Page 56 of Explode
The pieces clicked together in my head. “If I had to take a guess, Iwould say Thorne has pulled the wool over our eyes once again,” I replied through gritted teeth.
“You think Thorne has claimed Tucker’s identity?” Ash said, coming tothe same conclusion I was slowly coming to.
“Holy shit,” Riley whispered. “But if Max isn’t Michael, who the hell ishe?”
That was a good fucking question.
Before I could respond, Leonard stepped back into the room, smilingat the photo he held in his hand, and unaware of the confusion he’d caused.
“I found it, my box of photos thankfully survived the fire. Here,” hehanded the photo to Riley, who took it, and held it so both Ash and I could peer over her shoulders.
The photo was an image of a family. The mom and dad, no doubtCarol and Anthony, a sullen-looking young woman, likely Stephanie, and their three boys. Even though the photo was at least seventeen years old, if not older given their young faces, it was easy to pick out who they were. John Anderson, Michael Tucker before he became Thorne, and a third boy, likely Simon Evans.
“That’s Michael?” I said, pointing to the evil face of the child whowould grow up to become my arch-nemesis.
“No,” Leonard said, confirming my fears. “That’s Simon. This one,” hepointed to the boy I’d initially assumed was Simon. “That’s Michael. He died a few months after this photo was taken.”
Chapter 17
Riley
Bythetimewegot back to the cabin, darkness had fallen. The hourdrive back passed quickly with the three of us discussing the latest development.
I’d expected Kai to be furious, but surprisingly, he’d taken the newplot twist rather well. When Ash questioned him on why he was being so calm about it, Kai simply shrugged and said he didn’t give a shit. Either way, Max Thorne, or whoever the fuck he was, was going to die.
The conversation continued as we tucked into the pizza we’d pickedup on the way back to the cabin, and when we couldn’t eat anymore, the three of us fell silent, lost in our thoughts.
“Well, I guess the only way we find out who the fuck Simon Evans is,and why he’s pretending to be Michael Tucker is if we do some digging,” Ash said, stretching as he stood from the sofa. “There’s an Apollo office in the next town over, I’m going to head there and start doing some research.”
Apprehension pooled in my belly. If Ash was leaving, I’d be left herealone with Kai, and I wasn’t sure I was ready for that. I’d almost forgotten about our argument this morning, what with everything we’d found out, but with Ash gone, I knew Kai would use the opportunity to his advantage.
“Speak to Miles,” Kai said, standing too. “He’ll be able to help.”
“Sure thing, Barney,” Ash said, smirking. At Kai’s growl ofdispleasure, I couldn’t help the snort that left me. Kai’s head snapped to where I sat, his dark eyes narrowing on me.
“You might want to stay out for the rest of the night, Ash. My wifeand I have some unfinished business.”
Yup. There it was.
“Believe me, I’ve had enough of your marital woes to last me alifetime. I’ll catch up with you guys in the morning, try not to kill each other while I’m gone,” Ash replied, still grinning.
Kai glared at me as Ash grabbed his jacket and walked out, his darkeyes burning into me, but I couldn’t tell if they were flaring with fury or lust.
Either way, the intensity blazing from his dark orbs was enough tomake me jump to my feet and take several steps away from him, hoping I’d be able to offer myself some form of protection from the wolf I was sure was about to come out to play.
At the sound of the car’s engine growing fainter, Kai took a stepcloser, the heat in his eyes now burning like an inferno.
Lust.
It was definitely lust.
And I was in so much trouble because from the look he wore on hisface, my core clenched with need.
“What are you doing?” I asked as he took another step closer. Histongue darted out and swiped over his bottom lip, and damn it if I didn’t want his tongue running all over me.
But I refused to give in to him. If he thought he could fuck his way toforgiveness he was shit out of luck.
“Like I said, we have some unfinished business,” he replied. His tonewas one I’d heard before. It was his ‘Don’t fucking mess with me’ tone.
