Page 3 of Two Chambered Heart

But there were benefits to their abilities, and that included being very proficient at interrogation. With regular interrogation tactics, it was difficult to be sure you were getting the right answer. Even with prolonged pain, you could never be certain that your subject was giving you the truth, or if they just thought it was what you wanted to hear. Most people broke and talked, eventually. But from his experience, when they broke, it wasn’t always truths that came out.

Then there were those hard fuckers that wouldn’t break and wouldn’t talk, no matter how much skin the brothers flayed off their body and how many nails they pulled. Without their gifts, they’d never get their answers in those situations.

So, Jason relied heavily on his gift to get the answers. As soon as he asked, the truth usually came to mind, even as the lies fell from their lips. Jason didn’t need to keep interrogating after that point, but the brutality was all the fun for him.

Besides, it would raise flags to get information from high-up mobsters without having physical torture to show for it. It wouldn’t be believable. At least, that was what Kayden said, but Jason knew Kayden still wasn’t ready to accept violence as a sport. Kayden still needed a justification for it. Jason hadn’t needed that for a long time, and he’d given himself up to thebloodlust as his own twisted sense of salvation and reparation for all the shit he and his brother had gone through.

Once he got to the full glass façade of the front of the house, he looked back at the Range Rover. The old man was standing beside the car, hands clasped behind his back and looking off to nowhere, completely unaware that he’d just sent Jason’s world tipping from its axis. When Jason turned back to the house, he could see another man approaching the door from the inside, and as he approached, his thoughts got louder.Not gone then, Jason thought to himself, and released a breath. He couldn’t decide if he was relieved or disappointed.

Jason looked at Kayden to confirm. Both of them looked back to the old man by the car one more time, and Kayden shrugged his shoulders.

The man inside opened the looming front door, which was also made of glass. Jason recognized him as Aaron, Kovack’s second in command. Jason noted the fact that Kovack would send his second to open the door.

“Mr. Jason Haeven, Mr. Kayden Haeven.” Aaron bowed his head low in respect. “Welcome.” He was tall, wearing an ill-fitted suit. The jacket strained on his shoulders and his torso.

As he moved aside, Jason caught the utility vest Aaron was wearing, packing several weapons. To be expected. Kayden was wearing something similar under his jacket. Jason had his gun in his belt and a few choice knives in choice places, but for the most part, he relied on Kayden to carry in all their toys.

The brothers shoved past Aaron and into the atrium-style front hall. The interior was white and sterile. It smelled like ammonia.

Aaron glanced up to the second-floor balcony, which overlooked the main entryway.

“Mr. Kovack will be down in a moment. He is excited to discuss potential for new involvement with Alpha Moneta.” Jason laughed internally as he learned Kovack’s plans through his second’s thoughts. Yes, he did have plans, indeed.

“I can take you to the sitting room. He will join you there?” Jason was sure Aaron meant to frame that as a statement, but it came out more like a question.

Jason held eye contact, Aaron’s beady brown eyes looking back nervously. His pupils were like pinpricks.

Aaron shifted his weight on his feet.

This was the problem with Kovack’s guys. They all used the supply. He also knew Kovack had his hands in the skin trade, which Jason didn’t like. That, and Kovack apparently thought he could eliminate Alpha Moneta.

Jason had kept the leash too long on Kovack, and his men and their usefulness had now expired.

Time to take out the trash.

“That won’t be necessary.” Kayden said in a low voice from behind Aaron, and then he sliced Aaron’s throat open.

Kayden, like Jason, had heard all Kovack’s plans clear as day through Aaron’s thoughts, firing like a machine gun since the brothers had entered the home. They could not allow Kovack’s plans to unfold.

There was a quick rasp of air as Aaron tried to scream, and then a slow gurgling sound, his lungs filling with blood while he asphyxiated. Kayden held the body up as the light left Aaron’s eyes, and then lowered him down to the ground slowly. Kayden’s biceps strained in his jacket as they worked to lower the dead weight.

“He’s upstairs.” Jason said to Kayden. Kayden just grunted in acknowledgement.

“Can we take them all out?” Kayden asked his brother, a smile like the devil himself spreading across his face.

Jason took in his brother’s face, his exact same features looking back. He returned the smile, pulling his gun out from his waistband and turning the safety off. “We have other importers. Let the games begin.”

Chapter four

- Corey -

After the guys left the car, Corey waited for the older man to make any move. She counted down from sixty in her head five times, and then decided to do that a few more times. When nothing happened, Corey finally pulled the trench coat off and sat up, stretching her aching back and shoulders.

Corey checked her watch, the only thing grounding her to reality most of the time. It was almost 10:00 a.m. They had driven for over an hour and a half. She looked out the tinted windows. The man was still standing arm’s length from the driver’s door, and a massive glass house stood before her, sitting on a clear-cut lawn with sprawling trees on either side.

It wasn’t raining anymore, at least.

Corey pulled her shoes out from under the driver’s seat. They had dried quite a bit since last night, but were still damp. She put them on anyway.

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