find out her real name

As luck would have it Martinez was in Colos to take theWhich had never happened before Martinez had a feeling and that hy he set it up in his warehouse If shit went down, he would know about it Briggs was never in danger

I wanted to ask her all sorts of da lost in her own head As if she didn’t knohat to do with her life now Like her uncle had taken everything away from her I finally realized that this wasn’t just a job for her

This was her life

It was all she’d ever known

She barely talked to me other than sless conversations, never addressing the elephant in the roohed once since we arrived back in New York

It was killing ht up The only time I felt close to her in the last few days e were in bed She still let ht

I woke up from a bad dream about , the worst fucking anxiety and I didn’t knohy I sus and overwhelone down recently

When Briggs left the apartrab theher computer Every once in a while I would check the online Oak Island newspaper and so told me that I needed to

I clicked it

After three years of being gone, there before my very own eyes was the headline news

Savannah Ryder, beloved wife of Dr Robert Ryder, estee her four-year long battle to breast cancer

My heart dropped

I couldn’t fucking breathe

The ground beneath me sed my body whole

She will be laid to rest at noon today at the…

I i at the truth that was blatantly in front ofI stood there withto cooodbye to a woman who had raised me like her own

A woman I was proud to call a second mom

I wished I had kept in touch with her I hadn’t felt homesick up to that point, but the news hit me hard It was a reality slap that made me doubt some of my choices

I couldn’t stop the tears that for atme alive

I faintly heard Briggs open the door and walk in with the mail, it was like I was there but I wasn’t The e me in ways I had never experienced before, not even after the accident The guilt was too much to bear

“Hey, I' to make so intoward ? Are you okay?”

Our eyes locked

I didn’t have a chance to register her face I just pushed off the island and walked past her to grabrandom shit from my closet

“Austin, are you leaving me?”

Her worried tone snappedme under

“Never,” I sio”

“Go? Go where? What are you talking about? You’re scaring me, Austin”

I didn’t falter “Hoo home”

Her head jerked back, stunned by o horeed to let me come with her in the first place

We never talked about my past

Not my parents

Not the boys

Not even Alex

They didn't exist in ht, out of mind for the most part Which was about to co ass

There I was about to take her ho away from for the last three years At that moment, in that second, I didn’t care about the repercussions that would follow fro my reality

I needed her

More now than I ever had before She wasthat was constant in my life

There was no way in hell I could do this without her

She was all that mattered to me

“Hoht—”

“Baby, we don’t have ti to make it”

“Make it? What exactly are weany sense,” she asked even more confused

“The funeral”