Page 4 of His Forever

As I reached for the door, I glanced back over my shoulder. “You don’t have to thank me, Leo. Just try to stay alive.”

With that, I walked out, knowing full well this was only the beginning.

Chapter Three

Leo

I sat there, staring at the empty doorway Brynn had walked through. The air in the room still felt thick with the tension that had crackled between us just moments before. My hands clenched into fists on the table, slowly relaxed as my mind raced, trying to make sense of everything she had just thrown at me.

“What the fuck is going on?” I muttered to myself, the words barely louder than a whisper.

I glanced around the kitchen and took in my surroundings for the first time. It was nicer than I expected. Not some dingy, run-down hole in the wall. The place had clean lines, sleek appliances, and an open layout that screamed money. An apartment, sure, but a high-end one. Brynn always did like nice things even back in the day.

Before I could get too deep into my thoughts, the man who had grabbed me at the airport walked in. His footsteps were quiet, deliberate. He moved like he was used to being in the background, unseen until it mattered.

“You Sig?” I asked, my voice a low growl. I looked him over as he stepped into the light. He was a tall guy, broad-shouldered, with dark hair cropped short. He wore dress pants and a crisp white button-down shirt, neatly pressed like he’d just walked out of a boardroom. But the gun holstered at his side told me he wasn’t some corporate stiff.

He nodded once, eyes steady, unreadable.

“Brynn didn’t tell me why the hell I’m here,” I grunted, the frustration bubbling up again. “So maybe you can.”

Sig shook his head. “I’m just Ms. Brynn’s security.”

I tipped my head to the side, eyeing him. “What does she need security for?” I asked, though about fifty other questionswere swirling around in my head, each one more urgent than the last.

“That’s something you should discuss with Ms. Brynn,” he said, his tone polite but final.

I narrowed my eyes. I hated this kind of runaround unless I was on the other side of it. And now I was smack in the middle of something I didn’t understand, with no one willing to give me a straight answer.

I had thought I understood everything, but I was clueless once I stepped off the plane.

“Where are we?” I asked, trying a different angle. I wasn’t exactly sure where they’d brought me after picking me up from the airport. This place could be hers, for all I knew. Years ago, when I became a silent backer of Wayne Plastics, the company she worked for, I’d bought an apartment building. Maybe it was this one, but I bet Brynn had no idea. She thought she knew me inside and out like she was two steps ahead, but she didn’t know about this apartment or how deep my connections to her world ran.

“One of Ms. Brynn’s buildings,” Sig replied.

My brain came to a screeching halt.One of her buildings?

I straightened in my chair, confusion turning into disbelief. “Wait… what?” I stared at him, trying to process that. Brynn was a secretary for the CEO of Wayne Plastics. I knew she made a decent salary—more than decent, especially for someone in her position—but owning a building? Let alone more than one? That didn’t add up.

“And what building is it that she owns?” I pressed. Getting information from this guy felt like pulling teeth.

“Downtown,” Sig said, his tone maddeningly calm.

I rolled my eyes. “Downtown where?”

“Charleston,” he clarified.

Charleston. That meant I had been right about Candace being here and coming for Brynn. Except Brynn had got me first.

It didn’t make sense. The past twenty hours made zero fucking sense.

I leaned back in the chair, my mind racing to put the pieces together. Had she been playing a game all along, moving in the same circles without me realizing it? Or had something happened after we lost touch, something that turned her from the Brynn I used to know into… this? But what was this?

I glanced at Sig. “How long you been working for her?”

“Few years.”

“Doing what?”

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