Page 96 of Two Chambered Heart

Oh shit. Kayden…Was he going to ask her to choose? She didn’t think she could. She didn’twantto.

He must have seen the panic in her face, because he gripped her chin, angling her face up to his, and asked, “What just happened?”

She swallowed thickly.

“I need to see Kayden.” Her words were breathy, uncertain.

To his credit, Jason didn’t look concerned. He just nodded, kissing her softly before letting her go.

She slid out of his bed, finding the sweatshirt she’d dumped on the floor lying amongst the piles of rope still littered there.

“I’ll be back… after,” she said from the doorway.

“I know,” he replied.

Corey found Kayden on the couch. She sat her aching body down on the edge of the cushion, her sweatshirt pulling up enough that the raised red skin on her upper thighs was visible. Kayden’s gaze went to the marks immediately, a quirk in his lip the only reaction he gave her before meeting her eyes again.

Deep green, like pines in winter contrasted against the snow, gazed into her soul. He knew, obviously.

“I need to talk to you,” she got out.

“Come here.” He reached for her, and she went, a weight lifting from her chest at his closeness. He brought her onto his lap, combing her tangled hair with his fingers. “Tell me.”

Hesitating only for a moment, Corey did. She told him how Jason had come into her room, how he’d cuddled up behind her. How she’d rolled over in his arms, started kissing him. How it had escalated, how he’d started fucking her. And how she’d enjoyed it. How she’d run her hands up his back while he was still inside her, fucking her fiercely. How she’d continued to run her fingers over the thick, mottled skin of his scar, and she’d finally realized she’d made a mistake. It wasn’t Kayden. It was Jason in her bed. And then she told him what had happened after.

“Are you mad now?”

“I told you before, Little Fox, I’m more than happy to share you with my brother.”

She blew out a long breath.

“You’re ours,” he said.

And then he kissed her, with the taste of his brother still lingering in her mouth.

Chapter thirty-two

- Jason -

The sound of the door closing and thoughts he didn’t recognize pulled Jason’s attention from the cards in his hand and his brother at his side. A new boy walked through the doorway, the fluorescent lights flickering overhead. All eyes in the room turned to him, hollow, barely a spark of interest before turning away again.

But Jason was interested. Someone new hadn’t been admitted to the facility in what felt like a very long time. He watched the boy approach their table. His thoughts were scattered, scared, though he didn’t look it.

Hesitantly, the boy pulled out a chair, the metal legs scraping on the linoleum floor, and he sat. His head was freshly shaved. He looked like them, kind of. His hair would be black if it were allowed to grow out again. His skin was darker, though. Their skin had a sickly pallor to it, the colour of their veins snaking under its thinness. They hadn’t seen sun in over a year at least, hadn’t been outside in just as long. This newcomer obviously had.

Kayden looked at him with eyes like bruises. Jason was sure his looked the same.

“What’s your names?” the new boy said. His voice was hard, firm.

“Nonames. Numbers.” Kayden’s voice was a rasp from misuse. Maybe from screaming.

The newcomer looked to his own gown, the number 28 stitched on his right upper breast in dark blue thread, then he looked back up to theirs.

“21 and 22. I can see that. But what’s your real names?”

Their eyes darted to the cameras in every ceiling corner, watching the “community space,” as it was labeled, only to be used during their free time for “community bonding”. But none of that happened. They couldn’t speak freely, and there was no community in this space. It was sterile, full of sadness. Hopelessness.

“I’m 21.” His voice was just as hoarse as his brother’s.

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