Page 91 of Borden 3

Borden

“What did it fucking matter?” Borden repeated, fuming. “This fucker is back and fucking with me. You don’t think I should have known about this shit?”

“What good would it have done if you knew that part of Emma during that time?” Hawke retorted, pissed. “Dredging up this traumatic shit. Personal shit. If she wanted you to know, it shouldn’t have come from me. It should have come from her.”

“What Hawke is trying to say is that this is between you and Emma,” Tyler added, cheerily, like she was trying to keep the peace. “He didn’t mean any harm by it.”

“What’s he done, anyway?” Hawke asked, ignoring Tyler’s attempt at smoothing things over. “I’m sure it was all bogeyman shit. The kinds of rumours kids spread.”

“It’s not bogeyman shit, Hawke, because this fuck has predicted what would happen to my warehouses right before they got under attack, and in the two years I’ve owned my fucking house, there has never been a single problem with my surveillance system. Until the cameras stopped working.”

“Could have malfunctioned?” Hawke’s voice was weak.

“It happened right after Emma and Link got put in my safehouse when Paolo got shot up.”

Hawke looked uneasy. “I thought the Red Mambas were responsible for Paolo.”

“They were. But this fuck is coming at me separately. When Emma found him in a basement—”

“What the fuck?”

Borden gave Hawke the quick run down of what happened, ending with, “They were gone when we showed up an hour later, but he left behind some fucking paper with the words ‘When he is united, divide him.…’” Borden was fuming the more he talked about it. “What does that fucking mean?”

Hawke was speechless. Tyler looked between them, whispering, “He’s quoting Art of War.”

Borden turned his frosty gaze to hers. “What?”

Tyler nodded. “Yeah.”

“Playground bullshit.”

“No,” Tyler murmured. “Think of what Hawke just said. Every time this dude would fight, he was fighting for something. They never fought for the sake of it. He is now fighting to divide you.”

Borden’s pulse pounded in his ears as he took what she said on board, considering it. Even Hawke was nodding. Theo never fought for the sake of it. He wants to divide you.

But then why warn him of shit happening to his warehouses if he meant ill will? He could have let his warehouses get burned down and destroyed. Then again, one of those Lost Boys killed Jason.

“I’m sorry,” Hawke said, his face creasing with concern. “Maybe I dropped the fucking ball back then, Borden. I’m sorry. It wasn’t malicious, brother.”

Borden stiffened a nod. He knew that already, but he just wanted someone to blame. If Hawke had told him about this kid, would it have even been a blip on his radar when Emma was the only thing in his crosshairs at the time?

She was still the only thing he saw.

He closed his eyes, and there she was. He opened them, and his mind wandered to her. Always wondering what she was doing and thinking and feeling. Always waiting for the hammer to drop. For her to look at him and not want him anymore. Not love him anymore. And he was a cruel cunt, but if she left, he couldn’t physically stop her. Not if it made her happy to be without him.

And that was the grief of it.

His power in New Raven was fading, and none of it even mattered compared to what was happening with Emma. She had reserved a big part of herself; she was keeping parts of her past inwards. This entire time. He wanted her scars for himself to kiss away and love. If this news had come from her, he would have appreciated it more than calling an MC President down to his club.

He fucked up.

He should not have spoken to Hawke.

But, like this Theo fuck, Borden was hooked on Emma, too. And he felt so fucking unworthy of her.

“Still wanna kill me?” Hawke probed.

“You still got time left,” Borden returned, standing up. “I’ll get the boys out of the room—”

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