23. - Jason -
Chapter twenty-three
- Jason -
J ason’s head was pounding, and he felt too hot. He brought his arm up to shield his eyes. Why was it so bright? He always kept his blinds closed. He rolled over from his back and buried his face in his arms. Soft suede rubbed against his skin. What the fuck? He groaned, turning his face to the side, suede brushing against his cheek.
He blinked his eyes open, the early morning sunlight streaming in through the full-length windows uninterrupted. The empty whiskey bottle was standing at attention on the coffee table. He had been running through bottles like water lately. For years, he’d been drinking before he slept. Kayden’s concern had been mounting, but Jason had made himself believe it helped. Waking up to the sun and not to his own screaming only enhanced his belief that it did.
For a second night in a row, he’d fallen asleep on the couch.
Jason pushed himself upright, and his vision swam.
There was a light snoring from the corner of the couch, and he found the girl curled up in a sweatshirt with a blanket. All of them had been living in sweatpants. That was usually what happened when you became a recluse .
Her long hair fanned out around her, shining in the sun, the mahogany undertones melting with caramel and chocolate notes, the colours like the flavour of a bold espresso. Her ribcage was rising and falling with her breaths. Under the dusting of freckles across her nose and cheeks, she had a peaceful expression. No night terrors for either of us, then , he thought.
By the time they’d gotten back on the bikes last night, it had been late, and he had been absolutely freezing. The girl must have been too, but she hadn’t complained. He couldn’t handle women who were complainers. He liked that she was tough, up for adventures, liked that she didn’t whine about things. She had pushed his brother off a cliff and jumped right after him without a second thought. The memory of Kayden’s surprised face had him smirking.
They’d all taken hot showers to warm up, independently, and Kayden had ordered Birria, a hearty Mexican soup with beef, which they’d eaten on the couch. Corey had remarked that she’d never even heard of Birria before. It wasn’t hard to impress her with food, though it was true they were foodies.
In typical fashion, Corey had put away enough food to rival the twins’ appetite. She ate a lot, he thought, though he wasn’t entirely sure of a woman’s regular eating habits. He hadn’t lived with women in his adult life, but when he was dating, they usually ordered a salad, or a salmon filet—something docile. Corey would probably order a burger and fries. He tried not to worry about the fact that he could guess her meal order.
Jason peeled his eyes from the girl. Kayden wasn’t here.
Presumably, his brother had made it through the movie and taken himself up to bed, leaving the two of them sleeping on the couch together. Again .
The coffee table had been cleared of their food containers—just the empty bottle remained. No doubt Kayden had left it there on purpose, so Jason could look at it in shame when he woke up. Petty, but effective.
He needed water and coffee, but he didn’t want to get up. He looked back at the girl, still sleeping quietly. He needed to stay away from her, but he couldn’t. She was like the sun, pulling him back into her orbit every time he tried to put distance between them.
It didn’t help that Kayden was smugly watching from the sidelines, pushing him towards her and giving them space. He knew they were fucking, had seen in his side mirror what she’d done with her hands on Kayden’s bike, had seen the handprint bruises on her neck, slowly fading.
Kayden’s signature. He knew Kayden’s kink as well as Kayden knew his own—they’d shared enough women. Leaving them on the couch together was just another step in whatever master plan Kayden had devised for them to share this one.
It definitely didn’t help that Corey was like dripping water on a rock. One drip did nothing, but over time, one drip after another, the rock began to soften, and he did not want to be the rock that softened. He couldn’t be.
He needed to stay away from her.
Jason pushed himself to his feet, taking the whiskey bottle with him to the kitchen to throw in the recycling bin. Then he flipped the switch for the espresso machine and started the process of brewing that sweet nectar of the gods, chugging back some water as he waited for the machine to heat.
He set the automatic grinder on, and the machine ground down on the beans—loudly.
He made himself a double espresso, then foamed some coconut milk, pulling two more shots.
Unable to resist, he made her a latte. Turning to leave the mug where she'd find it, he found her already awake, watching from across the island.
He startled, and his heart skipped a beat. She was always goddamn sneaking up on them.
“So, it’s been you leaving me coffees. ”
He lifted his lip at her. “Well, Belinda doesn’t know how to use the machine. She’s a housekeeper, not a barista.”
“I thought it was your brother,” she said, ignoring his attitude.
“Easy mistake to make.” He passed her the mug, annoyed about this entire situation, annoyed that he couldn’t have just made his own espresso and been on his merry way. His head was killing him.
“You look like shit,” she said to him.
“That’s Kayden’s line,” Jason snarled.
“He’s not here, so I’ll have to do.” She sipped at her coffee. “Why do you drink so much?”
She was always getting straight to the point. Who needed to read minds when whatever she was thinking just fell right out of her mouth anyway? “Why do you think?”
“I have no idea, Jason. I don’t really know anything about you.”
“And we should keep it that way.”
“I’d rather not. Is it the nightmares?”
“What?” She was giving him whiplash.
“The nightmares. Is that why you drink? It seems like you only drink at night.”
