Page 57 of Two Chambered Heart

“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’slocation. 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.”

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