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“I’m scared.”
Turning his head to face me, he grips my chin with one hand, meeting my eyes with a burning gaze.
“Don’t. I’m ending this. They die babygirl. All of them.”
Part of me melts at his admission, but another part of me, deep down in the back of my head is rambling about what a stupid girl I am. They are the Syndicate, and we may have battled it out and made it out alive, but we are on the losing end of a war.
None of us are safe.
Chapter thirty-two
Travis
“Boss, I swear to god, I wasn’t looking. I j-ju-”
“Riot come on man, stop with the boss shit.” I chuckle, handing him a beer as I walk by and plop myself into the chair adjacent from the sofa he’s sitting on. “I know you weren’t looking at her.”
“Y-“ he stops and clears his throat, “you do?”
“Yeah kid, I know you she’s not your type.”
“Oh,” a look of relief washes over his face and he settles back into the couch.
“Just make sure whatever you and Zeke have going on doesn’t impact the business.”
Riot laughs, snorts, and chokes on his beer. I jump to my feet, but he signals that he’s ok with a wave of his hand, so I sit back down. “Zeke? Zeke and I are friends.”
“Yeah, okay,” I chuckle as I take a swig of my beer.
Red flushes across his cheeks and he clears his throat once more. “Speaking of Zeke though, he called while you were, uh, yeah. Anyway, he called and I think you should know something. Something that’s not making a lot of sense.”
“Okay,” I sit up, resting my elbows on my knees.
“Zeke has some experience with the Syndicate. It goes way back, some stuff from the past. He told me this story he heard though, about one of The Four who was murdered in Lakeview, but the story never made the press. In fact it was never even investigated. It was covered up.”
“Okay, maybe it had something to do with Grant? Work following him back home to Lakeview?”
“It was twelve years ago Trav… and the man’s name was Evan Porter.”
“Wait…” I start, trying to make sense of the news. If Evan is long gone, why does Grant have the Syndicate tracking her down now? “That doesn’t make any sense, she ran from him. She ran from Evan and Grant, it’s the whole reason she’s in hiding.”
“Don’t be mad at me. Because I love her, okay. I’ve grown to love her like family, so I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but she’s leaving something out.”
“No, that can’t be it,” I shake my head.
“Trav, there’s something she’s not telling us,” he narrows his eyes at me.
“No. She wou-”
“He’s right.”
My head snaps to the side where Spencer is leaning against the bedroom doorframe, all sleepy eyed and messy haired, wearing nothing but one of my t-shirts and a pair of underwear.
“Red…”
Releasing a sigh, she lowers her eyes to the floor as she walks forward and perches on the arm of the chair I’m sitting in.
“Please don’t be mad at me,” she whispers softly, rubbing her bicep with one hand nervously.