Page 87 of Explode
I knew it could be hours before Kai returned home. In fact, Ash hadsaid it might even be a couple of days, depending on how long they wanted to draw out torturing Max. But still, no matter how tired I became, I refused to give in to sleep, knowing that as soon as I did, my dreams would be filled with nightmares of Kai dying.
After my fourth cup of coffee, the sound of tires approaching had methrowing the blanket Ash brought me in the middle of the night off my shoulders, and I was on my feet, holding my breath until the van came into view.
When it stopped, and the side door opened, air wooshed out of mylungs, and my blood turned to ice as Miles got out first, followed by Kai. The two of them were covered in dirt and blood, and even though they looked uninjured, fear gripped my chest that it was their blood they were caked in.
It didn’t occur to me not to approach either Wolfe as they startedwalking towards the house, Jack and Tank following in their wake with solemn looks on their faces. I started to run toward them, desperate to check Kai was okay, but Ash grabbed my arm and stopped me from going anywhere.
“What the hell, Ash?” I hissed, looking from where he held me to hisface, surprised to find his eyes were full of caution.
“Give him a minute, Riley. He looks murderous.”
My head twisted to where Kai was almost at the porch. Ash was right,his face was twisted into a scowl, and he looked like he was ready to snap the neck of anyone who got too close.
But this was Kai.
He was my husband.
He wouldn’t hurt me.
Right?
“Kai,” I said, shrugging out of Ash’s grasp. His dark eyes snapped upto meet mine, and I couldn’t help but recoil at the murderous intent reflecting back at me.
“Not now, Riley,” he growled, and with that, he stormed past me,disappearing into the house. A pang of hurt shot through my body as Miles followed silently behind, refusing to meet anyone’s eyes as he passed me and Ash, and the others who had come to gather on the porch at their return.
“What happened?” I asked quietly as Jack stepped onto the porch.Contrary to Kai and Miles, he didn’t have a speck of blood or dirt on him. “Is Thorne dead?”
“Yeah,” Jack replied gruffly. “He won’t be causing any moreproblems.”
“Then what’s wrong with those two?” I said, wondering what the fuckcould have happened to make the two of them as pissed off as they seemed. I didn’t understand it, they’d achieved what they set out to do. Max was dead, surely they should be jumping for joy.
“Before they killed him, he made an admission,” Tank said, joining histeam on the porch.
“What?”
“It was Hendrix who killed Theo. The whole damn time Kai wassearching for the murderer, he was living under the same roof.”
My jaw dropped open.
Holy shit.
We’d always assumed it was Max who had wielded the knife thatended Theo’s life. He’d made it seem likehewas the one who had killed Theo, no one else.
“Was he telling the truth?” Ash asked as I stared blankly at Tank.
“From what Kai said, I’d say he was being truthful. Apparently he waslaughing like a madman as he bragged about it,” Jack said, and then in a lower voice, he added, “Fucking psychopath.”
“Fucking hell,” I muttered, turning to look through the door where Kaihad disappeared through, a trail of mud following in his wake. “No wonder he’s pissed.”
“Yeah. If I were you, I’d give them both some time to calm down,”Jack replied.
I stared helplessly at the trail of mud, not paying much attention to theguys as they exchanged stories of what happened at Thorne’s house, or Jack ordering them to the war room to debrief. My mind raced and my heart hurt for Kai.
It pissed me off to know Hendrix had been waltzing around without acare in the world knowing he’d killed Theo all along, so I could only begin to imagine how Kai was feeling.
Without conscious thought, my feet started following the trail of mud.There were two sets of footsteps, and as I reached the top of the stairs, one set went towards Miles’ room, and one set went towards mine. For a moment, I wished I could split myself in half so I could check on both my Wolfes. Miles would be hurting as much as Kai, if not more, and he had no one.
But when the sound of glass smashing echoed along the hallwayfrom the direction of my room, my heart made its decision. Creeping along the hallway, I tentatively pushed the door to my room open, following the tracks of dirt as they crossed the cream carpet and disappeared behind the closed door to the ensuite.
