Page 74 of Twisted Mates

We turn to the passenger side door. It dawns on me then that it’s open. She would have never left me unconscious on the road. Someone took her from the car. My panic reaches new heights. This wasn’t about killing me. Killing me would have been a bonus, sure. But this was about taking her.

I stalk—well, limp—to the Jeep and climb inside. It takes a couple of tries but I manage to open the glove compartment and pull out the registration paperwork. The name it is registered to is one I don’t recognize—Black Diamond Industries.

“Do you know who it belongs to?” Kai asks.

I shake my head and hand the paperwork over to him. His eyes grow wide, and he blinks several times like he can’t be reading it right.

“What? Why are you making that face?”

“This is the business that Dad helped to establish for Carrington and me. He wanted us to work together on a project, but we could never agree on what we wanted to do. I was told he took back the money he was going to invest into it and dissolved the company.”

I move to his side so I can look at it with him, and we meet each other’s eyes after a few seconds. “How did we never see this vehicle at the house?”

“The property is huge. There is a big shed on the east end. He could have easily hidden it there.”

“I—I don’t understand,” I stammer, my heart thundering in my chest. “Your dad and I have never seen eye to eye, but this is?—”

“This is next level,” Kai whispers. “This is straight up evil.” He looks at me with true fear in his eyes that I haven’t seen since Mom told us she was sick. “We have to find Alexia. If he has something to do with this...”

“I’m going to kill him.”

He crumples the registration in his hand and moves to the back of the Jeep. “I think I know where they could be.”

His SUV is parked on the side of the road, the door open and a warning sound ringing in the air. He climbs behind the wheel, and I rush to the other side and slam the door shut.

“What would he want Alexia for?”

Kai chews the inside of his cheek. “I don’t know, but ithasto be him. He was so adamant that we complete the bond and was so angry when I told him I didn’t feel it. He was...” He shudders and averts his eyes from me.

“He was what, Kai?”

“It was worse than you realized. He was trying to get me toforceher to sleep with me in order to solidify the bond, Xander. Even though she didn’t want to. He told me that I needed to just...” He swallows and shakes his head. “Hold her down if that’s what it took,” he finishes in a whisper, a horrified expression crossing his face.

I see red, and I punch the dash, ignoring the flash of pain it sends through my fist and up my arm. “That mother fucker! I’m going to kill him.”

“That’s what made me leave,” Kai says, his voice nothing but a shell of his normal tone I’ve always known. “I would nevereverdo that to her or anyone else. I went to him that night before I left. I tried to reason with him, tried to explain that I wasn’t feeling the connection and that I didn’t want to sleep with her. That’s when he said that, and I knew then I had to leave because he wasn’t going to stop.”

I’m speechless, disgusted by the man I’ve had to claim as my stepfather for so many years. I knew he was being pushy, but this... this is too much.

“And there’s something else,” Kai says.

“What else could there possibly be?” I mumble.

“It’s nothing like that,” he says quickly. “Alexia isn’t my real mate.”

My heart stops for a moment. Does Kai know about me and Alexia? Did Carrington tell him already? I really wanted to be the one to tell him. I play it safe with my answer. “Why do you say that?”

“Because I found my real mate. I knew it the moment I saw her. Everything clicked in place, and I knew that whatever happened between me and Alexia wasn’t right. That something had gone haywire somehow.”

Now that is something I did not expect to hear. “Holy shit, little brother. When did this happen? Who is it?”

“The day I took Lex to clean out her office. It’s her coworker, Sophie.”

“Oh. Wow, that’s incredible. Why didn’t you just tell your father and clear it all up?”

Kai runs his hand through his hair, ruffling up the blond locks until they stand on end. “She’s human. He would never approve.”

“Fuck. Of course he wouldn’t.” I hate to call him out when he’s clearly struggled with this almost as much as Alexia, but I have to know. “Alexia would have understood. Why didn’t you at least tell her? You leaving her behind wrecked her.”

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