Page 24

T he air outside the club hit hot and humid. Lex liked it better that way.

London was sweating for him.

He hadn’t spoken since they left the hotel. hadn’t needed to. Morgan had looked at him once—flashed that sharp, toothy grin that made Lex’s insides soft and his dick hard—and he was still riding the high of that.

Because that? That was proof they were equals .

And tonight was all about proof. Precision. Control.

He hadn’t brought Ollie here for fun.

He brought Ollie to see how much Ollie trusted him . To show Morgan that this was his game now.

It had started as a test.

Leave Ollie alone.

Sit him at the bar, surrounded by dozens of people—music, liquor, lights—and see what happened.

No hand around the back of his neck. No whispered threats .

Just a single instruction: Stay put and I’ll keep you out of the cage tonight.

Lex sat at one of the booths close by, one shoulder pressed into the velvet, one knee lodged against Morgan’s thigh. He could see Ollie’s profile perfectly from here, the way his posture remained rigid, the slight tremble of his fingers when the bartender asked if he wanted another drink.

He said no.

No thank you , actually.

Lex smirked.

Ollie didn’t run this time.

The illusion of freedom was a beautiful thing. Ollie didn’t question him. Didn’t scream or cry when Lex told him to get dressed in his regular clothes.

Not one single outburst in public.

This was better than the cage.

He was evolving. In real time. Who else got to say that?

God, this was fun.

“I really don’t think this is a good idea,” Morgan muttered. The ice cubes in his drink clinked together, and Lex finally glanced over.

“Why? No harm in it. He’s doing so good . I’m a proud papa.”

“Please never say that again.”

Lex grinned. “Too much?”

Morgan shuddered beside him. “Yes. Too much. I felt my soul attempt to leave my body.”

Laughing, Lex turned to face Morgan.

“Is that a no on kids, then?”

“ Lex .”

“Oh!” Lex patted down his pockets. Front, then shifting to get to the back ones. He pulled his phone out a second later. “We never got my picture. I want my picture.”

“Pict—from the plane?” Morgan sat down the empty bourbon glass. “You’re still on about that?”

“It’s two seconds. Humor me, Morgan.”

Morgan sighed. The back of his head hit the booth, and Lex watched his eyes skate over the ceiling.

What the hell did he do when he looked up?

It was the one strange quirk of Morgan’s Lex had never managed to solve. The rest he knew by heart.

“Are you appreciating the architecture?” Lex asked after a minute.

“Shut up.”

Finally, Morgan’s head dropped. He picked up the glass, tilting it back and crunching on the ice.

“Just do it,” he said dryly.

Lex didn’t wait for Morgan to change his damn mind.

He crowded in as close as possible—arm around Morgan’s shoulders, the other angling the phone camera just right— and click .

Three more, in case one of them blinked.

Sitting back, he flipped through the pictures.

The first one was alright. The second one was a contender.

But the third? Morgan had looked at him . For a split second. For the one frame. And there was something soft in Morgan’s expression. Something that Lex wouldn’t have caught otherwise .

Morgan’s eyes half-lidded, the tension forever in his jaw all but gone. He wasn’t smiling, but it was better than that.

Lex zoomed in even farther, to try and catch exactly what it was. To dissect that look and store it somewhere in his memories. Somewhere that nothing else would ever touch.

That’s when he noticed Gabriel.

He panned the picture over, zooming in until the image pixelated but—sure enough. It was Gabriel Huntington. Sat at a table not ten feet behind him.

Lex spun around.

Ollie was still there. Check.

So was Gabriel.

And he wasn’t alone.

Across from him was someone Lex didn’t recognize. Middle-aged. With the patient stiffness of someone trained to watch for the wrong thing. He leaned back in the chair and his jacket shifted.

That was a badge.

A cop.

Why the fuck is a cop here?

Lex moved his hair behind his ear—like that dumbass move would help him hear better—and slid over until he was almost falling out of the booth.

“You’ve been ignorin’ your phone,” the detective said. No accent. Zero.

Why was there no accent?

Gabriel picked up the bottle of beer. “I’ve been busy.”

“Have ya? Really? Last time I checked, your company was circlin’ the drain. ”

No. Scratch that.

There was an accent.