“They aren’t nightmares.”
“Right. The memories or whatever.” Her hands formed air quotes around the word.
“Right.” He wanted this conversation to be over.
She blew out a frustrated breath. The two of them just looked at each other. She looked concerned, or maybe even worried. He hated it.
“Well, I have work to do today.” He put his empty coffee cup in the sink. “Unlike you, who just lazes around all day.” His mouth curved into a cruel half-smile, cold.
Her eyes flared.
There. That was so much better than pity.
“I’ve worked my whole life! I’m not the one who chose to stop working,” she raged at him. That fire in her was always simmering close to the surface, just a slight nudge needed to spark. His malice obliterated any concern she felt for him.
He made himself laugh sharply and then stalked off, leaving her fuming on the barstool. He actually did have work to do.
“Northwest perimeter check in 3, 2, 1. Clear.”
Archie used the infrared thermal cameras to confirm the boundaries of the warehouse were clear before Jason unlocked the chicken wire gate and drove the motorcycle through, locking the padlock behind him. Thick trees obscured the holding facility. From the road, the gravel driveway and shanty fencing made it look abandoned. But further into the woods, a second, high-tech electric fence surrounded the warehouse.
He was here to run maintenance to prepare for the next big transfer. Obviously, the security system monitored each location, but they still needed to physically go every now and then to check the property and make sure everything was in order.
Jason used the built-in retina scan and fingerprint reader to unlock the automatic gate. His hand was shaking slightly as he pulled it back—the booze and this morning’s training session had taken their toll on his body. Jason cursed under his breath as the gate rolled aside on its tracks.
“What’s the problem?” Archie’s voice was sharp through the earpiece. Jason could hear him clacking away on his keyboard, trying to find any disruption he may have missed, and he felt guilty for making Archie panic. Archie was fine-tuned, vigilant beyond belief.
“Nothing. It’s nothing, don’t worry. Just too much to drink last night. ”
Archie let out a breath in Jason’s ear. Jason hid his shaking hands in his pockets so the other man wouldn’t see them on the camera. Maybe training after an entire bottle of whiskey had been a dumb idea. If anything did go wrong today, he’d be in trouble. His brain felt muddled and slow. The fresh air on the ride over had barely helped him recover.
Kayden and Corey had joined him in the gym again, but he’d trained on his own. Corey had asked Kayden to teach her how to rope climb, then how to use the punching bag. She’d picked both up quickly. That shouldn't have surprised him. He was starting to expect a high level of athleticism from her. Sweaty and red-faced, she’d spent a few minutes trying to do a pull-up before Kayden had finally given her some bands to use. She’d looked peeved at needing the assistance.
Jason had used the bag himself today, expending all the energy he had punching it fiercely. Probably why his hands were still shaking. After an hour of controlling the motorcycle, his arms felt like lead.
“You still drinking?” Archie asked, hesitantly. He was less willing to patronize Jason about his alcoholism than Kayden was.
“It’s her face, man. Every time I close my eyes, I see her face. Even after all these years, I can’t sleep without hearing her screaming. The drinking helps.” Jason could only be honest with his friend, who was as close to him as a brother. Archie understood the trauma, had been there for most of it. He’d experienced hell alongside the twins.
“I know you don’t believe me, but it wasn’t your fault. Even if I have to tell you every week for the rest of our lives, it wasn’t your fault.”
Archie was right—Jason didn’t believe him, and likely never would. It had been his fault. Jason loosed a long breath, trying to compose himself.
“Yeah, let’s just finish this up.” He looked up into the closest camera, knowing Archie was watching him from the safety of his own home, somewhere far away that even Jason didn’t know. A safeguard—in case he was ever captured and tortured, he could never reveal the other man’s location. Archie was one of the few people alive that Jason cared about. Suddenly, emotion for the man overwhelmed him. “Love you, Arch.”
He heard Archie chuckle through the earpiece. “Love you too, bro, but don’t go getting all soft on me.”
Jason cracked a smile. “Never.”
He closed the gate behind him and walked the interior perimeter for the better part of an hour, checking the gate for any erosion or dead spots. There wasn’t any.
When he was done, he started on the warehouse, confirming the entrances remained secure. Then he opened and closed the dozens of temperature-controlled metal crates, making sure the raw opium was holding up, which it was.
Finally, he sat down in the control room, booting up the computers so Archie could run the necessary diagnostics. Jason swivelled around in his chair as the computers and machinery lit up like a Christmas tree, Archie controlling them remotely and doing whatever it was he needed to do.
“You still got that girl with you?” Archie asked him, even though he likely already knew the answer. He had their condo’s security feed connected to his network.
“Ugh, yes. Kayden has a new pet. He’s been wrapped up in entertaining her for the last few weeks. Looks like you’re going to be stuck with just me, Archie boy.”
Archie laughed again in his ear. Jason saw windows pull up on the screen in front of him, lines and lines of coding scrolling across it in red font.
