Page 60 of Reign of Psychos

Anxiety churned deep in my gut, contributing to the low-level nausea I’d suffered since my pa died.

Murdered.

Blown up.

I tried not to think too closely about his last moments, but the thoughts still came, unbidden and unwelcome. The only time the voices in my head shut up was when Thea was with me.

Touching me.

Nobody realized just how close I was to the edge. Nobody but Thea. Yet she’d still left me.

It hurt.

Deeply.

I thought we were past this bullshit now. I thought she understood we were there for her, that she didn’t have to do it alone anymore. But no. She’d run away to handle her shit onher own, unwilling to ask for help, putting herself in dangeryet again.

When we finally caught up with her, she and I needed to have a chat. As independent and capable as she was, Thea was not a one-woman army. We were stronger together, especially with Torrance on the loose.

The moment Torrance’s face popped into my head my heart stuttered. Thatstronzowould never stop hunting Thea. Not while there was a bounty on her head. Had he somehow figured out where she was?

We’d been really careful not to let anyone take photos of us with Thea. Landon and Cass had stopped posting on their socials when the sex tape broke. I didn’t use social media, and I suspected Milo didn’t either. That left Eden.

“Hey, can you check Eden’s socials?” I asked Milo.

He glanced sideways at me, his expression blank. “Why?” The dude was odd. Very odd. His lack of emotional range and the way he kept edging away from me, even though we were crammed into the backseat of this stupid car like sardines in a tin, made me uncomfortable.

“I’m wondering if Eden posted something that gave a clue to Thea’s location.”

Milo nodded thoughtfully while his fingers swiped away on the tablet he’d brought with him.

“Good idea.”

He opened up Instagram and began scrolling through Eden’s grid. Fuck me, that girl posted a lot of shit. Judging by how many stupid photos she’d uploaded, she seemed to spend most of her waking day creating content.

A lot of it was photos of stuff she ate. My jaw dropped when I saw how many likes she got for a photo of avocado toast with a cappuccino. There were some sad bastards out there. People that needed to get a fucking life.

“Bingo,” Milo muttered. “Eden posted a selfie from Declan’s club on New Year’s Eve. Thea’s in the background, her hand on Eden’s waist but not looking at the camera.” I peered at the image. She’d been in my arms, a sad smile on her gorgeous face.

Knowing Torrance, he’d been following Eden’s activities online. He knew Thea had made friends with Eden because I’d told him so.

Torrance was smart. He’d worked out Thea’s protective nature would come into play if she felt someone she loved was at risk of harm. Targeting any of us was too dangerous.

Eden was the weak link. At least she was now she’d returned to Abernethy. While Declan had increased security on her, Eden hated being constrained. The foolish girl had probably slipped away from her guards to meet the guy she’d been talking to since New Years.

Knowing how Torrance worked, James was almost certainly a sock puppet account used to get close to Eden, gain her trust, and lure her away.

I should have known he’d use Eden to reach Thea. I’d worked with the man for years and was all too familiar with his methods. If anything happened to Thea, it was my fault.

“Listen up, we might have a problem,” I announced, feeling sick. Kyril turned around from the passenger seat.

“Go on.”

“I think Torrance has used Eden to lure Thea away,” I said, before explaining my reasoning.

“She’s about 10 miles from Abernethy,” Milo told us. “But she’s turned down a different road.”

Landon spoke for the first time since we set off.

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