But it wasn’t fucking British.

Southern, but not deep. Kentucky? Tennessee?

“This didn’t merit a visit,” Gabriel said as he took a drink. “You could have spoken with Chris instead of me.”

“See, funny thing. I did see your assistant. He’s the one who pointed me in this direction. Pick up your damn phone and I won’t gotta trek all the way out here, Gabe.”

Lex’s fingers twitched against the edge of the table.

Gabriel didn’t correct him . That was what set off every fucking alarm in Lex’s head. He wasn’t jumping down the detective’s throat, asking to be called by his full name. He wasn’t surprised.

The detective scratched the back of his head—Lex couldn’t see his goddamn face —and looked around like he didn’t want to be here. Or like he was taking inventory.

Shit.

Ollie.

“I’m still waitin’ on those documents you promised the bureau. Figured it’d be faster to get ‘em in person.”

Gabriel set the bottle down so hard, Lex could’ve sworn it was going to break. “Tell the SEC I already filed everything. This isn’t a deposition, Michael.”

“Ya ain’t callin’ me Detective Woodman. How pissed are ya?”

“You’re staring,” Morgan whispered beside him, lips brushing Lex’s ear. “Remember what I told you about that.”

Lex turned back around and Morgan was right there. So close their noses touched.

“ Do you hear this shit? ” Lex hissed.

“Gabriel probably got caught lying about taxes. It may affect the business deal, but it’s not our personal problem.”

“Yeah? I don’t fucking believe it. I told you there was something off about him. I told you .”

Morgan sighed. “And I told you that you’re looking for problems where there are none. If Gabriel did something illegal? Our team will figure it out before we leave. You’re spiraling.”

Lex choked out a laugh.

“And if they’re not here for him? If they’re here for us ? What’re the fucking chances a U.S. cop flies out here for paperwork?”

“I don’t know, Lex,” Morgan murmured, so damn calm Lex wanted to shove him off the booth. “I didn’t go to college to become a lawyer. I went to become a doctor. Breathe.”

Lex inhaled. Exhaled.

It helped a little.

“Let’s go,” Morgan said. His hand squeezed Lex’s thigh—hard enough to stop the words still building in Lex’s throat. “I’m not comfortable with this little stunt of yours, and you don’t need to be over-analyzing something mundane.”

Lex nodded.

Did it feel like over-analyzing to him?

No.

But it wasn’t worth the argument. His head was pounding.

Morgan moved like a shadow through the crowd, one hand brushing Ollie’s elbow. Ollie flinched—of course he did—but he slid off the stool, trailing behind as Morgan led him to the front.

“Lex!”

Halfway to the door, Lex stopped.

Damn, why did that voice sound so familiar? He knew it from somewhere, but he couldn’t place it. Couldn’t focus when Gabriel and that detective were still there, breathing the same air.

If Morgan was wrong ?

God, if the cop was there to tear apart their carefully constructed lives?

He couldn’t have that.

Jesus, they had been so careful.

It couldn’t have had anything to do with Pete. The police here still didn’t even know his name, for fuck’s sake. They wouldn’t have called someone from the States for a one-off murder. That wasn’t FBI territory.

Stop it.

This was—it was paranoia. Plain and simple. Nothing else.

Morgan was right more often than not. Even if it physically hurt to admit.

He kept walking, but the cop stayed with him—lodged in his throat like something he couldn’t get out.

That badge. That damn southern twang. That familiar silence right before someone’s about to pounce .

There was too much shit to unpack. Too many ways everything could go sideways before he had a chance to blink.

What if—

What if Morgan was wrong just this once?

Lex was still lost in the swirling, black vortex when that voice stopped in front of him, going a mile a minute.

“It’s been ages, man! I’m so pumped—what the hell are you doing here?”

And then it hit him. Like a goddamn train, and suddenly Lex couldn’t catch his breath.

Noah.

His cousin , Noah.

His, go-through-all-your shit-without-permission, oops-I-stole-your-toothbrush-now-it’s-mine, cousin.

Except there was a problem.

No matter how hard Lex concentrated on his voice, it didn’t match the guy standing there.

Last time Lex saw him, Noah had been a scrawny, brown-haired kid in an oversized tank-top. All excited energy. A happy puppy. Sunshine thrown in a blender and set skipping down the driveway.

