Page 103 of Drifting

“I don’t know what’s going on here, but I never talked to your mother.” Uncle Brett sits back and grabs the arms of his chair. “I haven’t talked to my sister since she came here to get you all those years ago.”

I feel horrible at his obvious confusion. I thought he didn’t care about what happened to Cin, but I should have known better. This whole time, he’s had no idea what’s going on.

When I glance over to Brenda, her lips are pinched tightly together, her eyes fixed on her tightly clenched hands in her lap.

Dread pools in my gut. She’s done something to Cin. I can feel it in my bones.

I look over at Jack, who has that a damn smirk back on his face. “It was you, wasn’t it, asshole?” I leap to my feet. “Where the hell is she?”

When Brett’s eyes land on him, too, he loses the smirk and sweat beads his forehead.

“Jack?” A haunted look fills Uncle Brett’s face. “Did you talk to my sister and pretend to be me?”

Jack glances down at the back of his mom’s head. When she doesn’t move, he glances over at Dom and Mav.

They narrow their black eyes at him in clear threat.

He swallows, then glances back at Brett. Knowing his mom won’t bail him out, he points at her. “She made me do it.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Brenda stands and spins to gape at her son before she turns to Uncle Brett. “He’s lying!” She holds her head high, refusing to look at us. “I don’t know what he’s talking about.”

“Oh, give up, Mom, we’re busted.” Jack glances up at the ceiling. “When Aunt Patty called, she told me what to say.”

I remember something my mom said about their conversation. “Patty said that Uncle Brett seemed confused, and that there was a lot of yelling in the background.”

“Mind your own business, you slut.” Brenda sneers at me.

Mav’s whole body goes rigid. “I warned you already about calling her a slut.”

“Everyone, calm down.” Uncle Brett’s loud voice booms over the room. “Brenda sit back down.”

Brenda promptly shuts her mouth and sits on the couch.

Uncle Brett points toward Mav and Dom. “First, I’d like to know who you are, since you’re threatening my wife.”

I sit back down on the loveseat. “They’re my friends—”

“Boyfriends,” Mav interjects.

Lara laughed arrogantly. “Both of them are your boyfriends? Are you screwing your step-brother, too? And you call me a slut.”

Dom shoots off the wall, growling at her, and she shrinks into the couch.

“This is Dominick and Maverick Knight.” I proudly smile at both men. “My boyfriends.”

Recognizing the Knight name, Uncle Bret seems impressed, while Brenda becomes even paler. Jack’s body tenses, and by the icy stare Lara’s gives me, I guess they know who my guys are, too.

Uncle Brett scrubs his face. “I don’t understand what this all has to do with Cindy.”

“We have nothing to do with Cindy, sir. We’re here to protect Shelby,” Dom clarifies.

Sounding annoyed, Uncle Brett asks, “Why would she need protection in my house?”

“Well, sir, Jack wouldn’t let us in until Shelby pushed her way past him. He then touched her inappropriately. Your wife also slapped her. On top of all that, your own daughter is missing, and those three know where she is! I’d say she needed our protection,” Mav explains, slings his arm across the back of the loveseat, and rests his foot on his opposite knee.

Uncle Brett’s forehead creases with concern. “Brenda, is any of this true?”

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