Page 85 of Explode
It looked as though we had just found what made the psycho tick.
“Not a big fan of who you really are?” Miles said, coming to the sameconclusion as me. “I wonder why that is, Simon. Maybe because your life was so fucking pathetic you had to pretend to be someone else? Tell me, was it the fact your momma was a whore and didn’t know who your daddy was that fucked you up, or was it what one of her boyfriends did to you?”
“Shut the fuck up!” he roared, before yanking against his chains, buthe was going nowhere.
“You don’t like hearing the truth, do you, Simon?” I added, taking astep forward to find his eyes wide and wild.
“I’m not Simon, I’m Michael Tucker!” he bellowed, spittle flying fromhis mouth. “I’m Michael! Me! No one else!”
I leaped forward, closing the distance between us as I wrapped myhand around his throat and squeezed.
“You’re not Michael Tucker. You arenotmy half-brother.” Keeping onehand around his throat, I pulled out a piece of paper from my back pocket. The DNA results showing he was not related to me or my father. “You killed my real brother, and claimed his identity, you fucked up crazy piece of shit.”
His eyes raked over the paper, reading the information. When asmirk tugged at his lips, I couldn’t stop myself from wanting to avenge a brother I didn’t even know I had. I threw my fist into Thorne’s face as hard as I could. The resoundingpopthat followed indicated I had successfully broken his nose, and as I stepped away, blood poured down his face.
And then the fucked up psycho laughed harder.
“I suppose I can’t deny DNA results. You’re right, I’m not Michael.That boy was a pussy. He could have had so much but he was too much of a coward to take what was rightfully his,” he spat with venom in his voice. “When he found out who his father was, he should have listened to me. I would have helped him claim his throne to Hollows Bay, but he was too chicken-shit to go against his family! But I wasn’t, I wasn’t a coward! And look what I’ve achieved! Everyone is under my command!” he laughed maniacally.
A look of pride took over his face but with the blood smeared over hismouth and chin, I’d never seen anyone look so demented before.
“Not everyone is under your command,” I said, ready to deflate thefucker’s ego. “You think Hendrix is under your control? You couldn’t be more wrong.”
“You lie!” he barked, the grin disappearing from his face again.
I didn’t reply. Instead, I fished in my pocket for my phone and tappedon the recording I made when we’d tortured Alex. As I pressed play I never took my eyes from Thorne, enjoying a moment of beating him at his own twisted game.
“Alright! I’ll tell you, please….stop!”Alex screamed. A memoryflashed in my mind of the moment he caved, it was just after I’d dislocated both his shoulders, and his arms hung at awkward angles as tears streamed down his face.
“What’s Hendrix’s plan?”
“He….he wants to rule Hollows Bay,”Alex cried. Even on therecording, I could hear the agony in his voice.
“He’s already got Hollows Bay,”Miles said.
“No. Thorne pulls the strings and Hendrix follows. But Hendrix isgoing to kill Thorne before he gets the chance to reveal that he is really the one in charge of the city.”
I stared at Thorne as I put my phone away. His face was emotionlessas he learned about Hendrix’s betrayal.
“Hurts doesn’t it,” I said, keeping my tone neutral. “When someoneyou thought you can depend on turns out to be a traitorous cunt.”
For the first time in his pathetic life, Max Thorne had nothing to say.
“Face it, Simon, you’ve lost,” Miles said, stepping forward to stand bymy side. “By the time the sun sets tonight, everyone will know you are nothing but a pathetic con artist.”
Thorne met our eyes, and in a second his dark orbs filled with malice.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said, grinning. “You can’t deny what I’ve done, the effort I put into fooling everyone. And they all fell for it, even the great Kai Wolfe fell for my trick! It took me twenty years to do it, but look! You were knocked off your throne, and I claimed it!” He threw his head back and let out a chilling laugh. “All the people of Hollows Bay will remember me for my greatness, I may be a con artist, but I’ll be legendary!”
Honestly, the ego on this cunt was unreal.
“Believe that all you like, but I assure you, when I reclaimmycity,your name will be banned on every mouth in Hollows Bay. Any document that has your name on will be destroyed, and you will be forgotten about. And as for your rotting body, you will be here, in the middle of this forest, and the only two people who will know where you are buried will be me and my cousin, and I fucking assure you, we willnevergive you another thought.”
But my words fell on deaf ears. Thorne threw his head back again,looking up at the sky growing lighter as the sun rose, and laughed, a chilling sound that left goosebumps on my skin.
“He’s out of his fucking head, Kai. We need to end this,” Miles said,taking a step toward Thorne.
The movement got Thorne’s attention and he stopped laughing, hisfrenzied eyes meeting both Miles and me.
