Page 68 of Borden 3

Adoration.

Care.

All things that were foreign to me. A tear nearly fell from my eye as I turned my head to the side, breathing through the feelings. Closing my eyes to savour the feeling, my hands grabbed at him. At his muscled arms, squeezing, at his hair, pulling. He kissed down my throat and then along my jaw. I opened my eyes, my vision blurry and my heart heavy.

I liked this.

I liked it so much.

I wanted more.

More, more, more.

“Theo,” I whispered, brokenly. “Don’t leave me, okay? Promise?”

“I promise,” he whispered, shakily. “I won’t leave you.”

I smiled as his breaths blew along the pulse of my neck. My vision cleared. I felt joy in my heart. I saw the stars in the sky, gulped in a breath of air. My gaze skimmed along the stone wall, falling on the backpacks. Theo kissed my cheek, then the corner of my mouth—

“You didn’t have a backpack,” I murmured just then, thoughtfully.

“What?”

“You didn’t have a backpack when you picked me up.”

He paused to look at our bags. “I did.”

Then he turned my head back to his and kissed me again. My stomach fluttered, but not with the butterflies of before. I thought of the backpacks. Of my grey bag, all butchered with its threads out in all places. Then I thought of his. Black and familiar looking. I’d seen it before—

I pulled away again to look at it. My hand shot out to touch it. Theo paused now, watching me as I dragged the bag closer to me. It was heavy. What could he have possibly packed? He never carried anything except a knife.

Unease settled inside me.

I lightly pushed at his chest, but he didn’t budge.

“Emma,” he started. “Don’t.”

I managed to turn on my side, my hand groping at the bag, running along the velcro material. I unzipped one of the pockets. My breath caught in my throat as a handful of money fell out. Now I was really pushing away at Theo, and he still wasn’t budging.

“Theo,” I hissed. “Get the hell off me.”

“Emma, just kiss me, alright? Forget about that—”

“That man had this backpack, Theo!” I said, hysterically. “The man in the basement had this fucking backpack.”

I pushed at him again, this time slapping at his shoulder and face because he wouldn’t budge. He reluctantly slid off me, cursing. I sat up immediately, my attention fully trapped on the backpack as I opened all the compartments. My vision went spotty again. The same way it did when I saw all that blood.

“What did you do?” I cried out as bags full of white powder spilled out. Drugs and more money and when my hand wrapped around something cold, I pulled it out and then jumped away like I’d been shocked. It tumbled from my hand, landing on the bags with a thud.

A fucking gun.

Now Theo was moving, grabbing at the bag, ripping it away from me indelicately. He gathered the drugs, the money and the gun and shoved them all back in. His movements were brisk and irritated. “Why can’t you just let it be, Emma?” he snapped at me. “Why do you have to go snooping? We had a good thing going just now. We were happy!”

“What have you done?” I hollered.

“Keep your voice down!”

“Theo, I stepped in blood.” Pressure rose in my chest. “Oh, my God, did you do that? Did you hurt that guy—”

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