Kayden looked at her hungrily. She had come to realize that he liked the idea of a chase. “There is nowhere you can go that we won’t find you, Little Fox. We learned a little about you, now you can learn a little about us. We run this city. Every back alley and underground club, up to the corporate offices on the top floor. We have eyes and ears everywhere.”
From what she’d seen last week, she believed him. She wasn’t in a rush to leave, anyway. She really didn’t have anywhere else to go.
“Well, boys, it’s sure been fun getting to know each other better,” Corey said sarcastically, walking away from the twins. “I’ll be in my room. If you need me, I don’t care.”
“And there’s that bad attitude I like so much.” She caught Kayden grinning as she left them and Jason rolling his eyes.
Chapter ten
- Kayden -
Kayden really couldn’t say what it was about Corey that had him so fixated. Maybe it was the way he couldn’t hear the thoughts that were usually running a mile a minute through a woman’s mind, or the fact she hadn’t dropped to her knees for them instantly, as almost every woman did. Maybe it was the fight she was putting up, or how she bared her teeth like a savage animal. Or how she walked throughtheirhome like it washers.
Maybe it was her body, languid in the sun, bronzed and lithe. Freckled and bruised. And naked. So, so naked out there every day. He’d had to rub one out too many times to count over it. Maybe it was the glint in her eye when he caught her watching him. Whatever it was, he was itching to get her alone.
He and Jase had been switching off who would stay in with her. Jase was cleaning up the mess that burning down Kovack’s house and killing all his men had caused. Kovack had been one of their bigger importers of opium. Alpha Moneta had diversified its sourcing enough that they had other contracts for quality opium, but they needed to ensure their other importers could meet the increased demand. And quickly.
Kovack had gotten too greedy, too comfortable in their arrangement, believing he could cut them out and take their place. He had fished them to his house, intending to torture information out of them. But that was not how it worked. The Haevens were not the middleman, as Kovack had believed, nor could they be eliminated as easily as Kovack had thought.
Though they bought from importers and sold to manufacturing facilities, making themselves millions and millions of dollars in the process, they were the ones with the connections to the manufacturers. They sourced to three large manufacturing companies, which then distributed the processed drugs—morphine, codeine, heroin and other experimental drugs—having secured multiple importers for very pure opium through their company Alpha Moneta.
Only one manufacturer they worked with was a legitimate pharmaceutical company, and they laundered everything through that, though they made the most money off the black market manufacturers. Maintaining their secrecy in who they sourced from and who they sold to had been what had kept them at the top of the food chain.
That, and their gift.
It was impossible to fuck the Haevens over. They would know immediately if there was disloyalty, as they had with Kovack. Hearing everyone’s thoughts also helped them immensely in negotiations.
Corey was correct when she had told them that drugs were a disease in their city. It did ruin lives. But it ruined the lives of richandpoor. Maybe not equally, but addicts were addicts, and it rarely ended well, regardless of income.
Kayden had felt some guilt over this in the beginning. He didn’t now.
He had no faith in society. No one had helpedthemwhen they needed it, and he was not willing to help society now. He would gladly burn it down for what people in power had done.
Kayden had taken the last few days “dog sitting,” as Jason was calling it, and he needed to get out of the house. He was used to spending a majorityof his time inside, hiding from all the noise, and it was definitely made better by the little fox darting about their space, but he could really use a long ride.
Jason left the house again for a meeting after Corey had stomped off with her parting “fuck you.” He imagined she must be extremely bored by now, confined to the condo day after day. They hadn’t given her anything for entertainment, and she hadn’t asked for anything. She didn’t even have a phone. She roamed from the kitchen to the balcony and back to the guest bedroom with barely any words exchanged.
Kayden was already walking down the hall before he consciously realized where he was going. He was about to do something very fucking stupid.
He knocked on the guest bedroom door.
“What?” Corey called out.
Kayden pushed down on the door handle and opened the door. She hadn’t locked it.Interesting.
She lay sprawled across the bed, gazing out the windows at the cityscape. She looked over at him, lifting an eyebrow.
“Do you want to go on a motorcycle ride?”
“Are you offering?”
“Yes.” He grinned.
Corey narrowed her eyes at him. “Why?”
“Aren’t you bored?”
She just shrugged. “Tired of babysitting duty?”