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Before Maddox or Smithy can make any further comment, Star enters the room. She stops a little way from the table and bends down to pick something up off the floor. It’s one of the photos that I must have missed, and I hold out a hand to take it from her as she walks toward me while looking down at the picture.
By the time she reaches me her face has drained of all colour, and when I say her name, she raises her head slowly.
“I know this man. This is…” Her words trail off, but there’s an edge of fear to her voice and she seems to be in shock.
I take the photo from her hands and look down at it, and immediately I know who she thinks this is. But that can’t be because when I turn it over and check the writing on the back—each photo has details of the person in the photo; name, age, date of birth—this one says deceased.
“Star, this is not who you think it is, but I can see why you’d think that.” I pass the photo to Maddox while I pull out a chair and get Star to sit down before she falls.
“Well I’ll be fucking damned!” Maddox says, passing the photo to Smithy, who curses along with Maddox when he sees the man in the picture.
“Star, can you explain to me how you know this man?” I can already guess and hate asking, but I need confirmation.
“He’s one of the…men from the compound I…”
“It’s okay, you don’t need to say anymore.” I look to Maddox and Smithy for answers but neither of them have one. “Go and wake Kavanagh, Smithy,” I order, and he hurries from the room.
Maria places a cup on the table. “Sweet tea for you, Star.” Turning to me she says, “Get her to drink it. It will help with the shock.”
Rox comes into the room with a smile, but as soon as she sees the grim expression on our faces, she rushes to Star’s side, dropping to her knees.
“Hey, what’s going on?” she asks, looking around at Maddox and me. “Star?”
“This is from the information Theo gave us, and Star recognises this guy from somewhere she was kept before…” I tell her, letting the rest of my sentence hang there as I pass the photo to her.
“This is… I’m going to fucking kill him!” she shouts before searching the room for something. Finding what she was obviously looking for, she heads for the far counter, snatching up a set of keys then marching towards the front door.
ChapterTwenty-One
Roxy
Bowser! It’s fucking Bowser! Seeing the keys on the kitchen counter, I grab them and head for the front door. I don’t know whose car they belong to, and I don’t give a flying fuck. I don’t even know where to find Bowser, but I’m resourceful and will figure it out.
Only I don’t make it further than the bottom of the front steps before footsteps pound from behind me as my name is called out.
“Rox, wait.”
I don’t stop and instead click the car fob looking for the car it belongs to. A beep comes from the left of me, and I see Kavanagh’s silver Audi and walk that way.
Zak reaches me just as I open the driver’s door and grabs my arm. “It’s not B, Rox. We don’t know who he is, but it’s not B.”
“How do you know, Zak? It looks just like him.”
“I know, but it’s not him. The note on the back says deceased, and if you look closely there are differences. My guess would be some relation maybe? If I thought it was him, do you honestly think I wouldn’t be halfway to him by now?”
I realise that what he said about going after Bowser if he thought it was him is true. But as to who it is and the rest, I’m reserving judgement. I slam the car door shut, and part of me is a little disappointed about not being able to inflict some pain or fear into someone today. Mind you, it’s still early and there’s plenty of time later. The unleashed me is settling into her new self a little too well maybe.
Zak almost breathes a sigh of relief as I head back toward the house, and I’m about to ask him why when the sound of loud voices reaches us as we climb the front steps.
“What fucking now?” Zak grumbles as he jogs ahead of me into the house.
It seems that while we were outside, Kavanagh has joined Maddox and Smithy with Star in the kitchen and there’s some slanging match going on between Kavanagh and Maddox. Not really a surprise because the two of them fight like cat and fucking dog.
I ignore them all and head for Star, who is sitting between the two of them and rolling her eyes.
“Will you two shut the hell up!” she hollers, as she gets to her feet. “Jesus, I’m fine. I don’t need you to sit with me, I don’t need to talk to anyone and I don’t need a damn doctor. What I actually need is for you all to stop treating me like some fragile fucking doll.”
“Langua—” Kavanagh stops dead when she turns her glare on him. It’s quite impressive and not what I was expecting from her.