Even the snippet from the murder case at Eastbridge High, Noah didn’t look—

When did he tan?

When did he start working out?

When did he bleach his hair blond?

Why the fuck does it feel like I’m looking in some messed-up circus mirror?

“—and then I was like, no way. But way!” Noah was still talking, jabbering away like they were the best of friends, reunited at last.

Lex didn’t catch most of it.

Not when the blood roaring through his ears was too loud, heart jack-hammering against his ribs.

“You haven’t changed at all,” Noah said, his grin too wide, gray eyes too hyper. Too manic . “Like, at all . Do you get carded everywhere you go? No way in hell I’d sell you alcohol.”

Lex opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

“You’re kinda scaring me, man,” Noah muttered, and that smile flattened a little. “Say something.”

“Why are you here?”

Why do you look like me?

“Vacation… ish.” Noah tilted his hand back and forth. “Kinda. Me and Max—did I introduce you to Max? Jesus, I didn’t. I’m losing it tonight.” He looked around, one way, then another, before he shook his head. “Shit. I was gonna grab Kyran and Benji too, but I can’t find them.”

Kyran and Benji.

As in Kyran Decker and Benji Hampton?

As in the fucking family of Jake Hampton?

The static was back, louder now, crackling behind Lex’s eyes like a broken TV screen. His skin was buzzing, too cold then too hot.

“Man, I really wanted to introduce you to everyone. I think you’d hit it off with Kyran. Benji? Not so much. He’s got this, super serious thing going on. You’re gonna love Max.”

Still .

Fucking.

Talking.

But when Lex finally dragged his gaze over, nausea hit in waves

The girl beside Noah—

She could’ve been Kate’s twin.

If Kate was taller.

If Kate cut her hair.

If Kate climbed out of a mirror and dragged the wrong version of herself back into this nightmare.

Same pale hair. Same fucking face .

Were alternate realities a thing?

No, they couldn’t be. This wasn’t some corny sci-fi movie. This was hell.

I finally met your elusive cousin, Kate.

“You look like you’re gonna drop dead,” she said, deep voice and smirk very not Kate .

Thank god.

“Do you need to get some air?” Noah asked. “We can go outside—”

Yes.

Yes, outside.

Away from this distorted horror show that had suddenly became his life.

“I—I have to go,” Lex stuttered out, his insides quivering so hard he was positive they’d spill onto the sticky, nightclub floor. Everything smelled like vodka and sweat, someone’s citrus cologne thick in the air.

“Morgan’s waiting for me. ”

His legs didn’t feel real.

Nothing felt real.

Inside the car, Lex had to keep reminding himself to breathe.

In.

Out.

Don’t hyperventilate. Don’t pass out.

He dropped his head between his knees, dizzy and drowning in his own skin. The seat belt bit through his shirt like it wanted to split him open. Like it wanted inside him.

Too tight.

The seat belt.

His chest.

His entire body tingled.

Something was fucking shaking and if it didn’t stop , he was going to lose it.

Snap. Start screaming.

“Lex.”

Morgan’s voice floated in, too calm, like it belonged on another frequency. In one ear and out the other. Lex couldn’t hold onto it, couldn’t find the words to respond.

What do you say when you’ve just seen everyone’s doppelg?nger?

What do you say when all the air in the world can’t save you ?

“Alexander.”

His jaw clicked, locked, like it was trying to hold something in that didn’t belong to him.

“I’m gonna be sick,” was the only thing Lex could manage, but even that sounded wrong somehow. It wasn’t his voice, it didn’t belong to him. Too quiet. Too soft.

God, his stomach was rolling .

Clutching the oh shit handle at the top of the door didn’t help. His palm was soaked, slipping off the plastic no matter how he adjusted his grip.

The A/C was blasting, but his skin still screamed with heat.

“I don’t feel well,” he mumbled to himself, closing his eyes.

Morgan’s hand landed on his leg.

Lex flinched.

Not because it hurt.

Because it was real .

He’d know the shape of Morgan’s hands anywhere, could pick them out of a crowd blindfolded.

Even if everything else felt fake, no one would be Morgan.

No one could ever come close.

“Five minutes, Lex.”