Page 65 of Explode
“You heard right. He isn’t a cop. A psychopath maybe, but not afucking cop,” Ash replied, his tone full of disdain. “Come on, let’s go inside and get Miles on the phone and we can fill you both in.”
Ash waved his hand, indicating for me to lead the way, evidently notprepared to leave Riley and me out here when there was shit that needed dealing with.
“Can I at least have the fucking key?” I growled, raising my hands toshow the metal bracelets on each wrist.
Riley fished in her pockets, and seconds later, brought the key out.
“Oops, must have forgotten to leave it behind,” she said, full of fucking sass as she slapped the key in my hand and walked off into the cabin.
I undid the cuffs, all the while imagining the shades of red herfuckable ass would be by the time I was finished with it.
The three of us gathered around the table, phone on loudspeakerwith Miles at the other end, as Ash and Riley filled us in with the information they had gleaned from their meeting with Stephanie, my earlier fury forgotten about for now as I took in their words.
“Let me get this straight. Simon kills the Browns and Michael,assumes his identity, and then what? Spends twenty years planning the Wolfes downfall? I don’t buy it, it sounds too fucking far-fetched for my liking,” I said, turning the information over in my head and not believing a word I’d just heard.
“I would say it’s highly possible, Kai,” Ash said, rubbing his beard.“Stephanie has spent years studying the psychology of psychopaths, she’s a smart woman. We’d be wise to listen to her. And from the little bit of information we gave her, she agreed it’s a strong possibility that he has spent so long pretending to be Tucker, he’s convinced himself he reallyisTucker. To him, the vendetta against you and your family is personal because hebelieveshe is the real Michael Tucker.”
“Fucking hell,” Miles’ shocked voice rumbled through the phone. “Itmakes sense. The deed poll showing the change of name from Tucker to Thorne looked damn real, but there is every chance it could have been fake. Either that, or he changed his name from Simon Evans to Michael Tucker, and then changed it again to Max Thorne, but only gave us the deed poll showing the latter change. I guess anything is possible with the cunt. I’ll give it to him, he’s a smart psycho wack-job.”
I swallowed and reluctantly accepted that maybe everything we’ddiscussed was a possibility. That maybe Thorne had become so obsessed with Tucker’s life that he had come to believe he was my real brother.
A shot of regret coursed through me. I’d hated the name MichaelTucker from the minute I heard it because of the shit Thorne had caused, when actually my real half-brother had been an innocent young kid, whose life was taken from him before he even had a chance to live.
Had he not died in the fire, there may have come a time when hedecided to reach out to me or Theo, and if he had, things could have been very different for him.
For all of us.
“How does Stephanie know for sure he isn’t a cop?” I said. There wasstill a little part of me that was skeptical though, it all sounded so fucking unbelievable.
“When she moved to Europe, she stayed in contact with severalfriends who lived in Jacksonville. They kept her updated with what Simon was doing over the years,” Riley said, meeting my eye across the table. “The years he was allegedly a cop in Florida, he was really working as a handyman in a local shop. Apparently, he was arrested a few times on assault charges, but he always managed to weasel his way out. Her friends said he was a loner, with the exception of one person whom he saw regularly, John. And then one day, a few years back, he just disappeared.”
Fucking hell.
Disappeared, no doubt to put his plans in motion.
I ground my teeth in anger. I hated that I’d fallen hook, line, andsinker for all of Thorne’s lies, especially about him being a cop. It never once occurred to me he could have somehow faked his way into the force. The paperwork Miles found had seemed legit, but we should have known. It was just another part of the game Thorne was playing with us. He wanted Miles to find information about his make-believe career to throw us off from finding the truth.
“You’re right, Miles, he really is a smart psycho wack-job,” I grumbled,agreeing with my cousin’s observation.
“Don’t beat yourself up too much about falling for his trickery, he’seven got agents in the bureau fooled,” Ash said. “My contact there has said Thorne’s got several agents under his spell. From what my contact thinks, Thorne is paranoid something is going to happen to him so he’s already primed the agents to start sniffing around Hollows Bay if anything does happen.”
Riley’s brow rose in surprise at Ash’s mention of his source within thebureau, but she kept quiet, listening intently to the three of us.
Despite the severity of what was going on, I couldn’t help but sneakpeeks at her. She’d been engrossed in everything, and it occurred to me that as much as she might protest, she was invested in this sorry saga as much as anyone else around this table. It gave me hope that she wouldn’t be walking away easily.
“I can’t see the Feds giving a fuck if he disappears when they find outhe’s been impersonating a cop all this time,” Miles said, taking the words right out of my mouth.
“No, I can’t imagine they would,” Ash agreed.
Thoughts whirled in my head as everyone waited for me to make adecision.
“What are you thinking, Kai?” Miles rumbled.
“I say the fucking gloves are off. Thorne thinks he’s fucking clevertricking everyone. He’s got everyone believing he’s a real cop, and he’s got Hendrix believing he’s a Wolfe. I say it’s about time we showed the world the fucker is a nobody. We prove Thorne is Evans. We deal with the cunt as we intended to, and then we present the evidence to the bureau that Simon was impersonating a cop all this time. We give them Michael’s death certificate and the deed poll showing the change of name, along with the photo we got from Leonard. If we can get Stephanie to go on record that Simon and Micheal were two different people, that would help. With the evidence proving he was never a cop, they won’t give a fuck when he disappears, they’ll just assume he’s gone on the run. You think Stephanie would do that?” I directed my question to Riley as it sounded like she’d built a good rapport with the woman.
“I think if she knew there were no repercussions, she would.” Rileyshrugged. “She said she was scared of Simon, but if she didn’t have to worry about him turning up on her doorstep at any time, she’d be likely to help.”
I nodded, glancing at Ash. “See if you can get her to make a report.”
