Chapter Thirteen

We sit on the edge of the sofa in silence for a few minutes, yes he told me I could ask him anything. I had so many questions swirling around my head, yet I didn't know how I was supposed to ask them. Austin got up suddenly and walks towards the door, this shocks me as I thought he just said we could sit here and he'd answer my questions. But before I could question him, he locks the door whilst also putting the chain on. "We don't want Markus walking back in while we're having this conversation" he says walking back over to me, but now moves so we're not uncomfortable sitting on the back of the sofa but at the table instead. "What would he do if he found out we were talking about this?" I ask as I pull my seat out and sit down, he sat across from me placing his hands on the table. "I don't even want to imagine" he sighs looking down at the table, his comment immediately causing fear to make its way through my body. "I promise, I won't let anything happen to you" he says looking me in the eyes as he spoke, well forcing me to have dinner with the guy isn't really ensuring my safety in my opinion. "Okay, did you know this would be the job you would be doing when you started?" I ask which was the question that had been bugging me, he must have known something was off when he took the job. "No, I had no idea what was gonna happen. Most people who go into business with Markus, don't have a clue what they're actually getting themselves into" he says which does make me sad in a sense, all these people go into it thinking that it will be like any normal job, only to learn the truth when it's too late. "I went into the interview thinking it would be just a normal garage job, I had some experience in the past working in that environment so I thought it would be perfect" he sighs sitting back in his chair as he spoke, I remember when he came home from the interview. He wouldn't stop going on and on at how amazing the place was, he kept telling us that the money was so good and he couldn't believe he'd been offered a job there. He even took Roman and I out for dinner that night, he said he wanted to celebrate the rest of his life. "When and how did you learn what was really going on?" I ask which was also a really good question, I wanted to know how long he's been doing the things I've found out for. "It was going perfectly for around half a year, I'd go to work do my job and leave. Markus, who I knew was my big boss, would visit every now and then and talk to the workers" he says thinking back, if only Austin knew how much of a bad guy Markus was back then. "I didn't want to cause any waves or get any attention that I didn't need, so when he would visit I'd just focus on work and stay out of the way. That was until.....the day the man in the suit arrived" he sighs once again looking down at the table as he spoke, which only intrigued me further. "Man in a suit?" I ask when he didn't seem like he was going to elaborate, he couldn't just leave me with a man in a suit and not give me any context. "It was just like any normal day, I had just finished fixing this woman's radiator and she came to pick it up. As I was waving her goodbye, this posh looking guy in a suit walks into the shop. He stood out to me straight away, he definitely was not the type to walk into a place like that" he sighs while I start to imagine what that place looked like, yeah it's a good place but not for mega rich people to go. "Markus was off to the side the entire time, I felt his eyes on me as I was working. But when that guy walked in, he shot up right out of his chair" *Flashback* "What the fuck do you think you're doing here?" Markus shouts over at the posh guy in the suit, Austin was immediately taken back by his random outburst, where he takes steps backwards to give this guys some privacy. "I told you what I was going to do, this place seems like a good place to start of" the man says looking around the building before entering the office to the side, Markus takes a look to Austin who just stood there wiping oil off his hands. "Hand me that wrench" Markus tells him looking Austin dead in the eye, not wanting to piss off his already pissed off boss. Markus takes it from him before striding into the office after the man. "He killed the man" Austin says finishing the story where my eyes go wide, he killed that random man in his office. "What did you do?" I ask fully involved in this story, I would have probably ran for my life and got the police, I wouldn't want nothing to do with any of that! "What was there I could do? Markus leaves the office and comes straight up to me. He told me I had two options, I don't agree to stay at work where he would kill me on the spot where he would make it look like a work accident" he says which makes me sick to my stomach, how are they people like Markus allowed to be out in civilisation?! "Or I stay where I was but keep my mouth shut, obviously, I'm sat right in front of you now so you know what option I chose" he sighs which did answer my question on why he's still there, he doesn't have a choice but to stay. "After learning that I wasn't gonna rat him out, he knew I would be perfect to be one of his workers. He came to me the next week and told me how things were gonna be, I wouldn't really be working in that place anymore and I'd use it as my cover. He took me around the back of the place which I weren't allowed to go before, it's there he showed me all the cars which were modified to hide things in the doors and other compartments. He told me I was not to look in the packages, but I had to ensure that each package went into the car and was sent off" he explains which does immediately make me remember what I saw the other day, those guys were carrying boxes wrapped in duck tape to that car. "That's what I saw" I say piecing it all together, Austin just nods his head confirming I was correct. "Those two guys you saw were part of my team as Markus put it, it was my job to keep them in line and make sure everything ran smoothly" he explains before sighing again. "I hate to say that things were going alright, until one day when we had just finished filling the car up Markus pulled me in for a meeting. I sent the guys away to deliver the packages while I spoke with Markus, but on the way something went wrong and they managed to get everything seized, luckily the two guys got away" he explains playing with his hands as he spoke, from the things I've heard about Markus, I can take a guess that he didn't take that very well. "He told me I had to look for new people to fill their roles while he deals with them, at the time I didn't know what he meant until last night" he says just confirming that this was all started by Markus, what a horrible individual! "I tried so hard to keep you and Roman out of this, but look what I've done" he says placing his head in his hands stressed, I immediately get up out of my seat and wrap my arms around his neck for a hug. "You didn't mean for anything of this to happen, you went into that job not knowing was really going on and when you did find out, it was too late" I say holding him so tightly as he began to cry a little, this being the first time I've ever saw him cry. "We're gonna fix this together, I promise" I say meaning every word, but not knowing how to put any of that into action.