Page 77 of Two Chambered Heart

“You’re not hurt anywhere else?” Kayden wasn’t sure which twin she was posing the question to.

“No,” Jason confirmed. “Not a scratch on me. Kayden was an idiot and took off his helmet, hence the head wound.”

“Did you get into a bike accident?” she asked.

“Something like that,” Jason replied, still watching her with a softness in his eyes that Kayden was sure he wasn’t aware of.

"Well, Jason's bike is totalled, but that was more a consequence than a cause," Kayden clarified. “Our deal went bad.”

Jason shot him a look, but Kayden just gave Corey a knowing smile, and some of the tension finally released from her shoulders. If Jason couldn’t recognize it before, it was now impossible to miss how much she cared for them. For both of them.

He pulled the towel away from his head to see how much blood he was still losing, and Corey brought her hand to her mouth.

“Does blood make you squeamish?” Jason asked, curiously.

“No, but I can see his bone. I really think he needs to go to the hospital and get stitches.”

“I’m okay, Corey. Promise. Jason will stitch me up.”

She wanted to argue. He could see it on her face, but finally, she submitted. “I guess I’ll go get more towels and clean up all this blood.” Her voice was still strained.

“It’s fine. Belinda will clean it up.”

She huffed, looking around at the mess. “How come I never actually see Belinda?”

“Because she’s invisible,” Jason deadpanned.

Corey blinked at him, unsure what to do with his joke.

If only she knew the truth.

Chapter twenty-eight

- Jason -

Jason stared at the liquor cabinet and slugged back another glass of water. Even with his pounding headache and hangover sweats, he wanted to drown himself in another bottle of booze. His hands were shaking from the deteriorating effects of alcohol, from the restraint he barely had a handle on even as they itched to open the cupboard. But he was self-aware enough to know that, in this state, more alcohol was a slippery slope.

Last night, Corey had insisted on watching as Jason stitched up Kayden’s wound in the kitchen. Once she’d realized Kayden’s life wasn’t at risk, it had basically become a show and tell. She had asked questions, asked him to slow down as if Kayden was a cadaver in a science class. She hadn’t even shied away as the thin needle had pierced through his thick skin over and over, weaving the dissolvable stitches into a webbing that would allow the gash to heal on its own.

His shaggy black hair completely covered the bandage over the sutured wound. Any remaining scar would also be covered, making him and Kayden indistinguishable once again.

The two of them had spent the night curled up on the couch together, before going to her room. Jason had finished the entire bottle of whiskeybefore dragging himself up to bed. He couldn’t ignore the screaming in his head that told him this was his fault and that it could have been much worse. Kayden had literally just told him that he was willing to pull out, and Jason had shut him down hard. He knew Kayden would never agree to let Jason keep doing this without him, to keep risking his life, yet he had told him point blank that he would continue with or without him.

Kreig’s move also confused him. Their relationship had been symbiotic from the start. With the landmine for the transport truck, Kreig’s plan couldn’t have been to secure the opium without payment. They had upped their EP team by fifty percent since the Kovack incident, and he was glad they had, because without the extra manpower, yesterday could have ended a lot differently.

Jason put the shaking glass down on the kitchen counter and noticed he still had some crusty blood caked under his fingernails.

That was how Kayden found him, still compulsively scrubbing his hands even though the blood was most definitely washed away. Kayden rounded the island and turned the sink off, taking a towel and drying his hands for him.

“Thanks,” Jason mumbled. “How’s your head?”

“Pounding. How’s yours?” Kayden nocked his chin towards the empty whiskey bottle on the counter.

“Pounding,” Jason parroted, averting his eyes from the concern in Kayden’s.

Kayden squeezed his shoulder, opening a drawer in the island and pulling out a bottle of Extra Strength Advil. He took two himself and handed another two to Jason, who dry swallowed them, the large pills catching in his dry throat as his Adam’s apple bobbed. Kayden’s animosity from the day before seemed to be buried deep below the surface, but Jason could still see it there in the tight set of his jaw.

“I’m going upstairs to keep sleeping. Corey’s room is too bright. We need to get some real blinds in there. Just let her know for me. I didn’t want to wake her up.”

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