Read Online Michael by Aaron Patterson - Free Book Online

and all of it for me. I let myself go, let myself cry for a good long time.
    The gray clouds overhead then burst, drenching us both to the bone.
    I thought of how horrible the world was to have given a place for people like Stanley Alexander to live and exist. I thought of how painfully dear to me my parents were. Would I ever see them again? I thought about Kreios and wondered why he would have abandoned me, even if he did think I was dead. Wouldn’t he at least have wanted to bury my body? Maybe he just couldn’t deal with it. I thought about Kim and how much I loved her, how sorry I was for how she had been caught up in all this nonsense with me and my drama. And I thought about Michael.
    That’s when the storm within started to finally clear up.
    We were soaked, our clothes clinging to our bodies.
    I pulled back from him. I felt bad; his shirt was covered with rain, with my tears, slobber, and snot. I wiped my nose with my shirt front, revealing part of my stomach as I dabbed at my eyes with it.
    He pulled me in close to him again, but not all the way—his eyes were locked on mine, the puffs of our breathing intermingling in the misty aftermath of the storm.
    He leaned in, but off to one side, brushing the softest, gentlest kiss against my cheek and then pulling back. “Airel,” he said, his voice a husky whisper.

CHAPTER XI
     
    THE MORNING SUN AND fresh after-rain smell of the woods turned to heavy sticky humidity as we walked back to the house. We had to get going, we had agreed. I looked up through the trees and saw dark clouds moving in quickly as they do at high elevations. It could be sunny one moment and snowing the next.
    I was still shaking a little from the moment before, but the rain starting and just shutting off like that, like a faucet, pulled us into awkwardness. He had pulled away then. I wondered what it was that held him back from me. Was he scared that I would judge him; that he was not good enough or something?
    “I think we need to cut each other some serious slack,” I said. Michael stepped over a fallen log and I followed.
    “Word up, homie.”
    I laughed. “Who are you?”
    “Gangsta, girl.”
    “That’s actually kind of true…” I thought of his late antisocial associations.
    “Take it easy,” he said. “Remember: slaaaaack.”
    “Yeah, yeah,” I said, giving him a little shove in the back.
    He laughed.
    How could we go from rain-soaked dream moment to adorkable in two seconds? I shook my head but realized that I liked his dorky side.
    We walked on for a bit and I came alongside him as the trail widened.
    “So, do you really think we can find Kreios?”
    “Sure. Besides, that’s what I’m good at. I’ve tracked guys like him my whole life. Kind of what I do.”
    “And how are you going to do that?”
    “Google,” he said. “Get me a network connection and I can find just about anybody pretty quick.” He pulled a smartphone from his pocket.
    “That thing survived the rain?”
    “Oh, yeah. Are you kidding me? I don’t mess around with my tools. You could drop this into a bucket of water and it would be fine. I have people.”
    “Yeah, I don’t wanna hear about your people.”
    “But seriously. This is a mil-spec case around it.” He pointed to his phone.
    “So you have a 4G pocket protector. You’re a nerd.”
    He just looked at me. “This is serious stuff.”
    “I can tell, mister. But what are you gonna search for?” I wondered if he knew something that he was not telling me about where Kreios went.
    “Murder. Crime. And in big numbers.”
    I raised my eyebrows.
    “Kreios was beyond angry when he left. There was something uncontrolled about him. He wouldn’t even look at me.” He looked down as he walked. “Personally, I think he’s going after the Brotherhood clans, maybe one by one. He’ll go down the rank and file until he gets what he wants.”
    “Which is?” I asked.
    “Revenge. I’m betting he’ll leave a wake of bodies. We find the