Page 84 of Explode
There was a pause as Thorne looked around, twisting his head as hetook in where he was. He coughed several times to clear his throat.
“Hello, Miles. Howlovelyit is to see you,” Thorne said, amusement inhis tone. What the fucker thought was funny about his predicament, I had no clue. The man really was a fucked up psycho.
“I wish I could say the feeling is mutual,” Miles replied, keeping hiscool, but from where I stood, I could see the rage simmering under my cousin’s skin.
“Where’s the little whore? You’ve done a good job of keeping herlocked away,” Thorne said, the amusement growing stronger. My fists clenched at hearing him call my wife a whore for the second time, and I couldn’t fucking wait to start inflicting pain on the fucker.
“I have to say, Hendrix has been going out of his mind looking for her.Personally, I never saw the fascination, she’s too much of a mouthy bitch for my liking. Have you had a go on her pussy while you’ve been on the run, Miles?” Miles’ jaw clenched but he didn’t reply. “As a little tip from cousin to cousin, you’d do well to keep her hidden from Hendrix, the things he wants to do to her turns even my stomach.”
It took all of my strength not to let the growl out that was forcing itsway from my chest.
“You aren’t my fucking cousin, you took my cousin from me,” Milessaid, not rising to the taunts about Riley the way I was, even though I knew he’d fucking hate hearing Thorne speak about my girl that way.
“Actually, in a way, you could say I tookbothcousins from you. Imight not have been the one to shoot Kai, but Hendrix was acting on my orders.”
Miles’ eyes met mine behind Thorne, and I gave him a nod. A smuggrin pulled onto his lips. “You sure about that, Maxi-pad?”
I stepped out from behind Thorne, more than fucking ready to facethe man who thought he could take everything from me. As my feet hit a twig, making it break, Thorne’s head snapped to where I was, his eyes widening in surprise, before his mouth pulled up into a sadistic smile.
“Kai!” he chortled, his dark eyes tracking me as I came to stand nextto Miles. “You’re alive! What a pleasant surprise! I didnotsee this coming, bravo!”
I glared at him, the delight on his face was un-fucking-real. Thepsycho didn’t seem to give two fucks that he was tied to a tree about to meet his maker. Instead, he was smiling as though he was about to go on his favorite ride at a theme park.
“I have to say, you had me fooled! If I could move my hands, I’d giveyou a well deserved round of applause.”
“He really is a fucking nutjob,” Miles said, the two of us staring atThorne in disbelief.
“Tell me, how did you do it? I saw the video of them working on you,Kai. I saw it when they pronounced your death, it looked very real to me,” Thorne said, still beaming as he looked from me to Miles.
“You know how easy it is to manipulate technology, Max. It wasn’thard to make it look convincing,” Miles shrugged.
“Oh, I do! I had a lot of fun hacking databases and amending reportsover the years. You know, Miles, you and I should work together, we’d make one hell of a team.”
“Is this fucker for real?” Miles hissed, his fists clenching.
“It looks like you had a lot of fun making it look like you were a realcop,” I said, ready to move this shit on.
His grin grew wider. “You found my secret! Again, bravo! You pair,you really are smarter than you look!”
“We know a lot more than that, dickhead,” Miles growled, his bodybecoming rigid the more Thorne spewed shit from his mouth.
“Do enlighten me!” Thorne beamed.
I turned to look at Miles, stunned at how Thorne was behaving. “Whatthe fuck is wrong with this asshole?”
Miles didn’t break his stare from Thorne as he replied. “Stephaniewas right, he is a psychopath. Doesn’t get stressed in risky situations, manipulates everyone around him, narcissistic. He’s spent years pulling strings, and he gets off on hearing how everyone fell for his lies. He doesn’t give a fuck whether he lives or dies, Kai, all he cares about is that people know what he’s done.”
“Oh, Miles, I’m impressed. I can see you’ve done your research onpsychopaths. And by Stephanie, am I to assume you tracked my foster sister down and paid her a visit?” Thorne said.
“It wasn’t hard to track her down, fuckface. She still lives in the townyou grew up in,” Miles replied.
“Does she? I didn’t know she had returned from England. My fault forbeing preoccupied with claiming my throne,” Thorne muttered, almost to himself.
My mood soured further if that was at all possible. “It was never yourthrone to claim though, was it,Simon?”
The grin dropped from his face.
“Don’t fucking call me that,” he hissed through gritted teeth.
