Unexpected

Chapter Eight

On Monday afternoon, Thorne drove to the Rikan Corp headquarters. He hated going there. Since it was in the center of the city, it was always packed with traffic and a whole bunch of pompous people. He tried not to think about how annoyed he was as he pulled into the parking garage below the enormous skyscraper. He was here to figure out what was going on with Kai.

Kai had not called him back on Saturday night at the Masquerade. Thorne had been happy for him. Thrilled, actually. He thought it meant that Kai was perhaps spending some quality time with his new lady friend, Cinderella. Thorne had given him until Sunday afternoon until he had called, merely out of sheer curiosity, to hear how it went. Kai never had any interesting stories about women, so it was about time to get some details. But Kai hadn't responded. He hadn't responded to Thorne's texts either. Thorne had shrugged it off and gone about his day.

When he still hadn't heard anything by Monday afternoon, he'd called Nainsi. She had assured him that Kai had indeed gone to work but seemed "different" than usual. She hadn't elaborated. And yet when he'd asked to be connected, she'd said that he wasn't accepting any calls today. So here he was, driving to the epitome of pretentiousness, possibly to stage an intervention. Because Kai was probably heart broken. Why else wouldn't he have called? The guy wore his heart on his sleeve.

Thorne had long since gotten his security clearance from Huy Deshal. That man was a beast. It'd taken Kai several months to convince him that despite Thorne's somewhat troubled past, he should be able to have his own access badge to get in and out when he pleased. Thorne was certain that Kai had probably just been sick of constantly having to answer the secretary's calls of "can he come upstairs?" since back then he would visit Kai more often so they could get lunch together or go out after work. That was before Kai started working like a maniac.

He exited the elevator and immediately felt some dejection wash over him. He hadn't wanted to be right about Kai being heart broken. Thorne could see the dark blinds to his office drawn down all the way from across the room. He mentally told himself to be patient and sensitive—two traits that did not come so easy to him—and strode over to Kai's door. He didn't even bother knocking.

Kai barely looked up when Thorne entered. He was slumped at his desk, looking like a total mess. His hair clearly hadn't been washed, his clothes looked unusually rumply, and his tie wasn't even properly tied. Needless to say, Thorne was not used to seeing him so disheveled. He sat himself on the side of Kai's desk and stared down at him.

"You didn't return my calls."

"We're not dating."

"Ouch. And to think I thought you were my one true love."

Kai didn't reply. He only hunched over and put his head into his arms on the desk.

Thorne surveyed the room. "I guess if you're taking a nap, you must be all ready for your trip to Beijing."

Kai groaned. "Oh stars! Is that today?"

Thorne shrugged. "How should I know? Don't you have a ticket?"

Kai sat up and looked panicked. He picked up the phone and dialed a number. Movement. This was good, Thorne observed.

"Nainsi? When is the annual summit?" Pause. "Wednesday? So do I leave tomorrow? Okay...thanks."

He hung up and looked at Thorne. "I don't leave until tomorrow morning."

"Great. Plenty of time to mope some more."

Kai looked up in desperation, which was a look that Thorne hadn't been expecting. "It's Cinder, Thorne. It's Cinder."

"What's Cinder?"