Page 84 of Moonstruck
“Are you sure they got him?” Zane asked for the hundredth time since they got on the road.
Asa squeezed Zane’s leg, giving him an amused glance. “Yes, Lois. I know this will shock you, but basement dwelling losers are surprisingly easy to catch. He’s already been secured. They’re just waiting for us.”
“How long until we get there?” Zane asked, staring out the window as if he could gauge the distance by sight.
“We’re not even five minutes out.”
“Good.”
Zane just wanted to get this over with. He’d been wanting vengeance since he’d realized what had been done to his brother, and after watching that video… Zane took a deep breath and let it out, willing his stomach not to rebel once more. He’d never realized how much his brother’s death had eaten at him until the mere mention of his death had triggered his upchuck reflex.
“I know you want to be involved, but you can step out if it gets to be too much. Nobody would blame you.”
Zane knew Asa was trying to be sweet. And it was sweet, but there was a war going on inside him. Part of him wanted to hear the man scream forever. The other half wanted him to die quickly so Zane could forget about him. But there were still answers needed.
Zane gave him a sharp look. “With what? Getting the information we need to make sure that nobody else dies because of this piece of shit? Yeah, I’ll be fine.”
“I promise you, I’ll get whatever information I can from him before I kill him,” Asa said, as if testing him.
Zane looked him in the eye. “I don’t care if I’m vomiting into a trash can. I’m not leaving.”
“Lois… I don’t know if you understand what you’re saying. My brothers and I have no ability to feel remorse. Or guilt. Or empathy. When I torture somebody, I feel nothing. No matter how much they scream or cry or beg, it has no effect on me. You’re not going to feel the same way.”
“He stole my brother’s grasp on reality, watched him wrap a noose around his neck, and then jerked off to the footage. His screams will be music to my ears.”
Asa nodded. “Alright. You’re right. He killed your brother. You’re entitled to have first crack at him.”
“And I get to decide how he dies,” Zane muttered.
Asa turned onto the long winding drive to the cabin and parked outside. A white van and Jericho’s Bronco were already there.
After they parked, Asa grabbed Zane’s shirt and tugged him over the center console. “Give me a kiss, Lois.”
Zane wasn’t sure what he’d expected. Asa had two modes. Quick, almost chaste pecks on the lips and soul searing, scorchingly hot, near pornographic tongue kisses. This was neither. He cupped Zane’s face, slanting their lips together in a slow slide, his tongue teasing but never truly deepening the kiss.
There was a hard rap at the window, causing Zane to jump, his gaze darting to the source of the sound. His mouth fell open when he saw Asa’s image mirrored just outside the car window, his stomach plummeting into his shoes.
“Is that…?” Zane asked.
“Uh-huh,” Asa said, sounding leery.
Zane stared up into Avi’s unsmiling face. Their similarities were uncanny. Zane had seen plenty of identical twins in his day, and there was always something that separated them, that made one distinguishable from the other. But the only thing Zane could see was that Avi’s left ear was slightly smaller than his right and Asa’s right ear was slightly smaller. Mirror twins. Mirror twins who could communicate telepathically. Was he already saying something about Zane in Asa’s head?
“Great. He already hates me, doesn’t he?”
Asa’s responding chuckle did little to quell Zane’s already frazzled nerves. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from Asa’s twin. Avi was dressed in a pair of black cargo pants and a black henley. He wore surgical gloves on his hands. Zane looked over at Asa’s almost identical outfit—minus the gloves—and frowned. “Do you guys always dress alike?”
“Not on purpose,” Asa promised.
Avi opened Zane’s door, offering a hand that Zane stared at for a long moment before taking, letting Avi help him from the car. “So, you’re the reporter who stole my brother’s…heart.”
“Well, he kidnapped me. It seemed only fair,” Zane murmured.
“Hurt him and—”
“Yeah, yeah, you’ll rip my lungs out, cut out my tongue, castrate me. Trust me, I’m already terrified of you,” Zane said, really wishing he could have saved this battle of wits for when he was better armed.
Avi eyed him suspiciously. “You don’t look terrified.”
