Page 80 of The Billion Heirs Boxed Set
“Right.”
Except it doesn’t feel like a rock. It feels kind of…pliable. That’s the last I think of it, though, because the beaver poop awaits. I step out of the water. The creek goes down a little when I step out, my body having displaced it. I cast a glance toward where I stumbled, and—
My legs turn to jelly, but I catch myself before I lose my footing.
“Oh shit,” I breathe. My heart skips a beat and my skin chills as I go numb.
It’s not a rock.
It’s gray, and gnarly, and…
It’s looking straight at me with translucent, sightless eyes.
My gut clenches and I hold back the puke that threatens to erupt.
It’s a head. A human head, most likely attached to a body.
A very dead body, what is left of it.
I open my mouth to yell for Lexie, but nothing comes out.
My legs give way, and I tumble to the muddy ground, my vision blurring.
24
AUSTIN
“That’s it,” I say to Miles and Chance as we walk toward Sea-Air headquarters, located at their harbor base. Their dock is longer than where we land, with buoys and lights to warn boaters of landing planes. “According to Mom, Greg is manning this morning’s flight to Vancouver Island.”
Chance is walking a step behind me. “So he’s not flying for Lovering?”
I huff. “Hell, no. Mom fired his ass. I’ll be flying for Lovering.”
“For this week.” From Miles. “What about after that?”
I have no idea what will happen after that if we don’t find another replacement, and they both know it, so I don’t bother replying. Especially once the seaplane with the Sea-Air logo floats carefully to the dock. Someone’s there to tie it off, which reminds me I need to have a little chat with Ed, our dock man.
“That him?” Chance asks, his voice loud over the noise of the engine.
“I assume so,” I say. “I’ve never met the traitorous bastard.” I walk toward the plane as it stops, my two giant brothers in tow. The sway of the dock feels familiar beneath my feet.
The pilot—Greg, I assume—removes his headphones and deplanes. He’s tall but thin, and his jeans look like they’re about to fall off his ass. His stringy hair is pulled into a manbun. How the fuck does he get the headphones on over that thing?
“You Greg?” I ask.
“Guilty,” he says, looking between the three of us as he steps up from the running board and onto the dock. “You my passengers?”
“Fuck, no,” I say. “I’m Austin Bridger. Diana Lovering’s son, and these are my brothers. We’re here to get Lovering’s routes back.”
Greg backs away slightly. “Hey, I don’t want any trouble.”
“Then give Diana her flights back,” Miles said. “We’ll be happy to leave quietly with you in one piece.”
Chance has always come across as the more aggressive brother, but I have a feeling Miles has been in a fight or two and I have no doubt he can hold his own.
“What the fuck?” Greg asks, scratching his wild hair. “I thought Diana only had one son, and he’s in Montana or something.”
“Diana has one son,” I say. “Me. But Miles and Chance are my brothers.”
