Page 127 of Borden 3

“Get some sleep, alleycat.”

I shut my eyes. Wrapped around him, I fell into short oblivion.

Amidst the chaos, I’d had the best sleep in a very long time.

???

This went on for days. It would not stop. Some nights Borden didn’t make it back, and those were usually the worst nights. Hector was getting healed up, and I started to argue with him, fuming when he began to get ready to join the fight himself.

“You are in pieces still,” I seethed. “Don’t, Hector.”

“And leave them to it?” Hector retorted, dark. “No.”

I’d come to really depend on Hector’s company. He kept me calm when I wanted to erupt. Nobody else could do that. “You’ll be fine,” he assured me. “Borden will have someone else here—”

“Who, Gerry?” I interrupted. “I don’t want Gerry. Please, Hector, don’t leave me.”

Hector still didn’t listen. When he was dressed in all black and waiting by the door, I began to pace in front of him, feeling sick with stress. He watched me, partly sympathetic, and partly resolute. “I can’t leave them out there to bury those fucks alone, Emma. I want to help. I’m good at fighting. I am. I’m not scared anymore.”

I paused in my step to look at him. “You used to be scared?”

“Of course I was scared. I was a selfish prick back then. I didn’t want to fight for my club because I didn’t want to risk dying. But now…” He shrugged. “Now I think when you have something to lose, you want to fight for it.”

“What do you have to lose?”

“You, Borden, your granny, and that little boy of yours in the next room. You guys crawled beneath my skin. You’re my family.”

I felt choked up. I went to him and he stood just in time for me to hug him tightly. “You’re like that annoying sister I never had,” he grumbled into my hair. “Fuck, you’re stubborn, but I get Borden, you know. I get why he loves you so much. I get why he made that deal with me all the way back. You’re tough on the outside, but that’s only because you’re hiding a sweetheart inside. I get why a man fights for a good woman.”

Seeing Hector head out after Borden had come back destroyed me, but then, as if Borden knew I’d be out of my mind, Granny joined me. It wasn’t with a purse of the lips either. She came in all smiles, demanding to know where her Lincoln was.

It was so unusual, I nearly checked her for a fever just to make sure she was alright.

“And where is my granddaughter?” she asked next after Lincoln had thrown himself into her arms.

I rolled my eyes. “I’m right in front of you, Granny.”

“No, you’re not,” she argued, coming up to me now as she held my son in her arms. “I’m waiting for that cheeky shit to come out.” She reached out a hand out and softly brushed her fingers along the sides of my mouth. “All those stress lines. All that stress. What for? You have a man out there who is fighting for his city. We all know he’s going to win this.”

I gave her a strange look. “How do you figure that?”

“Because he has to.” She shook her head now, like she had enough. “I used to think the city was destroyed under Borden’s thumb, but you know what, Emma? Ever since those thugs came together to challenge him, I’ve never seen this much chaos since you were a teenager.”

“Does that mean Borden’s winning you over, Granny?”

She placed a soft kiss on Link’s head. “For the sake of your son, I will stand by him. As long as he treats you both with love and doesn’t step out on you, I will never stand in the way of a good father and husband.” She paused. “Whether he’s a good man, on the other hand…Well, that’s up to God, and I’ll leave that for Him to decide.”

With that, she walked Lincoln to his room and sat down on the ground with him. I joined them a few minutes later and listened to Granny read him a story.

Chapter Forty-Five

Borden

Theo’s men were indestructible. Their strength didn’t lie in numbers. In fact, Theo’s men were fewer than Borden’s, but they had nothing to lose. There was something utterly terrifying about broken men bound together as one. It was a force of nature Borden hadn’t anticipated.

Theo could have been a serious threat. He knew the cunt was aware of that. Theo would look at him sometimes. This blank stare, and it suddenly made sense what Emma said about the fuck being quite horrifying.

Borden couldn’t figure this man out.

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