Page 92 of Borden 3

“What are you gonna do about this guy?” Hawke stood up, setting Tyler down on her feet. His attention was focused on Borden. “Let me help. We can tear this city apart.”

“My city is already being torn apart, Hawke. It can’t get any worse.”

But he was wrong.

Dead wrong.

Because within hours, everything went to shit.

Chapter Thirty-One

Emma

When Shaunie opened the door to let us in, she barely returned a smile. She looked lifeless as we entered her small unit. Hector followed closely behind me. The room smelled like smoke and cat litter.

This was certainly overdue. We had tried countless times to get Shaunie to come to the office to go over the paperwork. She either didn’t answer our calls or said she was busy. Looking around, I could tell she was in heavy mourning. We should have come here sooner. I glanced quickly at my watch. We needed to be in and out. We had to get back to the club. We had a car full of Borden’s men tailing us, so it wasn’t like we came here unarmed. Still. The bikers were paying Borden a discreet visit and I was itching to find out what was going on.

Plus, I missed Hawke dearly. Hector, on the other hand, was indifferent.

Shaunie’s baby was screaming hysterically from the bedroom. The sound of her baby crying put me on edge. My motherly instincts roared. Thankfully, she excused herself and collected her baby, rocking her back and forth as she emerged from the corridor. I was relieved to see her baby was well-fed and responsive, instantly quieting down in her mother’s arms.

“She still cries for him,” Shaunie stated simply, her eyes welling up. “Sometimes I have to put the picture of Jason close to her face. She goes quiet when I do that. You think she knows he’s never coming back?”

I was too choked up to respond. Hector cleared his throat and answered. “She knows, hon.”

Shaunie paced around the room, holding her baby tightly.

My fingers trembled around the folder I had in my hands. “I um…I came here to talk about what Borden wants to leave behind for you and Joy.”

Shaunie didn’t respond.

I continued. “We’re going to make sure Joy goes to the best school. She’ll be taken care of forever. You, as well—”

“He called me that night,” Shaunie cut in, hardly caring about my words. Grief choked her. “He said he was tailing some kids that he thought had broken into Borden’s shop. He wasn’t trying to start trouble.”

My breathing hitched. “I’m sorry, Shaunie—”

“One of them knew he was following. He said he’d never seen kids disappear like that. Every time he got close, they’d poof, vanish into thin air.”

“These kids are just assholes,” Hector tried to say. “They fuck around, you know? Play with fire—”

“But they weren’t all kids. He’d mentioned it a few times. Big men would do it, too. He said he’d never seen anything like it. They’d come up from nowhere.”

Hector didn’t say anything this time. He simply offered a half-hearted shrug, lost for words. Shaunie needed to talk. Maybe she’d had no one to talk to, or maybe she’d said this already a thousand times, just trying to make sense of what happened to Jason.

“Did he say anything else about them?” I queried, curiously. I felt Hector’s stare and I ignored it.

“They were just different,” she explained. “Not like the other gangs.”

I frowned, an uneasy feeling coming over me. Borden had already said Jason’s killer paid the price, but he hadn’t delved much into the man himself. I was starting to get ideas.

Shaunie sighed. “Everyone keeps coming around, giving me food. I have so much food. I don’t want any more food, you know? I don’t even want money.” She gestured to the folder, scoffing. “I’m not like that, Emma. I won’t let that shit taint me. I don’t even want to touch it.”

“Shaunie, you’re…on your own right now with a baby—”

“I’ll figure it out.”

“Please—”

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