Page 37 of Jinn

“Okay,” he agreed before hanging up. He glanced over at Finn who was tugging on a pair of jeans beside the bed.

“I heard. I’ll let Dax know he’s coming.”

Ajax pulled on his sweatpants and padded into the living room to open the front doors. What he wasn’t expecting was for Matt to shove Thorn through the doorway and kick him to the hardwood floor.

“Tell him,” he growled. “Tell Ajax what you did.”

Thorn rubbed the knee that had hit the floor and glared at Matt.

“Okay, I will,” Matt said. “Thorn here set hellhounds on you. His measly little mind somehow came to the conclusion that your death would earn the rest of the band publicity and sympathy. That then, bringing in a new vocalist would be accepted.”

Utter shock made his breath freeze. “You tried to have me killed, Thorn?Killed?”

Thorn scowled up at him. “Better that than you leaving us. Humiliating us.”

Matt shook his head. “It’s because you’re good, Ajax. The new stuff will hit, and he knows it. We were all worried, but damn, to me and Barry, you’re a best friend.”

“Some friend,” Thorn snarled.

Matt slapped him upside the head, then looked at Ajax. “What do you want to do?”

Finn couldn’t wrap his mind around this. He’d known out of all of them, Thorn had taken his sabbatical the worst, but to actually try and have him killed! The betrayal was like a knife through the chest. Thorn had been in the band since close to the beginning. They’d had their differences over the years, but he’d thought him a friend. “We’ll call the police yet again, though I don’t know how we’ll explain hellhounds. How did you even do that? Or know about them?”

“You’re the one who told me about the monsters. You pretend all the songs about them are metaphors, but I could tell there was more to it. All it took was some digging online.”

Ajax shook his head. “I’ve learned they’re not all monsters, just like not all humans are. But this? What you did?” He threw up his hands. “Who’s the real monster here, Thorn?”

“You were going to run everything! Just go selfishly off when we’ve all worked so hard to make it.”

“I wasn’t leaving the band. I just took a sabbatical.”

“If your solo stuff takes off, why wouldn’t you?”

“Because I love BTC, and I still love the music we make. Why is that so hard to understand? It’s possible to do both. There are other popular bands where members have more than one project. Hell, look at Maynard James Keenan. How could killing me possibly help?”

“A new lead wouldn’t come off as us pathetically trying to replace someone who went off to find better.”

“Again, I can name bands that took a new frontman and thrived. But I’m not leaving BTC. Looks like you’re the one who will be doing that.”

Thorn’s mouth fell open, and his skin turned ashen.

“Seriously?” Ajax asked. “You think after this any of us would keep you around?” He narrowed his eyes. “Are you the one who put up three hundred thousand on my head?”

Thorn didn’t respond, but the instant flush in his cheeks was all the answer Ajax needed.

Finn growled and strode forward to haul Thorn up off the floor. “You have no idea of the mistake you made.” He started to shake him.

“Finn,” Ajax said softly, trying to calm his man down by stroking one hand over his forearm. “Put him down. We’ll let the cops deal with him. Why don’t you call that computer guy youtold me about and see if he can match Thorn to that first hitman request?”

Finn stared at him as he swallowed heavily, scowled, then dropped Thorn back to the floor. Hard. Thorn cried out as his knees hit the hardwood again.

“Was Barry a part of this?” Ajax asked Matt. “And how did you figure this out?”

“Barry has no idea what’s going on. I got suspicious because Thorn was talking crazy. So I broke into his place and went through his laptop. He didn’t bother to hide his trail on the hell hounds. He paid a shitload of money to the wizard who controls them.” Matt grimaced. “I’m really sorry, Ajax. I knew he was upset, but I didn’t know his stupid plan. We’ve all been kind of talking shit about you, but it was out of fear, you know? I never wanted you to actually get hurt.”

Ajax looked at Finn. “What about the wizard? If he was paid, will he send something else after me?”

“We’ll take care of him. Don’t worry about that. And I’ll get Daniel on the phone now. We’ll truss Thorn up nice and tight until the police come get him.” Finn bared his teeth at Thorn, who looked like he wanted to crawl through the floor.

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