Page 67 of Explode
“What did he tell you about Hendrix?” she asked, her voice cool, voidof the emotion that had been present only a moment ago.
“That Hendrix was slowly taking control of the gangs, the city council,and some cops behind Thorne’s back. Thorne had plans to announce himself as the King of Hollows Bay once they’d made connections across the country, but Hendrix planned on killing him before he could breathe a word that he was secretly the man behind the mask.”
I recited the information that Alex had finally spilled after hours oftorture, and I hadn’t been surprised by the information. Of course Hendrix had it in him to betray Thorne, he’d betrayed me and I’d known him all our lives.
Little did Alex know that when he made his confessions, I’d recordedthe conversation. I’d planned to get the recording to both Hendrix and Thorne and watch them go to war against each other. They would have fought to gain the upper hand with the gangs, control over the city, my businesses, and ultimately, the knowledge of Hendrix’s deceit would have weakened them both. That’s when we would have swooped in and destroyed the pair of them.
But this new plan was better. Remove Thorne from the equation, andthen I could focus all my attention and savagery on Hendrix.
“Christ. The pair of them are something else. They deserve to rot inhell together,” Riley said, glowering at thin air as if Hendrix was likely to materialize there.
“Yeah.”
An awkward silence descended between us, and I fucking hated it. Ithought we’d made progress last night, but after her little stunt this morning, and all this shit with Thorne, it felt like we had taken two steps back, and her walls had sprung firmly back into place.
They were two steps I wasn’t willing to take, and walls I wasdetermined to smash down.
“Riley-” I started, but Ash walked back in, stopping any conversationI needed to have with my wife.
“Right, blood test is set up, we need to be at the clinic in an hour sowe should get going. And I’ve spoken to my contact in the bureau, once I explained everything about the imposter cop, he agreed that once he had the proof in front of him, he’d buy us some time before issuing an arrest warrant, so you’re good.”
“Blimey, Ash, you move quick,” Riley said, awe in her voice.
“Perks of being the head of Apollo,” he shrugged.
My mouth dropped open at his confession. I mean,Ifucking knew hewas the head, we’d been friends since we were teenagers, and I’d watched him build Apollo up from the ground.
It was the reason I’d reached out to him all those months ago to askfor his team, and the reason he was willing to let his men help me. The other reason was because he hated Hendrix.
Ash knew Hendrix from when we were kids, but the two never got on.When Ash went off to join the military, Hendrix never knew I’d stayed in contact with Ash. At a time when I wasn’t sure which of my men I could trust, I knew I could rely on Ash.
It’s why I had called him to ask for his men to watch over the mostprecious thing I had in my life when I thought Riley was leaving my ass. I didn’t know at the time just how invaluable his help would come to be.
Only a few people knew who he was. Miles did, but not even Ash’sown men knew his real identity, so I was somewhat surprised he’d brought Riley in on his little secret. Then again, Ash knew how determined I was to have Riley ruling by my side, so it made sense in case she ever needed his help.
“You’rethe head of Apollo?” she exclaimed, glancing between Ashand me.
“Yeah. But not many people know, so I’d appreciate it if you kept it toyourself,” he grinned under his beard.
“But…but, you’re part of the team!” she said, her voice full ofquestion.
“What can I say, I like to get my hands dirty from time to time, it getsboring sitting in the office, and stuck in meetings all day. On the odd occasion I like to get back out in the field,” Ash replied, shrugging again.
She paused for a moment, and as I watched the cogs turn in herpretty head, a feeling of dread grew in the pit of my stomach.
“But you were on a deployment in Asia before you came to us,” shesaid, her eyes narrowing accusingly on Ash who was now tapping at his phone and not paying much attention.
“Nah, I was sat by this asshole’s bed making sure he didn’t die onus,” Ash said, looking up to nod in my direction, and making my fucking heart sink.
It took him all of two seconds to realize his mistake. Sure enough,Riley’s face soured as if she had just sucked on a Lemon.
“Course you were,” she replied stoically. She squeezed her eyesshut, and I shot Ash a death glare at seeing the betrayal wash across her features. When her eyes opened, they were once again filled with hate.
May as well make that three fucking steps backward.
“If you’ll excuse me, I need some air.” With that, she jumped from thechair, moving so quickly it fell back and hit the wooden floor with a thud. Seconds later, the front door slammed.
“Good going, dickhead,” I huffed. “You can kiss goodbye to heraccepting your apology.”