“The encryption is still good. I’m just updating some of the coding.” Part of their weekly routine was changing their encryptions to ensure their cybersecurity was unshakeable. By scrambling and changing the encryption, they sent potential hackers back to square one before they could crack their code. “Her file was fucked, man. That girl was in seventeen different foster homes. I feel bad for her. ”
“Well, she’s a pain in the ass. She has an attitude, that one. I’m not surprised no one wanted to keep her.”
“Come on, she can’t have a worse attitude than you.” Jason heard more clacking through the earpiece, new coding popping up on the screen.
“Almost as bad.”
“The system is fucked, and there’s too many sickos that end up caring for minors. And in this city, it’s flooded with children. I don’t doubt she had good reason for attacking her foster parent. Worse than the neglect, there are sexual predators just waiting to get their hands on a kid who has no one to go to bat for them. You know very well that too much power corrupts, especially when they’re in control of the vulnerable.”
“You can’t compare her childhood with the hell we grew up in.”
“I’m not comparing, Jason. I’m just saying there are many kinds of hells.”
“Why are you both trying to make me sympathize with her? She’s not some broken thing that needs us to keep her safe. She’s strong. She’s taken care of herself just fine.”
“Hey, I’m not saying you guys need to take care of her. I’m just giving some perspective on what she went through and why you might relate to her.”
“I don’t really care what she went through, to be honest.” He didn’t sound convinced, even to himself. “Look, if she was any other woman, we would have gotten rid of her already. But she neutralizes our abilities, and it’s really fucking nice. I mean, Kayden is taking more advantage of it than I am, but if Kayden is happy, then I’m happy.”
“You don’t sound happy. You’re all up in arms about it.”
“She can’t find out what we do. She could fuck everything up. Or worse, she could run. I just don’t want her to break Kayden’s heart.”
“I’d prefer if she doesn’t break either of yours,” Archie said.
“I don’t have a heart. ”
“Uh-huh,” Archie said. “Keep telling yourself that. Just because you think you don’t deserve love doesn’t mean you don’t.”
Jason rolled his eyes.
“I saw that.” Archie’s next laugh was a comfort in Jason’s ear. That Archie could still laugh, after everything, was no small miracle. It was the same with Kayden, the two of them having healed more than Jason could. Jason almost never laughed, though the girl was bringing it out of him more and more.
“Almost done?” He needed to divert the conversation.
“Just analysing some data.”
“Good, better than analysing me.”
“Aw, but you’re my favourite puzzle, Jase. Though I’d love to see if Ms. Smith neutralizes my abilities too.”
“You’d have to get close to her first, and I don’t want you coming anywhere near here. It’s not safe.”
“I thought you didn’t have a heart?” Archie teased.
“Yeah, yeah,” Jason grumbled as his cell phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out, eyes skimming the text from Kayden.
When will you be done? We want to go for dinner. Apparently, somewhere along the way, Corey and Kayden had become a “we.” Cute.
So go for dinner, he typed back.
You’re coming with .
Fine .
“Find anything with that big brain of yours, Arch?”
“Nah, everything looks good. Let’s wrap this up.”
“Alright.”
Jason shot off a quick text to Kayden. I’ll be 1.5 hours . He got a thumbs up in response.
“The network management is complete, so we’re done here.” Archie confirmed. The computers started shutting down before his eyes. “The perimeter is still clear. I’ll stay with you till you’re on the road. ”
“Thanks, Archie.”
“It’s what I’m here for.” Guilt bubbled up in Jason’s gut again. It wasn’t what Archie was here for. He wanted his friend to be living a full life, not tied to a computer running cybersecurity for him and his brother’s stupid operation. Sure, Archie was making millions, but he could be making millions anywhere with his gift. He didn’t need to be working with black market opium.
Jason shook his head. He didn’t know why he was feeling so doom and gloom today—probably the hangover. Sensitivity about their line of work wasn’t typical for him. He used to enjoy it. He knew it was starting to wear on him, though. After a decade, it was starting to wear on all of them. It was probably why Kayden was so happy for a distraction in Corey, some purpose other than organized crime and violence.
Jason locked up the entire establishment, said goodbye to Archie, and pulled out his earpiece. Then he called Kayden.
“I just finished. I’m an hour out from the city.”
“What are you wearing?” Kayden asked him.
“Are you flirting with me, Kay?”
“No dumbass, we’re going to Highs. You want to come home and change or meet us there?”
Jason looked down at his leather tactical boots and dark jeans. He was wearing a cream-coloured Henley shirt underneath his leather jacket, along with multiple handguns. He’d be underdressed, but he didn’t really need to dress up to look good. Besides, those who mattered knew who they were.
“Well, I’m not in sweats, so it’ll do. I’m packing, though.”
“As you should be.” He could hear the smile in Kayden’s voice. “We’ll meet you there in an hour, then?”
“As you wish, brother.”
Jason hung up the phone, tightened the straps on his holsters under his leather jacket, pulled on his leather gloves, and hit the road on his bike, letting the speed distract him from his overly contemplative thoughts and his achy brain.