Page 8 of The Mourning Throne
Her hands clasped together, too-wide eyes bouncing from him to Morgan, then straight to the carpet.
Silence stretched. Long enough for the tension to ease into irritation.
“Spit it out, Kate,” Lex mumbled.
Finally, Kate nudged the suitcase aside and perched on the edge of the bed.
“I never…” she sighed, her shoulders falling. “I wanted to be married to my high school sweetheart with a house full of kids by now. This was the furthest thing from my imagination.”
Lex snorted. “Morgan wasn’t your high school sweetheart?Big shock. He looked like he sold drugs on the corner.”
“My family introduced us.”
Why was this socryptic?
Instead of jumping in with a million more questions, Lex let her gather her thoughts. Judging by the way she kept opening her mouth and wetting her lips, she wanted to continue.
Maybe. Who the hell knew.
“I was the daughter they didn’t want; acting out, problems at school… I’m sure you get the picture,” Kate said, winding a strand of hair so tightly around her finger it had turned white. “They told me Morgan would keep me out of trouble, and I would keep an eye on him. We were a good match, on paper. At first, the two of us tried to make it seem more real than it was. And then we fell into this… pattern. We know we’ll never be what the other needs, but my family sees Morgan as an investment. This is the only way they leavemealone, too. If they think we’re together then…”
Was this a fucking confession or a TED talk?
Lex’s patience was hanging on by a thread.
Kate wasn’t answering anything.Just circling the edges, feeding him scraps.
“What kind ofinvestment?” he snapped.
Morgan set another pressed blazer on top of the suitcase.
“When they need a body disposed of on short notice,” he murmured, indifferent as ever. “In exchange for my help, they give me protection. The Sterlings don’t just own all of our nowhere town. They’re quite well known in the States.”
Everythingclicked.
The hours Lex had spent scouring the internet last year—desperateto find oneshredof information about Morgan’s victims—only to come up with nothing. The way Morgan treated Kate like a nuisance. The skin-crawlingsomething is weird and I can’t put my finger on itfeeling that had been plaguing him for months.
Of course Morgan had a secret deal with a family like that. It explainedeverything.
Kate didn’t fit the type he had in his mind, though. She was so damnquiet.Demure. Like she was watching somekingdom—
“You’re like a—a fucking mobprincess,”Lex stuttered out, thoughts and words crashing together before he had a chance to separate them.
“No! I mean… it’s not like that, not exactly—”
“That’s a crass way to put it,” Morgan interrupted, “but to be blunt: yes.”
Lovely.
Another screwed-up thing to add to his ever-growing list.
God, his head was spinning.
“Are you telling me,” Lex began slowly, “that we’re stuck playing house forever? The three of us.Forever.”
Kate shook her head. “My cousins asked where Morgan was again when we were out. What am I supposed to do? Keep telling them he’s obsessed with work? The girls have never met him. Max keeps saying she doesn’t believe he exists! Miriam feels bad that I’m here alone so often… this is falling apart, piece by piece. I—Ihaveto come clean.”
So that’s who the hell Max and Miriam were. The elusive cousins Lex had heard about.
